In one of several impressive acts of leadership, New Zealand’s parliament opened last Tuesday with the Speaker inviting an imam to lead prayers, first in Arabic then English. In Hansard the last of these “verses of patience” reads: “Oh Lord, we ask you to protect New Zealand and the whole world from such calamities. Amen.”
Would we be better protected if journalists followed the urging of New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern and did not name the perpetrators of acts of terrorism? We can acknowledge her skilful and empathetic response to the shooting of scores of people at two Christchurch mosques on 15 March. We can recognise that Ardern’s purpose as prime minister was rightly to turn the focus on those lost and mourned. But is she correct in implying that acts of terror will be deterred if no one speaks the names of perpetrators? Can, should, notoriety – as distinct from glorification or anti-hero status – be denied?
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2uozJ42
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