In a terrible terrorist attack in New Zealand, two terrorists opened fire at two mosques which resulted in the death of about 40 people thus far and injured many others. The mass shootings took place at the Al Noor Mosque next to Hagley Park and another at the Linwood Mosque in the suburb of Linwood.
One of the terrorists, Brenton Tarrant, has also published a ‘manifesto’ of sorts in a Q&A format where he outlines his worldview and provides the reasons for his actions he would commit shortly afterwards. The document provides a glimpse into the chaos and turmoil that has engulfed predominantly White countries of the world and only goes on to show that for these countries, the dark days are from over.
Certain people have used the terror attack and the document to malign Hindu organizations. A certain Director of a Think Tank insinuated in his article that the RSS and Indian media may have radicalized the New Zealand terrorist.
Others have drawn parallels with the ideological positions advocated by the terrorist in his document with Hindutva.
The New Zealand shooter had written a racist manifesto before the shooting. Which he released on the internet. Reading it brings out some sinister similarities with his ideology and the ideology which rules India. pic.twitter.com/EJdP7KDwYu
— گُم شُدہ (@GenZinfrenzy) March 15, 2019
At a time when such blatant misinformation is being spread, it becomes of paramount importance to actually report authentically on the ideology advocated by the terrorist and what he represents.
The manifesto, titled ‘The Great Replacement’, begins with Dylan Thomas’ famous poem ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’. From his articulation, it’s quite clear that Tarrant is much like his Islamic counterparts. He is educated, has great concerns for society and the direction it’s headed in, has spent a lot of time thinking through his actions, firmly believes that the governments of Western countries have wronged him and his community, that Liberalism leads to a decay in society which is evil and that Violence is the only solution. The only difference between him and an Islamic terrorist is that race is the foundation of his worldview while for the latter, it’s his religion.
Tarrant describes himself as “just a regular White man, from a regular family” who “decided to take a stand to ensure a future for my people.” While he never went to University, he says he worked for a while before investing in Bitconnect and then used the money he had earned to travel.
As to why he carried out the attack, Tarrant gives many reasons making it abundantly clear that he sees the mass migration of Muslims into western countries as an existential threat. He claims his attack is an act of revenge against the many “European lives” that have been lost to terror attacks by Islamic terrorists. He believes that terror attacks by Whites could reduce immigration to Western countries. He sees the mass migrations of Muslims into the West as an invasion and he calls them invaders.
Another similarity that Tarrant has with his Islamic counterparts is his disapproval of the USA’s projection of global power. He hopes for balkanization of the United States over the great disagreement between the Republicans and the Democrats over the 2nd Amendment which gives American citizens the Right to bear firearms. He believes that accelerating this divide and an attempt to seize firearms forcibly will result in a civil war along social, cultural, political and racial lines. He says that the balkanization of the US will reduce its ability to project power globally and end the multicultural “pipe dream”. He further accuses the US of fighting beside “Islamic occupiers” in Kosovo and slaughtered Christian Europeans “attempting to remove them”.
A reason for the terrorist attack he committed, Tarrant says, is to further polarize Western society “in order to eventually destroy the current nihilistic, hedonistic, individualistic insanity that has taken control of Western thought.” He quite obviously refers to Progressivism that has gripped the West. It is made abundantly clear in the first lines of the introduction to the document where he says “It’s the birthrates.”
Tarrant’s spiral towards terrorism occurred over the course of two years. One particular personal event that threw him off the edge was the death of a little girl in the terrorist attack in Stockholm in April 2017. He says in contrast with previous incidents of terrorism where cynicism was his reaction to them, this time there was something different in the manner he reacted and that he could ‘no longer turn his back to violence’. “That difference was Ebba Akerlund,” he says. Ebba was a partially deaf girl who was killed in the terror attack, on her way to meet her mother after school. “Ebba’s death at the hands of the invaders, the indignity of her violent demise and my inability to stop it broke through my own jade cynicism like a sledgehammer,” he wrote.
The other events which inspired his descent into terrorism were the 2017 US-French General Election and his visit to France. About the elections, he says, “The internationalist, globalist, anti-white, ex-banker won. It wasn’t even close.” As a consequence of the result, his “belief in a democratic solution vanished.” He also paints a very bleak picture of France where he asserts that “invaders” have essentially taken over.
The document provides further insight into how his mind works. Tarrant says he harbours no enmity towards Muslims who live in their own homelands. He dislikes Muslims who have migrated to Western countries and he considers them as invaders. But he reserves his hatred only for Whites who have converted to Islam. He calls them “blood traitors to their own race”. One interesting feature about White Nationalists is that certain people among them advocate for a mass conversion to Islam to escape the degeneracy of liberalism and ‘safeguard the future of the White race’. Tarrant is, quite obviously, not one of them.
