Is it time the world started talking about white supremacist terrorism?


People pay their respects at a memorial site at the Botanical garden in Christchurch on March 18, 2019, three days after a shooting incident at two mosques in the city that claimed the lives of 50 Muslim worshippers. PHOTO | MARTY MELVILLE

What you need to know:

  • The terrorist attacks at Christchurch, New Zealand is not the first and won't be the last terrorist act carried out by a white man.
  • The media and political class have been excusing and promoting this kind of terrorism by making it look like an act committed by a deranged or a mentally ill or disturbed guy.
  • I am personally not shocked by these hatred and act of violence. It has been a long time coming.
  • There is a need to have more attention on white supremacist movements as they are the biggest threat to security and safety of Western Civilization and the so-called Western Democracy.

The terrorist attacks at Christchurch, New Zealand is not the first and won't be the last terrorist act carried out by a white man.

The media and political class have been excusing and promoting this kind of terrorism by making it look like an act committed by a deranged or a mentally ill or disturbed guy. They even go further to call them a "normal block ", a "normal child", a "family man" or a "disturbed teen".

The media and politicians in the West have for a long time been finding something "wrong" with the attackers. But the biggest problem and challenge in fighting terrorism starts with definition.

Definitions of terrorism are many and varied, and agreement on them is very rare if any. But we can all agree that terrorism is the use or threat of violence to create fear in a population in order to achieve a political, religious or ideological goal. Terrorism’s fundamental component is as an assertion of political influence through violence.

Most commonly, terrorists are non-state actors, and nation states relegate them to some type of medieval outlaws and civil rights, which apply to most ‘normal’ criminal suspects. Most states are tolerant to shooting terrorists dead on the grounds of national security. This is due to a particular threat they are perceived to present – and the terrible aftermath that results if terrorist plots are not disrupted.

I am personally not shocked by these hatred and act of violence. It has been a long time coming. There have been lots of these attacks only that it was not labelled as such. The only reason it wasn't called what it is (terrorism) is due to the fact that the murderers were white "supremacists", as if mass killings by white supremacists doesn’t fit the definition of terrorism.

BLOODY TRAIL

In August, 2012, six members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, in Oak Creek, were fatally shot by a white supremacist, Mr Wade Michael Page. Barely two years later, in April, 2014, a Neo-Nazi and former Ku Klux Klan leader Mr Frazier Miller Jr. fatally shot Dr. William Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson Reat Underwood outside an Overland Park, Kansas, Jewish Center as they arrived for a community event. He then drove to a Jewish retirement community where he fatally shot Ms Terry LaManno, who was visiting her mother.

On June 17, 2015, nine black worshippers including a pastor were killed by Mr Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist, after he prayed with them for nearly an hour. The shooting happened at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.

On August 13, 2016, Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee and his friend Thara Uddin were fatally shot as they left a New York City mosque by 35-year-old Oscar Morel. The killer was charged with second-degree murder and not terrorism.

In November, 2017, a man named Devin Kelley decided to dress in black tactical-style gear and armed with an assault weapon, opened fire at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others.

NO END IN SIGHT

My fear is that these kind of violence is not going to end anytime soon. In fact, it is bound to get worse. As the white men struggle to maintain their "dominance" both in Europe and stolen nations like America, Australia, Canada, and South Africa, they will stop at nothing to ensure that they "protect" their power and dominance.

These things tend to reverberate. Terrorists around the world, whether on the left or right, love their publicity. The New Zealand shooter definitely got the coverage. And there is no doubt that social media and the global penetration of internet will definitely make this worse than it is right now. Right wing haters will be preaching their hate. The big white man syndrome kind of politics of Trump and his supporters as well as other white nationalist activists will be able to inspire these terrorists.

NEED FOR CHANGE IN TACT

Authorities in the US and Australia, have been aware of the threat of white supremacist terrorism. In fact, America have more people killed by right-wing terrorists, than those murdered by terrorists from outside the country. Hence the need to have more attention on white supremacist movements as they are the biggest threat to security and safety of Western Civilization and the so-called Western Democracy.

The author is a Public Policy, Governance and International Law student at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.