OPINION: Tragedy Strikes in Beirut
Christian Segers, Staff Writer
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Tragedy struck in Beirut, Lebanon on Thursday, Nov. 12, as twin suicide bombers detonated their weapons of terror in the downtown sector of the European nation’s capitol city.
Recent numbers from CNN list more than 43 innocent civilians that were brutally murdered in the wake of the Thursday bombings. Seven out of the nine current suspects are of a Syrian background, (supporting speculation that ISIS was behind the attack) while only two men detained were of Lebanese origin.
Unfortunately, the events of last week were not to be the last in a string of airplane and ground bombings, most notably, the attacks in Paris that followed suit only a short day later. However devastating the aftermath of Paris’ attack, it is intriguing to note how quickly the people of Beirut and Lebanon as a whole, were forgotten.
An overwhelming outpouring of support has since ensued from both eastern and western cultures for the people of France, yet who is rushing to the aide and defense of Lebanon, as they too are struggling to overcome the wake of their capital city’s suicide bombings.
Perhaps the best answer is given in Bobby Ghosh’s recent article for Quartz, on why Beirut has been so easily overlooked.
Ghosh said, “Many feel that the wider world—and not just politicians or the media—values Muslim lives less than others. One sign of this, it has been suggested, is that millions of people put variations of the French tricolor on their social-media avatars, whereas the cedar of the Lebanese flag was nowhere to be seen. By those measures, it is arguable that the world cares more for Paris than it does for Beirut. It’s not enough to argue that the City of Light has received more international attention and sympathy because the attacks there were so rare and unexpected, whereas Beirut is a place where such violence is the norm.”
Let’s face it, since the world virtually expects there to be unrest and violence in Islamic states, many people cease to care about occurrences they wrongly believe to be everyday events, despite the scale of the incident. But to those of us that believe all men (and women) are created equal no matter their social or ethnical standing, it is imperative that we rally to their banner just as fast as to the banner of our allies (France).
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