Three people have been killed in a shooting in Auckland central business district today, including the gunman.

Six people were also wounded, including two police officers.

Police say the situation is now contained.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told media a witness called the incident in at 7.23am, reporting there was a man with a gun shooting inside a construction site on lower Queen Street.

The gunman moved through the construction site shooting a pump-action shotgun.

When he reached the upper levels he hid inside an elevator shaft.

Police attempted to engage with him, but the gunman fired further shots, before he was found dead a short time later, they say.

The New Zealand Herald reports Prime Minister Hipkins praised the “heroic” actions of emergency services.

He said there was no identified “political or ideological motivation” for the shooter and as such, there was no need to change the national security risk.

The government has spoken to FIFA organisers today and the Women’s Football World Cup tournament will proceed as planned with the opening match tonight between New Zealand and Norway.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster later confirmed the dead gunman was on home detention and had previous convictions. He was named as Matu Tangi Matua Reid, 24, reports RNZ News.

Coster said the shooter was a worker at the construction site, and had an exemption from home detention to go to work.

At 7.22am police received multiple emergency calls about a person shooting a gun on the third floor of a building under construction on lower Queen Street. Commissioner Coster said officers arrived on the scene within minutes.

“The offender made his way up the building site, discharging his firearm on multiple occasions. Police entered in the building within 10 minutes,” he said.

The police commissioner said the gunman fired at police, wounding an officer, and shots were then exchanged.

“The offender was later found deceased.”

The wounded police officer was taken to hospital in a critical condition, but has since stabilised.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Two people have been killed in a shooting in Auckland central business district today.

At least six people are also wounded, including police officers.

Police say the situation is now contained and the shooter is dead.

They were alerted to the incident when someone discharged a firearm inside a construction site at about 7.20am.

The gunman moved through the construction site discharging his pump action shotgun, police say.

When he reached the upper levels he hid inside an elevator shaft.

Police attempted to engage with him, but the gunman fired further shots, before he was found dead a short time later, they say.

The New Zealand Herald reports Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has praised the “heroic” actions of emergency services.

He said there was no identified “political or ideological motivation” for the shooter and as such, there was no need to change the national security risk.

The government has spoken to FIFA organisers today and the Women’s Football World Cup tournament will proceed as planned with the opening match tonight between New Zealand and Norway.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Goroka town is under lockdown and remains tense as Papua New Guinea police mount a heavy presence following the brutal slaying of the PNG Ports chief executive Fego Kiniafa outside the Eastern Highlands provincial capital.

Kiniafa was slashed to death at Nagamiufa on Saturday after he allegedly shot a Nagamiufa man.

Four men who were with Kiniafa are alleged to have been taken hostage by Nagamiufa villagers.

His relatives from Korofeigu, Lower Bena, are reported to have mobilised and attacked Nagamiufa village, sparking a tribal conflict that shut down businesses in Goroka and sent people scattering.

Highway travellers were left stranded as vehicles deserted the roads between Lower Bena and Goroka, and international visitors to the just ended Goroka Show were also stranded at the new airport.

Police reported the Lower Benas wiped out Nagamiufa village in a 4am dawn raid yesterday.

Most people had fled in fear of the attack to neighbouring villages.

Raid because of no arrest
The raid allegedly occurred because there has not been any arrest made in relation to the death of Kiniafa two days after he was slashed to death near Nagamiufa village.

Spears, guns and other weapons were used as Goroka town was deserted with businesses shut down and the Goroka General Hospital also on lockdown as security was tightened.

Travellers wishing to travel out of the province after the EHP show were left stranded and locked inside the terminal as the airport closed its gates.

On Saturday morning, Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed the death of Kiniafa, 43, from a confrontation near Nagamiufa village.

EHP Police Commander Chief Superintendent Michael Welly said that the killing occurred between midnight and 6am on September 17.

According to police reports, Kiniafa was allegedly involved in a confrontation with several suspects from the surrounding settlements around Nagamiufa village in Goroka.

Kiniafa allegedly shot another man, and in retaliation the relatives of the man ambushed Kiniafa and his driver with bush-knives, killing them.

Four men allegedly kidnapped
Superintendent Welly said: “It is alleged that four men who were with Mr Kiniafa are said to have been kidnapped as well with police investigating the allegations and as well as investigating the incident on Saturday.”

Kiniafa was found at the scene and rushed to the hospital before being pronounced dead on arrival.

PNG Ports on Saturday afternoon released a short statement confirming Kiniafa’s death and announcing that chief operations officer Rodney Begley would manage and oversee the office of the CEO.

Kimiafa, who turned 43 on PNG’s Independence Day — Friday, September 16 — was one of the youngest chief executives of a government entity.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Tongan police have confirmed the death of a seven-year-old boy after he was shot.

Police report the shooting occurred at the boy’s residence at the village of Ha’ateiho, on the main island of Tongatapu, last Friday evening local time.

The boy’s father has been arrested, but police said the victim died after his four-year-old brother fired four shots while playing with the firearm.

Police said the firearm used was a .22 rifle with unlicensed ammunition.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Name suppression for the man responsible for yesterday’s New Zealand terror attack at a west Auckland supermarket has been revoked, but his name cannot be published yet.

The High Court has given his family who live overseas at least 24 hours to seek further suppression orders.

The Sri Lankan national was shot dead by police after stabbing six people inside Countdown in LynnMall.

Suppression orders prevented details about his identity and background from being made public.

The government filed an urgent application last night to have the court orders lifted, so details about the man’s identity and background could be made public.

In a judgment last night, Justice Wylie said there was no longer any proper basis for the suppression orders.

But he said the man’s family live overseas and lawyers needed time to contact them to take instructions.

He said he could consider extending the 24-hour period if needed.

Isis propaganda
However, it can be revealed the man was sentenced in July to one year of supervision after he was found guilty by a jury in the High Court at Auckland of two charges of possessing Isis propaganda that promoted terrorism.

He was found guilty of another charge of failing to comply with a search, but he was acquitted of a third charge of possession of objectionable material and a charge of possessing a knife in a public place.

The state had sought to charge him under the Terrorism Suppression Act, but failed after a High Court judge ruled that planning a terror attack was not an offence under the law.

Because he had already spent three years in custody awaiting trial, he did not receive a further prison term for his offending.

Despite that, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said he had been under surveillance since 2016, because of his support for a violent ideology inspired by Islamic State.

The man was being so closely monitored by a surveillance and tactical team that police shot him within 60 seconds of the attack starting.

