As world mourns for Paris, many in Middle East see double standard

I think the big difference is in the ME its your own committing brutal deadly attacks. In the west its outsiders. Or those who align with radical Islam.

From the perspective of "the West" there is a strong sense of "the other" when it comes to locales outside of North America and Europe.

As with all things, humans get used to what is usual. As unfortunate as it may be, the world is not going to respond strongly to daily attacks in the mid-east because that's become expected.

A sad state of affairs when bad things become the expectation.

The reason we dont care so much about the MIddle East is because we long ago became inured to the region's ceaseless hatred, violence and intolerance.

When I was kid, about half the international news on TV was about Israel and I remember getting really bored and fed up with the monotony of it. Every time kid threws rocks at soldiers, and it would make internaitonal headlines.

As world mourns for Paris, many in Middle East see double standard

And rightly so. 150,000 civilian lives lost is a shameful abomination.

https://www.iraqbodycount.org

I think the big difference is in the ME its your own committing brutal deadly attacks.

This shows how little you understand the situation. To them, it's not their own. Saying it's 'their own' would be like if some Chinese people from a remote area of China did some terrorist attack in Japan, then telling the Japanese that 'their own' were the ones who did the attack. Think of what the Japanese response would be to that comment. Sharing a skin color, and even sharing a religion, doesn't make them the same.

And as SenseNotSoCommon pointed out, the US is not 'their own', and the US is responsible for more deaths than anyone in the region.

Islam is killing Islam stranger....let's not try and evade that. Silly comparison but to be expected.

Radical Islam is responsible for killing more US citizens than any other nation in the last decades! And your point is.....?

Islam is killing Islam stranger

And even within Islam, they don't consider themselves one and the same. Same as all buddists aren't the same buddhists. And this is ignoring ethnical difference between different tribes and nationalities.

Radical Islam is responsible for killing more US citizens than any other nation in the last decades! And your point is.....?

The US is responsible for killing more US citizens than any other nation. Gun control?

Control the guns like in France. Proof showing bad guys will aquire guns and control limits good guys from owning them.

Every mass murder as in Paris and globally it takes good guys guns to stop the rampage. The trick is keeping them from the bad guys. We see that's impossible.

“Everyone was like why are you posting about Paris and not about the attacks in Baghdad every day,”

Because the corporate media wants you to get bored with "rock throwers", so you'll never look for the big answer to the question "why is the region in chaos and what the heck were we doing there in the first place?"

I do see long lines at the Orthopedic Knee Specialists in the coming years.

@strangerland

Not saying I agree or disagree but one thing strikes me as odd.

How'd you manage 2 posts one after the other?

The region has been in chaos since......biblical times? The Qaddafi's, Hussan's, just contain the chaos. Internally the carnage continues. When they the ME extremists introduce their methods to "the West" and brutally kill " the Infadels" little sympathy is earned.

it takes good guys guns to stop the rampage. The trick is keeping them from the bad guys. We see that's impossible.

So why make it easier for the bad guys to get them, by selling them in stores where they can just go pick them up any day during business hours?

How'd you manage 2 posts one after the other?

You can do it....

Large scale sttacks by Muslim terrorists have been been happening in India and China too. But they're not part of the western world, so few people care. And when it happens in China, they're called freedom fighters. And don't forget, there wasn't that much sympathy when exactly the same scenario occured in Moscow and Chechen Muslim extremists stormed a theatre and held people hostage with terrible consequences.

Radical Islam is responsible for killing more US citizens than any other nation in the last decades!

And before that, Communism was the bogeyman to keep the little people afraid.

What will be next - aliens?

@ Stranger....we in USA have laws on gun ownership. They sound good but not flawless. I'm all for improvement yet the bad guys will still aquire guns. Fortunately convicted felons can't go buy guns legally. I'm all for increased sentencing when guns are involved and mandatory jail time for those who buy legal guns and sell them to the thugs.

This would reduce the inner city gun violence the occasional deviant is much more difficult to prevent. To remove guns from the vast majority to cave to the miniscule minority is not exactly fair. Olympians use guns. Hunters use guns. And nobody is hurt.

Removing guns would leave the radicals unopposed. They will certainly have them. And much more.

Double standard..? Nah..... Just human nature..... We just physically and mentally CAN'T absorb all the daily horrific events in the middle east.

I'm all for improvement yet the bad guys will still aquire guns.

And with gun sales legal, more bad guys will acquire more guns, and on top of that those who are just stupid and or irresponsible - the type of people you definitely don't want having guns - will also be able to get them. As will people who may not be bad guys, but have anger issues. Also, kids will be able to find their parents guns. And so on and so on.

