After the Paris terrorist attacks last Friday, people didn’t know how to react. Grief and fear comingled with anger and confusion as people took to social media to try to make sense of the attacks. People started using #PrayForParis in social media as a way to send care and love to the victims’ families and to Paris in mourning.
Outside French Embassy in DC, mourners place flowers, wine, candles and cards #PrayForParis #ParisAttacks pic.twitter.com/3HiOd1Ybic
— Liz Wahl (@lizwahl) November 14, 2015
Joann Sfar, a French cartoonist and a contributing artist to the French magazine Charlie Hebdo (which also suffered a recent terrorist attack) has a message for all the users of that hashtag: stop praying for Paris. Sfar says, “We don’t need more religion! Our faith goes to music! Kisses! Life! Joy and champagne!”
I guess I can see how people would want to pray for the people involved in a tragedy like this, especially when it happens somewhere far away. Our natural instinct to help clashes with our inability to be directly involved, so many people turn to a spiritual means to attempt to help. But I think that Sfar’s argument, as a member of an organization that was the target of a previous terrorist attack, should hold more sway.
Prayer is almost always associated with a religion, and is almost always directed toward a diety. Considering that a religious terrorist group was responsible for the horrible tragedy in France, Sfar makes a strong point that injecting more religion into the situation will likely make it more volatile, not more peaceful.
Sfar suggests an alternative hashtag: #ParisIsAboutLife. It is a celebration of the beauty and the life of the city, and a way to focus on the positive aspects of a wonderful city that hasn’t given up its love of life. It is a way to avoid inserting religion into a horrible situation caused by religion.
With sadness is anger. They attacked my district – what can we do to defend ourselves? Keep on loving and living the city #ParisisaboutLife
— Invisible Paris (@INVISIBLEPARIS) November 14, 2015
When we discuss a painful situation, we should be mindful of what the people involved have to say, and be sensitive to their wishes. Of course, Sfar doesn’t speak for all Parisians, but he makes a very good argument that religion should stay out of well wishes for Paris, at least for now.
Featured image is a screengrab from Instagram.