On the radar of authorities
He arrived in New Zealand in October 2011.

He first came to the attention of authorities in 2016, when police formally warned him about posting anti-Western, pro-Isis, extremist content on the internet.

The man had also at some point told a worshipper at an Auckland mosque that he wanted to go to Syria to fight for Isis.

In a July 2020 judgment, Justice Downs said in May 2017, he had booked a one-way flight to Singapore but was arrested at Auckland Airport.

When police searched his apartment, they found a large hunting knife under the mattress on the floor and secure digital cards containing fundamentalist material, including propaganda videos and photos of the man posing with a firearm.

He was remanded in custody and in June 2018, he pleaded guilty to distributing restricted publications. In August 2018, he was sentenced to supervision, Justice Downs’ 2020 judgment said.

But the day after his sentencing, he went and bought the same model of hunting knife that police had earlier found under his mattress.

Arrested again
He was arrested again and another search found a large he had a large amount of violent Isis material, including one video about how to kill “non-Muslims”.

This time, the state sought to charge the man under the Terrorism Suppression Act, for planning a terrorist act.

But Justice Downs said that in itself was not an offence under the law.

In his decision, Justice Downs said: “Terrorism is a great evil. ‘Lone wolf’ terrorist attacks with knives and other makeshift weapons, such as cars or trucks, are far from unheard of.

“Recent events in Christchurch demonstrate New Zealand should not be complacent. Some among us are prepared to use lethal violence for ideological, political or religious causes.

“The absence of an offence of planning or preparing a terrorist act … could be an Achilles heel.”

Justice Downs said it was not for the courts to create such an offence.

“The issue is for Parliament,” he said.

A copy of Justice Downs’ judgment was provided to the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General and the Law Commission.

High Court trial
The man finally stood trial in the High Court at Auckland in May this year, on lesser charges.

A jury found him guilty of two charges of possessing Isis propaganda that promoted terrorism and one charge of failing to comply with a search.

He was acquitted of a third charge of possessing objectionable material and a charge of possessing a knife in a public place.

The man was sentenced in July.

In her sentencing notes, Justice Fitzgerald said the two publications on which he was found guilty were “nasheeds” – religious hymns.

Both were classified by the Censor as objectionable and contained Isis imagery and lyrics.

Justice Fitzgerald did not accept the explanation that he was listening to them to improve his Arabic language skills.

“Rather, I accept that the broader context to your possession of these nasheeds, which included a range of other materials relating to Isis or Isil, suggests that you have an operative interest in Isis.

“In other words, I do not accept that you might have simply stumbled across these and other Isis-related materials in your research of Islam or the historic Islamic State,” she said.

Report raised further flags
A pre-sentencing report raised further flags.

“The report writer suggests that you support the goals and methods of Isis,” Justice Fitzgerald said.

“The report writer concludes that the risk of you reoffending in a similar way to the present charges is high.

“It suggests that you have the means and motivation to commit violent acts in the community and, despite not having violently offended to date, as posing a very high risk of harm to others.”

Given he had already spent three years in custody awaiting trial, the man was sentenced to one-year supervision.

There were restrictions on his use of electronic devices, the internet and social media.

“The Police and Community Corrections clearly have concerns that you pose a not insignificant risk to the broader community,” Justice Fitzgerald said in her sentencing notes.

“I do not know whether those concerns are right and I sincerely hope that they are not, though having regard to all of the materials available to the court, I can say that they are not wholly fanciful.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A woman at the centre of a manhunt after a police shooting in New Zealand yesterday has been arrested in West Auckland.

Police said Natalie Bracken was found just after 3pm today, taken into custody without incident, “and is assisting police with enquiries”.

She was wanted on warrants for driving charges and as an accessory to the murder of Constable Matthew Hunt, and is now due to appear in Waitākere District Court on Monday morning.

READ MORE: NZ shooting of police officer ‘shocking’

Waitematā police officer Hunt, 28, was killed, and another officer was shot in the leg amid a hail of bullets fired after a car they had tried to pull over crashed on Friday, in the West Auckland suburb of Massey.

A man who had been loading things into his car on the roadside at the time was also injured when a vehicle hit him. He and the injured officer remain in a stable condition in Auckland Hospital.

Yesterday a 24-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder and dangerous driving.

He was granted interim name suppression at a court appearance via videolink today, and is scheduled to appear in the Auckland High Court on July 8.

Commissioner of Police Andrew Coster earlier today said the police force across New Zealand was mourning Hunt’s death.

The 28-year-old criminology major fullfilled a lifelong dream when he began working as a police officer in 2017, after earlier working as a case manager at Auckland Prison.

Until yesterday, the most recent killing of a police officer in New Zealand was in 2009 in Napier.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific’s Melanesian affairs correspondent

A West Papuan church leader has been “invited” by Indonesian police to “clarify” an article he wrote about a shooting incident in which a New Zealander was killed.

The shooting attack, which occurred at the offices of mining giant Freeport in Papua’s Mimika regency on March 30, resulted in the death of Graeme Wall and injuries to several other employees.

A faction of the West Papua Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack, as part of the pro-independence guerilla force’s ongoing campaign to target Freeport’s local operations.

READ MORE: Jailing of Jakarta Six fuels virus fears over Papuan political prisoners

However, the president of the Alliance of West Papuan Baptist Churches, Reverend Socratez Yoman, wrote an article a month ago, published by Majalah Wekonews, which suggested the Indonesian military could have engineered the attack to help its security agenda in the area.

He also said police and military were trying to discredit the Papuan independence movement.

Papua’s Police Chief Paulus Waterpauw said Reverend Yoman was invited to clarify his statement, which he claimed had implicated police in the shooting attack.

General Waterpauw said that if the church leader didn’t clarify or apologise for the accusation, he may be liable for spreading fake news.

‘Fake news’ imprisonment
Under Indonesia’s criminal code, people can be imprisoned for to six years for publishing or broadcasting “fake news or hoaxes resulting in a riot or disturbance”.

Reverend Yoman said he was served with a letter by police summoning him for a meeting at police headquarters in Jayapura. His lawyer, Aloysius Renwarin, attended the meeting last week on his behalf.

The church leader said Renwarin relayed a request from police for another meeting with him in person, adding that General Waterpauw also told him via text message that his statement was “tendentious”.

Reverend Yoman based his article on a history of attacks in the region around Freeport where Indonesian military and police forces vied for lucrative security contracts.

