A Fictive Story about Evil - Essay Example

Philosophy # 1st May, A Fictive Story about Evil In her theory of Evil, Hannah Arendt held that evil is caused by some sort of ignorance. After her experiences as a journalist covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, Arendt was convinced that Eichmann wasn’t a psychopath, but that he was a normal person who, out of blind enthusiasm in following and executing the Nazi ideologies ended up committing horrendous crimes against humanity, the Holocaust. This realization made Arendt to come up with a theory of evil based on the idea that evil is caused by the failure of a person to think critically and independently, and to make moral decisions in life based on the right reason. Arendt therefore argued that evil is caused by shallowness in thinking, or thoughtlessness, i.e. some sort of Ignorance. This paper gives a fictive story on evil based on the Arendt’s theory of evil as ignorance or thoughtlessness. When I was in primary school, I had a friend by the name Salim Abdi. Abdi was a Kenyan-American Muslim. Abdi was a very calm, friendly, outgoing, and scholarly young person; Abdi had such a calm character that one would think that he could not hurt even a fly. Although Abdi was a Muslim, and therefore a minority in the school, he however got along very well with the Christian student in school, who were the majority. After completing grade eight, Abdi left to Kenya with his parents, and he went to a Muslim High School in Mombasa- Kenya. But since he left USA, we have constantly been communication with on various means of communication, especially on the social media. It was while in the Muslim High School in Mombasa- Kenya, that Abdi was radicalised and made to develop terrorist attitude. I first became suspicious of Abdi when he started posting anti- Christian updates on his Facebook page. As an intimate friend of Abdi, I never hesitated to ask him why he posted the seemingly anti-Christian messages on this Facebook page. I openly told Abdi that I was surprised by his sudden change of attitude on Christianity. But whenever I raised my concerns about his anti-Christian postings on his Facebook, Abdi assured me that he had no negative attitude against Christians, and that I misinterpreted his Facebook postings. Abdi defended his Facebook postings by stating that his main intention in the seemingly anti-Christian messages wasn’t to demean Christianity in any way, but that he intended to make his friends on Facebook to think critically about their religions, and to become Muslims if possible. So, Abdi defended his move by saying that his intention was merely to spread and to defend Islam, as his preferred religion. I however told him that he did not need to post anti-Christian messages on his Facebook page so as to make his friends see sense in his preferred religion. Abdi, however, did not heed my piece of advice, and he continued posting thinly veiled anti-Christian messages on his Facebook page. Upon inquiring from Abdi why he had rapidly developed zeal for spreading Islam immediately after leaving US, Abdi told me that he wasn’t serious about his religion while in America and that it was in Kenya that he had been made to realize and to appreciate his religion. Despite the seemingly anti-Christian attitude that Abdi had developed, however, our friendship did not dwindle in any way, if anything, our friendship became stronger and stronger, and we continued communicating on phone every week. As a concerned friend, I always asked my friend Abdi whenever he posted anti-Christian information on his Facebook page, to think critically of what he meant by the messages, and not to blindly follow what his religious teachers were instilling on him. I warned Abdi that as rational human beings, we should always be guided by our reason, and not to blindly follow the ideas and the teachings of other people, without subjecting the ideas and the beliefs of other people into critical reflection. I advised Abdi to ensure that his religious conviction and teachings are in line with the right reason. Abdi promised me to take into consideration my concerns, but he also told me that, as much as he would like to think critically about his religious believes, there are some basic tenets of Muslim faith that are revealed by Allah, and that should not be doubted and subjected to critical reflection. I tried in vain to convince my friend Abdi that even such divinely tenets of his religion should be subjected to critical reflection. Following the invasion of Somalia by the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) in collaboration with the AMISON (African Union Mission) forces in October 2011 in a bid to flush out the Al-Shabaab militants from Somalia, the Al-Shabaab had posed great security threat to the East African region. Abdi openly criticised this move on his Facebook page, terming the move as an affront to the sovereignty of the people of the republic of Somalia. Abdi held the view that he Kenyan and the AMISON forces were not actually fighting terrorism, but that they were fighting the Muslims in Somalia. Following this move, Abdi joined a radical group of Muslim Youth in Mombasa Known as Mushujaa, a name coined from two Swahili words, Muslim and Shujaa, meaning Muslim heroes. The radical youth group was actually sympathetic to the Al-Shabaab terrorist activities in East Africa. Although, Abdi did not post on his Facebook page that he had joined the Mushujaa youth group, he however, told me on phone that he had joined the group and that the group would do everything possible to revenge against the move taken by the Kenya Defence forces and the AMISON forces. Upon inquiring on how the Mushujaa youth group would revenge against the KDF and the AMISON forces, Abdi