This weekend, the world was shaken as eight acts of terrorism were carried out in Paris, France, claiming 132 lives. Among the sites affected were a soccer game attended by President Hollande, a rock concert at the Bataclan theater, and a restaurant and bar. All of these were ordinary places, full of happy people. They were people smiling, laughing, and enjoying life, and within moments, it was taken from them: 132 lives were taken, countless of families' worlds were destroyed, and ours was shaken to its core.
Within hours, monuments and landmarks over the world were lit up with the colors of France in a show of solidarity. I was in Washington, D.C. at the time, having arrived only minutes before the news broke. I was there for a conference with over a thousand other students, and as we all checked into the hotel, every TV in the lobby was tuned into the news. Throughout the entire weekend, the televisions in the lobby, my room, and around the city showed almost 24-hour coverage of Paris news. We were a global community in shock. But why?
As sad as it, ISIS attacks are a common occurrence. According to the Iraq Body Count, in 2014 alone, over 17,000 civilians were killed by ISIS attacks, combatants, or followers. So what is it about Paris that leaves the world reeling? The fact of the matter is that the majority of the 17,000 civilians murdered were in non-democratic, non-Western countries. It has come to be an expected norm for extreme acts of violence to be associated with these places. From the Arab Spring, to the continued Syrian Civil War, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is an assumption that violence will occur and civilians will die. To a certain point, the world has become desensitized to the mindless violence that occurs in these communities.
To make a point, there were two other terrorist attacks that were claimed by ISIS within 24 hours of the attacks in France. Late on Thursday evening, a double suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, left nearly 50 people dead and over 250 injured; and a few hours before the Parisian violence, a funeral for a pro-Shi'a government leader in Baghdad, Afghanistan was targeted by another suicide bomber that killed 20 people and wounded 40. That is 70 people dead and 300 wounded within hours of each other, and there was hardly a mention of it on Western media outlets.
Certainly, neither the White House nor the Empire State Building were decorated in the Lebanese or Afghani flags. Neither the Sydney Opera House nor Big Ben were lit up for Libya or Egypt when 21 Egyptians were beheaded on the beach earlier this year. Neither the Christ the Redeemer Statue of Brazil nor Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower were adorned in the Palestinian flag colors in April when a large refugee camp was overtaken and refugee children and civilians were beheaded.
None of this is to draw attention away from the horrors of Paris. The attacks committed in France are atrocious and the world has a right to grieve. I spent the majority of late Friday and the early hours of Saturday huddled with my roommates in my hotel room, watching to the news. Even as the same facts were reported, we sat there at midnight, and 12:30 a.m., and 1 a.m., devouring every new piece of information. If the conference had not ended so late on Friday evening, we would have walked to the White House and Capitol Building to pay our respects and join the thousands of people mourning in the streets. Saturday evening, as we took a tour of the monuments, we stopped at each makeshift memorial we saw to pay our respects to the lives lost.
This article is not meant to disrespect what the French community is going through; it is to draw attention to the other violence and terrorism that is committed daily on a global scale that doesn't receive such extensive coverage, and ask why? We should all, without a doubt, #PrayforParis. We should all demand #PeaceforParis. But while we do so, we should remember the other countries, the other cities, the other families and friends and communities that are facing violence from terrorists. We should remember to pray for them too and we should demand peace for all those affected by terrorism.
I will end with part of a poem from Warsan Shire:
"l held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?
it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.”
The world is hurting. Humanity is hurting. Let us not forget those in Libya, Palestine, or Paris. Let us come together as a global community and say that this is not OK, that this senseless violence is not OK. Let us demand better from our governments and our neighbors and our ourselves. Let us expect peace and not violence. And finally, let us pray for the world.
