Just a few short weeks ago, on May 15, nearly 50 preschool children were kidnapped by gunmen from schools in Northeastern Nigeria. That same day, gunmen attacked three schools in the Oriire district and abducted 46 people: 39 students, aged 2 to 16, and seven teachers. The attackers reportedly planted improvised explosive devices to deter any rescuers. These attacks bear the hallmark of Boko Haram, the same group that kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014.
Several weeks have passed, and much of the world has said nothing. While teachers in Nigeria are going on strike in protest, there’s been no outrage, no mass demonstrations, no universities erupting in protest, no nonstop social media posts, no “Bring Back our Children” slogans like in 2014.
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What there has been is absolute deafening silence.
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In contrast, for the past three years, daily social media posts have shared a flood of statistics, headlines, and accusations about Gaza, presented as unquestionable fact. People who never spoke about terrorism suddenly became experts on the subject overnight, protesting and posting constantly, and their followers absorbed it all as truth.
These attacks were likely perpetrated by Boko Haram, a recognized terrorist organization known for kidnapping children and terrorizing Nigerian civilians for years. There is no ambiguity here, no debate over “context” or “competing narratives.” It is oppression and terrorism, pure and simple.
So I ask: Where are the activists who claim to care about human rights? Where are the influencers posting every hour, the students occupying campuses demanding action? Where are those same people who scream for the children of Gaza but are stone-cold silent for the children of Nigeria? Where is the United Nations?
Twenty-three years ago, I survived a terrorist attack when a Hamas suicide bomber boarded a bus in Jerusalem and blew himself up. As a victim of terrorism, I have spent my life “moving on” and building resilience for myself and other terrorism survivors. Yet I am inundated with daily messages saying that somehow, my Hamas terrorists are the real victims.
Sadly, the world’s outrage has become deeply selective, shaped less by concern for victims than by biased media narratives and political agendas.
If the abduction of innocent preschool children by a recognized terrorist group doesn’t move the world, then we have to ask: what is really driving today’s outrage? The masses protesting in the streets have become sad pawns in a media chess game they barely understand.
When the world only cares and rallies on behalf of certain victims, it sends the devastating message that some lives matter more than others. Children kidnapped by terrorists in Nigeria should matter. Families living under the constant threat of terrorism in Africa should matter. Victims of terrorism everywhere should matter.
Sadly, they don’t.
To those taking the time to fight for someone else’s freedom, I ask you to take a moment to pause and ask how much you actually know about the fight you’re joining. Who taught you this narrative? Why do some victims move the world while others are met with indifference and silence?
Close your eyes and think of these terrified 3-year-olds that most of the world hasn’t even heard about. Think of their parents, waiting for their children to come home each night, living the nightmare of a missing, terrorized child, not knowing where their children are and not being able to do anything to save them.
They are also living with the world’s deafening silence.
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Now open your eyes and check yourself the next time you want to join an online crusade. Who are you trying to save? What do you know about terrorism globally? Ask yourself if you are part of a trend, of media bias, a political pawn, or whether your movement is putting the lives of the clearly innocent of the world first.
Then ask yourself: are you adding to the noise, or are you ready to break the silence?
Sarri Singer is founder and director of Strength to Strength, a nonprofit organization that unites international victims of terrorism and provides long-term psychological and peer support to help them heal and move forward. She is the survivor of a terrorist bus bombing that took place in Jerusalem, Israel, in June 2003.