Indonesian military forces in Mimika regency have been contending with a recent surge in attacks on their personnel by the Liberation Army whose guerilla fighters they continue to pursue

Last month, police arrested Ivan Sambom, a member of the West Papua National Committee, a pro-independence activist group, in relation to the attack at Freeport.

General Waterpauw said police were continuing their investigations.

The increase in violence comes as Mimika regency experiences an increase in the number of confirmed covid-19 cases. It now has 51 cases, a quarter of Papua province’s total confirmed cases, among a population which frequently travels back and forth from other parts of the republic.

Killing of university student pair
Meanwhile, families of two young West Papuan men shot dead near the Freeport mine are pushing for an independent probe into the incident.

Eden Bebari and Ronny Wandik were aged only 19 and 21 when they were shot dead during an encounter with security forces about halfway between the city of Timika and the Freeport gold mine two weeks ago.

The two university students’ families said their sons had gone fishing but were wrongly identified by Indonesian military as pro-West Papuan independence fighters.

A joint investigation by police and military is underway, according to General Waterpauw. But the families said military personnel should be sidelined from the probe. They urged police to ensure the safety of the victims’ families and witnesses, also asking authorities to allow the Human Rights Commission access to the regency.

In response to the families’ joint appeal to Freeport and authorities to allow human rights investigators access to the area, a spokesman from the mining company said it was not appropriate for Freeport to comment on an incident which took place outside its work area.

Following the killing of the two young men at Mile-34 (denotes distance along road between Timika and Freeport’s mine area), initial media claims that the two Papuans were linked to the Liberation Army fighters and armed have been strongly denied by families of the victims.

Together with Indonesia’s military commander in Papua, Herman Asaribab, General Waterpauw have appeared before the community to witness the bodies, and expressed condolences to the families.

The police chief told local media it was sometimes difficult for security forces to distinguish between armed “criminal groups” and ordinary citizens.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

As the police worked to release victims’ bodies to families by tonight, the first were buried this afternoon.

Father and son, 44-year-old Khaled Mustafa and 15-year-old Hamza, were laid to rest in a Janaza service at Memorial Park Cemetery in Linwood.

The service started at 12.30pm when the bodies arrived by hearse.

READ MORE: RNZ’s tribute to the lost – ‘They are us’

They were wrapped in cloth and carried on a board by several mourners.

At the graveside family members prayed while about 200 mourners stood some distance away. Other ceremonies took place after

Green MP Golriz Ghahraman … politicians bear some responsibility. Image: RNZ

Meanwhile, Green MP Golriz Ghahraman challenged Parliament to “change the way we do politics” in the aftermath of the Christchurch terror attacks.

Politicians bore some responsibility for the shootings that killed 50 people at two mosques on Friday, said Ghahraman.

‘Fanned division’
“There sit among us those who have for years fanned the flames of division, who have blamed migrants for the housing crisis,” she said.

“None of us are directly responsible for what happened on Friday – we’re all horrified – but we’re all on notice now, we have to change the way we do politics.”

Ghahraman said although the man accused of the shootings was not born in New Zealand, the ideology that led to the Christchurch mosque shootings existed in pockets of New Zealand.

This rhetoric was not mirrored in other parts of the world, as Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking at a political rally, criticised the Anzacs for their role in Gallipoli. He threatened to send New Zealanders and Australians who came to his country with anti-Islam sentiment back in a casket.

“Your grandparents came here… and they returned in caskets. Have no doubt, we will send you back like your grandfathers.”

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison today described Erdogan’s comments as “reckless and deeply offensive”.

“I don’t find them very accurate or truthful as well because the actions of the Australian and the New Zealand governments have been consistent with our values of welcome and supporting people from all around the world.

Withdraw demand
“I have asked for these comments, particularly the reporting of the misrepresented position of Australia on Turkish television, the state-sponsored broadcaster, to be taken down.”

Morrison summoned the Turkish ambassador to Australia to his office to demand the comments be withdrawn and said further diplomatic action could follow if they were not.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern discussed Erdogan’s comments as part of a press conference in Christchurch but struck a different tone.

She said Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters would confront those issues while in Turkey.

She said she did not anticipate a change in New Zealand’s relationship with that country.

“It is so deeply entrenched. They have cared for our fallen.

“I reject the idea we are losing that relationship.”

Peters left the country yesterday, headed for Turkey after a stop in Indonesia to express his condolences for the Indonesian killed in the Christchurch attacks.

Two-minute silence
At the same press conference, Ardern said there would be two minutes of silence, with the call to prayer broadcast on RNZ and TVNZ.

A national memorial, to be held in Christchurch, was still in the planning stages she said.

“While it will be in Christchurch we want to involve the rest of New Zealand.”

Ardern spoke of her empathy with the frustration victims’ families were feeling at having to wait so long for the bodies of their loved ones to be returned.

However, she said the Muslim community had showed great compassion through this difficult time.

“Their response has been overwhelming that what they seek is justice … but overwhelming they keep reflecting back to me the sense of support they have had from the New Zealand community.

Ardern said although there were global issues involved in Friday’s attacks, such as gun control and moderation of social media content, she would continue to provide the New Zealand perspective on behalf of New Zealanders.

Many ‘loopholes’
She also said there were a “large number of loopholes” in New Zealand’s gun laws and there were a range of things to be fixed.

“Many New Zealanders would be astounded to know that you can access military-style semi-automatics.

“If I could say New Zealand was a blueprint for anything, I would say it was a blueprint of what not to do.”

Ardern hoped New Zealand could now demonstrate what could be done with gun control.

In a press conference yesterday, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police believed the accused gunman in the mosque attacks was going to commit further crimes when he was arrested.

“We absolutely believe we know where he was going and we intervened along the way.”

Friday marks a week since the attacks that killed 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch and as a safety precaution, many closed their doors.

Open doors
But mosques across Auckland will open their doors to the public on Friday night, their holiest day of the week, to remember the 50 lives that were lost in Christchurch.

The Ponsonby Masjid, Ranui Mosque, North Shore Islamic Centre and Masjid Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq in Pakuranga called for people of all faiths to join them and show solidarity.

Muslim Association president Ikhlaq Kashari said they wanted to encourage an atmosphere of inclusivity and openness, and an opportunity to heal as a community.

However, members of the Muslim community have emphasised that mosques are always open to the public and they were welcome any time.

More than 500 people across the country have registered to give blood since the Christchurch mosque shootings, saying they want to do what they can to help.

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By RNZ

Police Commissioner Mike Bush says police knew where the suspect from the Christchurch mosque attacks was going after the New Zealand shootings and intervened.

