‘ANGELIC BOY’: this is how the Daily Mirror described the murderer of fifty worshippers in a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. This text was alongside a picture of the killer at the young age held in the arms of his father. One could suggest that the connotations of the word ‘angelic’ are Godly, holy, and heavenly. These are so far removed from the killer’s actions.
I do not recall seeing any baby pictures of Shamima Begum, the young British Muslim woman who has been stripped of her citizenship, but I did see one tabloid paper call her baby a ‘Jihadi Baby’.
Language is incredibly powerful. The people killed were not a number. They were people that went to pray and congregate on a Friday. They were killed when they were at their most vulnerable, in thought, meditation and prayer. These people were human beings. They were mothers, fathers, and daughters and sons. The murderer as a child is featured, along with his father, usurping the front page. The victims have been erased and the murderer has become the victim.
