Europe’s hypocrisy and latent racism
displayed after the Paris attacks
On January 11, 2015, an estimated 1.6 million people walked
the streets of Paris as part of a “unity march” in reaction to the recent
attack in the French capital. Some 40 world leaders joined the march. Other
high-profile individuals also recognized the attack and the march—for instance,
George Clooney and other actors referred to the events as they received awards
on January 11. “Paris is the capital of the world today,” declared Francois
Hollande.
Those who are informed of current events know that every day
people are killed by the violence that was unleashed by the opportunistic manipulators
of the Arab Spring and the invasion of Iraq before that. It is perplexing to
see world leaders converging on Paris, the media saturated with news about the
attack, and the large unity march in response to the attack. Why are we expected
to respond to these events with unity when indiscriminate violence, illegal
wars, and genocidal massacres have taken the lives of people in Muslim
countries every day for the past four years?
Where is the outrage when—just one day before the march in
Paris—al-Nusra genocidal bombers, financed and armed by Qatar and Turkey and
their Western allies, killed at least 7 people and wounded more than 30 in a
cafe in Tripoli, Lebanon?
Where is the anger when a suicide bomb blast killed at least
20 people and injured 18 others at a poultry market in Maiduguri, Somalia, on
January 10?
Where is the indignation when bombers killed and wounded 29
civilians in a market in Yobe, Nigeria, on the same day the Paris march took
place?
Where is the wrath when attackers killed 31 and maimed 90 in
a market in China's Xinjiang last May?
Where is the exasperation when ISIL genocidal murders killed
40 in a series of attacks targeting mosques in Iraq last October?
Where is the ire when genocidal fighters killed 134 children
and 9 school staff members, and injured 121 others, at a school in Peshawar,
Pakistan, last December?
Where is the fury when genocidal murderers have carried out
more than 400 suicide attacks, killing 6,272 and wounding 12,909 in Pakistan
alone since 2001?
Where is the disgust when, on average, six civilians
died in Iraq every day, for a total of 21,600 deaths, between 2003 and January 2013, by
car bombs and suicide attacks alone?
Where is the call for unity when 12,878 civilians were
murdered by terror attacks in 2013 in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Syria? Do
the lives of 12 French citizens matter more than the lives of 12,878 Muslims
killed over the course of just one year?
The simple fact is this: Far too many Muslims have been
killed by the political tool created by Saudi Arabia and its allies. Too many victims
to capture with a slick slogan like “Je Suis Charlie”, too
many to keep track of all their names.
I could go on listing attack after attack by these genocidal
murderers, who were nurtured and sponsored by allies of the West, targeting
Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Nigeria. I
could list facts and figures about children, women, elders, journalists,
doctors, teachers, engineers, laborers, mothers, father, sister, brothers,
aunts, uncles, and uninvolved civilians, who provoked no one, killed every day
in these countries. But I can’t find a single instance of world leaders
marching in the streets of Peshawar, Kabul, Baghdad, Damascus, Tunis, Beirut,
or Abuja to mourn these innocent lives and to show unity against genocidal
groups and ideologies.
The unity march in Paris enables killers to claim that
Muslims’ lives do not matter as much as the lives of Western citizens. The
media’s over-coverage of victims of terrorism in the West and under-coverage of
victims of terrorism elsewhere communicates a latent racism: European lives
matter, the lives of people of color do not. Mass murder in Paris demands an
international show of outrage and unity, whereas mass murder in Islamabad
deserves only a dismissive statement of condemnation.
Ironically, the disparate reaction to the same act of
violence—one taking the lives of West citizens and one taking the lives of non-Western
citizens, which is unconscionable, further radicalizes some ordinary Muslims
and some of them join genocidal groups like ISIL who deceivably claim that they
are the true defenders of Sunni Muslims. That is how genocidal fighters are
able to find sanctuary among some ordinary Sunni Muslims, and can then use that
sanctuary to launch deadly attacks that kill anyone who does not embrace their
genocidal supremacist ideology and practices.
The unity march was a shameful display by opportunists to
capitalize on the blood of innocent people. Instead of that hypocritical
exercise, world leaders should have reached out to the primary victims of
terrorism and showed true unity by displaying equal outrage for offenses
committed against them. They should have shown some sincere sympathy towards
the victims of genocidal killing in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan. If Western leaders wanted to fight extremism and supremacism, they would
not distinguish between a life lost to terrorism in Paris and a life lost to
terrorism in Baghdad and Damascus, even when they disagree with the political
leaders in those capitals.
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* Prof. SOUAIAIA teaches at the University of Iowa. His most recent book, Anatomy
of Dissent in Islamic Societies, provides
a historical and theoretical treatment of rebellious movements and ideas since
the rise of Islam. Opinions are the author’s, speaking on matters of public
interest; not speaking for the university or any other organization with which
he is affiliated.
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