The notes we can take from the last atrocities enacted by ISIL and how they where presented once again shows us the double standards of Western media about level of importance and the amount of exposure an event gets. This discussion is not just about Christians vs Muslims, it is way bigger and wider - it is a discussion about the “free and democratic” westerners vs the “barbaric” easterners. 

The perception of Easterners as uneducated possible inhumane killers and terrorists is now a perpetual way of thinking about the Muslim community. However, adding to that point, it is not only the Muslims who are treated as second hand people. We need to be very specific when we talk about this, because when we look at the recent attacks against Yezidis and Assyrians by ISIL, you will see a pattern of ignorance and disregard not only for Middle Eastern Muslims tragedies, but Christians too.  It is a display of cultural imperialism, orientalism and glorification of Western cultural values and hegemony. 

We live in more atomised societies than in the past, in an age in which many people feel peculiarly disengaged from mainstream social institutions and in which moral lines often seem blurred and identities distorted. These developments have shaped not just Muslim self-perception but that of many social groups. Many individuals within white, working-class communities are often see their problems not in political terms, but rather through the lens of cultural and ethnic identity.

To sum it all, we see an increasing pattern of double standards and engagement in one tragedy while being totally removed by the sufferings of the East. Who decides which atrocity need more attention? Who decides which one of the need to be talked more about? Who can set a definition of importance of tragedies? What is the role of media?  

Western nations dominate the media around the world which in return has a powerful effect on Third World Cultures by imposing on them Western views and therefore destroying their native cultures and disregarding their pain and suffering.