told me that the Mushujaa group had ideologies that would guide them in accomplishing their revenge mission. Abdi told me that the Motto of Mushujaa was to eliminate anybody who seemed to fight Islam. Abdi told me that the group had financiers abroad and that they would do everything within their means to ensure that the KDF and the AMISON forces leaves Somalia. I tried in vain to dissuade my Friend Abdi from quitting the quasi-terrorist youth group but Abdi turned a deaf ear against my pieces of advice. Abdi seemed to have uncritically and blindly embraced and assimilated the radical teachings of the Mushujaa youth group that was sympathetic to terrorism. The move my Abdi to remain in the youth group that was planning retaliatory actions against the government of Kenya and the AMISON forces almost strained our relationship, but we continued communicating frequently with Abdi as before. Abdi, however, having realised that I wasn’t supportive of his decisions and his actions, he stopped briefing me on the plans and the development of the Mushujaa youth organisation. In early September last year, Abdi suddenly broke all communications with me. I was really surprised by this move and I thought that Abdi had been involved in an accident or that he had suddenly fallen sick, and therefore was unable to communicate with me. I tried contacting Abdi for two weeks without success. I decided to go to the organisation where Abdi’s father was working in America, so as to inquire for the Abdi’s father Kenyan address. Luckily, the manager of the Company had the phone contact of Abdi’s father. Upon getting the phone number of Abdi’s father, I immediately called him and asked the whereabouts of his son Abdi. Abdi’s father told me that as a family they also did not know the whereabouts of Abdi, and that they had reported the matter to the police. Abdi’s father promised to contact me immediately he knows the whereabouts of his son. On 21st September, 2013, the republic of Kenya witnessed one of the worst ever terrorist attacks at the West Gate shopping mall. The West Gate shopping mall at the Capital city of Kenya, Nairobi, was attacked by the Al-Shabaab terrorists, and the attack left 72 civilians dead. The terrorist attack also left more than 200 civilians injured and others maimed. A combined Kenyan military and police rescue mission took almost a week to get total control of the shopping mall from the Al-Shabaab terrorists. On 28th September 2013, Abdi’s father called me and told me that Abdi had been apprehended by the Kenyan police as one of the main suspects of the terrorists who had attacked the West Gate shopping mall. I pitied my friend Abdi greatly on learning that he was a major suspect in the West Gate terrorist attack. I promised Abdi’s father to pray for Abdi’s acquittal and I also promised him to be calling him daily so as to know how things were faring. Deep inside, though, I knew that Abdi had actually been involved in the terrorist attack in one way or another. The trial of Abdi was set on 9th January, 2014, and I actually decided to travel to Kenya to witness the trial of my friend. I contacted Abdi’s father and informed him that I would be travelling to Kenya so as to attend the trial. Abdi’s father was happy about it and told me that he would pick me at the airport. I left US for Kenya on the 4th January 2014, and I arrived in Nairobi on the following day in the evening. Abdi’s father picked me at the Jomo Kenyatta airport and we travelled to Mombasa, where Abdi’s family lived. On 8th January 2014, we left Mombasa for Nairobi so that we could attend the trial of Abdi the following Day. We spent the night in Nairobi and by 8:00 am the following day, we were at the Kilimani law court where the trial was to take place. The trials started at 8:30 am and luckily, Abdi was the second suspect to undergo the trial. Upon seeing the handcuffed and forlorn looking Abdi accompanied by two police officers, I could not restrain my tears. I involuntarily started crying and upon seeing me, Abdi also started crying. I could not stand to see my friend take the dock and I therefore had to go out for some time and come back when the trial had already started. After five minutes outside the court, I regained courage and went back into the courtroom where Abdi was being questioned. Although Abdi, however, looked tired and sickly, he answered all the questions addressed to him calmly. Abdi, however, denied all the charges levelled against him. For lack of concrete evidence, however, Abdi was released on bail, and we went home with him. Eventually, the case against Abdi was dismissed on 25 March, 2014, for lack of evidence. As we were going home with Abdi, Abdi regretted for his rather foolish decision to join the Mushujaa radical organisation. Abdi regretted that had he thought well about the ideologies of Mushujaa youth group, he would not have joined the group because the group aimed at causing harm to the innocent civilians, who had not taken any part in the KDF and the AMISON forces invasion of Somalia. Abdi lamented that his action was as the result of thoughtlessness and ignorance. Abdi seemed to be genuine in his regrets and he seemed to have a lot of remorse for his actions. Abdi seemed a calm and friendly person as ever and it is undoubtedly his thoughtlessness that had made him to commit to join the Mushujaa organisation that had orchestrated the terrorist attack at the West gate shopping Mall. This story shows that Arendt was indeed right in her claim that ignorance or thoughtlessness causes good people to commit evil actions. Work Cited Arendt, H. The Banality of Evil. Web. http://ri.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LEVxijP2JTD lMAdDBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oD> Read More