Don't put a full stop after the Christchurch shooting sentence

Ideology of white supremacy must be tackled to stop terror attacks from happening again

Mosque shooting survivors from left, Mustafa Boztas, Wassail Daragmih and Temel Atacocugu leave the Christchurch High Court after the sentencing hearing for Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, in Christchurch, New Zealand. AP Photo

Members of the public outside the High Court after the conclusion of the sentencing hearing for Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch. AFP

Supporters of the mosque shooting victims wave outside the Christchurch High Court during the sentencing hearing for Australian Brenton Tarrant, in Christchurch, New Zealand. AP Photo

Survivors of the twin mosque shootings react as they arrive at Christchurch High Court for the sentencing hearing of Brenton Tarrant, in Christchurch. AFP

Temel Atacocugu (L), a survivor of the twin mosque shootings, thanks members of the public outside the High Court after the conclusion of the sentencing hearing for Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch. AFP

Family and friends of victims and members of the public after the conclusion of the sentencing hearing for Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch. AFP

Mosque shooting survivor Abdul Aziz thanks supporters outside the Christchurch High Court after the sentencing hearing for Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, in Christchurch, New Zealand. AP Photo

Survivors of a deadly mosque shooting celebrate with supporters after Brenton Tarrant was sentenced to life in prison, outside the High Court in Christchurch, New Zealand. EPA

Members of the public wait outside Christchurch High Court as they want to show the victims their support during the sentencing of Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch, New Zealand. Getty Images

Al Noor Mosque shooting survivor Taj Mohammad Kamra celebrates as he leaves Christchurch High Court following the sentencing of Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch, New Zealand. Getty Images

Muslim Association Canterbury President Mohamed Jama celebrates with members of the public outside Christchurch High Court following the sentencing of Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch, New Zealand. Getty Images

Kerry Cook, an appointed amicus curiae, delivers his submission during the sentencing of Brenton Tarrant at the High Court in Christchurch, New Zealand. Reuters

Justice Cameron Mander sentences Christchurch mosque gunman Brenton Tarrant during his sentencing hearing at Christchurch High Court in Christchurch, New Zealand. Getty Images

Brenton Tarrant, the terrorist of the New Zealand Christchurch massacre who killed 51 people in different mosques last year, was sentenced to life in prison without parole today. The verdict will no doubt provide some solace and closure to the survivors of the attacks, as well as to families of the victims. However, the phenomenon that produced him continues, and the question remains: how long will it continue before we address not simply the end result of this kind of bigotry, but the causes of it?

It is not as though this was the first time such a massacre took place. Almost a decade ago, a Norwegian Islamophobic white supremacist carried out one of the brutal terrorist attacks on European soil in recent history. Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb in Oslo, murdering 8 people; he then went to a youth camp, and killed another 69. His motivations were all clearly laid out in the manifesto he deliberately left for people to find. He was a bigot who hated Muslims, lauded white supremacy, and viewed himself as a soldier in a new crusade to save western civilisation.

In that regard, the two terrorists had a great deal in common. But what they also had in common wasn’t simply violence – it was the sources of the ideas that contributed to their motivations for violence. And those ideas aren’t limited to the likes of these two solitary individuals who were responsible for so much death and violence in Norway and New Zealand. The ideas of European Identitarians, an extremist far-right movement, affect and impact the politics of so much of the western world, and beyond.

Take Australia, where the white supremacist group, the United Patriots, was hailed as the "nationalist movement in Australia" by the terrorist of the mosque massacre. That group remains present and active in Australia; and trying to divide their rhetoric from that of the terrorist would be dishonest. That is especially true of its rhetoric on religious minorities, especially Muslims.

It would be far too easy to simply wipe our hands clean of the likes of the perpetrators of the Norwegian and New Zealand massacres, by simply condemning them as individuals. But they did not come out of nowhere. The director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, for example, noted earlier this year that such right-wing extremism, was manifesting in “small cells”, to disseminate “hateful ideology”. Those small cells themselves feed off of rhetoric that has been mainstreamed in Australian political discourse on the one hand, and are linked to international white supremacist groups on the other

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the threat has increased, with white supremacists exploiting audiences under social isolation to increase their propaganda drives.

It is not just in Oceania. Europe has seen a steady mainstreaming of far-right discourse, particularly on Muslims, over the past decade. Whereas the rhetoric existed before then, it was limited to far-right groups – today, much of that is no longer considered beyond the pale for mainstream political parties. The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, compared Muslim women wearing the face veil to “letterboxes”, while repeated incidents of Islamophobia in the governing Conservative party have failed to be properly investigated.

Viktor Orban, Hungary's Prime Minister, is openly far-right, depicting migrants as "Muslim invaders" – but his party is part of the political mainstream. A mainstream where Mr Orban feels completely empowered to declare: "Is it possible to successfully reject migration, to protect families, to defend Christian culture, to announce a programme of national unification and nation building, and to create an order of Christian freedom?" That line itself would have been entirely in place in the manifesto of the New Zealand mosque massacre terrorist.

And it goes beyond Europe. In a few months, American voters will go to the polls. There is a significant possibility that US President Donald Trump will be defeated by the Democrats; but that will not mean that the damage of the past four years will be undone. During Mr Trump's term, there has been a deepening and mainstreaming of Islamophobia and bigotry of different types, from the highest levels of America's democratic system – and that is not going to be undone overnight. Whoever eventually takes over the Republican Party, whether after this election or thereafter, will inherit a party that mainstreamed so much harmful discourse. It is a party where the likes of Laura Loomer, a political activist and conspiracy theorist, can stand a good chance of becoming a Republican congresswoman for Florida, even while calling Islam "a cancer on society", and demanding an Uber without Muslim drivers.

Of course, it is entirely possible that the future will see braver western politicians genuinely standing up to the scourge of the mainstreaming of white supremacist narratives. But it would require a backbone that hitherto has not been very forthcoming, on the scale that is needed. Because, alas, it seems to be a vote getter. And that in itself bodes badly for the years ahead. One hopes that the families of the victims of the New Zealand mosque massacre can find some solace in the verdict – but we have a lot more work to do if we are going to ensure noting like that can happen again.

Dr H A Hellyer is senior associate fellow of the Royal Institute (RUSI, UK) and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the US