Tarrant admits that he committed an act of terrorism but does not feel any remorse for the attack. “By definition, yes,” he says in response to whether his actions can be classified as terrorism, “But I believe it is a partisan action against an occupying force.” On whether he feels any remorse, he says, “No, I only wish I could have killed more invaders, and more traitors as well.” Tarrant also says that he doesn’t hate other cultures and has travelled to many countries where was greeted with “warmth and compassion” and “enjoyed nearly every moment” he spent with them.
The terrorist also admits that his attack was racist, was xenophobic to a degree and was anti-Islamic in origin. He describes the attack as “a want for revenge against Islam for the 1300 years of war and devastation that it has brought upon the people of the West and other peoples of the world.” He also makes it clear that he does not consider the people he has murdered as innocent. “They are no innocents in an invasion, all those who colonize other peoples lands share guilt.” Above all, it was anti-immigrant, the terrorist says. “Yes, beyond all doubt, anti-immigration, anti-ethnic replacement and anti-cultural replacement.”
Tarrant, however, denies that his attack was anti-diversity. In fact, he argues that his attack was “in the name of diversity”.He says, “The attack was to ensure the preservation of beauty, art and tradition. In my mind a rainbow is only beautiful due to its variety of colours, mix the colours together and you destroy them all and they are gone forever and the end result is far from anything beautiful.”
Further down the line, Tarrant agrees that he is a racist as he believes “racial differences exist between peoples and they have a great impact on the way we shape our societies”. Although earlier he admitted that his terror attack had a certain xenophobic component, he denies that he is a xenophobic himself. “No culture scares me,” he says. He considers himself an ethno-nationalist. He appears to hate conservatism which he says is “corporatism in disguise”.
There are various facets of Tarrant’s ideology that place him, like every other terrorist ever, at odds with the Liberal conception of terrorism. It’s quite clear that he didn’t commit himself to terrorism because he was economically impoverished. He did not do it because he was not educated enough. As his manifesto amply demonstrated, he had a deep knowledge of history and was capable of expressing himself. When he cited the Knight Templars, which was a Catholic Army that fought against Islamic empires during the Crusades, he again displayed his knowledge of history and placed his actions in its context. As is obvious, the motivations for his attack were deeply ideological, contrary to the Liberal notion which prioritizes material aspects, and he does not shy away from it in the same manner as Islamic terrorists do not.
In the aftermath of the terror attack, several things have happened which only serve the terrorist’s intended purpose. ISIS has called for revenge against the terror attack at the Mosques. Liberals all over the world are blaming Donald Trump and prominent conservative intellectuals for the terror attack and are calling for their censorship. All of this will lead to further polarization and perpetuate a more terrifying cycle of violence, which is exactly the terrorist wanted.
More indication that unleashing chaos was his primary objective came from a picture that was released of the terrorist under arrest. He could be seen making a hand gesture that has been branded as a symbol of White Supremacy by liberals but in reality, it is just an ordinary gesture that was hijacked by trolls on the internet to advocate support for Donald Trump. The fact that he made the hand gesture will lead to crackdown against ordinary people who use it or have used it in the past as a form of harmless ironic humour. Until now, it was one of those meaningless things that could mean whatever people wanted it to mean. But now, it will lead to the demonization of people which would sow the seeds for further chaos.
Ironically enough, the terrorist is a product of the same nihilism he seeks to destroy. His entire ideology could take root only in a society the very fabric of which has been permeated by nihilism. His religious ideas are not the foundation of his ideology, his race is. At one point in his document, he admits that he isn’t sure if he is Christian. It’s further evidence of the fact that unlike what atheists would have us believe, a lack of religiosity does not automatically translate into a humanitarian worldview.
The terrorist’s inherent desire to use chaos and polarization as a means to achieve his desired end combined with his apparent lack of religiosity and great emphasis on his racial identity elucidates that his priorities are not oriented towards spiritual pursuits but material ones.
While attempts are being made to malign Hindus and Hindu organizations, the New Zealand terrorist’s modus operandi and his ideology reveal that he has much more in common with Islamic terrorists than any other group.
New York’s deputy head of counterterrorism John Miller went so far as to say that the attack bears great similarities with ISIS-inspired attacks. He also said that terrorists like Tarrant are borrowing propaganda techniques from other terror groups. “You can see that the neo-fascist groups, white supremacists are borrowing from the ISIS playbook,” Miller told CBS News. “In this attack, you see the phenomenon that we coined the phrase in the NYPD ‘dying live.’ This was an ISIS tactic where they said if you’re going to do a mass casualty attack, you should live stream it over social media. We’ve seen them adopting many of the tactics, the terrorist tactics you would see in things like ISIS’ Rumiyah magazine or Al Qaeda’s magazines in terms of instruction.”
