The brutal way, George Floyd’s neck was held under the knee of the Minneapolis police officer and in spite of his pleas for several long minutes that he could not breath, the officer simply played deaf, resulting in the death of the African American man, is simply revolting.
But this is one case of police brutality that was videotaped and went viral resulting now in a world-wide protest joining the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. We don’t’ know of many other such cases which escape recording and seeing the light of the day.
There is a continuing pattern of institutionalised racism in the US against African-Americans people that shows up time and again through police brutality and white vigilantism.
But this kind treatment is certainly not limited against black people only, racists and bigots create divisions of “us” and “them” treating “them” with utmost brutality as if they are not human beings.
This kind of treatment against “them” goes on in Palestine where the Israeli army treats Palestinians as sub-humans brutalising men, women and children with no regards for their human rights. A 32-year-old disabled Palestinian Eyad Hallaq was brutalised in the same way by Israeli police on Saturday 30 May.
In Australia, David Dungay Jr, a 26-year-old Dunghutti man from Kempsey, died in Long Bay prison hospital in 2015 after being forcibly moved to an observation cell, restrained face down, and sedated.
There have been 425 Aboriginal deaths in police custody since the 90s.
The process of racism and discrimination starts with creation of the “us” (majority) and them” (minority) where the bigoted leadership through propaganda creates an atmosphere of hatred and scapegoating of the minority communities denying them of their basic human right and then justify their brutalisation.
The Nazis led by Hitler did this to minorities in Europe specially the Jews and ironically to some extent the Israelis are doing the same to the Palestinians.
Recently this racist and discriminatory practice is being revived in India where the Muslim minority is being scapegoated and brutalised.
Muslims in India are being rendered as “them” and their human rights are being stripped off by the BJP Hindu nationalist government led by PM Narendra Modi using the mainstream government aligned media propaganda.
Muslims in Kashmir have been denied their citizenship rights and are being brutalised by the Indian military with lockdowns, curfews, denial of means of communication within Kashmir and with the outside world for the last ten months.
An atmosphere of hate mongering exists in India against its Muslim citizens who constitute almost 20% of the population and cannot be simply eliminated. But their lives indeed are being turned into misery.
The ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement must be supported by all fair-minded people of all colours and races and this movement must be extended to all minorities since every life matters and all people have the right to be treated with dignity, safety and security.
Hi Zia Ahmad,
This is a good article.
But that photo on the right is not o David Dungay. It is instead a photo of David’s nephew Paul Silva who has been campaigning tirelessly for justice for his uncle.
Here is a photo of David Dungay: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-16/david-dungay-inquest-begins-as-harrowing-video-played/9997930
You don’t need to show this comment but please the correct the photo promptly. Thank you.
If there is one aspect of Islam that every Muslim should be deeply conscious of, it is the attitude to racism. From Bilal Habeshi (r) to Malcom X , to BLM today and indigenous deaths in custody, the message has been clear.
What surprises me is that our scholars have not come out strongly on this issue. Islamic teaching on racism brought me to Islam and it will bring others inshallah. It is not a topic too embarrassing to embrace. I have only noticed the Islamic Council of Victoria’s stand but otherwise there seems to be silence. Why?