After finding out about the terrible events that have occurred in Oslo yesterday, having now left at least 92 people dead, I immediately thought "oh no! Al Qaeda and muslim extremists again". Seems the media outlets had the same idea as they splashed 'Al Qaeda' across their frontpages and websites.
This got me thinking, why do we immediately presume their involvement? its not like other terror groups don't exist in other parts of the world. Of course not many of these have too many a gripe with Norway, granted, but jumping the gun every time and hesitating to suggest other causes is inhibiting our abilities to make rational clear judgements on world events.
As it turns out, our initial assumptions seem to being proved wrong with the suggestion of a christian fundamentalist /right wing european cause being the culprit. This flies in the face of Islam being the only extremist religion and reminds us that all religions have extremist elements and these can be played out in numerous ways, in different parts of the world.
We have a societal duty not to cast aspersions on other people and communities, basing it solely on past actions and history. The press also have a duty not to publicise reports that could inflame community relations, especially when they have little substantiating evidence. Lets all learn a lesson from this, myself included, next terror attack; "oh no!, I wonder who was behind that? lets find out first!".
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