The idea that because some bad guys can get some guns means everyone should be given guns willy-nilly is absolutely ridiculous, and only Americans would ever think it makes any sense.

And for proof, look at the number of gun deaths by population in France at the end of this year. Even with the Paris shootings, it will not even remotely approach anything whatsoever like the number of deaths by population in the US for this year.

It's Western news media responding to a Western tragedy. I guess the West isn't even allowed to care about its own anymore. That's evil ethnocentrism (i.e. RACISM) after all.

It's Western news media responding to a Western tragedy. I guess the West isn't even allowed to care about its own anymore.

Sure it is. The point isn't that they should care less about the west, it's that they should care more about the rest of our own - other human beings. We're all humanity, and dividing things into us and them is exactly what ISIS wants. They're trying to force a war between Muslims and non-Muslims, and as long as people keep separating us along those lines, they're literally helping ISIS.

Perfectly understandable that folks in Middle East see this as a double standard. Media is controlled by the West. We are all "insert latest victims here" now allows us to get all moral and self righteous about these atrocities without considering what the causes are of this latest round of lunacy. I get the point that the Middle East has been unstable for along while now, but the latest madness was largely brought on by western interference in that region.

The world unites in outrage and sympathy when the Islamic State group kills Westerners, but pays little attention to the near-daily atrocities it carries out in the Middle East.

Right. A perfect statement being made here.

Yet, when the people who live where these "near-daily atrocities" occur, they flee to Western societies for refuge. Then they settle into those societies often harboring bitter & anti-western feelings. Then why not flee to another islamic country? Saudi, UAE?

This is also some kind of ME Double Standard.

Since 1979 ME tensions have killed innocent westerners, perhaps earlier. Within the ME has been killing each other in power struggles for much longer. When a suicide bomber kills him or herself in Kabul it's not uncommon. When a suicide bomber kills himself in a football stadium in Paris that's news, not good news, it's non-normal news.

The US is responsible for killing more US citizens than any other nation. Gun control?

Actually, vehicles kill more Americans. Should we outlaw all powered vehicles? Many of those devices come from our closest friends. I've never seen a gun kill someone without active participation of a human.

There is a double standard. Regions of the world where the people don't stop killing of their own people makes outsiders think those people do no value human life in the same way that "civilized" parts of the world do. It isn't about the religion or the skin color. It is about the value of a human life displayed and if there is a direct "national interest". The national interest part relates to news coverage back home. In France, there was national outrage. The country basically shutdown over this. Thailand basically shutdown after their country was hit with terrorist. Do places in the middle-east or Africa shutdown? Maybe they do? It doesn't get covered here, so I wouldn't know.

Look at the issue through that viewpoint and everything becomes clearer.

Is it right? I don't know. It is the way it is for now. The world-web connections of the internet can only help us gain more understanding of each other. That is a good thing.

Most people want very similar things. I have a number of middle-eastern friends. They are some of the kindest and warmest people I know. In my travels, I've seen similar traits from pretty much everywhere. Basically, we want to be left alone to raise our families so they have a little better life than we have.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/syria-same-20151116103884

Well it's much closer to home, we've been to Paris, have friends living and working there, have friends from there, it has the same culture, the attacks were at places we frequent all the time. A suicide bombing at a mosque in Baghdad is as alien to us as can be, whereas a slaughter at a concert or football match is basically striking at us directly, as heartless as that may seem.

Actually, vehicles kill more Americans. Should we outlaw all powered vehicles?

The comment was that Muslims have killed more Americans than anyone, to which I pointed out that Americans have killed more Americans than anyone, and gave an example of gun control. Your point about vehicles just supports my comment that Americans have killed more Americans than anyone. So rather than letting this go entirely off topic, I'll just say thank you for supporting my point about Americans killing Americans more than anyone, and leave your question for another topic on shootings in America, which is certain to come soon enough.

I think it is shocking whenever and wherever people are killed - it doesn't matter does it? It's all horrific and immensely saddening.....

I think it is shocking whenever and wherever people are killed - it doesn't matter does it?

But it's double standard when muslims go into a rival sect mosque to blow up other muslims worshiping there. Or muslims gassing their own people. Yet, they blame western military involvement when muslims are killed.

Wc - how exactly are Muslims a "people"??

Wakarimasen. Uhh . . . a people who share the same religion? I guess.

Lebanese blogger Joey Ayoub accused the media and world leaders of caring less about deaths in Beirut in IS attacks than deaths in Paris at the hands of the same group.

Right. That's because when a renowned cities like Paris, London & NY are attacked by ISIS, the more recognition ISIS gets compared to the backwoods of places Beirut and Turkey (-places nobody really wants to go).

