SOLIDARITY OF CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS IN NEW ZEALAND WON OVER TERRORISM AND HATE
By Dr Muhammad Solaiman
1. The deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern History
A terrorist called Brenton Tarrant, 28, attacked two mosques in the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history. He advanced towards two mosques killing 50 and injuring tens of innocent Muslims who were peacefully congregating to pray their Friday prayer. He attacked Al Noor mosque first and then drove about 3 miles across the town to attack and kill more people in Linwood mosque.
2. Overwhelming solidarity of New Zealanders with Muslims
No doubt that the genocide of 50 Muslims and the injury of tens of Muslims in the two mosques was a terrible tragedy. Those Muslims were peacefully performing their congregational prayer of Friday, and all of a sudden their lives were harvested by the shooter in the two mosques.
However, the solidarity, love and consolidation of New Zealanders with Muslims has been overwhelming and helped the Muslim community to endure the tragedy and their big losses. Soon after the massacre, the prime minister and other authorities visited Muslims and expressed their sympathy and promised to take all possible measures to prevent this massacre from happening again. On the other hand, Christians in Churches prayed to consolidate with Muslims. In addition, thousands of New Zealanders have been visiting the mosques with flowers and candles to demonstrate their solidarity, love and sympathy.
3. What does Islam say about terrorism?
Peace is a rule in Islam, as it is in the other major religions. The root of the word Islam is peace. Peace is also one of the names and attributes of God.
To understand Islam’s stance on terrorism, one must refer to its original sources, the Qur’an and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Both are explicit in their prohibition of any form of violence which seeks to instil fear, injury or death to civilians. The following are some examples:
“On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if anyone slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” (Qur’an, 5:32)
“Whoever has killed a person having a treaty with the Muslims shall not smell the fragrance of Paradise, though its fragrance is found for a span of forty years.” (2)
Even during wars between the Muslim state and other states, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) commanded his soldiers:
“Do not betray, do not be excessive, do not kill a newborn child.” (3)
“I instruct you in ten matters: Do not kill women, children, the old, or the infirm; do not cut down fruit-bearing trees; do not destroy any town …” (4)
4. Who stands behind prejudice against Muslims?
Some media aggravate Islamophobia and hate not only in New Zealand but also in different countries. They always spread negative messages about Muslims. For instance, nine of ten news stories about Muslims and Islam in the US, UK, France and Germany are about war or terrorism. In other words, most of the news stories are unrepresentative of the Muslim community, though it is the second largest religion in the world today. Media channels defame Islam and 1.6 billion peaceful Muslims by portraying terrorist bombers as ‘Islamic Fundamentalists’, ‘Islamists’, or ‘Jihadists’.
Why does the media defame 1.6 billion Muslims by the actions of some Muslim individuals? Would Muslims today defame Christianity for this last massacre of the Australian terrorist in New Zealand? Muslims never do that because Islam teaches them not to generalise and to respect the followers of other religions.
In the United States a movement called “Ku Klux Klan” identifies itself as a Christian movement. This movement believes in white supremacy, anti-immigration, and anti-Semitism. It is responsible for many terrorist attacks on others. However, were the followers of this movement labelled by the media as “Christian Fundamentalists” or “Christian Terrorists”?
In the Central African Republic (CRA), a Christian militia group called “Anti-Balaka” destroyed most mosques in CRA, from December 2013 to May 2014, and hundreds of thousands of Muslims had to flee to neighbouring African countries like Cameroon, Chad and Congo. Was Christianity blamed for the Anti-Balaka genocides?
In Burma, the Buddhists killed and burnt Muslims alive in 2013, and the media did not accuse or label Buddhism or Buddhists as terrorists.
Why then does the media keep labelling Muslims as terrorists? Why the freedom of speech has been only used as an excuse to selectively defame Muslims?
5. The need for legislation to stop the propagation of Islamophobia
Some studies have revealed the significant role of media in creating negative attitudes toward Muslims. This because the majority of people rely on media as their primary source of information about Muslims. Therefore, the depiction of Muslims as terrorists has fueled racism, anger and terrorism against Muslims (5).
Anti-Semitism is illegal to prevent sentiments of 14 million Jews from being hurt. What is about the 1.6 billion Muslims who are continuously hurt by what the media propagates about Islam and Muslims? The sympathy with Muslims in New Zealand and other countries is greatly appreciated, however, still, sympathy is not enough. There is a need for legislation that prohibits bad media from seeding hatred to Muslims. It is the high time to equally prohibit the propagation of Islamophobia as anti-Semitism is prohibited.
6. References
1. The Qur’an
2. Saheeh Al-Bukhari
3. Saheeh Muslim
4. Malik’s Muwatta
5. Exposure to Muslims in Media and Support for Public Policies Harming Muslims, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650215619214