15/3 New Zealand…The White Zealotry

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Fifty innocent Muslims were killed after terrorist showered bullets on them, who were offering Friday Salah (Namaaz), in two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.  The stomach turning massacre is birthing brand new terminologies like ‘White Zealotry’ and ‘White Christian Extremism’ as the writings on the shooting gun, that was recovered and clearly seen in the live video streaming of the massacre with  some extremist Christian bigotry written on it, suggests the same and in a social media post just before the attack, an account that is believed to belong to one of the attackers posted a link to 87-page manifesto that was pregnant with anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim ideas and explanations for the attack. Brian Michael Jenkins, an American expert on terrorism, in his research paper ‘International Terrorism: A New Kind of Warfare’ says, “Terrorist attacks are often carefully choreographed to attract the attention of electronic media and international press”. His words are spot on.  The design of the video live streaming by the terrorist and other social network posts were perspicuous to terrorize the 1% Muslim population of New Zealand in particular and the Muslims of the world in general. Disgustingly shocking was the Australian politician Fraser Anning’s statement against Muslims where he attacks Islam and blame Muslim immigration for the terrorist attack in New Zealand. He quotes religious text The Bible as well while defending the 15/03 terrorist attack in New Zealand. God Forbid! If the attack would have been on Church and the 49 dead bodies were non-Muslims then the story would have been bitterly different. The White House would have called an emergency meeting on ‘War on terrorism’. The attackers would have been linked nicely to soft targeted Muslim country. All the venomous media houses especially Indian media houses would have started incurring animosity towards Islam and Muslims of the world. Thank God! It is not that but the thing is clear that some religious fanatics have poisonous corner for Islam and Muslims. Muslims of the world should be cautious.

So what if the Melbourne, one of Australia’s largest cities  light up in the colors of New Zealand on Friday night to remember those killed in the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, the kith and kin of the killed ones would be still called terrorists because of their Muslim identity.  The Australian born white Christian terrorist, the word ‘terrorist’ does not carry such a brutal meaning which he deserves, should be send to the gibbet. The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement for flags to be flown at half-mast out of respect for those killed in the attack cannot ease the crippling affliction of the Muslim world.

According to a database created and updated by The New America Foundation, Since 9/11, nearly twice as many people have been killed in the U.S. by white extremists than by Muslim terrorists. The Vox reported that “in the eight months since Trump took office, more Americans have been killed in attacks by white American men with no connection to Islam than by Muslim terrorists or foreigners”  But no matter, the Nine Elevenism (9/11) ideologies will still call Muslims ‘Terrorists’.  According to a study by New America, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, “Between 2001 and 2015, more Americans were killed by homegrown right-wing extremists; call them terrorists, than by Islamist terrorists. President Trump’s election manifesto was to ban Muslims because of “radical Islamic terrorism” but the Government statistics show over the past four decades, white American-born extremists, terrorists, have cooked up and committed more domestic acts of terror than Muslim foreigners or illegal immigrants. Jeremy Allouche, a Cambridge scholar, and Dr Jeremy Lind, Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex and a Research Associate of the Centre for Civil Society at the London School of Economics, in one of their co-authored insightful research papers, says “In the United Kingdom, Muslims—particularly those who are foreign-born—are increasingly viewed as a national security threat”. Connor Huff, Hardvardian, and Joshua D. Kertzer, Professor of Political Economy Harvard University in their research paper How the Public Defines Terrorism’, published in ‘The American Journal of Political Science’, saysMembers of the public are more likely to consider an attack terrorism when the perpetrator is Muslim”.

Now, the time is calling to the media outlets, which write and tell the first draft of history, to shoulder the responsibility of clean and unbiased journalism. Their carelessness in framing or presenting any incident can mislead masses and distort history. Time has arrived to tell the world that Muslims are the oppressed masses of the world whether be it Afganistan, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Palestine, Kashmir or any other western country, Muslims are everyone’s Aunt Sally.

Waseem Majazi is a book reviewer, lives in Hajin Sonawari, Kashmir. He is currently doing his research on conflict studies in India, and can be reached at [email protected]

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