Symposium cum exhibition on Holocaust and Genocide by Saeed Qureshi

Upright Opinion

January 27,
2014

Symposium cum exhibition on
Holocaust and Genocide

By Saeed Qureshi

Let me first of all warmly compliment Mike
Ghouse and his companions for holding the Seventh Exhibition cum Symposium on a
crucial phenomenon that we all know as holocaust. This august event took place
on January 26 in the spacious hall of the Unity Church of Dallas.

  Holocaust is a dreadful and ghastly dimension
of human civilization that has been happening since the dawn of civilization
and perhaps even earlier than that. Let me quote one important episode from the
known history preserved in Bible and also in the holy Quran. When Prophet Moses
liberated the Jewish nation from centuries old stranglehold of the Pharaohs who
were the mighty emperors of their own time, they marched into the Sinai desert
and settled there for 40 years. Thereafter they perpetrated the first distinctly
documented genocide of the peaceful population in the land of Canaan. They
killed the inhabitants including the infants indiscriminately and with savagery
that is beyond description.

The Jewish nation itself suffered terrible
genocides at least four times in history: one at the hands of Babylon Empire, second
under the Roman Empire, third in Spain and fourth in Nazi Germany. The Muslims
too faced the similar appalling genocides. Apart from other cities of Muslim
rule, the Mongols, laid waste the capital of the Islamic caliphate Baghdad in
1258 and killed 1.6 million Muslims. This mass annihilation of Baghdad is
recorded as the most heinous genocide carried out during the Middle Ages. 

Besides the Muslims suffered terrible
genocides in Jerusalem, Alexandria and Spain at the hands of the victor
Christian crusaders. In Spain where they ruled for seven centuries, they were entirely
massacred and expelled along with the Jews. Those left somehow were finally
deported in 1609. In history the Muslims, the Christians and Jews have been
alternating in killing each other adopting a parched earth drive and ethnic
cleansing policies. England passed through a spell of genocides at the hands of
Romans and Vikings in early times. 

Holocaust and genocide can be treated as
synonyms carrying the diabolic connotation that implies the wholesale massacres
and extermination of a race of segment of human beings. During the last two
centuries several grisly genocides have taken place. 

The British colonial armies in their frantic
onslaught to expand the abominable colonialism marched on the vast continent of
America. Those who arrived first were called pilgrimages. Their beastly
annihilations of the local population have no parallel in history.  They kept on wiping off the local population
called native Indians with such a diabolic obsession that continued till it
culminated into a civil war between the federalists and the co federalist. 

The native inhabitants called red or native Indians
and now American Indians were easy prey to their superior weaponry and fighting
tactics. The natives fought back with primitive arrows, batons and swords against
the merciless pogroms of the invaders who were more like bounty hunters. The
natives’ mainstay of living, cattle and buffaloes were totally wiped off. They
were infested with deadly epidemics of diseases like small pox to die if left
alive from the pointblank shooting of the well armed and disciplined killers.
Even children sucking their mothers’ breasts were not spared. The slogan of the
British generals was that “only good Indian is dead Indian”. Approximately 100
million native Indians perished in this the most macabre genocides in the human
history after Mongols’ curse.

The exhibition of the Indian genocide displayed
extremely heart wrenching and harrowing scenes making the onlookers wonder how
human beings could be as callous and barbaric as to slaughter a helpless,
primitive and defense segment of human race. 

The exhibits and graphics showed huge piles of
dead bodies with killer soldiers standing aside with devilish smiles on their
faces after performing this hideous job. The copies of the scrolls, orders and parchments
issued by the British commanders were also displayed. In those documents reflects
the hate and obsession to kill the local population without any compunction. The
exhibition continued from 3p.m.to 7 p.m. when the whole program came to close.

I was thrilled and rather entranced by the
presentations and speeches’ during the two hours session conducted in the main
hall of the church. The speakers’ spoke about the Native Americans holocaust,
the 2002 Gujarat massacre and the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in India. The Jewish
holocaust at the hands of the Nazis in Germany was portrayed in video clips,
prepared by Christiana Amanpour, the celebrated CNN anchor. Mike Ghouse, the principal
organizer of this phenomenal yearly event told his side of the story about the
genocide. 

The keynote speaker and host of this memorable evening Mary Ann Thompson-Frank
expressed her empirical impressions about the Rwandan genocide in which 800,000
humans were killed. Mary is immensely knowledgeable, highly articulate
with   flair of oration. She was eloquent,
vocal and gave an excellent account and grasp of the subject and kept the
audience riveted to her discourse. I was personally greatly impressed by
fluency and candor in dishing out her thoughts and observations. This highly fruitful
and greatly enlightening session included a peace pledge by Mike Ghouse
followed by a poignantly sad and moving Native American Mourning Song. 

This distinctive and remarkable seminar would add another feather
in the cap of Mike Ghouse and his associates in highlighting and rekindling an
issue for the civilized nations to reflect and ponder how to foster love and harmony
among the people of this planet mother earth. It should serve as a grim
reminder and resounding lesson for the human race that never again any genocide
or holocaust be allowed to happen.