Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday called on the world to fight back against Islamophobia in the same way it responded to “anti-Semitism after the Holocaust,” following deadly attacks on two New Zealand mosques, AFP reported.
The Turkish leader has presented the mosque attacks by a self-avowed white supremacist who killed 50 people as part of a wider assault on Islam and demands the West do more against anti-Muslim sentiment.
“Just as humanity fought against anti-Semitism after the Holocaust disaster, it should fight against rising Islamophobia in the same determined fashion,” Erdogan told an emergency meeting of ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in İstanbul.
“Right now we are facing Islamophobia and Muslim hatred,” he said.
During the March 15 attack, alleged gunman Brenton Tarrant killed 50 men, women and children — the victims aged between three and 77 years old — in a massacre that sparked global revulsion.
He livestreamed much of the killing and spread a manifesto on social media claiming it was a strike against Muslim “invaders.”
Representatives from the OIC said in a statement that “genuine, comprehensive and systematic measures” were needed to tackle the “affliction” of Islamophobia.
They called on countries with Muslim communities and minorities to refrain from statements and actions that associate Islam with “terror, extremism and threats.”
In his hate-filled “manifesto” before the mass killing, the accused killer suggested neo-Nazi ideology and immigration prompted his action and mentioned other right-wing extremists.
He also referenced Turkey, and İstanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia, that was once a church before becoming a mosque during the Ottoman empire.
Erdoğan, campaigning for local elections this month, had angered New Zealand’s government by repeatedly showing the video made by the alleged gunman, an Australian who was arrested after the massacre.
The Turkish leader also angered Australia with comments about anti-Muslim Australians being sent back in “coffins” like their grandfathers at Gallipoli, a bloody World War I battle. More than 8,000 Australians and nearly 3,000 New Zealanders — part of forces known as ANZAC — died fighting Turkish forces at Gallipoli, which has a prominent place in Australia’s collective memory.