Editorials

#YEAR11PROBLEMS

16 November 2015

By Lauren E. White

Paris terror attacks: terrorism has no religion

At around 9.30pm local time on Friday night, terrorist attacks in Paris began.

The attacks targeted the Stade de France, the Bataclan concert hall, restaurants and shootings in the streets. In total, 129 people have died and 352 were injured in an “act of war” according to French President Francois Hollande. As ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, many British people are feeling fearful and have had their minds sharpened by the events in Paris where students at both Ripon Grammar School and Newcastle College were visiting at the time of the attacks.

Here in Britain and the North East, whether you are young or old, there is no doubt that the shocking and horrific acts of terror have caused ripples in public opinion and once again, converted some people to Islamophobia. Many people are fearing Muslims and Islam as a religion due to the events in Paris because of what religion so-called ‘Islamic’ State claim to be a part of.

To anyone who scapegoats all Muslims and all of Islam: stop. Terrorism has no religion. Islam doesn’t preach hate or terror in the same way as Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism and many others do not either.

ISIS is a group of extremists, murderers, people who dehumanise others because of their disgustingly distorted ideologies. They are not real Muslims – they do not represent what Islam stands for and the fact that so many people around our nation are believing that all Muslims believe in ISIS’s ideologies is, frankly, scary.

Do not be uneducated on this. Look at the Klu Klux Klan as an example: they claim to be Christian. When do we hear of people discriminating against Christians on the street because of the KKK? Never. Why? Because they don’t represent the real beliefs of Christianity. Extremist groups use ‘faith’ as their excuse, their motivation. But it is simply not true. No real faith or religion preaches to kill others in the name of anyone. In fact, they preach to end killing and terror. It’s not right that Muslims may be afraid to walk down the street because people will whisper about them and judge them because of their faith. They are just as responsible for the Paris attacks as you or I.

To round off the end of this week’s #YEAR11PROBLEMS column, I want to share with you a quote from the Quran – the central religious text of Islam – about peace: ‘If anyone killed a person not in retaliation of murder, or (and) to spread mischief in the land – it would be as if he killed all humankind, and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all humankind.’

Here at b**p, our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to all of the victims, their families and people of Paris at this terrible time.

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