The sanctity of places of worship is universal, yet their perception as targets is centuries old

When United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres declared in a New York mosque earlier this month that "Mosques and all places of prayer and contemplation should be safe havens, not sites of terror", it came in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, a terrorist attack that has shaken the world that has shaken the world. Following the killings of 50 innocent worshippers in New Zealand, Britain and Australia have pledged to allocate millions to protect mosques. That is all well and good – but we have a much bigger task at hand than guarding mosques with police. If we do not recognise that, this problem at best continues for much longer and, at worst, it deepens and broadens in scope.

The opening of the article. The full text is at The National.