Analysis: Sri Lanka church bombings stoke far-right anger in the West
Members of the Pakistani Christian minority and Muslim clerics light candles on April 22, 2019, in Lahore, Pakistan, to commemorate the victims of the Sri Lanka blasts.
Le Pen, like some other European far-right leaders, had initially offered only vague condolences to victims of the bombings on Sunday. However, after Sri Lankan officials blamed a local Muslim militant group, National Thowheed Jamaath, for the attack on Monday, European far-right groups and activists began to describe the attacks in specifically religious terms.
Social media accounts that appeared to be associated with supporters of far-right groups drew connections to the Christchurch attacks, arguing that shooting sprees at two mosques in New Zealand were condemned as anti-Muslim attacks early on, whereas governments and media outlets were more cautious in the case of Sri Lanka.
American far-right activists offered their own responses. “Followers of Jesus worldwide are being killed and otherwise terribly persecuted every day,” Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan administration aide now best known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric, said on his radio show. “All too often, their losses go unremarked.”
French government statistics do show hundreds of incidents of vandalism against churches last year, although the vast majority of acts were minor. Officials later confirmed that the fire that destroyed Notre Dame was accidental.
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