Three things have become clear after NZ terror attack

Naturally, there will be a lot of soul-searching after an anti-Muslim act of terror was carried out in New Zealand. But there are three things that have become quite clear, writes Peta Credlin.

An anti-Muslim act of terror carried out in New Zealand of all places, by an Australian of all people. And we thought we were better and safer than that. Naturally, there will be a lot of soul-searching, as there should be.

Why weren’t NZ security agencies monitoring white supremacists as well as Islamist fanatics? How have societies based on tolerance and decency spawned such hatred? And what more can we do to foster national unity in pluralist countries?

RELATED: Australian gunman opens fire in Christchurch mosque terror attack

Three things are clear, I think.

In the technology-enabled global village, defining people by their differences can have horrific consequences. The Christchurch killer reportedly wanted to rid “white” countries of Muslim “invaders”. A retaliatory act — one crime of terror for another. His targets were different and his method particularly monstrous but his mindset resembles that of all the other “cleansers” who want to rid the world of people who have a different form of worship or a different form of thinking, demanding that it be extinguished by transformation, or death.

A child places flowers at a makeshift memorial for the victims of the mosque mass murders at Botanical Gardens in Christchurch. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

And the internet is a sewer full of the most vile rantings where irrational views can fester into poisonous hatreds and ultimately foster and justify the most horrific deeds. It’s the chat rooms for the warped but like-minded haters that spawn and reinforce the most unimaginable crimes. Crimes against children, and crimes like this against good and decent people. You can’t stand in the street and shout vicious abuse without being restrained. Yet what’s allowed online sadly normalises what’s never normal.

Thanks to leadership, our gun laws make semiautomatic weapons almost impossible to obtain. That, at least, we have got right.

Originally published as Three things have become clear after NZ terror attack