Last week, Australian Brenton Tarrant, a self-described white supremacist had attacked two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand. The world is mourning and is surprised by the peak of anger someone can reach to.
This is a tough time for families who lost their loved ones, for a country who never faced any terror attacks, for a Prime Minister who has been standing by the nation and lastly for all of us who are directly or indirectly affected by this. It’s disturbing to witness such an incident in this era when we talk about secularism and rationalism.
Jacinda Ardern – ‘Wonder Woman’ in disguise
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has been appreciated by many for the efforts she has taken post the attacks and has consoled a lot of families. Being the youngest Prime Minister, she has handled the situation really well. She has even pressurized Facebook to remove the videos regarding the shootings and Facebook has acted accordingly by removing 1.5 million copies of the video.
Ironically, just minutes before the attack, Jacinda Ardern’s office received an email with the manifesto from the attacker. Ardern said, “It did not include a location, it did not include specific details.”
She further added, “The fact that there was an ideological manifesto with extreme views attached to this attack, of course, that is deeply disturbing.”
The fact that a suspicious email was received and not much was done with respect to it as everything happened simultaneously is a matter of concern. Though the Prime Minister has decided to make certain changes to the gun laws in New Zealand that itself is not enough to get the country safe and away from such attacks. There should possibly be a mechanism to effectively monitor suspicious emails so that the country becomes more vigilant with respect to terror attacks.
How are Muslims treated in New Zealand?
Last year, a user asked a question on Quora about ‘How are Muslims treated in New Zealand?’ To which a user responded, “New Zealand is pretty tolerant from a religious perspective, and has an expectation of religious tolerance. By that I mean no one particularly cares what religion you are, unless you are trying to impose your religious/cultural beliefs on others in some way.”
Just 1.18% of the entire population of New Zealand follow Islam and still, the people under white supremacy had an issue with people going to mosques? This extreme hatred of religion is disgraceful.
The ones who migrated to New Zealand in search of peace got killed this year, this breaks my heart and makes me think as to where is the world heading towards?
We are witnessing mass killing, hatred, and extremism when each one of us is still hoping for that one light of hope and peace. It’s 2019 but still, the war is in the name of religion and race. The saddest part is that the youth is being affected and targeted by organizations to be brainwashed in order to commit such crimes. If this is the current scenario, we can imagine what will happen soon in the near future!
Oceania comes together
Entire Oceania is standing together at this hour of crisis and showing love and warmth to the Islamic community at New Zealand. People are sharing their views on humanity and religion on social media and according to many this act of terror has no place in this world.
Even the ex-Prime Minister of Australia has shown warmth to New Zealand and have referred the country as their friend.
Why is a religion blamed because of few?
Mass killing is not happening for the first time, last year the U.S. witnessed a lot of mass killings, the February killing being the deadliest. A 21-year-old, Nikolas Cruz, killed 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15-style rifle. Religion has nothing to do with terrorism and just because a of few of them, we can’t blame all of them.
The Islamophobes have started walking in the direction where there is no hope of returning back and unfortunately a lot of groups and societies brainwash them on daily basis.
Farid Ahmad from New Zealand who lost his wife during the mosque attacks believes in forgiving the attacker. Even after losing his wife, he said, “The best thing is forgiveness, generosity, loving and caring positivity.”
He further added that if he ever got a chance to sit down with the attacker, he would try to make him rethink about his outlook towards life. He said, “I will tell him that inside him, he has great potential to be a generous person, to be a kind person, to be a person who would save people, save humanity, rather than destroy them. I want him to look for that positive attitude in him, and I hope and I pray for him he would be a great civilian one day. I don’t have any grudge.”
