Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hugs a mosque-goer at the Kilbirnie Mosque on March 17, in Wellington. The Muslim Times has the best collection to refute Islamophobia and promote interfaith tolerance

Don’t Speak the Name of the Suspect, New Zealand’s Leader Urges After Shooting

Source: The New York Times

By DAMIEN CAVE and EMILY STEEL

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The man accused of carrying out the attack that killed 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, is expected to represent himself in court, but the country’s prime minister said on Tuesday that she wants to do everything possible to deny him the attention he craves.

“He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in an address to Parliament. “But he will, when I speak, be nameless.”

“And to others, I implore you,” she added, “speak the names of those who were lost, rather than name of the man who took them. He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing. Not even his name.”

Her comments — which included a demand for internet platforms like Facebook to do a better job controlling hateful content — reflect a global struggle that has caught this small, open and friendly country by surprise: how to avoid fueling fame for a man accused of killing and his message even as officials and the news media try to better understand the forces that led to his apparent radicalization.

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