If you can recall during the 2004 John Kerry made a reference to Mary Cheney, Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, and the then-vice president's stance on gay marriage. That move backfired on him because Mary was completely behind her father's campaign and resented being used as a political tool for the Democratic party to take a jab at Republican policies. It's hard to seem like a defender of the gay community when your example is speaking out against you.

This incident came to mind when I read about Ahmed Merebet, one of the police officers who were shot during the attack on Charlie Hebdo. In the days afterward "Je suis Charlie" (I'm Charlie) became the phrase that people used to rally in support of the magazine and the people who died. But there also circulated the phrase "I am Ahmed" by people who were offended by some of the statements Charlie Hebdo made about Islam. I personally didn't know about this magazine's existence until a few days ago, so I'm not going to enter that argument.

But I feel use of a person's death to push an agenda is kinda like what happened with Mary Cheney. People don't know Merebet, initially they had no idea if he was a practicing Muslim or not, or if he was offended by Charlie Hebdo, but they latched onto his name because they felt it represented their viewpoint. The only difference is Cheney is still alive so she could still voice her own opinions, which differed from what Kerry was expecting. It's very possible that Merebet would completely agree with Muslims who want to point out the problems with the magazine — if people are willing to kill over it, surely it's gotta be offensive on some level — but I feel bad commandeering someone's image when they no longer are capable of having a voice of their own. For example, if I died in a KKK raid and people used my death as a protest against racism/antisemitism/anti-Catholicism, I'd actually be kinda pissed off. Although I think those are good things to protest against, I don't identify myself as Filipino nor am I practicing Jew or Catholic, so I'd rather not be the representative of such a movement. Again, Merebet may be proud of his death being used to show that extremists kill everyone, including Muslims. Or maybe he would've stood alongside those saying, "Je suis Ahmed." But I'm not gonna say that for him.