Muslim writer
Dr Rakib Ehsan:
Following the mosque massacres in Christchurch, political figures across the Western world did not hesitate in accurately describing what they were – white-supremacist terrorist attacks on Muslims in their places of worship during Friday prayers.
In the aftermath of Christchurch, Hillary Clinton expressed her solidarity with the global Muslim community – the Ummah – and said ‘we must continue to fight the perpetuation and normalisation of Islamophobia and racism in all its forms’. Former US president Barack Obama tweeted that himself and his wife Michelle were grieving with the people of New Zealand and the ‘Muslim community’. Our own prime minister, Theresa May, correctly labelled Christchurch as a ‘horrifying terrorist attack’.
Now, contrast this with the language used by the same three figures following the coordinated series of Islamist-inspired terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. Affectionate expressions of solidarity with persecuted Christian communities have been missing. The Christians killed in their own churches have been referred to by Clinton and Obama as ‘Easter worshippers’. Despite the clearly sophisticated, well-planned nature of the terrorist attacks, which very much had the aim of killing a large number of Christians, the British PM – a vicar’s daughter – referred to them as ‘acts of violence’.
The differences in tone and nature between the condemnations of the Christchurch and Sri Lanka terrorist attacks are striking. After Christchurch, there was no hesitation about stating the religious backgrounds of the victims and directing emotion and affection towards Muslim communities. Politicians took no issue with categorising the events in Christchurch as terrorism.
In contrast, the words ‘terrorism’ and ‘Christianity’, along with their associated terms, have so far failed to feature in much of the reaction to the attacks in Sri Lanka. ...
The fact is that the persecution and victimisation of Christians continues to take place in many parts of the world, often at the hands of Islamists.
Would that we had such clarity from our own religious
and political leaders.
Related: Tarek Fatah, a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, writes in the Toronto Sun, "
Why Islamic terrorists slaughtered Christians in Sri Lanka."
Almost no one dared to mention the word “Christian” let alone identify the terrorists as Muslim or Islamist or whatever safe word they could find in the politically correct dictionary that only the chattering classes employ. Using ordinary plain English to describe the atrocities would of course open one to be labelled “White Nationalist” or “Islamophobe.”
It’s no wonder the trio of America’s living liberal saints, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren all used the phrase, “Easter Worshippers,” instead of Christians. It was almost as if the C word was beneath them. ...
Here are the words of the suicide bomber Mohamed Zaharan from his YouTube channel where he declares: “It is a sin to live in Dar Al Kufr, (a country with a non-Muslim majority)” and “Even if a Kaffir (non-Muslim) does good things, I hate him, because he is a non-believer [in Islam].”
Such hate may not be a dominant trait among ordinary Muslims, but as one, I am aware where such hate is planted in our minds. Seventeen times a day, every Muslim child in every mosque, in every country, hears the Imam read a prayer where both Christians and Jews are referred with derision, yet no one dares to intervene.
Whereas Islam’s foundation is based on ‘Tawhid’ (invoked in the name of the Sri Lankan terrorist group), which means strict monotheism, its exact opposite is the concept of ‘Shirk’ (the Christian belief in the Trinity). No amount of inter-faith dialogue can bridge the zeal of the Muslim to answer the call to end ‘Shirk’ from the surface of earth.
Colombo is not the last city to be attacked. It’s just the latest in a long list that began with Constantinople.
This, too, by another Muslim writer: "
When Christians Are Under Attack, Muslims and the Left Need to Defend Them."
To call these acts of violence heartless and barbaric would be an understatement. Nevertheless, they aren’t the first such Easter-related attacks on Christians. In Egypt, on Palm Sunday 2017, Islamic State suicide bombers murdered 45 people in two Coptic churches. In Pakistan, in 2016, a suicide bomber affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban targeted Christians celebrating Easter at a public park, killing 75 people. In Nigeria, on Easter Sunday 2012, a suicide bomber believed to be a member of Boko Haram targeted Christians outside a church, killing 38 people.
I am a Muslim, and I consider myself to be on the left, but I’m embarrassed to admit that in both Muslim and left circles, the issue of Christian persecution has been downplayed and even ignored for far too long.