Learn from history, don't erase it

Muhammad Ali Jr., son of boxing champion Muhammad Ali said recently that his dad would be against Black Lives Matter. He said, "It's not just black lives matter, white lives matter, Chinese lives matter, all lives matter, everybody's life matters. God loves everyone — he never singled anyone out. Killing is wrong no matter who it is." 

What is the value of a human life? If we fall into the mass mentality that only some lives matter, then we are not being fair.

Let’s think about this: Africa is a continent of largely black people. There is major unrest in Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda and some smaller states where the people have been oppressed and massacred for decades.  

When Sudan split in 2011 it is estimated that more than 35,000 South Sudanese people remained as slaves in Sudan . The UN Refugee Agency found that the suicide rate amongst South Sudanese in Uganda in 2019 more than doubled when compared to the previous year.  

In 2017 there were 6,712 deaths due to terrorism in Sub Saharan Africa. I’ve never seen a global protest lamenting the lives of black Africans. No rallies in front of embassies and zilch media coverage. Does this mean that only North American black lives matter? I fail to understand the logic.

Why this disparity on human lives? When dealing with the loss of human life, let’s not politicize it. Let’s learn from these tragedies to better our human relations.  

And by the way, cancel culture, toppling statues and trying to erase history is not the solution in my opinion. How far back can history be erased? Are people going to go back to the creation of humans, because humans are flawed and have done some terrible things throughout history? We must learn from past mistakes so that we don’t repeat them.   

I read a thought-provoking anonymous quote:

“History is not there for you to like or dislike it. It is there for you to learn from it. And if it offends you, even better. Because then you are less likely to repeat it. It's not yours to erase… it belongs to all of us.”

Then there's Morgan Freeman, brilliant actor and speaker doesn’t think we need to focus so much on race. He says, “if you talk about it, it exists.”

As far as polling on race statistics goes, I hope there will be a box for human race because that’s the only one I will tick.  

Raheel Raza

Chairman of the Rebel News Advisory Board

Raheel Raza is a leading global voice against Islamist extremism. Raheel is the Chairman of the Rebel News Advisory Board, President of The Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow, a founding member of The Muslim Reform Movement, author of the book Their Jihad – Not My Jihad, award-winning journalist, public speaker, and advocate for human rights, gender equality and dignity in diversity.

https://twitter.com/Raheelraza

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