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Terror attack on mosque: Double standard of govt, media slammed

Agencies
August 6, 2017

Social media users have voiced frustration at what they described as a double standard after a mosque was bombed in the US.

The explosion at around 5am local time (09:00 GMT) at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, caused damage but did not cause any casualties.

Worshippers had been preparing for the dawn prayer when the attack happened.

There were between 15 and 20 people inside the building at the time, according to Star Tribune, a local newspaper.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has sent agents to track down who was behind the attack, which it says was caused by an "Improvised Explosive Device".

The mosque, like many others in the US, received threats of attack prior to the bombing.

For many the response, or lack of it, revealed a double standard.

Some questioned why US President Donald Trump failed to respond to what they described as a "terrorist attack" targeting Muslims.

Mark Follman, an editor at the progressive-leaning Mother Jones magazine, said Trump's silence was due to the target of the attack.

"In normal times, the bombing of a house of worship with an IED would not go unacknowledged by the president of the United States," he continued, after posting a list of previous attacks committed by far-right attackers that Trump had also not responded to.

Marty Parrish asked: "Did I miss Trump's statement of concern for the victims of this bombing and members of the Mosque?" Adding: "Does he care?"

But Trump was not the sole target of anger, with some railing against the purported lack of media coverage.

Some US-based outlets did publish stories on the attack, but that did not assuage the anger.

A Twitter user named Brown Saraah wrote: "Someone bombed a mosque in Minnesota recently. You probably didn't hear about this because mainstream media likes to demonize Muslims."

Activist Simran Jeet Singh accused the media of avoiding the term "terrorism". 

"Are you kidding with this headline right now? Can you not cal it terrorism because Muslims were the targets? Why the double-standard?" He said, in response to a New York Times article, which used the term "explosion" to describe the attack. 

As with other recent attacks, well-wishers were quick to make donations to the mosque to help it repair damage to the mosque. 

By the time of publishing, hundreds of people had donated a total of $12,000 to repair the damage on two fundraising pages.

The latest attack comes amid rising Islamophobic sentiment.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has said that discrimination against Muslims swelled during the 2016 election campaign and has continued to rise following Trump's election victory.

The US president campaigned on a platform that promised a blanket ban on Muslims entering the country, as he vowed to closely monitor mosques.

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News Network
May 5,2024

Iran.jpg

Iran has urged Muslim countries to cut all relations with the Israeli regime as means of pressuring Tel Aviv to end its ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Saturday, addressing the 15th Heads of State and Government Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Gambia’s capital Banjul.

“Beyond doubt, this time period will also pass by, despite all its hardships and adversities for the Palestinian nation,” he said.

“However, the manner and quality of the role that is played by us, Muslim states, in the face of this crisis will go down in history,” the top diplomat added.

“Undoubtedly, severance of diplomatic and economic ties and [imposition of] practical arms and trade embargo [on Israel] serves as an important means of cessation of its genocide in Gaza and atrocities in the West Bank and the Noble al-Quds.”

At least 34,654 people have died in Gaza since October 7, when the Israeli regime began the war in response to al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

Despite the unabated campaign of bloodshed and destruction, the regime has so far fallen short of realizing its goals, including defeating Gaza’s resistance, causing forced displacement of the territory’s entire population to neighboring Egypt, and enabling the release of those who were taken captive during al-Aqsa Storm.

Amir-Abdollahian said Gaza’s developments proved that elimination of the Palestinian resistance “was nothing but an illusion.”

“Because the Israeli regime is not a legitimate government. It is only an occupying apartheid power,” he said, adding, “Passage of time is not going to lend legitimacy to an occupying power.”

The foreign minister asserted that realization of sustainable peace and security in the region was only possible through cessation of the regime’s occupation of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland, and manifestation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

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