Tomorrow could have been a beautiful day for the entire Islamic world, but it won't be, instead, Muslims around the globe will be grieving this Eid al-Adha for their fellow Muslims in Myanmar being massacred by the country's military.
The Myanmar military has renewed its attacks on Rohingya Muslims over the last weeks, having killed thousands of innocent civilians so far. But the bitter truth is the world and the European Union in particular is yet to sit up and take notice of this appalling atrocity.
The EU strongly condemns when Daesh attacks a Christian village in Syria and rightfully so, since killing innocent people, let alone because of their religious belief, are an outright crime against humanity. So, we must unite and take a stand against such acts. However, the problem arises when the EU does not show the same level of sensitivity when thousands of people are killed in another part of the world, only because they are Muslims.
If the Myanmar army killed thousands of Christians, the entire Europe, including the European Commission, would promptly respond to it, European Parliament deputies would cut short their vacations, and many of them would issue statements condemning the massacre. Meanwhile, some would even criticize the Commission and the EU governments for not taking a proper stance.
On the other hand, the EU public and the media, churches, human rights associations and political parties, despite the ongoing summer break, would hold meetings, rallies and pray for the lost ones.
In Germany, the political parties running election campaigns would not remain silent. Martin Schulz and Sigmar Gabriel would issue harsh statements while Cem Özdemir and others would criticize the Merkel government for not taking a firm stand against the massacre.
But none of that is happening at the moment since the ones being massacred this time are Muslims. The prime ministers of many European countries will sure issue statements for the Muslims living in their countries. But, these messages, which are generally full of positive and bright expressions, do not mean anything to the Muslims living in Europe anymore.
The EU's domestic and foreign policies regarding Muslims have failed. In all the recent election campaigns held in the EU countries, Muslims, Turks, and Turkey were the victims of a smear campaign while more than 100 mosques have been vandalized across Europe in recent years.
I guess the foreign ministers of the EU countries do not even know the geographical location of Myanmar. They have not taken a single step regarding Palestine even though they know its location very well. When Muslims are in question, both inside and out of Europe, the EU acts like as if it has forgotten its own values.
Under this grim and depressing reality, Muslims around the world will spend Eid al-Adha with a heavy heart. Our only consolation can be the presence of Turkey, whose solo efforts brought the Myanmar massacre to the United Nations' notice yesterday.
As a member of the U.N., Turkey endeavors to do its part in the name of humanity. It is, in fact, sad and unfortunate for the Muslim world that Turkey is not a member of the EU. If it were, it would push the EU to protect and defend the rights and lives of Rohingya Muslims. Who knows, maybe it's because of this that some circles do not want to see a Muslim country in the EU. Eid mubarak.