On July 26, the Qatari-owned Al-Quds al-Arabi daily carried the following opinion piece by Toufik Rabahi: “On Friday, a young man whose teenage years were barely over, opened fire on unarmed civilians at a shopping mall in the city of Munich in southern Germany, thus claiming the lives of nine shoppers, and propelling the city and the entire country into a major whirlpool of grief and questions. This represented a deep shock which Germany will recall for a long time. Less than 24 hours later, at around midday on Friday, three suicide bombers detonated their bodies in the midst of demonstrators belonging to the Hazara ethnicity, who follow the Shi’i sect, as they were protesting in the streets of the Afghan capital Kabul. More than 80 people were killed and at least as many were injured. But this was just an episode in the ongoing death series, which Afghanistan will quickly forget.

“Both cases provided the needed ingredients for a lengthy and exciting televised coverage, i.e. the Islamic State organization, mass murder, blond victims, Shi’i victims, Hazaras, etc. However, in the first case, the world suddenly stopped as though based on prior agreement, and the television channels discontinued their satellite broadcast and focused on Germany..., despite the few information available and the few identical images which were broadcast in a loop for many hours. For their part, Europe’s and America’s leaders called Chancellor Angela Merkel to extend their condolences and express solidarity, while social media was swept by reports, interpretations and analyses ad nauseam. In the second case, life continued as though nothing had happened. Hence, no one discontinued the broadcast, and no satellite channel deemed it necessary to seek information or footage.

“Likewise, not one president or leader called Afghan President Ashraf Ghani..., while social media, which is permanently open to all sorts of talk, abstained from tackling the issue and deemed Munich more important... The report thus appeared in the form of “breaking news” on the screens of some Arab and international satellite channels, before it disappeared so that they can continue their Munich coverage. These satellite channels also deemed the joint press conference held by the general prosecutor and the Munich police chief more important than the 80 people whose lives were reaped by criminal machine in Kabul, just as they deemed a simple and unconfirmed piece of information about the psychological state of the Germany shooter more urgent than the news surrounding the death and injuring of dozens in Afghanistan...

“Controlling the flow of images and the medium is no longer absolute like it was 30 years ago. So, controlling the minds has become more useful, guaranteed and dangerous. If this is not the case, how would one explain the fact that all the major satellite channels, whether Arab or foreign, decided as though based on prior agreement that the Kabul crime was unworthy of an open coverage? Why did those who filled social media with talk about Munich abstain from mentioning Kabul? Why did not one president or king around the world bother to call President Ghani to inquire about what happened and extend his condolences, as it was done with Merkel just one night earlier?...”