Weeks after the Brussels attack, the world still mourns those who have lost their life. We saw a similar tragedy in January, with the Paris attack; lights were shining, hashtags were created and people changed their facebook profile page to the colours of the French flag. Just days before Brussels, there was an attack in Istanbul, killing four people and leaving several others injured. However, there were no hashtags, no “PrayforTurkey” or cities lighting up with the Turkish flag.  

Only a week before the Brussels attack, two ISIS operatives committed suicide bombings in a crowded marketplace in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Beirut. The attack killed 44 people and injured more than 200, making it the worst terrorist attack the city has ever seen. Although the terrorist group behind this attack was also responsible for Paris and Brussels, Beirut did not receive the same sympathy as their western counterparts. After the blast went off in Beirut, there was no “Safety check” on facebook for Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese people living in Bourj al-Barajneh.

The attack that occurred on March 22, 2016  was horrific due to the people that lost their lives, but what about the thousands of people in the Middle East and Africa that are also killed by ISIS?

Middle Easterners and Africans are suffering losses by the thousands due to the terrorism in their countries, but they receive no sympathy from the rest of the world. In fact, not only do western countries have no sympathy for these attacks, but they also demonize and actively prevent refugees, who are fleeing from ISIS terror, from seeking asylum within their borders. Yet when Europeans face the same violence, they expect the world to stop and collectively mourn.

This article has been focused solely on the crimes of ISIS, but the bloodshed the world witnessed in Belgium on Tuesday, March 22, 2016  is what people in Yemen experience every day. So why do we not mourn with the people of Yemen? Kathy Laughlin, SSFS upper school history department head, states that “the reason for these attacks is due to the fact that we are white and fundamentally racist, since Europeans are white, we see more of ourselves in them than in Africa or the Middle East.”

The silence in response to the killing of non-western people roars so loudly that it is truly deafening and terrifying. This is not only about Paris and Brussels. It is also about the borders that are rapidly closing for refugees, it is about the daily bombing that goes on in non-western countries.  To put it bluntly, these people are double the victim. They not only suffer from being displaced and killed, but also from the silence that surrounds their circumstances.  This is an unfortunate product of their lowly place in the global pecking order.

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/23/the_obscene_moral_hypocrisy_of_brussels_why_are_terror_attacks_against_citizens_in_the_middle_east_ignored/