Islamophobia grows: Shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand

The shooter is responsible for the people killed, not Donald Trump. Just like the man that shot Steve Scalise is responsible for Scalise being shot, not Bernie Sanders. You’re doing exactly what the guy that did this horrible incident did wants, and his manifesto was all over the place. Do you blame Insomnic Games too since they created Spyro the Dragon? Do you think Fortnite should be banned over this?

There were Christian massacres in Nigeria this year that dwarfed the amount of Muslims murdered in New Zealand on Friday. The chances of you hearing about it are between slim and none. People seem more eager to report what fits their narrative, and while it’s easy to blame Trump for a monster that murders 50 Muslims, it’s a lot harder to blame him for monsters that murdered over a hundred Christians.

@ad1x2: New Zealand is closer to home than Nigeria.

My first line,

I don't blame anyone but the shooter.

But to say white nationalism violence (and other hate groups) hasn't risen, and the far right hasn't amped up their rhetoric, is silly. He straight up said stuff Trump typically says. Several white nationalist groups praise Trump and love him when he says this stuff. He does influence them, they are on the record stating this. I'm not even saying he knows he is doing it. But they do like him. He does say inflammatory things.

I know what your first line said. You promptly contradicted your statement in the paragraph following your claim that you only blamed the shooter. The shooter knew exactly what he was doing when he used guns and named Trump in his manifesto, and a lot of people are falling for it because it allows them to further their political goals.

Still doesn’t change the fact that those incidents barely got a mention in the media. I’m not trying to derail this topic or take away from the tragedy of what happened, but we can’t pretend that there isn’t a political advantage to focus on one over the other.

Guessing it was all over right wing media then... Lets try to keep it on topic again.

Given the similarities between him and the shooter in Norway 8 years ago, is he also claiming/trying to seem very intelligent?

I can’t speak on his motives or his level of intelligence, but it appears that going by his manifesto, he wanted his actions to affect things in the US. He was right about that with the way the media is reacting, although I don’t think he anticipated people like Chelsea Clinton being blamed for it.

I only blame the right wing terrorist for this event. But I'm not blind to the fact of what may have influenced him and that there has been a rise in hate crimes and hate groups as the GOP (including Trump) have amped up their rhetoric over the last few years. Of course, that alone is not the only reason for the increase.

And don't get mad at me for simply quoting the guy's manifesto. You're the one making theories on it. I'm just stating what is in it.

US hate groups have seen ideas enter mainstream in Trump era, report finds

After New Zealand shooting, Trump downplayed white nationalist threat. But experts say it's growing.

His words certainly aren't helping.

Want to see some real, thought-provoking commentary on this incident? Why just head over to Fox News and click on any related article and scroll down to the comments section.

@ad1x2: The casualty numbers reported for the Nigeria incident are all over the place (from nine to a hundred), so we don't know for certain how many casualties there were. Nevertheless, such incidents in non-Western countries rarely get coverage in mainstream Western media, regardless of whether the victims/perpetrators are Christians/Muslims/whatever. For example, there have been many incidents of anti-Muslim pogroms, massacres, rapes, lynchings and ethnic cleansing against Muslim minorities in Asian countries such as Burma, China, India, Sri Lanka, etc. The world's deadliest terrorist group is a Christian terrorist group, the Lord's Resistance Army in Africa. And the region with the most mass shootings is Latin America, where some countries rival the murder rates of even warzones like Syria. Yet such incidents rarely get a passing mention in mainstream Western media. Even the India-Pakistan battle between two nuclear powers, which could've potentially sparked a nuclear war with global ramifications, wasn't the top story in mainstream Western media. In other words, mainstream Western media mainly focuses on what's happening in Western countries.

Let's also not forget the very barbaric, gruesome livestream. That's what makes this different to any other mass-shooting to date. The whole thing was presented as if it's some FPS game, with memes/gaming/anime references, making the whole thing look like some kind of sickening first-person horror game. It's even more horrific than those violent ISIS videos from a few years ago, which presented gruesome deaths in a movie-like manner, with memes. When something is so graphically horrific, it's undoubtedly going to generate a lot more revulsion for most people (or orgasms for some sick fucks, like the alt-right extremists at 8chan).

It’s sad when anyone dies tragically, but how is religion still a thing in this day and age?

He expects himself to be released after 30 years. He believes a race war will bring in new leaders and that they will honor him.

(This doesn't have much to do with the topic, but I thought it may be worth sharing regardless. There is a shooting happening right now in my country which is a rarity. (City of Utrecht.) From what I hear so far, wayyy fewer deaths and injured (I heard less than 10 total, so far, as he is not as well armed/trained) but still. It's a sad thing. But all those bits of information are unreliable right now. The news is hush hush about it. Don't know the motivations. He is still at large. They have a pretty clear picture on the screen of the shooter. ID'd him. Again, clearly, it's on a different scale.

