New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern announced her resignation on 19 January 2023.
The news has gone all around the world, and a journalist asked for my comment regarding her support to the Muslim community after 15 March 2019 Massacre in Christchurch. I made my comments, and I think, as a survivor, I should write a few words about her in relation to the Christchurch Massacre to share with the wider audience.
I lost my dear wife Husna Ahmed, the mother of my dear daughter and the tragedy impacted me, many other families, and the rest of the Muslims so very much.
In that terrible time, Jacinda said a few words, that will never leave me. Her voice and words I can hear constantly, and her words makes me cry with joy. Some of those words were for example, “New Zealand mourns with you,” “We are one,” and “You are us,” etc.
Her kind and inclusive words led New Zealand to show compassion and made the Muslim minority feel belonged. We needed that message from the top leader for our healing.
Her wise and compassionate words were the reflection of true universal needs for human unity, harmony, and inclusivity. Her call to deal with the tragedy together as a nation swiftly spread throughout the world, and the world community responded to that call positively.
The call for unity and for peace from the Prime Minister of New Zealand echoed all over the world with great admiration for Jacinda and the way she handled the great tragedy.
The core message of Islam is peace, based on the teachings that all humans belong to one large “Human family” as we are children of Adam and Eve. Jacinda’s call for human unity and peace was an echo of Islamic message, and that’s why it makes me cry with joy. The world needs more compassionate leaders like her.
Her kind support towards the Christchurch Muslims is beyond words. Her frequent visit to the widows, in different recovery events, hugging the Muslim bereaved women, wearing the scarf to show respect to Muslim women, and so many more are impossible to write in just a few words.
Our thanks and gratitude are for her, for her government, and for compassionate New Zealanders.
Sincere condolence to brother Farid on the loss of this wife, and all members of Muslim community who lost family members on that very sorrowful day, and in recent events happening in world. We always recite inna lillahi wa in allah e rajioon, إِنَّا لِلَّٰهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ,. May Allah swt bless their souls, forgive all their sins, and grant them a place in Jannah, Ameen.
As for Jacinda’s role, she did a worldly job entrusted to her. As for who she REALLY is, please read the reader comments on that short-sighted editorial published in AMUST on Jan 20.
Brother Farid profile says he is a Quran teacher, so a timely reminder for all of us from Ayat 40 of Surah Nur for the ‘good deeds’ performed by ‘Muslim sympathizers’ :
(24:40) Or [the state/deeds of a disbeliever] is like the darkness in a vast deep sea, overwhelmed with a great wave topped by a great wave, topped by dark clouds, darkness, one above another, if a man stretches out his hand, he can hardly see it! And he for whom Allah has not appointed light, for him there is no light.
Assalamu alaikum, I agree with you. Jacinda might have done a great job from a worldly perspective(which could be appreciated). But if we see it from the Islamic perspective, many of her works are such that they should be condemned.