Lahore Easter Bombing

Too often do we turn on the news to hear that a suicide bomber has blown up in a public
place, and the Lahore Easter bombing was no different. In Lahore, Pakistan, minority Christians
gathered at a funfair in a park to celebrate Easter Sunday. It was supposed to be a day of joy and
festivity, but instead it was a day of death and despair. The number of casualties differ from
source to source, but there were between 65 and 71 deaths with over 340 injuries. The Christians
were targeted by a sect of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-e-Ahrar, which is a group of militant
Muslims who act extremely against other religions. They issued a statement that read,We want
to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore. This was not
the first attack Jamaat-e-Ahrar has made against religious minorities, the last large casualty
bombing was in 2013 at a church in Peshawar. Lahore is the capital of the richest province in
Pakistan and this suicide bombing was a deliberate message of hatred and fear. Terrorism does
not just affect the United States, but the entire world.
This attack should matter to everyone. In the past weeks there have been several terrorist
attacks around the globe. From Paris to Brussels to Lahore, no ethnicity, language, or religion
appear to be safe from this devastation. However, Brussels and Lahore are the attacks that have
been broadcasted on the media, there have been hundreds of attacks since Paris and too many
have flown under the radar. My generation has only known a world of terror; my mom tells me
that when I was three I asked her, Why are those buildings on fire? on the day of September
11th. My generation is desensitized to this kind of violence and horror; we see shootings or
terrorist attacks come on the news almost every single day. But, my generation also does nothing
to de-stigmatize the religious or ethnic differences between people that elicit this kind of assault.
We promote everyone choosing to do and be whoever they want, but we do not promote the
importance of empathy with opposing groups of people. Terrorists would not attack other people
if they were not so against other peoples ideologies. To have empathy and to understand where
others come from and what they believe, and to not hate their beliefs would eliminate all hate
crimes. This Easter attack in Pakistan is just another event in a long list of attacks that come from
a place of hatred and hostility, and would hopefully not happen if everyone could simply learn to
accept differences in others.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lahore-bombing-taliban_us_56f89595e4b0143a9b4889b7
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/world/asia/pakistan-bombing-lahore.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35910124