The international solidarity with France following the recent terror attacks in Paris, which culminated in the January 11, 2015 mass march attended by many Western and Arab leaders, sparked outrage among many Arab writers, especially Syrians, who saw it as an additional expression of Western hypocrisy and double standards. The writers protested against the West's dismissal of Middle Eastern and African lives, and its hypocrisy as expressed in its harsh condemnation of the murder of 17 Europeans in Paris but its failure to note the murder of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Arabs and Africans by terrorist organizations and by regimes - regimes which, the writers say, the West supports. The writers also criticized Arab leaders who rushed to Paris to show solidarity with the Western victims, but do not do likewise for terror victims in their own countries.
The following is a review of these claims:
Arab Writers: The World Considers Western Blood More Valuable Than Middle Eastern And African Blood
Muhammad 'Abd Al-Hadi 'Allam, editor of the official Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, claimed that the world was outraged at a handful of deaths in Paris but remains indifferent to the hundreds of thousands of dead in the Middle East and the spilling of Arab blood. He wrote:
"...Leaders from 50 countries convened in Paris, and millions of people in France and around the world took to the streets, to condemn two attacks carried out by three men, which left 14 [sic] dead. This comes at a time when the ever-alert conscience of the West remained unmoved by the hundreds who go under the guillotine of death in the Middle East, the Near East, and Nigeria, where several days ago Boko Haram killed 2,000 in a horrid massacre that failed to spark the same global outrage as the Paris events... The spilling of Egyptian blood in our streets did not constitute a justification for them to reexamine their positions. The spilling of blood in Syria, Libya, and Iraq - the result of the West's funding and arming of bloodthirsty extremists in the region - did not make a big enough impression on the West for its leaders to walk hand in hand in order to stop the bloodshed..."[1]
Right: "The enraged world condemns the
crime against Charlie Hebdo."
Left: "But is silent in the face of mass extermination in Iraq, Syria, and
Palestine." (Al-Ghad, Jordan, January 19, 2015)
Similar statements were made by Algerian journalist Tawfiq Rabahi in the London-based Qatari daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. He wrote that between the announcement of the Paris march and the event itself, "dozens of innocents [in the Middle East and Africa] were victims of terrorism that is no less horrible than the terrorism that struck Paris... Some 20 people died in a suicide bombing in eastern Nigeria... carried out by a 10-year-old girl; dozens of Lebanese were killed in a suicide bombing at a caf├® in Tripoli in the north of the country, and so many have been killed in Syria and Iraq that humanity can no longer count them. Others, including children, died in refugee camps in the cold wave...
"Although these events were worthy of media interest... the world heard nothing about their victims, who were again pushed aside because of the Paris events. There were no tear-jerking articles, statements, or condemnations, no mass marches attended by thousands and millions - only brief news items that received modest attention... simply because they weren't Westerners. No one eulogized them or stopped to weep for them. But in Paris, time stood still when dozens of leaders and heads of state arrived to show [their] blatant hypocrisy..."[2]
"The leaders participating in the march
of solidarity with Charlie Hebdo" stand atop the skulls of victims in
Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Mali, and Algeria (Secretsnews.com, January 19, 2015)
Criticism Of Arab World's Indifference To Terrorism On Its Own Soil
Several writers also criticized Arab leaders who rushed to express solidarity with French citizens but do not do the same for Arab and Muslims citizens who are killed every day. They also criticized Arab society, which has grown accustomed and indifferent to Arab deaths.
Jordanian political analyst Dr. Anis Al-Khasawneh slammed Arab leaders who attended the Paris rally but do nothing for Muslims being killed throughout the Middle East and in Africa: "The revolting thing at the Paris antiterrorism march was the open hypocrisy of leaders of Western countries and of Arab leaders and their positions, which are not merely shameful but also involve collaboration with terrorism against Muslims in Central Africa, Burma, Gaza, and Egypt, and against other tormented peoples...
