If Christchurch is Islamophobia, what is Pulwama?

With the cowardly terror in Christchurch, New Zealand which saw a man opening fire on people gathered for Friday prayers have again sparked a debate on the religious angle in these attacks. Brenton Tarrant, who live-streamed his killing spree, on a now-deleted Twitter account reportedly posted multiple photos of what appear to be machine gun magazines and a link to what is being described as a manifesto for his actions.

Condolences for the victims poured in from India and around the world however it was not long before that irresponsible political discourse had again shifted the debate from terrorism to mere political agenda setting. A few activists in the media were swift to jump the gun and termed this attack as ‘Islamophobic’, ’racist’ and ‘Xenophobic’ citing the victims being Muslims immigrants and the aggressor being a Christian. However, with their skewed approach on selective issues, the so-called ‘activists’ have certainly lost credibility.

The Pulwama terror attack which saw condemnations from around the world, if measured under the same scale can it be termed Hinduphobic? The terrorist before the attack, in his recorded video, clearly said that his attack was against ‘cow piss drinkers’ while many take terrorism as menace against humanity and take a tough stand on it, indifferent activists are searching for every religious angle in the Christchurch attack, who had been openly dissociating terror and religion in the past. The terrorist involved in the attack is a Christian.

Some Twitteratis called out the activists.

https://twitter.com/TrulyMonica/status/1106413508785307648

What didn’t come as a surprise for many was that some even attempted to use this ghastly terror attack to stir support and sympathy for illegal immigration. This misuse of terror attacks to push selective narrative is not new and has been happening in India for a long time. Law and order incidents involving people from different castes have also been used in the past to drive wedges between communities and create an environment of hostility in society. While these so called ‘activists ‘ are quite vocal about attacks on certain communities, they eat a frog when another community is attacked. These activists have been called out for their biases time and time again.

Imran Khan, PM of Pakistan was the one of the first ones to misuse a tragedy for his political benefit. In a tweet he said .

In the tweet, he clearly dissociates any religion from terrorism however in the very next tweet he brings in the religious angle to cater to his extremist Islamic vote bank in Pakistan.

Using terrorism as a political tool has degraded the debate and deliberations that should go into tackling this global menace. Together with the irresponsible attitude of media in spreading hypocritical news and generating skewed discourses, which are based on political agendas rather than general wellbeing of humanity, makes a recipe for disaster. Terrorism needs to be eradicated with full force and cooperation of world leaders. India should lead the efforts with its partners to eradicate terrorism from Kashmir and set an example for the world.