On Wednesday afternoon, Londoners witnessed a cowardly terrorist attack in the heart of our capital, at the hands of "Islamist" extremism, yet again.
Us, at Rafida, were not surprised that the perpetrator of the Westminster attack was found to be a radicalised, British-born man, named Khalid Masood.
On behalf of the Shia Muslim community, we once again reiterate the change in approach we all must take in tackling this terrorist ideology, we are seeing unravel itself here at home. We must open the door for revisiting and re-evaluating those individuals these same terrorists take as role-models; for instance, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Quhafa, Umar ibn Al-Khattab, Aisha bint Abi Bakr, or Khalid ibn Al-Walid, whom the Westminster terrorist was even named after! Khalid ibn Al-Walid was, in fact, the individual who said, "We are a people who drink blood, and the sweetest of blood is that of the Romans (i.e. the Europeans)." And today, there is not a single "Sunni" Muslim who does not revere this Khalid ibn Al-Walid. Surely, there must be a correlation here.
We call on all non-Muslims to support us in looking into and exposing the villainous, founding-fathers of the ISIS ideology, namely those who forced themselves into power after Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)'s demise. And we call on all Muslims to return back to the teachings of the Holy Prophet, and his immaculate family members, who preserved the true teachings of the religion, and we call on you to leave those who corrupted and distorted the religion of Islam.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the Westminster attack, and we are sure that the British people will stand firmly in the face of those who wish to harm us.
Shia Islam is innocent from such barbarism in the name of religion, as we categorically condemn and disassociate ourselves from such aforementioned historical individuals, and all terroristic teachings found in "Sunni" literature.