It is clear that any normal adult who uses his or her power over others immorally or criminally is full aware of and responsible for such actions and needs to be held lawfully accountable with due punishment.
Source/Credit: Jihad of the Pen
By Zubair Ahmed Hayat | November 28, 2017
The beleaguered Moghul of Hollywood Moghuls, Harvey Weinstein and his alleged licentious escapades has kicked open a Pandora’s Box of sexual abuse that has rocked the world.
The insatiable global media is the battleground for a tsunami of claimants tweeting and posting to display the scalps of society’s leaders and celebrities for wrongs or crimes present and decades old.
All of us desperately want an end to this appalling blight on humanity, but to do so, we first need to understand the causes.
Is this simply an issue of sexual gratification gone bad or is it something more complex, more primeval and more insidious?
Due to the sheer number of people coming forward with their history of sexual harassment, abuse or rape (first it was only women but now it is men too), we can only conclude that the sorry ensemble of perpetrators had varying motivating causes, such as so-called sex ‘addiction’, being under the influence of drugs, etc.
However, one recurring pattern that emerges is that nearly all these cases show that the person holding a position of power takes advantage of a weaker person, who may be seeking employment from an executive or was simply idolizing a celebrity.
The main motivating factor seems to be that of manifesting one’s power, dominance and so-called superiority over a willing or unwilling person.
Such an act of dominance is not driven by sex but by the excitement of being drunk with power and exulting in its thrall.
The perpetrator appears convinced that the ability to repeatedly and overtly break social taboos without consequence is the sign of his or her domination of other people.
Those in the offender’s social group are aware of that person’s immorality and in many cases immoral acts and yet they all keep quiet. This can only understood as a message of support and encouragement by the offender to push the limits even further.
An example of this is enshrined in US Federal Law. Between 1997 till 2016, a staggering fifteen million dollars of tax payer’s money have been paid out by Congress to victims of harassment and discrimination claims.
The Law-makers on Capitol Hill who sexually harass their co-workers are not even paying from their own pocket when caught and fined; Joe Public [you and I] pays on their behalf. Are they making laws to look out for their own?
On Capitol Hill, if a Legislative Branch employee wants to lodge a formal sexual harassment complaint today, these are the hoops that first must be jumped through which are designed to last more than 90 days or to wear down the victim.
It further ensures that their work colleagues at the scene of the offence cannot be called to give evidence to help their case.
The victim has to follow this procedure as stated by the Office of Compliance CAA Handbook:
1 “…Victims must submit up to 30 days of mandatory counselling”. [Note that this is ‘counselling’ for the accuser]
2 “…Complete another month of mediation”.
3 “…Wait 30 more days before seeking an administrative hearing or filing a lawsuit in Federal District court”. [As a cool down period]
4 “…Must file no later than 180 days after the episode.”
5 “Co-workers who might…provide corroborating evidence are excluded.”
In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is currently setting up an independent Watchdog to investigate sexual harassment and abuse claims by staff against British members of Parliament. The Conservative Party alone has 36 MPs currently being investigated for sexual misconduct. A Welsh Cabinet Minister has committed suicide following multiple allegations against him.
Aside from such examples from our political leadership one can view the mainstream Hip Hop videos as a typical sample of the powerfully potent messages daily being presented to young men and women about their respective sexual roles. What is the role of the dominant ‘player’ in the videos and how do all the submissive ones behave?
It is clear that any normal adult who uses his or her power over others immorally or criminally is full aware of and responsible for such actions and needs to be held lawfully accountable with due punishment.
Yet to what degree are we the society complicit by creating, nurturing and even knowingly harbouring these deviant people by giving them the constant social message that engaging in all types of flirtatious behaviours is actually a ‘laddish’ thing and is actually amusing to all involved, without clearly stating where the line is drawn?
As much as the society feels the need to immediately censure and ostracise people who have allegations made against them in the media, even before going to the police, it is also the responsibility of the society to demand that an appropriate standard of moral accountability is expected from all its members, more so from the role-models and leaders.
The education of people, particularly of adults, in morals is not perceived as an obligation on the society and this is where religion has always stepped forward with clear moral guidelines that anyone can train themselves in – as a personal development program.
Over the last 100 years the public has increasingly moved away from organised religion due to the ever-widening media coverage which has exposed the immoral and underhand behaviour of the priesthood of all the religions with an unrelenting stream of priests who perpetrate sexual crimes while their administration has historically covered up for them.
This has resulted in the ordinary person missing out on the moral guidance and training given by humanity’s greatest and most successful teachers, the likes of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Confucius, Plato and Socrates.
It is claimed that religion and its moral code is restrictive and stops an individual from living a normal, happy and successful life. Yet all these great men did not anywhere teach that men and women should enslave themselves to one another as does a sheep which just follows another sheep.
Their teachings are encapsulated by His Holiness [the late] Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He writes in his book, Revelation Rationality, Knowledge and Truth:
“Freedom is a prerogative of all living things, man being no exception.
Liberty is the most cherished fruit of life.
Man is the epitome of liberty which is ingrained in him.
His very texture is woven with the yarn of liberty.”
On this very topic the Holy Quran [the Islamic Holy Scripture] states:
“There should be no compulsion in religion.” [2:257]
Here God addresses not only the Islamic religion but all religions, saying the glaring truth which is that hearts and minds cannot be conquered by force. Only the backs of men can be forced to bow.
So the pure spiritual religion teaches that every man or woman should be free and not restricted in any way.
It is one’s moral birth-right and a religious moral guidance as presented nowadays very effectively and successfully by the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Each human being is free to pursue or reject his or her own path to knowledge and enlightenment without fear of retaliation.
All people, whoever they are, whatever they are, are born with morality in their DNA. Nobody is happy to be scammed. Nobody wants their loved ones to suffer any loss at the hands of a bully. We all have an understanding of how we would like to be treated by others – that is morality right there!
Our common natural, inner morality is the reason why the general public collectively becomes upset and outraged when they witness in the media that in another country a stranger has been sexually abused by an unrepentant domineering person. Our united call for immediate punishment of the offender rents the airwaves and social media streams.
Instead of only locking the unending torrent of culprits and throwing away the key, why not solve the problem for the future generations by starting a global campaign to teach morality?
Let people be proud to be icons of morality in the society. This will teach our children, our youth and our senior citizens how to treat others. Otherwise any stronger person will seek admiration from peers by bullying, harassing and abusing a weaker or different person.
Why not join the campaign already started up in your country by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth [men and women]? Go to Alislam.org to find your nearest Ahmadiyya Centre. Work with them and help them to benefit our society.
If you want to have a faith in God then you are welcome to join them. But if not, then you are free to leave aside aspects of any given religion, while just understanding the moral etiquettes of mixing with people in a successful way.
You may then proudly teach others your new newly acquired skills so that the harm caused by sexual predators, who may be psychopaths, can be avoided by you, your loved ones and the wider society.
Just as you would teach your little sister or brother not to walk down dark alleyways in the night, so you can teach them the right social behaviours and be proud to be a social activist and campaigner for Morality as well as the right for individuals to be free.
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Read original post here: Perspective: Who created Harvey Weinstein | Zubair Ahmed Hayat
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