Violence shouldn’t have any place in our society but neither should we lose sight of why these violent acts occur in Europe today. In a society that defends civil rights such as freedom of expression, violence has no place and should be condemned.
Violence can, however, come in many forms: bombs and killing people in cold blood. You can also use “a silencer” to hide the bombs and bullets and target whole groups in subtler and more effective ways like social exclusion, racism and bigotry.
Both are unacceptable and put at risk our own values.
Even if we still do not know the motives behind the attacks in Copenhagen, is it appropriate to begin labeling whole groups with a single brush?
Here is the message from my Muslim friend Bashy Quraishy in Copenhagen:
Many of my foreign friends have sent me SMS, emails and even called from far away lands to enquire if I was OK. They have heard about the fatal shootings in Copenhagen and were worried about my safety…
While it is absolutely important for all of us to condemn and denounce any act of violence, it is also necessary to do it with clear heart and conscious and not for any populist gains. It is always sad and unfortunate when violence is committed against civilians, resulting in death and injuries.
In my books, it does not matter who commits violence, from what culture, class, religion or ethnicity, the criminal belongs to. Violence is violence and we must distance ourselves from such inhumane acts.
Unfortunately, like it happened in 9/11 and even in Paris attacks, the experts and journalists have quickly started using the terms such as; Islamic terrorist, Jihadi and ISIS sympathizer to describe the lone gunman. The fact is that police has no clue, authorities have not mentioned the religion and media has not seen the person but on TV2, Breaking News coverage, DR2 Deadline and in newspaper Internet editions, Islam is already being dragged in the picture.
On the national TV2 channel, the gunman is described on the screen – from the first moment – as; Arabic looking and with very fair color. Someone must ask these Islamophobes on TV2; what is an Arabic looking person and how do they know he was an Arab?
Some sound thoughts during this moment of grieving.
Ah, just like your thoughts in Breivik case?