One week ago today, a white supremacist man attacked two mosques and killed 50 people. The news reports similar stories too often. It’s sadly very easy to feel removed from these events and desensitized by the frequency of them. This should not be the case, so I encourage you to spend 5 minutes to acknowledge what happened so that we can each take some steps to preventing the spread of hate, even small steps.
What happened?
A white supremacist shooter ran into a mosque with two semi-automatic rifles and a shotgun. He shot at everyone and killed many by trapping them in a prayer room with no other exits. He killed 42 people at the Al Noor Mosque before going to the Linwood Islamic Centre, where he killed 7 before being chased off. He was captured by police on his way to a third location.
How did it happen?
Days prior to the attack, he posted a manifesto to Twitter and 8chan. The manifesto contained anti-migrant and anti-Muslim hate speech as well as neo-Nazi symbols. The manifesto also indicated he had been planning the attack for up to 2 years.
Moments before he ran in to the Al Noor Mosque, the shooter said, “Remember, lads, subscribe to PewDiePie.” The New York Times compares his PewDiePie reference to a cruel meme. PewDiePie is gamer who livestreams on YouTube, sometimes with a first-person shooter video game format. In the mind of the shooter, this act of killing was nothing more than a video game.
Lastly, the shooter wore a helmet camera which livestreamed the video to Facebook. It was live for 17 minutes and showed the graphic deaths of many people.
What are the social issues?
The news quickly turned from event coverage to political and social response. Personally, I think the way some events are politicized lacks empathy toward victims. But I get it – we want to prevent it from happening again, so we need to discuss changes. Here are three main discussion points from New Zealand:
Social media. I could go into detail about how the Internet is used in nefarious ways, but many news articles have already done so. Some have gone as far to say that social media itself is responsible for the violence. They claim social media platforms are “meticulously engineered to encourage the creation of incendiary content, rewarding it with eyeballs, likes and, in some cases, ad dollars”. Whether or not this is true, I personally find this critique hypocritical because that’s exactly how the news industry works. New Zealand shows us that there are tradeoffs between the convenience of instant communication and the safe dissemination of information. One day soon we may have to choose.
Racial stereotypes. Many hesitated to call this event a “terrorist attack” and instead referred to it as a shooting caused by a man with mental illness. When the roles are reversed and a Muslim attacks people on the basis of race or religion, it’s terrorism 100% of the time. Does the race or religion of the shooter give him the benefit of the doubt? If so, what does this say about larger biases toward certain communities?
Gun control. Predictably, gun control is also a topic of discussion and New Zealand has already taken steps in this area. Whether or not you agree with gun regulations, the fast response to made by government is impressive and at least they’re doing something.
What are my personal opinions?
Regulations and laws are partial solutions. Regulation only succeeds if there are hate-filled people to regulate. If we really want to keep people from hating, we have to stop filling their heads with biases and violence. Our generation is the first to grow up killing people on Grand Theft Auto as kids, so is it any wonder mass murders are starting to look more like video games?
I don’t think I’ve ever felt as gross on the inside as when I learned the details of this terrorist attack. The gross feeling gets worse when politicians twist the situation for their own selfish reasons. The social topics I mentioned above are important conversations and have their place. In my opinion, however, trading religious hate for political hate isn’t going to solve any issues in the near future. I encourage you all to join me in participating in some easy, love-only responses:
Recognize the heroes. Our boy Abdul Aziz chased away the shooter from the second mosque, preventing further killing and ultimately resulting in the shooter’s capture.
Forget the shooter. Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand addressed parliament the week following the event. She spoke of the murderer: “He is a terrorist, he is a criminal, he is an extremist, but he will, when I speak, be nameless, and to others I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them. He may have sought notoriety but we in New Zealand will give him nothing -- not even his name.”
Remember the victims. See a full list here, but here are three that stuck out to me:
Hosne Ahmed died trying to save her disabled husband from the men’s area of the mosque. Her husband survived and says, “I don't have any grudge against [the shooter], I have forgiven him, and I'm praying for him that God will guide him.”
Mucad Ibrahim, a 3-year-old who was “energetic, playful and liked to smile and laugh a lot”, died while visiting the mosque with his brother and father.
Hamza Mustafa, a Syrian refugee high school student who had only recently settled and made friends at his new school.
Love those around you. This is cheesy and oversimplified, but whatever. If we all check in on all of our neighbors, we can spread love the old-fashioned way. Let’s get that weekly iPhone screen-time lower than average! Forget the Internet, just go knock on your neighbor’s door or call that friend you haven’t talked to in a while. We are all accountable to the people in our circle of influence.
