Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Paris Attack Added into Muslims’ Miseries

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Paris Attack Added into Muslims’ Miseries

On January 7, three masked gunmen attacked and killed the editorial staff of a weekly satirical journal Charlie Hebdo in Paris which ridiculed Judaism, Catholicism and Islam. Following the incidence, they did not only leave behind 12 dead bodies, including that of the weekly’s chief editor and a number of elite cartoonists of France, but also a very worrisome state of affairs for three days. The rampage was claimed by renowned terrorist group of al-Qaeda and Islamic State extremist groups, followed by a chilling new threat from the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. AQAP top sharia official Harith al-Nadhari warned France to “stop your aggression against the Muslims” or face further attacks, in comments released by the site monitoring group.

It is unearthed that the reason behind the daylight massacre is said to be the publication of highly provocative cartoons published in the recent past, which had deeply offended Muslims. Whatever, the reason be, the carnage never justifies and deemed a legal course to avenge the sacrilegious cartoon. The deed exercised by extremists finds no validation; in fact contradicts Islamic interpretation. The extremist terror perpetrators deem they served sacred cause, earned a favor of Holy Prophet (PBUH) that paves their way to heaven and eases the lives of their fellow Muslims, which is only day dreaming.

The countless innocent civilians killed didn’t quench the thirst of these self claimed religious champions; Al-Qaida, ISIS and Taliban whose bloody tale of mass massacre, outpatient the humanists across the globe. The Muslim world should come to a conclusion to disown and alienate these evil practitioners, manipulating the sacred religion for personal gains, adding than deducing the miseries of Muslim. The six million Muslims living in France and elsewhere in Europe understandably dread a backlash and fear that the sense of Islamophobia, which is already very visible in their country would further deepen.

France is estimated to have 6 million Muslim populations, almost 10% of its 65 million people. Muslims the world over, especially those living in Europe and particularly in France are much less safer today than they were before last week’s brutal attacks in the name of faith, a faith that does not permit such acts.

The Paris attack earned a grand condemnation from around the world. Formerly, hundreds of thousands of people and dozens of world leaders marched together through Paris Sunday in a historic show of solidarity and defiance after terrorist attacks in the French capital. A sea of humanity flowed through Paris’ iconic streets, breaking into applause and spontaneous renditions of the national anthem. The mourners chanted, in honour of the cartoonists and journalists killed at Charlie Hebdo. Emotions ran high in the grieving City of Light, with many of those marching bursting into tears as they came together under the banner of freedom of speech and liberty after France’s worst terrorist bloodbath in more than half a century.

It was observed that reprehensible attack instigated other major Western publications to republish the same offensive cartoons that Charlie Hebdo had published, ostensibly in a bid to show solidarity with the magazine. One wonders whether this is the right way to show solidarity and condemn these attacks. Showing support for Charlie Hebdo does not mean that publications in Europe or America replicate the editorial judgments of the French magazine. Before these attacks, even those who believed in artistic license and liberal use of freedom of expression are said to have started feeling sickened by the sick ridiculing indulged in by this relic of the past, offending equally, Muslims, Jews and Christians and politicians of all colours and hues. Along with this unnecessary brutality, the likely backlash against the Muslim population of the West in response makes the perpetrators doubly guilty.

The rest of the West, too, is likely to experience the aftershocks. In the UK, the ultra-right UK Independence Party is likely to use the event as a more persuasive argument in its campaign against London’s current immigration policy, a campaign which the mainstream political parties are already finding increasingly difficult to oppose. In Sweden, the Democratic Party that promotes anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments and which in recent polls has been getting 15 per cent support is also expected to cash on the Paris massacre. Indeed, those who would suffer the most from this event would be the majority of the West’s Muslim population, most of which is made up of law-abiding, ordinary people who believe in the policy of live and let live and who do not subscribe to the distorted version of their faith that is being propagated by a handful of misguided extremists.

That is a nasty business involving large number of deportations, cancellation of French citizenship, and other threats that inevitably would affect many individuals with no direct connection to terrorism. In the short term it would lead to more radicalization. The effort would be costly, but ultimately it would succeed: most French Muslims simply want to stay in France and earn a living. To revive its credibility, the Muslims abroad should condemn terrorism and extremism on every forum and shouldn’t leave a vacuum to be infiltrated by hatemonger and political opportunities. It depicts that France or any other state could defeat the terrorists; all they require doing is to stand united against terrorists irrespective of cast, creed and religion.

Asmatyari is permanent writer of Daily outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at asmatyari@gmail.com

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