Brendan Cox: 'We must pull together to avoid division in wake of Germany Xmas market attack'
Share:
It is supposed to be a time of excitement and joy. But for those bereaved by Friday’s horrific attack at a yule market in Germany future Christmases will likely become moments of dread and pain. Families who lost loved ones will remember December 20 as a day when their world crumbled. Survivors of the attack, too, will not forget. The brutality and callousness of driving a car through a crowd of men, women and children is almost impossible to believe.
In the aftermath of attacks like these, the immediate response of most normal people is horror at the evil that drives them – and profound sadness. Sadness, of course, for those who were killed but also the survivors whose whole lives will have changed in an instant.
Yet there are some people whose first instinct in these moments isn’t to think of the victims, but to try and use the attack to further their hate filled politics. We saw it within minutes this time. People assumed the attack was an Islamist one. Reform leader Nigel Farage tweeted on Friday evening: "We have allowed people who hate us and our values into Europe. Christmas is their target. Any guesses why?" We all know what he meant. However, emerging evidence suggests the suspect supports the far right.
The mistakes might be excused if they were a one off. But they are not. Remember the Sydney attack earlier this year that was falsely pinned on a Muslim by keyboard warriors? None of that is to say that Islamist extremism isn’t a problem – it is. However, we should be wary of people who try to exploit tragedy for their own political ends. Their attempts to hijack our sadness and horror by turning it into hatred against whole groups is not only an insult to the memory of the victims; it is exactly what bad actors want.
