Answer
Salam Dear Questioner,
Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
Our condolences go to all the families of the deceased, may God grant all these children Paradise and make it a mean for their parents to attain the same by God’s grace and mercy.
To begin with, God is extremely merciful to us despite our mistakes, such as polluting our planet yet expecting everything to be normal, disaster-free.
God revealed guidelines on how we should live and conduct ourselves, yet created us with free will, so when we deviate from His teachings, we should not expect good results and most importantly blame ourselves. Allah says in His book what is translated as:
{Whatever of misfortune strikes you, it is what your right hands have earned. And He forgiveth much.} (Ash-Shura, Chapter 42, verse 30)
Unfortunately, we live in a world of violence, war, and crime; many children have died and continue to die as a consequence. The following report about violence is just one example.
Children around the world are exposed to and bombarded with violence. To mention just few, they see it on TV, in movies and cartoons, and even when they desire some entertainment; it is further ingrained in games.
As a society, a country and at the global level we need to reconsider such media trends if we are to find a comprehensive solution to the problem of violence at schools and elsewhere.
We can always reestablish moral education in public schools without mentioning any religion. It seems this was taken away because of its affiliation with Christianity but moral values are part of any religious or non-religious system, and it is a must to ingrain this in our children early on to minimize such incidents.
So the issue of justice is also another important ingredient to consider, as the absence of justice always leads to the loss of peace, and this can affect any member of society, whether young or old, and in societies where guns are freely sold to the public the problem of violence becomes even more serious, and also where the problem of drugs is widespread.
But there are other aspects of justice, including social justice, economic justice, and also political justice that relate to the problem of violence.
Social and economic justices go hand-in-hand; economic injustice tends to affect social injustice. There has to be a balance between rich and poor, but apparently that gap is continuously increasing as years pass by.
The rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer. Please read the following report: Rich-Poor Gap Widens to Most Since 1967 as Income Falls
There are lots of talk on how to eliminate poverty but very little done to move forward. It appears that some nations are being impoverished purposely.
In some countries, economical resources are stolen and traditional agricultural practices are questioned to such extent that they have lost crops they used to easily grow in the past.
In addition, large amounts of crops are thrown away in order to maintain prices, while some nations are hit with famine, and those crops are only allowed in certain parts of the world; stronger nations imposing quotas on weaker nations and telling them what to grow and what not to grow.
Political justice is another major factor; we have experienced this first hand lately with several revolutions in the Arab world.
Previously, people feared to practice their religion an to express their political views due to governing powers who are oppressors; an oppression that is imposed from the outside in order to control people’s economic, social, and political freedoms.
Some nations were the reason behind the death of hundreds of thousands of children due to sanctions and the fulfillment of their own political agendas on weaker nations.
It is time that we respect each other for who we are; differences create diversity so we may get to know each other rather than killing one another. Allah mentions in the Quran what is translated as:
{O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware.} (Al-Hujurat, Chapter 49, Verse 13)
God gave us free will, and He will hold us accountable on how we used this free will. The absence of faith, and often the ridicule of people of faith in the media is another issue we should reconsider if we are really searching for comprehensive solutions.
We should not blame God for our mismanagement and improper behavior; we did it with our own free will and we were warned about the consequences:
{And We sent no prophet unto any township but We did afflict its folk with tribulation and adversity that haply they might grow humble. Then changed We the evil plight for good till they grew affluent and said: Tribulation and distress did touch our fathers. Then We seized them unawares, when they perceived not. And if the people of the townships had believed and kept from evil, surely We should have opened for them blessings from the sky and from the earth. But (unto every messenger) they gave the lie, and so We seized them on account of what they used to earn.} (Al-Araaf, Chapter 7, Verses 94-96)
As for children, God has commanded that we give them a good start in life by commanding both parents to care for their well-being, their good manners and their education. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said:
“Whoever fails to show mercy to our children and honor to our elders is not one of us” (At-Tirmidhi)
So truly trusting in God, establishing justice, and removing violence from the media would be three good starting points for our world to seriously consider if we want to establish peace in our societies and protect our children from violence.
I hope this helps address some of the concerns.
Salam.