Thoughts on The Massacres at Two Mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand - UPDATE

A gunman (possibly more) opened fire on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand during Friday prayers and recorded the ghastly massacre on a Facebook feed. One local new source states 9 worshippers have been killed, but another source puts the death toll at "over 27". At least one offender is in police custody who is believed to be a 28-year old Australian man named Brenton Tarrant who evidently published a manifesto on Twitter with white supremacist sympathies.

The attack brings to mind the shooting which claimed six lives at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City in January 2017 and the ramming outside the Finsbury Park Mosque in London in June 2017. Naturally there will be an increased spotlight on Islamophobia and not without justification. However, Muslims are not the only faith who have been killed while in prayer in recent years. Just ask the Sikh community in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, American Methodist Episcopals in Charleston, South Carolina, Baptists in Sutherland Springs, Texas and the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. School shootings and workplace shooting have become common enough. I hope there aren't a similar escalation in church shootings. If people aren't safe at school, at the workplace or at our houses of worship, then where are we safe?

I do fear that when Muslim public figures such as Ilhan Omar make anti-Semitic statements that her defenders will point to this attack and claim her critics are endangering her. Indeed, both Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have argued that these criticism could lead to her Omar being a target of violence. Those who criticize Omar's anti-Semitism have nothing to do with these acts of evil and her defenders should know better. Omar should be held accountable for her words. But this accountability must take place by way of ballot, not bullet.

With that said, this was a deliberate and detailed plan to target the Muslim community in New Zealand and to galvanize the Muslim world at large with the hopes of sewing further distrust and sparking further violence. No religion should live in fear of such violence. But such violence is a reality. The best we can do is offer comfort and sympathy in the short term and practice respect and tolerance in the long term. Such things are far more easily said than done, but this must be done if we wish to live in a world where we can co-exist and learn to how to agree to disagree. R.I.P.

UPDATE: As of this writing, 49 people have been killed in this terrorist attack. One person has been charged with murder and two are in custody in relation to this act.