One of the goals of the Islamophobic propaganda surrounding the tragic events in Sri Lanka was to convey the idea that, in contrast to the sincere sympathy shown by others for Muslims who were victims of a similar attack in New Zealand, even «peaceful Muslims» showed complete indifference to similar Christian victims. This, of course, is not true.
Muslims both in the world and in Sri Lanka actively expressed their sympathy for the Christians who suffered from this inhuman massacre, but of course it was impossible to learn about it from the mainstream media.
Let’s start with the fact that representatives of the embassies of the 10 largest Muslim countries in Sri Lanka jointly visited Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who is the head of the Catholics in Sri Lanka. Among them were envoys from Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Iran, Palestine, Bangladesh, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Afghanistan, Maldives, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Separately, a delegation of representatives of Islamic organizations in Sri Lanka, including the largest organization Jamaithul Ulema, paid a collective condolence visit to the Cardinal. The Catholic leader thanked them all for their support and urged Christians and representatives of other denominations in the country to show inter-religious solidarity in the fight against the evil that threatens everyone.
Ordinary Muslims in many places organized spontaneous acts of solidarity or joined existing ones. Imams stood alongside Christian priests and spoke almost the same message everywhere — that people should remain humane, that such attacks contradict the essence of all religions, that their followers should not succumb to provocations but should fight together against the degenerates who commit such acts.
Muslims, including children, carried bouquets of flowers to the places where Christians were killed. They participated in memorial services together with representatives of other religions.
Therefore, all discussions about double standards among Muslims in their reaction to the tragedies in New Zealand and Sri Lanka are dishonest speculations. In both situations, among representatives of different religions, there were people who showed human compassion for God’s creatures and there were inhuman individuals who justified their atrocities with religious or anti-religious motives.