By Sara Matar
THERE are some pressing problems in our society which we cannot ignore or underestimate. Likewise, there are certain injuries that we cannot underrate. Generally people focus on the reasons of sorrow and often ignore the fact that justice and happiness are the basis of life.
The same people express their sorrow by crying over painful incidents taking place around them. They often fear happiness due to psychological and physiological reasons. They often get along with sorrow and pain without giving reconciliation bid a chance to realize happiness.
As a result of this negative mentality, we can see people often pay attention to painful and horrendous incidents and try to interpret them in their own ways, expecting that such incidents would not have any bearing on them. People also believe that these painful incidents would not affect them at all.
Social media networks take video clips of various incidents around them and transmit them. We have not seen many of these incidents with our naked eyes. It’s very easy to take videos and exchange them through the social media.
Recently I saw a video clip taken from a supermarket in Makkah, which showed a young worker attacking his colleague with a sharp object and how the young victim defended himself and foiled an attempt to kill him. Millions have watched that video.
It will not be the last video and before that we have seen many. We watch these kinds of scenes and incidents with deep pain and sorrow. It shows that our young men and women can easily fall victim to bloody fights as they are incapable of resolving issues peacefully with patience.
Young men think that dialogue would weaken their position in front of their rivals. The problem is our youth are not receiving proper education and upbringing from their families, who give them the right to decision-making in early ages and believe that their sons learn basics of life from the street.
Friends, in my opinion, play a big role in developing character of young men and women in our society. These friends, sometimes, push us into conflicts and street fighting and the attacker would think that fighting would not create any problem and can be settled at a police station.
Recently I asked a friend of mine who studied with me at Bahrain University and specialized in law about murder cases in Bahrain. She said the number of murder cases in Bahrain is very low compared to Saudi Arabia even after considering the population differences between the two neighbors.
I wanted to know the major cases being handled by Bahraini courts and the friend told me that murder cases are very limited in the island state. At the same time, the number of murder cases in Saudi Arabia is on the increase. I think we have to conduct a study on reasons why our young men are murdered in front of schools and supermarkets following petty clashes.
We should know that the killer and the killed leave a painful history to their parents. The court sentences the killer to death. The family of the victim may pardon the killer or ask him to pay a huge amount equivalent to the budget of an African country for 10 years.
I write this article after watching a video of an incident that took place in Taif. Ali Al-Junaibi, a teenager, was the victim and I was moved seeing the large number of people who turned up at his funeral. He was the victim of a small conflict with his schoolmate, Turki Salim Al-Baqami. The conflict that took place inside a Turba school ended up in Al-Junaibi’s murder.
Al-Baqami was executed despite his father’s efforts to win pardon from the victim’s family. He had urged authorities to delay the execution in order to get more time for reconciliation efforts. But his efforts went in vain and Turki was executed. May Allah show His Mercy on both Ali and Turki, amen.
We have to think of the situation of both families to know the horrendous nature of the incident and its consequences. Ali’s father lost his son due to his fault in amicably settling a small conflict. He was 17. His father made all-out efforts to save him from death.
We cannot explain the deep sorrow and pain of the two parents in words. We should know that such incidents could happen to our children and we should take precautions by giving them necessary advice and guidance. We should know that education must start from home not from street.
