Surely, the hearts are prevented from awakening by the events which occur to you every day and night: the misleading trials, the unprecedented events, the rampant inequities, the disasters wrought in every age and era; the fear of the ruling powers and the whispers of the shaytan. (Imam Sajjad (AS) ch. 25, #33)
World Chechnya Day is intended to commemorate the dignity and resiliance of a people who, against all odds, refused to be erased from existence.
On 23 February 1944, Stalin ordered the deportation of the entire Chechen and Ingush population to Central Asia. More than half of the 500,000 people who were to be forcibly transported died in transit or in massacres committed by Soviet troops. Those who survived the journey were left facing starvation and disease in the harsh winters of Siberia and Central Asia.
Within days an entire people had been erased from the land of their ancestors. Overnight Chechnya and Ingushetia were emptied of their native inhabitants, and every reference to Chechnya was removed from official maps, records and encyclopaedias.
In 2004, sixty years after the event, the European Parliament passed a motion that recognised this catastrophe as Genocide.
23rd February is World Chechnya Day. It is a day that few are aware of and yet none should forget.
Ali b. al-Husain, peace be upon him, said: “O Abu Khalid, there will come a time of trials and tribulations, (descending) like a piece of dark night, from which no one will be safe, except the one holding the covenant of Allah. (attributed in Al-Amali, ch. 6, h. 5)
Salaam Alaikum —
Click to view a flash slide show with Asma Al Husna playing in background
Enjoy! And let me know if you liked it (or not) in the comments section above…
Altaf
A few months ago, a handful of university students heckeled a speech by Pres. Ahmadinejad - this was reported by just about the entire American media, from the so-called “left” to the rabidly right wing. The appearance that the media gave was that this was a major protest against the government of Iran - most of the videos that were distributed around the net only focused on the hecklers, and did not show the huge numbers of students in the room who obviously felt otherwise.
But that all is really secondary - what is far far more important is what Ahmadinejad was saying when he was interrupted. What he was saying should’ve been the focus of atleast the so-called and supposed “leftists” - but their own elitism and ideological gatekeeping gets in the way…(in their Islamophobia the difference between “left” and right is often blurred).
View all three videos below, they are english subtitled.
Imperialism and Resistance