Terrorist attacks happen regularly but attacks on certain countries grab the headlines and the deaths in other countries pass the world by almost unnoticed, except by the families of the victims. This happened again this week.
Punjab
While the attention of the modern democracies is drawn to attacks Europe or the United States all too often the same attention is not given to other attacks in countries that have suffered many more deaths over recent years.
On Monday the attack on the Tekenologchesky Metro station in Saint #Petersburg immediately grabbed the world headlines in minutes as it made its way around the world.
The websites of the major news sources highlighted it immediately and told the world that 11 people had died in the attack and the televisions stations ran reports giving updates and developments, some true and others speculation.
A few days before a Terrorist Attack killed 20 people and this tragedy did not have the same impact on the world because it did not happen in Russia, the United States or a European country. This attack happened in a place of worship in a poor country by western standards.
Shrine
Two days ago in Pakistan terrorists attacked a Sufi shrine at Sargodha in the Punjab. The attackers tortured and killed 20 worshippers. While the major news outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian and Al-Jazeera reported the attack at the time it did not have the same resonance as yesterday’s attack in Russia.
Interestingly and as proof of the difference of treatment by some news sites, the right wing Breitbart News in the United States reported the attack a full day after the other news sources. Without doubt this delay did not occur with the Saint Petersburg attack on Monday.
Uncomfortable truth
The attack highlighted one aspect of the Islamist terrorism that many in the West seek to hide.
While some news sources and media personalities talk about a “genocide” of Christians in some Moslem countries, the Moslem victims of the fanatics far outnumber the Christians and other religions persecuted by ISIS, the Taliban and other terrorist groups.
The uncomfortable truth that “heretical” Moslems are victims of the fanatics does not coincide with the impression given by these commentators of the terrorist problems.
A search of the internet does not give news of a telephone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Pakistani President Manmoon Hussain to express American solidarity as happened with Vladimir Putin following the Saint Petersburg attack and undoubtedly the same can be said of the European reaction.
Fuel
This difference of perception and reaction is part of the problem in the growth of terrorist groups. In giving the impression that there are different classes of victims to terrorist attacks the modern Democracies fuel the fires of rebellion amongst those who fight for their rights against what they see as Western “imperialism” and interference in their lives.
The solution to terrorism is to consider all its victims as equal and not to react differently depending on the place of the attacks and the religion of the victims.
The war against terrorism will not be won until the superpowers understand that they are not fighting terrorists alone. They will win only when they take up the fight together with all the governments who have suffered tragedies such as that in the Punjab on the weekend, in Africa and all the world’s trouble spots.
The war against terrorism will certainly not be won while we still consider some victims as more important than others. Sadly that is exactly what happened this week and this situation cannot continue if we are serious in our intention to defeat the terrorists.
