London, Ontario Tragedy – time to think
What if this incident had happened in Pakistan with the victims belonging to a religious or ethnic minority, with the killer belonging to the dominant religious majority?
Last week ended very tragically when a fanatic in London, Ontario, Canada, intentionally drove his truck over a Canadian Muslim family of Pakistan origin and brutally murdered 4 members of the family and left a son badly injured and orphan with both his parents, sister and grandmother gone.
London Police Chief Steven Williams said, “We believe this was an intentional act and that the victims of this horrific incident were targeted, we believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith.”
(Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/7928411/hyde-park-south-carriage-pedestrians-dead-london-ontario-police/)
The family had migrated to Canada from Lahore Pakistan in 2010. Husband was a physiotherapist, wife was completing her PHD in engineering, daughter was a grade 9 student and grandmother was the loving and caring glue bonding the whole family together. The incident was big news, drew attention to the highest officials and gained support from a big part of the community.
Let’s look at all above from a different lens:
- “Only” 4 people got killed (sorry for the sarcasm)
- were new citizens of only few years
- followed a minority religion
- were of color
- came from a small and poor country
- belonged to a minority community
- spoke a different language
- wore different clothes
- had different values
- ate different foods
- while the Killer belonged to the majority community and color
Yet the incident was mourned by the whole city, rather province, and rightly so:
- Almost the whole city was sad, crying and offered condolences and support
- A big vigil was organized and was attended by thousands of people
- The vigil attendees were white, black, browns, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and of other faiths
- Everyone condemned the killer and offered condolences, prayers, and support
- Everyone talked about increasing trend of Islamophobia and their resolve to eradicate the same
- People offered so many flowers that they became short
- People from other cities also offered their condolences and support
- Almost all city’s leaders attended the vigil
- All big political leaders attended the vigil
- All top officials (police, city, province, country) attended the vigil at full length
- Leaders from all faiths attended the vigil
- Almost half of the vigil attendees were crying
- Almost 1 million dollars got raised in days thru various support funds
- Almost all media outlets covered the vigil live as a country tragedy
- Similar vigils were held in several other cities
As a result of this tragic incident and with so many right people speaking so much about Islamophobia, I am sure something positive will be done to address this issue. All of us, me including, think that the deceased Pakistani Canadian Muslim family living in a western developed country deserved at least this much mourning, condolences, support, donations, vigil, media coverage and support from their fellow citizens belonging to all walks of life.
The supporters were not only males, were not only co-workers, or school fellows, or neighbors, did not have only Pakistani background, were not only Muslims, did not follow same culture, values, or lifestyle. They were all just human beings came out, were supporting and speaking for other human beings.
Now flip the story a little bit:
What if this incident had happened in Pakistan with the victims belonging to a religious or ethnic minority, with the killer belonging to the dominant religious majority?
Would we, Righteous, Muslim, Pakistanis offer similar kind of support to the victims?
Why not?
- Would not the victims of a religious or ethnic minority in Pakistan deserve similar kind of support that we thought the deceased family in London (with due respect to them), Ontario deserved?
- Are they not our fellow citizens, co-workers, school fellows, neighbors?
- Are they not just human beings?
Think about it.
Think about our behavior in such situations and think about the feelings of victims, and their family and friends in such situations. Why can’t we offer the same to others that we expect from others for ourselves, for our “own”?
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Babar Saeed
June 10, 2021
The writer is a professional marketer and engineer with good work exposure to governments, and businesses and industries in the private sector in several countries. Idea is to take the first step in adding value to anything that one gets exposed to instead of just complaining about the same.