David Penberthy: We have to stop keeping score on terror

Comparing responses to acts of terror sets us on a path for continuing violence because it treats the battle between radical Islamists and unhinged white terrorists as a sporting contest, writes David Penberthy.

Incendiary comments by Turkish President Recep Erdogan in light of the Christchurch terror attack were unsurprisingly regarded here as a disgraceful insult to the memory of those Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in World War One.

They were in truth an equally grave insult to the memory of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, who in the 1920s turned his nation from an Islamic state into an enlightened, secular society.

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They offended the command from Ataturk for his own nation and the nations of the British Empire to move beyond the horror of the Gallipoli campaign, which resulted in the death of 8141 Anzacs and at least 85,000 Turks in 1915.

Ataturk’s words, etched on the memorial at Anzac Cove, point optimistically to a future defined by peace.

“There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side-by-side here in this country of ours... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”

Set against this noble promise, you could argue that President Erdogan is quite genuinely more guilty of insulting the father of his own nation than those of us in Australia and NZ, several generations on from the Great War.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sparked controversy by screening video clips of the New Zealand mosque attack. Picture: Presidential Press Service via AP

While noting the President’s attempted climb down from his remarks, it remains galling that in his initial sabre-rattling statement, Erdogan stated explicitly that Australians and New Zealanders would pay for Christchurch and “return in coffins like your grandfathers” in retaliation for the mosque attack.

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He even managed to compound the grief for the Muslim victims of that act of terror by replaying the gut-wrenching footage of the gunman on his murderous spree.

Given the amount of theatrical effort he applied to the task, it is hard to buy the belated insistence from the President’s press office that the remarks were somehow taken out of context, the time-honoured get out of jail card of anyone who has said a completely appalling thing.

But buy it we should, as in the current horrible climate, letting bygones be bygones is preferable to the alternative.

Erdogan’s comments were made in the heat of a looming Turkish election campaign, and bolster the thesis that he is an Islamist in secular clothing, cynically appealing to a hard line base.

The truth is, with remarks such as the ones he made, he is actually making life less secure for people of the Islamic faith, and for people in the West, as he epitomises the very problem that is at the core of the cycle of terrorist violence across our planet.

Christchurch was a reminder that we have a choice. We can either escalate things or de-escalate things. We can fire up or we can calm down.

Muslims returned on March 23 to Christchurch's main mosque for the first time since a white supremacist launched a massacre of 50 worshippers there. Picture: William West/AFP

By “we”, I don’t mean us white people, I mean everyone, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, atheists, the lot of us.

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It has been said since last Friday that the greatest failure of the gunman is that he has inadvertently brought many people together, Ataturk style, under the common banner of peace.

This is overwhelmingly true and it is also reassuring. But there remain many people who treat last Friday’s atrocity as merely the latest numerical addition to some warped tally of outrage, with numbers drawn on either side of a column.

This mindset was illustrated by a text we received from a listener of our radio show this Wednesday, the day after a suspected Islamic terrorist murdered three people and injured seven on a tram in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands.

The listener wanted to know why our show was not being co-hosted that day by three Dutch people, in the same way it was co-hosted on Monday by three local Muslim people to ensure their voices were heard as our program was devoted largely to discussion of Christchurch.

I am not knocking the listener for asking the question. It was a question he put civilly, and put openly.

But setting aside the enormous difference in the scale and nature of these two terrorist acts, the problem with the question is this. It sets us on a path for continuing violence because it treats the battle between radical Islamists and unhinged white terrorists as a sporting contest.

I heard many people saying “how sad Christchurch was but, you know, what about all the stuff the Muslims have done to us?”

The most putrid example of that mindset was delivered of course by Fraser Anning, in the midst of the bloodshed.

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This approach is of course exactly what terrorists of any hue desire. The thing they oppose most is functionality. They oppose the model of peace and inclusion envisaged by a statesman such as Ataturk.

Radical Islamists don’t want to see countries like Turkey or Indonesia operating successfully as secular democracies.

Australian fascists such as Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson and their parliamentary backer in Fraser Anning don’t want to see Australian Muslims being accepted for what they overwhelmingly are — peace-loving people who have usually come here from war-torn or dysfunctional countries to make the most of a second chance at life.

Ultimately, in trying to strike some kind of twisted blow for white people, the NZ gunman made life less safe for white people the world over.

The comments from President Erdogan were confirmation of that. And on it goes, with the comments from Erdogan appealing to the Islamic radicals who are set on vengeance for Christchurch, who in turn will embolden those would-be white terrorists trawling through hate sites at night in their parents’ attic. This is a self-sustaining, toxic environment, the Helter Skelter imagined by Charles Manson.

We have to stop keeping score. After Christchurch, the score is nil-all.

@Penbo