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"It is not Paris we should pray for."

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
From Indian writer Karuna Ezara Parikh ...

It is not Paris we should pray for.
It is the world. It is a world in which Beirut,
reeling from bombings two days before Paris,
is not covered in the press.
A world in which a bomb goes off
at a funeral in Baghdad
and not one person's status update says "Bagdad",
because not one white person died in that fire.
Pray for the world
that blames a refugee crisis for a terrorist attack.
That does not pause to differentiate between the attacker
and the person running from the very same thing you are.
Pray for a world
where people walking across countries for months,
their only belongings upon their backs,
are told they have no place to go.
Say a prayer for Paris by all means,
but pray more,
for the world that does not have a prayer
for those who no longer have a home to defend.
For a world that is falling apart in all corners,
and not simply in the towers and cafes we find so familiar.

Yes.
 

Kirran

Premium Member
I don't think the message needs be to lessen or marginalise the atrocities in France. But to encourage us to hold on to our compassion for all people, even when stereotyping and scapegoating gets easier, and when emotions can get high.
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Anything that seems to be marginalizing the attacks in anyway or trying to make people feel guilty or narrow-minded for expressing concern, sympathy, etc. for the French...is quite lame to me, if not worse.
The attacks are not being marginalized imo.

It seems to me much of the response is lame. What good does changing one's colors do? I am happy for those who posted about WORLD violence because my mind was thinking that people are being quite shallow about it and I thought maybe there was something wrong with thinking that. But thanks to @Jayhawker Soule, @MARCELLO and the others I can now understand my consternation.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Anything that seems to be marginalizing the attacks in anyway or trying to make people feel guilty or narrow-minded for expressing concern, sympathy, etc. for the French...is quite lame to me, if not worse.
Aye, it's just human nature that we're more concerned with what happens in our own backyard, & pay more attention to what's exceptional.
This doesn't seem worthy of saying it's wrong.
.
 

Sees

Dragonslayer
The attacks are not being marginalized imo...

It starts off with, "It is not Paris we should pray for." As if there is something wrong with praying for Paris or focusing on it after the attacks. Curiously lumping in the refugee situation, which did bring in at least a few of the attackers...if that isn't on the news by now it will be soon. The whole thing about white people fits in rather nicely as well. Not my flavor of propaganda.
 

Kirran

Premium Member
It starts off with, "It is not Paris we should pray for." As if there is something wrong with praying for Paris or focusing on it after the attacks. Curiously lumping in the refugee situation, which did bring in at least a few of the attackers...if that isn't on the news by now it will be soon. The whole thing about white people fits in rather nicely as well. Not my flavor of propaganda.

A fair set of points. I can't say I agree with a lot of the wording. It is not Paris alone we should pray for, I'd say.
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
It starts off with, "It is not Paris we should pray for." As if there is something wrong with praying for Paris or focusing on it after the attacks. Curiously lumping in the refugee situation, which did bring in at least a few of the attackers...if that isn't on the news by now it will be soon. The whole thing about white people fits in rather nicely as well. Not my flavor of propaganda.
It's a poem. When you read the whole thing you might get the gist of it. It is allowed in a poem to leave out words. Like the word only.
It is not [only] Paris we should pray for.
I know how to read between the lines. :)
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Anything that seems to be marginalizing the attacks in anyway or trying to make people feel guilty or narrow-minded for expressing concern, sympathy, etc. for the French...is quite lame to me, if not worse.

I can definitely see where you're coming from, but the title of the poem shouldn't detract from its intended meaning. The title is a mistake, that's for sure, but there is more to the poem than that.
 

David1967

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
From Indian writer Karuna Ezara Parikh ...

It is not Paris we should pray for.
It is the world. It is a world in which Beirut,
reeling from bombings two days before Paris,
is not covered in the press.
A world in which a bomb goes off
at a funeral in Baghdad
and not one person's status update says "Bagdad",
because not one white person died in that fire.
Pray for the world
that blames a refugee crisis for a terrorist attack.
That does not pause to differentiate between the attacker
and the person running from the very same thing you are.
Pray for a world
where people walking across countries for months,
their only belongings upon their backs,
are told they have no place to go.
Say a prayer for Paris by all means,
but pray more,
for the world that does not have a prayer
for those who no longer have a home to defend.
For a world that is falling apart in all corners,
and not simply in the towers and cafes we find so familiar.

Yes.
Very well said......Sadly:(
 

Politesse

Amor Vincit Omnia
I think there is room to pray for France as well as everyone else. But I understand the sentiment expressed.

Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, anyone saying that Syrians should not find safe harbor in the West is an ISIS apologist whether they know it or not, since creating that opinion that was surely one of the goals of this attack. I have no doubt that some of these brutes will be found to have posed as refugees, solely to create that impression and make their victims pay for fleeing the country. The world is off kilter. And if I here one more broadcast in my country reminding us that an American was among the dead, as though that is the only reason one ought to care about a terrorist attack, I may lose my hat.
 

Sakeenah

Well-Known Member
I think there is room to pray for France as well as everyone else. But I understand the sentiment expressed.

Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, anyone saying that Syrians should not find safe harbor in the West is an ISIS apologist whether they know it or not, since creating that opinion that was surely one of the goals of this attack. I have no doubt that some of these brutes will be found to have posed as refugees, solely to create that impression and make their victims pay for fleeing the country. The world is off kilter. And if I here one more broadcast in my country reminding us that an American was among the dead, as though that is the only reason one ought to care about a terrorist attack, I may lose my hat.

This

ISIS main goal in the west is to divide people Muslims VS non muslims..us and them mentality .They want violence or hate crimes against muslims..because they will be able to use that in their propaganda.

Personally I pray for everyone in Paris and every other city in the world...I pray for them to be safe and to have hope and strenght in difficult times.
 

ShivaFan

Satyameva Jayate
Premium Member
It is completely ironic if you consider the subject of this post.

LEBANON is an examplar of the future of France - or for that matter Canada.

BERUIT was once known as THE PARIS OF THE MIDDLE EAST.

Think about it. Now another bomb goes off. More muslim fanatics murdering others. When they can't use their daily depravity of terrorism on those who are not muslim fanatics like them then they murder their own muslims with glee.

Yes, it is so common, sometimes it isn't a "headline". It is there, in the news, at least in my news sources who then get accused of Islam-bashing. But yes, very, very common. Everywhere those like we see in Syria have this unfathomable death cult and deep, deep hatred and fanaticism.

Beruit. Once known as the Paris of the Middle East. A great tourist destination, and a great financial capital.

Today, Lebanon holds a day of morning after the ISIS bumbing of Burj al-Barajneh. It is all the buzz on conservative forums and internet, and on the news sources I use - ISIS again, and the irony, Beruit once the Paris of the Middle East as we see now the same in Paris the Beruit of Europe.

What are these conservatives saying, so hated by the leftwing? They are talking this bombing alright. Here is what they are saying.

Beruit was not once Muslim majority. It was Christian majority. Then they started letting in Muslim refugees. Soon, faster than anyone thought possible, Christian populations dwindle faster than January job opportunities. The Islamic terrorism came, too. Christians tried to form militias along the Syrian borders because they then found themselves under attack.

Here is what one Lebanese says: "When I was a girl, women wore bikinis on the beaches. Now they are killed for doing so."

The Muslims became the majority. Many were fanatics. Many came as refugees. Many are still coming to mass murder.

Now we see it in France. In Paris. Both, reflections of each other.

Muslims who preach this hatred and foment this terrorism as if it is holy have been torching cars in France a 1000 at a time ever since every New Years Eve and Bastille Day for at least several years now. It was only a matter of time before they started going after the French people instead Renaults. Actually, Renaults will be a weapon of choice.

"This type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries." Barack Obama, June 18, 2015.

He is right. When they take the likes of Syria and ploop it in Paris, Ontario or Beruit, then you are no longer an "advanced country". You are Syria.

One of the Paris attackers was Ahmed Almuhamed, who was RESCUED by Greek authorities from a wrecked migrant boat, saved, to then come to Paris and mass murder. He would do the same in Ontario if he could get there.

Now the "new PM" of Canada is saying he wants to expedite the entry of 25,000 "Syrian" refugees into Ottawa over a short period of only 2 months.

It is absolutely logistically impossible to screen who is a terrorist or not. They will not be able to screen anything. Even the local Canadian authorities in charge of this and national security officials are complaining that this will have cunsequences, that it is unmanageable.

They are right. Ontario is on the path to Paris. Islamic terrorists will come.

Just as these terrorists hop from Belgium for example into Paris, a prime target, so these Canadian based terrorists will hop from Ontario into New York, a prime target, to mass murder.

This isn't multi-culturalism. Conservatives bring multi-culturalism, not the leftwing.

The leftwing's political stranglehold is always precarious. They only think about their own power, their own pensions as a result of their overreaching power of bureaucracy and government.

They only think of the next election. Not the future. Only the next election, win that. Keep control.

They are not multi-cultural. They are selective-cultural. Very selective.

Whoever they think will vote for them. Not everyone, only selective, and for some damn reason it is always the worse examplars of "humanity".

They flood a country with what they think will be their future voters.

But the end result is very different then what was thought. Syria is simply transplanted, the heart was transplanted, the heart isn't Ontario, it is what Beruit became and what Paris is becoming.

Then people will die. The thing is, I don't want the terrorist to come in from Canada down into the US. Better they kill in Canada, I dun't want my people to suffer because of Canada, nor because of Obama's agenda to rush in hordes of muslim men of military age just in time for the 2016 elections.

But in one way, I think Beruit and Paris may change all this. Thank God the conservatives are paying attention. Beruit the Paris of the Middle East, Paris the Beruit of Europe.

Eurarabia. We should not pray fur Paris, only pray for Beruit? What kind of thought process is that. Conservatives have been watching both, praying for both, way before this week. Too many didn't listen.
 

beenie

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
The message behind the poem is that while we do indeed need to pray for Paris--it also means that, more importantly, we need to understand why the world is in this violent state. No one in their right mind can justify the attacks, but the Paris attacks are a symptom of a much larger disease.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
The message behind the poem is that while we do indeed need to pray for Paris--it also means that, more importantly, we need to understand why the world is in this violent state. No one in their right mind can justify the attacks, but the Paris attacks are a symptom of a much larger disease.
I can't read poems that aren't limericks or haiku, so I'm glad you offered your interpretation.
 
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