World leaders react with horror to the deadly attacks at two mosques in Christ church during Friday prayers. Political leaders and religious leaders across the globe have expressed their condemnation at the deadly shooting at two mosques in New Zealand city of Christchurch. Forty-nine people were killed and at least 20 suffered serious injuries in the shooting targeting the mosques during the Friday prayers. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the shootings appeared to be a well planned terrorist attack.
Police said 3 men and a women were in custody in connection with the attacks. The timings of the shootings and the posting on social media of what appeared to be live , point of view footage of the assault by a gunman, added to the distress of many.
Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the deadly attack on the mosques, saying it illustrated the growing hostility towards Islam “idly” watched by the world. “With this attack, hostility toward Islam, that the world had been idly watching and even encouraging for some time, has gone beyond individual harassment to reach the level of mass killing,” said Erdogan.
US president Trump condemns the “horrible massacre” at two mosques in New Zealand, sending his “warmest sympathy and best wishes” to the people of the country.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan blamed the New Zealand attacks on rising Islamophobia after 2001’s September 11 attacks. “Shocked and strongly condemn the Christchurch, New Zealand, terrorist attack on mosques. This reaffirms what we have always maintained: that terrorism does not have a religion. Prayers to go to the victims and their families,” he tweeted.
The European Union foreign policy chief extended condolences over the loss of lives in New Zealand, saying that “attacks on places of worship are attacks on all of us who value diversity and freedom of religion and expression”.
In Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the biggest party in its ruling coalition, said one Malaysian had been wounded in the attack he described as a “black tragedy facing humanity and universal peace”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed sorrow over the “citizens who were attacked and murdered out of racist hatred” in attacks on the mosques.
An abbreviated list of recent acts of white supremacist terrorism includes Robert Gregory Bowers’ killing of 12 Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2018;Alexandre Bissonnette’s massacre of six Muslims in the Quebec City mosque in 2017;Dylann Roof’s murdering of nine black Christian parishioners in a Charleston, South Carolina church in 2015:and Anders Behring Breivik’s slaughter of 77 people in Norway in 2011.
Source: Aljazeera English.
