ignorance is not bliss

On Saturday morning I woke up to my Facebook feed overrun with statuses and articles about the terror attacks in Paris on Friday night. I had seen no similar outpouring the day earlier in response to the terror attacks in Beirut on Thursday night so I posted a status saying

“If you’re #prayingforparis, then you should be #prayingforbeirut too as there was a terror attack there on Thursday killing 43 people. Just in case the Australian media hasn’t informed you”.

Mostly I got support. Many people did not know about the attacks in Beirut and some even thanked me for sharing that information. Some people choose to attack me instead, which didn’t offend me, each person that choose to see negativity in my post responded in a way that showed me they knew nothing about Beirut and terrorism. I can’t be offended by ignorant people. For those that that wish to actually understand my post please continue reading.

On Thursday 12 November 2015, two suicide bombers killed 44 people and wounded more than 200 in Beirut. The attacks took place in Bourj al-Barajneh, a district of southern Beirut, striking a Shiite community centre and a nearby bakery in the commercial and residential area, nearby a closely guarded Hezbollah-run hospital. Hezbollah, a Shi'a Islamist militant group and political party based in Lebanon, have sent hundreds of fighters to Syria to support Syrian forces against Islamic State. These are the worst attacks since the end of the civil war in Lebanon in 1990.

The attacks were in response to Hezbollah’s involvement in fighting Islamic State, just as the Paris attacks were in response to France’s involvement in fighting Islamic State. Lebanon is a country in the Middle East, but is not a country in a war zone. Beirut is one of the most beautiful, vibrant, amazing and liberal cities I have ever been too. It is one of my favourite cities in the world, along with Paris, Istanbul, Rome, New York and Hong Kong. There was an argument it didn’t get the coverage it deserved on the mainstream media in Australia because many people have been to Paris, but not many would have been to Beirut. I understand that Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world, and Australians do love to travel through Europe. But if the terror attack was in Washington or Toronto it would have got the same coverage and not as many Australians would have been there. The Beirut attacks did not get the same coverage on mainstream media because it is a city in the Middle East and the media like to frame the battle with Islamic State as just being against the “West” and “Western values”. It is not. Beirut and Paris were attacked for the same reason – due to their involvement in fighting Islamic State in Syria. Lives were lost to terror attacks in both cities, all those lives matter.

While many in Australia and the rest of the Western world like to claim that terrorism is the greatest threat to ‘the West’ and that these are Islamic terrorists on a religious crusade against the values and lifestyle of ‘the West’ have missed the facts. In 2013, of the five countries with the highest amount of deaths from terrorism[1](over 80 per cent of all attacks), none of those were in ‘the West’. Actually a Western country didn’t even make the top 10; all Western states deaths were included in the 10 per cent “Rest of the World” category. Even within Western countries the statistics don’t add up to these claims, in the United States between 1970 and 2012 only around 2.5 per cent of all terrorist attacks were carried out by Muslims. The rest of the attacks might not get the coverage on the media, but it doesn’t mean that don’t happen. Jewish extremists in the United States committed twice the amount of terror attacks as Islamic extremists. Groups motivated by ethnonational or separatist agendas, those motivated by single social issues (such as animal rights), and religious beliefs (for example, anti-abortion) were responsible for most terror attacks in the United States between 1970 and 2012. 

Muslims are actually the largest category of victims of terror attacks worldwide. The condemnation of Islam and Muslims after specific terror attacks occur only adds to the ‘us’ (the West) versus ‘them’ (Muslims) mentality that alienates people and is one of the greatest drivers of individuals to terrorism. The leader of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah has denounced the 'barbaric' ISIS attacks as did the French President Francois Hollande. The Lebanese people were victims of terror attacks for exactly the same reason as the French. If the mainstream media wishes to cover stories they should do so with the responsibility of treating all people with respect.

I was completely justified in noting the Australian media may not have informed the Australian public of the Beirut terror attacks. It did not hit the headlines as the Paris attacks did except for maybe on ABC. But then again some of those that had a go at me for calling out the Australian media also didn’t know that Christians committed terrorist attacks at all. There is nothing more ignorant than rejecting something you know nothing about. If you are not willing to be educated on an issue, then you should realise your opinions are simply just that, as Martin Luther King Jnr one said “nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”. For those that don’t understand terrorism, other countries and people in the world, treating your opinion as fact is more dangerous than you realise. Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

[1] Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria