The terror unleashed on peaceful worshipers in Sri Lanka

By Dr. Aslam Abdullah

On one of the most sacred and significant days in Christian history, in a Buddhist dominated state of Sri Lanka, suicide bombers allegedly belonging to an outfit described as Muslims killed more than 250 worshippers and injured hundreds more. The US described them ISIS-inspired and the Sri Lankan government called them local Sri Lankans with ties to National Toweeth Jamath. 

The Sri Lankan Muslim community, realizing the seriousness of the situation issued the following statements

"For members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, it’s no surprise that local jihadist group National Thowheed Jamath is being blamed for deadly bombings that killed nearly 300 people on Easter Sunday. Hilmy Ahamed, vice president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka said he warned military intelligence officials about the group and its leaders about three years ago. “Targeting the non-Muslim community is something they encourage -- they say you have to kill them in the name of religion,” Ahamed said in a phone interview from Colombo on Monday. “I personally have gone and handed overall the documents three years ago, giving the names and details of all these people. They have sat on it. That’s the tragedy.”  

Religious places and religious worshipers are the easiest targets, a terrorist can attack without much resistance. This is what the terrorists have done for decades. A mob in 1992 in India demolished a house of God under the instigation of political leadership that claimed that it was built on the birthplace of a mythological Hindu warrior and ruler Rama, who has been given the status of a god by some of the followers of the Hindu faith. Two years later, a Jewish doctor gunned down scores of worshiping people in occupied Palestine. Until 2010, scores of places were attacked, vandalized and brutalized, sometimes by followers of rival religions and sometimes by the followers of the same religion belonging to different sects.

Houses of worship around the world, a place of reflection and peace, have been targeted for attack by extremists. Here are some of the deadly assaults over the last decade:

Since 2010, the world has started taking note of such incidents. Thus, in the last 19 years, some major acts of violence took place and they are as follows.

Oct. 31, 2010: Al-Qaida in Iraq attacked Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church in Baghdad during Sunday night mass, killing 58 people.

Dec. 15, 2010: Two suicide bombers from the Sunni extremist group Jundallah blew themselves up near a mosque in southeastern Iran.

July 16, 2010: Jundallah group killed 27 and injuries 270 after it carried out a double suicide bombing against another Shiite mosque in southeastern Iran.

Aug. 5, 2012: Six members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, in Oak Creek, were fatally shot by a white supremacist, Wade Michael Page. Page was shot by a responding officer and later killed himself.

Nov. 18, 2014: Two Palestinians using axes, knives and a gun killed four Jewish worshippers and an Israeli police officer in an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue.

Jan. 30, 2015: Suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in the Pakistani town of Shikarpur killed 71. Jundullah claimed responsibility.

March 20, 2015: Islamic State suicide bombers attacked a pair of mosques in Yemen's capital, unleashing monstrous blasts that ripped through worshippers and killed 137 people.

June 17, 2015: Nine black worshippers, including a pastor, were killed by Dylan Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist after he prayed with them in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof was convicted of federal hate-crime and obstruction-of-religion charges and sentenced to death.

Sept. 24, 2015: A suicide bomber struck a mosque in Yemen's rebel-held capital, killing 25 worshippers during prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Nov. 12, 2016: Suicide bomber from ISIS killed over 50 at the shrine of Shah Noorani, in Pakistan's Baluchistan province.

Dec. 11, 2016: Suicide bomber struck inside a Cairo chapel adjacent to St. Mark's Cathedral, the seat of Egypt's ancient Coptic Orthodox Church killing at least 25 people.

Jan. 29, 2017: At the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, a mosque in the Sainte-Foy neighborhood of Quebec City, Canada. Six worshippers were killed and nineteen others injured when a man opened fire

Feb. 16, 2017: Suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest among the devotees at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Pakistan's Sindh province, killing 98.

April 9, 2017: Twin suicide bombings rocked churches in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria and Tanta, killing at least 45 people. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.

June 15, 2017: A suicide bomber killed four people at a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul. Among the dead is a leader of Afghanistan's ethnic Hazaras, who are mostly Shiite Muslims.

Aug. 1, 2017: A suicide bomber stormed into the largest Shiite mosque in Afghanistan's western Herat province, opening fire on worshippers before blowing himself up, killing at least 90 people. Hundreds more were wounded in the attack, which happened during evening prayers.

Aug. 3, 2018: Suicide bombers disguised in burqa robes attacked a Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan, killing 27 people.

