Jeremy Courtney I can hear the Muslim call to prayer issuing from my local mosque as I grieve here in Iraq.
It is not enough to offer thoughts and prayers after the shooting in New Zealand, after 49 of our Muslim sisters and brothers were brutally gunned down by white nationalist terror.
This is a time to put our bodies on the line. To mobilize. Stand up. Because the frontlines are where we live.
Twitter activism will not save lives today. Viral Facebook posts will not heal the wounds of hate.
We can only do this work with our hands. With our bodies. With our physical frontline presence.
Go to a mosque today. Show up for those who feel marginalized, vulnerable, targeted.
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Don’t just sit on Twitter screaming about the injustice of it all. And especially to my white, Christian friends: leverage all that unearned, “born on third base” privilege to stand up in this moment where white supremacy is coming after minority friends everywhere.
We knew this was coming. The seeds of today’s violence were planted in our rhetoric years ago. In our politics. Our grandstanding. Our “we belong here and they do not” view of the world.
This stuff was always in us. These wars, these bombs, these bullets—they start in our head before they ever reach our hands and manifest out in the world.
So what will we do next? Will we use our words and actions to bring life where others brought death today?
This is the time to stand up and put your bodies on the lines. This is what The Frontline has always been about. Now is our time to show up. Across New Zealand, across Europe, across America. Wherever you are.
Pursue peace through action. around the world, where you live. Join The Frontline.
There’s a mosque near you. We made signs you can take with you.
There’s a Muslim community near you.
There’s a border near you.
A neighbor near you.
Let’s not just send out thoughts and prayers. When we say we want our words to give life, let’s not just expect them to live on the internet.
Let’s show up face to face, offline, in realtime.
Let’s become a neighborhood force for peace. Let’s pursue peace through action, not just through rhetoric and ideas.
Let’s put our bodies on the line today.
Learn how to wage peace in your community.
