Perhaps the most shocking aspect of Monday night’s gun attack on the Imam Ali Mosque in Muscat is that it took place in a part of the Middle East well known for its peace and tolerance.
For centuries, the Omani people have had deep ties not only with neighbouring Arab nations but also with many different ethnic and faith communities in countries such as India and China. Oman’s current diversity reflects these historic connections. Although we only have ISIS’s word that it was its adherents who shot dead five worshippers and an Omani police officer, the warped ideology that drives such organisations long ago abandoned any hesitation in attacking a target as soft as a religious congregation at prayer.
Indeed, people in this region and further afield have had to endure such transgressive violence for far too long. From the atrocities committed in Mosul, to the November 2017 attack on Egypt’s Al Rawda Mosque that claimed more than 300 lives to April’s assault on a mosque in western Afghanistan that left six people dead, ISIS and those who have fallen victim to its propaganda have left no taboo unbroken in their desire to inflict suffering on those they consider to be heretics.
For those poisoned by doctrines such Islamist extremism, white supremacy or other forms of hate, diversity and the live-and-let-live outlook it fosters are anathema. Instead, dogmatists strip ordinary people of their individuality, only to categorise and dehumanise them as the “other”. For totalitarians like ISIS, complexity is unfathomable and intolerable.
There is no doubt that this is a shocking period for Oman, widely regarded as a safe country with a low crime rate and little history of violent extremism. Omani authorities now have a challenging investigation to conduct – but the test is one the country will pass.
The reality is this: the gunmen responsible for the mayhem unleashed in Muscat on Monday have already failed. This is because decades of stability and cohesion cannot be undone by one atrocity. As Oman’s neighbours in the UAE and wider GCC condemned the attack, many ordinary Omanis also showed little hesitation in speaking out against hate and sectarianism.
One such voice was that of 20-year-old Basil Al Lawati, an Omani computer science student who lives close to the mosque and heard the gunshots ring out late on Monday night. "Whoever has done this is just trying to create hatred, but we should stand united during these testing times and emerge stronger," he told The National. "We have people of different faiths, sects, and ethnicities living here in harmony. "
This communal harmony is one of Oman’s main strengths. Although the state has a well-developed policing and counter-terrorism network, which is often buttressed by co-operation with international partners, it is the unity shown by Omani society that will always relegate extremists to the fringes. In short, the message peddled by ISIS and similar organisations finds little room to grow in Oman, a historic and outward-looking nation that long ago recognised and respected the benefits that diversity and tolerance bring.
Those who were actively involved in this conspiracy have made a powerful enemy – not just law enforcement in the sultanate but in the shape of the communities of the Gulf whose disgust at a murderous attack on a house of prayer is matched only by the resolve to continue living peacefully with their friends and neighbours, of whatever faith.
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