Aug. 25, 2017: Militants storm a packed Shiite mosque in Kabul during Friday prayers. The attack ends with at least 28 worshippers killed and 50 wounded, many of them children. Two of the assailants blow themselves up and another two are shot dead by Afghan security forces.

Sept. 29, 2017: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite mosque in Kabul, killing five. The attack took place as worshippers were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers.

Oct. 20, 2017: ISIS claimed a suicide bomber attack, killing 31 and wounding 29 people, at a Shiite mosque in Kabul.

Nov. 5, 2017: Dressed in black tactical-style gear and armed with an assault weapon, 26-year-old Devin Kelley opened fire at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others.

Nov. 24, 2017: Militants killed 311 worshippers in a mosque attack in north Sinai, the deadliest such terrorist attack in Egypt's modern history.

Dec. 17, 2017: ISIS attacked a church in the Pakistani city of Quetta kills 16 people.

Oct. 27, 2018: A gunman believed to have spewed anti-Semitic slurs on social media entered Tree of Life Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh and opened fire, killing 11 and wounding six, including four police officers.

Jan. 27, 2019: Two suicide attackers detonate two bombs during a Mass in a Roman Catholic cathedral on the largely Muslim island of Jolo in the southern Philippines, killing 23 and wounding about 100 others. Three days later, an attacker hurls a grenade in a mosque in nearby Zamboanga city, killing two religious teachers.

March 15, 2019: At least 51 people are killed in an attack at mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.

In addition to that hundreds of places of worship were destroyed by either authorities or mobs in China, Myanmar, Israel, Congo, and India in the last several decades.

Apparently, religious violence is on the rise and the religious leadership is failing to control hatred, terror, and violence committed by their followers.

In this increasingly volatile and violent situation, it is easier to point fingers at others and blame them and religion for that. The reality is that no sane person and no genuine religion can promote violence or terror against those who differ with its basic tenets. No one is born with hatred as part of his or her gene. People learn to hate based on what learn in their families, religious institutions, schools, and social and political circles. People are often instigated to use violence and terror to silence others or to intimidate a whole community.

It is this notorious brainwashing done in the name of religion that needs to be challenged and eliminated. Every religious community has to play a proactive role in controlling its hate mongers, but the most effective way is to challenge the promoters of violence and terror through interfaith efforts. The religious community must come together to fight this menace that has become a political tool to divide people and spread hatred and violence. If such an initiative is not taken, then we all will suffer. The attack on the Christians of Sri Lanka was, in fact, an attack on Islam and Judaism and Buddhism as well as Hinduism and only when these communities and their leaders come together to fight terror, the monster can be tamed.

The forces of evil and the sources of Islamophobia

by Dr. Aslam Abdullah

In the wake of the recent tragedy in New Zealand against Muslims, it is imperative to address the following questions:

Are there people and groups responsible for Islamophobia? Why are they spreading hatred against Muslims and Islam? What biases have they developed against Islam?

A cursory look at the statements issued by different groups and individuals against Islam and Muslims on a regular basis suggest that the following are the main sources from where the anti-Islam propaganda is spreading in the world:

1. Right-wing Christian Evangelical groups. They preach hatred against Islam in their places of worship and declare Islam as evil and Muslims as pagans out to destroy western civilization.
2. Jewish supremacists and their supporters. They promote hatred against Arabs and Muslims and claim that Muslims are anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic.
3. White supremacists. They regard Muslims as part of dark races and even those who are born in the Caucasian region cannot claim to be white. They believe that God is on the side of the White race.
4. Hindutva supremacists. They believe that their God is only there for them and others are untouchables and consider Muslims in India invaders who must be converted back to Hinduism.
5. ISIS and Violent Muslim groups. They believe that God has given them a license to kill innocents and them use the miseries of Muslim people to hurt innocents.
6. Buddhist supremacists. They believe that they can claim peace while killing others and want to cleanse Myanmar of Muslim presence.
7. Democratic and Republican demagogues. They serve multinational corporations and the interests of Israel to earn their livelihood. They have the least regard to the human rights of those who are not like them.
8. A right-wing and multinational corporation-controlled media that loves to see the blood of innocent spill in the streets so that through its reporting and divisive reporting it can get more advertisement and ratings.
9. A liberal left that view Islam as a bane of human civilization.

All of them find Muslims an easy target. Because Muslims still believe in divisions in the name of the false division, between Shia and Sunnis and hundreds of schools of thought.

