49 people killed in Christchurch, New Zealand in a terrorist attack
By Levan Abramishvili
Monday, March 18
Social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been scrambling to remove a 17-minute video of the attack.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office received an email with the aforementioned manifesto from the shooter minutes before the attack.
“This is and will be one of New Zealand’s darkest days,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a news conference on Friday.
“Christchurch was the home of these victims,” she said. “For many this may not have been the place they were born. For many, New Zealand was their choice, the place that they chose to come to and committed themselves to, the place they chose to raise their families.”
It was a mere 74 years ago, when the concentration camps in Germany were liberated by the allied forces and the world thought that it would bring an end to fascism, a destructive ideology that led to such brutalities as the Holocaust. But the ideology has experienced a sudden resurgence all over the world, with the help of social media.
This is not the first instance of a far-right extremist committing such atrocity. From the beginning of the century, toleration and normalization of Islamophobia has led to violent shootings like this, which serves as a palpable reminder that the threat that the far-right ideology poses is hauntingly real.
According to a recent study from the Center on Extremism, Almost all of the 2018 extremist-related murders in the United States were committed by right-wing extremists.
Yet, President Trump fails to recognize white nationalism as a growing threat across the globe. "I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess." He was quoted saying.
He was still a candidate when Trump called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims" entering the United States, and as President he succeeded in using executive power to ban travel to the US by citizens of seven nations, five of them mainly Muslim.
Hateful rhetoric that the President Trump has been spreading since before coming into power directly results into such violent terrorist acts. Despite these alarming trends, the leaders of the world are turning a blind eye to the far-right extremism.
Meanwhile, the terrorist mentions in the manifesto that he supports Trump „as a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose“.
This terrorist attack serves as a wake-up call that the rise of white supremacist ideology online and the power of social media in spreading that message can’t be ignored.
The attack was organized with a social media in mind. The radicalization of right-leaning young people are to be blamed on social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Reddit that do little to nothing to stop such hateful rhetoric from spreading.
The terrorist was well aware of the power of social media. The manifesto is loaded with sarcastic language and allusions to online meme culture, suggesting an social media-driven evolution of nationalist hatred. Especially vulnerable to the hateful extremism are young people.
“Whilst we may use edgy humour and memes in the vanguard stage, and to attract a young audience, eventually we will need to show the reality of our thoughts and our more serious intents and wishes for the future.” the attacker says in the manifesto. “Memes have done more for the ethno-nationalist movement than any manifesto.” States the terrorist.
Before the shooting began, the gunman made a reference to an internet meme, telling viewers to “subscribe to PewDiePie,” a reference to the Swedish YouTube star Felix Kjellberg, who has been criticized for anti-Semitism over skits that he called satirical.
Social media has become weaponized and vulnerable communities are under attack. The leaders of the world need to adopt policies that combat a rising threat with the same urgency that we saw after 9/11 happened. All of the tools at disposal must be used to prevent this already significant threat from getting worse.
After offering condolences, Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden, a possible White House candidate in 2020, tweeted “Whether it is antisemitism in Pittsburgh, racism in Charlottesville, or the xenophobia and Islamophobia today in Christchurch, violent hate is on the march at home and abroad. We cannot stand by as mosques are turned into murder scenes.” "Silence is complicity," he added. "Our children are listening. The time to speak out is now."
Meanwhile, a far-right Australian senator, Fraser Anning, blamed New Zealand attack on Muslim immigrants. Words he chose to respond to the shooting were oddly reminiscent of the ideas expressed in the manifesto the terrorist. He was internationally criticized for his comments.
On Saturday, during a press conference in Melbourne, the senator was smacked across the back of his head with an egg by a teen protester. A shocked Sen. Fraser Anning then smacked the teen in his face in response.
The internet was quick to dub the teenager an #EggBoy. His social media was flooded with praise for standing up to Anning's Islamophobia and racism.
Along with the hateful manifesto that the terrorist published, he had names of various figures written across the guns that he used during the attack. Names of modern day extremists and historical figures. Two of them were Georgian king and Georgian consort from the 12th century - King David IV (The Builder) and David Soslan, respectively.
King David IV is celebrated as one of the greatest Georgian kings of all time. In 1121, At the Battle of Didgori, the Georgian army led by the King David IV defeated considerably larger Seljuk forces.
The second name was David Soslan, who was a consort of the Queen Tamar (referred as King Tamar by Georgians). He played a role in defeating Islamic forces at Shamkor and Basian battles. He is not nearly as celebrated as David The Builder in Georgia.
The intentions of the terrorist are immediately clear – he put the names of people that he considered anti-Muslim. But these two historical figures do not belong with the other names on the terrorist’s rifles.
According to an Arab historian and traveler, Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn al-Azraq al-Fariqi, after taking back Tbilisi (Tiflis at the time), King David “issued a command that Muslim religion would be untouchable. Moreover, he gave them some privileges. For example, in the parts of the city where Muslims lived, no one was to own or kill a pig. He gave them a permission for free Azan (calling for a prayer) and prayer”. During King David’s rule, Muslims also paid less taxes. According to other sources, the king often attended Friday prayers with his son and upon leaving donated lots of money to the Mosque.
The aforementioned sources prove that King David IV does not belong on the list of the Islamophobes. His imagery is also often abused by the far-right groups in Georgia. The most notorious of them all, Georgian March, has gone so far to use the flag of David IV as their symbol. Maybe next time they march through the streets and spread their hateful ideas while holding the icon of King David (he’s sainted by the Orthodox Georgian church), they should keep in mind the fact that the king was famous for his admiration and support of Muslim communities in Georgia.
The world mourns and offers condolences to the Muslim communities around the globe for the innocent lives lost in the attack. In the wake of the tragedy one thing remains clear – as much as social media can be used for the good, it also can be a terrible weapon in the wrong hands.
As 9/11 became a turning point in fighting Islamist extremism, this tragedy should also act as a catalyst to influence leaders to take the right-wing extremism more seriously. All the stakeholders should use their influence to combat the extensive violence that is being spread online to prevent such atrocities from happening again.