Jacinda Ardern's Grief Should Not Eclipse That Of Muslims
22 May 2019By Mariam Khan
The New Zealand prime minister's response to the Christchurch killings is to
be admired, but the focus must be on the Muslim communities affected
Since the Christchurch terror attack, much of the focus has been not on the
mourning of New Zealand's Muslim community, but on white people. This has been
repeated across the west, and in parts of the Middle East. Jacinda Ardern's
face was projected on to the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai days after
the attack.
The prime minister's response to the shooting has indeed been exemplary but
the reaction to it has left little space for the victims, or the wider Muslim
community in New Zealand or around the world. While many of us are still
coming to terms with the events that happened in Christchurch, I have seen
more pictures of Ardern's grief and mourning than of the Muslim community in
New Zealand, the victims or those who acted bravely on the day to save lives
and fight against the terrorist.
To give an example, as I opened the pages of a prominent London magazine, I
saw the face of Ardern, eyes closed, hugging a hijab-wearing Muslim woman
whose back was to the camera. I thought about the positioning, about whose
grief we were seeing. I thought about why our grief seemingly wasn't
palatable. Was that the reason the media had decided to use a white woman –
someone more familiar, someone who isn't an "other" – to sell their papers and
fuel online clicks? In this Islamophobic world, is it the case that even
Muslim grief doesn't sell and it needs to come repackaged with a graceful and
mourning white face donning a dupatta?
Yet when I've voiced these reservations over the past weeks, I've been told
I'm a disgrace to Muslims for not accepting the more than adequate solidarity
we've received. I've been told to fuck off by a white man and seen the same
white man tell another Muslim woman he was off to join Ukip because she
disagreed with him. I've been condemned for voicing discomfort at the
lionisation of Ardern doing her job properly.
I've also been criticised for telling white women that a gesture such as
wearing a hijab for a single day might be problematic, because it centres on
themselves and in many cases co-opts the only part of someone's identity they
are familiar with.
Performative solidarity isn't enough. People died and no amount of empathy is
going to bring them back. Those standing in solidarity need to understand that
they should use their everyday privilege to truly tackle Islamophobia in the
long term, in its myriad daily manifestations. Just rocking up for one day and
then forgetting about the Islamophobic world we exist in is not good enough.
The kind of solidarity being shown in the west risks becoming a self-regarding
state of "wokeness". It's the same problem when white people create a
diversity panel and invite some diverse people. And then at the end of the
panel those same white people go home and feel much better about themselves
because of what they did, but the diverse participants who have tried to
justify and explain their existence for an hour go home as well, knowing they
are still "diverse" and will have to go on living with that day to day. This
is gestural stuff.
I trust very much that Ardern is unbothered about the online world demanding
she receive the Nobel peace prize – she is getting on with her job. But the
framing of Muslim pain through the words and actions of Ardern has been so
overwhelming and disturbing that I'm unwilling to sit quietly and let it pass.
Because I'm worried that next time there is a massacre of a Muslim community,
for anyone to care it will take another Ardern to lead the mourning. More than
130 Muslims were killed in Mali just over a week ago. Where is the coverage?
Internment camps in China continue to hold Uighur Muslims; the war in Yemen
shows no sign of ending; the Rohingya crisis had its five minutes of fame in
the media and isn't making headlines any more.
In a speech Ardern gave in parliament days after the Christchurch attack she
said: "Speak the names of those who were lost, rather than the name of the man
who took them." Ardern is playing her role, but I implore you, let's name and
tell the stories of those who were massacred: Abdukadir Elmi, Abdul Fattah
Qasem, Abdus Samad, Ahmed Abdel Ghani, Ali Elmadani, Amjad Hamid, Ansi Alibava,
Ashraf Ali, Ashraf Al-Masri, Ashraf Morsi, Asif Vora, Atta Elayyan, Daoud Nabi,
Farhaj Ahsan, Ghulam Husain, Hafiz Musa Vali Patel, Hamza Mustafa, Haroon
Mehmood, Hosne Ahmed, Hussain al-Umari, Hussein Moustafa, Junaid Kara/Ismail,
Kamel Mohamad Kamel Darweesh, Karam Bibi, Khaled Mustafa, Lilik Abdul Hamid,
Linda Armstrong, Maheboob Khokhar, Matiullah Safi, Mohamad Moosi Mohamedhosen,
Mohammed Imran Khan, Mohsen Mohammed Al Harbi, Mojammel Hoq, Mounir Suleiman,
Mucad Ibrahim, Muhammad Haziq bin Mohd Tarmizi, Musa Nur Awale, Naeem Rashid,
Omar Faruk, Osama Adnan Abu Kweik, Ozair Kadir, Ramiz Vora, Sayyad Milne,
Sohail Shahid, Syed Areeb Ahmed, Syed Jahandad Ali, Talha Rashid, Tariq Omar,
Zakaria Bhuiya, Zeeshan Raza.
Let's concentrate on those left behind and let's loudly applaud those who
intervened; such as Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah who chased away the terrorist by
throwing a cash register at him. Let's redirect the focus of this tragedy.
Ardern doesn't need the attention but Muslims across the globe need more than
performative solidarity.
• Mariam Khan is the editor of It's Not About the Burqa, and a writer and
activist
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments