Our selective regrets & selective protests

I was scanning Facebook the other day and stopped dead at a couple of links shared by my younger brother Barrister Zawad. One of the links he’d posted read “No one weeps”.

With my curiosity piqued I began reading what was one heart wrenching news report after the other. Seeking revenge on the Islamic States recent attacks in Nice, French air forces have launched an assault on Syria. A confirmed source describes that the attack was carried out on the city of Manbiz in Syria where more than a 100 men and women were killed. People, who were unsuspecting of the attack and simply innocent casualties, or collateral damage if you will. An unconfirmed source reported that the death toll was in fact over 300.

In a similar incident carried out on the city of Nineveh in Syria just a few days ago, French air forces this time managed to blow up a school into oblivion, killing all 36 children inside.

A small but gut-wrenching report of the attack can be found in The Washington post, who go on to describe the attack as follows,

“The airstrikes at dawn on Tuesday pulverized entire families, including young children — families that were fleeing Islamic State militants but were instead mistaken for being those very fighters. Depending on whom you ask, the number of bodies found in the rubble is 56, 85, 160 or 212. Pictures of the mangled bodies, covered in dust, are a testament to the carnage.”

Apart from Zawad I couldn’t find a single person even remotely concerned with this news. Perhaps they are as unaware of it as I was. The attacks in Dhaka, America, Paris and Brussels left us all in pain, some of us broken. These atrocities were condemned vehemently and a collective wave of hatred raged throughout the world. That being said women and children die every day in Syria, some we are aware of and some we are oblivious to.

We’ve of course witnessed the persecution of innocent lives before, in the city of Gaza. Claiming that Saddam Hussain was hiding WOMDs (weapons of mass destruction) in his backyard, America proceeded to making the entire country of Iraq into hell on earth. They formed coalitions with other states and uprooted the Iraqi government, they punished Saddam and allowed the Shia minority to assume control of Iraq.

So began the horrifying abuse and savagery over the Sunni Muslims representing the Iraqi Bath party and the Iraqi military. Slowly but surely several ranked officials of the Iraqi army, officers, soldiers all went underground.

And the same thing happened in Syria. The Bashar rebels attacked Asad from Rakka, under the covert influence of America, Britain and Israel. America was intent in stopping the oil trade between Asad and his allies in Russia and Iran as a result, they were happy to provide arms and rations to the Rakka rebels. And so consequently Asad ended up murdering thousands of people himself, many of whom were innocent children, men and women.

It was these rebels who decide to form the Islamic State one day. Their ranks were bolstered by the section of the Iraqi military which went underground, and of course all those violated and tortured Sunnis. And so began the Islamic States’s reign of terror.

For the past month or so I have scoured YouTube for videos,and screened hundreds of newspaper articles however insignificant they may be, in an attempt to wrap my head around this. A bit of time passed as I read the arguments made by all groups. While it may be insufficient, at least now I have still image of the whole scenario in my mind. Hundreds of professors hailing from America itself, army officers, commandos, and expert personnel have all openly claimed that the Islamic State is America’s creation. They’re the ones who procreated and then nurtured this black snake. They have committed such injustices throughout the Middle East. Afghanistan before all this, suffered similarly at their hands.

But these recent French air assaults on Syria which has almost inertly murdered scores of men women and children, are they justified? If so on what basis? How?

Did I ask even once “Do you mourn for Manbiz or Nineveh?”

No I didn’t.

Because I believe this sort of “selective” mourning, “selective” fear and “selectively” shedding tears is just another way to make a mockery of a situation which does not deserve it in the least. Perhaps it is out of the reach of us commoners to grasp the bigger picture here. But that does not mean we do not know or do not understand the resulting horrors and atrocities that we see as a consequence. No we understand them just fine, but we choose to ignore them anyway.

For today it is much simpler to go along with the slogans, “Being Muslim means being evil, Muslims are terrorists”. After all it is easier to blame the weather if your body itches, but rather difficult to understand that it may be something else entirely which is poking and probing you, causing your body to itch.

What’s lamentable is even though we can perceive what’s happening to us and why, as mentioned we choose to be ignorant. And why not? You go out there today and propose that Americans are terrorists, people will call you a communist or an IS supporter. Why should you or anyone who is smart enough take insults like that? Why at all? They could continue being selective about it, or if they really want to put on a show they shed a tear or two on social media, which will get them hundreds of comments, a million ‘likes’ not to mention a sizeable chunk of followers, which seems really important. That’s right, why should you come out of your comfort zone? Why should I in fact?

The 300 victims of Manbiz or Nineveh’s 36 may not occupy or photo albums or profile walls anytime soon. But I’d like to see the world mourn sometimes and bleed whenever something like this happens.

In fact, It is often essential to be sporadically fastidious and melancholy in order to live a happy and prosperous life