Monday 16 November 2015

Paris Attacks 13.11.2015

I had a whole post about the subjectivity of attractiveness planned for today, but I’m afraid that that’ll have to wait for another day as something in my gut told me I had to join a different discussion. That of global security against terror attacks. Attacks seen in various countries around the world, all occurring within 24 hours of each other.

On Saturday morning I woke up to a new message on a group chat, a friend asking one of my other friends if their family in France were okay. More specifically if they weren’t in Paris, and were safe. Now this confused me, and I stayed silent on the matter. Having just woken up from I dream in which I met J.K. Rowling, I was clueless about the events that had taken place the night previously. Living in the technological age that we do, I decided to type ‘Paris’ into the search on my phone and find out for myself what happened without asking my friends. 

The first word I saw on that search was ‘terrorist’.

I saw that word and I clicked off immediately. I did not want to know the rest of the story. It could only end badly.

So I continued my day as I had planned - a pile of homework to complete, various applications to fill out, revision to do. The usual. But it wasn’t until I was sat down, exhausted, tired and hungry - waiting for the Strictly results show to start, that I actually found out what had happened in Paris.

Me and my brother sat in silence watching the extensive news report. Everywhere in Paris seemed to have death and destruction plastered all over it. The report was so vivid that I found myself in tears by the end of it. I could not believe that just 8 people could achieve such a terrible death toll in mere hours. 

But then it wasn’t until I went on the Internet that I saw that Paris wasn’t the only place affected in the past day. I found that there had been earthquakes in Japan, a hurricane in Mexico and further terror attacks in Baghdad and Lebanon. The news and general media had only focussed on the tragedy that had taken place in the European city, and had ignored the rest of the deaths in other countries. Deaths that should be equally as important as the ones in Paris.

Maybe the point of this post was to make more people aware of the events that have happened in the east. But then again I wanted to spread the message that it is not Muslims who are carrying out these acts. These people are by no means a representation of the religion they claim to belong to. Islam is a religion that focusses on peace. 

One of my friends said something that really hit me and I think is easy enough for us all to remember: “Terrorism doesn’t equal Muslims and Muslims don’t equal terrorism”. That should really sum up that last paragraph in a sentence.

My thoughts are with anyone who has just suffered the loss of a loved one due to terrorism or a natural disaster, and anyone who has been injured by such.

Stay peaceful

Jemima x








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