Article Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/21/blast-kills-several-at-pro-palestine-rally-in-southwest-pakistan
In the town of Chaman, a bomb killed at least seven people during a pro-Palestine rally and wounded 17. The town is in southwest Pakistan and is located very close to the country’s border with Afghanistan. The explosives had been placed in a motorcycle and went off right when everyone was leaving the rally.
Several attacks have occured in Pakistan in the past few months due to the escalating tensions in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Many pro-Palestine rallies have been held in Pakistan recently, with the country even designating a specific day as Palestine Day.
The fact that there are pro-Palestine rallies in Pakistan are indicative of the large extent of the conflict. What may seem like a conflict between two tiny nations actually has major global implications. People all over the world are feeling for the people who are experiencing violence in the middle east, and the violence is even spreading to areas thousands of miles away. The fact that someone placed bombs at a rally in Pakistan perfectly proves the extent to which people are willing to go for their beliefs. Conflicts revolving around power, land, religion, and ethnicity are present in just about every country, and in this situation, tensions are seriously rising.
This attack connects to what we have been talking about in class about conflict of ideas versus conflict of interest. When looking at these conflicts through a lens of conflict of ideas, it is easy to point to the two distinct religions and ethnic groups. On the conflict of interest side, the conflict can be seen as an attempt at gaining power and land. Overall, the social cleavages present throughout the world (Pakistan in this specific instance) can easily progress into acts of violence when people believe that their religion is being threatened.