Imagine you were telling a friend about a jungle that he was going to pass through. Your friend had lived all his life in a city. He had never been into a jungle before, but he knew that you had, so he asked you to tell him about it.
What would you tell him?
You would describe to him all the wonderful sights, sounds and smells that he would encounter. The colours of the beautiful birds. The sounds of the monkey chatter. The scents of the tropical flowers.
You would tell him about all the life-enhancing experiences that you had in the jungle.
But wouldn’t you also tell him about the dangers that he might come across? The poisonous black king cobra that could kill him with one bite so that he would be dead before his head hit the ground? The leopard that might pounce on his back while he was unaware? The venomous toad or lethal spiders?
Imagine now that you were telling your child about the world that he was going to pass through. You would tell him about all the wonderful people he would meet in the world. All the beautiful places he would see. All the delicious foods he would taste. All the exhilarating experiences that he would have.
But if you didn’t warn him about the evils in the world, you would not be protecting your child.
You would not be fair on your child. What if your child lived in the world unaware of any evil, but then encountered it? He would not be able to protect himself from it and it might harm him.
In the best case scenario, he might survive to ask you why you didn’t warn him about these dangers. In the worst case, he might not live to tell the tale.
It has now been two months since I started my blog and shared my experiences about life, prison and other things. The overwhelming feedback that I have received from you, my readers, is that the posts have been inspiring, heart-warming and healing.
That the posts have helped others to see the world through a different lens to one that they were used to. That the posts have brought sunshine into their lives. To Allah be praise for all good.
But where there is sunshine, there must be rain. Where there is day, there must be night. You cannot have summer without winter.
If I was to only share positive experiences to make people feel good about themselves, without also sharing negative experiences, I would be creating a fake, artificial bubble that would burst at the slightest tremble of a pinprick.
And so starting today, from time to time, I am also going to share some of my negative experiences…
21 years ago this week, 21 hours’ drive from London, a horrible event took place. It was the massacre in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, of 8000 innocent Bosnian Muslim men, women and children.
A judge at the international criminal court in The Hague later described the event using these words:
“After Srebrenica fell to besieging Serbian forces in July 1995, a truly terrible massacre of the Muslim population appears to have taken place.
The evidence tendered by the Prosecutor describes scenes of unimaginable savagery: thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds of men buried alive, men and women mutilated and slaughtered, children killed before their mothers’ eyes, a grandfather forced to eat the liver of his own grandson.
These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.” [Judge Riad, ICTY, 16 Nov 1995]
The Srebrenica genocide has also been described as “the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War.”
By way of background what happened in Srebrenica is that Dutch United Nations “peacekeepers” promised protection to thousands of innocent Bosnian Muslim civilians against the approaching Serb Orthodox Christian army.
Once the Serb soldiers entered the town, the UN commanders shared cigars, gifts and drinks with the Serb commanders and then the UN commanders accepted assurances made by the Serbs that if UN forces withdrew, Serb troops would not harm any of the Muslim people of Srebrenica.
No sooner had UN forces withdrawn from Srebrenica that Serb troops proceeded to summarily execute 8000 Bosnian Muslim men, women and children who remained in the town.
These massacres began on the sweltering hot afternoon of Thursday 13 July 1995 and continued until at least Saturday 22 July 1995. 21 years ago this week.
Zumra Šehomerovic, an eyewitness and survivor to the events testified:
“There was a woman with a small baby a few months old. A Chetnik [Serb soldier] told the mother that the child must stop crying. When the child did not stop crying, he snatched the child away and cut its throat. Then he laughed. There was a Dutch soldier there who was watching. He did not react at all.”
Another eyewitness Ramiza Gurdić testified:
“I saw how a pregnant woman was slaughtered. There were Serbs who stabbed her in the stomach, cut her open and took two small children out of her stomach and then beat them to death on the ground. I saw this with my own eyes.”
I travelled to Bosnia within a few days of hearing about the massacre at Srebrenica. While in Bosnia I met some of the survivors who had just fled Srebrenica. I have written in detail about my experiences in Bosnia in the book that I am writing about my life so I am not going to repeat them here.
There are many, many lessons that we can learn from the Srebrenica massacre. In time I will share more lessons that we can learn from the war in Bosnia but today I will list just three:
1- Never entrust the safety of your life and the lives of your family into the hands of strangers, even if they are in uniform. Especially if they are in uniform.
2- Never believe any assurances or promises made to you by your enemy, especially if those promises are accompanied by sweet words. Satan once lured Adam and Eve to their destruction after seducing them with sweet words to eat from the Forbidden Tree.
3- Never wait until it is too late to save yourself and your family from a life-threatening situation. Smell the air, assess the situation erring on the side of caution and act fast. It is better to be safe than sorry.
I have posted below a link to a BBC video documentary about Srebrenica. It is called “Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave.”
In today’s digital world where even a 3-minute clip is considered too long, a video which is 1hr 45mins long may seem like a lifetime.
But I strongly recommend you to take out the time, anytime this week, to watch this video. Watch it with your families, children aged 12 and over, and anyone else. Watch it to learn and to show your children about the evils that exist in the world today.
