Mumbai

Thomas Friedman, again. See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/opinion/18friedman.html?_r=1

I've been a bit busy lately...too busy to keep up with the newspaper...so most of my news gathering is via Google news several times a day. But the pile of old papers grows, and I try to catch up at breakfast and lunch...finally reading Thomas Friedman's post from two weeks ago.

He begins this missive by stating that there are 9 bodies laying unclaimed in the Mumbai morgue since last November...the bodies of 9 sub-humans who indiscriminately murdered 300 innocents because they didn't subscribe to a medieval world view of misogyny, oppression, torture, and death, while we celebrated our Thanksgiving holiday. Friedman states that this is a good thing, and while I agree with him on that point, I think he misses a broader disappointment.

At this writing, we are 7 and a half years from the horror of 9/11, and since 1982, the world has experienced over 30,000 acts of terrorism in the name of islam. The 9 bodies remain unclaimed because the muslim populace of India, the second largest in the world, rejects the claim that they are martyrs, and undeserving of a proper burial. Friedman says this is good because, finally, moderate islam (if there is such a thing) is standing up in at least one way to say that enough is enough.

We could reach back to the slaughter at the 1972 Olympics, an event conducted to unify the world, but let's just call it 27 years of barbarism, and FINALLY one muslim community has reached the consensus that they will take but one small stand, that the perpetrators of atrocity are not entitled to ritual burial. Yes, it's time. Yes, it's a good thing. But I remain disappointed: we've been waiting too long, and the gesture is too small.