Terrorism must end

We condemn the gruesome attack on two mosques in New Zealand's Christchurch during Jumma prayers on Friday. A total of 49 people were killed in the attack, including at least three Bangladeshis. We grieve the deaths. May the deceased rest in peace. Our deepest sympathy and condolences for the bereaved families. We pray for the recovery of the 40 injured ones under treatment in hospital.

"It is clear that this can now only be described as a terrorist attack," New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said. The world leaders who condemned this incident have termed this as terrorist attack. This heinous mass killing could easily be identified as a 'terrorist attack' before any formal announcement by any state or government.

According to The New York Times, the armed white youth continued shooting the pile of dead bodies and then he again shot the wounded and those attemtping to flee. There were children and women among them.

Such horrific killing is nothing but a terrorist attack, but it was not the so-called 'Islamic terrorism' that the western world has been obsessed with for ages. It was the Muslims who were now attacked in their prayer house. New Zealand has been a country of more peace and communal harmony than many countries including the white-Christian populated ones in Europe and America. Such a mass scale killing did not take place in modern history of the country, but the Friday incident proved that no area of the world is any longer safe. There are risks of violence from extreme narrow nationalist ideology and religion-racism.

This is a matter of grave concern for all people across the globe.

The attacker, 28-year old Brenton Harrison Tarranton, has been detained. He is an Australian citizen. Most of the mainstream media including that of New Zealand, the US and UK, said that Tarrant killed people in prayer at the mosque and live streamed the event on Facebook too. It was said he was motivated by white supremacist hatred against the Muslims. Not only hatred was spread but there was also attempt to spread fear among the Muslims by making the video viral.
Quoting the New Zealand government authority, the western media said Brenton wrote a 74-page statement in which he named several white supremacist mass murderers as role models. There is a clue in the document for his Muslim hatred too in a reference of the crusade between the Christians and Muslims when Islam was beginning to spread.

The US and its western allies have been conducting an anti-terrorist war for long and the main target of the war was so-called Islamic terrorism. The definition of terrorism, as now it is clearly evident, must be broadened. White supremacist terrorism along with Christian and nationalist violent and vindictive ideologies are rising across countries on both hemispheres. Concerted action must be taken to tackle the situation.