Romania and the anti-terror fight
The Romanian public opinion, mass media and politicians have unanimously expressed their consternation at the terrorist attacks in Paris.
Bogdan Matei, 19.11.2015, 14:28
Less than a year after the massacre perpetrated by Jihadists on the journalists of the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo, terrorists hit Paris again, leaving behind many dead and wounded. Among the dead there are two Romanians, parents of two children.
An ally of France within NATO and a partner within the European Union, Romania has promptly adopted the measures taken by the international community to prevent such horrendous attacks from happening again. Against the backdrop of debates in Bucharest regarding the quotas of refugees coming from the Middle East and Northern Africa, among whom many Jihadists can infiltrate, Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis underlined that, just like other central-European states, Romania is not a favorite destination for the migrants.
Terrorism works only if it causes fear, the Romanian President said. Klaus Iohannis: “If we allow fear to permeate all social strata of our countries, then the terrorists can say they have reached their true objective, and we are not allowed to let something like this happen. We are not allowed to let Xenophobia, ultra nationalism and Chauvinism become relevant in our societies. We are not allowed to let this fear stigmatize certain religious communities that have no guilt in this matter”.
Out of respect for ethnic and religious minorities, the Muslim population in Romania will not be subject to special measures, President Iohannis added. Made up mostly of ethnic Tartars and Turks, the largest Muslim community in Romania is located in Dobrogea (in the south east), a province that for hundreds of years was under the Ottoman rule. The almost 70 thousand Muslims in Romania are both a model of integration and loyalty to the Romanian state.
Both communities are represented, just like the other ethnic minorities, in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies. In the early 2000, when the Army participated in the antiterrorist campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, the spokesperson for the Romanian Defense Ministry was a very popular officer of Turkish origin. And the head of the Muslim denomination in Romania, Mufti Murat Iusuf, unequivocally condemned the acts of cruelty committed in Paris as well as the masterminds of such attacks.
Mufti Murat Iusuf: “First of all, these acts are crimes against humanity. These crimes have nothing to do with Islam, and the fact that these people consider themselves followers of Islam is not relevant. I have called once again on all religious leaders to work out solutions so as to do away with such groups from our religious communities! We no longer want to have within our communities people who wrongly interpret the Holy Quran. There is a very clear verse in chapter 5 that reads: whoever kills a person, it is as though he has killed all mankind. “
The Mufti Office in Romania also expressed deep compassion for the families of those killed in Paris and extended condolences to the French Embassy in Bucharest.
(translated by Lacramioara Simion; edited by Diana Vijeu)
