It’s time to make a stand.

We don’t need your thoughts and prayers. We need our rights to be defended.
 There are many good and brave people who do that every day, but too often they’re doing it in a climate that is wilfully hostile. We need politicians and the press to do it.
 They created an environment where radicalism could flourish. Now it’s their job to send it back to the margins, where it belongs.
That’s no small task: hours after the shootings in Christchurch, the Australian senator Fraser Anning released a statement blaming an increasing Muslim presence for what happened.
 Will he be condemned by the people whose voices matter? Will he be sanctioned in any meaningful way? Or will he be allowed to continue to spew hate speech?
 Politicians and the press can keep their platitudes. They’re meaningless unless they’re borne out by action.
 It’s time to make a stand. Defend our rights. Protect us from terrorism.
 Use your position to send a clear message that hatred has no place in society.
Stop giving a platform to extremists. Stop pretending that white nationalism is not a threat to us all. Have the courage to stand up for our rights as citizens. Too many have died.
 More will die if you fail to act. History will judge you for it.

 By Masuma Rahim (clinical psychologist)