On Sunday night, I was with some of my friends when one causally mentioned that a protest might start in our area.

According to an alert she had received from her home school, a Jordanian writer had been assassinated earlier in the day and people were trying to mobilize a protest in a very westernized part of Amman. We hung out around the area for a few more hours, but didn’t see anything of the small protest that occurred that night.

After I returned home for the night, I researched the event a little more. It turns out that one of the most famous journalists in Jordan, Nahed Hattar, had been shot and killed on the steps on the Palace of Justice, a building I pass by frequently on my way to school.

The controversial journalist, who has been in the public eye for years due to his outspoken dislike of political and radical Islamic groups as well as the government, was arrested and charged in August with inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islam.

What’s more astounding is the offense he was arrested for: sharing a cartoon on Facebook that depicted a bearded man smoking in a bed in heaven with women, asking God for wine and cashews.

Events like this are an example of why I believe following the news and current events in the host country is an important practice. Research before, during and after your time abroad is essential to reflecting on your experiences.

The Jordanian government, as well as prominent Islamist groups, have been quick to call the act despicable and intend to bring the shooter to justice, according to a Sunday article by The New York Times. However family members of Hattar say he had received hundreds of death threats because of his sharing of the cartoon on Facebook.

There’s a huge difference between the rhetoric of Jordan’s leaders and the rhetoric of certain outspoken citizens. I would have never been able to compare the two if I hadn’t taken the time to educate myself on the events background.

My initial response to this shocking incident was that it is very clear that I’m not in the U.S. anymore. I have never been so close to an incident that ended in death and began with someone practicing his right of freedom of expression.

This contradiction to my experiences in the U.S. is what I initially fixated on, but what came after was the realization of how brutal and public the crime was. I quickly realized that the event is not completely different from the well-publicized police killings of black men.

The shock I felt passing by those blood-stained steps on my way to school mirrored the shock I felt seeing the videos of many black men being shot by police. I thought back to how I questioned my responses to each of theses incidents, how they were similar and different to the U.S., and in what direction, exactly, is humanity headed toward?

While it may sound very abstract, that’s the point I’m trying to make. This incident made me question my experiences both at home and abroad. I would have never thought as deeply about the issues I still hear about happening in the U.S. if I had never looked into the shooting that happened here in Amman.

I think that every time an abroad student pauses, even for a split second, after hearing about or experiencing a particular moment that made them curious, they should spend extra time to try to learn what made them stop in the first place.

Published on September 28, 2016 at 8:54 pm