Friday, March 15, 2019

Shooting in Christchurch

Everyone knows. There was a shooting (or rather, two) in Christchurch today, where gunmen attacked two mosques and shot people there.

I saw a video of one of the shootings. The shooter actually broadcast his entire attack live on Facebook.

It was nothing short of a methodical massacre.

All religions share common teachings: universal love for humankind, and punishments for one's own bad deeds. So the indiscriminate killing of people belonging to a certain affiliation (be it race, religion, work, play, or any other ways we can group people) can never be taken as "punishment". In fact, such deeds only show a person's lack of faith, lack of religion, lack of humanity.

Religions warn of demons, of devils. This is what they are referring to.

Those who claim to act in God's name are acting for themselves, acting in the name of those demons and devils. Because an almighty God does not need mortals to act on His or Her behalf. In a more ignorant age, where information was less readily available, I would find it hard to blame people for believing in lies and becoming terrorists, instigated or self-radicalised. But in an age where information is so readily available, why do people still choose to fall into ignorance?

Why do people still choose to believe in demons and devils, instead of the teachings of their religions?

Why do we continue to discriminate against people who are different from us, instead of accepting the diversity that is humankind?

Why do we continue to be weak and fall to temptation, instead of standing tall in faith?

We pray for the fallen, but more importantly, we should ask ourselves, "What can I do to make sure this does not happen again?"

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