Back-to-back, heinous acts in Charlottesville, Va., and Barcelona, Spain, show blatant disregard for human life. Yet, through the loss of life, one thing is clear: the perpetrators of both attacks are terrorists and neither of them represent where they come from.
The Quran explicitly condemns violence where it states that when somebody has “killed a person” unjustly, it is as if “he had killed all of mankind” (5:32). Unjustified violence has no place in Islam or America — whether or not ISIS claims responsibility for violence, whether or not political leaders express sympathy for the attackers’ motives.
Terrorism is terrorism. It is crucial to call out injustice and hatred wherever it is present. Driss Oukabir, the suspect in the Barcelona killings, does not represent Islam just as James Alex Fields Jr., the alleged attacker in Charlottesville, does not represent American values.
What occurred in Charlottesville and Barcelona is unacceptable, both motivated by bigotry and ignorance. In order to combat intolerance, to prevent the victims of these attacks from dying in vain, it is imperative to seek to mutually understand rather than further narratives of otherness. Striving to create a culture in which it is normal to have dialogue instead of echoing already-held beliefs is integral in today’s world.
