“The evil that is in the world almost always comes from ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”
(Albert Camus | 1913-1960)
Law and justice can be interpreted in different ways by the different communities in which we live. Law and justice (from the latin word “iustitia”) is the concept that during each era each civilization has concerning legal standards and legislation. We are talking about values and norms established in order to guarantee the well-fare of the community and to maintain the harmony in this community.
But… what may be righteous for one country, could be unjust for another country..
In some communities it may be considered right for people to be executed just because they are homosexual, have different opinions of the ones considered politically correct, or even only because they have watched a football match on the television or express their sympathy with western civilization, this way going against what is considered as acceptable by their own government or religious leaders.
Obviously I’m talking here about different fanatic moslim groups and North Corea.
For those amongst us who have been born and have grown up in a real democratic (and christian) community there is no way to justify this kind of cruel justice. We see it as barbaric, and of course it is barbaric and cannot be justified.
So, what for one can be justice, for someone else can be barbaric and totally unacceptable.
A lot has been written on the topic and I really doubt I can tell you anything you don’t know already, but I would like to draw your attention on two different aspects:
Also in name of christianity people have been murdered. Hundreds of thousands innocent indians have been slaughtered after the discovery of America just because they would not convert to christianism. Thousands and thousands muslims have been assassinated during the crusades, and of course thousands of protestants and jews have been burned at the stake during and after the period of the “Catholic Kings” by the Spanish inquisition. All this in name of Christianity and always those who carried out the executions were completely convinced of the righteousness of their actions. After all they were acting in defense of their religion and they considered themselves exemplary christians and civilians.
Also I’d like to dwell on the danger existing at this moment. Spain has a large muslim community. I know several muslim families. All of the are just as aghast as we are about the crimes committed by the muslim minorities. Nowhere in the Coran these acts – supposedly committed in name of islamism – are approved. The same way nowhere in the bible all the assassinations committed in name of christianity are approved.
But it is easy to see signs of hostility against the muslims in general. For now it’s just small things, apparently not important. But we must (even if it’s only because we, as human beings have to be able to reason, see things in it’s true perspective, and forgive) understand that what is happening all around us in the world has nothing to do with religion. It’s only fanatism and disgusting independent of the excuse given, we’re talking about a small minority of fanatics, very dangerous and very clever, experts in manipulating the frustrations many youngsters feel nowadays.
We must understand the the source of these frustrations is in our own society, young people without work, without future, desperately looking for a way out, and jump to ….