New Zealand Terror Attack Latest Example of 'Rising Tide of Hate,' Experts Say
New Zealand is not known for gun violence or mass shootings. It’s a peaceful, tranquil country, says domestic terror expert Daryl Johnson, owner of DT Analytics and author of the upcoming book Hateland: A Long Hard Look At America’s Extremist Heart.
But last week, “it had one of the worst terrorist attacks against Muslims in the civilized world,” Johnson says, “New Zealand shows us that no country is immune. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.”
Fifty people were killed in two mosque attacks on Friday, with 36 people hospitalized as of Saturday, New Zealand Police wrote on Twitter.
A 28-year-old suspect, Brenton Tarrant, who according to multiple reports was a bodybuilder from Australia, has been charged with murder in the attack. According to The Washington Post, he did not enter a plea in court on Saturday.
Hate crimes have been increasing every year, Johnson notes. “FBI data released in November shows a nearly 20 percent increase in hate crimes from the year before. There is a rising tide of hate,” Johnson says.
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Attacks by white supremacists aren’t new, confirms Humera Khan, co-founder and President of Muflehun, a nonprofit that works to combat hate, extremism and violence.
“This has been ignored,” Khan says. “It’s not just one attack and one attempt. It’s been happening for years and years.”
Most people, she says, remember the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh. Other examples of right-wing violent extremism include the trio in Kansas stopped by the FBI before they could take down a Somali apartment complex, as well as Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine people in the Charleston, SC church massacre.
“They’re trying to create an Aryan nation,” Khan says. “These are like the grandchildren of Hitler.”
White power extremists don’t just hate Muslims, Khan says — they hate everyone who isn’t exactly like them: “It’s a spectrum.”
What people have ignored in the New Zealand assailant’s manifesto, Khan says, is that he wants to see a Civil War in America.
“That’s one of his goals: to see America fall apart,” she says. “He wants to have a single race rule everyone else. He’s against any sort of diversity. He’s against any sort of difference.”
– With reporting by K.C. Baker and Greg Fulton
