Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
- Pronouns
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At least 49 killed in 'unprecedented, abhorrent' attacks on New Zealand mosques | CBC News
Forty-nine people were killed and another 48 injured in shootings at two mosques filled with worshippers during Friday prayers in what the prime minister is calling "one of New Zealand's darkest days."
www.cbc.ca
First off, thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families. And, more broadly, for the people of New Zealand of all religions and ideologies who are no doubt wrestling with what this means for their country and society. I have a friend on another site who lives in NZ and I'll reach out to her later.
I live in a city with a relatively large Islamic community who have built a complex with a beautiful mosque and Islamic private school, so this just makes me shudder. Our mosque has contributed heavily to our community and strives to be very open and welcoming. They are involved in the community just as churches are. The Imam speaks at community events. They have open houses and luncheons and other events which welcome the community into the mosque. Even the thought that some hate-filled piece(s) of crap would/could disrupt that horrifies me. And from what I'm reading, these mosques in NZ were much the same.
We have seen way too many attacks on places of worship and services of worship in recent times (The Globe chronicled all the major ones from the last decade in the article below). Police guards and emergency response teams are a short term measure. Longterm, the solution is for the hate and violence to stop. How do we stop it? How do we promote respect between faiths and ideologies? How do we marginalize and control or destroy the ISISs, anti-Semites, and white European nationalists of the world while preserving the respect between the mainstream of the various faiths?