It was about an hour after news of  Paris attacks spread across the web. Oblivious to what was happening in the world as my phone had died awhile before, I was scrolling through my twitter timeline. A friend of mine had retweeted a photograph of lots of people gathered together with lights and candles in a downtown type setting with the caption “Paris stands strong.” Intrigued, I decided to explore the account. What I found on that one random man’s Twitter account immaculately encapsulates the mainstream reaction I witnessed that day. All his recent tweets were tagged with #KillAllMuslims. Many stated numbers on how many Muslims occupied European nations. But none provided me with any info on the attack. In fact, he never even mentioned it.

A quick visit to cnn.com, cleared up my confusion. Chérif and Said Kouachi broke into the Parisian satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s office and killed 12 people. These two men caused the death of 12 innocent human beings. That day they snatched away the right to feel safe and secure in the workplace for thousands of Parisians. They terrorized, they murdered, they frightened. 

At that point, I understood the anger. I felt the pain, the fear. However, what I didn’t understand is why the public’s anger was not aimed at those two individuals. Why weren’t people denouncing the two brothers as terrorists? As the horrible criminals they were?

Instead of blaming these two men it seemed to me like the popular route of action was to blame the 1.57 billion adherents of Islam.  An innocent Muslim boy was brutally beaten after a moment of silence for the terror victims was observed in his school in the French Alps. Shootings ensued outside of mosques in Port la Nouvelle and Le Mans, France. Pigs’ heads and viscera were placed inside mosques before Friday prayer. From the looks of it, the 5 million innocent Muslims living in France were terrorized and punished for a crime they did not commit.

The fact of the matter is that Chérif Kouachi and Said Kouachi are the two people responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attacks. It is pure ignorance to blame an entire population of innocents. Their actions were due to their own personal ideologies and interpretations, which cannot be applied to anyone else. By beating up a school boy for his religion and setting holy places of worship on fire, the same purpose is accomplished as in the shooting of the 12 people in the Charlie Hebdo office building: to terrorize, to frighten and to divide.

While doing research on the Charlie Hebdo attacks and its victims, I found one piece of information morbidly ironic. Out of the 12 individuals murdered during the Charlie Hebdo attack, two were police officers. One of the police officers was named Ahmed Merabet. Merabet was Muslim. He died on duty protecting those inside the building. As people around the globe tagged #KillAllMuslims in their angry tweets and hate crimes against Muslims transpired across France supposedly in response to this heinous crime and in recognition of the victims, I couldn’t help but pity their blind ignorance. By dragging the criminal’s religion with him through the mud, they also insulted the religion of the victim, causing their logic to lack basic foundation. An individual’s crime is simply that, his crime. Similarly, the blame and punishment should be contained and limited to only him as well.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Maham Nadeem at [email protected].