Zakia Belkhiri, a 22-year-old hijab-wearing Muslim, topped the trending stories in Europe last weekend, when she stood in front of an openly anti-Muslim protest in Belgium and started taking some cheeky selfies.
The Belgian Muslim Expo, which ran from May 14 to May 15, took place in the city of Antwerp and faced some vicious opposition. The event featured different exhibitions, discussions and musical performances; however, it was interrupted by a far-right nationalist group called Vlaams Belang, whose members proudly showcased their venomous sentiments by holding up racist posters and handing out pork sausages, which is forbidden to eat in Islam.
There were reportedly at least 40 anti-Muslim demonstrators, but despite all of that, Ms Belkhiri stopped, took out her cell phone and started snapping what can only be described as funny, spontaneous and cheeky photos, that have been widely shared on social media since then.
According to BBC Trending, Belkhiri said she did so “to show that things can be different. And that we can live together, not next to each other but with each other.”
Ironically, we can draw from the protest’s photos that some protesters were amused by Belkhiri’s behavior, even though they held signs that read “No Headscarves”, “No Mosques” and “Stop Islam”.
Despite the fact that nearly 15 percent of the Belgian population follows Islam, it has been widely reported that the Brussels bombings of last March have actually boosted the increasing support of far-right groups in the European country.
Belkhiri’s charming action was just an elegant example of how to deal with ignorance that is fueled by fear and rage. It only took her a posture, a smartphone camera and a smile to transform a dull protest into a vibrant event that even shook the protesters themselves to the core.
Although anti-Muslim and neo-Nazi events in Europe are not expected to stand down soon amid the aggravating regional tension, Muslims like Ms. Belkhiri continue to give us examples of how to deal with racism in a brilliant manner, which has served to disarm an unpleasant crowd of their weapons of hate with just a cheeky smile.
WE SAID THIS: But first, let us take a cheeky selfie…