![]() Kawsar is recipient of a domestic scholarship through the Research Training Program and Macquarie University Research Excellence Scheme. Kawsar Ali is a doctor of philosophy candidate at Macquarie University in the Media, Music and Cultural Studies Department. Though, online, the celebration of Tarrant and his assertion of settler colonial violence and white supremacy intensifies every 15 March.Įvery day is a Christchurch massacre anniversary when you are the embodied threat that Tarrant sought to eliminate. This risk does not only appear every Christchurch massacre anniversary, and is not solely a response to the shooting. In this way, attending a mosque has become a risk Muslims must weigh up, a further politicised act against white supremacy. One internet user writes, “Why do Muslims insist on going to the mosque and praying when they know it angers people like Brenton?” In online white supremacist communities, the mosque is a highly contested space. ![]() The research finds that a series of crimes including arson, physical assault, graffiti and abuse continues to remain widespread. ![]() The Christchurch massacre and those who seek to mimic the white violence it embodies both online and offline, has meant the Muslim community has been forced to make another decision: the peace afforded through religiosity at sites of worship, demonstrating imaan, faith, or peace of mind away from the threat of white violence by not risking entering these sites.Ī group of academics have surveyed mosques in Australia to understand the rise of anti-Muslim attacks after the Christchurch massacre. The police received a tip-off from a member of the public regarding “concerning communications on the 4chan site”. Recently one New Zealand man was charged after allegedly making threats against the same mosques in the lead-up to the anniversary of the massacre. Controlling the mammoth of the internet and its co-option as a settler tool is one challenge, but to what extent can the legacy of the shooter, sometimes referred to as “Saint Tarrant” by his supporters, be practically addressed offline? My hard drive is filled with the heavy weight of these online communities, containing dehumanising memes, e-flyers to celebrate Tarrant offline at the Cronulla beach, remixes of the Christchurch massacre livestream and online calls to action to extend Tarrant’s mission. The Australian government is currently consulting on a draft online safety bill where a government official may give a voluntary blocking request or mandatory blocking notice to an internet service provider to disable access to AVM or material that promotes, incites or instructs in abhorrent violent conduct for up to three months.Īs someone who has archived thousands of pieces of violent digital material, I wonder what this legislation would look like in practice. In one video game, the game character, Brenton Tarrant, walks through Al Noor mosque, with the aim of the game to kill 51 enemies. I’ve witnessed a series of digital photographs, videos and video games created by supporters of the shooter to celebrate the elimination of Muslims in their religious sites. It has become a digitised haunting that took place on stolen land.īeyond its digital broadcast, the Christchurch massacre turned a familiar space macabre – the mosque. ![]() While the Christchurch massacre becomes but a memory for the settler state, as we now pass the two-year anniversary of the event, it still resonates beyond its newsworthiness for Muslim subjects. Steeped in the phrases and conventions of online culture, killing on Indigenous land, Tarrant’s actions were supported by a growing online community that celebrated his crime. I have spent the last two years studying the online reception, celebration and discussion of the Christchurch massacre online, contextualised in the settler histories of Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand. This is a reality that must not be lost when exploring the Christchurch massacre – it is a visceral act of violence that was felt, blood was drawn, lives were mercilessly taken, final moments of life were terrorised. This extended the violence inflicted upon the victims of the Christchurch massacre and the survivors to those who identify with them. Online, the violently executed Muslims became a spectacle for laughter for a celebratory community. Then, when met with armed police, he dropped his weapons and silently surrendered. Tarrant emptied his ammunition into my brothers and sisters’ bodies. Spraying bullets, blood scattering on carpets and prayer mats. In prayer, at their most defencelessness, 51 Muslims were killed, and 49 Muslims were injured. Haji-Daoud, the founder of Al Noor mosque, said “hello brother.” Tarrant was embraced with open arms and his response was to open fire. When Tarrant entered the first mosque, he was met by an older Muslim man named Haji-Daoud Nabi.
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