Matthew Martin: Terrorism can strike anyone

French expats and locals light candles of remembrance in Aotea Square, Auckland for those who died in the Paris terror attacks.

While the Western world listens to presidents and Prime Ministers calling for revenge and merciless retaliation for the atrocities that occurred in Paris, we must also remember that history will judge us all in how we react to terrorism and terrorists.

While all acts of terrorism are abhorrent it seems we can pick and choose which acts of terrorism we respond to with outpourings of grief and anger.

But I'd like to spare a thought for those who have hardly attracted a mention in the news recently, let alone provoked shows of international solidarity such as "Pray for Paris" or the posting of French flags all over social media.

The day before the Paris attacks twin suicide bombings in a southern suburb of Beirut killed 44 people. Isis reportedly claimed responsibility for the attacks carried out on Shiite Muslims.

While all acts of terrorism are abhorrent it seems we can pick and choose which acts of terrorism we respond to with outpourings of grief and anger.

Numerous suicide bombings in Baghdad this year, killing hundreds, have been claimed by Isis. The most recent was on Sunday last week which killed seven, and was two days after another bombing in the same city that killed 17 people attending a wedding. A week after the Paris attacks 19 people were killed by gunmen after they took around 170 people hostage at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali. And they are just a few I found after a quick Google search.

But I think I can understand why we in the west are more emotionally attached to terror attacks on Western nations.

Westerners relate more to their fellows. We live a similar way of life, we hold similar values, we share common religious traditions. The Paris attacks were directed at all things the French, and many of us in the West, hold dear - food, sport and culture.

For New Zealanders, the French have been our comrades on the battlefield and on the rugby pitch. But it seems no one is immune to terrorist attacks.

Muslims around the world also tend to be the main targets of these attacks. Direct fanatical Islamist attacks on Christians are not the norm. So we are definitely not alone in our being targets of Isis attacks, we just seem to mourn and take more notice of the ones we want to. And I'm not saying this is a bad thing either. Awareness tends to lead to understanding, and hopefully, as people become more aware and more informed it can lead to empathy, not just for those killed in Western nations, but for all the innocents killed by fanatical madmen.

We must all take responsibility for what happens in the future. Whether it be something potentially devastating to human life like climate change, or something as disturbing as acts of terrorism. We are all in this together. There is no "us and them" when it comes to the survival of the human race. Do we want to be the ones who set off the next world war?

We occupy the same "pale blue dot" (apologies to Carl Sagan) meandering through the Milky Way. We only have one planet Earth, we can't just hop in a spaceship and find another. I suggest we all look after this one and all of the people on it. As Mahatma Gandhi once said - an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.