During a media conference today, Bush gave further details of the police response during the attacks that killed 50 people at Al Noor and Linwood mosques last Friday.

He said within five minutes and 39 seconds of being notified the first responders were armed and on the scene and ready to respond and within 10 minutes the armed offenders squad was on the scene.

WATCH RNZ VIDEO: Police Commissioner Mike Bush speaks to the media

“Within 21 minutes the person that is now in custody was arrested.”

Bush said the person was apprehended on the way to another target. He would not say what the target was.

-Partners-

“We strongly believe we stopped him on the way to a further attack, so lives were saved.

“We absolutely believe we know where he was going and we intervened along the way.”

2 assault rifles
He said during the arrest of the suspect, officers seized two assault rifles and at least one semi-automatic rifle.

Police had previously said the suspect was in custody at the justice precinct within 36 minutes, but Bush said the arrest at the roadside took only 21 minutes.

Speaking about identifying the victims’ bodies, Bush said it was an absolute priority to return the victims to their families.

As of at 11.30pm yesterday 21 of the victims had been formally identified, and by midday there would be a further six victims identified and made available to their families.

“By the end of today we should have completed the majority of those identifications. But I have to say that some of those victims will take a little longer.”

While the priority was the families, police also had other obligations, he said.

“The first one on behalf of the chief coroner and all of the coroners is to ensure absolute accuracy in that identification process,” Bush said.

Six coroners
“If we get it wrong, that’s unforgivable,” he said.

Six coroners including the chief coroner are on site. More than 100 specialists and experts including police, the Disaster Victim Identification unit, Defence Force pathologists and odonatologists were working on the identification with overseas assistance.

Bush said the other responsibility was the prosecution of the case.

“We must prove, for prosecution, the cause of death to the satisfaction of the coroner and the judge.

“You cannot convict for murder without that cause of death.”

The investigation was an international one, he said. The FBI were on the ground in New Zealand; Australian Federal Police, other Australian police and other jurisdictions overseas were being consulted.

The threat level remained at high.

Three other arrests
“If there was a specific threat, we would make sure we communicated that,” Bush said.

Along with the accused, there were three others arrested around the time of the attacks.

“There was a lone gentleman who appeared at one of the cordons. He wasn’t involved, he did have a firearm, so that’s been dealt with.

“There was another couple who turned up at a cordon – a male and a female.

“She has been released without charge. I do understand that the male in that vehicle has been charged with firearms offences.

“We do not believe that they are in any way related to the attacker or the attack.”

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Out of the blue:
It was 1:39pm, Friday March 15. As was usual for a Friday, hundreds of people had turned up to pray at the Al Noor Mosque in Riccarton, Christchurch. All was peaceful, women, children, men, people of all ages young and old, both Sunni and Shia, were in contemplative repose free of worry.

It was a mild, late summer, 20 degrees Celsius day. Earlier, the touring Bangladesh cricket team had briefly visited the mosque, but left early to attend a press conference. By 1:39pm, they had returned and were outside exiting a bus, intending to continue with their prayers inside the mosque.

At 1:40pm, ahead of the team, a man entered the mosque walking quickly up the front steps. He was carrying an assault rifle and dressed in combat uniform. He immediately began shooting people who were kneeling in prayer.

The shots rang out and the Bangladesh team members realising they were witnesses to an attack, retreated, and fled on foot to nearby Hagley Park.

Back inside the Al Noor Mosque, scores of worshippers were being gunned down, some killed instantly, others bleeding to death. The victims included little Mucaad Ibrahim who was three years of age. Mucaad was known by his loved ones as a wise “old soul” and possessed an “intelligence beyond his years”.

Eye witnesses said that once the killer began shooting people, little Mucaad became separated from his family. In the chaos, his family could not find him. The next day police confirmed he too had been shot dead by the killer.

The murders continued at the Al Noor Mosque until the killer’s firearms ran out of bullets. Then, he simply walked out of the mosque, got in his car, and drove six kilometres to the Linwood Mosque. There too were people who had gathered for their regular Friday afternoon prayers.

Al Noor Mosque to Linwood Mosque – EveningReportNZ/Google Maps.

Inside Linwood Mosque was Abdul Aziz, a man who had gathered with his Muslim brothers. He had just begun his second pray when he heard gunshots outside. At first he thought it was someone playing with firecrackers (fireworks). But then, within seconds, he heard people screaming.

Aziz picked up an EFTPOS (electronic funds transaction) machine from a table inside the mosque. He ran outside.

He saw a man he describes as looking like a soldier. He said to the man: “Who are you”. Mr Aziz then saw three people lying on the ground dead from shotgun blasts. He realised the man was the killer. He approached the attacker, threw the EFTPOS machine hitting the killer, who in turn took from his vehicle a second firearm (a military style semi-automatic assault rifle) and fired four to five shots at Abdul Aziz, missing him. Then, in an attempt to lure the killer away from other people, Aziz shouted at the killer from behind a car: “Come, I’m here. Come I’m here!”

Aziz said he didn’t want the killer to go inside the mosque and kill more people. But the killer remained focussed. He walked directly to the entrance, once inside the mosque he continued his killing spree. Survivors speak of the killer wearing “army clothes”, dressed in “SWAT combat clothing”, helmeted, wearing a vest and a balaclava.

Inside the Linwood Mosque, another witness, Shoaib Gani, was kneeling in prayer. He heard a noise like fireworks but he and others weren’t too concerned and continued with their prayers. Then, as he and his fellow worshipers were kneeling speaking verses from the Koran, the man next to him fell forward with blood pouring from his head. He had been shot and killed instantly, Gani said. Then others too began falling to the floor dead.

Gani crawled under a table. He saw the killer and his firearm. “Written on the rifle were the words, ‘Welcome to hell’,” he said.

Victims, who were wounded and bleeding, were pleading with Gani to help them. But he was frozen to a spot under a table knowing that the killer was walking around the mosque killing as many people as he could. Gani believed he too would also soon be dead, so he reached for his cellphone, he called his parent’s back home in India. But no one answered. He tried to call his father’s number, but the phone kept ringing. He saw people around him bleeding to death. Others with fatal head-wounds: “Their brains were hanging out. I just couldn’t do anything. I didn’t know what to do.” Gani phoned 111 (the New Zealand emergency number) and told the authorities people were dead and injured: “The lady on the phone asked me to stay on the line as long as I could.”

