Date: Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 2:05 PM
To: UT User <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>,
Subject: On the Slaughter of Eritreans and Ethiopians in Libya...
ON THE SLAUGHTER OF ERITREANS AND ETHIOPIANS IN LIBYA
Dear Friends:
In the last few days, we have witnessed heinous crimes against humanity committed in the name of Islam in Libya by a group identified with the so-called Islamic State.
Using the vile rhetoric of HATE, and shielding themselves with false claim that they are Muslims fighting against “Crusaders”, they beheaded or shot over 50 Eritrean and Ethiopian (according to the IS video and eyewitness reports) Christian migrants in Libya, who were never charged with any crime.
These abominable slaughter of innocents is meant to assuage the crazed and unfounded claims of the IS. However, the fact that the perpetrators are Muslims is incidental to their being, and nothing in their actions speaks for Islam or represent the billions of upright Muslims around the world, including those in Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Religions that hail from the Abrahamic tradition are rooted in the search for PEACE, of the person and the community. It is a fact that the core rational for “religions” in the human family is PEACE. Islam is no different. It is a religion of Peace. The misrepresentation and misappropriation of the Holy Quran to excuse the killer’s blood thirst cannot justify the taking of life.
It is now time to speak up. Humanity has to reject these false prophets of doom. Muslim, Christian and Jew must stand together, and simply declare not in OUR NAME AND NOT IN THE NAME OF OUR RELIGION.
The migrants who continue to be victimized by beheadings, and drowning on the passage from Africa and the Middle East to Europe are leaving their homes and families behind in order to seek a better life and for safety from cruel and repressive conditions. (An estimated 2000 would-be migrants have drowned in an attempt to cross the Mediterranean in the last two weeks alone). Migrants’ need a safe passage and deserve sanctuary in the place that they have elected to journey to.
But most of all, we need to address the root reason for the risky undertaking of migration through Libya and other lands. The tragic conditions of perennial conflict, poverty, lack of proper education and employment in the land of their origins are reversible, if only Africans can establish governments that speak and stand for the rights and interests of their Citizens.
Such conditions are also a crime against humanity. We must strive for CHANGE. Hence, the need to speak and stand up for peace, human rights, justice and socio-economic progress.
Kassahun Checole, Publisher
Africa World Press, Inc &
The Red Sea Press, Inc
541 West Ingham Avenue, Suite B,
Trenton, NJ 08638
Tel: (609) 695-3200, Fax (609) 695-6466
awprsp@verizon.net, kchecole1947@gmail.com
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