ISTANBUL

A New Zealand theologian said the attacks on two mosques in Christchurch in 2019 were primarily directed at Muslims, who were viewed and defined as the "invading other."

Douglas Pratt, a professor of theology and religious studies, who is a researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the University of Birmingham in the UK, as well as an honorary academic at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, spoke about the connection between the March 15, 2019 terrorist attacks on mosques in Christchurch and Christian fundamentalism.

Pratt pointed out that the Christchurch massacre, in which 51 people lost their lives, was fueled by anti-Muslim and white supremacist ideology, emphasizing that "this was a terrorist attack, an Islamophobic attack. It was an attack motivated by a mixture of white supremacy, anti-immigrant sentiment, and even anti-Muslim sentiment, and aimed at arousing a stronger outrage.”

"The actual target of the Christchurch attacks was Muslims, who were regarded as the invading other," he told Anadolu.

Noting that the number of people who lost their lives in the Christchurch mosque attacks was akin to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US in terms of their ratio to the population, he said, "Another interesting detail is that the 51 Muslims who died account for a sizeable portion of the Muslim population in New Zealand, which stands around only 1%.”

When the country's general population is compared to the killing ratio, it is nearly equal to the number of people killed in the 9/11 attack in the US, he said.

So some people are saying, 'This is New.' Zealand's 9/11,' however, "My answer is no because the attack on the Twin Towers was an attack against the entire nation. This was an Islamophobic attack targeting merely Muslims."

'Being Christian assumed to be white, European'

Telling how Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrator of the Christchurch attacks, was inspired by far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people, the majority of whom were children, in Norway in 2011, Pratt agreed that religion and terrorism were inextricably linked in the background of both attacks.

Noting that both terrorists held fundamentalist Christian beliefs, Pratt said: "I think there's more of a historical perspective here. Whatever the theological basis, that perspective often has the view that there's a reward. Coming from the Christian world, coming from Western Christianity, there's an assumption that being Christian means being white and European.

"It's the same as saying you have to be Arab to be Muslim. Of course, there are Muslims of all ethnicities. Thus, when you take that kind of narrow assumption, it gets distorted and becomes the root of an extremist view."

Though Tarrant acted on his own, Pratt said, "Tarrant was not an Einstein. He was not smart enough to think. He, like Anders Breivik, wanted the Christian West to take strong action to regain what was lost. He had learned the exculpatory motivation lines from Breivik, but another point was that it lent him the inspiration and strength to act on his own."

'White supremacist view of Christianity is an extreme form of Christian fundamentalism'

Pointing out that terrorist Tarrant's manifesto contains traces of Muslims' fears of invading and altering the European race, Pratt underlined "In his manifesto, he clearly stressed that the people he loathed the most were those who converted to Islam from our cultural society. The underlying meaning of this perception is 'we are right, you are wrong' Christian elitism, which is a simple way of expressing exclusivism from any background."

Adding that the Christchurch attacks were unleashed by Tarrant's white supremacist racist and fundamentalist Christian views, as well as his intense anti-Muslim thoughts, the theologian underscored that "The white supremacist view of Christianity is the extreme form of Christian fundamentalism.

"As you know, Christian ultra-conservatism and fundamentalism tend to assume that Muslims and Christians are forever enemies or forever opposed to each other. They reject the possibility of any real dialogue, detente or engagement, and these anti-Muslim or Muslim-skeptical backgrounds pushed him to go this far."

Transition from reality to virtual reality

Referring to Tarrant's livestream of the attack on social media, Pratt said, "He wanted to demonstrate that such an act of extremism could reach its apogee. He revealed that if such a thing could arise even in a peaceful and distant country like New Zealand, then it is clear that no Muslim is safe anywhere. That was surely the purpose."

Pratt compared terrorist Tarrant's attack to computer games, saying, "There is a transition between reality and virtual reality. In a way, the combination of live broadcast, video and music almost seemed to have a game effect on it, like one of those violent games that people play. It's almost unreal.

"Even though it had a reality, people knew it was real."

Emphasizing that far-right ideas are becoming more visible through tools such as social media, Pratt cited the country's first fundamentalist Christian terrorist attack in the Australian state of Queensland on Dec. 12, 2023, in which two police officers and one civilian were killed.

The scholar highlighted that "given what's going on in the United States right now and the dominance of the Republican Party, which has a robust base of support in what I would call very fundamentalist and far-right Evangelical Christianity, and the possibility of that party's advent to power with (former US President Donald) Trump, I would say that many places across the world tilted the extreme right, notably certain regions. This suggests that extremism will go up in some regions, if not globally."

'Acceptance and love root of our faith'

Referring to Imam Gamal Fouda of Nur Mosque's words, one of the mosques attacked in Christchurch, Pratt said: "I am a Christian theologian and I was extremely pleased with the statement of Gamal Fouda at the great ceremony held a week or two after the incident.

"He emphasized that we are all one race, the human race, and only through love will we survive and we must learn to love. Muslim leader stressed that 'we have suffered, but the root of our faith is acceptance and love.' Many in the secular community in New Zealand had never heard this perspective from a Muslim. This was one of the excellent outcomes that came out of such a horrible incident."

Pratt, who also had a message for the Christchurch victims’ relatives, concluded by saying, "As-salamu alaykum, may God protect us. Hopefully, we will surmount the terror, pain and misunderstanding that gave rise to these events. Alhamdulillah for all that we have."

2019 terrorist attacks

On March 15, 2019, Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist, killed 51 people and injured 40 more at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch city.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 2020 without the possibility of parole, in the first such ruling ever handed down in the island country.