Outside, Abdul Aziz picked up one of the killer’s discarded shotguns. Inside the mosque, the killer’s assault rifle ran out of bullets. The killer then “dropped his firearm” and ran back to his vehicle. He got in the driver’s seat. Aziz then ran toward the car. He threw a discarded shotgun at the killer’s vehicle: “I threw it like an arrow. It shattered his window.” Aziz thinks the killer thought someone had shot at him with a loaded gun. The killer turned. He swore at Aziz. When the window burst it covered the inside of the car with glass. Aziz said the killer “then took off” driving in his car. He then turned right away from the mosque driving through a red traffic light and out into Christchurch suburban streets.

Some minutes later, police and ambulance officers arrived at Linwood Mosque. Anti-terrorist armed police entered the mosque. Inside, Gani said the survivors were ordered to put their hands up above their heads. The mass murder scene was covered in blood. The police then secured the area. Some victims survived because they were under the bodies of the dead. Police told survivors to gather near a grassed area outside. There, people began weeping for their husbands, wives, parents, children, friends.

Alleged killer Brenton Harrison Tarrant appeared in court on March 16, 2019, charged with one count of murder. Further charges will be laid. While before the court, he smiled at onlookers and signalled a white supremacist sign with his fingers – EveningReportNZ/Screengrab of TVNZ coverage.

The arrest:
Seventeen minutes later, two police officers identified the killer, apparently driving his car. They drove the police car into the killer’s vehicle, ramming it against a curb. Immediately, they disarmed the killer, cuffed him, and noticed home made bombs in the vehicle – IEDs (improvised explosive devices). They arrested the man and secured the scene.

The rest of Christchurch was in lockdown, children were kept safe inside their classrooms, hospitals began to prepare for casualties, the city’s streets became eerily quiet, people were locked in to libraries, shops, their homes. Police and armed forces helicopters networked the skies. No one knew if the terrorist attacks were committed by a group of people or a lone gunman.

But back inside and at the entrances to the two mosques, 50 people were dead – one of the dead was discovered the next day by police; the body was laying beneath others who had been killed. Scores of others were in hospital fighting for their lives, at least another 10 were in a critical condition in intensive care. Pathologists from all over New Zealand and Australia were heading to Christchurch to help with documenting the method of murder of the dead.

Within hours of the killings, Australian media named the alleged killer as an Australian-born citizen named Brenton Tarrant, 28 years of age. On Saturday morning The Australian newspaper’s front page read “Australia’s evil export”.

Other media in New Zealand followed with details of the man’s background. Brenton Harrison Tarrant appeared in court the next day charged with one single count of murder. Other charges will follow. His duty lawyer did not seek name suppression nor bail, the lawyer told the judge: “I’m simply seeking remand and a High Court next-available-hearing date.” Tarrant stood cuffed, smiling at those in the courtroom, at one point signaling with his fingers a “white supremacist” sign. He will next appear in the Christchurch High Court on April 5.

The aftermath:
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern later told media: “It was absolutely his [the offender’s) intention to continue with his attack.” PM Ardern said: “Police are working to build a picture of this tragic event. A complex and comprehensive investigation is (now) underway.” To balance the requirement of investigation with the customs of Muslim burials, PM Ardern said liaison officers were with the victims’ loved ones to help “in a way that is consistent with Muslim faith while taking into account these unprecedented circumstances and the obligations to the coroner”.

PM Ardern said survivors of the massacre had indicated that this attack was not “of the New Zealand that they know”.

One day later, survivor Shoaib Gani (mentioned above) told media he still could not sleep or eat. The sounds and sights were still vivid in his head: “I still can feel myself lying on the floor waiting for the bullets to hit me.” He said, he will travel back to India to visit family, but he will return to Christchurch: “It’s just a few people, you know. You can’t blame the whole of New Zealand for this… It’s a good country, people are peaceful. Everybody has helped me here. One right wing (person) doesn’t mean everyone is bad. So I can come back here and live and hope nothing like this happens in the future.”

In the hours after the attacks, all around New Zealand, in the cities and in small country areas, police were stationed and were ready in case others were involved and were preparing further crimes.

In the hours after the attacks, all around New Zealand, in the cities and in small country areas, like here at Taihape’s Ad-Deen Mosque, people lay flowers as a sign of support and aroha. Image, Selwyn Manning/EveningReport.nz taken Saturday March 16, 2019.

Beside the police officers, people, of all races and religions, began laying flowers at the steps to their local mosques. Messages included read: “Salam Alaikum, Peace be unto you”, and, “Aroha nui”, “Peace and love”, “You are one of us”. The outpouring of grief swept the South Pacific nation, and as this article was written, a mood of support, comfort, reassurance and solidarity with those of Muslim faith was in evidence.

In Australia, Sydney’s landmark Opera House was like a beacon in the night; coloured blue, red, and white – the colours of the New Zealand flag embossed with the silver fern (ponga) an emblem of Aotearoa New Zealand. Australia’s peoples, like in New Zealand, began laying flowers at the steps of its mosques in a gesture of inclusiveness.

In the aftermath, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has committed to ongoing financial assistance to dependents of those who have died or are injured, and assistance, she said, would be ongoing.

Questions are being leveled as to how a person with hate can enter, live, and purchase weapons in New Zealand while expressing hate toward other cultures and harbouring an intent to kill others.

PM Ardern said: “The guns used in this case appear to have been modified. That is a challenge police have been facing, and that is a challenge that we will look to address in changing our laws… We need to include the fact that modification of guns which can lead them to become essentially the kinds of weapons we have seen used in this terrorist act.”

When asked how she was coping personally with the tragedy, she said: “I am feeling the exact same emotions that every New Zealander is facing. Yes, I have the additional responsibility and weight of expressing the grief of all New Zealanders and I certainly feel that.”

That responsibility includes ensuring New Zealand’s police, the nation’s intelligence and security services and “the process around watch-lists, including whether or not our border protections are currently in a status that they should be, and, including our gun laws.”

The backstory:
Indeed, New Zealand is part of the so-called “Five Eyes” intelligence network that includes the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Global surveillance is coordinated and prioritised among the Five Eyes member states. While significant resource, technology and sophistication is committed to the Five Eyes intelligence agencies, New Zealanders fear that those who find themselves as targets, or within the scope of intelligence officers, are predominantly of the Muslim faith.

In contrast, the accused killer who allegedly committed the horrific Christchurch mosque attacks, has been active both on social media and the dark web expressing, with an intensifying degree, his ideology of hate and intolerance. It does appear of the highest public interest, certainly from an open source intelligence point of view, to ask questions of why New Zealand’s (and indeed the Five Eyes intelligence network’s) surveillance experts did not detect the expressed evil that had radicalised the heart and mind of the perpetrator of this massacre.

