The Muslim Hero of Westgate Mall Horror
This is one of the most moving and viral images which came out of the terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.
Last night we learned the identity of the man who the little girl is running towards and all of Kenya is hailing him as a hero.
His name is Abdul Haji and he is the son of Mohamed Yusuf Haji, a Somali politician based in Kenya who has served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Internal Security and Provincial Affairs.
In a riveting thirty minute interview on Kenyan prime time news Haji relates how he rescued dozens of people (video after the jump).
He received a text from his brother in the Mall reporting gunfire and went there to find him. As he arrived he saw many dead people including children and the elderly. He then linked up with a multi-racial, multi-faith group and spent around four hours trying to rescue as many as they could before he eventually tracked down his brother.
He relates the story of the photo. They noticed a woman and a number of children hiding underneath a promotional table in a spot right in the crossfire between themselves and a terrorist. He asked her to ask the eldest child to run towards them.
She ran towards men with guns. She did not cry. She remained calm throughout.
Haji says that even after the picture went viral he was reluctant to speak.
If such a girl can be so brave there is no reason we cannot.
Asked later why he did what he did and whether he is a hero he says:
I’m not sure what motivated me, I was in the moment, I was angered. I was, for want of a better word, pissed off with what had happened.
I am not a hero. I did what any other Kenyan would have done, to save anyone regardless of nationality, religion or creed. We’re definitely not heroes.