The horror that struck Paris last Friday, and the ensuing speculations
Last Friday, barbarians wrecked havoc on innocent human beings in the city of fragrance and fashion. Everyone in the world expressed solidarity with the victims in their own way. Inhabitants of Paris showered flowers on places where blood was spilled. People from faraway countries lit candles and prayed for the deceased and injured.
In the middle of all this, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, came up with such an idea that enabled the global community to support France in this time of pain and chaos with a single click. He gave users an option to apply colours of France’s national flag on their profile pictures. People across the globe overwhelmingly liked the idea and put France’s tricolor on their display pictures. Many Pakistanis, perceiving themselves also as a part of the international community, did the same. But they were wrong. Several sections of society made them realize, that they belonged to people who still love to lament and learn nothing from history.
One of my friends argued in anger that when more than 130 children were slaughtered in Army Public School last year by the Taliban, why didn’t you apply the colors of Pakistani flag on your picture. I was shocked by this logic. I tried to explain that I raised my voice against Taliban and their apologists then and also expressed my grief on Facebook through the then available options. My friend gave me a victorious smile and said, “Why didn’t Facebook introduce a green and white coloured filter for DPs to share the grief of Pakistanis then?”
“International community did support Pakistan at that time of misery. Statesmen, intellectuals, artists and other prominent figures belonging to different countries and religions felt our pain in their hearts and expressed it timely,” I argued. “I, like many other Pakistanis mourn the killing of innocents regardless of their nationality, community and religion,” I added.
“But western countries keep silent when Palestinian, Kashmiri and Muslims of Myanmar are brutally killed by the acts of state terrorism,” my friend made a point. “That’s exactly what the “Muslim Ummah” do, my dear, why do you forget to mention it,?” this time I asked him a question and he did not give me any other response other than saying, Jews and Christians could never be our friends and Facebook had proved it by discriminating between Western and Muslim losses.
Had Muslims invented Facebook, there would not be such bias, but it required knowledge, education, futuristic approach and hard work, all the traits that we “The Muslims” lack in, I replied to his face. “Muslims are the victims of conspiracies hatched by Jews and present attacks in Paris were also an inside job by European agencies so that Europe could close its borders on Syrian refugees,” my friend said with all his collective wisdom.
I became silent with a heavy sigh. His understanding of the situation was a classic case of a paranoid and barren mentality that widely prevails in our society and perhaps has become totally incapable of grasping any logic.