Hate still festers as Christchurch prepares to mark anniversary of mosque massacre

It’s a photo designed to chill the hearts of a community still coming to terms with the heartless slaughter of 51 people.

An armed police officer is seen in front of Al Noor Mosque, the site of the Christchurch massacre.

It’s a photo designed to chill the hearts of a community still coming to terms with the heartless slaughter of 51 people.

Shared on the encrypted Telegram chatting app two weeks ­before the anniversary of the Christchurch attacks, the “selfie” shows a man in a skull-print ­balaclava and sunglasses driving past the city’s Al Noor Mosque.

Its caption threatens further violence against worshippers.

New Zealand Police this week arrested a 19-year-old over the photo, but fears remain of further threats against the community as the March 15 anniversary ­approaches. They are fears shared by security and law enforcement agencies around the world, who are haunted by the prospect of ­another Brenton Tarrant festering in the bowels of the internet, undetected.

Even the photo from New Zealand was shared on a Telegram channel dedicated to and named in honour of the Australian right-wing terrorist, who almost a year ago live-streamed his barbaric attacks on worshippers at the mosque and at a second ­Islamic centre.

Dozens of similar channels exist on Telegram, while message boards similar to the now-defunct 8chan continue to promote his horrific actions and those who have been inspired by them, including the man who killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas, last August.

“The capacity of people to be influenced by online activity has elevated the risk, there’s no doubt about that,” Victoria Police’s ­counter-terrorism boss, Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther, told The Weekend Australian.

“We’re not isolated in that. My concern is one individual doing something appalling like New Zealand can actually become an echo chamber for others who are starting to think that way.

“In fact, we’ve seen instances in the US where that’s happened, including El Paso.”

ASIO has also spoken out about the risk posed by right-wing extremism, with its boss Mike Burgess warning this week: “In the last three years, we have seen a rise in activity and a strengthening, and there are a few trends in there.”

In one case, an Australian was stopped from travelling to the Ukraine to train with and fight for an extreme right-wing group earlier this year.

For security agencies and the far right, Christchurch was a game changer. UK anti-racism group Hope Not Hate released its latest annual State of Hate report this week, describing the impact Tarrant’s attack and its live-streaming was intended to have.

“Tarrant’s attack was not just aimed at causing terror,” the report says. “Part of the goal was to cause more death and violence by inspiring others to follow suit.”

What followed was a string of far-right attacks in Europe and North America. In some cases, the attackers themselves referenced Christchurch. In another, a German man live-streamed his killing of two people and his ­attempt to attack a synagogue.

Footage of both the Christchurch and German attacks have been shared by a young Sydney fascist, who had unwittingly been an online friend of Tarrant in the months leading up to the mosque shootings. When The Weekend Australian first revealed the then minor was friends with Tarrant on gaming platform Steam last year, he took to 4chan to describe his interactions with his friend, whose identity was unknown to him until the story was published.

“He told me that he was Australian living in New Zealand,” the teenager wrote on the message board, verifying his story with screenshots from his Steam account. “We started talking about many things ranging from our politics, family life etc. I always asked him why he only had 2 friends on steam. One of those friends including (sic) me. I forget what he responded with however. I think he was lonely.”

The Weekend Australian spoke to the boy’s mother just hours after he wrote the posts. She said she was taking him to meet police in the hope of getting him to give up his far-right ways, but he has since shared Nazi, ­fascist and anti-Semitic videos.

His rhetoric matches that of the forums and Telegram accounts set up by far-right groups, many of which have attracted loyal followers in Australia. ASIO last month warned of one such platform, a group calling itself The Base, which Mr Burgess says promotes extremist ideologies and would “encourage and justify acts of extreme violence”.

One of the group’s Telegram channels posted photos, purportedly taken by one of its members, of The Base’s posters and stickers being plastered around one of Perth’s inner suburbs in November. Just a day earlier, the account shared a poster that says: “We are here. The Base — Australia. Now recruiting.”

So far, no far-right group has been declared a terrorist organisation in Australia, but Australians have been involved with members of groups declared as terrorist organisations overseas.

One is a man who told other users on the notorious neo-Nazi Iron March forum that he is from the West Australian city of Albany and worked at the Boddington Gold Mine. He said his first name was Tom, but The Weekend Australian has been unable to confirm his true identity.

Just more than a year before it became the first far-right organisation be banned since World War II in the UK, National Action’s co-founder Ben Raymond received a message from a “Tom” in 2015. Leaked internal messages showed the two were to meet up while “Tom” was in Britain to ­attend a “white man march”.

Raymond gave Tom his phone number, and planned to meet in Liverpool. Leaked messages suggest at least two other Australians had also contacted Raymond.