global tolerance statement on London terror attacks
7 July 2005 18:43
global tolerance offers our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those injured or killed in the London bombings this morning, on the 7th July 2005.
As the shock and sadness subside, anger and the need to blame will fill the hearts of many across the world. For global tolerance to be achieved, we need to learn the lessons from 9/11 and the Madrid bombings.
In the aftermath of 9/11 hundreds of Sikhs were attacked as they associated the Sikhs’ turbans with the head dress of Bin Laden. It is ignorance and the not bombs or other weapons that represent the true threat to global tolerance.
In the coming weeks, the media will speak about ‘Islamist groups’ in the same breath as ‘Al Qaeda’ and ‘terrorism.’ global tolerance urges the public to consider what they know and what they don’t know about religion, before branding Muslims as terrorists, and sensationalising the already sensational media. Islam is a peace loving religion, and there is nothing in the Islamic faith that would ever condone or justify the bombings in London today.
global tolerance depends on our ability to investigate before we discriminate, our will to use the media as a starting point and not the sole benchmark for our opinions, and our recognition that ignorant statements about religion serve only to perpetuate the ignorance that terrorists feed from.
Weapons of mass instruction will prevail in the war against terror. Education about the peaceful essence of all the world’s major religions plays a part in curbing the ignorance that currently fuels terrorists’ agendas. global tolerance commits to doing everything it can, in its inimitable way, to bring to light the dangers of stereotypes in relation to religion, and the opportunities for all of us that exist from a basic understanding of the tenets of our world’s great faiths.
Simon Cohen, Director of global tolerance.
