Stop calling people imperialist Islamophobes for mourning terrorist attacks on their doorstep more than elsewhere

Showing support for the victims of the Nice attack is not synonymous with supporting French foreign policy. It is synonymous with supporting the victims of the Ramadan attacks in Baghdad, Medina and Dhaka. They were all killed by the same terrorist ideology

(EPA)

The terrorist atrocity in Nice has already generated the now regular tweets along the lines: you care about France, but where were you for Syria or Bangladesh?, or: Why are you silent on Somalia, Kashmir and Gaza? Those putting a French flag on their Facebook page or Twitter are characterised as imperialist apologists or Uncle Toms who wouldn’t even know the colours of the Iraqi flag.

The inference is that westerners grieve the loss of life on their doorstep, whether it’s Brussels or Paris or Nice, but are indifferent to the carnage wrought in Dhaka or Baghdad. Worse, they are engaging in an Islamophobic narrative that ignores the foreign policy of countries like France and the UK.

Those tweeting these kinds of sentiments tend to be a mixture of Islamist sympathisers and liberal-minded folk. But they are deliberately or unintentionally missing the key point – all the victims of these various attacks from Dhaka to Nice have been killed by people following the same basic ideology. Whether it’s a child mown down by a truck in Nice or a shopper blown up in Baghdad, their killers subscribed to a very similar world outlook.

The terrorist ideology and tactical implementation has gone global. The response from those who oppose terrorist outrages must be similarly globalised through social media, mainstream TV and press and community intervention. Showing support for the victims of the Nice attack is not synonymous with supporting French foreign policy. It is synonymous with supporting the victims of the Ramadan attacks in Baghdad, Medina and Dhaka. It is synonymous with supporting those victims of human rights crimes and atrocities in Gaza and Kashmir.

Islamists on social media are guilty of a certain calculated cynicism when they try and emotionally blackmail people into not putting up French or Belgian flags on their pages. They play on a sense of guilt that maybe, somehow, we are to blame for these terrorist outrages. The fact is, of course, that we’re not. This brutality is born of an ideology that should be abhorrent to people across the globe as it takes lives from Mali to Indonesia; Iraq to Belgium. Supporters of Islamist ideologues are conditioned to feel they are right in celebrating and encouraging such heinous acts against humanity, and in doing so will be rewarded. It is this very warped misconception that has gnawed through the very core of compassion and mercy which is emphasised throughout Islamic teachings. They ignore the teaching of the Qur’an, which clearly states: "And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell to abide eternally therein, and the Wrath and the Curse of Allah are upon him, and a great punishment is prepared for him." (An-Nisa [The Women]: 93).

According to Qur’anic exegesis, the “believer” is construed to be any person who is righteous in their deeds, who lives not to harm others, and upholds humanity, compassion and mercy, values which these barbaric monsters have destroyed in themselves.

This is not a “blowback” or revenge for the killing of Muslims in the Middle East. It is a cynical strategy to drive a wedge between Muslims and the rest of the population. Nobody should feel conflicted about putting a French or German flag on their social media page this week. Because we are all united across the world in defence of every life taken by terrorism, wherever they strike. This is a show of global humanity, compassion and strength. Let us all unite against terror in every possible way.