Three emotions have hit many of us in the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack on Al Noor Mosque and Linwood mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, during which 50 Muslims were killed and dozens more were injured. The first one is incredible sadness at the loss of lives and the pain inflicted on the families, friends and communities touched directly and indirectly by this atrocity. The second is in fact a lack of emotion - a lack of shock. Of course, we did not foresee such an attack in particular, but recent events have made us (and many other experts) convinced that this has become a real risk. Finally, anger. We are angry because this attack is not an isolated, unfortunate happenstance. This attack is the logical deadly conclusion of years of the normalisation of Islamophobia and racism, and mainstreaming and hyping of the far right. Here are just three of the mainstream narratives, commonly pushed by the media, politicians and some academics, which have played a key role recently in legitimising ideas which were core to the attacker’s worldview.
“Racism is a fringe problem confined to mad or bad individuals”
Far right attackers are often framed as aberrations, as ‘lone wolves’, rather than as linked to both a wider movement, and to wider racism in general. The double standards within analyses of terrorism are notable. Attacks involving perpetrators who are Muslim and/or are seemingly conducted in the name of Islam are generally treated as automatically terrorist in nature both by politicians and the media, and Muslims subjected to collective suspicion. But far right attacks, committed by white people (and in the name of whiteness) with a clear and avowedly terrorist intent, have been individualised, pathologised and represented as the acts of mad or bad individuals. In the case of Christchurch, the attacker was described as a ‘mass murderer’ affected by being ‘picked on at school because he was chubby’. This is the case even when far right terrorists leave manifestos outlining where their ideas have emerged.
What is too-often ignored is the role of mainstream discourse and actions in legitimising ideas that were core to the attacker’s worldview. We are invited to believe that racism exists only in the more extreme movements and their spokespeople. In other words, to believe a post-racial narrative that de-emphasises the prevalence of racism across our politics and denies structural, institutional and everyday racisms.
