The enemy of the reasonable

More people at worship, more hatred, more terror, more pain, more anguish, more murderous extremism. The Easter Sunday terror attacks in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo and other towns in the island nation cut pretty close for New Zealand. Because the wounds of terrorism are still so raw here.

The last time much of the world had been glued to television news bulletins, awaiting updates on an unfolding atrocity, it was one taking place in our midst.

On Sunday it happened again, sudden, callous, brutal, and destructive. Again, the world was horrified, transfixed.

There were similarities. Many of the victims were at worship, as those at the mosques attacked in Christchurch had been. In this case they were Christians; Catholic and, in Batticoloa, on the island’s east coast, evangelical. The distinction is immaterial. They were worshippers exercising their right to worship, peacefully. On one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar.

There were contrasts too. The Sri Lankan attack also targeted luxury hotels, with one suicide bomber reportedly setting off his murderous devices in a buffet breakfast queue.

In New Zealand, the attack had been without modern precedent. For Sri Lanka, sadly, the blasts were a return to a recent past, to the horrors of a nearly 30-year civil war that saw some 100,000 people killed, as Tamil separatists sought an independent state on the island.

Touring New Zealand cricket teams were affected more than once. In 1987, a tour was

abandoned after one test when a bombing killed 113 people in Colombo, and five years later a handful of players and coach Warren Lees returned home after a Sri Lankan naval officer was killed by a suicide bomber outside the team’s hotel.

The civil war ended in 2009 and Sunday’s attacks were the first on such a scale since, though the targeting of tourists was reportedly a departure from the days of the civil war. Yesterday afternoon it was still unclear exactly who was responsible, though Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardena had called it a terrorist attack by religious extremists.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe acknowledged there had been ‘‘prior information’’ of attacks on churches involving a littleknown Islamist group, but not enough had been done about it. AFP reported that it had seen documents showing an intelligence alert was issued to senior police officers 10 days ago, quoting warnings from a foreign intelligence agency that a radical Muslim group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), was planning suicide attacks against ‘‘prominent churches’’.

Of course, these claims will have to be investigated, but Wickremesinghe’s plea to the populace to remain calm, and not to perpetuate unfounded speculation, is wise. That would only serve to inflame the situation in a country that prizes the relative stability of the last decade.

In the wake of this atrocity, however, one thing has been reinforced again, as it was in Christchurch just over five weeks ago. No matter its source, extremism is the enemy of reasonable, peace-loving people everywhere.

For Sri Lanka, sadly, the blasts were a return to a recent past.