Paris Attack: What more can you do beside a hash tag

Another tragedy is ascribed to the date Friday the 13th, maybe refueling the idea just a little bit more. Last I read, there are more than 150 casualties, and many more wounded. Shots were fired, bombs were detonated, and there was suicide bombing also. After this attack, what I saw most people are doing is they are just writing a hashtag with "prayforparis". Those of you who are doing this, please ask yourself, what are you getting out of your prayer? What you should have really done? What can you really do? 

There is a stand-up comedian who does really dark comedy, his name is Anthony Jeselnik. He does jokes all the time. Even on the day of any tragedy, he doesn't let the opportunity go. But by doing this, I think, he really makes us understand how dangerous the tragedy really was! And when he ridicules someone, who is he really mocking? According to him, only those who writes "my thoughts and prayers to the victims", and feel content.

I like this part of his video. I like to think that you want to solve it too. You probably want to do more than a hashtag. And when I oppose the "hashtag-and-doing-nothing-else", I am sort of begging the question, "then what the hell are you doing? Are you on your way to Paris right now?" Surely, I can fly to Paris, tend the wounded in the hospitals, but that will not solve the problem for good. Then what is the solution? 

From here, I want you to read very carefully. First, accept the reality, accept that religion is indeed the reason. Then, throw that perverted hegemony out of the window. A way of life where so much misinterpretation is possible, so many discrepancies, so much violence, so much lack off empathy and compassion, is not worthy to exist in our world. Try to understand terrorists and terrorism both. Try to understand the reason beneath the problem. This is not done by any aliens, we are responsible. Someone among us, a group of so called human beings, has done it. And the reason that they are enabled of doing something like that, has everything to do with the hidden support they get from us, you and I. I'm not talking about those who murder other people or support terrorism financially. Obviously, they are responsible. But, I am talking about the so-called moderates. We see the reason, but we choose to say nothing, and that's what is enabling them to cause these kind of crimes all over the world. There are many ideologies in this world, and a large portion of the followers of these ideologies are silently supporting these acts. 

We do not have the luxury to be hesitant about this. We have to take a decisive stand. We need to create a social environment where no one can garner sympathy by committing this kind of heinous act.

ISIS has claimed credit for this attack according to IBN, I don't know how much truth there is in it. ISIS do fit the profile. But more importantly, 200 million Muslims are likely to be happy because of this attack. They think that this kind of "action" is necessary. In my home country Bangladesh, secular bloggers, authors, and very recently, a publisher was killed by the religious fundamentalists. And many people were happy. They thought that atheists deserve this kind of death. Government has still done nothing tangible about these murders, but I am more astonished by the excitement of those aggressive who thought "awesome, kill some more of those bloody atheists!" and those moderates who said, "religion is not the issue here, the terrorists are not true followers of religion." 

Those who do not support religious violence, are not taking their religion seriously. They are not Muslims by the book. If they say, "I am Muslim, and my religion is very tolerant", then they are simply ignorant. Their religion/primary scripture tells them to kill, make a massacre. If you don't know which ayah's I am talking about, search 89th verse of Sura Nisa (4:89) in Qur'an, and there are more like that. So, If they don't get violent, that part comes from ethics, and it's not because they are Muslims.

Whoever the culprit is, may it be the deaths in Paris or in my country, it is more important to change the mentality of these 200 million people. The terrorists know, that they will gain your respect if they do it. And obviously, the promise of 72 virgins. If your mentality is like this, your children can very well turn out to be a terrorist.

Create a world for these terrorists where they can get no support at all for this kind of activities. Create a social voice where they can have no respect by killing people with guns or machetes. If you are discussing this in your family, then do not say anything in front of your children that can create sympathy for the terrorists in your children's mind. If almost all people can practice this, then we will get a better future in the next generation. This is not something that can be solved in a matter of days. The state can probably bring the other terrorists to justice (I hear, that the French government has said that they are at war now), and people outside the justice and administration has almost nothing to contribute. Obviously, merciless punishment is necessary, example has to be made, and that is part of the justice or the solution. But this is not the complete solution, this is not the permanent solution. The real solution will take time, and the responsibility lies with us. That is what we have to do.

If our ancestors were vocal about these problems, if they hadn't said “I'm not harming anybody, I am content with my ideology”, then my prediction is that the attacks, like in Paris today, would be much less frequent. Their silence is responsible for today's event. If something happens tomorrow, the culprit will be the silence we are content with today.