Muslim group warned police of a March 15 threat, weeks before Chch attack

Tuesday, 7 July 2020

Aliya Danzeisen, Anjum Rahman, and Frances Cook QC outline the Islamic Women's Council's submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque Attacks.

A man mentioned March 15 in a threat to a mosque weeks before the attack that killed 51 and wounded another 50.

The Islamic Women’s Council (IWCNZ) says it warned police in February 2019 about the Facebook message, which threatened to burn the Qur'an outside a Hamilton mosque on March 15.

The man’s Facebook location showed he was in Christchurch at the time, though police later said he was not in the city.

The Muslim group believes if police and government agencies had heeded their warnings – along with other threats and concerns that were ignored – the Christchurch mosque shootings would not have happened.

Aliya Danzeisen, Anjum Rahman, and Frances Cook QC outline the Islamic Women's Council's submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque Attacks .

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It made its submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque Attacks public on Tuesday.

A police spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to comment on what any specific submission concluded.

IWCNZ head of government engagement Aliya Danzeisen said she believed public sector employees were ‘’at best, asleep on the job, and at worst, intentionally ignoring our pleas and actively undermining our work’’.

‘’If this can happen in the most open and transparent country in the world, all communities are at risk.’’

Speaking at Auckland’s Ponsonby mosque on Tuesday, Danzeisen said the council believed the March 15 attack was 'preventable”.

Aliya Danzeisen says she believes public sector employees were “at best, asleep on the job, and at worst, intentionally ignoring our pleas” for help with Islamophobic abuse.

'We warned about dangers of social media and that it was out of control.'

Danzeisen said she was again ignored when she received the February 2019 threat.

Frances Joychild QC, counsel who acted for IWCNZ before the Royal Commission, said she was sickened by public service apathy.

Islamic women had lobbied about four or five Government agencies before the terrorist attack, raising concerns about anti-Islamic sentiment when foreign terrorist group Isis gained prominence in 2014, she said.

'Islamic women in New Zealand immediately got the backlash for that.

'They were faced again and again with a public service that was inept and ineffective, and at best disinterested.'

Joychild said the women spoke to Director-General of Security Rebecca Kitteridge and Chris Finlayson, the former Minister in Charge of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.

'What happened? Absolutely nothing.'

She said the public service was fixated on pleasing relevant ministers, pleasing the Government, and needed radical and drastic reformation.

Danzeisen said the March 15 shootings were an attack on all New Zealanders.

'Thus we ask all New Zealanders to read our submission to fully understand our experience.”

She held back tears as she implored New Zealand to make changes to ensure no other community suffered such an attack.

The Royal Commission into the Attack on the Christchurch Mosques has revealed it has interviewed the man who shot 51 people dead at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques. Leaders in the Muslim community are calling for the full interview to be made publi

The shootings had emboldened some people who hated Muslims, she said.

'We know that there is more than one person in New Zealand who doesn't like us, and doesn't like diversity.'

YEARS OF INCREASING ISLAMOPHOBIA

The council's 127-page submission outlines years of increasing Islamophobia, which amplified in the weeks leading up to the March 15 attack.

On February 20, 2019, the Women's Organisation of the Waikato Muslim Association (WOWMA) Facebook page received ‘’hostile’’ posts.

One claimed Prophet Mohamed ‘’rapes young women’’. It went onto say there would be a burning of the Qur’an at the Hamilton mosque on March 15.

When reported to police at the time, an officer “did not seem to take the matter too seriously”, saying the person was known to police, suffered from a mental illness and would “likely not harm anyone”.

The officer assured her the person was based in Hamilton, and later said police were going to ‘’increase patrols to ensure nothing got out of hand”.

There was enough intelligence to warrant a coordinated national strategy, which would have alerted every mosque in the country to the March 15 threat. There was no strategy, so this did not happen.

‘’Whether or not the threat was connected to the Christchurch killer is irrelevant,’’ the submission says.

