Attacks in Christchurch, NZ: Far-Right Terrorism?

By Max Coutinho

Last Friday, New Zealand suffered an attack against civilian targets: two mosques and a hospital. Four men and a woman have been arrested, although the only one who has been identified by name has been Brenton Tarrant, a 28 year old man, who apparently identifies himself as a ‘white supremacist’. Was this attack a terror attack and are we truly talking about far-right terrorism?

Does the Set of Events Constitute a Terrorist Attack?

Definition of Terrorism

Terrorism is the intentional use of, or threat to use, violence against civilians or against civilian targets, in order to attain political aims (..) based on three important elements:

The essence of the activity (i.e. an activity that doesn't involve the use, or threat to use, violence will not be defined as terrorism).

The aim of the activity is always political (i.e. in the absence of a political goal, the activity in quest will not be defined as terrorism).

The targets are civilians (i.e. acts are purposely directed at civilians; which distinguishes terrorist acts from other kinds of political violence [e.g. guerrilla warfare and civil insurrection]. – Professor Boaz Ganor

Answer: yes, it is safe to say that the Christchurch attacks constitute terrorism as the essence of the activity used violence, as the aim of the activity was political and the targets were civilians.

Is this a case of Far-Right Terrorism?

Brenton Tarrant seems to have written a Manifesto and, from what I have read so far, my assessment is that Mr Tarrant is a confused millennial who doesn’t even know what White Supremacism is, and whose ‘political views’ are all over the map. Let’s start with the cover of his political document:

Title: The Great Replacement - towards a new society we march ever forwards
Logo: the Black Sun within a wheel with 8 spokes. In each spoke there’s a summary of the purported political views – Anti-Imperialism, Environmentalism, Responsible Markets, Addiction Free Community, Law & Order, Ethnic Autonomy, Protection of Heritage and Culture, Worker's Rights.

The Title alone is sheer nonsense because:

1. Replacement – the young man, and those like him, believe that fair skinned people (of European ancestry) are being replaced by Middle Eastern people. Both in New Zealand and Australia the majority is still composed by people with low levels of melanin, and even if his perception were true who would be to blame? Certainly not the minorities.
2. New Society – if the intention of the terrorist is to go back to a time when each ethnicity lived in their respective countries without daring to interact with others around the world (which proved impossible due to human nature), how can this mean something “new”?
3. March Forwards – regressing is the opposite of moving, or marching, forward.

Conclusion: the title alone discredits the whole document.

The Logo is also a cocktail of opposing ideas:

1. Black Sun: a symbol used by the followers of Nazism (National Socialism). Apparently, Heinrich Himmler (Yimach Shemo) was the first one to use it in the castle he had remodelled and expanded for Nazi Pagan rituals.
2. The Number 8: it symbolises the letter H (in the ideology of National Socialism the H only has two meanings Heil and Hitler [Yimach Shemo]).
3. Anti-Imperialism: a leftist locution (and also part of the Socialist and Communist ethos). Furthermore, if the goal is to have the “white supremacy” back, which implies political dominance over other nations or peoples, how can Brenton be against Imperialism which is someone he and his ilk advocate for?
4. Environmentalism and Ethnic Autonomy: while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes cows are destroying the planet and thus they should be ended, Breton (self-branded “eco-fascist”) believes fertile ethnicities are destroying planet earth (since low melanin levelled people do not make babies, according to him) and that by offing those ethnicities the planet should be safe. This level of stupidity could only come from two wicked creatures.
5. Responsible Markets and worker’s rights: Brenton despises Capitalism because one’s work serves only to benefit the capitalist owners - another Socialist/Communist marker. He would also ban free trade and raise the minimum wage because, in his opinion, “non-white” immigration is nurtured by the capitalist insistence upon cheap labour.
6. Addiction Free Community: Tarrant defends that all drug dealers must be killed.
7. Law and Order: if he proposes anarchic violence to solve the woes of the world, how can he defend Law and Order? It makes no sense. It seems like he just inserted this slogan to give the impression he is a Trump Supporter.
8. Protection of Heritage and Culture: Tarrant calls himself European, even though his culture is Australian (which is not quite the same thing). He also expressed admiration for Asian Culture and ability to protect its Heritage. If the goal was to call for the defence of the “European culture and heritage” why bring up other cultures into the mix? And why the admiration for China (a Communist State) – yet another marker of his leftist proclivity?

Conclusion: Brenton Tarrant is as far-right as Winnie the Pooh. He is rather a confused national socialist in progress – that is, a leftist.

The Far-Right Markers: Jews and Muslims

The Jewish People

Interestingly enough, Tarrant echoed Anders Breivik by saying “A Jew living in Israel is no enemy of mine, so long as they do not seek to subvert or harm my people,” - Breivik said that he supported Israel with the sole objective to deport “disloyal Jews” there. Tarrant also claimed to have been inspired by Dylann Roof who said that “the Jewish problem” would be solved if the Jewish identity were destroyed.

Nowadays, neither far-right or leftist elements voice the outright death to Jews. The new far-right defends that Israel must be defended against Muslims with the sole intention of sending all the Jews there; and the new Left defends that Israel must be given to the Arabs either as a form of using the Muslims to kill Jews in the Middle East or to force the Jews to come back to Europe with all their money.

Whenever a Jew is killed by a Muslim or by an allegedly far-right creature, the world is silent.

The Muslim People

For Tarrant and his ilk, Muslims are perceived as Invaders and as such they are to be annihilated. But little do they know that their vision is all wrong because Muslims are not invaders, they were invited by our politicians. So, as usual, it is easier to put the blame on the other side rather than to take responsibility for our side’s actions. Having said this, this anti-Muslim immigration rhetoric seems opportunistic; and attacking the Mosques served to validate that rhetoric – to push for a reaction leading to a specific goal (similar to Iranian tactics of pushing for bloody conflicts to bring about the Mahdi).

Whenever a Muslim is killed by a soldier or by an allegedly far-right creature, the world gets hysterical, organises vigils and lights candles in the streets.

Conclusion

There is no doubt a terrorist attack occurred in New Zealand. However, there are a lot of doubts concerning the political drive of this 28 year old terrorist. His manifesto seems like a collage of ideologies and his positions seem to derive from memes spread throughout the internet. Brenton Tarrant said he had no interest in education: clearly he did not. Anders Breivik at least demonstrated a bit more structure in the delivery of his motivations and politics; but Tarrant comes out as an outright ignorant (as per his confession that he never had a “passing grade” – although we do need to ask why he felt he had to share this)…

It all seems too bad to be true. Too deliberate and, therefore, we need to put forward a couple of possibilities:

• This young man may have been paid to commit this atrocity
• He may have been paid to produce a document unto which he threw names as purported sources of inspiration - including that of a black woman - (surely to directly link certain people to dangerous ideologies)
• There may be an entity/organisation behind him.

We may be before a new form of Political Warfare. For that reason, we hope the New Zealand authorities do the right thing and don’t use this young man merely as a political tool against the Right Wing. Investigate.

(Image: One of the ARs used by Brenton Tarrant - Google Images)

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