Christchurch Terrorist
I am straying away from my usual theme this week to talk about a very important ongoing issue. As many of you know, there was a terrorist attack that took place today in Christchurch, New Zealand. 49 Muslims were massacred and over 40 others injured during a shooting of two Mosques. As a Muslim living in America who also has a Muslim Aunt and Cousins that live in New Zealand, this is a traumatic experience. Although I initially wanted to keep my blogs lighthearted, I feel like I have an obligation to discuss this.
During Friday prayer, a White terrorist entered two Mosques in Christchurch and opened fired on innocent Muslims. Reports say that the terrorist cornered people in the Mosque before unloading on the victims. In addition, two car bombs were discovered near the buildings. For those who are unfamiliar with the Muslim religion, Islam requires Muslims to attend a Friday prayer every week at noon at the Mosque. These Mosques are densely packed, often with hundreds of Muslims attending, and unlike a Church, the Mosques do not have any seats and have very plain, open designs. During the prayer, attendees face the front of the Mosque and the entrance door is on the back. I am emphasizing the layout of Mosques so you visualize how vulnerable these Muslims were while praying.
You may have noticed that I have been calling this shooter a terrorist throughout my blog, and this is intentional. There is a trend in international media that the race, ethnicity, and religion determines how your crime is labeled. For example, a Black person committing a crime is gang or drug related. An Arab or Muslim person committing a crime is motivated by terrorism. And a White person committing a crime is a mentally sick gunman who his friends and family described as a “nice man”. Once again, almost all major international media outlets have not described this terrorist as a terrorist. Rather, he is a “young man suspected of being a gunman that committed an act of violence”. The terrorist recorded the slaughter on a live feed and police have discovered a manifesto that he has posted online calling for an anti-Islam and an anti-immigrant movement. The Oxford Dictionary definition of a terrorist is a “person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”. By all definitions, this man is a terrorist and he needs to be labeled as such. This begs the question, why are only some terrorists called terrorists? Why are we judging the category of a crime based on ethnicity, race, and religion?
A reoccurring theme in history has been dehumanizing groups of people in order to justify political actions. The United States government has used that to justify the massacre of Native Americans, the slavery of Black people, and the placement of Japanese Americans in concentration camps. This is also the same propaganda that allowed Hitler to murder over 6 million Jews in Europe. Most recently, the media has shifted its media propaganda to dehumanize the Muslim and Arab groups. This is why the U.S. can randomly bomb a country in the Middle East and justify it. They didn’t kill innocent civilians, they just killed potential terrorists. The goal is to have Islam, Arab, and terrorist all mean the same thing. This means that a white man cannot be a terrorist because he is not a part of that group. Minority groups demand that crimes are labeled by their acts and not their race. The Christchurch shooter was a terrorist. So call him one.
I want to conclude this blog with a message to any of my Muslim brothers and sisters reading this. Please do not let this attack keep you away from a Mosque or from practicing your religion openly. Islam teaches us to fear no one or anything except for Allah SWT so do not allow yourself to be intimidated, as that is the goal of these terrorist attacks. In addition, do not allow your anger to control or motivate any violent actions. We should lead by example so non-Muslims can see the real Islam taught in the Qur’an. During the African Imperialism, Libya was invaded by the Italians. Omar Mukhtar lead a Libyan resistance movement against the Italians. Although Omar was at war with the Italians, he protected two surviving Italian prisoners. Another revolutionist protested this decision because he argued that “they do it to us”. To which Omar responded “They are not our teachers”.
“We’ll never surrender, we’ll win or die you’ve to fight the next generation and the next. And I’ll live more than my hanger” — Omar Mukhtar
