‘I prayed he would run out of bullets.’ These are the words of Raman Ali, one of the survivors of the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand at which 49 were killed and 20 wounded by a man who streamed the attack live on Facebook.
I’m heartbroken by these events not only as a Muslim but also as a human being. But I’m also afraid in case this leads to copycat acts of racist terrorism.
Iman A’tta, the director of the Tell MAMA helpline for Muslims who suffer from hate crime, reacted to the New Zealand attacks by saying: “Anti-Muslim hatred is fast becoming a global issue and a binding factor for extremist far right groups and individuals. It is a threat that needs to be taken seriously”.
I agree with this statement, and don’t want the world to wait for heart breaking events like those in New Zealand before taking that threat seriously.
And on a day when MPs are arguing about Brexit in Westminster it’s worth remembering the way that Brexit has given some Muslim haters an excuse to crawl out of the woodwork.
Research by Giulia Evolvi outlined on the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) website argues that Brexit might be “connected with a specific understanding of British identity that excludes Muslim minorities as “other” to UK culture.”
Evolvi’s study looked at Twitter feeds that used the hashtag #Brexit immediately after the referendum to look for signs of Islamophobia as defined by The Runnymede Trust as “unfounded hostility towards Islam.” The study found that 66% of the tweets that mentioned Islam did so in a negative way, and of those tweets, most were from leavers.
To accuse Brexiteers of Islamophobia would be unfair. What we are talking about is a tiny minority who are using Brexit as a façade, behind which they can spread hate. But what Christchurch reminds us is that we need to be vigilant.
Our MPs may be divided by Brexit, but we as Londoners are united against hate, and against terror. We want to feel safe whether it’s in a mosque or a church. So let’s stand together, and be vigilant so as to make sure there are no similar attacks here.
