Terrorism has no religion, and today of all days we need to remember that.
On Monday night, in the Manchester Arena, a 22-year-old male killed 22 people and injured up to 50 more.
Mamamia has chosen not to publish the name of this man, because this is not his story. This is the story of his victims, the countless young, innocent people who attended Ariana Grande's concert on Monday night, and whose lives have been irrevocably changed.
This is the story of how the actions of a small group of people - can cause mass fatalities, mass casualties, and make people from all around the world feel a little more fearful and a lot less safe.
What happened on Monday night was the result of one person setting out to kill as many innocent people as he could. He made the decision to wreck havoc and cause chaos.
There is no doubt this was an act of terrorism - and one that was aimed at children and young people.
But, unfortunately, it was nothing new.
Individuals and groups have been carrying out acts of terrorism under the guise of different religious or political movements for years. Terrorism is not new and it's not exclusively used by certain groups.
It's not religion that kills people, it's terrorists.
They may claim they're acting in the name of religion, but terrorism is - and has always been - about power and destruction.
The IRA, the KKK, ISIS, right-wing and left-wing extremist groups have all committed acts of terrorism throughout history.
Top Comments
Ridiculous. This terrorist act does have a religion and it's name is Islam. Trying to deny this simple fact is very disrespectful to the young people who have lost their lives in the name of this toxic religion.
I'm kind of sick of the comments, articles etc that just criticise Islam as they don't help. We need to stick to the facts here and create real solutions. The facts are that thousands of Muslims are terrorists (arrested or watched in various countries worldwide). The issue is how do we find them and deal with them without throwing millions of law abiding Muslims under the bus. The only answer I can think of is that we work closely with religious leaders to find out who they are and prosecuate them severely. They are being radicalised and trained and that's who we need to stop. The trainers and the brainwashers.