Business Recorder Editorial March 19, 2019

Islamophobia threat

The carnage in the attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand during Friday payers on March 15, 2019, has shocked the world into a realisation of the threat Islamophobia poses to the peace and safety of people everywhere. The attacker, Brenton Tarrant, turns out to be a 28-year-old Australian man who makes no bones about his hatred for Muslims and all non-whites. In fact, his inspiration for his dastardly act is not only inspired by contacts with extreme right wing groups in Europe and elsewhere, his ‘hero’ appears to be US President Donald Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose” for his anti-immigration and racist views. Tarrant posted a 74-page manifesto online before the attacks setting out his hate-filled views on immigrants generally and Muslims in particular and live streamed the attack on social media as it unfolded. His effort at the two mosques has yielded a death toll of 51 people, six of them Pakistanis, including a father and son, Naeem Rashid and Talha Naeem, who tried to tackle the terrorist and died of their wounds in hospital. Prime Minister Imran Khan has dubbed them heroes and announced an award will be given for their courage and selfless sacrifice. The dead and wounded (48, including four Pakistanis) are from a number of Muslim countries. Some people amongst those in the mosques at the time of the attack are still missing. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pulled no punches in describing the incident as a “terrorist attack” and “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”. Amidst condemnation and condolences by world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, one insensitive Australian Senator Fraser Anning pointed to growing concern regarding immigration into New Zealand and Australia as being behind the attack, a statement that earned him not only egg on his face but literally on his head from a young protestor at his press conference.

Ever since terrorism became the currency of disaffected groups resorting to indiscriminate violence to promote their agendas, the fact that the phenomenon owes its modern origins to the Afghan wars and their fallout regionally and globally, it is Muslims per se that have been painted by white supremacists, racists and people asserting the need to push back against people of non-white ethnicities and origins as terrorists en masse. This is neither rational nor factual, since terrorists from Muslim countries still comprise a relatively small proportion of Muslims worldwide. Muslim societies themselves, as Pakistan’s experience shows, have been amongst the worst victims of terrorism, suffering some 70,000 deaths and billions in material damages. On the other hand, terrorist attacks by white racists and supremacists against innocent Muslims have become all too frequent in the west. New Zealand, as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, is home to its diverse citizenry and considers immigrants part of its community. Such a shocking massacre is unprecedented in a country considered tolerant and inclusive. While some Muslim country heads of government, such as Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Recip Erdogan of Turkey have come out strongly against Islamophobia as the inspiration for attacks against Muslims worldwide, world leaders, the UN, the OIC and others have underlined the need to combat the spread of such hateful ideologies that victimise innocent people, whether Muslim or of any other faith. New Zealand is now faced with the unenviable task of protecting Muslims and their mosques throughout the country (even elsewhere in the west such steps have been taken in response to the Christchurch tragedy), and it is contemplating departures from the peaceful past by bringing in gun control laws and arming its police to face this new, unprecedented challenge.