{"id":4369,"date":"2016-07-06T01:35:37","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T20:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4369"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:02:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:32:51","slug":"christchurch-shooting-new-zealand-terrorist-islamophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4369","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch Shooting: My Brother Escaped the Australian Terrorist. But He Might Never Escape Islamophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">I<\/span>n the wee hours of March 15, as I slept comfortably in my bed at my suburban <\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/lucknow-muslim-city-diversity\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lucknow<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> house, my brother\u2019s world was coming apart. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aamir, my brother who is in his mid-40s, moved a decade ago to New Zealand, constantly cited as one of the safest places in the world, with a welcoming government and a thriving community of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/india-immigration-travel-abroad\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">immigrants<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. That notion, along with the hopes and dreams of so many people, were shattered on Friday when an Australian terrorist, Brenton Tarrant, opened fire on Jummah namazis at Christchurch\u2019s Masjid Al Noor, leaving 50 people dead.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My brother was there. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was woken up by my <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/modern-family\/mother-daughter-friendship-father-death\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mother<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at 9.30 am, hyperventilating and in tears, with a phone in her hand. As I regained my senses, she told me that something had happened in New Zealand. For a few tense moments, my heart sank and my blood froze as I mentally ran over a series of possibilities, each worse than the previous one. But thankfully, my brother had managed to escape the attack unscathed. Calling from someone else\u2019s phone, he\u2019d informed his wife that he was safe and \u2013 like so many other accounts now surfacing \u2013 had found refuge in the house of a stranger, who lived next-door to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/india-muslim-community-not-in-my-name-protests-lynching-quran\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mosque<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next few hours were sheer <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/first-person\/confessions-mother-abortion\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">panic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and uncertainty as the city of Christchurch went into lockdown. All we knew was that his kids, aged 12 and 6, were stuck at school, and his wife was alone at home, dealing with the chaos that unfurled around her and the torrent of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/phone-calls-millennials-whatsapp-call-internet-texting\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">phone calls<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that had been unleashed. In the meantime, we received no update from my brother and had no idea whether he was still safe. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sound of what had seemed like a short-circuit in the mosque, had attracted my brother\u2019s attention. It was only when the faint pattering paused, and the cries of the gathered worshippers started echoing in the outer chambers, as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/first-person\/26-11-terrorist-attacks-mumbai-police-taj\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">terrorist<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reloaded his magazine, and a thunderous volley of gunshots accompanied by thick smoke began, that my brother realised his worst nightmare was coming true.<\/span>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-47095\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1552910064.jpg\" alt=\"christchurch_shooting\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" \/>\n\nCarl Court\/Staff\/ Getty Images\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The people trying to escape through the only door were all gunned down and as the assailant continued to spray bullets indiscriminately \u2013 murdering young men and women and small <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/people\/kashmir-lost-children-documentary\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">children<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and old people alike. In that moment of panic, as the assailant reached the inner rooms of the mosque, my brother managed to escape the building. He knew he wasn\u2019t safe in the car park outside and jumped the wall into the backyard of the house next-door, even as gunshots continued to ring. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nearly four hours, 50 dead, and three captured suspects later, my brother was escorted home by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/crime\/nitin-yadav-police-sketch-artist\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">police<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. We managed to speak to him on the phone, and that\u2019s when our entire family broke down. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was able to form this detailed account of the incident from my brother, and also from the Facebook livestream video shared by Tarrant. Filmed on a GoPro camera, that video is not for the faint of heart: Tarrant can be seen listening to music as he thoughtlessly murders people, a scene that looked straight out of a first-person shooter <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/pubg-pochinki-indian-cricketers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">video game<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite its surreality, for the first time, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/amritsar-kolkata-train-accident-indian-railways\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tragedy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had come home. For the first time instead of feeling disconnected, I was directly involved in the horrifying ramifications of an international terror attack. Even though, we probably constantly live in fear of being caught in the crosshairs of such an incident, this is just the sort of thing that happens to other people. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that\u2019s when I felt something inside me change. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These incidents, wherever or whoever they may happen to, happen to all of us, everywhere. The people who lose their lives in terror attacks are somebody\u2019s brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. They are not just a statistic of 50 dead and 50 injured. Real people, murdered in real time. <\/span>\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\">For Muslims, religious discrimination and communal violence is par for the course \u2013 in our country and outside.<\/blockquote>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And for what? In this particular case because they happened to belong to the \u201cwrong\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/choosing-my-religion-hindu-muslim-christianity-atheist-agnostic-hindutva-islam-rss-swami-vivekananda-anti-hindu\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">religious community<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. At this point, it would be downright foolish to not acknowledge the Islamophobic sentiment that triggers these attacks. The festering mentality \u2013 cemented and perpetuated by politicians and depraved social media fora and general discourse \u2013 that all Muslims are either terrorists or terrorist sympathisers and unwanted, harmful immigrants.