Towards Peaceful & Harmonious World


Assalamualaikum & hello all! 

For this entry, I'll share about the 16th component in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which is.... 

Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

According to the United Nations (UN), this goal is to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable and inclusive institution at all levels.

The world nowadays is not a safe place anymore. People get killed almost every day. Wars happened everywhere and anytime, leaving them scared to face new days ahead. To achieve sustainable development, it is very crucial to ensure that peace is maintained. 


These three core elements need to be harmonized to achieve sustainable development - economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. Hence, this is the big reason to enhance access to justice, ensuring safety and security, and promoting human rights. 

 In some countries, armed conflicts have destroyed their home. They have no place to live, no foods and drinks, no clean water sources, and even worse, no rights to protect themselves. Every day feels like torture for them. For instance, Palestinians are just like refugees in their own home after their land have been confiscated by the Israels. People, regardless of their age, women and children are killed without mercy.


Other than that, the civil war in Syria seems to never go to an end. According to Council on Foreign Relation (CFR), its all started when the protests against President Assad's regime in 2011 has escalated into a full-scale war between the Syrian government and anti-government rebel groups. It then worsened when many other countries interfered, resulting in the attacks between them. This war affected the Syrian civilians being the victims of the conflict.

In South Asian countries, there were also conflicts, for example as in Myanmar. This conflict involves the ethnic of Rohingya Muslims as they were killed and kicked out, then become refugees seeking protection in another country. The latest one, the coup d'etat by the Myanmar Military Armed Force. They claimed that the results from November 2020 elections were fraudulent. So, they detained the government civilian senior members. Since then, there were outbreaks of violence and mass protests between the Burmese. 

From this conflict, Myanmar was collapsing economically and socially. The Burmese cannot do their errands, as usual, and finally resulting in them sliding into poverty. The coup has also killed more than 100 people on March 27, the deadliest day since it started. People are fleeing to other countries nearby, such as Thailand, to save themselves. 

Seeing these kinds of situations in other countries, all I can say is we are so blessed to live in peaceful and harmonious life in Malaysia. We don't have to live in fear and misery. We have our freedom to choose the religion we want to follow, without any restrictions, as long as we don't do anything clashing with the laws.

Remembering back to Malaysian darkest moment when the 13 May incident happened. At that time, I was not born yet, but from what I have learnt during History class in schools and articles I have read, the date 13 May 1969 was a very traumatic experience for Malaysians. The racial riot occurs between the Malays and Chinese. 


The riot has led to outbreaks of violence in Kuala Lumpur that continued over the following days. People were injured and killed, meanwhile houses, vehicles and shops are torched. This situation then worsened until the declaration of Emergency has been made.

Ever since this riot, Malaysians have learnt to tolerate more with each other races and religions. Protests or demonstrations will be held peacefully without the involvement of any bloodshed. We learnt to value our independence and peace more, trying our best not to trigger nor repeat this black incident in the future. 

Other than that, SDG 16 also focused on reducing all forms of violence and related death rate in this world. It includes intentional homicides, conflict-related violence, and physical, psychological and sexual violence, to make people feel safe everywhere they go. 

The other target is to end all forms of violence against children such as abusing, exploitation, trafficking and torturing. Even in Malaysia, cases of child abuse are happening everywhere. As proof, the case of Zubaidi Amir Qusyairi, a six-year-old child who has believed to be killed by his mother and stepfather. His dead body was found in a water tank, drowned. After the post-mortem, the forensics have found traces of physical injuries at the poor boy's body. This case has gained the attention of Malaysians and become viral at that time. 


A child-related act was drafted in the parliament to prevent violence involving children. The Child Act 2001 is a Malaysian Law, enacted to fulfil Malaysia's obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

The organization that promotes the protection of human rights is the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), under the United Nations (UN). It headquartered in Geneva, with many regional offices. The office supports the human rights components, including peacekeeping missions in several countries all over the world.

From the Islamic view, this SDG is very closely related to the Maqasid al-Shariah which is Hifz al-Nafs (protect lives). As the religion of peace, Islam emphasizes spreading kindness and peace to all, not only to humans but also to every single species in this world. It can be seen in:


۞ قُلْ تَعَالَوْا۟ أَتْلُ مَا حَرَّمَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ ۖ أَلَّا تُشْرِكُوا۟ بِهِۦ شَيْـًٔا ۖ وَبِٱلْوَٰلِدَيْنِ إِحْسَـٰنًا ۖ وَلَا تَقْتُلُوٓا۟ أَوْلَـٰدَكُم مِّنْ إِمْلَـٰقٍ ۖ نَّحْنُ نَرْزُقُكُمْ وَإِيَّاهُمْ ۖ وَلَا

 تَقْرَبُوا۟ ٱلْفَوَٰحِشَ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَمَا بَطَنَ ۖ وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا۟ ٱلنَّفْسَ ٱلَّتِى حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ إِلَّا بِٱلْحَقِّ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ وَصَّىٰكُم بِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ

Say, "Come, I will recite what your Lord has prohibited to you. [He commands] that you not associate anything with Him, and to parents, good treatment, and do not kill your children out of poverty; We will provide for you and them. And do not approach immoralities - what is apparent of them and what is concealed. And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden [to be killed] except by [legal] right. This has He instructed you that you may use reason." (al-An'am 6:151)


ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ فِى ٱلسَّرَّآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ وَٱلْكَـٰظِمِينَ ٱلْغَيْظَ وَٱلْعَافِينَ عَنِ ٱلنَّاسِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ

Who spend [in the cause of Allah] during ease and hardship and who restrain anger and
who pardon the people - and Allah loves the doers of good (ali-'Imran 3:134)


These two verses clearly show that Islam has provided us Muslims a complete guide to living a peaceful life. So we must tolerate and play our role to keep this world amicable for us and also our next generations. 

In a nutshell, peace needs to be obtained at all time to make the world a safe place, for humans, animals and nature. It is very important to go towards an almost no-violence environment all around the world by the implementation and enforcement of laws. 

Peace and love,
Amirah

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