Rally Muslims as well to fight terrorism

A representative of the Muslim community in Serbia stands in front of French embassy to pay his respect to the victims of the attacks in Paris, in Belgrade, Serbia, November 14, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

With world leaders rallying to combat the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, many people in the West, especially politicians in the United States, have quickly taken a hard line against Muslims.

The US House of Representatives rushed through a vote on Thursday to erect high hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming to American shores. US presidential candidates Ben Carson and Donald Trump, both from the Republican camp, have done more. Carson is not backing away from his earlier remark that Muslims should be disqualified from the US presidency. Trump has reiterated he would rather confine the refugees within their own country after having controversially dodged a supporter's question indicating US President Barack Obama was a Muslim.

As these two candidates are Republican frontrunners in the campaign polls, their words could be representative of and even influence public sentiment. Carson's business manager, Armstrong Williams, has said many Americans share Carson's views about Islam and Muslims. Maryann Riley, 79, the head of a local Republican women's club, was quoted by The Times website as saying: "I think he's (Carson) right about Muslims." The senior social worker argued: "They don't share our values."

On the other side of the Atlantic British media have reported declining public support for Syrian refugees. These sentiments reflect the Western world's shock at last week's bloody attacks in Paris that claimed 129 lives.

But while mourning the dead and sympathizing with the survivors, the world should remind itself that deadly explosions take place almost everyday in Iraq or other places in the Middle East. It is sad that victims of terrorism in non-Western countries are mentioned only in passing, if at all, by most Western media outlets and evoke little outrage simply because they are seen as not sharing the values of the West.