First and foremost I made this picture because I've been finding it hard to understand why Facebook never offered me the opportunity to superimpose any of these flags (aside from the tricolore) over my profile picture. These are a few of the larger terrorist attacks worldwide this year. I fail to understand why the attack in Paris warrants a Facebook sanctioned response beyond anything that happened following this small sample of a practically infinite number of similar attacks.
Secondly I think it's important to consider the widespread effects of terrorist attacks and the real life consequences they have. I've seen a lot of people calling for borders to be closed and I've seen elements of the media, as always, inciting some sort of propagandised moral panic. In all of these cases the perpetrators have been identified as Islamic extremists. This is not a case of the Rest of The World against the West, this is a problem that affects people worldwide. These refugees that so many people are so eager to 'keep out' are fleeing the same sort of violence we saw in Paris on Friday. In many cases they're subject to similar terrorist and state sponsored violence on a far more regular basis. If you can empathise with the French and hoist your digital flag whilst ignoring the plight of people desperately fleeing terrorism elsewhere across the world then I think you need to ask yourself what makes this attack in Paris so different? If you are more than happy to help the French but in the same breath turn away Libyans and Syrians, Somalis and Iraqis then there is something wrong with the way you're considering human lives. A life is a life and we should sympathise with and support all people who face these sorts of atrocities.
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