If the shooter had been subject to the same scrutiny as young Muslim men, he ‘’could have been watched’’.

RAFT OF ABUSE AGAINST MUSLIM COMMUNITY

Masjid Al Noor on Deans Ave, Christchurch, is taped off following the March 15 terror attack.

Other abusive and Islamophobic comments were made on March 5, 2019, and a bearded man was videoed on March 19 speaking about his hate crimes against Muslims, white power, and “culling the f…ers out”.

The president of the Waikato Muslim Organisation also received several threatening calls at the University of Waikato, where is he an associate professor, just before March 15.

The caller asked him if he was responsible for indoctrinating terrorists, because they would “come down … and I’ll burn it to the f…ing ground you terrorist p….’’.

'You wait [inaudible], we’re coming after you boy. I’ve followed a lot of your people home, I know where a lot of you live.’’

IWCNZ spokeswoman Anjum Rahman told Stuff it ‘’beggars belief” that only the Christchurch gunman knew about the planned attack on Christchurch’s An-nur (Al Noor) and Linwood mosques on March 15.

The gunman pleaded guilty to the terrorist attack and will be sentenced on August 24.

The February threat about a March 15 incident was not made by him. ’’He was too smart to do that,” Rahman said.

But she questioned why no-one else had been arrested for being involved.

‘’How did this person know this exact date, can it really be a coincidence?’’

Islamic Women's Council spokeswoman Anjum Rahman says it “beggars belief” that only the Christchurch gunman knew about the planned March 15 attack.

POLICE ‘RELUCTANT’ TO TAKE COMPLAINTS SERIOUSLY

Rahman said by sharing their submissions, the women wanted to model the same sort of transparency they hoped the Royal Commission would.

She was 'heartbroken' that the women weren't listened to.

'There are many days where I feel I don't know what to do with the rage, I don't know where to put it.'

She felt the structures of institutions, and the systems and processes used by the people in them, were discriminatory in design.

An independent ethics board was needed, since previously surveillance was focused on the Muslim community, she said.

The council says in its submission it believes police had been 'very reluctant to take complaints of harassment seriously’’, and that Islamic women bore the brunt of abuse due to the visibility of their headscarves.

In 2014, Danzeisen was in a shopping mall when a blonde man aged between 30 and 45 went behind her, pushed her, and shouted “f…ing Muslim”, before running off.

IWCNZ national coordinator Dr Maysoon Salama – whose son Atta Elayyan was killed and husband Mohammad Alayan injured – says it is vital government agencies provide culturally and religiously responsive support to minorities and ethnic groups.

There should be long-term community-building initiatives, and long-term support and compensation for victims and their families.

“There is clear need for establishing an independent Muslim Arbitration Tribunal for the impacted families, to deal with issues such as inheritance.’’

IWCNZ raised concerns with the Government about social media damaging New Zealand, and had raised concerns directly with Facebook.

Maysoon Salama, whose son was killed on March 15, wants culturally and religiously responsive support for ethnic minorities.

JOHN KEY ‘NO FRIEND’ TO NZ MUSLIMS

In its submissions, the IWCNZ was scathing about comments made by former Prime Minister Sir John Key in 2015.

During a public hearing, Key “implied that he had had been informed by [security services] that jihadi brides had left New Zealand for Iraq to marry ISIS fighters”.

It later came out none of the women referred to by security services and Key had left from New Zealand, but were instead New Zealand citizens living in Australia.

He refused to apologise to Muslim women living in this country, and rejected claims his comments were “scaremongering”.

The ICWNZ said Key’s comments prompted a backlash against Muslim women and girls, and “the very next day” they experienced harassment and threats.

“This cynical use of misinformation showed an attitude of mind of the prime minister … that he was no friend, and had no interest in being a friend, of the New Zealand Muslim community.”

Danzeisen said Key should apologise for his 'jihadi bride' comments.

She and Rahman said Kitteridge had already apologised privately to the women for Key's comments, which she seemed sincerely embarrassed about.