MCEC Statement on the events in Brussels on 22 March 2016

Once again, as after the attacks in Paris last year, we Britons find ourselves looking at our European friends and feeling heartbreak and sorrow after the bombings in Brussels.
Yesterday’s attack, just like the attacks in Turkey in recent weeks and the daily assaults and violence perpetrated by Daesh across the Middle East, cut to the heart of all that we as humanity value and love: freedom, peace, and the ability to live our daily lives without fear. The attackers’ prime objective is to divide us from the society we live in and to perpetuate the myth of ‘Them and Us’.
As British Muslims we have to understand that all of society has a collective responsibility for identifying and notifying the appropriate authorities of individuals who kill innocents in our name. People who carry out such attacks are an abomination to all of humanity and must be dealt with swiftly and appropriately.
We stand with all victims of such attacks across the world. Our prayers are with the departed and those they left behind and with the first responders who helped without care for their own safety. In that action alone we see what makes us human: the need to help others and to support goodness over the evil. Today our actions of good over evil start with our oft repeated but very clear message:
“We will not let the terrorists win by dividing us.”
#notinourname #prayforworldpeace #brussels
Board of Trustees
MCEC – Palmers Green Mosque
London
23 March 2016