Prejudice in Canada over faith and background
I challenge the right wing commentators, who are making noises over the Canadian government’s initiatives towards Omar Khadr, to imagine for a moment that he is a young white man who suffered abuse, torture and neglect by his own government (‘Canada to apologise, pay former Gitmo prisoner Omar Khadr’, Gulf News, July 5). They will see how their judgement will dramatically shift 180 degrees. Outrage and angry would turn into sympathy and tears of sorrow and grief would follow. Prejudice and hatred creates blurry vision where you don’t see things the way they are. Khadr is getting a fierce backlash from the neo-conservatives, because of his faith and ethnic backgrounds. Such factors are shielding hate mongers from seeing justice through the lenses of hate.
Only when we put aside our prejudice and hatred will we able to see things with clarity and conclude that the young Canadian deserves the apology and more.
From Mr Abubakar N. Kasim
Toronto, ON
Unsafe for Muslims?
Unfortunately, India is becoming a more dangerous, extreme and unsafe place for Muslims (‘Indian women wear cow masks to ask: Are sacred cattle safer than us?’, Gulf News, July 5). We can see, read and hear hundreds of news reports on the brutal murder of Muslims on the accusation of carrying beef. The Indian government should take care of minorities and should give them enough freedom so they can practice their religion. May God help and make them safe and secure.
From Mr Shehryar Karimi
UAE
Facebook comment
Hard to control
It’s India. We have 1.3 billion people. It’s not easy to control these many people for greater freedom for women, education, fashion, sports, research and freedom of expression.
From Mr Mumtaz Ahmad
UAE
Facebook comment
Don’t judge
It happens in any country where a group of people want to go against the rules of the land and want to establish religious and communal supremacy. But, you can’t simply judge the entire nation with the aid of some rare incidents.
From Mr Kannan Suraj
UAE
Facebook comment
Need tolerance
A nation that murders humans under government sponsored legislation to protect cows is not accountable to terrorism? Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still accused of having a part in the mass murder in the India state of Gujarat. He is allegedly a heartless butcher who killed so many innocent Muslims in Gujarat and in return the Indian public rewarded him in the form of the Prime Ministerial position. Now they are applying brutalities against our brother and sisters. I have a great hope that one fine day when we have a stable government, Muslims will feel safe again, because most Hindus accept Muslims.
From Mr Ali Khan
UAE
Facebook comment
The right to feel safe
It is an absolute shame that this man had committed such a lowly act of harassing his colleague at their workplace (‘Manager sent porn to female co-worker on WhatsApp’, Gulf News, July 5). It is due to such men that women often are too scared to even work. This sort of behaviour is just unacceptable and the man deserves to be punished severely so it serves as a lesson to others who take their female colleagues for granted. Also, the company’s director should have immediately sacked him as soon as the incident came to light instead of ignoring the matter, only giving the suspect an opportunity to repeat the shameful behaviour and the woman to endure further torture.
From Ms Fatima Suhail
Ajman
Facebook comment
More freedom wanted
Chinese President Xi Jing Ping’s visit to Hong Kong to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its return to China from British rule is significant in South East Asia (‘China’s Xi talks tough on Hong Kong’, Gulf News, July 2). During the Opium war of 1840, China lost Hong Kong to the British and according to Sino-British joint declaration, Hong Kong would be returned to China in the year 1997, after 156 years of the British invasion, subject to protecting the basic rights of the people. Hong Kong’s mini constitution maintains a one country, two systems formula for the next 50 years, having its own legal, economic and political systems, but controlled by China.
In 2016, in the first week of July, I was on holiday to Hong Kong and while in a taxi I asked the driver about their political freedom. He said it was controlled by China and he was not willing to talk openly, but that they need more autonomy and freedom. At present, Hong Kong is open to the world economy.
The urge for reforms and political freedom will continue and it cannot be stopped by force.
From Mr Eappen Elias
Dubai
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