Last year, when terrorists attacked Alkhobar, the experience was made more horrible by the fact that no one in the global news media who contacted me in those days cared about me or my loved ones and friends. All the journalists wanted to know was what was happening with the terrorists! For those of us who call Alkhobar home, this overwhelming interest in the terrorists made us feel desolate. In that terrible time, we were very much alone.
This is why the site, “We’re Not Afraid” (werenotafraid.com) is such a wonderful effort. Launched after the 7/7 attacks in London by Alfie Dennen, the foundation of the site is images that each contain the message, “We are not afraid.” The purpose of the site is to work to keep fear out of people’s lives.
A message from Dennen at the site reads, “We are not afraid to ride public transportation. We are not afraid to walk down a crowded street. We are not afraid of each other. We are not afraid to say that terrorism in any form is never the answer... The historical response to these types of attacks has been a show of deadly force; we believe that there is a better way. We refuse to respond to aggression and hatred in kind. Instead, we who are not afraid will continue to live our lives the best way we know how. We will work, we will play, we will laugh, we will live. We will not waste one moment, nor sacrifice one bit of our freedom, because of fear. We are not afraid.”
Weeks after the site was started, millions of people have viewed the pictures posted there and thousands of people have sent in their own pictures for posting. According to ABC News, Dennen and his team of 10 look at each image and read every e-mail in order to weed out any anti-Muslim messages. The site does not post any images containing political or religious themes.
“I like to think that ‘We’re Not Afraid’ is helping,” Dennen said. “I like to think that people will come away with a feeling of, ‘I can deal with it a little bit more and I can deal with it in the right way,’ which is not to go through my following days in fear.”
