Friday, November 13th 2015 marks the night 130 innocent lives were lost to ignorance, to injustice and ultimately to terrorism. On that night, groups of gunmen and suicide bombers launched several simultaneous attacks, striking a concert hall, a sports stadium and many restaurants and bars. Not only did these attacks result in the death of 130 people, but the injury of hundreds of others, in the name of the Islamic State Militant Group, otherwise known as ISIS. In recognition of these tragic events, the hashtag PrayForParis was created. This hashtag addressed the desperate need for peace, the consequences of intolerance, extremism and terrorism. The uprising and the outrage that stemmed from the tragedy and that was so openly expressed through social media and other outlets, influenced the French government to take a stand against such actions. Consequently, the French President himself expressed that the attacks in Paris could only be considered “Acts of War”.
However, these Acts of War were not limited to France. On that same day, another trend was created for Southern Beirut, where two suicide bombings claimed forty lives and the injured two hundred civilians. Shockingly, this trend did not receive nearly as much of the attention Paris did. Blame it on the death toll, or just plain ignorance, but when it came time for the internet to address the issues from that day, Beirut was considerably pushed aside. Apart from the creation of the PrayForBeirut tag, there was not much sympathy for Lebanon. Ironically, this is due to media and the easily spread stereotypes surrounding the middle east, making it known to be a place where terrorism is common. In doing so, we are not acknowledging that terrorism affects the world. This is not an issue specific to Europe or to any country, there is an ongoing battle for peace throughout the world which can only be won together. Extremists cannot be deterred by ignorance, for that is the very thing that fuels them. It is time to use media to our advantage, to push society in the right direction, to promote justice and equality for any and everyone. The spread of awareness by the PrayFor- tags is only the beginning of a revolution.
devistating news, their was alot of debate on why people were supporting more the paris attacks than the ones in lebonon, well not supporting but talking and praying more and how the countries are sending help to france and not lebenon, like I get why and how canada and most countries are allies with them but we should care about the other attack too
ReplyDeleteThis was devastating but of course in the world we live in the white people were supposedly the biggest victims. It's sad that america and canada will show the terror going on in paris but hide us from the pains in Lebanon. It should not have been #prayforparis that hashtag was one of the most inconsiderate things of 2015. It is scary how much the media hides from us. Thank you for bringing up this topic. Really loved the blog!
ReplyDeleteYou are most definitely right Philip! In many cases the media failed to address the situation in Beirut, dismissing it as a common occurrence. There is no denying the severity of the attacks in Paris, but it is essential that we acknowledge that terrorism is not a problem specific to any country and that is poses a threat to mankind as a whole. Thank you for your comment!
ReplyDeleteThough I agree with your point of view in regards to the ignorance of the media, I must say that the Pray for Paris hashtag was justified, as a tragedy did take place there as well. I believe that the trouble is that much less attention was called to the terrorist attacks in Beirut, despite them being of the same nature. Thanks for commenting!
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