"Most shocking is the positions of Arab leaders who wept for the victims of the Paris attack, even though terrible things have happened, and do happen, in their countries, without their showing solidarity with their own peoples. We would hope that Arab leaders who attended the Paris march would lead protests and rallies in support of the people of Gaza and their dead and wounded... We express solidarity with the victims of terrorism in Paris and feel sympathy for them - but we must first express solidarity with ourselves and our own victims, or, at the very least, stop allying with leaders who spill Muslim and Arab blood in Egypt, the Zionist entity, and African nations that kill Muslims because they are Muslims..."[3]
World
says "I am Charlie"; Palestine refugee says: "#and I have been
Charlie for 67 years!!" (Al-Arabi
Al-Jadid, London, January 12, 2015)
Al-Ahram columnist Hassan Abu Taleb claimed that while the deaths of citizens in Paris triggered an impressive international show of solidarity with the French people, the deaths of citizens in Arab countries has become routine, and is received with indifference by Arabs themselves. He wrote: "Choose where to start - in Paris, where the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the subsequent [events] took place, in which 17 French citizens were killed; outside the police academy in Sana'a, where 120 people were slaughtered or wounded; in Lebanon, particularly the Jabal Mohsen [neighborhood] in Tripoli, where 12 were killed in a double suicide bombing; or in Sinai, Iraq, or Syria. The locations are different... [but] the essence in the same - terrorism, extremism, violence, killing, and victims - but the responses vary according to location and citizenship. In Paris there was a mass march attended by representatives from European countries and the U.S., which was a strong display of solidarity with the French people against the terrorism that afflicted it. But in Yemen, Lebanon, or Libya, people die as if it were a natural occurrence. We have grown so used to terrorist events that the response, on both the popular and official levels, has become cold and indifferent... This indifference means that we are not treating our sons and our citizens properly. We are not valuing ourselves.
Arab leaders rush to Paris to offer
condolences for the "Charlie Hebdo dead", ignoring the "martyrs
of Palestine, Syria and Iraq" (Aljazeera.net, January 15, 2015)
Syrian Writers: World Has Ignored Syrian Regime Terrorism For Four Years
Syria was cited by many writers as an illustration of the difference between international reactions to terrorism in Paris and in Arab countries. They said that even though over 200,000 have been killed there since the civil war broke out some four years ago, there has thus far been no decisive and furious international reaction like that following the Paris attacks.
Dima Wannous, a Syrian 'Alawi writer who fled to Lebanon because of the war, spoke out against the international disregard for the victims of the Syria conflict, made all the more obvious by the international outrage and solidarity following the Charlie Hebdo attack. Wannous noted that she would not identify with "I am Charlie" as long as the world did not recognize her as a victim of the Syrian regime's terrorism and would not allow her to live without the constant threat of death.
She wrote: "'I am not Charlie.' I am a Syrian living in Beirut along with other Syrians, most of whom are displaced and fleeing the death and destruction [in Syria]. A few days ago, some of them died under the same skies as the Americans, French, Russians, Iranians, Palestinians, Iraqis, and Somalis. Some had the blood freeze in their veins, as their little lungs could no longer breathe the frigid air of a wind-ripped tent buried in snow and swept by floods, on the same earth that supports the many leaders who protested in Paris a few days ago...
"For four years, [these leaders] were silent, content to watch me as I am tortured, as my throat is slit, as my fingernails are torn out, as my skin adheres to my bones from starvation, and as my face turns green as I asphyxiate in chemical attacks. Secure in their palaces, they observe my suffering on television and read about it in the newspapers. They watched, remained silent, and did nothing besides express concern and sorrow. Perhaps my hunger alarmed them. Perhaps they shed a tear or two. But they did not come together one single time like they came together because of terrorism a few days ago in Paris.
Dima
Wannous (image: Orient-news.net, January 15, 2015)
"'I am not Charlie.' But I am against terrorism everywhere. I am a Syrian who changed her Facebook profile picture to one of Charlie, and, several days later, to one of Saudi activist Raif Badawi, sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison on charges of 'harming Islam.' Before that, I changed my picture to one of Santa Claus arrested in Amman [Jordan] for 'proselytizing,' and [before that] to one of Iranian activists arbitrarily sentenced to death... Yes, I am a Syrian who finds time to follow news on violence and human rights violations worldwide. But not many find the time to show solidarity with me...