An odd interesting detail is that the mosques in Rotterdam are being heavily secured now. So it's like they are concerned about some kind of revenge attack, or maybe that this would have something to do with New Zeeland's attack but in a whole different city? I'm reaching. Could just be because of the national threat level being raised. Guess we'll know more soon.)

Many countries had mosques contacting police or police contacting them and keep an extra eye on them for a while.

I heard about the shooting in Utrecht. Any more info on it? All I got was a small article, guessing first report on it.

@horgen: (They did catch the presumed shooter minutes ago. So that's good. 3 confirmed deaths. I think 9 wounded of which 3 in critical condition. No word on why, just wild speculation as these things go. What I found remarkable was the general response of the public. I've seen very few irrational or threatening responses. No real blanket accusations. Not much anti-immigration talk (considering he was born in Turkey). Most responses are simply sympathetic to the victims, and informative. Good questions asked, good answers given. I was impressed with that. Maybe I got real lucky with where I looked, but that really stood out to me.

Even some people saying that if this is a terrorist act, they didn't want to let this impact their day. And that may sound insensitive to people from other cultures, but I know why they say that. There's the impression that terrorism mostly exists to cause fear, and they simply don't want to give him that satisfaction. It was interesting how little chaos the media was causing, compared to somewhat similar past events... They used to try and get everybody to panic, and they didn't this time. Police response was rapid even though they were on strike. The threat level caused most citizens to stay inside and that probably helped in finding the shooter.

update: I just heard the shooter did mention ISIS and Christchurch and also a private reason to attack a particular person who he shot at. So it's a bit confusing in regards to the actual motivation. He has a long history in court (been to court for 7 reasons in the past 7 years), including firing a pistol in the direction of apartments and allegedly raping someone.)

Having been around a few boards on the net, after these shooting there's always the predictable emotional outpourings and proclamations of the world going to shit, but I think it's important to keep in mind that historically speaking, we're relatively living in incredibly peaceful times where violence has been in fact dropping. It's just in today's ever increasing world of connectivity and the abundance of social media, we are presented with such explicitness of evil, it's expressed right to our face, and as such so many get the impression this is right on our doorstep ready to explode into utter chaos and that the world is nothing but a cesspit.

In these times, I always find some consolation by reminding myself of how good I have it when viewed in a historical context and how the world has improved from the past. Had we had social media back then I think people of the past would laugh at what we endure today. Much consolation that will grant the victims and their families I realize, and not to belittle their hardship and misfortune in the slightest, but I'd argue to cite their circumstances as indicative that the sky is falling overall is only seeing a very small part of the bigger picture. I'm exceptionally grateful for what I have, and it's after tragedies like these such a sentiment gets reinforced. These scumbags are, in truth, fighting against an overriding precedent, and they will ultimately be forgotten in its footnotes.

@KungfuKitten:

That's the third such incident in a matter of days. There were two other incidents I mentioned in the other thread:

NZ will now change its gun laws to make this kind of thing less likely to occur. Simple solution.

Mass-murders are now more common than ever. Back in the days when Columbine happened, mass-shootings like that were rare. Nowadays, Columbine-style mass-shootings have become very common.

But on the flip side, the overall numbers of homicides are decreasing, due to single-murders becoming less common. Despite this, the world feels more dangerous due to mass-murders have a much bigger terrorising psychological impact than single-murders do.

Yeah he was trying to claim/try being intelligent even though he said he has really no education. I read the manifesto and it was pretty clear by the way he wrote.

That's literally doing part of what the NZ shooter wanted.

Not really. The Australian shooter was referring to the US, not NZ. The US has a powerful gun lobby, which will fight back against any attempts at cracking down on guns, which he was hoping could trigger the "race war" he is yearning for.

Other countries don't have a gun lobby like the US does. NZ has recently banned semi-automatic guns, soon after the terror attack, and there has been no pushback against it, but instead it has been widely welcomed in NZ. There was also no pushback when the UK and other countries cracked-down on guns after previous mass-shootings. The US is the exception, due to its gun lobby.

@zaryia: CNN fact checking anything is an oxymoron.

Did you read the manifesto? He said that guns would be taken away from NZ would be the first thing and then it would be part of the help to divide the USA more.

Yes, I've read it. And it said he doesn't give a shit about NZ, where gun control was inevitable, with his actions just accelerating the inevitable. What he's really after is to influence the heavily-armed US gun lobby, who he is hoping would fight back against attempts to implement gun control in the US, and hopes this would trigger the "race war" he's after.

EDIT:

Many NZ gun owners, including gun shop owners, are now voluntarily returning their semi-automatic guns:

Christchurch terror attack: Kiwis begin to voluntarily return their semi-automatic rifles

Attack the argument, not the user.

You read it? That's one thing I can't be bothered to do.