#rawalpindi
On January 7th 2015, three gunmen entered the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, and opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring 11 more. The assailants targeted the magazine, particularly its cartoonists, as retribution for cartoons and artwork that they deemed offensive to Islam. Entering the office, they identified their targets and unleashed a barrage of bullets.
The subsequent public reaction to the attack has been of understandable horror. As expected, right wing news outlets relied on the simplistic narrative of Islam as a religion of terror. Social media quickly erupted to denounce the attacks; #JeSuisCharlie became a trending topic on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.
The sentiments behind this hashtag are noble and reasonable, as lives were taken and freedom of speech was assaulted. Journalists, actors, government officials, and religious leaders the world over have shown solidarity.
French President Francois Hollande described the attack as one “of exceptional barbarity,”while the US President called the attacks “cowardly” and “evil.”
But I cannot #JeSuisCharlie. Not because I don’t condemn the ghastly murders. I do. Not because I don’t believe in freedom of speech. I believe it is the bedrock of a truly free and civil society. I cannot for other, larger, reasons.
I cannot #JeSuisCharlie because attacks of this nature are not commonplace in the West, yet they have been part of a dark and ugly reality in much of what we broadly call the Muslim world for years.
Where is our hashtag for that?
In Pakistan alone, over a thousand civilians are killed by terrorism every year. The numbers have almost steadily escalated every year since the so-called War on Terror began, with about 140 fatalities in 2003 and almost 1800 in 2014. In 2013, an especially brutal year, the number of civilian fatalities was around 3000. But the terror doesn’t come from Al-Qaeda and like groups only. A lot of it comes from us.
(table from Institute For Conflict Management)
Where is our hashtag when the United States blows up a wedding convoy or a 16-year-old American-born teenager in Yemen? When it launches a missile into Momina Bibi, a 67-year-old Pakistani grandmother going about her gardening? They stood for something greater than freedom of expression: the freedom to exist.
I cannot #JeSuisCharlie, because we’ve always mourned the deaths of Europeans and Americans. We’ve purported to launch wars for them. But if we value lives, then where is our indignation for deaths in the Muslim world?
Statistically speaking, a terror attack will kill a few Pakistanis this week. A drone strike is likely to kill a civilian in Pakistan, Yemen, or Somalia soon.
Where are their hashtags?
Aamir Liaquat with his 3rd wife♀️
This is the representation from Azaad Pakistan which visited the GHQ to meet the Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Shareef.
It was a sheer privilege visiting GHQ and seeing the level of interest from the Army Chief. We were welcomed warmly and we discussed with the chief how the campaign was run, how we managed to collect 6500+ letters and how we can work with army in the future.
We’re highly thankful to chief for his amazing gesture. Thankyou for all those who played a part in this campaign surely it was your support which made it all possible.
Today we officially wrap #RangLayeGaLahu
From left to right: (Ghalib, Sajeel, Urooba, Mahnoor, Amna, Zahra, Mehr, Haris, Haris)
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