Revulsion after Lahore bomb targets Christians

CHURCH leaders around the world have condemned the Easter Sunday bombing at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore, which killed more than 70 and wounded over 300 people.

The Taliban faction Jamaat ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the 27 March bombing. “We carried out the Lahore attack as Christians are our target,” said spokesman Ehansullah Ehsan.

After hearing the news the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby tweeted: “We pray for the victims of Lahore to the crucified God, who brings hope in despair, whose love is with the victims, who promises justice. This despicable act, aimed at Christians, is utterly contemptible and condemned just as we fervently pray for those who have died and been wounded.”

In his Angelus address to pilgrims in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis called for a moment of prayer. He said the attack was “reprehensible” and “bloodied” Easter.

“I appeal to the civil authorities and to all the social components of Pakistan to do everything possible to restore security and peace to the population and, in particular, to the most vulnerable religious minorities.”

The Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, Bishop Samuel Azariah, said in a video message he had “personally met and seen small children, women, old people. Some of them unconscious. Some of them from our church and from our diocese. It is a very, very, tragic and sad event.”

Writing on Facebook, Bishop Azariah said that such terror attacks “weaken and damage the struggle and effort toward bringing a relation of peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims.”

He called upon the “Muslim community to identify, silence and eliminate” the terrorists in their midst. “Mere statements of condemnation and quotes from The Holy Scriptures are not enough. We as a nation have reached a breaking point that ‘enough is enough.’

“How many more soft targets have to be sacrificed?”

There has been so much commentary on the terror attacks in Brussels and noticeably less on the much worse recent atrocities in Turkey and Pakistan. Cynically, it is hard not to conclude that an Asian life is worth less than a European, but realistically the media are bound to get more excited about bad news on our own doorstep than elsewhere.

This geographical disparity in our attitudes explains why we often seem to misunderstand this conflict. Firstly, there is the misunderstanding that treats every outbreak of Islamist violence and terrorism as completely isolated and only to be understood through the lens of nationalism, or grievance over western interference. Then there is the misunderstanding that emphasises Islamist ideology above all and ignores local causes of violence entirely.

The conflict involving groups like IS, al-Qaeda and many others in a number of arenas, including Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and others, is complex. It is silly to ignore the fact that the one common factor is the fact that these are Muslim-majority countries and these terrorists claim to be pursuing a divine holy war in the name of their religion. I’ve been involved in long and pointless discussions with ideologues who seem to be conditioned to deny that the conflict has anything to do with Islam and everything to do with Western policy.

The daft thing is that these ideological battles were settled long ago in academic subjects like history where the ideas of mostly Marxist economic determinists were set to one side. Now historians accept that conflicts have a variety of causes that often include religion and ideology. An approach that dismisses theological motivation, religious piety and experience is an approach that misunderstands religion entirely. It is an approach that is wilfully blind and entirely secularist in its prejudice.

British politicians are being dragged kicking and screaming to an acceptance that there is a significant ‘Islamic’ element to the terrorism the world is currently experiencing. Thus for example, the former Foreign Secretary William Hague writes: “Many factors have contributed to the trend over the past 20 years for a rising number of young Muslims to turn to terror. These include the failed governance of many Arab states, bringing stagnant economies and political repression; the radical teachings emerging in recent decades within a normally peace-loving religion; the 70year conflict with Israel; the surge in the number of young people in the Middle East, Pakistan and North Africa; and the lack of integration of Muslim communities into European societies (‘The Brussels attacks show the need to crack terrorist communications,” Daily Telegraph, 29 March).

They don’t want to inflame community opinion so they do everything to hedge around the obvious by sneaking in phrases like ‘radical teachings … emerging ... within a normally peace-loving religion’. And it is of course right that not all Muslims are tarred with the same brush. In fact it is undoubtedly true that the vast majority of Muslims have historically been peace-loving but that is to say nothing. Most ordinary people would like to avoid war and belligerence and keep their skins intact. Wars are usually waged by leaders and governments. I’m not persuaded that political Islam has the same peace-loving nature as most of its adherents.

When allied to power, Islam has been a conquering, repressive and imperial influence on the world. This is, after all, a religion which, in its founding document, contains the blueprint for an Islamic state and how that state is to be governed by criminal and civil law and a how-to guide of how to spread Islam by the sword through warfare, which is itself governed by holy principles.

But William Hague is also right to say that Western leaders must work with Muslim leaders to turn people against the depravity of Islamic State. “This is why the rhetoric of Donald Trump suggesting an inability to differentiate among Muslims, is so inappropriate and concerning.”

The only approach that we, non-Muslims, can adopt is to fight terrorism, be vigilant and support moderate, secularising and reforming voices within the Muslim community. We can also stay firm and battle to defend and protect our freedoms and democracy. The battle with Islamist ideology must be waged by Muslims within diverse Muslim countries and communities. It is not enough for Muslims to say glibly, ‘nothing to do with us’. It clearly is.

These terrorists claim to be Islamic and it is time for them to be starved of theological justification for their crimes.