Global Cultures Reacting to Terrorism

            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?