It is also fact that New Zealand is a comparatively safe and peaceful nation. But within its midst are people and groups fermenting on racially-based hate ideas. Whether it be in isolation or among organised groupings, the threat of racially driven terror crimes exists.

The alleged killer, Brenton Tarrant, has lived among those of New Zealand’s southern city Dunedin for at least two years. It appears he was radicalised around 2010 after his father died and he toured Europe. He wrote about becoming “increasingly disgusted” at immigrant communities. In early 2018, Tarrant joined a Dunedin gun club and began practising his shooting skills and allegedly planned his attacks.

Regarding Christchurch, while it has a history of overt white racist gangs, at this juncture, it does not appear they were directly involved in this series of crimes.

But this leads to many unanswered questions, including:

• Was the killer a lone mass murderer, a sleeper in a cell of one?
• Were those with whom he communicated and engaged with on the web in extreme white racist ideologies aware of his plans?
• Was Christchurch chosen by the killer for logistical reasons?
• Was it because the city is easier to drive around than Dunedin, Wellington or Auckland?
• Was it because Christchurch has at least two mosques within easy driving distance?
• Were the Bangladesh Cricket team in his scope of attacks?
• Was the killer attempting to incite a violent response from Christchurch’s burgeoning Muslim community, or, expecting a response from the Alt-Right, from white racist groups such as the Right Wing Resistance (RWR), the Fourth Reich, and Christchurch’s skinhead community?

New Zealand has in its midst white supremacist neo-nazi groups like this Right Wing Resistance gang. Was the killer of those at the two Christchurch mosques attempting to ignite retaliation and violence? Image: Evening Report

The future:
Survivors of Friday 15th’s terrorist attack say they have complained of an increase in racism and expressed hate in recent times. They say, their concerns have not been taken seriously. These are the concerns that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has committed to listen to, has committed to represent, and, as the prime advocate for her country’s peoples, to act on to ensure cracks in New Zealand’s border, security and intelligence apparatus are corrected.

And, what of New Zealand’s social culture? How will it be affected? That will be determined by the actions of each individual person, each community, town and city and how as a nation New Zealand redefines “The Kiwi Way”.

Members of New Zealand’s media will also need to act responsibly. It is fair to say some have a reputation for argument that verges on alt-right intolerance, for example, on Twitter only two days after the mass murders, a prominent radio journalist, who is employed by one of New Zealand’s largest networks, tweeted: “28 years on an [sic] we still haven’t stopped madmen getting guns. #ChChMosque… [Replying to @Politikwebsite] And the neo nationalist right are the result of the virtue signaling exclusionary left.”

Perhaps such examples are out of step with New Zealand’s population. But such attitudes do create a dialogue of justification for those who harbour intolerance. However, if the outpouring of love and compassion continues to bind rather than divide, then perhaps New Zealand has received, as they say, “a wake-up call”, where racial intolerance and extreme ideologies have no place among peoples of all kinds, Maori and Pakeha, of all religions, political persuasions and creeds.

Flowers at Ponsonby mosque, Auckland, NZ. 17 March 2019. Image David Robie/PMC

One thing is certain; to stamp out the evil of hate extremism, New Zealanders will pay a price that will be charged against the Kiwi lifestyle. Personal liberties of freedom, of expression and privacy will certainly be eroded further as this nation of the South Pacific grapples with how to keep its people safe. The means of how to achieve relative safety will be hotly debated, but it is a necessary juncture in this nation’s history, a moment when we all must confront and challenge ourselves so that people of innocence, people like little three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim, can go about their days in trust, in peace, in joyful purpose and achieve their deserved potential. Anything less is a second killing for the victims of Friday, 15th, New Zealand’s darkest hour.

Rongotea School symbol of unity since 1881 – image, Selwyn Manning, EveningReportNZ taken Friday 15, 2019.

Selwyn Manning is editor and publisher of Evening Report, a companion publication with Asia Pacific Report. He is also a former chair of the Pacific Media Centre Advisory Board. This article was originally published by the German magazine Cicero.de under the title: Attentat in Christchurch – Willkommen in der Hölle. It is republished here with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By RNZ

More than 50 New Zealand companies are considering pulling ads from Facebook because it allowed a livestream of the Christchurch massacre last Friday.

Some firms have already stopped advertising and the Association of New Zealand Advertisers predicts dozens of others are likely to follow suit.

A semiautomatic gun for destruction hand-in slip. Image: RNZ

To show more support after the attacks, some gun owners have been handing over semi-automatic rifles for destruction in protest.

“Until today, I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semiautomatic rifle. On the farm they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesn’t outweigh the risk of misuse,” wrote farmer John Hart on Twitter.

“We don’t need these in our country.

“We have [to] make sure it’s #NeverAgain.”

-Partners-

READ MORE:
RNZ’s live news feed – Day 5
What you need to know
A list of the confirmed victims
Find out about vigils around the country

Meanwhile, another terror attack in the Netherlands has overshadowed efforts in New Zealand to reject individual hatreds and come together to support those affected in Christchurch.

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Katy Gosset of RNZ

A Syrian-born woman whose husband and son were killed in Friday’s terror attacks says her family was told New Zealand was the safest country in the world.

For Salwa Mustafa, a slim woman in a pale silver hijab, said New Zealand promised a new life for her three children.

“When we were asking about New Zealand … they said, ‘Oh, it is the most safest country in the world, the most wonderful country that you can go.’ You will start a very wonderful life there but it wasn’t.”

On Friday her husband, Khalid, and 16-year-old son, Hamza, were shot while worshipping at Al Noor Mosque on Deans Ave. Her second son Zaid, 13, remains in Christchurch Hospital recovering from his own gunshot wounds.

Sitting on a bed at the hospital where she has been keeping a vigil, she did not want her face shown but she recalled how she first heard of Friday’s horrific attacks when she took a call from Hamza.

“He said, ‘Mum, there is someone in the mosque shooting us and my brother is [shot] in the leg,’” she said.

-Partners-

She heard running and shooting but kept speaking to him.

Complete quiet …
“‘Hamza, Hamza, tell me what’s happening, Hamza?’ And there was complete quiet. I couldn’t hear anything.”

She stayed on the line for 22 minutes until someone else picked up his phone.

“And he told me, ‘Sorry, your son can’t breathe. I think he’s dead.’ ”

She and friends waited outside the mosque for an hour until a friend took her to the hospital where she found her husband with gunshot wounds to his head, neck leg and arm.

