AIM Statement: “Environment of Hate” to blame for terror attacks in New Zealand

The Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission released the following statement after the terrorist attacks on the Muslim community in New Zealand:

In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful,

“Who, when disaster strikes them, say, Indeed we belong to God, and indeed to Him we will return. Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the [rightly] guided.” (Holy Quran)

The Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission sends its condolences and prayers to the families and community of the bereaved and injured from the heinous terror attacks carried out by far-right extremists in New Zealand.

Far-right extremists rampaged through Mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 49 people and injuring several more.

In light of this tragedy, we would like to state the following points:

  • The threat against Muslims in the West is real and far outweighs any level of threat to any other minority group in Western countries.
  • In recent years there has been a surge of the far-right who have held angry protests against Islam, spewing hatred and threatening violence.
  • According to London Mayoral Office statistics, Islamophobia is at an all-time high with a 40% increase in anti-Muslim hate crime in 2018.
  • These recent attacks in New Zealand are the inevitable outcome of the rampant Islamophobia that has been whipped up globally by politicians, far right activists and the media.
  • The security of the Muslim community is the responsibility of the host country and not solely a private endeavour.
  • In 2018, the Jewish community received £14 million in security money from the UK government to safeguard their places of worship.
  • No such support is afforded to the Muslim community which records far greater numbers of hate incidents.

As such, we believe the ‘environment of hate’ that has been fostered by government policies, media, and extremist elements are responsible for the rise of anti-Muslim violence and ultimately the terror attacks in New Zealand.

In addition, the lack of security afforded to Muslim places of worship, whilst this continuous fuelling of hatred goes on, means that Muslims are clearly vulnerable targets for extremist attacks and are simply waiting for the next attack to happen.

AIM has mentioned this before but feels obliged to mention again, that without a serious change in policy, we believe that these types of hate crimes will continue thus leaving the Muslim community little choice but to create its own frameworks to assure the safety of Muslims.

Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM)
15th March 2019

 

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