Rev. Joseph D’Souza, Moderating Bishop of the Good Shepherd Church of India and President of the All India Christian Council said that this attack is a reminder that the world is in dire need of peacemakers, who will sow peace and fiercely push back against the evil that aims to suppress the fundamental right of every human being to practice his or her religion as they would choose.
Hyderabad: Rev. Joseph D’Souza, Moderating Bishop of the Good Shepherd Church of India and President of the All India Christian Council, responded to the terror attack on a New Zealand mosque on Friday.
Bishop Joseph D’Souza said, “Our hearts are with the Muslim community in New Zealand after this heinous attack on the Masjid Al Noor and Linwood mosques. We applaud the Prime Minister’s right decision to quickly condemn the attack. This is the latest reminder that our world has descended into a social media-fueled decadence that consumes the political and religious class. That this kind of violence could happen in a peaceful country like New Zealand exposes the great danger all nations face when religious extremists or extreme nationalists take advantage of platforms like social media to propagate their twisted, hate-filled philosophies and call for violence to be unleashed on innocent people like those in Christchurch on Friday. Our words and tweets and Facebook posts have an impact on vulnerable minds. We must remember that we reap what we sow. This attack is a reminder that the world is in dire need of peacemakers, who will sow peace and fiercely push back against the evil that aims to suppress the fundamental right of every human being to practice his or her religion as they would choose.”
Fifty people died and dozens were injured in the twin shootings on Friday. Brenton Tarrant, from the New South Wales town of Grafton, has been charged with one count of murder and is in custody in Christchurch. In a brief court appearance on Saturday, he flashed a neo-Nazi hand signal while on camera.
In a six-minute stretch, the man, wearing tactical gear and a camera attached to his outfit, shot hundreds of rounds into dozens of people while being live online.
His weapon was scrawled with neo-Nazi symbols and the names of white right-wing extremists who had killed others because of their ethnicity or faith. A manifesto released online laid his motivations bare: to kill Muslim immigrants.