“They took me to the room and he was laying there [shot], taking his last breaths.”

“I sat beside him, maybe half an hour, maybe more, I can’t remember, watching him dying.”

It wasn’t what the family expected when they first considered travelling to New Zealand

Her husband had been a farrier in their native Syria, “a very good farrier, a famous farrier” and “a good man”.

Trained horses
He also trained horses and it was these skills that contributed to the family move to New Zealand. After five years as refugees in Jordan, authorities offered the prospect of a new life.

“They said, ‘Would you like to go to travel to New Zealand as refugees there? New Zealand chose us to come here…to die here.”

Her son, Hamza, was also a talented horse rider, a polite, well-loved young man who celebrated his 16th birthday just two days before the attacks.

A piece of his birthday cake was still in her fridge, Salwa Mustafa said.

Now, with an injured son, another dependent child and no relatives in New Zealand, she needs help.

“Maybe if the government [will] allow my family to visit me to support me in these circumstances because I’m alone here.”

Like many others, she also wanted answers as to how someone could acquire so many guns and harm so many.

“How he owned so many guns and entered the mosque without anyone [being suspicious of him]. How [did] he did this thing. . . how is that?”

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific

New Zealand’s Fijian community is reeling after three people from Fiji were killed in Friday’s mosque attacks in Christchurch.

The terrorist attacks, which killed at least 50 people and injured 50 more, have also been deeply felt in Fiji itself.

Among those killed in the attacks were Hafiz Musa Patel, an imam from Lautoka, and Ashraf Ali, who had moved to New Zealand from Fiji several years ago.

Imam Hafiz Musa Patel … an imam from Lautoka, Fiji, among the victims. Image: FBC

Another man who died, Ashraf Ali Razat, was in New Zealand on holiday, staying with relatives in Christchurch.

A long time member of Christchurch’s Fijian community, Ravi Prasad, said with the attack so fresh in their minds, people were deeply traumatised.

“People are troubled. Even at homes [they worry] something might happen. So the fear is there,” he said.

-Partners-

“Especially now, we don’t know, when we’re going to worship, you know how we feel about going to churches or mosques or the temples. It wouldn’t be the same as what we were before. Fear will be there.”

Mass outpouring
He said his community appreciated the mass outpouring of support from other New Zealanders.

“A lot of New Zealand, our prime minister [Jacinda Ardern] was just excellent. And they’re all behind us. So at least we can lay down and think we are one, and we do carry… everyone.

“It took just one guy to spoil the whole thing but we are in New Zealand, we are lucky to be in New Zealand, and I think we still believe New Zealand is the best country.”

In Fiji, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama spoke of the need to openly confront hate.

Saying the attacks felt close to home, Bainimarama expressed love and support for the victims and the wider Muslim community.

He called for people to be aware that acts of extreme violence often begin with hateful words and divisive ways of thinking.

“That is why I call on all Fijians across all backgrounds and faiths to join me in making this pledge. And the pledge is: where ever you encounter someone who says something racist and hateful, whether it is online or in person, say something.

‘Have courage’
“Do something, have the courage to call them out, and counter their hatred with vision. Be the voice of love. Be the voice of change.”

Echoing this message of tolerance was New Zealand’s High Commissioner in Fiji Jonathan Curr who attended prayers at Toorak Jame mosque in Suva the previous day.

“In leading our prayers, the Imam spoke words of true grace. He urged us all to be people of peace, regardless of the anger, sorrow, shock and devastation that we feel, we must not open the gates to hatred.”

Meanwhile, the Fiji High Commission in New Zealand has visited families of the three people killed, and is providing consular assistance to the affected community.

A spokesman from the commission summed it up when he said the Fiji community in Christchurch is shaken but resilient, and is taking the opportunity to come together, across all religious and ethnic lines.

The Fiji community in Christchurch will hold a vigil tomorrow at 7pm.

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Flowers and messages from the AUT student community on the “aroha” wall at the university’s masjid today. Image: David Robie/PMC

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

When lives are tragically cut short, it is generally easier to explain the “how” than the “why”. This dark reality is all the more felt when tragedy comes at the hands of murderous intent. Explaining how 50 people came to be killed, and almost as many badly wounded, in Christchurch’s double massacre of Muslims at prayer is heartbreaking but relatively straightforward.

As with so many mass murders in recent years, the use of an assault rifle, the ubiquitous AR15, oxymoronically referred to as “the civilian M-16”, explains how one cowardly killer could be so lethal.

It was much the same in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando three years ago, when one gunman shot dead 49 people in a crowded space and, though the motive appears very different, the same sort of military instrument of death lies behind the 58 deaths in Las Vegas a year later.

READ MORE: Christchurch mosque shootings must end New Zealand’s innocence about right-wing terrorism

An AR15 was used to shoot dead 11 worshippers in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue last October and a similar weapon was used to kill six people in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017.

It is a credit to the peaceful nature of New Zealand society that, despite the open availability of weapons like the AR15, the last time there was a mass shooting was in 1997. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern rightly identified reform of gun laws as one of the immediate outcomes required in response to this tragedy.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern … “rightly identified reform of gun laws as one of the immediate outcomes required in response to this tragedy”. Image: Rebekah Parsons-King/RNZ

But lax gun laws are arguably the only area in which blame can be laid in New Zealand. Ardern, together with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, was also right to refer to this barbaric act of cold-blooded murder of people in prayer as right wing extremist terrorism driven by Islamophobic hatred.

State and federal police in Australia have long warned that, next to the immediate threat posed by Salafi jihadi terrorism, they are most concerned about the steady rise of right-wing extremism.

Some comfort
There has been some comfort in the recognition that the most active right wing extremist groups, and there are many, are disorganised, poorly led, and attract but small crowds.

On the face of it, then, right wing extremism in Australia is nowhere near as serious as the neo-Nazi movements of Europe or the various permutations of white supremacy and toxic nationalism that bedevil American politics. In America, it is conservatively estimated that there were 50 deaths due to terrorist attacks in 2018, almost all linked to right-wing extremism.

In 2017, it is calculated that there were 950 attacks on Muslims and mosques in Germany alone. Many of last year’s attacks in America involved a common right wing extremist hatred of Islam, and a targeting of Muslims, joining a long-standing enmity towards Jews.

Almost all recent terrorist attacks have been lone-actor attacks. They are notoriously difficult to predict. Whether inspired by Salafi jihadi Islamist extremism or right wing extremism, lone-actor attacks commonly feature individuals fixated on the deluded dream of going from “zero to hero”.

