We are going to celebrate Eid Ul Azha within a few days. This festival comes back to us every year with the message of sacrificial norms, humanity and brotherhood. The principles of Eid Ul Azha teach us to embrace each other with warmth, fraternity and broad hearts. But when we refer to the idea of humanism at the time of such occasions, we sadly observe lack of generosity, kindness and tolerance around us in our own country as well as all over the world. There is serious crisis of good governance too which often poses hurdles to our lives both at individual and integrated levels.
Slaughtering animals is not the only thing to abide by for marking the auspices of Eid Ul Azha. Rather we will have to annihilate demons like dishonesty, cruelty, communalism and religious bigotry. We will be able to materialize the true theme of Eid Ul Azha by obliterating our narrow visions, not just by sacrificing bulls, goats or camels. We are at present living in the middle of a restless era with war, violence, genocide, communal antagonism and climatic hazards jeopardizing mankind's life across the planet. Humanitarian values have drastically gone down unleashing a ruthless ambience in various parts of the globe.
At the same time the widespread tentacles of graft, irregularities and financial malpractices like defaulted loans, money laundering have been pulling steam out of our economy. Inflation, soaring prices of daily essentials, uncontrolled breaches of ethical codes have made all things perilous for ordinary people. It has been observed that when financial mishaps occur without impediments it hammers adverse effects on all spheres of life in a society and state mechanism cannot properly function under such circumstances.
Social injustice and discrimination have gripped us so hard that it has become a tough thing for us to survive fairly. Celebrating religious festivals through colorful rituals bears no substance if we cannot terminate the evil beasts like corruption and inhumanity.
It makes us feel too depressed and disheartened when we can see the sufferings of Syrian civilians, Rohingyas, war-ravaged masses of Iraq, Libya, Palestine and many more countries. It is more painful that terrorist organizations have glared up viciously in the Middle East and in some more parts of the world putting general people's life at stake. Militants have in the mean time killed innocent people in Bangladesh, Turkey, Germany, France, England, United States of America and some more countries with endangerment of safety and assets. Making peace prevail is the hardest challenge right now for all nations including Bangladesh.
It is much more nightmarish that child abuse and violence on women have escalated mortally in Bangladesh and in other countries too. A few months ago a father and his daughter got themselves killed by diving under a running train in Gazipur to get rid of disgrace following assaults by rapists and gangsters. On the other hand, a girl and her mother were tormented in medieval ways in Bogra by a miscreant called Tufan. Minor girls are falling victims to rape and other forms of physical attacks every now and then. References may be made to Rana Plaza's owner Sohel Rana as well whose defective factory building claimed the lives of over one thousand poor garments workers when it collapsed a few years ago. With these grievous things happening across the country one after another, we cannot exactly force ourselves to smile on occasions like Eid Ul Azha.
We are fumbling for a way out in the middle of darkness and insecurity at all times. Several incidents of militant invasions in some places of Bangladesh including Holey Artisan Café have worsened our plight. Disappointment and tears have got hold of us from all corners. Islam and all other religions spread the epistles of peace and harmony but some vested quarters are circulating misperceptions about religions and thus they are misguiding youths towards the diabolic alleys of extremism. In this way a lot of young people have got entangled with radical groups. Law and order forces have already carried out operations in different districts of Bangladesh while raiding militant hideouts.
Religious scholars, pioneers and preachers of all theological beliefs have all along upheld the notions of truth, justice and philanthropy since the beginning of civilization on earth. Elevating their eternal legacy people who are pious and who follow religious commandments seriously should promote the ideas of love, integrity and reciprocal honor. Devotees of one religion should exhibit adequate respect to adherents of other religions too. No religion allows its believers to hate people from other communities. Therefore, realizing the authentic dictums of all religions is the most vital point to be addressed in the present world.
We should work with absolute devotion and cordial endeavors to establish transparency, humanity, peace, uniformity and strong moral values in our society and state for the betterment of all people living around us. In the same way, we should work for dispelling poverty and illiteracy. We need to bridge up ourselves with the perceptions of enlightenment and spread the luminosity of knowledge throughout the nation. This is how we can differentiate light from darkness and replace all evil things with beneficial entities.
The writer is Editor-in-Chief, The Asian Age.
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