The Islamic State
(IS), also known as the ISIS and ISIL, has taken responsibility for the horrendous
terrorist attacks on Paris that murdered 129 innocent people and injured hundreds
more. The criminal act has been rightly condemned by world’s leader, ranging
from President Obama and British Prime Minister
David Cameron, to President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and even Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese
Hezbollah. The attacks have rightly outraged ordinary people everywhere. There
is a feeling of solidarity with the people of France everywhere, and there should
be. But, the solidarity and sympathy appear to be selective.
The day before
the Paris attacks, the IS took responsibility
for carrying out another horrendous terrorist bombing, this time in the Shiite
neighborhood of Beirut that killed at least 43 people and wounded hundreds.
The day before
the Beirut attacks suicide bombing by the IS killed at least 26 people
in Baghdad. From August through November the IS carried out a series of other
terrorist attacks in Baghdad. The August attacks murdered killed at least 80 people;
The September attacks killed at least 13 people, while the October
bombing took the lives of at least 24 innocent
people.
Thus, 143 Iraqis have lost their lives at the hands of the IS over the past
three months.
What has been
the world’s, and in particular’ the West’s reaction to the carnage in Beirut
and Baghdad? Nothing; no sympathy with the Lebanese and Iraqi people was expressed.
No message of solidarity was sent, and no demonstrations or gatherings took
place outside Lebanon’s and Iraq’s diplomatic missions anywhere in the Western
world. The world was silent, as it has been about similar terrorist attacks
over the past few months have killed a large number of innocent Muslims around
the world.