Dear People on the Internet,
Moments like these are extremely difficult for everyone, but the difference lies in how people choose to react to such tragedies. I know you feel compelled to share your half-thought-out reactions to events, but please do pause for a second and think about it.
If you’re critiquing people for “selective mourning” and not mentioning the Beirut or Baghdad attacks, I’m going to play the same card on you. ISIS killed 224 in Sinai 3 weeks ago and 102 in Ankara 4 weeks ago. I went through your profile, didn’t see you say a single word about that. And chances are that if the Paris attack didn’t happen, you wouldn’t have paused to mourn the lives lost in Beirut or Baghdad either. So please don’t play that card.
This world works in messed up ways. The news will feed you only stories that sell. That get retweets and shares. Unfortunately, bombings and deaths have only become the new norm in the middle east region and we as individuals — whether you agree with me or not — have become desensitized to such tragedies.
I’m not asking you to not highlight all the other tragedies happening in the world. It’s important that we talk about things that the traditional news media houses won’t talk about. But please be respectful of those who may have been more moved/shocked by the event than you. It’s like walking up to your uncles funeral and complaining why so many people didn’t show up to mourn at your own father’s funeral — what type of person does that?
When something so out of the norm as the Paris attacks happen, it shakes up the entire world. It’s not the numeric count of how many people have died, or what ethnicity they were, that define human reaction but it’s how shocking the event is. How unexpected the tragedy was.
People who were closest and most affected by the tragedy are offering their homes for free accommodation to anyone’s who’s homeless, taxi drivers providing free rides to people, restaurants giving out free food to people. The world is in pain and the best you can do is help it get by the day, not add to the hatred out there.
Prayers and love to the people in Lebanon, Iraq, Paris, Palestine/Israel and Syria. And everywhere else where religion and fear are being hijacked to pursue a political agenda.
This was originally posted as a status on my facebook profile. I woke up early this morning and jotted down everything that was on my mind. By evening, the post gather 170+ shares and 700+ ‘likes’ with people from France, Beirut and Afghanistan reaching out to me via Fb inbox. So I thought I’d share it here too.
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