It has been over 7 months since the mass shootings that targeted Muslim worshipers in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing more than 50 people.
Responses have varied. Among them were outpourings of unity and solidarity from political and faith leaders, articulated in vocabularies more religious (interfaith) or political. For some, such expressions sound too much like hollow talk; what is needed is political action, not words, prayers or symbolic actions, which seem too ineffective. There were also responses that sought explanation and subsequently a source of blame. A notable one of these has been media or politicians’ lack of recognition and action on discourses of Islamophobia.
Amongst inspirations cited by the attacker was Oswald Mosely, a 1930s British fascist leader, and "the person from history closest to my own beliefs". Britain has not faced a white supremacist attack of the same scale, but the fastest growing terrorism threat is now coming from far-right ideologies and in 2017/18 the de-radicalisation programme Channel provided support to a near equal proportion of those referred for right-wing extremism (44%) as those referred for Islamist extremism (45%). Furthermore, whereas overall trends of racism and religious discrimination may show decline, the trend for discrimination against Muslims shows the reverse.
