Riz Ahmed hits out at portrayal of Muslims following terror attacks

‘Star Wars’ actor took to Twitter to voice his opinion over six posts

Star Wars: Rogue One star Riz Ahmed was placed on the Time's 100 Most Influential People issue cover in April this year. Since then, the actor and rapper has been putting his influence to good use.

Riz has been politically active for a while – from his controversial role in the Jihadi satire film Four Lions, to his essay on the similarity between the casting couch and airport security called, 'Typecast as a Terrorist', his politically-engaged rap group the Swet Shop Boys, which has songs such as Englistan and the hundreds of thousands of pounds he helped raise for Syrian refugees.



Speaking at the ELLE Style awards in February, Ahmed said, “Right now, the story that seems to have been taking over people's imagination is that we live in an 'us versus them' world. And, we have to push back against that. There's no us versus them, we're all in this together.”

In the wake of the third terror attack in London over the last few weeks, as well as the tragedy of Grenfell Tower that saw tens, possibly hundreds, of people killed in a fire that engulfed a social housing tower block, there has been much debate on how perpetrators, victims and heroes are portrayed in the media according to their race, religion, ideology and class.

Following this series of events, Ahmed took to Twitter to voice his own opinion on the matter with a six-post-long thread, reported ELLE UK. “When crazy Muslim kills, it’s Muslim terror. When Muslims save lives and lead relief at Grenfell, where’s the Muslims heroes headline?” he posted. “And when non-Muslims shoot American politicians and drive into a van, why isn’t it called terrorism.”

Many people have drawn attention to the language used when the perpetrators of the attack are 'Muslim', or at least claim to be. For example, the men who perpetrated the Manchester and London Bridge/ Borough Market attacks in comparison to white non-muslim perpetrators in the recent attack in Finsbury Park.



Many people on social media are pointing out how extremism has made its way into main-stream media. The logic stands that if Muslim men can be radicalised then why can't non-muslim men be radicalised the other way? Can't both be mentally ill, can't both be terrorists?

Ahmed added, “Where are the calls for white males or American gun-owners to answer for all others? Prejudice, extremism, supremacism, is all the same. Language matters. By emphasising some violence over others or focusing on one extremism over others, we fail to see how they’re connected. Violence is a cycle from people feeling under threat or their suffering undervalued. A first step is to use calm and balanced language.”



Expressing anger against sweeping statements made against Muslims, Riz posted, “Case in point: Muslim guy does it = whole religion suspect... Non-Muslim= unemployed lone wolf having a tough time.”

Journalist Hussein Kesvani was one of the voices who claimed to explain how 'inevitable' an attack on Muslim worshippers in Finsbury Park was, because of the 'right-wing media's years-long campaign of dehumanisation'. Thankfully, much of the humanity of the victims of the attacks has managed to shine through.

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