The excitement and roars of the crowd could not conceal the sharp and unmistakable sound of explosions. For seconds, confusion washed over the stadium — the players, the crowd and the president of the country himself who was enjoying the friendly between his country, France, and Germany were stunned. It did not take long till the news started to spread — the city of love and lights was under attack, facing yet another night of terror.
For the second time within year, Paris had to deal with terror attacks. Parisians were still reeling from the impact of the Charlie Hebdo attack and the shootout at a Jewish grocery when another tragedy struck them.
“Paris has been hit again by terror tonight,” Deputy Mayor Patrick Klugman said on Twitter as reported by The New York Times.
Thousands of miles away, here in the Kingdom and most of the Muslim countries, everybody was shocked and felt deeply aggrieved over the spilling of innocent blood on French soil. With these feelings of sorrow, another thought emerged in the minds of everybody in the Muslim world, “Oh God, not other criminal attack using the name of our religion, not again!”
We have had enough of terror attacks wrongfully linked to Islam and innocent blood spilled in its name. No matter how much we distance ourselves from those criminals, no matter how much we try to convince the world that these terrorists have nothing to do with Islam and Muslims, it remains at the back of their minds that those lunatics used the name of Islam to carry out their nefarious designs.
“Of course I’m afraid for the future,” said Tony Vandelle to The New York Times, a man who attended the France-Germany match with his brother. “With all the strikes in Syria, we’re not safe anymore. Already France was traumatized when Charlie Hebdo happened, including our children, who still talk about it at school,” he added. “This is taking things to another level. To see something like this again so soon is frightening for the future.”
Such incidents only widens the intellectual gap between the followers of this great religion and the rest of the world, making it difficult for Muslims living in the West to freely practice their religion
It is a sad truth that we are living in a world where evil-minded people belonging to Al-Qaeda and Daesh use the name of our religion to promote their agendas and unfortunately people easily associate these criminals with Islam.
Whenever such horrifying crimes are committed, they are the first suspects, dragging with them the name of Islam and Muslims. A senior US intelligence and counterterrorism official did not take long to point the finger in the right direction, “The Paris attacks, because of their sophistication, didn’t appear to be the work of Daesh. Rather, the level of coordination points more toward Al-Qaeda.”
The analyst missed the target, as Daesh claimed responsibility for the attacks. In any case, these two groups follow the same ideology; they just differ in the level of their barbarity.
Friday night was a sad night not only for Paris but also for the whole world. The attackers were not only the enemies of the West; the truth is they are the enemies of all mankind.(SAAD AL-DOSARI)
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/columns/news/836111
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