MOHAMED: Peace lessons from New Zealand, its PM

A fatal anti-Muslim hate crime in New Zealand on March 15 led to the death of 50 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch city with 50 injured in the attacks by an apoplectic white racialist.

The gun attack could have occurred anywhere in view of the outrageous normalisation of Islamophobia ever since the 9/11 carnage, which has seen a near-universal affront of Islam and its faithful with mendacious portrayals of contemptibility.

Led by Prime Minister Jacinta Arden, however, New Zealand has responded to the attacker’s call to hatred with inimitable crisis management skills and compassion to the victims and the larger Muslim community in the Oceana country as a restoration of its outstanding multicultural amity and peace. New Zealand has equally earned global compliments and is a beacon for fighting intolerance.

Contrary to the wicked expectation of the aggressor, mosques in New Zealand have become livelier with non-Muslims loyally guarding them to safeguard Muslims’ freedom of worship. Some non-Muslims have also started to frequent mosques with an intellectual curiosity to learn about Islam from its accurate sources.

In fact, the greatest outdoor Friday prayer meeting in Christchurch, on March 22, got a live national coverage by order of the PM, who also attended it.

Shortly after the horrific tragedy, the 38-year-old third female Prime Minister of New Zealand had spoken to the country and the world with remarkable moral clarity and leadership, stating: “Many of those who will have been directly affected by this shooting may be migrants; they may even be refugees here.

“They have chosen to make New Zealand their home, and it is their home. They are us.

“The person who has perpetuated this violence against us is not. They have no place in New Zealand.”

A day after the attacks, Ms Arden headed a multiparty group in a visit to condole with grieving families and the Muslim community.

She respectfully donned a black hijab, hugged some of the bereaved and laid a wreath at a memorial site. Her tight embraces were a very tall and rare leadership gesture of kindliness that it was later symbolically emitted on Abu Dhabi’s Burj Khalifa — the tallest building in the world.

Besides, Wellington would meet the burial costs, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere.

In her first speech to Parliament since the double mosque killings, Ms Arden did not mention the attacker by name. She said: “He sought many things from this act of terror, but one was notoriety. And that is why you will never hear me mention his name.

“Speak the names of those who were lost, rather than name of the man who took them.”

She ended her speech with the Muslim greeting, Assalamu Alaikum (Peace be upon you).

What’s more, the stoic premier swiftly effected changes in the country’s gun regulations that ban semi-automatic rifles among civilians to avoid a recurrence of the incident.

New Zealand and its young leader have given the world a free masterclass in kindness and crisis management. We should implement the lessons in our societies to achieve global peace and tolerance.

Mr Mohamed is a socio-political commentator based in Garissa Town. [email protected] @HassanMalikMoha