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Weekend Read: A horrifying pattern of white supremacist attacks

He approached the mosque on foot, his weapon visible in a country where guns are rare.聽

鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 even time to aim, there聽was聽so many targets,鈥 he said in the 17-minute video of the attack he posted to Facebook.

Those 鈥渢argets鈥 were Muslim worshippers.

A man in his late 20s has been聽聽in shootings at two mosques in central Christchurch, New Zealand. Two other men and a woman have also been taken into custody.

Almost immediately, evidence emerged of the alleged killer鈥檚 immersion in white supremacist ideology. He engraved the 鈥溾 鈥 a white supremacist slogan 鈥斅爋n his rifle. On other weapons, he wrote the names of military leaders who led battles against nonwhite forces and men who recently carried out mass shootings of Jews and Muslims.

In fact, the alleged killer praised Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik and聽聽in a manifesto posted to social media before the attack. And in an earlier post to the same far-right website where the video of the mosque shooting was posted, he uploaded a meme with a quote said to have been uttered by Robert Bowers, the man accused of聽聽at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October.

The Christchurch massacre is part of a horrifying pattern of white supremacist attacks on houses of worship. Before Charleston and Pittsburgh, there was the聽聽in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. They were targeted, most聽likely,聽because the neo-Nazi shooter confused them with Muslims.

But the terrorism in Christchurch is also part of a pattern of聽.

The alleged killer鈥檚 manifesto refers to nonwhites as 鈥渋nvaders鈥 who threaten to 鈥渞eplace鈥 white people 鈥斅爐he same kind of language we heard from three militia members who聽聽and apartment complex housing Somali immigrants the day after the 2016 election.

Those would-be attackers were stopped, but the Muslim community in Christchurch wasn鈥檛 so lucky.

The atrocity in New Zealand shows, once again, that we鈥檙e dealing with a global terrorist movement linked by the same virulent form of white supremacist ideology shared by the likes of Breivik, Roof and the so-called alt-right in America.聽

Our government 鈥 particularly policymakers and law enforcement 鈥 must begin to view what we call 鈥渄omestic terrorism鈥 through a global lens and recognize the growing white supremacist movement for what it is: a clear and present danger around the entire world.

The Editors

P.S. Here are some other pieces we think are valuable this week:聽

  • 聽by Kate Linthicum for聽The New Yorker
  • 聽by Elizabeth Lopatto for聽The Verge
  • 聽by Karen Grigsby Bates for聽NPR
  • 聽by Adam Serwer for聽The Atlantic

人兽性交's Weekend Reads are a weekly summary of the most important reporting and commentary from around the country on civil rights, economic and racial inequity, and hate and extremism.聽Sign up to receive Weekend Reads every Saturday morning.