‘Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,’ cautions Proverbs. All the more so, when innocents amidst an enemy are murdered.
On June 7, armed terrorists attacked Iran’s Parliament building and the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the 1979 revolution that foisted radical Islam upon the country.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 12 Iranians.
Should we care?
In the early morning of June 19, a lone driver accelerated his van as it approached Muslim worshippers leaving the Finsbury Park Mosque in London.
The driver, a father of four who was arrested at the scene, allegedly said, “I want to kill Muslims . . . you deserve it . . . I did my bit.”
Should we care?
ISIS-sponsored or -inspired terrorism and lone actors have killed more Muslims than any other demographic in the world. Although Western media focus on victims who are Israelis, Yazidis, residents of or visitors to Europe or people partying in Orlando, Florida, victimhood applies equally to “the other.”
The highest number of incidents and fatalities caused by Islamic terrorism occur in Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria and additional Muslim-majority states. In 2015, four Islamic extremist groups — ISIS, Boko Haram, the Taliban and Al Qaida — were responsible for most of the deaths from terrorism.
An illustration: In 2016, ISIS hurled a suicide truck bomb into the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad. The bomb contained a mix of chemicals that ignited a fire. At least 324 Muslims perished. Gone, in the blink of an eye.
The driver who targeted the Finsbury Park Mosque in London claimed he reached the boiling point after an ISIS-sponsored van driver plowed into seven people on London Bridge, June 3.
Perhaps he knew of Finsbury’s history. Radical imam Abu Hamza al-Masri gave fiery anti-West sermons there from 1997 to 2003, radicalizing shoe bomber Richard Reid and several nefarious leaders.
However, Finsbury Park Mosque reopened in 2005 with new leadership and a mission to engage peacefully with its neighbors. These were not “bad” Muslims by any means. But a Muslim is a Muslim. Right?
We mourn the countless non-Muslims bombed and knifed by Islamic extremists. We mourn the Muslim victims of Islamic extremists, whether in Iran, Britain, France, Israel, Somalia, Nigeria, Syria or anywhere else.
Terrorism is terrorism.
Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News
