After the Christchurch shootings, we must root out the racists who walk among us

Saturday, 16 March 2019

PM Jacinda Ardern, Winston Peters, Simon Bridges and MPs met with Christchurch Muslim leaders at the Canterbury Refugee Resettlement and Resource Centre. (First published March 16, 2019)

OPINION: It feels like daily life could be cancelled through the whole of New Zealand, and people here wouldn't mind. As if, we need the time to try and process the numbness that has enveloped the country.

How can anybody even contemplate being able to get on with normal life in the aftermath of these terrible events that took place in Christchurch on Friday? Those beautiful souls from here and other countries that were taken so suddenly in the most horrific and senseless way.

And in a city that in the past decade has already been through so much. The first responders, emergency services, the police and Christchurch Hospital medical staff deserve our gratitude.

These events reverberated in shock, fear and bewilderment through Christchurch, the rest of New Zealand, the Islamic world and the rest of our planet. Terribly, this is not an isolated event. This sort of hate crime has already been seen in recent times in the US, the UK and Europe.

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Seemingly, it's coincided with the rise of political leaders who rose to power from peddling that sort of Right-wing rhetoric to garner votes, and it's worked.

In the aftermath I was like most New Zealanders. I found myself in tears even listening to the news in the car. It seemed we could do nothing but feel helpless and terrible, and devour hours watching the news as if in a collective effort to understand why and how this happened.

There were experts from everywhere, all in similar states of shock, proposing theories.

Oscar Kightley: 'We all need to care when racist stuff happens, not just the people who are affected by it.'

Straight-talking national security expert Paul Buchanan in Auckland made the point that the country's limited anti-terrorism resources may have been focused on Islam extremism, rather than Right-wing extremists.

He said that people who held these extremist views had 'fear of the other'. I reckon you could also put that term another way – racism. More specifically, white supremacism.

The seeds of these terms are also sprinkled around New Zealand. A casual glance through social media and the odd online comments section, will show you that.

Kightley says it's now more important than ever to keep watch over the extremists and nationalists and follow up the racist hurters on social media.

This may or may not be us, but they certainly walk among us. The man accused of attacking the Masjid Al Noor mosque was from Australia so perhaps our cousins next door could also explore the conditions that could have radicalised him.

Racism has always been around, but in the past couple of years it has seemed to come more out in the open with a vengeance. We all need to care when racist stuff happens, not just the people who are affected by it.

We all need to call it out, and stamp it out. It was great that those weird Canadians, Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern, couldn't find a venue to hire so they could speak to their followers. We need to keep doing things like that.

The learnings from this – for the whole world – will surely include the need to widen the scope of people who need to be watched with vigilance. Perhaps white supremacists need their own category of terrorism.

You have to watch the skinheads, nationalists and follow up the racist hurters on social media. Perhaps part of the reason those in custody didn't appear on any security watch lists is because of the sheer volume of people with the same views. You can't see the wood for the trees.

The national flags around New Zealand on public buildings will be at half-mast until further notice, and rightfully so. There should be an official national period of mourning. But this isn't about us, or New Zealand's image to ourselves, or to the world.

This is the time for grieving the people who were lost. For the families dealing with the loss of precious loved ones. The victims of various ages, from children to the elderly. And to those who are still injured and needing treatment. For New Zealand's entire Muslim community.

They are in our hearts.