ISIS attack on France - Why my profile picture remains unchanged.

I have been trying really hard not to say anything at all about the attack in Paris that took place on 12th November, apart from giving my heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of those killed in this horrendous attack, alongside my heartfelt condolences to family and friends of those also killed in Beirut, which is equally given to all those that have been victims of this militant group over the past four years, particularly to those having to flee their own homes to find themselves in an equally hostile environment in Europe, where every Muslim is tarred with the same brush amongst a growing minority of anti immigration factions.

I logged on to find a wave of profile pictures red, white and blue flags flooding the wall in solidarity with Paris and angry rants about the immigrants all being terrorists and 'they should all be sent home', and 'close the borders to stop terrorists coming in'... and disturbingly rejoicing at a refugee camp being set on fire. My first reaction was 'here we go - the ignorant are coming out of the wood work'...

This is the reason I decided not to change my profile picture, purely because what it seemed to me to have become is a show of ignorance more than just a pure 'stand with' Paris event, there is an undertone of hate and superiority in that mass profile picture change.

What these ignorant rants show is the lack of understanding of current world politics and world history and also the great job that the media does of brainwashing the masses and encourages prejudice and hate and even worse still an air of superiority about them. 

The emails have started to flood into my inbox with messages such as this from Avazz which includes the words 

'They are an assault on our shared humanity, and our tolerance, liberty and respect'.. 

Well sorry but if you look in history recent and past you will find shared humanity, tolerance, liberty and respect of Europeans has unfortunately not been shared equally and has disregarded and made a swerve of some countries and excluded them in these fine qualities they like to portray. Does that mean those countries are not part of this humanity they speak of?..Particularly African countries.

Whilst of course I feel sad for France I also feel sad for those victims of the French too, like the 14 African countries that still have to pay France Colonial Tax, in particular those leaders who have no choice but to pay it if they value their lives and on top risk being tarred as corrupt in the process.

It reminded me of an article I saw last year about the Colonial Tax that African countries have still to this day pay to France (you can read the article here) Which brings me onto the double standards of the majority of Europeans when it comes to responsibility for horrors caused to humanity. 

You would think they had leaned hard lessons of the past and moved on to ensure those lessons are never repeated, particularly at this time of year when we have just had a remembrance event on 11th November where everyone wears poppies with pride and the slogan of 'lest we forget' is bandied about freely. I need not mention the thousands of Muslims that fought and died along side Europeans for those very freedoms we have today.

Whilst it is freely said by most Europeans that 'slavery', 'The Holocaust', 'Protestant Death Squads in Ireland', 'Lebanon War in 80's', 'Rwandan Genocide' and many others all done in the name of Christianity, are 'nothing to do with us', we are not responsible all whilst in the same breath are condemning ALL Muslims to being Terrorists and members of ISIL.

Double standards from where I am standing, why does the same rule not apply. The silliness of it is astounding, can they hear what they are actually saying, I think not...

Those very refugees they are condemning to 'All be Terrorists' are fleeing the very same ISIL that have just slaughtered many people in cold blood in Paris and Lebanon over the past few days, have been slaughtering these refugees family's and wiping out whole villages and towns, schools and hospitals and historically important monuments for the past 4 years.

I have not seen such an outpouring of a call for solidarity for all those other victims of the same enemy and to participate in this outpouring and cry for solidarity for France feels to me that I would be perpetuating the myth that French lives are above any other in the typical Eurocentric manner we are accustomed to.

I remember the start of the Syrian War where thousands upon thousands where being slaughtered, men, women and children in the most horrific manner imaginable and those loud, very loud cries and screams for help and solidarity where stubbornly ignored and fell on deaf ears, people just stared like they where watching the latest box office smash entertainment horror movie, no-one batted an eyelid, people of Syria have had to force the Europeans to do something about their suffering and horrors, they have not received any recognition for their struggles, they have had to force it out of us by dying on our shores in boats and arriving and forcing their way to something better than the horrors of what they leave behind living in unimaginable condition in refugee camps dotted around our borders.

And lets mention Burundi here, well no point even mentioning Burundi as most people will have no clue where it even is in our world and certainly have no idea and couldn't care less what is happening there. Lets just say the leaders of these African countries have one thing in common, they defy EU demands, watch this space for Nigeria being under a coup pretty soon too... (that's another story).... but the same narrative... outside forces are to blame, trust me that is a familiar code.... Apologies I digress, lets get back to the point...

The twins and I started a charity campaign back in 2012 for Syria Relief which you can find here (it closed March 2015) we where supporting the Charity for the children of Syria to support in the relief of suffering through the horrors they had been though by providing prosthetic limbs, schools, food, clothing, we received no donations from anyone, not one person on my friends list even donated £1, we had to resort to collecting used items or buying used items and selling them on and donating the proceeds we made to the charity, over 3 years the appeal raised hardly anything. We raised 10 times the amount we raised on the appeal by quietly buying and selling and collecting used items and making our own donations as a family.

We do still collect and sell used items for the charity to raise money but we also support other charities too.

Whilst I do stand in solidarity with France and Lebanon, I do not stand with the prejudice it has unleashed, I will quietly light my candle for ALL victims of this terrible evil.