One of the main reasons authorities struggle with identifying right wing extremist “nobodies” who post online, before they turn to violence, is that it’s difficult to pick up a clear signal in the noise of a national discourse increasingly dominated by exactly the same narrative elements of mistrust, anxiety, and a blaming of the other.

In Australia, as in Europe and America, mainstream politicians and mainstream media commentators have increasingly toyed with extremist ideas in the pursuit of popularity. Many have openly brandished outrageous ideas that in previous years would have been unsayable in mainstream political discourse or commentary.

Donald Trump can be deservedly singled out for making the unspeakable the new normal in mainstream right wing politics, but he is hardly alone in this. And sadly, for all of the relative civility and stability of Australian politics, we too have now come to normalise the toxic politics of fear.

Not a shocking surprise
No-one put it better than The Project host Waleed Aly in saying that Friday’s terrorist attacks, although profoundly disturbing, did not come as a shocking surprise.

Anyone who has been paying attention and who really cares about the well-being and security of Australian society has observed the steady growth of right wing extremist and right supremacist ideas in general, and Islamophobia particular.

They have seen the numerous attacks on Muslims and Jews at prayer and worried about the day when the murderous violence that has plagued the northern hemisphere will visit the southern hemisphere. But more than that, they have worried about the singling-out of migrants, and in particular asylum seekers, African youth and Muslims as pawns to be played with in the cynical politics of fear.

Scott Morrison is right to say these problems have been with us for many years. But he would do better to point out that our downward trajectory sharply accelerated after John Howard’s “dark victory” of 2001.

The unwinnable election was won on the back of the arrival of asylum seekers on the MV Tampa in August followed by the September 11 attacks, and at the price of John Howard and the Liberal party embracing the white supremacist extremist politics of Pauline Hanson.

Both major parties, it must be said, succumbed to the lure of giving focus groups and pollsters the tough language and inhumane policies the public appeared to demand and reward.

The true price
We are now beginning to see the true price that we have paid with the demonising of those arriving by boat seeking asylum, or looking too dark-skinned, or appearing too religious.

The result has been such a cacophony of hateful rhetoric that it has been hard for those tasked with spotting the emergence of violent extremism to separate it from all the background noise of extremism.

There are, of course lessons to be learned. Authorities need to do better. We can begin with a national database of hate crimes, with standard definitions and robust data collection. Clearly, we need to pay attention to hateful extremism if we are to prevent violent extremism.

But ultimately, we need to address the permissive political environment that allows such hateful extremism to be promulgated so openly. The onus is on commentators and political leaders alike. They cannot change the past, but they will determine the future.

Professor Greg Barton is chair in Global Islamic Politic at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University. He is engaged in a range of projects working to understand and counter violent extremism in Australia and in Southeast Asia that are funded by the Australian government. This article was first published by The Conversation and is republished here under a Creative Commons licence.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

OPINION: By Keith Locke

It was heartwarming to be part of such a big and diverse crowd in Auckland’s Aotea Square on Saturday standing in solidarity with the Islamic community after the terrible massacre in Christchurch. There were many passionate speeches highlighting the need to come together to fight racism and Islamophobia.

Many New Zealanders have picked up Jacinda Ardern’s theme “this is not us” but unfortunately this message is only partly true. Islamophobia is deeply embedded in our society.

Former Race Relations commissioner Susan Devoy says that “every single Muslim woman I know has faced racist abuse of some kind right here in our towns, on Facebook, in the media”.

In order to deal with this we have to understand where New Zealand’s Islamophobia comes from, and what sustains it. It goes a long way back.

Settlers in colonial New Zealand were deeply Islamophobic and white supremacist. Our white settlers saw themselves as superior to the “dark” people in the Muslim world and they treated Christianity as the only true religion.

New Zealand supported Britain’s wars in the Middle East and south Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries. These wars continue up until today, but with Britain now playing a subordinate role to the United States.

-Partners-

The white supremacist and Islamophobic message presented today is that Islam is a violent religion, or at least has the capacity to take a violent form, and this has to be combated by the intervention of Western powers.

Western excuse
This is the excuse given for Western military action in several Islamic nations including Libya, Somalia, the Yemen, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Of course, there have been violent and extreme political currents in some of these Islamic countries, often generating a public flowing from their opposition to corrupt (Western-backed) governments, or their opposition to foreign military intervention.

Now we are in a vicious circle of foreign intervention begetting jihadism, and jihadism begetting foreign intervention, and so it goes on.

And that has set off another vicious circle with the Islamophobia in Western nations upsetting the local Muslim community, motivating a few extreme elements to commit violent acts, which results in more Islamophobia, and so it goes around.

Whether consciously or not, successive New Zealand governments have helped foster this modern Islamophobia by participating in the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and not speaking out against Western military action in places like the Yemen, Libya and Somalia. The Western propaganda around those wars has fostered prejudice towards Muslims living in New Zealand.

If we really want to combat Islamophobia and white nationalism we should withdraw our remaining soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan and not participate further in America’s wars in Islamic countries.

We should also withdraw from the Five Eyes, and intelligence network based on the white supremacist premise that five “anglo” nations (the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) have the right to spy on every other nation.

Five Eyes interests
The Five Eyes operates mainly in the interests of Donald Trump’s America helping him, for example, to implement his Islamophobic ban on the citizens of several Islamic nations entering the United States.

It should be noted that the killer in Christchurch, Brenton Tarrant, called Trump “a symbol of renewed white identity” in his manifesto justifying the massacre.

Given the Islamophobic ethos of Western intelligence agencies, led by the United States, we should be against strengthening our anti-terrorist laws or allowing more intrusive state surveillance. Such an approach won’t help the Muslim community.

The reality is that the longstanding Crimes Act, which has been used to charge the current offender, covers all cases of murder, kidnapping, bombing and membership of a criminal group. Separate anti-terrorism legislation is clearly unnecessary.

The only (failed) attempt to use the existing Terrorism Suppression Act has been against local dissenters, in the Operation 8 case.

One takeaway from the Christchurch massacre seems to be that a violent act by a “lone wolf” is very hard to detect. Rather than move towards a surveillance society, our resources would be better devoted to promoting community tolerance and the understanding of diverse cultures.

Reducing the prevalence of Islamophobia in our society is the best path to take.

Keith Locke is a former Green MP and foreign affairs spokesperson, being first elected to the NZ Parliament in 1999 and retiring at the 2011 election. This article was first published by The Daily Blog and is republished here with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz