New Zealand attack shows white supremacy is global terrorist movement
The atrocity in New Zealand shows us, once again, that we鈥檙e dealing with an international terrorist movement linked by a dangerous white supremacist ideology that鈥檚 metastasizing in the echo chambers of internet chat rooms and on social media networks.
This hatred is even being amplified by our own president, who speaks of an 鈥渋nvasion of our country.鈥�
The killer鈥檚 manifesto bears the unmistakable fingerprints of the so-called alt-right, both in tone and reference. It celebrates the Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik as well as Charleston terrorist Dylann Roof. It speaks of 鈥渋nvaders鈥� who will 鈥渞eplace鈥� white people. This is the very same kind of language used by Roof and numerous other white supremacists who have committed or attempted acts of terror.
On his weapon, the killer wrote the white supremacist slogan known as the 14 words 鈥� 鈥淲e must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children鈥� 鈥� coined by the infamous neo-Nazi terrorist David Lane.
In this case, a killer attacked Muslims worshiping at two mosques. In October, a killer massacred Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Though the victims were different, and the attacks came in different parts of the world, the terrorists shared the same ideology of white supremacist hate.
We 鈥� and that includes policymakers and the law enforcement community, in particular 鈥� must begin to view what we call 鈥渄omestic terrorism鈥� through a global lens, just as we do the threat of groups like ISIS, because the growing white supremacist movement represents a clear and present threat to democracies across the world.
Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images
