Chai Brady
A woman weeps during a memorial service for victims in Colombo, Sri Lanka, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island.
Photo: CNS Taoiseach accused of ignoring Christian persecution
With Easter Sunday seeing hundreds more Christians slaughtered, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stands accused of silence in the midst of mounting Christian persecution around the globe.
Some 320 people were killed in Sri Lanka when suspected Islamists targeted churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.
Mr Varadkar, who is a prolific user of social media, never mentioned the attack on Twitter nor did he issue a statement condemning the attack.
In contrast, when a gunman attacked mosques in New Zealand in March Mr Varadkar issued a statement condemning the attack, phoned the Prime Minister of New Zealand to sympathise and expressed his solidarity with Ireland’s Muslim community.
“It’s frankly an outrage not just to our sense of identity as Christians, it’s actually an affront to the victims of the bombings in Sri Lanka,” according to Michael Kinsella, the National Director for Aid to the Church in Need Ireland.
“The national trend that we’re witnessing is something that’s part of a global trend, where there is a total aversion to acknowledging, let alone respecting, the fact that Christians are the single most persecuted group on the planet,” Mr Kinsella told The Irish Catholic.
Out of the country’s 15 cabinet ministers only Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan posted a personal statements about the attacks. Mr Flanagan wrote: “Shocking & horrific attack targeting Christian Community in Sri Lanka. Thoughts & prayers with victims, survivors & loved ones of deceased.”
Both Simon Harris and Simon Coveney retweeted a statement made by the Department of Foreign Affairs. None of the other ministers mentioned the attack.
Cabinet
In comparison eight members of cabinet condemned the Christchurch attacks on Twitter, which left 50 dead, sometimes in several posts.
Mr Varadkar described it as an “Islamaphobic terror attack” and said he spoke to New Zealand’s prime minister about “how we might work together to take on the root causes and enablers of such attacks”.
Katherine Zappone and Heather Humphreys both gave their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims and other ministers made reference or retweeted related material. All except Mr Flanagan were silent on the attacks in Sri Lanka.
‘Appalling’
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney issued a statement from his department describing the attack as “appalling”.
The attacks are the latest wave of violence against Christians.
The UK Foreign Office estimates that some 215 million Christians face discrimination and violence because of their faith. Violence against Christians is rising dramatically, with an average of 250 killed every month – a doubling of last year’s figure.
The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Sri Lanka attacks, but local militant Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath was initially accused. There are approximately 1.2 million Catholics in Sri Lanka representing around 6.1% of the total population.