Adeel Malik
On Monday afternoon, in one of Canada’s major city, Toronto had to witness a barbaric and insane act of cowardliness as Alek Minassian, 25-year-old student, drove his van into a crowd of pedestrians, killing 10 in the process and injuring many others.
Dramatic video shows Toronto police confront suspect after van attack leaves 9 people dead, at least 16 injured, authorities say. https://t.co/hJcw6KTsGR pic.twitter.com/SqbVzI77BK
— ABC News (@ABC) April 23, 2018
At least nine people have died after a van ran down a group of pedestrians in Toronto. pic.twitter.com/wIeTSKARay
— AJ+ (@ajplus) April 24, 2018
This manner of carrying out the crime by barraging a vehicle into a crowd isn’t new, sadly, as London, Munster, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, Nice and Stockholm have all suffered from it.
Keeping in the disgust, the shock and the thoughts to those who have suffered all in tact, there are two things that we need to again remind ourselves when such events unfold.
Firstly, terrorism. Here are a set of tweets that should explain the notion.
Let’s be clear. This was not an accident. This was terrorism. #TorontoAttack #Toronto
— Scott Fox (@ScottFoxonair) April 23, 2018
So earlier when the Toronto driving suspect was believed to be a “dark skinned Muslim”, we were seeing terms like “terrorism” and “ISIS” being thrown around. Now that it’s revealed he was a white guy, it’s back to “mental illness”, & “let’s wait for the facts”… #ok
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) April 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/Lrihendry/status/988546296284942342
Calling this blatant act of terrorism an "accident" is offensive, and quite frankly subversive.#Cdnpoli #Onpoli #Toronto @CBCNews #Terrorism pic.twitter.com/qPXG8fQWvr
— David Jacobs (@DrJacobsRad) April 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/MuslimIQ/status/988587916787101696
And there are plenty more going around with a similar mindset. So for those who say it’s all about being safe and getting the facts correct before releasing the details, yes you are right. But why does this criteria only applies when the killer hasn’t shouted Allahu Akbar or is clear-shaven or the like?
Why don’t we have the media and the government officials following the same protocol of labeling the killer as being mental, sick, insane and the like? Yes. Double standards. Selective choice of words. Hypocrisy.
The second thing to reflect over is the amount of coverage events are given. The drone bombings upon places like Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and the like are just a spate in comparison to if the people who suffered death due to such heinous acts.
Again, a reminder to all, just like we should not be selective in our choice of words when the lives of innocent people are harmed, we should never ever be selective in our outrage and sentiments regardless of the what background of the people is that are harmed.
We truly hope this violence, this carnage, this mindless and heartless acts stop, worldwide and that people don’t have to fear for their lives while being a crowd of people or just in their homes with the families.
