Rapists, Jihadists & Tigers - How we respond
Yesterday I wrote an opinion piece that was published on stuff (click here to read it) regarding victim blaming, which I think is shameful.
I had been reading an interesting article by Amos Sale regarding free speech in which he mentioned the recent case of Pamela Geller who was the target of a jihadist attack after holding a "draw the prophet" competition.
What immediately stood out to me is that the general consensus online seems to be that Pamela shouldn't have been inciting violence and provoking people. Very few people condemned the attackers.
In fact the online comments seemed to be a lot like what an australian priest said regarding the rape and murder of Jill Meagher, when he said she should have been at home in her bed. He was just saying what a lot of other people were saying. Clearly he thought that she had the responsibility to not provoke an attack by being vulnerable.
It reminds me an awful lot of how we responded to the tiger attack suffered by Roy Horns (of Sigfriend and Roy the big cat performers). Initially we had sympathy for him, as the victim but after that we all acknowledged that he had put himself in danger by working with big cats. We didn't blame the tiger because we all know that tigers are not really responsible for their actions. Roy had to accept some responsibility for the attack, as the only one involved capable of rational thought.
Somehow we as a society seem to respond in a similar way to rape victims, and to Pamela Geller. Are we suggesting that rapists and jihadists are not capable of rational thought either? That they are not to be held accountable for their actions, why do we find someone else to blame when they are the ones breaking the law?
Is that the society we want to live in? One where women are afraid to walk to their car alone? One where we must not say anything offensive or political incase it incites violence?
Do you want to live in that society?
KG
PS- If, like me, you enjoyed amos's article on free speech more of his work can be found here.
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