Posted by Pollavon on August 02, 2002 at 07:18:43:
I have been bombarded this past week with emails from various organizations and friends asking for my support to help stop violence and injustice in one form or another. It is an incredible thing having the internet and being able to voice our opinions to the "powers that be" whenever we wish. I bet they hate checking their email ;). They probably miss the days of old when letter writing campaigns were all they had to contend with.
I recently received probably the most disturbing message so far about the violence in India of Hindus agains Muslims. Here's an except from an article written by the New York Times
AHMEDABAD, India — Here in the adopted hometown of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the great apostle of nonviolence, Hindu mobs committed acts of unspeakable savagery against Muslims this spring.
Mothers were skewered on swords as their children watched. Young women were stripped and raped in broad daylight, then doused with kerosene and set on fire. A pregnant woman's belly was slit open, her fetus raised skyward on the tip of a sword and then tossed onto one of the fires that blazed across the city.
The violence raged for days and persisted for more than two months, claiming almost 1,000 lives. It was driven by hatred and sparked by a terrible crime: a Muslim mob stoned a train car loaded with activists from the World Hindu Council on Feb. 27, then set it on fire, killing 59 people, mostly women and children...
This article continues for three more pages. You can read it at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/27/international/asia/27INDI.html?pagewanted=1. You will have to register to access their site. I found it was worth it to learn more about what was happening here.
I am sharing this as a prayer request for all the religions in the world and the people who fundamentally abuse and misuse them.
God save us all.
Call/fax/write/Email: Telephone: 212 556-1234. Speak to an editor of international news
section and also record your comment on the comment line Fax your Letter to the Editor at (212) 556-3622 Email: letters@nytimes.com and c.c to foreign@nytimes.com Address: Letters to the Editor, 229 W. 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036-3959