Cut out knife crime.

'Boy, 15, stabbed over Facebook fight'

The words you never want to read. The words that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The words that send shivers down your spine. 15 years old, with his entire life ahead of him. The saddest part is, he isn't the first, and he will not be the last.

These types of headlines in the news have become all too common in recent years, and we must ask why?

Why is this even happening in our society?

Why do 15 year old children, sometimes younger, feel the need to carry a knife?

Why are these incidents forgotten a week or two after they occur?

Why? 

Why?

Why?

I 100% agree with the fact that the people who did this, and commit these sorts of crimes daily around the globe, need to be caught and punished accordingly. However, I can't help but feel that if a little more time, a little more effort, a little more care, went into finding out the motives behind the crime, and educating our children on the consequences, we might slowly, very slowly, begin the very long journey towards cutting out knife crime.

As I grapple with my thoughts on this topic, somewhere across the country may be a child (because that is what they are, children), who is angry, confused and lost. Who unfortunately, feels the need to carry a weapon, whether it's a gun or a knife or something else. For what? Protection? Self defence? Who knows? And if, or should I say when, the situation arises where they feel the 'need' to use this weapon, we will once again be reading those harsh cruel words:

'Boy, 15, stabbed over Facebook fight'

Hollie McNish is an up and coming poet from the UK. Her videos never cease to inspire and amaze me, and this one video in particular I decided to share because it was relevant to today's topic, so please take out a few minutes to listen to her thought-provoking poetry.

:-) x

Woolwich attack

Recently something despicable happened. Something that has been all over the news since, and that has split public opinion and sent social networking sites on a frenzy. As you already probably know, on Wednesday 22nd May, a British soldier, Lee Rigby was murdered on the streets of Woolwich, London.

Now I think any sane person will agree with me when I say, what happened that day was barbaric, brutal, and unjustified. However, I want to just put a few thoughts out there.

Firstly, I strongly believe that a life is a life, one is not anymore valuable then another. So when 75 year old Mohammed Saleem was stabbed to death in Birmingham just under a month ago, correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not recall this cruel, unprovoked act of violence getting anywhere near the same amount of news coverage or discussion, as the Woolwich attack. All I'm trying to say, is take a moment to reflect before you unquestioningly believe everything the media tells you. Step back and look at things objectively and make up your own mind. Instead of just accepting the opinions and ideas of others that are being forced down you by the television screen in your living room.

Secondly, I want to tackle some of the reactions I've seen circulating the internet following the Woolwich attack. For all those people making inadequate and racist claims stating that all Muslims are terrorists, and should be sent out of the country, I'm sorry to be blunt but these are far-fetched and uneducated ideas. Drawing on an analogy that Russel Brand made, is Football to blame for the violence caused by the small minority of football hooligans? And therefore, should Football be banned? 

How can a religion that is followed by millions around the world be responsible or to blame for these violent acts that a minority commit? In fact, the Quran even states that the taking of one life, is comparable to killing the whole of humanity. That is how much Islam condemns murder.

I think in times of crisis like this, it is easy to turn against each other, to appoint blame based on stereotypes. Instead, we should be brushing our differences to one side and coming together to tackle these issues, to come up with ways of preventing these acts of violence from taking place in our society.

Myles Dyer put it best when he posted the following on his Facebook page,

'Those who use words like 'terrorist', 'evil', or '[race]' to explain horrific acts of violence, wipe their hands clean of identifying actual root causes, and thus preventative measures'.

I couldn't agree more, and though we are far from it, I wish as a society, we could come together at times like this and figure out what steps to take next, together.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of Lee Rigby and Mohammed Saleem and the thousands dying around the world everyday.

I'll leave you with the following quote from one of my favourite novels, Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman:

"I used to comfort myself with the belief that it was only certain individuals and their peculiar notions that spoilt things for the rest of us. But how many individuals does it take before it's not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itslef?"

:-) x