The Child On The Disused Track

On the train from Oxford to London Paddington, I asked Prof Tariq Ramadan whether he had met the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Sheikh Dr Mustafa Ceric recently. He affirmed and laughed, while mentioning that the Grand Mufti is a humorous man. At an event cited by Prof Ramadan, Sheikh Mustafa Ceric made everyone laughed by his humour through simple and innocent statements.

I told Prof Ramadan that we have invited the Grand Mufti to deliver the lecture on Prophet Muhammad's Enduring Message to Humanity, which was eventually delivered by his goodself last April, and that we have an open invitation for the Grand Mufti to visit Singapore.

I met the Grand Mufti last year at the Conference on Islam and Muslims in the World Today, organised by University of Cambridge. His presentation on Muslims in the West: Engagement and Representation was rich and profound, to say the least.

He asserted we are at the threshold of a new age in which morality must prevail; in which understanding for our neighbours, justice in our dealings, and willingness to help each other must be our command. "Neither intelligence nor atomic weapons nor nuclear threats nor institutions can serve as substitutes for moral values and human decency", he argued. "You may win the war, but that does not mean that you have won the peace. The world was promised freedom from fear, but in fact fear has increased in recent years. The world was promised freedom from want, but large parts of the world are faced with starvation while others are living in abundance. Territorial questions and arguments of power still prevail over the essential demands of common welfare and justice". Such was the profundity of his analysis.

I found his choice of the story of the great critic Leo Velski Julian to be very appropriate for this general situation. In it he tells us about a group of children playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other is disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the children. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way. To save most of the children at the expense of only one child is a rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

"Remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right."