by Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG

Muslim leaders in southern Africa condemned Sunday’s terrorist attack in Pakistan’s capital Lahore which targeted Christian families celebrating Easter at a public park, killing more than 70 people.

“The Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa (MJC) condemns the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing that targeted the Christian community in Lahore,” MJC President, Maulana Ihsaan Hendricks said in a Monday statement.

A breakaway faction of the Taliban militant group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which once declared allegiance to Daesh, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack.

Hendricks said the extremist ideology used by terror groups to justify the killing of innocents is foreign to Islam and must be condemned.

The South African Muslim leader said acts of terror committed by groups claiming to represent Islam serve to erode existing good interfaith relationships.

“The Islamic teaching in the Koran states that, ‘Whoever kills a person, it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind’,” he said, adding that terror groups have refused to respect this teaching.

Hendricks said he prays that the people of Pakistan stand united against the evil, divisive, and sectarian-based ideology influenced by Daesh, which has caused mayhem and death across Muslim lands.

Mozambique’s Muslim leader, Sheikh Ameen Uddin, also condemned the attacks, calling on the world to unite against terrorism.

“What happened in Pakistan is sad and we strongly condemn it,” he told Anadolu Agency via telephone late Monday.

He said acts of terrorism don’t represent Islam in any way. “It is against Islamic religious beliefs for one to kill innocent people. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance,” he said.

“Muslims in Rwanda strongly condemn the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels and Pakistan. These acts are not done in our name,” Rwanda’s Muslim leader, Mufti Ibrahim Kayitare, told Anadolu Agency via telephone.