Kay Ayed sets out the actions we at home should take to stop this global madness.
On Friday evening the city of Paris came under attack. ISIS gunmen went on a killing spree before blowing themselves up, murdering 129 people and injuring nearly 200 more, 90 of them critically.
The Paris massacre was the climax of a week of mayhem caused by ISIS.
On Friday afternoon, attacks in Baghdad, including a suicide bombing at a funeral in a Shia mosque, killed at least 19 people and wounded 33.
On Thursday, ISIS committed double suicide bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in almost 50 deaths and wounding 250.
On Wednesday, seven people including a 9-year old girl were beheaded by ISIS in Afghanistan, causing thousands to protest in the streets of Kabul.
What are we here in East London to do in response to this week of terror across the world?
First and foremost, we must stop pointing fingers at one another. Accusing any one community and holding it solely responsible for these disasters is both illogical and unjust. There has to be a more efficient, tightly focused way of countering extremism.
Remember the old saying: kill the head and the body will die. Conversely, lashing out at the greater body of Muslims can only be counter-productive. Instead, if we recognise that there are extremists in every social group, we will also be able to see that such extremists are necessarily unrepresentative of the majority; and this applies to Muslims as much as anyone else.
Some will not think twice when ISIS claims to be a Muslim organisation; and from there it’s a short step to the assumption that ISIS is somehow representative of Islam. But they probably don’t know that in the past two years ISIS has slaughtered over 100,000 Muslims, i.e. Muslims, more than anyone else, have become victims at the hands of ISIS.
The second thing to do is to quit having double standards; rather, the same standards have to be applied to everyone.
All lives are important: the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world. When any innocent person becomes a victim of terror, regardless of faith, gender, nationality or race, we should stand with them. Just because they are from a country you don’t like, or a religion you don’t care about, does that mean their lives matter less? Ruhi Rizvi, an activist from Redbridge, puts it well: ‘for humanity to prosper, unity has to be its foundation.’
Thirdly, we should all vow to do everything we can to work against terror. Use your talents and abilities to counteract terrorism. If you have a strong social media presence and many followers, encourage speaking out and protesting against these acts of violence. If you are good at writing, write in support of the oppressed. If you prefer public speaking, use your voice to oppose ISIS and other terror groups.
Lastly, but by no means least, we must press our governments to take action. And by action, I don’t mean spying on a group of students, nor do I mean intervening in Syria or Iraq and dropping bombs on ISIS. It would be far more effective to withdraw from any alliance with terrorist-funding countries. In addition, those in positions of power must stop hate-mongering through mainstream media that tell us whose death to mourn and whose to ignore. We need media which promote unity against evil, rather than sowing division.
Remember: if we are divided, we are conquered. If we don’t manage to take the steps mentioned above, terrorism will easily infest our society.
The end is by no means nigh, but unless we take action, it is already a blur on the horizon.