He Slaughtered Muslims, but It Goes Beyond That

On Friday 15 March 2019, a terrorist walked into two houses of worship in Christchurch, New Zealand, opened fire, and killed 50 worshippers total.

The image below quotes a news source and displays images of two heroes, Abdul Aziz and Daoud Nabi. Continue reading below the image.

I included a snapshot of text from a news article to demonstrate the significance of my title for this piece. The terrorist attacked Muslims. However, we were not his ultimate goal. He hates us, but he hates People of Colour - ALL People of Colour. Yes, we Muslims are racialised; but here in the States, which is the ideological target of the terrorist, we Muslims also exist amongst the layers of stratification in America's racial hierarchy which places Black People at the bottom and white or white-passing people at the top.

We Muslims have a wide diversity of appearances. Some of us wear kufis, others turbans, yet other hijabs, and many of us nothing at all on our heads. We wear everything from dashdashas to jilbabs to abayas to t-shirts and jeans. Some of us are black, some brown, and some white or white-passing. We speak just about every language on this planet. We are racialised, yet because of our ethnic, immigration status, and other diversities we also encounter a diversity of treatments, from abjectly violent racist attacks to full inclusion into our inherently racist society.




Keeping all of that in mind, it is worth revisiting the terrorist's words, some of which are splashed onto that article. He said that he wanted to "create conflict between the two ideologies within the United States on the ownership of firearms in order to further the social, cultural, political and racial divide within the United states." Regarding his choice of guns as a weapon, he once again referred to his vision of an American racial war. He indicated that Americans would become polarised over the issue of guns and that the situation would "ultimately result in a civil war that will eventually balkanize the US along political, cultural and, most importantly, racial lines."

He mentioned Muslims, yes. However, he did so in the context of his racial racialisation and otherising of many of us, referring to us as non-white "invaders" into a society that he wants to keep white. His ultimate goal is not so much the destruction of Muslims as it is the mass slaughter of People of Colour. We Muslims, and those accursed guns, have only been tools towards that end.

It is white supremacy that we must disrupt. It is white supremacy that we must interrupt. And we white adults - as I am white and adult - need to start doing it when the children in our lives are young. Teach them empathy, in this world that glorifies abuse and bullying. Talk to young people about racial justice, racist tropes, what symbols white supremacists use and what the mean, etc.

Teach them to actively care for those who are disenfranchised, in this world that glorifies selfishness and greed. Teach them to lift up marginalised people and stand in the way of those whose words, actions, or both cause carm to them, in this world that views whiteness as the norm against which all else is measured.

Stop people when they say and do racist nonsense and call them out.  Stand up against white supremacist words and actions from adults and, where the adults have chosen such as their path, shun them, bring them shame, cause them to be cast out by society - because once those people understand that society will not tolerate their bullshit, they might actually have incentive not to do such nonsense.

Every moment that we allow racism to take place in our presence without taking measures to stop it, we are complicit in it, as Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr would tell us. When that racism leads to white supremacist terrorism, we remain complicit. It is imperative that we work to stop racism before it becomes terrorism. Again.