Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00469)

At 04:05 AM 10/29/01 -0800, you wrote:
> Seems the subject of human rights has come up. Since the
> watch-word of Amnesty is: don't complain of the dark, light
> a candle, I thought - I'll find the human rights on the web
> and share them. Seems a bit more useful than political
> bickering.
>
> Katinka
> [found at http://www.hrweb.org/legal/udhr.html ]
The principles mentioned in the declaration that you've
quoted are good. Even so, they represent Western values.
Many of the rights we assert that people should have are
denied under various countries and in fundamentalist
Islamic countries. They are not considered rights, but
rather thought of as evil, sinful, and a violation of
religious standards.

In Saudi, women are not allowed to drive cars. The
Taliban do not allow women to have an education, and
have a death penalty for teaching other religions.
Theosophical books and classes would likely receive
the same hostile reception.

We cannot move forward towards universal rights in the
world until fundamentalism loses its power. That's
something that may take many years, decades, or centuries
to come into effect.

In the short run, the world is not safe, due to groups
like Bin Laden's where they're seeking weapons of mass
destruction with the serious intention to kill large
numbers of civilians in western countries. This is in an
attempt to bring about a world war where we'd be plunged
into the Dark Ages again, perhaps under fundamentalist
Islamic rule.

Until this threat to the safety of the world is contained,
we cannot focus on the important long-term goal of
doing away with fundamentalism and the denial of human
rights under various oppressive governments in the world.

Until the murderous religious fanatics are contained,
capturing them and rendering them harmless should be the
number one national goal of all western countries.
Then when our lives are not in immediate danger, we can
turn and concern ourselves with treating our citizens and
the citizens of other countries better.

Fortunately most or all of us are not politicians nor in
the military. We don't have to make the hard decisions
and directly risk our lives. But we can support their
efforts on our behalf. They're not just working for
themselves; they're doing it for our benefit as well.

They're operating, I think, on a dangerous timetable. If
they don't contain the terrorism soon enough, millions of
civilians could die in the next major attack, when
deadlier weapons are obtained by Bin Laden's group.

People seeking to stop or delay our defensive efforts
should think again what they're really doing. If their
efforts cause a delay that allows another strike against
the west, and millions die, they'll share in the
responsibility for this happening. They'll have some of
the blood of the millions on their hands. Instead of
being peace activists, they'd end up being accomplices
in mass murder.

-- Eldon