14th May 2014
Dear Abubukar Shekau,
NAMASTE!
I am not sure whether you have
heard the word Namaste. This is an Indian word to greet others which means “I
bow before the goodness in you”. And that is what I want I want to do right
now, before I express the reason for writing to you an open letter.
My name is Sunitha Krishnan, I am
an anti-trafficking activist, based in Hyderabad a city located in South of
India. In the last two decades I
have rescued and rehabilitated over 10,100 girls from sexual slavery. I am a Hindu by faith, but a
humanitarian by religion.
Last night I was watching all the
videos that you have sent. And what stuck me the most is that we are both very
much alike. Both of us are passionate and madly obsessed with our convictions.
We have worked very hard to convince others of our beliefs and have been
successful in getting a lot of people believe in our convictions. Both of us
similarly think that there are oppressive forces that is destroying this world
and there is an immediate need for radical intervention from every human being
to change the situation.
But the method you have chosen to
actualize your convictions is something that I cannot endorse. I am sure the
reason for which you are doing all this has a strong background and your
objective is based on deep-rooted pain that you have experienced. But nothing can justify mindless
violence and force. What is the logic of kidnapping 272 girls and keeping them
in captivity and threatening to sell them as sex slaves.
Do you think any of these people
actually care when million out there are already getting sold every 10 minutes
for sexual slavery. Come see any of the prostitution places across the
world….millions of girls from all over the world are sold every minute to
satisfy the libido of men across the world….children….girls…adults all of them
traded so that there bodies can pecked by vultures….the world is SILENT…it does not matter to them that
across the world predators are moving in different garbs…offering jobs,
marriages…love anything to exploit vulnerability and then trade them…thousands
of girls from Nigeria are also languishing in different parts of the World like
Italy, German, Austria, ...
Who cares a damn? Does not the
world community know about it…believe me everybody knows. But very few want to
fight the organized criminal syndicates who are doing this. These are criminals
who have no other agenda other than making “money”….using these innocent
bodies…
Nobody is questioning ‘men all
over the world’ who pay money to
have sex with little children, girls….women…Why should they care? They think it
will never happen to their near and dear ones. Let me tell you something, these
men are not coming from another planet….they are sons, brothers, husbands,
fathers of all of us here…. Does Anybody Care…Afraid NOT!
Why do you want to be clubbed with these criminals? From what I
heard you speak…to me it appeared you had a strong reason for your action. By
letting your action become same as what any other criminals do…you are forcing
the world to call you a ‘terrorist’.
No matter how right your thoughts are but if your actions are wrong.....then
you also will become ‘wrong’.
Please do not demean your
thoughts further by resorting to actions that any human being will definitely
condemn.
Children or any human being are
not playthings…that you do anything that catches your fancy…Using violent
methods, kidnap, forcing human beings to follow another religion under duress
cannot bring any change in the world. On the contrary you are creating a
situation where you will be more and more excluded.
I was aghast when you laughingly
proclaimed on your video that you will sell those innocent girls as “sex
slaves”…Do you even understand what you are talking about? Do you have any idea
what it is to a woman to be violated…again and again. Believe me…Allah will
never forgive you even for a having a thought of that nature…He the merciful is
compassionate and will never laugh at the pain and suffering of others…He will
never EVER endorse forcible abduction and rape for the gratification of
individual needs.
You have no right to kidnap those
girls….and definitely no rights whatsoever to blackmail anybody so that they
are forced to release your colleagues.
Do you realize that your action
can motivate other evil & criminal forces to do similar things and that if
your act is not stopped right away…children across the world are at risk to a
similar plight but albeit to satisfy other agendas which may not be as “noble”
as yours…Do you see the damage that you are party to…This mindless act of yours
has shaken all the efforts of humanitarians across the world. STOP IT…BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE…YOU CANNOT BE
THE REASON FOR HUMANS BECOMING SATANS.
I am fighting an organized
crime….you are also claiming to fight oppressive forces…and I want to tell you
‘cultures’ are not oppressive…but “actions” can be oppressive…And the act that
you have committed right now is downright unacceptable for anybody following
any faith from any part of the world.
Anybody including ‘you’ if you
act in a way that is destroying others…you are as oppressive as anybody else.
You then lose the moral right to preach anything.
Please open your ears…and listen
to the cries of the mothers wailing for their daughters who are now in your
captivity…Please open your eyes and see the millions like me anguished by your
act…
I demand to evoke the ‘goodness
in you’…to let go the girls to their families. I say this as a passionate
fighter like you who wants to bring change in the world…a new world order which
is free of all forms of sexual slavery….Please do not become part of the
Oppressive forces which brings in slavery….You are different….and I trust the goodness in you….the merciful Allah in you will guide you to
do this rightly.
Believing that collective
goodness will destroy evil anywhere in the world…and having faith in your
‘goodness & godliness’ to take the right decision.
With love & prayers,
Sunitha Krishnan
India
I understand the logic of identifying with the man as a tactic, yet I do not agree with it. I appreciate Miss Krishnan's vast experience on the subject, yet appealing to logic I personally do not think will be effective. Certainly, I hope he sees this and it does appeal to his morals, and I suppose it is worth a shot. However, I would be concerned if the author did indeed identify with him, and those selective statements or phrases could and would be manipulated and attack her credibility for the noble cause she pursues.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people become blinded by their goals that they stop seeing the difference between right or wrong. He has left all his morals. He says he's doing this for his religion, what kind of a religion is this which accepts the kidnapping of 272 girls? What kind of a religion allows him to threat to sell them as sex slaves? Allah will never ever allow this. Every religion is based on peace and goodness for all. This is no way Islam allows this.
ReplyDeleteIn many circumstances, people use women to get what they want, as a way to blackmail other people. In every crisis, it is the women who have to suffer the most.
Truly brutal act .. In the name Allah. People don't know what they are doing ..do they really Think and trust Allah, HE will never do that again .Its very sorry to see the count as well 272 .Shame on them who ever doing it ... As u said yes they must stop what they are doing .
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Enough to touch and change the minds of people with a soul.
ReplyDelete