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JEDDAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) has said it is appalled by the “horrific” bomb and gun assault on a mosque in Egypt’s north Sinai on Friday.
It also attacked the mass media in deploring the “negative stereotyping” of Islam and Muslims. In the attack on Al-Rawdah Mosque, condemned by the commission as “one of the deadliest attacks in Egypt’s modern history,” at least 300 people were killed and 128 injured.
“IPHRC unreservedly condemns this dastardly act of terrorism and extends its heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Egypt in general and grieved families in particular,” it said in a statement.
“Fashionable as it has become, every time an act of terror occurs, we see Islam and Muslims are being negatively stereotyped in the mass media and (by) far-right groups,” the statement said.
“However, this attack, which is one of the numerous being carried out daily against Muslims in an Islamic country, illustrates how Muslims continue to suffer from the double jeopardy of being themselves the victims of the terrorist attacks and simultaneously the targets of Islamophobic acts fomented by slanted media reporting and statements of the political demagogues.”
The IPHRC reiterated its view that such barbaric attacks by any group professing deviant ideologies have no sanction in the religion of Islam, which forbids terrorism and the targeting of innocent civilians under any circumstances.
It urged the Egypt government and the international community to continue to take all measures to effectively combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
While condemning these “despicable inhuman acts of cowardice,” IPHRC also urged the international community and Muslims all over the world to “commit to the values of pluralism and tolerance, which remains the best defense against those who are committed to turning communities against each other.”
The commission also stressed the need to highlight the message that a “clash of civilizations” is not between religions and races but between “those who stand for hate and divisiveness on the one hand, and those who stand for mutual respect and peaceful co-existence, on the other.”