On the evening of November 13, 2015, Paris encountered a series of terrorist attacks. Paris being a renowned city, gathered a lot of attention and the entire world responded by showing solidarity with France in their own unique ways and gestures.
Amid all of that, Mark Zuckerberg, or precisely Facebook, introduced a new feature that allowed Facebook users to honor the victims by changing their profile pictures to the French flag. This idea immediately spread around the globe and several people changed their profile pictures.
Many also criticized Zuckerberg for his “double standard” of not showing any sympathy towards Beirut or Baghdad but only for Paris. He was accused of selective humanity. One can argue that terrorist attacks, wherever they happen, are equally destructive and damaging. One cannot categorize the pain that people go through and hence, in this war against terrorism, we should stand with all victims equally.
But what’s more interesting is this trend that started in Pakistan. People took to Facebook to criticize Zuckerberg and the Pakistani people changing their profile pictures to the French flag by saying that this feature was never introduced when the APS attack happened last December. Several people in Pakistan have died due to this war on terror and no one cares about this part of the world because it’s not equally developed. They even went ahead and had the guts to declare, “What’s your 13/11, is our 24/7”. This phrase is repeatedly showing up on my homepage with the addition of the word “LOL”, which makes absolutely no sense.
I agree that Pakistan has been fighting this war for years now and it’s devastating but I can’t remember the last time these Jihadists went out on streets to honor the victims or had the guts to criticize Taliban or any extremist outfits for that matter. Those lighting candles for the poor little souls last year were categorized as “Mom Bati Mafia”.
Nobody stands up for anyone here. What about the Ahmadis and Shias that get killed here every day? What about other religious minorities? What about the regular demonization of our own people? What about honor killings? Marital rape? Or rape in general? Stoning? Does anyone have an answer to that?
Do you guys really stand up for your own people enough for the world to recognize what you’re going through?
These people also argued that no support was shown for the Muslim world that suffers almost every day. When was the last time our population spoke about the honor killings in Afghanistan? Or the terrorist attacks in Iraq? What about gays being thrown off the rooftop by ISIS? Deaths of secular bloggers in Bangladesh? Or the human rights violations of Saudi Arabia?
So before you go around accusing people of double standards or selective humanity, take a look at your actions first and remember that Facebook profile picture is no measure of empathy and the world is larger than your computer screens. This trend had to start somewhere. If you are so concerned about oppression that goes on, start acting.