{"id":8415,"date":"2015-01-12T13:16:43","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T13:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/01\/12\/je-suis-ahmed\/"},"modified":"2015-01-12T13:16:43","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T13:16:43","slug":"je-suis-ahmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/12\/je-suis-ahmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Je Suis Ahmed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Brother of Muslim Policeman Killed in Parisian Shooting Speaks Out<\/h3>\n

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\nAhmed Merabet was the police officer killed in the shocking Charlie Hebdo shooting, his brother Malek condemned the attack committed by \u201cfalse Muslims\u201d and called for unity and tolerance. Speaking on behalf of relatives in an emotional tribute Malek claimed the terrorists, who shot his brother despite his pleas for mercy, may have shared his Algerian roots but had nothing else in common with him.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cMy brother was Muslim and he was killed by two terrorists, by two false Muslims,\u201d he said. \u201cIslam is a religion of peace and love. As far as my brother\u2019s death is concerned it was a waste. He was very proud of the name Ahmed Merabet, proud to represent the police and of defending the values of the Republic \u2013 liberty, equality, fraternity.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nMalek also emphasised that France was in conflict with extremism, not it\u2019s Muslim citizens, \u201cI address myself now to all the racists, Islamophobes and antisemites. One must not confuse extremists with Muslims. Mad people have neither colour or religion,\u201d he said.

\n\u201cI want to make another point: don\u2019t tar everybody with the same brush, don\u2019t burn mosques \u2013 or synagogues. You are attacking people. It won\u2019t bring our dead back and it won\u2019t appease the families.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSince the attack there have been violent attacks against Muslims in France including a including a grenade attack on a mosque, an explosion in a kebab shop beside a mosque and gunfire aimed at a Muslim family in a car, although there have been no casualties.

\nAhmed was wounded from a shot in the groin as seen in video footage, the second gunman moved forward and asked the policeman, \u201cDo you want to kill us?\u201d Merabet replied, \u201cNo, it\u2019s OK mate,\u201d before he was shot in the head.<\/p>\n


\nThe images and footage were shared online, one even published on the front page of a national newspaper, Malek criticised the media for this action, \u201cHow dare you take this video and broadcast it? I heard his voice, I recognised him, I saw him being killed and I continue to hear him every day.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAnother member of the family appealed for calm, \u201cWhat the family and I want is for everyone to be united, we want everyone to be able to demonstrate in peace, we want to show respect for all the victims and that the demonstration should be peaceful,\u201d she said.

\nAhmed was a pillar of the family since his father died 20 years earlier, Malek explained. The 42-year-old grew up in Livry-Gargan, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris, and graduated from the local lyc\u00e9e in 1995. He ran a cleaning company before joining the police force eight years ago, and worked hard for a promotion.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThrough his determination, he had just got his judicial police officer [detective] diploma and was shortly due to leave fieldwork. His colleagues describe him as a man of action who was passionate about his job,\u201d Malek said.<\/p>\n


\nAhmed was called to the scene of the attack while on a bicycle patrol and arrived just as the killers were escaping, he was the next victim in their attack.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cHe was on foot, and came nose to nose with the terrorists. He pulled out his weapon. It was his job, it was his duty,\u201d said Rocco Contento, a colleague who described him as a quiet and conscientious officer who was always smiling and very popular on the force.<\/p>\n


\nIn the wake of the incident the hastag #JeSuisAhmed trended on Twitter alongside #JeSuisCharlie, one user, identified as @Aboujahjah, tweeted, \u201cI am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so.\u201d \n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brother of Muslim Policeman Killed in Parisian Shooting Speaks Out Ahmed Merabet was the police officer killed in the shocking Charlie Hebdo shooting, his brother Malek condemned the attack committed by \u201cfalse Muslims\u201d and called for unity and tolerance. Speaking on behalf of relatives in an emotional tribute Malek claimed the terrorists, who shot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}