Backlash Against Muslim Celebrity Trip to Christchurch Survivors [incl. Khaled Beydoun]

Maha Elmadani, a daughter of one of the New Zealand mosque attacks, triggered a backlash against a Muslim celebrity trip to visit Christchurch survivors. On April 4, 2019, the online platform the organization Muslims of the World (MOFW) ran an Instagram contest. The contest teased followers with a free trip to New Zealand to meet the Christchurch survivors and families of those killed. The winners would accompany MOTW founder and well-known American Muslim personalties Khaled Beydoun and Suhaib Webb.

On Instagram, Elmadani snapped back at the contest for its exploitative self-aggrandizement:

Elmadani’s father died in the Christchurch terrorist attack. She further added: The contest was immediately canceled and MOTW offered an apology. Beydoun, who is an author on books peddling recalls being at a group meeting in the early 1990s where they came up with the idea to use “Islamophobia” as a political weapon. “This loathsome term is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics,” he said.” target="_blank">Islamophobia, as well associate professor of law, deleted his Twitter account.

Writing for Al Jazeera, Vanessa Taylor published a stunning larger commentary on the story titled “The Problem with Muslim Celebrity Culture,” where she rightly pointed out:

The piece by Taylor is worth reading in its entirety. She goes on to elaborate on the willful silencing and manipulation of narratives that exists in these spheres, circling back to how figures like Beydoun were also misrepresenting or drowning out authentic local narratives following the Christchurch attack, along with Twitter plagiarism that couldn’t even get the facts right.