Geneva- The Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties expresses its condemnation of the terrorist attack on the two mosques on Friday in New Zealand costing 49 Muslims to lose their lives and the wounding of dozens, including children in a serious escalation of aggression against Muslims.
On Friday, the world has woken up to a tragic massacre in New Zealand carried out with unimaginably extreme violenceby an armed terrorist affiliated with the Australian extreme right-wing movement. The killer opened fire, shooting randomly into innocent praying Muslims who were present to perform Friday prayers at Lynnwood and Noor mosques in Christchurch, which is a town inhabited by Muslim community from different nationalities. Children and Syrian refugees who have fled the scourge of war in their country were to be victims of another kind of war against Islam and Muslims.
The Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties believes this heinous criminal act is an aggression against humanity. Attacking places of worship with such brutality is a flagrant violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals, and even a wound to humanity itself. The Council notes that history has proven that the violation of worship places protection constitutes a threat to global peace and security. The way this attack was carried out raises concerns about the spread of Islamophobia as well as about the rise of hate speeches against Muslims in Western societies as a consequence of the direct influence of extreme right-winged parties’ campaigns around the world, since they share the same hostility towards Islam and Muslims.
The Council restates its condemnation of all forms and manifestations of terrorism and urges all States to enact strict anti-terrorism laws. It also calls for the intensification of joint international efforts to counter all forms of violence and extremism in order to prevent such heinous unhuman acts from occurring again.
