Hate Crimes Going to a Different Level??

By: Mariam Abdul Gowad

  • | Thursday, 16 July, 2020
Hate Crimes Going to a Different Level??

Another hate crime, another victim, more blood, more hatred and seemingly no stop! Everyday newspapers and news broadcasts are filled with updates about someone who has been killed or injured in a hate crime, places of worship under attack and the numbers are increasing and no real stance is taken. Do we have to wait until a religious war erupts and countries and humanity are destroyed by its atrocities?! No religion of whatsoever nature may contribute or put a hand towards such an ending, and no religion can accept such crimes be committed under its flag. Hence, a sincere resolution should be laid towards ending such hatred before more destruction is brought upon humanity.

It’s nothing new to witness religion being used for hundreds of years to justify the waging wars, taking lives and ruining countries. This started early in history with the Crusade wars against Muslims. Those wars were initiated with the claim of protecting Christians living under Islamic persecution as claimed, and to save Jerusalem from the hands of Muslim invaders. In fact those wars were waged for the sake of gaining power and draining the wealth of the East. In his book “Myths about Christianity”, Jeffrey Burton Russell said that numerous cases of wars waged under the name of religion such as the Thirty Years' War, the French Wars of Religion, the Sri Lankan Civil War, 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, the Bosnian War, and the Rwandan Civil War were all primarily motivated by social, political, and economic issues rather than religion.[1] In their Encyclopedia of Wars, authors Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod document 1763 notable wars in world history out of which 121 wars are in the "religious wars" category in the index.[2] They added that before the 17th century, religion was used as a “reason” for these wars but after that a truer declaration for making wars to gain sovereignty was made.

Did these types of wars ended with the growing awareness and more look through religions, on the contrary, things are getting worse and religion is being used in a way that has never been seen before. Terrorism is being justified as an integral part of a devout Muslim or Christian, mass murders are being committed for the sake of protecting religion, pureness of blood and nationality. The world is living in a renewed growth of different types of terrorist and extremist groups whether Christian or Islamic. ISIS on one side and White nationalism or supremacists on the other, people are in continuous fear for their lives. Hate is spread everywhere, hate against the race, the orientation, the religion or the color. The United States alone witnessed 5155 hate crimes in 2018, while the United Kingdom recorded 103,379 hate crimes in the period from 2018/19.

Criminals are using new techniques to commit their crimes; we have seen how ISIS sympathizers used the “Lone Wolf” strategy to make some of the most lethal attacks known. The last of which was the London bridge attack committed by one of the convicts in providing aid to ISIS, that man who was in prison and applied to join a rehabilitation program and after his release and enrolling in the program –on a day he was about to give a lecture about his case- 28-year-old Usman Khan stabbed two of Cambridge students and killed them. Those same students who were part of that rehabilitation program, they were strong supporters of rehabilitation as a way to end extremism.

Alike wise strategy was used by “Brenton Tarrant” the white supremacist who used automatic guns to target Muslim worshipers during Friday prayer in two mosques, Al-Noor and Linwood, both in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Tarrant 28-year- old, also killed 51 worshipers and injured 49, in one of the worst massacres in the history of New Zealand. Before committing his crime, Tarrant issued an online manifesto where he justified committing his crime for the sake of protecting the white race that is facing a case of a “great replacement” by the Muslim migrants.

Such crimes and more are turning communities and societies into an environment of hostility, people are losing trust towards each other. Such a world will eventually fall into a hole of despair unless strong measures and serious steps are taken by the international community. People need to be more aware of the truth about religions and races that Allah has created us different to get to know each other better, not to kill and hate one another, Allah said: “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted” (49:13). In the Bible (2:17): “17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” Hence, we can see that religions call for spreading the ideas of love and brotherhood between all peoples and that is a pact that all humanity should work on accomplishing and preserving. This pact can be the human pact by which we can save our peoples and youths from falling into the trap of hatred and extremism, and thus a better world will be created.

 

[1] Russell, Jeffrey Burton (2012). Exposing Myths about Christianity. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Books. pp. 56. ISBN 9780830834662.

[2] Andrew Holt Ph. D (26 December 2018). "Counting "Religious Wars" in the Encyclopedia of Wars". Andrew Holt, Ph.D. Retrieved 11 October 2019.

 

Print
Categories: Articles
Tags: