Headlines:
- Muslim Leaders Blame ‘Islamophobia’ for New Zealand Mosque Attacks
- Trump claims NZ Mosque Attacker Belongs to a Very Small Minority
- North Korea Threatens to Resume Nuclear Tests
Muslim Leaders Blame ‘Islamophobia’ for New Zealand Mosque Attacks
According to Reuters:
Leaders and organizations around the world expressed disgust and sorrow at the killing of 49 people in shootings at two New Zealand mosques on Friday, attacks that many blamed on the demonization of Muslims by the West.
Western leaders from Donald Trump to Angela Merkel expressed solidarity with New Zealanders, deploring what the White House called a “vicious act of hate”.
The response from some Muslim countries went further, blaming politicians and the media for stoking that hatred. The nationalities of the victims included Indian, Pakistani, Malaysian, Indonesian, Egyptian, Bangladeshi, Saudi, Somalian and Turkish, authorities said.
New Zealand police said 49 people were killed and 42 were being treated for wounds, including a four-year-old child. Three people were in custody including one man who has been charged with murder, police said.
“I blame these increasing terror attacks on the current Islamophobia post-9/11 (where) 1.3 billion Muslims have collectively been blamed for any act of terror,” Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote on social media.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the attack was a result of Muslims being demonized. “Not only the perpetrators, but also politicians & media that fuel the already escalated Islamophobia and hate in the West are equally responsible for this heinous attack,” he tweeted.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated “the urgency of working better together globally to counter Islamophobia and eliminate intolerance and violent extremism in all its forms,” a spokesman said.
It is striking how our leaders are quite ready to attribute the isolated attack of a deranged man to Islamophobia but they are unable to criticise the wholescale collective onslaught of Islam and Muslims by world powers from America and Europe to Russia and China. These past years have seen military forces enter numerous Muslim countries, killing millions, occupying their lands and exploiting their resources. But in none of these cases were the Muslim ruling class able to criticise Western actions or describe them as being in opposition to Islam. Thauban reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: «يُوشِكُ الْأُمَمُ أَنْ تَدَاعَى عَلَيْكُمْ كَمَا تَدَاعَى الْأَكَلَةُ إِلَى قَصْعَتِهَا»، فَقَالَ قَائِلٌ: وَمِنْ قِلَّةٍ نَحْنُ يَوْمَئِذٍ؟ قَالَ: بَلْ أَنْتُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ كَثِيرٌ، وَلَكِنَّكُمْ غُثَاءٌ كَغُثَاءِ السَّيْلِ، وَلَيَنْزَعَنَّ اللَّهُ مِنْ صُدُورِ عَدُوِّكُمُ الْمَهَابَةَ مِنْكُمْ، وَلَيَقْذِفَنَّ اللَّهُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمُ الْوَهْنَ» فَقَالَ قَائِلٌ: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ، وَمَا الْوَهْنُ؟ قَالَ: «حُبُّ الدُّنْيَا، وَكَرَاهِيَةُ الْمَوْتِ» “It is near that the nations will call one another against you just as the eaters call one another to their dishes.” Somebody asked: “Is this because we will be few in numbers that day?” He said: “Nay, but that day you shall be numerous, but you will be like the foam of the sea, and Allah will take the fear of you away from your enemies and will place weakness into your hearts.” Somebody asked: “What is this weakness?” He said: “The love of the world and the dislike of death.” (Abu Dawud)
Trump claims NZ Mosque Attacker Belongs to a Very Small Minority
The tragic mosque attack in New Zealand is renewing a debate in America about the rise and extent of white racist nationalism. According to the Washington Post:
President Trump said Friday he does not believe white nationalism is a rising global danger after a suspected gunman who authorities say espoused that ideology killed 49 Muslims in New Zealand.
When asked at the White House whether white nationalists were a growing threat around the world, Trump replied: “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. It’s certainly a terrible thing.”
