Judaism views childhood as a period of purity, joy
and beauty to be valued and cherished. The Talmud states that “childhood is a
garland of roses” and that “the very breath of children is free of sin.”
Jesus
said, “Don’t stop children from coming to me! Children like these are part of
the kingdom of God.”
In
the Quran, the word “child” is mentioned four times, but caring for “children” takes
a sizeable part of its 114 verses. Islam’s Holy Book upholds every child’s
right to caring and protection, even when in its mother’s womb. It upholds
every child’s right to life, to nutrition, to love in all its forms, to
education and to protection from injustice.
None
of the aforesaid bears scrutiny in President Bashar al-Assad’s Syria.
By
December 16, his military, security and militia forces had already killed 3,862
children in the 640 days since the uprising began in mid-March 2011, according
to the Free Syria database, Syrian
Shuhada.
Of
the 3,862 children killed, 2,727 (or 71%) were boys, and 1,135 (or 29%) were girls.
Significantly
too, 2,810 of the child victims were 10 years of age or under and the remaining
1,052 were between 11 and 16.
Random
shelling killed 1,626 of the children. That’s 42% of the 3,862 total child
fatalities. Air strikes killed 519.
The
highest numbers of child fatalities by districts were in Homs (819), the
Damascus suburbs (674), Aleppo (623) and Idlib (512).
My slideshow is a tribute to all Syria’s child victims:
