In recent weeks, ISIS’ onslaught of carnage rattled the world. First it was Orlando, and the world reacted fervently and as one. Then it was Istanbul, and the world reacted strongly with many voices. Then it was Dhaka, Bangladesh and three cities in Saudi Arabia and the global outrage seemed to flag. Then it was Baghdad and the reaction seemed absent.
In Baghdad, 250 people were slaughtered as they enjoyed time with their families after breaking the daily Ramadan fast. Ramadan is meant to be a time when acts of charity and kindness are celebrated, yet ISIS has perverted the month-long event to rationalize killing people.
Overall, Muslim-majority countries have felt the bulk of ISIS’s brutality. Yet, the Western world often reacts as if this basic fact were otherwise.
The only thing a reasonable person can conclude is that ISIS is trying to drive people against each other through astonishing violence.
There are many reasons for the skewed responses to this carnage beyond growing xenophobia: lack of familiarity with parts of the world, fatigue with ongoing violence in war zones and the snowballing effect of news coverage or the lack of it, for example.
But the ensuing complacency feeds the ISIS propaganda machine. The social media silence becomes a clarion call for ISIS recruiters who are no doubt stoking fears with instances of Islamophobia and other bigotries as evidence that there can be no peace in the world, that their ideology can never coexist with others and, therefore, must destroy all others.
Because into such a climate of hostility, ISIS can spread its message of annihilation and find a receptive audience.
When people begin to regard one another warily, closing off the possibility for empathy and connection, ISIS wins. When people see difference as a threat rather than as a normal, beautiful part of life, ISIS wins. When politicians begin to portray an entire religion and region as sinister, as one and the same with terrorism, ISIS wins.
This can’t happen. It’s hard to always be aware. It’s sad and exhausting, but we can’t slip into the trap of valuing some humans more than others. We can’t slip into the trap of seeing some atrocities as unbearable and others as bearable.
As global citizens, we have to stand with every victim of terrorism, every victim of vicious bigotry, and show love and support. We have to stand with Baghdad and Dhaka and Istanbul and Syria and Yemen and Egypt and Lebanon and every other place where ISIS tries to sabotage our increasingly globalized and connected world.
Standing for peace is an always-on state of mind. It’s demanding. But we have to stand for peace at all times.