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My brother, along with billions of other Muslims in the world, is neither of those. He is a New Zealand resident, a professor at a university, and an upstanding, tax-paying member of his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/arre-checklist-humans-of-housing-society\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">society<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with absolutely no link to any terrorist group. A man who might have been killed not by a terrorist, but by this dangerously stunted mentality, stemming from a vicious, post-9\/11 bias. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But why blame just the West for a prejudice that has always been a part of the subcontinental landscape as well? For Muslims, religious discrimination and communal violence is par for the course \u2013 in our country and outside. We\u2019re told to leave our land, every time an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/sports\/india-pakistan-world-cup-pulwama-attack\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India-Pakistan cricket<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> match is played. We read of incidents where people cancel their Uber rides because the driver is a Muslim; we go along with news of people refusing to hire Muslim employees. We are told to tolerate accusations of \u201clove jihad\u201d. And we have no option but to accept a government whose silent leaders refuse to reign in \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/people\/part-time-businessman-full-time-gaurakshak\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gau rakshaks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d who routinely lynch young Muslim men. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The theatre of Indian politics is astutely mirroring this dangerous global trend and brazenly dancing to its infernal tunes. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/citizenship-bill-assam-protests-bjp-minorities\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">minority<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that\u2019s been cast under the shadow of doubt for ages is a terribly convenient target at the brink of general elections for political leaders of a particular bent. Caught in between this political tug of war are people who are made to prove their nationalism and restate their allegiance by the media.<\/span>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-47094\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1552909849.jpg\" alt=\"christchurch_shooting\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" \/>\n\nCarl Court\/Staff\/ Getty Images\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a time of radicalised emboldenment of the far-right, this sentiment has coagulated into a real threat to the lives of everyday Muslims. If you grew up Muslim in India, you\u2019d know that this is just the zenith of a social dynamic between Hindus and Muslims \u2013 sometimes subtle, sometimes painfully obvious, but always present. And while we have lived freely as Muslims in the democratic India and grown up steeped in a variety of lifestyles and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/sabarimala-literacy-kerala-women\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">traditions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, partaking in the great cultural osmosis of this beautiful and wild country, the divide was never as dangerously and rapidly widening as it is today.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being an Indian Muslim was only incidental to my <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/apu-canadian-accent-india-firang\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">identity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as an Indian.But with the way this current narrative is playing out, I won\u2019t be surprised if one of these days my identity is reduced to a binary choice of either Indian or Muslim. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s truly, maniacally ironic, is that this self-admitted <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/leaders-mamata-banerjee-right-to-protest\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fascist<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> murderer of Christchurch, was partly avenging the death of a little girl called Ebba Akerlund, killed in the 2017 Stockholm truck attack, also carried out by a lone-wolf terrorist who\u2019d sworn allegiance to the ISIL. It\u2019s like a macabre game of passing the parcel \u2013 an unceasing cycle of violence. My brother saw the madman avenging the 12-year-old girl, by shooting in the head a two-year-old boy, one he\u2019d see at the mosque every week with his father. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where does this bloodied buck stop? When does this horrorshow ferris wheel stop?<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It stops with us, really. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a world where <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/bigotry-within-indian-families\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bigotry<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and hate are the currency of political discourse; where religious, racial, and regional identity define our basic right to live; where intolerance and discrimination are not only implemented by fanatic zealots but also by everyday people, there is no hope for this violence to stop. No matter how many mosques and churches and towers and streets are blown up, this bottomless pit of generalised hate is never going to fill up. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am not naive enough to believe that an incident like Christchurch can change the worldview of a people, or even an individual\u2019s. But we can start with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/animals\/why-pet-owners-are-not-always-animal-lovers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">compassion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. With one positive thought. With a smidgen of understanding of the suffering of a fellow person, even if they don\u2019t share our beliefs or culture or faith. We can start by knowing that when a Brenton Tarrant shoots down a mosque, he is not putting an end to any ideological problem \u2013 he\u2019s only turning another cog in this giant wheel of violence, greased by generalised hatred. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My brother was in the mosque when Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant opened fire at Christchurch\u2019s Masjid Al Noor, leaving 50 people dead. Long before the call came, it was as if my family had been preparing for it our entire lives. Tarrant was only turning another cog in a giant wheel of violence, greased by generalised Islamophobia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":336,"featured_media":4373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[7791,5545,1382,1271,3586],"class_list":["post-4369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-person","tag-christchurch-shooting","tag-islamophobia","tag-muslim","tag-new-zealand","tag-terrorism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Christchurch Shooting: My Brother Escaped the Australian Terrorist. 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Tarrant was only turning another cog in a giant wheel of violence, greased by generalised Islamophobia.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tipu Sultan","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4369#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4369"},"author":{"name":"Tipu Sultan","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/c19e24587e7cad2d0fc3372bea0f3298"},"headline":"Christchurch Shooting: My Brother Escaped the Australian Terrorist. 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Tarrant was only turning another cog in a giant wheel of violence, greased by generalised Islamophobia.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4369#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4369"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4369#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1552909431.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1552909431.jpg","width":1520,"height":850},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4369#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christchurch Shooting: My Brother Escaped the Australian Terrorist. 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