Trump also said he had not seen a manifesto, purportedly from an attacker, that named him as an inspiration for white identity ideology.
The responses Friday by Trump and other U.S. politicians to the New Zealand tragedy divided heavily along partisan lines. While many Republicans de-emphasized the role of white nationalist ideology, some Democrats suggested, either directly or indirectly, that Trump’s history of anti-Muslim remarks and policies contributed to the tragedy.
“Time and time again, this president has embraced and emboldened white supremacists — and instead of condemning racist terrorists, he covers for them,” tweeted Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who is seeking to challenge Trump in 2020. “This isn’t normal or acceptable. We have to be better than this.”
Racism in America, and the West in general, is certainly a bitter, intractable, widespread problem that they have been unable to solve; although the appalling days of blatant overt apartheid are over, Western society remains plagued with discrete racial bias. Indeed, by promoting the concept of the nation state, underpinned by national and ethnic identities, the Western Capitalist ideology gives life to its extension into racialist thinking.
Furthermore, the West has taken to benefitting from its racist thinking, using it to complement its war on Islam, which is the real reason why such groups are becoming more active again.
North Korea Threatens to Resume Nuclear Tests
According to the New York Times:
North Korea threatened on Friday to suspend negotiations with the Trump administration over the North’s nuclear arms program and said its leader, Kim Jong-un, would soon decide whether to resume nuclear and missile tests.
Addressing diplomats and foreign correspondents at a news conference in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said that personal relations between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump were “still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.”
But she said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, had created an “atmosphere of hostility and mistrust” that thwarted the top leaders’ negotiations in Hanoi, Vietnam, last month.
After the Hanoi meeting ended without a deal, the North Korean leader had serious doubts about the merits of continuing negotiations with Mr. Trump, Ms. Choe said.
“We have neither the intention to compromise with the U.S. in any form nor much less the desire or plan to conduct this kind of negotiation,” said Ms. Choe, according a report from Pyongyang by The Associated Press, which has a bureau there.
She also said the North might end its self-imposed moratorium on tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
“Whether to maintain this moratorium or not is the decision of our chairman of the state affairs commission,” she said, referring to Mr. Kim by one of his several leadership titles. “He will make his decision in a short period of time.”
In a briefing with reporters on Friday, Mr. Pompeo sought to lower any tensions related to Ms. Choe’s comments, framing them as nothing more than rhetorical speed bumps that tend to follow both summit meetings.
While US President Donald Trump’s abrupt departure from his second summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was yet further evidence of America’s intent to prolong the Korean issue to help contain China, these latest statements indicate China’s determination to make North Korea primarily an American problem.
America jealously guards its position as sole global superpower and can neither accept a rival to this position nor any reduction in its power, however slight. In particular, America has come to see the Pacific Ocean as its own private domain and cannot tolerate Chinese eastwards expansion. Dominated by secular materialist thinking, Western Capitalism sees no harm in using any means to justify its ends; war, destruction and exploitation are of little consequence for America if they aid in maintaining its paramount strength. Instead of working to solve serious problems such as that of the Korean peninsula, involving now nuclear weapons of mass destruction, America is quite content to instigate, provoke and exacerbate such problems to provide legalistic justifications for its continued interventions throughout the world. Mankind shall not find peace until the world is rid of materialism in its entirety; Capitalism must be defeated as Communism was before it so that the man returns to submission to his Creator alone. The Prophet ﷺ said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, «إِنَّ اللَّهَ زَوَى لِيَ الأَرْضَ فَرَأَيْتُ مَشَارِقَهَا وَمَغَارِبَهَا وَإِنَّ أُمَّتِي سَيَبْلُغُ مُلْكُهَا مَا زُوِيَ لِي مِنْهَا» “Indeed Allah gathered up the earth for me so that I saw its eastern and western parts, and indeed the dominion of my Ummah will reach what was gathered up for me from it.” (Saheeh Muslim)