RIP #MohammadAnwar

Twitter is a great platform for news virality & I have been using it for various reasons from the past couple of years; one of which is to read the news. During my communication and journalistic studies 10 years ago, we were taught the importance of the internet and how it is bringing about a change in the way media works and news will be sent and received. Our professor told us that it will be like at the speed of light, information will be sent instantaneously and received by people.

This was before the world ‘viral’ became viral. This was before the phenomenon and concept became well known too. What my professor told me back then has come true, news gets transmitted and intercepted almost at the ‘speed of light’. We won’t go into the side effects of having platforms with the capabilities of sharing anything quickly — we all know fake news and the treacherous effects it can have on people who read, and/or propagate it further. However, let’s focus on virality in terms of linking this to any sort of bad news that is reported online & the one that spreads like wildfire on social media.

Let’s take the case of Mohammad Anwar, even though there are a hundred other examples over the course of Twitter’s lifespan that can be used as a case study too. Two days ago, I watched a video on Twitter — in this video, there are two girls carjacking and threatening an UberEats driver called Mohammad Anwar, he is seen repeatedly tell them “this is my car” and just when you think that the girls might get out of the car, they drive with him at a horribly fast speed, the car out of control, and Mr Anwar clinging on for dear life, only for him to lose it a few moments later when the car swerves to the left whilst turning quickly & overturns after hitting the pavement. Immediately, the person making the video runs towards the overturned car and we can see National Guard personnel helping the two girls out of the overturned car, with one of the girls screaming about the phone she left in it. No one calls for help, no one does anything to help the lying Mohammad Anwar and instead leaves him to bleed to death on the pavement — not even the videographer does something, even though he knew everything that had happened from start-to-finish.

This video has caused a lot of outrage in people and rightly so. It has gone viral and trended in different cities & countries on Twitter. To date, people are debating and discussing the incident on different social media platforms, including Twitter, and sharing the video. I feel just has angry and outraged as the rest of the people, especially since it highlights a lot of things in my mind that I am extremely unhappy about.

1. I am unhappy about the fact that this will remain just a social media trend and after people are tired of speaking up about it and sharing the video, some because they are genuinely horrified at what two 13 and 15 year old girls have done to an innocent man, some to further their own agendas (the girls are black, some people are speaking up against BLM now because of this incident, and some because they just want the attention the hashtag and speaking up about the incident & sharing the video will bring, this horrible and despicable thing will be forgotten. Mohammad Anwar will just be fading memory that people will forget about. They will move on. Nothing will be done about it. He will live and die as a social media trend on social media and the online news.
2. I am angry and extremely unhappy that whilst on the plus side, people will get to know about the atrocity that has been committed against an innocent man, the video and photos are being circulated on social media again and again for everyone to see, including the man’s immediate & extended family — and we all know, once something goes onto social media or the internet at large, it is very difficult to remove any trace of it. I cannot even imagine how difficult it would be for his family to see the videos being shared online and how hurtful & painful it must be, to come across this incident frequently, on social media. To people, this is just a man who died, regardless of the circumstances, but to someone it was their husband, father, and grandfather.
3. I am unhappy that no one is speaking about how inhumane and desensitised we have all become. Not only is the example clearly shown in the video, where the girls do not even care about the fact that they have murdered an innocent man but are searching for their phone that they have left in his car, but the fact that for many of us, this is just news will share onwards like zombies; because we have become so accustomed to sharing the most horrifying breaking news each instance with our friends & family or people, and we then stop talking about it after our momentary emotional reactions. This is further illustrated by the fact that the one making the video most probably just did it for the views and was so desensitised that he didn’t bother helping Mohammad Anwar & continued filming even when he could have most probably prevented the whole thing.

I am angry that as a society we lack empathy and we have become desensitised that we would rather film someone dying than actually put our camera aside and go save them. I am angry that the society failed those two girls and so did their upbringing, what kind of upbringing must those two girls have, in order to try and steal a car at the age of 13 and 15. Where are the parents? Are there no parents? Are these girls the product of the foster system? If they are, there must be something really wrong with the system, because it is not normal to try and steal a car — let alone, at the age of 13 and 15.

I am angry that this happened in the first place, but more than that, I am angry that his happened in the USA. People are angry too and demand justice, but more than that, they demand an apology. I do not think that the family of Mohammad Anwar is going to get justice. Is this why a person immigrates? A person immigrates to provide a better life for their family and more instances than not, it is economically motivated. Mohammad Anwar was just a 66 year old individual doing his job, so he could provide for his family, the same family he brought thousands of miles away from his homeland Pakistan, to try and give them a better and more safe and stable life & yet, he was killed for it. He was killed for doing nothing wrong. And no one cared that he died. At least no one on the ground at the time of the incident, where it really mattered. We as humanity have failed Mohammad Anwar and his family.

Someone has set-up a GoFundMe for his family, but will the money bring back their father, their husband, and their grandfather who was taken too soon from them? No, it will not. Money cannot replace a life lost.