I've never seen a gun kill someone without active participation of a human.

What primal soup did that thought crawl out of?

Simply - the world wide web of media is "western" based and focussed.

And - stories closer to home (ethnically as well as geographically) garner more attention - rightfully or wrongfully.

Hurricane katrina dominated western news for ages.Viewers lived and breathed it. How many similarly devasting typhoons in the Philipines or cyclones in Bangladesh were reported to the same extent and can any one even recall such devastating events.

Headline local media news in my territory last week was a spate of burglaries (3 I think). Does that mean we(us locals) don't care about Beirut? Hardly.

I agree that there is a percieved bias to news by the western media as there is by most media in all locations.

It's always been like this - global society or not.

MarkGNOV. 17, 2015 - 08:59AM JST Radical Islam is responsible for killing more US citizens than any other nation in the last decades! And your point is.....?

Where? Over 500,000 civilians, which includes children, women & elderly have died in the Iraq War since 9/11. Where is the evidence of WMD that Bush Administration presented to UN to start a war? France did not approve Powell's UN presentation.

Heres a double standard for you: millions of ME "refugees" seeking refuge in Europe and not in their own neighbouring countries. Then they complain about the standard of care they receive, the food is not to their liking, the accommodation is not what they expected, they refuse packages because the red cross logo offends them, they're offended by local school girls wearing shorts, etc etc etc. Meanwhile Saudi Arabia, to take one example, offers millions of dollars to Germany to build mosques but accepts zero "refugees" itself. And oddly, this is never mentioned in the media.

And as SenseNotSoCommon pointed out, the US is not 'their own', and the US is responsible for more deaths than anyone in the region.

Well, it's really the sectarian that caused the majority of deaths overall, but that fact is something libs just refuse to accept.

@bass Well, it's really the sectarian that caused the majority of deaths overall, but that fact is something libs just refuse to accept.

LMAO What paisley unicorn have you cons been sniffing these days? The sectarian were created by socialists like the so-called hippie in chief! ROFL

LMAO What paisley unicorn have you cons been sniffing these days?

Listen, I don't hear you libs whining about all the Christians, the Kurds or the Yazidis that have been brutally slaughtered even after the troops left and within the last 3 years. NOT a single word! But that's irrelevant, let's cherrypick about the people we want to feel sympathy for. Yeah, been sniffing a serious dose of reality.

The sectarian were created by socialists like the so-called hippie in chief! ROFL

I would say more between the Sunni and Shia factions.

There is no "double standard". It is simply a question of saturation. The Shiite-Sunni war in the Middle East has been raging for a long time, and terrorist attacks are standard there. When this sort of thing bubbles over to the West, then that IS news, because it it is precisely NOT standard. (However, once Merkels open-ended immigration program will have run its course, it might very well be, alas... in which case press coverage also drops).

The Kenyans came up with this idea first after Paris 11/13, asking almost immediately why the world had not focussed in the same way on the al-Shabab attack on their northern Garissa University earlier this year, killing 147 people. This question then went viral, but people soon became confused, thinking there had been a new attack in Kenya.

The problem is partly in the local press which may give more exposure to international news than to local tragedies.

The world has been properly "mis-led" by ISIS/ISIL. The war is religious and racial. It is not a radial Islamic terrorism threat but a well organized, well timed and well coordinated war where the ISIS/ISIL is but a "distraction" for the real war now being carried out.

A war of this magnitude and efficiency could not and would not have happened "overnight". It had to have a goal with specific objective in escalating from what appears to be terrorism to a world wide war.

They key is in finding out WHO or WHAT group is to BENEFIT the most from all of this.

The second key is in analysis of what are not being said and what are not being done rather than looking at only what are being said and what are being done. Then look at WHO or WHAT group is befitting from all of this.

To coordinate all of this there would have had one or more religious leader, military strategist,s economists, planners, organizers, logicians, plus many more highly skilled specialists and most important one or more leaders to put them into action. That leader or leaders must have had enough international power to be able to give it tie impetus and the time for it to become unstoppable. And basically it has become unstoppable, at least for now.

When the world acts and reacts "EMOTIONALLY" as it is now, the matter will be really unstoppable.

So let us ask the QUESTIONS that make sense.

WHO? (Whose?) (Whom?)

WHERE?

WHEN?

HOW? (How Much?) (How Many?)

WHAT? (Which?)

WHY?

The interesting thing is when you ask why? something was not said or not done, on time or in time, or where? is the real problem or the like....

One can find the trend, the path, the direction and the SCENARIO. From that you can see the final beneficiary.

From the beneficiary, one can find the benefactor/s and the role/s he/she/they played in bringing it about.