They have learned that hatred towards Muslims can get them elected. They can use any pretext to attack Muslims. They do not realize that humanity is one and every human deserves a dignified existence and it is through respect and love one would create bridges to bring people together.

How should Muslims defend them besides relying on God? They should develop alliances with Jews, Christians, Buddhists, atheists, and Hindus and others who believe in the sanctity of life and who are willing to confront their owns to seek dignity for every human being.

Racism among Muslims

Of course, we are equal and no one is superior to the other. This is what we teach our kids and this is what we learn from our parents and scholars. But are we really equal? There are gender, class and status biases that exist in almost every walk of life in a Muslim community.  Even when people convert to Islam, you can notice that. There are louder shouts for a white man or woman than for a black or Hispanic man or woman.

Racism is rampant among people of all ethnicities. Among the south Asians, people claiming to be of north Indian origin seem to look down upon people of other regions. Those who are of fairer skins feel they are better. Those who claim to belong to the lineage of Abu Bakr Siddiqi, Umar bin Khattab, Uthman bin Affan or Ali Ibn Talib as well those who call them Syeds declare them superiors to others. The way people of lower castes are treated in the area is totally un-Islamic, yet this has been going on for centuries.

The racism that exists in religious circles is even worst. Even though the clergy, by and large, tend to be arrogant in general, a good number of Arabs have the notion that they are superior to non-Arabs because their language is the language of paradise or the Quran was revealed in their language or the Prophet was from the tribe of Quraysh. Even though this attitude is contrary to the universal teachings of Islam, yet this is commonly observed even in the United States.

I distinctly remember a few unforgettable incidents that I personally experienced. Once, I was asked to lead the Maghrib prayer in a gathering of Muslims. An Arab brother came forward and in front of everyone asked me to repeat the kalima and recite Sura Fatiha. I was shocked. I stepped back and asked him to lead the prayer. The irony was that he forgot to recite Sura Fatiha correctly. This was nothing pure bigotry and racism. Similarly, in a mosque, where I had just concluded giving the Friday sermon which was more in Arabic than in English, one of the Arab brothers asked me to step aside so that an Arab can lead the prayer. His argument was very simple. Only Arabs are qualified to lead the prayer. These are not isolated incidents. I see this arrogance in many of our masajid and Islamic centers. When some people call at the Islamic Center and Masjid where I work, the first question they ask “do you speak Arabic.” My typical response to this question, “Yes I know Arabic but I would not speak with you in Arabic now.”

In the eyes of many Arabs, the status of non-Arabs in spiritual or religious matters is lower than them. This becomes apparent in the way they express their ideas and reactions to a non-Arabic speaking person.  

In the gulf, this phenomenon is even worst. Non-Arabs are looked down upon, especially, if they are from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. However, they treat white folks as if they are their masters. In fact, in several Gulf countries, a semi-educated or ordinary clerical staff belonging to the white race earns a higher salary than a non-white non-Arab worker.   

It is humiliating to be in the company of these people. Many of them are self-righteous, arrogant and rude and insulting. In a gathering, an Arabic speaking individual once stood up to admonish the speaker to either speak Arabic or step down from the podium because Islam can only be explained in Arabic.

Both Arabs and South Asians have in general a negative attitude towards African-Americans. How many masajid invite African-American scholars or imams to give Friday sermons. Of course, exceptions are there, but that is due to the higher academic or religious excellence these people have achieved.

This attitude is not an attitude people are born with. None of us knows our lineage, race, color, language or even name when we are born. Someone tells us who we are and how should we view the other. Some of our very renowned scholars, unfortunately, have promoted racism, and culturally exclusive ideas in our Islamic vocabulary. It is shocking to see the name of very renowned scholars in this category.

A great majority of people from Arabic and non-Arabic speaking backgrounds does not believe in any of these racially motivated attitudes. It maintains a distance from such people. But, such people are often unaware of each other’s presence amongst them.

This is not going to last. As the knowledge of the Quran with translations would become common among non-Arabic speaking people, the notion of the superiority of Arabs over non-Arabs would be challenged and genuine Muslims would refer to the sayings of the Prophet that an Arab is not superior over an Ajami and an Ajami is not superior over Arabs. The honor belongs to the one who is closer to the divine teachings. The idol of racism will be crushed here in America because American is the only country in our recent history that crushed the notion of Jewish, Christian, white or black or Hispanic superiority. With the divine teachings on their side, Muslim people devoid of their racially motivated leaders can give a real Islamic identity to them and their coming generations.