It was this afternoon when I read a tweet about bomb blasts in Mumbai, India. Later at night, I read an article in Yahoo UK about triple blasts in Mumbai that killed at least 20 with more than 130 injured. The explosions happened during rush hour in which officials claimed that it was another acts of terrorism, which was once hit by Pakistan-based militants in 2008. As of this second, I haven’t heard any news about who is behind these cowardly indiscriminate attacks.

Now for me, the most interesting parts of online news are the comments posted by public under the official coverage. It shows me how the public actually perceived the issue as to the anonymity principal of our virtual world, people are given a chance to speak their mind freely without the fear of being judged by others.

There are (until now) 140 comments in total and the blames mostly go out to Pakistan, which is also known as a country with Muslim majority. It is very sad and shocking to me that most of the comments believes that Islam is evil and that all Muslims are violent. Those who condemn Islam get more ‘thumbs-up’ and those saying that the bombing issues have nothing to do with religion and that terrorists are a bunch of idiots using Islam to justified their horrible acts get more ‘dislikes’. For example, a comment saying that ‘Islam is an infectious disease for all…’ receives 90 likes and 25 dislikes. Another saying ‘it times to block immigration for Muslims totally..’ receives 21 like and 3 dislikes.

Of course, all the commentaries do not represents the general opinion (I’m ASSUMING most of the comments are from British or perhaps the West. Please bear in mind that I am assuming, and it is because I read the news in Yahoo UK). Having to live in UK for a year even convince me more that things such as racism or Islamophobia are no longer / doesn’t exist. I spent a year in Surrey and met people from around the world, like seriously around the world; UK, Turkey, Greece, Germany, Spain, India, Pakistan, Russia, Poland, China, Italy, Japan, Egypt, Nigeria, Libya, Iran and more. And it was one of the best times in my life. All of us went out altogether every week, we get along so well with each other (of course with a lil bit of arguments once in a while). Not once has the religion discourse becomes an issue. Right then, I actually believe that maybe Miss Universe(s) might not entirely brainless. Maybe, world peace is more than an imaginary discourse.

Sadly,  realities just have to make its way to my brain. Being back to Indonesia, I once again under the ‘cynicality’ spell. The lunatic bigots claiming to uphold Islamic laws have made it hard to believe in Miss Universe’s dream. To talk about interfaith tolerance in Indonesia has made it easy for FPI (Front Pembela Islam) to come under the spotlight. Their violent acts from force sealed churches, destroying nightclubs to vandalism have always been claimed as part of defending Islamic laws (according to their brains) despite the obvious fact that Indonesia is a secular state. Although it is a relieved to know that most Indonesians condemn their brutality (which proves that most Indonesians still have a working brain, and heart), the case is different for the government. Under the principles of democracy, the government said they have no authority to dismiss and banned FPI or even to arrest its members despite the long-list acts of violence they have committed.

 I have always wandered how a person can be so self-centric, narrow-minded, and disrespectful and having the ability to hurt others deliberately, just like those extremists and terrorists.  Yes, okay I know you might think I’m naïve or stupid but I honestly don’t understand. Anyway, I thought that maybe, maybe it is because of their lack of education. I thought that the unexplainable mentality of these extremists is because they don’t get the chance to see what is outside their world and their beliefs. The limited knowledge is why they cannot accept differences and diversity and that it explains their childish behavior of putting out tantrums if things don’t go as how they want it to be. I also thought that poverty level in Indonesia might be the cause.  Motivated by the urge to fulfill their family basic needs, they are willing to do anything ordered by groups of people with hidden agenda. The economic conditions might lead them to act irrationally without questioning. Maybe.

But what I found today in Mumbai attacks article in Yahoo UK’s commentaries just break my hypotheses. Referring to my assumptions that most of the comments are written by UK citizens, a country that is supposedly prosperous and supposedly filled with educated citizens (compared to Indonesia), it is a shock to find some people with narrow-minded, discriminative and judgmental mentality there, no less than lunatic bigots in Indonesia. Little did they know their abusive insults are equal to the extremist’s brutality and terrorist’s indiscriminate attacks towards non-combatants when they fire and bomb the innocent ones.

I don’t think I need to state the obvious that terrorism has never been related to any religion or any nationality, it is completely the stupidity of the individuals. Well, I guess for now I have to be satisfied with the findings that education and poverty level has no positive correlation with people’s decency and intelligence.