• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Africa Horn Now

"We don't take sides; we help you see more sides."

Africa Horn Now

ካብ ውሽጢ ቤት ማእሰርታት ኤርትራ

Published: May 6, 2021

PBS: Escaping Eritrea … [Read More...] about ካብ ውሽጢ ቤት ማእሰርታት ኤርትራ

Downing Street raises the Belgian flag and we tweet for Brussels – but where was this sympathy after Ankara?

March 23, 2016 By Africa Horn Now

Yasmin Ahmed | 22 March 2016 | The Independent

Our indifference is fuelling terrorist organisations like Isis

Yet again Europe has been shaken by the impact of a terrorist attack – and, once again, it has responded in a way that we have come to see as tragically routine.

metro-explosion-brussels-26
Belgian police and emergency personnel work near the Maalbeek metro station following an explosion in Brussels Reuters

On social media we have Facebook safety check-ins, Twitter hashtags and sharable cartoons. In real life the Belgian flag will be hoist or projected over the national monuments of neighbouring European countries. The responses have taken on the morbid ritual of a funeral. And arguably, they are important to help us process the inexplicable horror and to give us some tools with which to communicate defiance in the face of terror.

The Mayor of Paris has tweeted that the Eiffel Tower will be illuminated in the colours of the Belgian Flag, Downing Street has raised the Belgian flag and the BBC reported that the word ‘Brussels’ in various languages dominated Twitter’s list of top worldwide trends.

However, there is unease as we share the cartoon by Plantu showing France expressing solidarity with Belgium. Where was our cartoon for those who have died in Turkey at the hands of terrorists? Why didn’t Downing Street raise the Turkish flag after the atrocities in Ankara?

Last week three died and 36 were injured; in February 28 died and 60 were left injured; in January two attacks left 18 dead and 53 injured. In 2015 a swathe of attacks left a gasping 141 dead and 910 injured.

The weight of a terror attack shouldn’t be measured in terms of the numbers hurt and killed. Each life taken to prove a political point is an outrage. But the figures stand. There were so many more lives lost in Turkey, while Europe remained mute.

There seems to be limits to our solidarity and these boundaries look uncomfortably like the map of western Europe. Turkey remains just outside of our realm of care, not close enough in proximity to afford our grief.

Turkey is somewhere exotic, somewhere we holiday, but not somewhere we need to understand or lavish with our sympathy.

The motivations behind the attacks in Turkey are different to those behind the Brussels bombings. Some are carried out in the name of a century-long Kurdish independence movement against the Turkish state; some are carried out by the same Islamic fundamentalists  – Isis – who carried out the Brussels attacks. But their tactics are the same: terror. And so should be our collective response: sympathy and solidarity.

Our indifference and our casual suspicion of Islam is fuelling terrorist organisations like Isis. As a Muslim and a survivor of terrorism, Malala Yousafzai recently spoke out against the problem of dividing victims of terrorism in the East and West: “If your intention is to stop terrorism, do not try to blame the whole population of Muslims for it, because [that] cannot stop terrorism.”

We should heed her final warning: “It will radicalise more terrorists.”

Filed Under: AHN NEWS

Primary Sidebar

A New Administration Won’t Heal American Democracy

Published: November 6, 2020

The Rot in U.S. Political Institutions Runs Deeper Than Donald Trump Larry Diamond | November 5, 2020 | Foreign … [Read More...] about A New Administration Won’t Heal American Democracy

Archives

  • May 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • June 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014

Log In

Copyright © 2025 Africa Horn Now · WordPress · Log in