I had a fun discussion with my colleagues the other day regarding this whole religious issue between Muslims, Christians and Jews and the history in the Middle East. With such a chequered past, it proved to be interesting to say the least.
It does surprise me that my colleagues are almost clueless as to what started the whole Arab-Israeli conflicts of yesteryears and the current furore over what has been termed as Islamophobia coming from western media and governments. Well, I explained to them what exactly happened in the inter-war years in Palestine and how Israel came to exist as neutral as I could be. In all honesty, they were quite surprised at the history of it all, and I found it funny that people can choose to be ignorant at what's happening around the world.
Who could blame them? We have to realise that we now live in a world where the sum of the collective may not be as important as the self. Many of us have been brought up looking to the west and adopting many of their way of lives, right down to the way we talk and dress. The amount of available information nowadays allows us to do so. Never has the world been so connected. Back in the 70's you'd have to wait a few days before anything was published about, say, the World Cup Finals or the FA Cup Finals. Now, we plonk ourselves in front of the telly or the PC and all we need to know is there.
Where we once used to have the wellbeing of others at the back of our mind, is now replaced with a sense of self serving of utmost importance. These days we don't care much about what others say but we worry about our own lives so much that we have little time to take in what's going on around us and the world. It's amazing to me that while we have wars, famine and brutality going on all around us, we can choose to live in relative oblivion, happy in the knowledge that we have money in the bank and food in our tummy.
In spite of my amzement, I took the time to educate my colleagues at what's going on, not out of my own self-serving feeling of importance or all-knowing, but out of concern that we, as humans, could turn a blind eye to the very happenings which will shape the future for us and our children. I do agree that the gloom taking place elsewhere does seem so far away and detached from us that we have nothing to worry, or do we?
Who's to say what's happening thousands of miles away will not escalate and affect us in future? Remember 1941? The British assured us that we have so much protection here the Japanese will not dare attack us, let alone attempt to conquer us. No prizes for guessing what happened. My point is if we allow ourselves to be wilfully ignorant of the things that are happening around us, there may be a time when such things may come back to hanut us.
In this age where religious fanaticism threatens our peaceful way of life, ignorance is not bliss, it's simply unforgivable, especially when racial harmony and religious tolerance are something we are working towards. Without knowledge, there can be no understanding.
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