On Nov. 13, 2015, Paris was attacked by the terrorist group ISIS. It was a coordinated strike on public places in which over one hundred people lost their lives. Many regarded it as the worst terrorist attack since 9/11. The entire world showed its support for the French, with many countries lighting up major monuments with the French colors. Facebook offered people an option to layer their profile picture with the French flag, and the hashtag “pray for Paris” exploded on twitter. The globe offered its solidarity for France, but little to none know about the attack on Beirut, Lebanon.

On Nov. 12, 2015, Beirut, Lebanon was also attacked by the same terrorist group, ISIS. Two suicide bombers detonated in the southern suburbs of the city, killing over forty people in the process. The hashtag “pray for Beirut” is not trending on Twitter. Facebook is not offering the option to apply the Lebanese flag filter on your profile picture. Google did not add the Lebanese flag to their homepage with the tag “In memory of Lebanon”.  Mainstream news did not extensively cover the topic. CNN and CBS were not following the story unfolding. The majority of people didn’t even know this attack had happened. The Lebanese people have been forgotten by the world, and this angers me.

I by no means am undermining the support for France or saying it should be less than it is, but recognition for other countries that have fallen victim to horrible attacks similar to the ones in France should be more. Mainstream media simply doesn’t care as much, even though the attacks were of the same severity. Violence in the Middle East is just something accepted by the Western world. It’s been running rampant this past decade, and many innocent civilians have fallen victim to terror attacks; but when one European country gets attacked, it makes headlines across the world.

No, it’s not that part of the world again.The Middle East is just like any other part of the world, and should be treated as such. These are real people with real unfortunate situations that should be recognized and acknowledged.