By Yeo Bee Yin, State Assemblywoman for Damansara Utama

The imam of the Drancy mosque in Paris leaves flowers and prays near the Charlie Hebdo offices. Photograph: Marc Piasecki/Getty Images (from The Guardian)

On 7 January 2015, the world was shocked by the shooting at Charlie Hedbo, of which 12 people were killed including the editor and cartoonists of the satirical weekly newspaper. Shortly after that, a Jewish supermarket was taken hostage. Paris violence happened just less than a month after the Sydney attack. All were done in name of God.

While the fact that the terrorists in Paris were Muslims was widely publicized, the fact that one of the police officers who died at Charlie Hebdo incidence and the shopkeeper who saved a group of customers by hiding them in the fridge during the Jewish supermarket hostage were also Muslims received much less attention.

Islamophobia is on the rise. In Germany, The right wing PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) led a record number of anti-Islamic protests in Dresden that drew 25,000. With the experience of Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) and PERKASA at home, some non-Muslims Malaysians may equate Islam to violence, spoken or unspoken.

And it doesn’t help at all when we have politician who described the Unity March in Paris attended by more than 3 millions people and world leaders including those from Muslim countries as “nauseating”. Such notion only promotes separation and hatred between groups.

Indeed there’s a lot to be debated on the boundary (or none of it) of freedom of speech and the propriety of Charlie Hebdo cartoons, but one thing we are certain – it is time to promote tolerance, mutual understanding and unity.

Non-Muslims must reject in our strongest term the generalization that Islam promotes violence. No one deserves to be held accountable to something they did not do because of their faith (sorry Rupert Murdoch, I don’t agree with you). We must condemn the act of killing but not the religion. Meanwhile Muslims must stand up and speak vocally and strongly against terrorism in the name of God. We must not fall into the trap of the terrorists. What they want is to use the name of God to divide us and manipulate the minds, all for their selfish desire to kill and to destroy.

The solution to hatred is by not mimicking it. To quote Martin Luther King Jr “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”

Therefore, national leaders must send the right message to the citizens at such confusing time. For example, it was heartening to see how Angela Merkel and his cabinet stood firm for tolerance and joint the vigil “Let’s be there for each other. Terror: not in our names!” organized by Central Council of Muslims at Brandenburg Gate, despite mounting pressure and increased influence of the right wing anti-Islam politics in Germany. This decision was made despite the fact that the electoral impact of the Muslims in Germany is very small – there is only less than 5% Muslim electorates in the country. Angela Merkel went further to stress that “Islam belongs to Germany”, adding that: “I am the chancellor of all Germans”.

Such leadership is much needed in an increasing pluralistic Europe, more so in an already pluralistic Malaysia. Malaysian leaders must avoid falling into politics that divide and promote hatred among different groups. Moderate Malaysians must be more vocal.

As for non-Muslims in Malaysia, let’s stand in solidarity with our fellow Malaysians who are Muslims to remove the label “terrorism” from Islam. We must make sure the voice of moderation and understanding is stronger than the voice of hatred and violence in the battle of the minds of the young. Only with strong understanding and respect for each other that we can build a peaceful tomorrow.

Love will eventually triumph over evils.