Yes, what happened in Paris IS horrible.  A tragedy.  Over 150 people died in these attacks, and many more were injured.  30,000 people a year die from violence in the U.S. every year, mostly from guns.   Untold thousands die in the Middle East as a direct result of religiously motivated violence.  Women around the world are permanently maimed or killed in the name of religion as well.   But we hardly ever hear about those other tragedies because they are so ordinary any more.

But these attacks in Paris?  Why, that’s unheard of! It’s outrageous!  We must pray for Paris!

Seriously?  Give me a fucking break.

To whom shall we pray?  The God whose followers did this in his name?   Or the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God who supposedly knew it would happen, was supposedly there when it happened, and supposedly could do nothing to stop it — or simply couldn’t be bothered to try?   To which God should we pray?  And for what shall we pray?

Certainly every effort will be made to aid the families of victims.  Anyone with an ounce of empathy and compassion will treat them with kindness, and the city and nation will do their best to press forward in their lives.  Paris will survive, just like New York did, just like London and Madrid, as well.

But we are not fighting Islam.  We are fighting terrorists.  They are not the same thing.  Muslims around the world are just as horrified by acts of terrorism as anyone else, because these acts do not reflect the faith they believe in or the religion they practice.