I am still in search for the final proof to that answer...

kazetsukai, nice, but what would you like to suggest?

"Listen, I don't hear you libs whining about all the Christians, the Kurds or the Yazidis that have been brutally slaughtered even after the troops left and within the last 3 years."

I don't hear you whining about it either. I hear "Hillary/Benghazi/libs/e-mails/socialists/ObamamaybeaMuslim/LOL/ROFL". You were claiming the attack in Paris was a result of Obama's weakness but you didn't explain how the 2004 Madrid and 2005 London attacks were a result of Bush's strength.

I don't hear you whining about it either. I hear "Hillary/Benghazi/libs/e-mails/socialists/ObamamaybeaMuslim/LOL/ROFL".

That's another part, but yeah, that's true as well.

You were claiming the attack in Paris was a result of Obama's weakness

To engage ISIS, Yes, that's right.

but you didn't explain how the 2004 Madrid and 2005 London attacks were a result of Bush's strength.

That was before the surge when during that time the Iraq war and the situation was slowly worsening. 2. You also had to remember, Spain was being intimidated to leave the war which it did. As for Britain and the US, they were both committed and continued until the surge was implemented which did bring a stable Iraq under control at the time a newly Barack Obama took over and a Joe Biden in 2010 said this.... https://youtu.be/tLteUGkvpOc Bottom line, there still would have been attacks, but if Obama would have went in, surgical planned to take out specific targets like the French and even the Russians are doing and stop worrying so much about the Rules of Engagement, he could have had a better grip on this this issue, but now, he's lost complete control of this and of course he looks weak, to anyone that doesn't drink the Kool aid, I mean.

Dont people really realize how the actions of US and its allies along the time, have generated the circumstances that lead muslims to fight between them? And it besides the times West have attacked Middle East directly. If we are used to see Middle East as a a zone full of hate and violence its in the most part because the West influence that have not let them reach an equilibrium.

violence begets violence and hate begets hate

it is quite difficult to avert the problem as believers themselves have to play a greater role. even condemning the disaster and horrific acts is not going to somehow eradicate extremism.

it will be good if there can some changes to the idelogies they perpetuate, from within the faith community itself, as it is a solid threat not only to non-believers but even to themselves.

The key to the future of ISIS/ISIL really depends on the current USA Administration. In fact, the USA affects the entire world without being the police force.

Like it or not, USA still is the dominant force.

Like it or not the President of the USA is still the most powerful person in the world. (Regardless of Russia or China.)

He "controls" the worlds most powerful economy and the most powerful military.

The question is WHY the inaction, the delayed responses, the misdirection, the misleading rhetoric which "divide" the ENTIRE WORLD?

Who does it benefit?

It is apparent that so far his action and inaction have not benefited the USA or the rest of the world, except those that are out to do it harm.

WHY?

Because this particular murderous group of nutjobs don't wear a uniform nor are they from one particular country.

Having said that, the group was created by the West and somehow needs to be eliminated by their creator.

Of course the western media (and politicians) can't mourn the violence, and express solidarity with the victims, because that would conflict with the message that so much of the violence, and so many victims, are excusable because it is being done by western governments, or with their blessings. For a long time, the US and its Axis friends have taken the position that they have the god given right to determine the legitimacy of the governments of the ME (and Africa, and Central and South America) and to pronounce violence and terrorism (whether aimed at toppling the 'illegitimate' governments, or to preserve the 'legitimate' ones, even against democracy movements) as justified or unthinkable. And now DAESH/ISIS is cutting out the middleman, figuring their connection with god is just as good as America's.

Meh. All those who've lived in Japan know that the Japanese press primarily focuses on things close to home, covers them more closely and in depth, with passing and superficial interest in the politics and happenings of their closest ally, the US.

Meaning, people care about those closest to them.

France is closer to most people in the US than Lebanon. 3/4 of Americans are euro-Americans. French and American history are much more closely related than that of Lebanon.

For those Americans interested in more coverage if the suffering and goinngs on in Lebanon, or Assis Ababa, by all mean cover it.

@souka, It goes beyond ideologies; imagine what would you feel if a foreign nation is against your own culture, your own sobereignty; if this foreign nation is bombing your country all the days and is funding rebel groups that spread violence and makes the life imposible in your own country.

Wakarimasen. Uhh . . . a people who share the same religion? I guess.

Most Japanese share a religion with Buddhists in Myanmar who are slaughtering their countryfolk. Would you consider the Japanese people as terrorists and slaughterers because they have the same religion as those killers in Myanmar?

The ultimate question here is on whose or on which side is the USA and the rest of the world are on?

One cannot deny the fact that each country, each group, each individual, ultimately care only about themselves.

On whose side are you on?