Yesterday morning there was a double terrorist attack in Brussels (Belgium). At 8:00 a.m. a first explosion at the airport (Zaventem) pushed people towards where a second bomb was detonated. At 9:15 a.m, an explosion occurred in the Maelbeek downtown metro station. 34 dead and 230 wounded.
It seems that the attacks were in response to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, although, due to the complexity to carry out such an attack on such short notice, it is plausible to think the terrorist cell altered a previous plan to make a statement yesterday.
As with the terrorist attack in Paris (and Charlie Hebdo and Stockholm before that one): the responsibility of the attacks is of the perpetrators, and them alone, no one else’s (it’s certainly not the West’s fault), some heads of State remain complicit in these attacks by refusing to admit —and, more importantly, say publicly— that these behaviors can be traced back to religious doctrines, the media are complicit as well by yielding to the oligophrenic trend of “not to offending” religious feelings; and no, this has nothing to do with the Islamophobia conspiracy theory.
I should add some other relevant points:
• No, praying for the victims is useless. In fact, we got here thanks to the belief in imaginary friends. More magical thinking will do nothing to solve this state of affairs or alleviate it. By the way: pray to the god that allowed the attack or the one being honored with it?
• If you came to complain about the solidarity shown to the victims, their friends, family and loved ones, accusing us of hypocrisy (or racism!) just because we do not show the same degree of empathy with the victims of other attacks elsewhere, you are in the wrong place — this is an obvious absurdity. I won’t be ashamed for putting myself in someone else’s place and offering my solidarity; and, as it so happens, it’s normal to feel closer to victims with which we share cultural affinity. I’m not apologizing for that.
• If your first reaction to the attack was “Oh no, this is going to make Islam look really bad“, you’re part of the problem.
(image The Telegraph)
