by Rifat Audeh
Yesterday I met my cousin, although he was killed in cold blood a few days ago, at the Christchurch terror attack in New
Zealand. I “met” him upon visiting his aunt’s house and learnt much more about this ambitious 33-year-old whose life was
cut so short.
While my cousin Atta Elayyan lived in Kuwait and later New Zealand, I was living in Jordan and North America, and we
never crossed paths. During my visit, I heard about how kind and supportive he was to his family, how intelligent and
ambitious he was as a tech entrepreneur establishing his own company, and how energetic and athletic he was as a member
of New Zealand’s national futsal team. His father, Mohammed Elayyan, who founded the Alnoor Mosque in Christchurch, was
also injured in the shooting. I struggled to hold back my tears as I saw a video of Atta’s father speaking from his
hospital bed about Islam being a religion of love and the need to love one another. Mohammed had spearheaded efforts to
assist the local community during the devastating 2011 Christchurch earthquake, providing food and shelter in the mosque
to many.
These past couple of days, I’ve been reading news items addressing this terror attack, including reports analysing how
the media disproportionately blames terror attacks globally on Muslims. This propaganda is effectively brainwashing
many, and increasing hate and distrust between people. Yet these reports fall short not only in their scope of what they
cover but also what they fail to mention. The reports and news items mostly discuss individual terror attacks like the
one committed in Christchurch. Yet in many instances they fail to mention several important points.
First, Muslims have been the biggest victims of such attacks globally. One such contrast I remember includes the January
2015 terror attacks in France, which killed 10-20 people. This was followed by a global outcry with dozens of world
officials gathering in France and leading a massive march in Paris in protest. Yet in July 2016, a single terrorist attack killed close to 400 people, mostly Muslims, in Baghdad’s Karrada district. For the most part, this barely made a blip
on the radar of media globally, with the victims dying silently, since this was once again just one terror attack among
hundreds of others against Muslims.
Second, the fact is that many terrorist groups in the world today including ISIS, who have killed so many Muslims as
they did in the aforementioned attack, have been created and supported by Western intelligence agencies. Ironically,
even the name given to such groups i.e. “Islamic State of…” further divides East and West, giving non-Muslims the
illusion that this is being done under the name of Islam itself or with the somehow implicit consent of Muslims.
Third, and perhaps most significantly of all, is the terror perpetrated by various Western governments – notably the
USA- and their client puppet states, which continue to kill millions of people globally and throughout history. When
looking at individual terrorist attacks like those committed by white supremacists in Christchurch, we must not forget
that the wars and oppression waged on places like Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Palestine and elsewhere, are the epitome
and manifestation of terror, practiced against civilian populations. We must never be naïve enough to accept the actions
of governments when they attempt to shroud the massacres, wars and terror they perpetrate and perpetuate in a false
cloak of legitimacy.
And yet, despite all of this and despite the millions of Muslims who continue to be killed by mostly white Christian men
in positions of power, the vast majority of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims do not hate the West or people from other
religions. This sentiment manifested itself clearly when one of the first victims to be killed at the Alnoor mosque
greeted the terrorist coming to kill him with words of love saying “Hello brother”.
The attack has backfired on this white supremacist, and the love shown towards the Muslim community has exemplified his
failure. My cousin leaves behind his wife and two-year-old daughter. Hopefully, if we all work together hard enough, she
can grow up in a world better than ours.
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Rifat Audeh is a lifelong human rights activist and award-winning filmmaker. His writings have appeared in various media
outlets and he has a Masters degree in Media and Journalism.
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