In Brussels, people stay calm


March 23, 2016
Sarah Benton

Articles from 1) Al Jazeera, 2) JPost and 3), from six months ago, Mint News


Vigil in Place de la Bourse, Brussels, March 22, 2016. Photo by Carl Court via Getty Images

#BrusselsAttacks: Grief, Islam and double standards

Solidarity, debate over Islam’s future in the West and anger at politicisation dominate social media after bombings.

Al Jazeera Staff
March 23, 2016

The deadly bomb attacks on the Belgian capital claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group have prompted a huge and varied reaction on social media.

Hashtags referring to the attacks trended worldwide on Twitter, picking up millions of mentions and reaching tens of millions more users.

On Facebook users changed their display pictures to ones featuring the Belgian flag in solidarity with victims of the bombings.

Initial posts focused on the explosions at Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station, with those at the scene tweeting footage of the aftermath of the attacks.

Later reactions were varied with most expressing their horror at the killings but some using the attacks to support their political views and debate the issue of Islam in Western countries.

Brussels hashtags trended around the world after the attacks [Al Jazeera]

In the UK -where there is an upcoming referendum on the country’s continued membership of the EU – there was an angry reaction when Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson referred to Brussels as the “Jihadist capital of Europe”, adding the UK was safer out of the Union.

Allison Pearson ‎@allisonpearson

Brussels, de facto capital of the EU, is also the jihadist capital of Europe. And the Remainers dare to say we’re safer in the EU! #Brexit

Elizabeth Ammon ✔ ‎@legsidelizzy
@allisonpearson you’re going to make this about brexit?? Really? How classy of you
7:53 AM – 22 Mar 2016

Most Twitter users responding to her post condemned Pearson for politicising the attacks but a few praised her for “speaking the truth” .

Brussels is one of the seats of the European Union and houses many EU buildings. In the UK the name of the city is often used by Eurosceptics as a byword for the EU.

The anger was not reserved for Pearson alone. Comments by US Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump were also subject to controversy.

Cruz’s suggestion that police securitise Muslim areas and Trump’s comments about using torture to prevent future attacks prompted condemnation and praise alike.

Sarah Kendzior ‎@sarahkendzior
Trump’s and Cruz’s persecutory policies on Muslims are equally abhorrent. Don’t let Cruz slide b/c his rhetoric less chaotic, more familiar.
11:04 PM – 22 Mar 2016

The Trump Train ‎@TheTrumpTrain
Hope all voters see that we don’t need a POTUS who can react to terrorist events.We need @realDonaldTrump who will PREVENT them! #VoteTrump
8:45 PM – 22 Mar 2016 · Iowa, USA, United States

In the US Republican primaries a lot of debate has focused on Europe’s ongoing refugee crisis and the threat the mainly Muslim migration poses to Western states.

Anti-Muslim backlash

A familiar theme following attacks like the ones in Brussels and earlier in Paris is debate surrounding the future of Islam and Muslims in Europe.

ISIL (also known as ISIS) has claimed responsibility for both attacks, evidence critics of Islam say is evidence of the threat posed by Muslims.

The hashtag #StopIslam -started by critics of the religion- was quickly flooded with messages of solidarity with Muslims and refusal to let ISIL divide communities in the West along religious lines.

Say-no-to-liberals ‎@CSA_Proud
No such thing as a ‘moderate’ muslim–they all follow the same book. Just lie dormant until they go on jihad. Banish them. #Stopislam
6:14 PM – 22 Mar 2016

Ronald Phiri ‎@RonaldPhiri01 A picture is worth a thousand words. End of discussion 

As of Wednesday morning, the overwhelming majority of tweets using the hashtag were condemnations of Islamophobia.

Disproportionate grief

Another prominent theme following the attacks was the allegedly disproportionate emphasis media outlets placed on covering them over similar attacks in Turkey and other countries.

Many users pointed out that the attacks in Istanbul by ISIL just a few days earlier had not received the same amount of coverage as the ones in Belgium, with some going further by stating this was due to bias against non-Europeans.

Other users suggested the disparity was because attacks in Belgium – a European country, with a similar culture to others in the West – would resound more emotionally with others living in the West.

