Editorial: Turn a deaf ear to voices of hate

On Friday, March 15, 2019, terrorism struck the distant shores of New Zealand again when 50 Muslims were killed during Friday prayer in Christchurch.

The Middle East Times International extends its sympathies and condolences to the families of the 50 victims, many of whom had escaped violence in their homeland to start a new life in safety.

In a world growing increasingly intolerant and drowned in hate speech, the reaction of the wider New Zealand community, and their Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, was in marked contrast to previous reactions to terrorism around the world.

Today’s world has “transformed” the manifestations of extremism and feelings of fear and hatred. Words, images, video of hate … it now has the power to reach many millions across the world at a vast speed.

Extremism in Western societies has increased in recent years and is present in countries like the United States. This has encouraged the followers of racist groups to engage in acts of violence and terrorism, including European and American cities.

Of course, helping distort the Western view of Arabs, of Islam, are the defects in Arabic and Islamic bodies.  But Western politics, culture and media is ready to rail against all that is Arab and Islamic especially after terrorist acts.

We also see a decline in the West from “global” to “national” and the emergence of a religious factor that helps justify racism.

When the accused is a terrorist group with Arab or Islamic names, the general anger targets Arabs and Muslims wherever they are. Add to this what has been planted in the minds of Westerners with false writings of an “Islamic threat” to the West and a general ignorance.

This anger can be accompanied by false practices, carried out by individual Arabs and Muslims , even within Western societies suffering an influx of immigrants with their different  customs and beliefs that have proven hard to assimilate into their countries.

Those who are marketing in the West the idea of a “conflict between Islam and the West” really want to make the whole West a single front against Islam. But there are forces within the West that want to come closer to Arabs and Muslims, as there are forces that want to fight.

It is the responsibility of those in leadership at all levels that racist tendencies be eliminated.                                             Editor in Chief