'I wish more Muslims had died in Turkiye quake', letters to UK mosques say

Two mosques in London have received letters expressing the sender’s “heartfelt sorrow… that more Muslims didn’t die” in the twin earthquakes that rocked southern Turkiye and northwestern Syria on 6 February.

Addressing the “worshippers of the make believe religion of Islam”, the Islamophobic correspondence continued: “There should have been at least 2 million dead, at the very minimum. I could not stop smiling watching people being pulled from the rubble, thankfully some dead, sadly some still alive.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Masjid Ramadan mosque Chairman Erkin Guney said: “I am praying for the man to find some love. I’m upset that …in 2023 we should still have so much hatred towards mankind.”

The Turkish Cypriot community served by the mosque has been personally impacted by the earthquakes with at least 50 of those killed having resided in the mosque’s locality, they had been visiting Turkiye at the time of the disaster.

Guney went on to highlight that the mosque had been “overwhelmed with the real love shown to our people.”

More than 41,000 people were killed in the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes and the hundreds of tremors that followed. The number of those who lost their lives in the disaster is expected to continue to rise as debris and rubble are cleared up.

Rescue teams have said hopes of finding survivors under the rubble have largely faded in what has been described as the deadliest quakes in the last 100 years.

READ: 7 Syrian earthquake victims die after roof collapse during house fire in Turkiye