(U-WIRE) BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Innocence took a heavy toll this week.

More than 50 people died Thursday in London when terrorists exploded buses and trains, reducing innocent victims to strewn and unidentifiable body parts in the name of an extremist cause.

Early Saturday morning, it hit closer to home. In an apparent gesture of revenge for those gruesome acts, someone set a Bloomington Mosque on fire.

While there were thankfully no deaths or massive damage here, these two acts are rooted in the same misguided anger and monstrous action.

Those killed on the subways in Great Britain did nothing to deserve death, and their lost lives only provoke a vicious cycle of violence that promises to kill countless more on every side.

Likewise, firebombing a Bloomington Mosque does no justice to any cause. It merely punishes the innocent and extends the same cycle of hatred and anger.

Terrorism is terrorism. If it’s an expression or a response to one, it is just as wrong. If it’s a bloodbath or a building set ablaze, it needs to be stopped.

We as a community need to come together now more than ever. We need to understand each other, learn about our differences and celebrate them rather than focus our anger upon them.

These are trying times; terrorism has entered our backyard. We must not tolerate it.

Enough innocence has been lost already.

Staff Editorial

Indiana Daily Student (Indiana U.)