by Yusra Ahmad

Created on: June 06, 2009   Last Updated: June 09, 2009

Since when do we live in a world where murder is made legal? Although capital punishment still exists in certain countries, despite the high risk that it entails, at the very least the defendant is tried over a prolonged period of time to allow them the opportunity to defend their case. However, the action of taking another's life because they fundamentally do not agree with the make-up of our society, is unjustifiable murder. It is a crime against the fabric of our modern democratic civilization.

If the ban on government -sponsored assassinations is repealed within the "First" world countries, then there will be no differentiation to be made between civilized and uncivilized countries in terms of human rights. For these are the same Third World countries that are so vigilantly policed by the First World, through organisations as the United Nations for their own government-sponsored crimes against humanity. Therefore, any government that chooses to exercise this right, will show itself to be hypocritical and should no longer be considered civilised, regardless of the reasoning for its use.

If the logic in this case suggests that there is nothing morally reprehensible about providing those who govern us with a blank cheque to kill for us, then why did the world stand back and watch Saddam Hussein be hanged for similar crimes? Or why was Augusto Pinochet tried for crimes against humanity? And why is Omar Al-Bashir, President of the Sudan, currently being persecuted for an alleged genocide in Darfur?

This would simply be a case of "do as we say, not as we do". If the main aim behind the legalisation of murder is to defeat terrorism, then sinking to such levels would in fact, mark our own defeat. By allowing these terrorists to change the fabric of our society and democratic beliefs, we prove the failure of our political system and allow them to prevail. So we must ask ourselves one simple question; are we ready to give in and let them win?

The risk associated with giving away such a dangerous tool should not be underestimated, as no man should be given the right to act as God. If we are to legally give governments the power to choose for us between life and death, then how can the public police this? There is no way to predict how this situation could develop or guarantee that the worst case scenario would not become reality.

There is no guarantee that democracy would not fade away to be replaced by a new violent dictatorship, one that will strip us of our freedom and silence our voices, using a power that we handed them on a silver platter. A world such as this, built on fear alone, is a dark and frightening world with a miserable future. It is not a democratic, free world, built on morals and principles that we would want to shape the souls of our children.

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