(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)While transporting a mother and her 6-year-old son to their destination, a taxicab driver turned and asked the mother a question. Once she answered, he stopped the cab, pulled her little boy from the back seat, and brutally slit the child’s throat in front of his horrified mother.
Every culture and theology has its share of barbarity, and history provides proof. However, one religious ideology, in particular, stands heads and shoulders above the rest when it comes to mass brutality and the staunch resistance to reformation.
For over 1,400 years, Islam has enacted oppression and mass slaughter using methods identical to their founding prophet. While crucifixion, dismemberment, and burning are all effective manners of execution for the blasphemers, one technique was a favorite of the prophet Muhammad and is compelled by the Quran multiple times.
In Saudi Arabia, where beheadings are still being used as capital punishment, a woman and her son hailed a taxicab to take them to the shrine of the prophet Muhammad in Medina. It was only after the driver asked the woman a simple question that the little boy’s gruesome fate was sealed.
According to the Daily Mail, 6-year-old Zakaria Al-Jaber was dragged out of the taxi and beheaded by the driver with a shard of glass after the cabbie asked the mother if she was a Shia Muslim. The driver, who remains unnamed, reportedly dragged the boy out of the cab to a coffee shop in the Al-Tilal neighborhood before smashing a glass bottle and using the remnants to slit his throat.
Smallest coffins are the heaviest đ
That's barbaric how that Saudi driver beheaded 6years old Zakariya. You don't need to be a Shia or Sunni. Try to be a a Human first. Justice Delayed means Justice Denied. #JusticeForZakaria pic.twitter.com/GXa0LHovMd— Sajid Hussain (@Sajid14hussain) February 8, 2019
The screaming mother attempted to intervene but could not stop the man from murdering her little boy in front of her. A nearby police officer rushed to the scene but was just seconds too late. The driver was arrested on the spot.
The man is said to have asked the mother if she was Shia just moments before the murder, suggesting that he may have been a member of the Sunni sect of Islam. However, it is unknown why the driver set his sights upon the child, although the Saudi officials insist he was suffering from mental health issues.
Al-Jaber’s funeral was by Sheikh Amiri at a mosque in Medina. His tiny coffin was draped with a green Islamic banner and surrounded by male members of the mosque.
Truly heart breaking & shocking incident in Medina last ThursdayA 6 year old Shiâa boy is slaughtered right in front of his mother by a taxi driver after it was discovered the family were Shiâa.The video shows Sheikh Amiri (of Medina) giving a short museeba before reciting Salat Al-Mayit on the body of the innocent boy Such hatred and criminal targeting of Shiâa must stop. The World was outraged over the killing of a journalist..will this story and the murder of thousands of Yemini children get the coverage?
Posted by Mohammed Al-Hilli on Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Shia Rights Watch reports that Al-Jaber was killed in an act of sectarian violence, which has plagued the country for centuries. It is believed that the Saudi government is attempting to quell outrage over the boy’s death by claiming that the man suffered from mental illness.
They said: “The Saudi Shia community came together today in mourning and to show solidarity with the parents. The community also reported this incident is a result of ongoing violations and lack of protection by the Saudi authority toward its Shia population.”
The headquarters for Shia Rights Watch, which resides in Washington, D.C., called for officials to address the grisly murder immediately in order to satiate unrest in the region.
They added: “Shia Rights Watch, other human rights NGOs and activists have long advocated for the rights of this minority through campians, UN and other entities. However the population still suffers because of the lack of international commitment to end such violations. Beheading of a young child in such manner must be addressed ASAP.”
The group is calling for the murder to be considered an act of terrorism and a hate crime. They have also complained that there has been a lack of media coverage in Saudi Arabia, which has been blamed on the marginalization of the Shia community by the Sunni majority, which makes up nearly 90 percent of the Muslim world.
Although the Sunni and Shia have been at each other’s throats since the founding of Islam, their Quran reads exactly the same. The verses that compel believers to “smite at their necks” and “strike off their heads” have been interpreted literally just as Muhammad modeled over a thousand years ago.
