Stanford students call for equal response to Middle East – Beirut, Baghdad – in wake of Paris terror attacks

By Jack Hennessy, GSS correspondent

STANFORD, California — As the world continues to mourn for Paris in the wake of last Friday’s terror attacks, students at a vigil held at Stanford University on Sunday questioned why the show of solidarity did not extend to similar suicide bombings in Beirut and Baghdad on Thursday and Friday just prior to the outbreak of violence in Paris.

Thursday night, just one day before the attacks in Paris, Lebanon was also left reeling after two separate IS-sponsored suicide bombings left 43 dead and over 250 injured. Early Friday morning, the same day as attacks in Paris, another IS extremist militant blew himself up in Baghdad, killing 18 people and wounding 41.

Hannah Boutros, a Lebanese-American student at Stanford who was raised near Beirut, expressed her pain and frustration over the unequal reporting given to Beirut, Baghdad, and France.

Boutros was stunned by what she saw as a lack of tribute given to those affected by terror in the Middle East.

“There was not much of an outpour of support on social media for Beirut on Thursday,” she said. “Although the attacks were at the hands of the same militants, it seemed as though grief in the West was sent almost exclusively to France.”

[Separately, Facebook fielded criticism following the Paris attacks for failing to turn on its “Safety Check” feature for Beirut and Baghdad. The feature is designed to allow people to ‘check in’ and reassure friends and family if a natural disaster occurs in their area. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “Safety Check” the Paris bombings were the first time that the feature had been activated for a terrorist attack but that Facebook would now activate it more widely.]

Click below for more of Jack’s story plus photos of the rally:

Stanford students call for equal response to Beirut, Baghdad in wake of Paris terror attacks