Its cause Belgium hits closer to home than Turkey. Not because we value other lives less… https://t.co/XDpYHWOsdT

— Shavid Dane (@davshane24) March 23, 2016


Netanyahu to AIPAC: Brussels attack and terror in Israel part of same assault

In all these cases the terrorists have no resolvable differences,” Netanyahu tells conference.

By Herb Keinon and Michael Wilner, JPost
March 22, 2016

The terrorists who struck in Brussels, like those who attacked in Paris, San Bernardino, Istanbul, the Ivory Coast and in daily attacks in Israel, have no “resolvable grievances,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said  on Tuesday.

“It’s not as if we could offer them Brussels, or Istanbul or California, or even the West Bank. That won’t satisfy their grievances. Because what they seek is our utter destruction and their total domination,” Netanyahu said in a live address from his Jerusalem office to the AIPAC conference in Washington.

The terrorists’ basic demand “is that we should simply disappear,” he said, adding “that’s not going to happen. The only way to defeat these terrorists is to join together and fight them together. That’s how we’ll defeat terrorism – with political unity and with moral clarity. I think we have that in abundance.”

Netanyahu called the series of attacks around the world “one continuous assault on all of us.”

US President Barack Obama condemned the attacks on his last day in Cuba, and phoned his Belgian counterpart, Prime Minister Charles Michel, with condolences.

“This is yet another reminder that the world must unite, we must be together, regardless of nationality, or race, or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism,” Obama said in a speech from Havana. “We stand in solidarity with them in condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people. We will do whatever is necessary to support our friend and ally, Belgium, in bringing to justice those who are responsible.”

On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton, the presumed presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, recommitted herself to the battle against Islamic State, and emphasized the need to fight them online, where “radical jihadists,” as she characterized them, are successfully operating and coordinating in dark and encrypted web spaces.

She said the attack was a reminder of the importance and relevance of the NATO alliance – headquartered in Brussels – as Europe and the US together fight Islamist organizations.

Donald J. Trump, front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, called for the US to divest from NATO on Monday.

Reacting to the news out of Brussels, Trump said with confidence:

This is going to happen in the United States.

They’re coming in by the thousands and just watch what happens – I’m a pretty good prognosticator – just watch what happens over the years. It won’t be pretty

Trump also took the opportunity to renew his call for expanded torture laws:

Frankly, the waterboarding, if it was up to me, and if we changed the laws or had the laws, waterboarding would be fine. If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding.

You have to get the information from these people.

Back in Israel, Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon said: “This is a Third World War against our common values. Terrorism must unite Western countries to unite for a determined, creative and uncompromising fight against its origins, funders and operators.”

Western culture is under attack from extremist Islamic terrorism, which is relentless and indiscriminate, Ya’alon added, saying security forces and intelligence agencies from free world states must join forces.

“If this war is not dealt with using the right tools at all levels, it will continue to strike and spread destruction,” he added.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon reached out to his Belgian counterpart Bénédicte Frankinet on Tuesday to “share in the deep sorrow of the people of Belgium.”

Our citizens know all too well the pain and the loss that terrorism inflicts on families and communities and we wish you better days ahead, Danon wrote in his letter to the Belgian UN ambassador. Terrorism does not differentiate between Turks and Americans or between Europeans and Israelis. Now is the time to stand together and unite in a joint battle to eradicate international terrorism.

Transportation and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement the attacks prove that terrorism knows no borders and is fuelled by “a blind hatred to harm and destroy western culture and replace it with extreme Islam.”

Katz said a global front must be set up to fight this phenomenon, and that Israel has much to contribute to this struggle.

He also said stricter measures, such as the law he is pushing to enable the deportation of the families of terrorists, need to be adopted to act as a deterrence to prevent future attacks.

Meanwhile, Science, Technology and Space Minister Ophir Akunis, after sending his condolences to the Belgian people, said:

Many in Europe preferred to busy themselves with the folly of condemning Israel, labelling products and boycotts while all the while, thousands of extremists Islamic terrorist cells sprouted up right under their noses.
on

Some underestimated the threat, were in denial and mocked those who tried to give a warning, he added. “Unfortunately, reality hit hard and cut short the lives of dozens of innocent people.”

Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni said the free world, including Israel, must now work together with the moderate Islamic world against extremist Islamic terrorism. “There is no compromise with them, and against them force must be used. Each nation must take a side in this struggle,” she said.

Livni added, however, that it was forbidden to allow fear and hate to dominate the conversation and “harm the very values for which we are fighting.”

Israel is battling both Islamic religious terrorism, which is unsolvable, as well as a terrorism that is connected to the nationalist struggle with the Palestinians.

“Each threat has its answer, and the role of the leadership now is to prevent the national conflict from turning into a religious one,” she said.

Yaakov Lappin and Danielle Ziri contributed to this report.


After the Charlie Hebdo killings

Beyond Paris: 10,000s Of Muslims Killed By ISIS Since Declaring Caliphate

“ISIS has killed more Muslims than certainly members of any other religion,” noted Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman after the Paris Attacks.

By Mint Press
November 18, 2015

PARIS — After Daesh took credit for the brutal attacks on Paris last week that left 129 dead and hundreds of others injured, many were quick to blame the Muslim community as a whole for the terrorist rampage.

However, a Muslim is far more likely to become a victim of Daesh than to join it, and the vast majority of the group’s victims are fellow members of the faith. This is due to the political motivations behind Daesh rather than religious ones, where it’s receiving arms and funding from nations like Saudi Arabia to foment sectarianism and civil strife in an attempt for Arab Gulf nations to maintain hegemony over oil and gas resources in the region.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour earlier this year, French journalist Didier Francois, who spent over 10 months as the group’s prisoner in Syria, said that the captors cared little about religion and were more politically motivated.

“There was never really discussion about texts or — it was not a religious discussion. It was a political discussion,” Francois told Amanpour.

“It was more hammering what they were believing than teaching us about the Quran. Because it has nothing to do with the Quran.” Francois added, “We didn’t even have the Quran; they didn’t want even to give us a Quran.”

Due to the chaotic nature of events in the region due to arms landing in the hands of jihadists in a clamor for oil and gas, the exact numbers of Daesh’s victims are hard to come by, but a United Nations report from September 2014 found that “at least 24,015” Iraqi civilians — the vast majority of whom were Muslim — had been killed or injured by Daesh in the first eight months of 2014. The authors of the report warned that their numbers were likely too low, and did not include deaths from related causes:

“Additionally, the number of civilians who have died from the secondary effects of violence, such as lack of access to basic food, water or medicine, after fleeing their homes or who remained trapped in areas under ISIL control or in areas of conflict are unknown.”

In September, Peter R. Neumann, a scholar who studies radicalization in the United Kingdom, reported thatattacks on other Muslims is a major factor driving defections from Daesh:

“Many complained about atrocities and the killing of innocent civilians. They talked about the random killing of hostages, the systematic mistreatment of villagers and the execution of fighters by their own commanders.”

On Nov. 12, days before the attacks on Paris, terrorists struck the majority Muslim city of Beirut, in a pair of suicide bombings that left 43 dead. A string of suicide bombings in Baghdad killed at least seven this week.

In a Monday interview, Yasser Louati, a spokesperson for the Collective Against Islamophobia In France, told Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman that while they’re mourning the attacks like the rest of their countrymen, Paris’ Muslims are also terrified of a rising tide of violent Islamophobia in retaliation for the terrorist strike. He noted that reports of attacks on mosques, vandalism of Muslim-owned businesses and even physical attacks against Muslims have flooded the group’s hotline.

The violence is especially misplaced, Goodman noted, because, “Muslims by far outnumber any other group when it comes to being targeted by ISIS. ISIS has killed more Muslims than certainly members of any other religion.” Louati agreed:

“Definitely, like if they hit Beirut right before hitting Paris. And before that, I mean, like they have been killing Muslims by the thousands in Syria and Iraq. You know, what Islamic—I mean, like, how can they call themselves so-called Islamic, when they are first targeting Muslims?”

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