Mt thoughts on prisoners getting tortured and raped and on Chain emails being passed around on the net

I am still soul searching this one out. I do not disagree with Ratna, you or Alini and having done a lot of surfing am satisfied that the email is based on true happenings even if it may be a work of fiction , it is fact based fiction.

So many things on my mind about human behaviour.

Here are some thoughts and some findings I made while soul searching and web surfing

First I found a website that had a completely different point of view over the fiasco in Abu Gharib. The writer , an American, said he is proud that the scandal was discovered, and that it was highlighted by American and guilty parties were put on trial. I do NOT agree with him and it sickens me to read his justification of what happened.

Having said that he went on to say, this would not have happened under the old regime or under some *thug* regimes in the ME. To me it does not justify what happened just because it is a common thing that happens in prisons... ..Then he went on to say that a simulated prison environment was created choosing the actors from common people at random , people known for normal rational behaviour and after some days, some of the completely normal behaviour people started behaving in a bullying manner towards those who were acting as prisoners, The experiment had to be stoppped before its time was up because the *prisoners* were getting pscyhologically unbalanced and the bullying was getting too real.

In my training games we also find out things about participants that surprises the participants . They start to understand under pressure or under some circumstances behaviour changes and sometimes for the worst!!

This does not excuse the soldiers for raping and bullying and torturing but it does tell us that we do not really know whether if we were under the same circumstances we would behave the same way..I truly hope and pray not and I truly hope and pray none of my family colleagues or friends ever find themselves in that situation of being the bully and the perpetrator in such acts inhumanity.

So thinking about human behaviour, and it being that right now a lot of people's humanity are being tested, we are hearing stories about the hypocrisy that is taking place over the distribution of aid, and of soldiers asking for bribes from volunteer workers , of aid being given to the non affected people, of new cloths meant for victims being sold at some pasar malam ...
Of Americans making use of the victims plight to further their agendas...Of rebels and soldiers sabotaging and faming each other:
GAM and the TNI, the Tamil TIgers and the Sri Lanka troops....

We also hear of the selfless struggles of those who truly help without wanting publicity , sacrificing their energy time and money to truly help the victims and we then hear of victims who feel they should not feel upset because they have only lost 3 members of their families while others have lost 10. We hear of victimes more concerned about the wellbeing of the volunteer workers rather than their own plight ..such stories of humanity rising above themselves in valour, in selflesnnes and in their perfection of the human..

So Nabi Isa once said to some of his ummah about them wanting to stone an adulterer, * Let him who has no sins cast the first stone*. Nobody cast any stones that day and we can understand why. No judgement because we oursleves do not know how we will be when tested to extremes of our humanity..

What am I trying to say here? Am I defending the corrupt, the bully , the selfish , the cruel ,the insolent , the beastly?They are already suffering from their lack of humanity.There is a verse in the Quran
Famahilil kafirina amhil hum ruwaida

And toward the kafir, treat him with gentleness

It seem strange, how to treat those who cover truth, those who are false and evil with gentleness ?

It is because of this :anger begets anger.....

There is a story of a holy man who had a follower who was extremely angry with the holy man. The follower was ready to quarrel with the holy man and banged loudly on his door demanding to see him. The man went in and a half hour later came out of the room smiling. People were bewildered and wanted to know what happened. They asked the holy man, and the holy man said He was armed , and I was unarmed. That I was unarmed disarmed him.

I am afraid I am still struggling on this one, how not to be angry in the face of anger but I am practising and finding myself improving on this one. When I face anger, even my own, I center myself in my heart and watch my anger from there. It makes a lot of difference.

What is so different about being a prisoner and being a slave? Yet that is what happened to slaves in the times of old when they were captured....yes even Muslim men used to take their war captives and have their pleasure with them. And what if we were to be that slave? What to do? What about the Khalif Umar who used to torture his slaves before he became Muslim?

Laqad Khalaqnal Insana Fi Ahsani Takweem
Thumma radadna hu asfalasafilin
Verily we created the Human in the best mould and then we brought him to be lower than the beast

Yes, the worst human is worst than the beast the animals and each of us have the ingredients in us to be that ..lower than the beast..

Illalathi na amanu wa amilusalihat

Except those who have faith and do good works

And I pray that we all be in this category