Unity in Paris? Rather a lot of hypocrisy.

European media were busily denouncing the “wave of jihadist terror” that had dominated the news for several days last week. But the real wave wasn’t reported as it could have been. It is much more forceful and cruel than just the events at Paris, deplorable and disgusting as they surely were. Since December, Islamists have committed murderous atrocities on end, killing 132 schoolkids in Peshawar, 150 women in Al-Anbar, Iraq, 30 victims in Cameroon, 2000 in Baga, Nigeria, and, most recently, 20 in Gombe (using a 10-year-old child as a suicide bomber!).

Last week’s slaughter of twelve journalists was only one incident in a systematic warfare which Islamist forces are waging, not only on Europe and its culture alone, but on the followers of more moderate variants of Islam as well, not to speak of Israel and Jews in general. In fact, Jews are among the foremost victims in this warfare. When the horrific attack on Charlie Hebdo was followed by the killing of four hostages in nearby HyperCasher Market, media couldn’t ignore any longer that “now the terror has also targeted Jewish victims”. But it had done so before. The only woman who was killed among the members of the Charlie Hebdo team was Elsa Cayat, a Jewish columnist. The terrorists had spared all women present in the building except her. Later, it became known that Elsa Cayat had received telephone threats for some time before the attack, calling her “dirty Jew” and warning her to “stop working for Charlie Hebdo, otherwise we’re going to kill you”.

Did journalist negligence cause media’s failure to report on these facts or a kind of hypocrisy? But if it was the latter, their attitude was topped by the participation of some of the world’s political leaders at the Paris anti-terrorism rally yesterday. It was disgusting, to say the least, to see Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov and Mali’s President Keita in the front row of the memorial march, all of them representatives of countries where the freedom of the press is permanently trodden under and journalists are in constant fear of being harrassed, jailed or worse. “What a joke,” – Middle East Forum president and historian Daniel Pipes commented on Twitter. To say the least, that is.