On the 22nd of May, a bomb exploded at the end of Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester. The Islamic State has recently claimed responsibility for the attack. The emotion is today palpable in the United Kingdom and around Europe as 22 people have been killed in the attack and 59 more injured. Kids are amongst the victims, bringing this type of terror attack to a new level.

Messages of love and tolerance to the families and the Muslim community

Across social media platforms, numerous messages of support have been written to the families of the victims and to the audience present at the concert – Ariana Grande herself said to be heartbroken by the events of that night.

Theresa May made a public appearance after a meeting with the Government's Cobra Emergency Committee, thanking everyone who had been supportive on the night of the accident and Manchester citizens for opening their doors to the victims of the attack.

Besides, many have expressed their concern about linking the attack to the Muslim population and therefore attacking them directly as guilty of committing the crime. Notes have been published about avoiding hostility between the people behind this horrible act and the Muslim Community in itself – thousand of people shared posts defending the idea that "terrorists are not Muslim – Muslims are not terrorists".

The events have brought people together – unfortunately, due to a horrid episode in British History.

Using the attack as an anti-Muslim and immigrants weapon

Of course, many others have also turned the events in favour of their ideologies and used the attack as a justification to call for more severe policies towards immigrants, refugees and Muslims.

With the upcoming election, theories about the attack being useful to the Conservative party have arisen as the party has been going through a moment of weakness since last week. Theresa May has announced that her campaign was momentarily stopped due to an agreement with Jeremy Corby, Labour Party leader, to cease election campaigning until further notice.

The attack has recently been linked to a 23 years old, Salmen Abedi, confirming the predicted thoughts of the attack being a terroristic attack.

"Terrorists are not Muslims"

Fact check: the topic is controversial, however, it is blinding oneself if the belief that Terrorists are not Muslims is shared. Just as the knights participating in crusades were Catholics, terrorists are Muslims. They seek their morals from the precepts of the Qur'an and the Hadiths, they follow the five Islam pillars and live guided by Islam. It is necessary to understand this to be able to better find a solution to the issue as it is impossible to cure an evil if its origins are not recognised.

Sam Harris writes "The truth that we must finally confront is that Islam contains specific notions of martyrdom and Jihad that fully explain the character of Muslim violence" (Sam Harris, Bombing Our Illusions).

Certainly, this doesn't make the second part of the message false: terrorists are Muslims but all Muslims are not terrorists. There are over 2 Billion people following Islam across the world and if they were all terrorists, I would not be writing this article right now as I would probably be dead or not able to access the Internet. Terrorists follow a specific branch of Islam which has a very violent and specific interpretation of the Holy Book.

Educating and freely talking about Islam

The solution will not come from Muslim bans, harsher policies against the Muslim community or a widespread Islamophobia. What is actually needed is the complete opposite; by following negative policies the risk is to see the terrorist branch grow even more. This is not an issue that will be fixed by a new government in a few months: it will take years.

What is needed is an open debate about Islam. A debate where the social justice view of tolerance would not be accepted and where a more realistic and fact-reliable point of view will be taken into account. The urge of educating about Islam is faced by many societies: it is only by educating the people that an ideology can be fought and deteriorated to the point of it being irrelevant.

Muslim communities are demanded to stand up against the branch of their religion causing troubles not only to them but to the entire society they are living in.

The more education and open speech are allowed about the topic, the more people are informed and understand the fundamentals of Islam, the fewer events such as the Manchester attack will happen.

Thoughts to the families of the victims.
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