While across the globe terrorist activities are prompting
pro- and anti-Islam protests, Australians alone have reached out to support its
Muslim community.
In France, Parisians have come together in a show of
solidarity after the terrorist attack in early January. “Je Suis Charlie”
posters were everywhere after Al Qaeda jihadists killed 12 people at satirical
magazine Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris.
“They’ve killed 12 people, maybe more, but they haven’t
killed the French soul or the French people,” Isabelle told the Wall Street
Journal.
The attack encouraged a different reaction in Dresden,
Germany. An anti-Islamic group, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of
the West (a.k.a. Pegida), say the attack supports their position (bloomberg).
Since
October Pegida has called for “limiting asylum rights and says radical Islam
threatens to overrun Western culture” (WSJ). The German government is has asked
for Germans to not join Pegida; “Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly
condemned the movement as hateful” (WSJ).
This
week in Chechnya, a Russian province with a Muslim majority, “Hundreds of
thousands rallied in the capital of Chechnya on Monday after the Kremlin-backed
leader there declared a holiday to denounce the French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s
caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad” (WSJ).
According
to Russian officials, the rise of the Islamic State and other Islamic terrorist
activities can be blamed directly on the West. The Chechen President Ramzan
Kadyrov has even accused the CIA of controlling the Islamic State (WSJ).
Only
in Australia has the populace actively reached out to the Muslim community.
After a terrorist that may have been affiliated with the Islamic State held 17
hostages in a café in Sydney, Australia, thousands of Australians offered to
accompany Muslims in traditional clothing. “The hashtag #IllRideWithYou was
used more than 250,000 times on Twitter” before the hostages were rescued by
police (New York Times).
What
can we do to encourage Australia’s response worldwide?
