[Islam-Online- Society]

Most of us today have been de-sensitized. Unhealthy doses of news stories about violence, destruction, natural disasters and crime have left us shell shocked to say the least. Why is this? Given our busy lives, we have just enough time to hear about the goings on in the world through the news, either on television or the radio. And sadly enough, the media decide which stories will receive continuous coverage and which will be dropped, as if the events had never occurred.

For a brief moment this past week, Iraq was in the news again. Whether the media wish to acknowledge it or not, there are an untold number of people in Iraq, most of them children, who are crying themselves to death daily. Do you know Dennis Halliday? It wouldn't be a surprise if you hadn't. He did not receive the press coverage that would usually accompany a hero. And that's what he is: a lone man taking on the United Nations sanctions against the Iraqi government. Halliday was sent to Iraq in September 1997 to oversee the U.N.'s oil for food program. After less than a year in Iraq, the Irishman could no longer bear the suffering he witnessed firsthand. He resigned and now champions the cause through speaking tours, interviews, and op-ed pieces. Among the endless tragedies associated with the situation in Iraq is the social commentary that goes something like this: A part of the Muslim Ummah is being systematically destroyed and yet no systematic effort has been made to halt the suffering and death.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF estimate that close to a half-million children have died since 1991. That's when the embargo began, nearly 10 years ago. Since then, the U.N. and Saddam Hussein have had various confrontations. The outcome: Saddam Hussein remains in power, while the U.N. continues to punish an already unjustly oppressed people.

So what's killing the children? Well, several things. Let's begin with the clean glass of drinking water that we all take for granted. Diarrhea, typhoid and cholera are only a few of the diseases that result due to a contaminated water supply. And that's exactly what the allied forces left the Iraqi people with: raw sewage flowing in the streets and an almost entirely contaminated water supply. They annihilated an already weak civilian infrastructure. Everything from hospitals to schools, power plants to water purification plants and sewage treatment plants were destroyed.

While the economic impact is not being discussed here, suffice it to say that families have been forced to live as beggars. Children do not attend school. Iraq, once the home of Islamic scholars, is now on the brink of having an illiterate majority. Historical sites of importance to Islam and Muslims are in ruins.

Why should we be concerned today? Nearly 40 percent of Iraq's population is under the age of 15. That means that the death of every child or infant erodes any hopes of rebuilding an almost destroyed nation. Also, there is an unprecedented increase in cases of leukemia, cancers and birth defects - the most conservative speculations are that these are a result of the depleted uranium weapons used by the allied forces during the Gulf War.

What can we do today? Well, for one thing, the people of Iraq continue to need our prayers. Second, we need have increased awareness of the affairs of our Ummah. There is no need to be overwhelmed with all that is wrong. Focus instead on what can be corrected, one step at a time. While there is general mistrust and little hope in international law, it helps if we are at least familiar with things like the Geneva Convention, the Genocide Convention and of course the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Far from receiving the news coverage of a nation under systematic destruction, Iraq briefly appeared on the news this past week. It may not reappear again for some time. But the people of Iraq should not be forgotten.

Society