This video might not be as amusing as a clip of a cat playing a piano, but the information in there could one day save your life and the lives of your children.
Watch. This. Video.
I post new content every Monday morning at 08:00 GMT/UTC. Enter your email address in the field below to follow my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
I’m glad that blogging helps us give each other new lens to look at the world. There are so many perspectives out there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Marta for reading my blog. I agree that whenever we share, we are better able to understand each other.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is a really challenging read.
But a very important one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Salaam brother. Your posts are inspiring. Would you mind if I forwarded some of your blog posts to my brother in prison, for him to read? I’ll tell him you wrote it. I just don’t want to break any copyright laws…
Alhamdulillah, well done for getting this far after your ordeals.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course, the posts are free to share as you like as long as the content is not changed. 🙂
LikeLike
No of course nothing will be changed. Jazakum Allah khairan
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! That was a tough read but eye opening too. I was only 6 when it took place so I don’t have much knowledge about it but I will definitely be watching the video you’ve posted إن شاء الله.
May الله reward all those who died through oppression, have been oppressed and are still being oppressed with nothing less than jannatul Firdous, Aameen.
Look forward to your book إن شاء الله.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, make sure you watch the video and ask your friends to watch it too.
LikeLike
JazakAllah hu kahir for sharing 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
quite chilling, what humans can do another is more horrifying than what an animal can inflict on another. I had a guy install floor boards in our house, a very nice guy, we over the course of the renovation we became pretty good friends. We learnt he was originally from Serbia. When he said that, he said he felt ashamed to say that. We heard it on the news about the massacre. The coverage wasn’t all that detailed. I am sitting in a high place asking those affected for forgiveness to these animals. What else can I ask for? I don’t know how but we must, i guess.
even when you relate these horrors, there is still such calmness in your writing. My journey, my trials and tribulations are different to yours. and that’s what makes a world. My journey and lessons come from initially surviving the civil war in Sri lanka, migration to Australia and then finally surviving cancer. We both tested Mortality in different paths. And by the looks of it we are both using writing as a means of therapy.
I am not sure if I condone all your actions, but that was what you did for the reasons you believed in.
Wouldn’t mind your opinion on the following
https://uma197.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/be-like-the-gum-tree/
https://uma197.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/my-island-paradise/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing, Uma. I read your articles, I really liked the Gum Tree one. I agree that there are good, bad and ugly among all peoples and we can never generalise. I also believe that it takes energy to hate, so why waste energy in hating evil people when you can use that same energy in loving good people?
LikeLike
Thank you so much much for reading my posts and your comments, yes so true hate is hard work
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jazakallah brother Babar. I look forward to reading your blog every week. You inspire me because every week I learn something new.
I will definitely watch this video!
LikeLiked by 1 person
InshAllah I’ll definitely take time out to watch this inshAllah. Allah keep you and preserve you always…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Assalamu alaikum warahmatullah,
Jazakallahukhayra for the above post and for sharing with us incidents of hardships as well as the ease, and how to correctly deal with them.
It is a fact that no one can escape hardships, and everyone is also given periods of ease, as Allah says, ‘indeed with difficulty, there is ease’, and he also says, ‘Allah will soon make after difficulty ease.’
Something that is lacking today is the very important education people need to receive in how to correctly deal with hardships and times of ease. How ones conduct should be in those moments, and prior to those moments, etc.
I hope that over the coming months you can also share that important knowledge with us that Allah has taught you, as ahead of us lie very big trials.
I want to share something and would really appreciate your thoughts on it.
A few years ago, I read the case of a Libyan brother who was tortured severely in prison, in all sorts of ways. Prior to that, for many years, I had kept up to date with news of the plight of the prisoners; male and female, however when I read his case, and a specific kind of torture he was put through; which many male and female prisoners were and are to this day put through, for some reason, this particular case shook me to the core.
I began to get a thought that I kept trying to brush away… That Allah knows everything that happens; that nothing happens except with his will. So how could this happen to him?
I spoke about it briefly with one person, however that feeling in my heart would not go away until one day, alhamdulillah, the following verse came to mind: “Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise…… ‘ [9:111].
It occurred to me that if Allah has purchased your nafs (self) from you, it is no longer yours. It is His, and He can do with it as He pleases, and in return, you get paradise.
Alhamdulillah once I had this thought, my heart was at peace again, and I realised that no matter WHAT we are put through in this life, if we are given Jannah, then it’ll all be worth it in the end.
LikeLike
My brother Babar , I’m glad that Allah has given you the chance to do what you are doing, your time in hardship has bought the best out of you, the heat of the pressure has made you shine , jus like the process of a diamond , it’s has to go through the lengthy process for it appear in its best form, may Allah accept your words of wisdom. Ameen!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really enjoy reading your column ,they inspire me
LikeLiked by 1 person
Assalamu alaykoum brother Ramadan Mubarak. I wanted to ask you your thoughts on when to start sharing with younger children about the world. There’s bad people who hurt children. Where children are poor and starving. I wanted my kids to be aware and care. But not traumatised early. What would your advice be?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Use children’s stories. I loved Roald Dahl’s books as a child. Stories and books help children overcome challenges and demons in a safe setting.
LikeLike