The New Zealand Herald ruled out that the terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch was an isolated incident, confirming that violence against Muslims in the West is on the rise.
According to an article in the newspaper by Professor of Security Studies at King's College London, Peter Newman, that hate crimes and acts of violence against Muslims in all parts of Western countries are on the rise.
It quoted a report issued by the Anti-Defamation League - a Jewish organization dedicated to defending human rights - that 2018 was the year of the worst murders committed by the far right in the United States since 1995.
The writer cited events like that that occurred in countries such as Britain, Germany and of course in the United States, adding that there is no single explanation for this phenomenon.
Newman identified in his article in the newspaper - which is published in the city of Auckland in northern New Zealand - factors, political, ideological and structural, which he believes are the ones that drive terrorism, such as:
1- Raising fears
On the political level, the process of polarization in most Western countries has raised fears and a sense of widespread insecurity. These concerns centered on the effects of immigration - particularly from Muslim countries - which populist politicians portrayed as an existential threat to Western identity and "our way of life."
According to the newspaper, after the rise of the Islamic State and its terrorist operations in cities such as Paris, Brussels and London, the speech was not limited to perpetuating these fears, but rather gave them a character of urgency and urgency, which sparked violent responses.
2- Supportive Ideology
The second factor that fuels terrorism, according to the newspaper, is the availability of an ideology capable of transforming these fears and complaints into a coherent political project.
In recent years, there has been a major shift in the extreme right's orientation towards collecting ideas such as identity and culture instead of focusing on issues of race.
3- Understanding racism
The strength of the ideology that supports identity lies not in the fact that it explicitly recognizes racism as an idea, but rather in the ease with which it is assimilated by those who adopt it as well. This is because by talking about culture and identity rather than ethnicity, it describes non-white and / or Christian groups as unwanted without referring to their ethnicity or the color of their skin, which has enabled the extreme right to link with broad sectors of the right-wing populist movement.
4- Connecting to the past
on a personal level. The ideology supporting identity allows terrorists to communicate with a long line of defenders of "European culture".
5- Attachment to the present
Terrorism requires structures through which it can mobilize elements to carry out its operations. In the case of the perpetrator of the Christchurch massacre, this is a hypothetical subculture that has its manifestations on social media platforms such as 8 Chan, 4 Chan, Reddit, Twitter, and others.
Based on the foregoing - according to the New Zealand Herald - the Christchurch attack should not surprise anyone, "the extreme right is stronger and bolder today than ever before."
She called on policymakers in Western countries to take the extreme right movement seriously, because the violence it adopts is not only life threatening, but also undermines pluralism and the freedom itself on which Western societies are based.
Perhaps the first step is to acknowledge that there is a problem. After all, no one will be able to address this threat unless it is recognized, according to Peter Newman.