With the cowardly terror in Christchurch, New Zealand which saw a man opening fire on people gathered for Friday prayers have again sparked a debate on the religious angle in these attacks. Brenton Tarrant, who live-streamed his killing spree, on a now-deleted Twitter account reportedly posted multiple photos of what appear to be machine gun magazines and a link to what is being described as a manifesto for his actions.

Condolences for the victims poured in from India and around the world however it was not long before that irresponsible political discourse had again shifted the debate from terrorism to mere political agenda setting. A few activists in the media were swift to jump the gun and termed this attack as ‘Islamophobic’, ’racist’ and ‘Xenophobic’ citing the victims being Muslims immigrants and the aggressor being a Christian. However, with their skewed approach on selective issues, the so-called ‘activists’ have certainly lost credibility.

What happened in New Zealand is what so many Muslims & others fear every day. A white supremacist will take their lives because of who they are and what they believe. Racism. Xenophobia. Islamophobia. All of it contributed to this unspeakable tragedy. — Arjun Sethi (@arjunsethi81) March 15, 2019

The Pulwama terror attack which saw condemnations from around the world, if measured under the same scale can it be termed Hinduphobic? The terrorist before the attack, in his recorded video, clearly said that his attack was against ‘cow piss drinkers’ while many take terrorism as menace against humanity and take a tough stand on it, indifferent activists are searching for every religious angle in the Christchurch attack, who had been openly dissociating terror and religion in the past. The terrorist involved in the attack is a Christian.

Some Twitteratis called out the activists.

When Islamic terrorists killed 40 Jawans chanting "death to gaumutra drinking Hindus", nobody called it #Hinduphobia. Today when a christian fanatic harking back to crusades killed 40 Muslims, everybody is trending #Islamophobia Why suh hypocrisy? — True Indology (@TrueIndology) March 15, 2019

When radical Islam makes terrorists come to our doorstep and kill us, we must not link terrorism with Islam. When radical youth (in this case note reference to crusades by attacker) go to attack mosque, it is normalisation of Islamophobia. Heads we are victim. Tails we are victim https://t.co/yKkeBG3Rjg — Monica (@TrulyMonica) March 15, 2019

What didn’t come as a surprise for many was that some even attempted to use this ghastly terror attack to stir support and sympathy for illegal immigration. This misuse of terror attacks to push selective narrative is not new and has been happening in India for a long time. Law and order incidents involving people from different castes have also been used in the past to drive wedges between communities and create an environment of hostility in society. While these so called ‘activists ‘ are quite vocal about attacks on certain communities, they eat a frog when another community is attacked. These activists have been called out for their biases time and time again.

Imran Khan, PM of Pakistan was the one of the first ones to misuse a tragedy for his political benefit. In a tweet he said .

Shocked and strongly condemn the Christchurch, New Zealand, terrorist attack on mosques. This reaffirms what we have always maintained: that terrorism does not have a religion. Prayers go to the victims and their families. — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 15, 2019

In the tweet, he clearly dissociates any religion from terrorism however in the very next tweet he brings in the religious angle to cater to his extremist Islamic vote bank in Pakistan.

I blame these increasing terror attacks on the current Islamophobia post-9/11 where Islam & 1.3 bn Muslims have collectively been blamed for any act of terror by a Muslim. This has been done deliberately to also demonize legitimate Muslim political struggles. https://t.co/5bBREoayLz — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 15, 2019

Using terrorism as a political tool has degraded the debate and deliberations that should go into tackling this global menace. Together with the irresponsible attitude of media in spreading hypocritical news and generating skewed discourses, which are based on political agendas rather than general wellbeing of humanity, makes a recipe for disaster. Terrorism needs to be eradicated with full force and cooperation of world leaders. India should lead the efforts with its partners to eradicate terrorism from Kashmir and set an example for the world.