https://www.facebook.com/yasir.qadhi/photos/a.10150091939643300.277936.19667888299/10154014083508300/?type=3&theater
Do you wish to understand the privileges and perks that are afforded to the world's sole superpower? Would you like to see a glimpse of the power of Western supremacy?
A few days ago, American-led airplanes, in their attempts to bomb ISIS strongholds, 'accidentally' killed over two hundred civilians in villages in Northern Syria (scores of whom were, of course, children).
1) Because Syrian lives specifically, and brown/black/Middle-Eastern lives in general, really don't matter in this part of the world, and are not newsworthy, the very mention of this incident was buried in fine print in a handful of newspapers. Still, most people are completely unaware of what can only be called a massacre of civilians took place.
[Compare and contrast with the news coverage given of *any* death of a Western civilian at the hands of a non-Western perpetrator].
2) Because media are more interested in Western lives, not a *single* journalist has been able to report even the exact quantity of people killed, much less their names and backgrounds and photos.
[Contrast this to *any* mass killing on Western soil, such as the recent one in Nice, where each and every victim is humanized, and their family shown grieving].
3) Because the conversation is controlled by entities on this side of the Atlantic, no other Western entity (or citizen) needs to explain its stance, or apologize, or in any way be expected to condemn or denounce or clarify its position on the actions of its own government who, theoretically at least, are supposed to be held in check by its citizens.
[Contrast this to every single time a radical Muslim goes berserk: each and every mosque, and preacher, and Shaykh, and average Muslim, is somehow expected to condemn and clarify that they are against the actions of another person who shares their faith but whom they are not even legally responsible for].
4) Because apparently only Western citizens care about their children and worry about their future, we all understand and can conceptualize why the Far Right, and Trump-like figures, and the xenophobia exemplified by Brexit, and the tightening of citizenship laws in Europe, and the climate of fear and paranoia, are taking place. Imagine: barely 0.000001 % of its citizens have been killed in its lands in attacks by 'radical Muslims', and we can all understand the (over) reaction of Western countries and its citizens.
[Contrast this to entire lands and nations that have been destroyed, such as Iraq, or never allowed to develop, such as Afghanistan, or been allowed and abetted to descend to civil war and genocide, such as Syria, or controlled by propped-up dictators, such as most countries in the Third World. Upwards of 50 % of populations are displaced; every family in some of these lands has members that have been killed or harmed by Western invasions; the prosperity and potential of *every* member of that region is impaired directly or indirectly by policies decided by the IMF and Western nations; and yet we are not allowed to contextualize the rise of a radical reaction].
Much more can be said, and the disparate reactions contrasted. But never forget that we are - all of us - impacted by the power and influence of others. Whom to love; whom to humanize, whom to pity; whom to prioritize; whom to write hashtags for and about; whom to condemn and when.
That is why it is only One Being, the Controller and Knower of All, who is Infinitely Just and who shall give each person his or her due, in reward or in punishment, even if we as humans do not and cannot.
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