There are many layers of hypocrisy in the public reaction to the Paris tragedy that must be sorted through
LAHORE: This is with reference to the article, “A game of thrones” by Bisma Tirmizi, published in your newspaper on November 20. I am in total agreement with the writer, as any time there is an attack on civilians in the post-9/11 West, demagogues immediately blame it on Muslims. They depend on the blunt force of anti-Muslim bigotry to bolster their accusations. Research indicates that less than two per cent of terrorist attacks from 2009 to 2013 in Europe, were inspired or motivated by religion. The facts, nonetheless, have never stopped the prejudiced pundits from insisting otherwise.
There are many layers of hypocrisy in the public reaction to the Paris tragedy that must be sorted through in order to understand the larger context of these horrific attacks. When evidence began to suggest that extremists were responsible for the attacks, the demagogues insisted that Islam was to blame, and that the predominantly Muslim refugees entering the West are only going to carry out more such attacks. Every time Muslim extremists carry out an attack, Muslims are expected to apologise collectively; this has become an old cliche. Ultimately, Islamophobes in the West want Muslims to leave their countries because they see them as innately violent terrorists. Muslim extremists also want refugees and immigrants to leave Western countries so they can be radicalised and join organisations like the Islamic State (IS). A clampdown on Muslim refugees coming into Europe will only benefit the IS and al Qaeda. In addition, France’s extreme right-wing National Front party also stands to gain as a result of anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe. Before the Paris attacks, Le Pen’s extreme-right movement was France’s second-largest party. Now, it may well become the largest.
There are hundreds of terrorist attacks being carried out in the Muslim world every year. The ones that immediately fill the headlines, however, are the ones carried out by Muslims, not the ones carried out by ethno-nationalists. Yet, it is not just the Western media that gives more attention to such attacks; heads of state frequently do so as well. Notable was the official silence surrounding another horrific terrorist attack that took place only the day before the Paris atrocity. Two IS suicide bombers killed at least 43 people and wounded more than 230 in an attack in Beirut on November 12. President Obama did not condemn the bombing as vehemently as he did the Paris attack despite the fact that the former was the worst attack in Beirut in years. Instead, the victims of the IS attacks were characterised in the US media as Hezbollah human shields and blamed for their own deaths, based on the unfortunate coincidence of their geographical location. Do French lives matter more than Lebanese, Turkish, Kurdish and Yemeni ones? Were the attacks that targeted these people also not heinous, evil and vile? The National Observatory Against Islamophobia has documented numerous incidents of Islamophobic attacks and threats in France recently. However, only Western victims of terrorism get noticed.
Salma Tahir
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2015.
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