"What exonerates the Syrian regime of the charge of terrorism? What makes the killing of 12 [in Paris] worse than the killing and execution of over 200,000 Syrians over the past four years? What impact did the photos of 50,000 tortured corpses in Syrian regime prisons published by CNN and The Guardian have? Is such torture not considered terrorism, or is it the identity of the tortured that determines whether it is terrorism or merely a mildly worrisome human rights violation? Had the Syrian regime used even some of these methods of torture against foreign journalists, would the West have reacted the same?
"'I am Charlie' only if you truly let me be - when you recognize me as a victim of the terrorism of a criminal regime that bombs me, destroys my home, tortures me, and amputates my limbs... 'I am Charlie' only if you grant me my right to live honorably and express myself freely without being targeted by terrorists, without being bombed by a jet, or starved to death..."[4]
In a similar vein, Yahya Al-Halabi, a columnist for the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood website, wrote: "...French journalists and two policemen were killed, and we mourn them as we mourned those who died on 9/11. We are sorry for everyone, yes, every single person, [killed] in any country. But is the world sorry that we are killed? Does it weep for our dead?!...
"Before the French journalists were murdered, journalist organizations stated that in 2014, over 60 journalists had been killed in Syria alone!! Did anyone protest?! Before the Frenchmen were killed, over half the Syrian people had been martyred, wounded, missing, or made refugees!! And the entire world was blind, deaf and dumb.
"Before the Frenchmen were killed, the world could have prevented their deaths by eliminating the source of evil and terrorism..."[5]
Right: The world in "a moment of silence"
for the Paris events. Left: The world remains "silent for four years at
the bloodshed" in Syria (Al-Watan,
Saudi Arabia, January 11, 2015)
Dr. Faisal Al-Qassem, host of The Opposite Direction on Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV, who is of Syrian origin, also criticized the discrepancy in the international community's reactions to the attacks in Paris versus its reactions to the Syrian regime's terrorism against its own people. On his Twitter account (@kasimf), he called on the Arabs to learn from France how to respond to the deaths of citizens, tweeting on January 11, 2015: "One million protested in Paris for 12 [victims], while one million Syrians are the victims of Assad's terrorism in Syria. And the world is indifferent. An ignominious world."
On January 9, he tweeted: "The [UN] Security Council held a moment of silence for the 12 Frenchmen, while it has remained silent for four years over the Syrian holocaust that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives."
Calling on the Arabs to learn from the West's response to attacks in its territory, he tweeted on January 11: "Do not condemn countries that honor their peoples, like France turned the entire world on its head for 12 [victims]. Let us learn from them how to respect people, instead of feeding them to fish."
Saudi Daily: The World Should Provide Military Support To The Syrian Opposition
The Saudi daily Al-Madina implied that the terrorism in Paris was equal to that in Syria, and called on the West not to merely express sympathy for the Syrian people, which is being slaughtered by its own regime, but instead to arm the moderate opposition well enough so that it could bring down the regime:
"...We are absolutely opposed to the murder of 12 people in France. No one with a shred of human decency can accept the spilling of innocent blood. We also oppose the fact that Syrian blood has been spilled for nearly four years, yet the superpowers have not sent aid but have merely followed events and provided ineffective weaponry to the opposition facing [Syrian President Bashar Al-]Assad's air force and explosive barrels...
"If the killing of 12 Frenchmen saddens the Muslims and evokes their sympathy, then there should be many in the West showing solidarity with the tragedy of the fellow Syrian people in light of the killing of more than 200,000 of them by the criminal Assad regime, the ISIS terrorists, and others.
"But sympathy alone is not enough. The countries of the world must provide real and substantial military aid to the moderate opposition forces, so that they can win the war and defend their people from the criminal regime, and also defend all the peoples of the world from the benighted terrorism that knows no borders and spreads like a deadly disease."[6]
Endnotes:
