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After days of condemnation the German city of Dresden is countering the country’s previously muted response to the murder of Marwa al-Sherbini through a memorial.
Still in its nascence, a forerunner in the idea stakes is the renaming of a street in the 31-year-old mother’s honour.
Is it possible that the renaming of a street can compensate for the events that unfolded beforehand?
Is it truly enough?
I’m not so sure.
Honouring Marwa al-Sherbini is a tender gesture, but more lasting would be a fervant pro-active approach towards Islamophobia by European governments.
If anything is to emerge from the tragic events, let it be measures to prevent another innocent citizen dying in the name of bigotry.
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It is a nice gesture, but needs to be a part of a package.
I fear people in Dresden will view this as a reaction to the protests in Egypt, and their equating Germans with the ‘enemies of God’… and may be more fodder for Islamophobia. I personally would rather see justice done, taking the perpetrator and court security to trial, for murder and incompetence respectively.