Prominent cleric and Imam of Aishbagh Eidgah, Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali, expressed dismay at the muted response of secular parties to massacre of 50 Muslims who were praying in Al Noor mosque in Christchurch (New Zealand).
The Maulana also accused the media of adopting double standards in this case.
“I am at my wits end to comprehend the response of secular parties to the New Zealand tragedy. The same parties condemned the incident when two Muslim gunmen in Paris attacked the office of French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people and injuring 11 on January, 2015. The secular parties vied with each other in condemning the incident in strongest possible terms but they have maintained studied silence over the Christchurch incident,” Farangi Mahali said on Monday.
The Maulana, also a member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, said, “We should have a uniform approach in condemning acts of terror. If a Muslim is involved in the act of terror, he is immediately dubbed as terrorist while non-Muslims indulging in such acts are described as ‘gunmen’ and `shooter’.”
Firangi Mahali added, “Anybody killing innocent person is a terrorist and those having soft corner for terrorists are mentally sick. I feel that the root cause of terrorism is Islamophobia.”
