Saeed Haider
Saudi Gazette
DAMMAM — Cutting across ethnic and social barriers, people in the Eastern Province have expressed their dismay over the series of terrorist acts claimed by Daesh (the so-called IS) in which scores of people lost their lives.
In the recent spate of attacks, suicide bombers first hit Beirut in which more than 43 people lost their lives. According to state agencies more than 259 people were grievously injured. Later reports poured in of ethnic cleansing of Hazara community in Afghanistan by a Daesh-Taliban combined operation. No exact figures were given but according to Pakistani news agencies Hazara people were systematically abducted and then killed.
The last and deathly blow came in the mass killing in Paris in a multiple suicide attack in which 129 people lost their lives and hundreds were injured.
“We are absolutely numbed. No country; no place; no region is safe for any community or social or religious group. It is a mindless and barbaric killing. It looks that the killers’ animal instinct has taken over human instincts of passion and kindness,” said Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, a senior construction consultant working on a project in Jubail.
“These killers do not belong to any religion. It is wrong on part of media to brand them as “Islamists” or “Jihadis”. Daesh defies all that is sacred in Islam,” said Majed Al-Hussan, a medical intern at one of the government hospitals in Dhahran.
Many Saudis and residents, however, deplored the Western media for their biased reporting and “selective solidarity.” There was a chain of protest against Facebook which put a French flag application for its users to change their profile to express solidarity with French people.
“Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia have been the first victim of Daesh killing but Facebook remained a mute spectator and never expressed any solidarity with them,” said Khalil Ahmad, a resident of Mumbai currently working in a IT company in Dammam.
Matt Jackson, a Facebook user, said: “Lovely to see so many people changing their profile photos to support Paris and show solidarity with the people of France, because Facebook created an app for that. As tragic and as close to home as the Paris attacks are, people being killed in their hundreds across the rest of the world too. So where's the app for the bombings in Lebanon the day before? Where's the app for the Baghdad bombings? Where's the app for the daily deaths in Gaza? Or the app for the huge loss of life among Syrian civilians? Or the app for people killed by their own police officers in the US?”
A similar sentiment was expressed by Akmal Saleem, executive of a local company in Al-Khobar. “Terrorism in all forms and everywhere in the world is deplorable. Mindless killing of people is inhuman and contrary to Islamic teaching. But I have just one question: Were these attackers asking their victims’ religion or sect or faith before killing?”
Many social organizations and cultural associations have issued statements condemning the killing in Paris, Beirut and elsewhere and urged for world unity and unselective solidarity.
