Christchurch and Our Edinburgh Vigil

Another week, another massacre. Geography was one of the factors that made the Christchurch murder different. New Zealand a peaceful group of islands with no terrorist history. The terrorist came from the outside: a white supremacist from Australia who seems to have been radicalised overseas, possible in the UK. From the reaction of now-disgraced senator Fraser Anning, who wrote “The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allows Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place.” it seems that Australia have their own share of bigots and supremacists. Fair play though that, since he wrote those words on the day of the attack, Anning is now facing a national petition with over 800,000 signatures, demanding that he be removed from the Australian senate.

Today, along with hundreds of others, I attended a memorial vigil outside the Central Mosque of Edinburgh, organised by the Muslim Woman’s Association of Edinburgh. The many speakers covered a wide range of topics. The shock and sadness on hearing the news. The fear and anger that such attacks generate. The need to avoid hate and to overcome it with love. Others spoke more politically: the need to face down the rise in modern Nazism, the role in the likes of Steve Bannon in organising the Far Right on an international basis, and the enabling and normalisation of Islamophobia by senior politicians. Boris Johnson got special mention for comparing woman wearing the burka to letterboxes. Noted also was the media’s role in normalising the killer. ISIS terrorists do not appear on the front page of British newspapers with pictures of them as a sweet little boy, but this privilege was extended to the Christchurch murderer of (at the time of writing) fifty people. Contrary to what the speaker said though, this time it was the Daily Mirror who was guilty and not, as stated, the Daily Mail. 

 

The microphone was briefly offered to the crowd to share our thoughts and, some who know me, thought I would take advantage of the opportunity. Although I had no prepared words, it is true that I was tempted. Today though was not for me: it was for the people of New Zealand, it was for our Muslim neighbours and it is for us all: to listen, to sympathise and to understand. It is difficult sometimes to make sense of such vicious disregard for life and to comprehend that some who live among us can see others as somehow lesser or even as a threat. Of course people how hold extremist views are a potential threat should they decide to act upon them but they are few. The vast majority of us just want to get on with living our lives free from oppression and in peace. 

It is my view many of the speakers are correct: that there is an active movement to motivate the Far Right across the globe. Most countries in Europe now have their Far Right movements and in places like Poland and Hungary, extreme nationalist governments have taken power. Trump in the USA has more in common with President Putin in Russia than he has with Angela Merkel. In order for our own politicians not to seem extreme, there must be someone further along the political spectrum. With the Conservatives containing the European Research Group of about 80 MPs, a party-within-a-party, along with Theresa May’s own views on immigration and Home Secretary Sajid Javid willing to pay fast and loose with the rule of law, the only people further right is the likes of Britain First and so-called Tommy Robinson. The latter’s views are being normalised in order to make our current politicians seem moderate. 

Mr Jalal Chaudry of the Council of Ethnic Minority in Edinburgh questioned the use of the term of Islamic terrorism. If terrorism is not applied to actions done by white people: if such people are deemed as lone wolves, mad, crazy people, while any act of violence done by a Muslim is Islamic terrorism, the term “terrorist” should not be used. I disagree. In The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper gives an exact definition of terrorism. It is a curious thing though, that when I attempted to look up his exact words, the quotation has not turned up in the searches. So until I get hold of another copy of The Open Society, memory must serve. Terrorism is an act of violence intended to affect the political viewpoint of people beyond its immediate effect. This is a powerful definition because, as Popper goes on to explain, terrorism can be carried out by individuals, groups or by a nation-state. This latter aspect has led to the term terrorist being devalued. All states claim to act for the benefit of their own population and within the law. State actions can, the claim therefore goes, never be acts of terrorism. This is propaganda, as example of states carrying out acts of suppression against their own population are too numerous to note. However, the term terrorism has been solely applied by states against those that they disapprove of. More disturbing perhaps, the term is not applied to acts of violence that a particular state may be sympathetic too. Hence the concern that Islamic terrorism is a real threat while killings performed by white men sympathetic to the Far Right is usual ascribed, at least at first, to mental instability or individual examples of wickedness. There can be no mistake this time however, as the Christchurch killer emailed his political manifesto ahead of carrying out his act of evil against a gathering of defenceless men, women and children.

When it comes to acts of political violence, we must demand that the media cannot be partial to one side or the other. The term “terrorism” must be re-established and, if necessary, an explanation to the general readership must be made. Terrorism in the name of Islam exists, as does terrorism in the name of Irish republicanism (with the recent incendiary bombs being sent from Dublin to four or five targets in the United Kingdom) and as does, in this particular case, terrorism by the Far Right against Muslims. Jo Cox was murdered by a Nazi. At the time I called it straight away (before charges were laid) but was told to be not to be hasty as it could have been a lone nutter. The media does not give Islamic terrorists such benefit of the doubt. As a society, we must be consistent with our treatment of all politically-motivated violence.

As for my own personal reaction to the killings in Christchurch, I was greatly saddened. New Zealand is a peaceful nation that has partially detached itself from the militarism that is dominates the foreign policies of many other liberal-democratic nations – including the United Kingdom. A friend of mine commented that she felt that New Zealand had lost its innocence. I know what she means: I felt exactly the same when I heard the news of the Norwegian terrorist attack of 2011, which resulted in the death of seventy-seven people. 

Britain has a proud tradition of fighting Nazism and what it stands for. It is up to us all today, to continue that tradition because it is clear that the Far Right, or Alt-Right, is nothing more than modern Nazism. It is our responsibility, as Nazism is a combination of nationalism, corporate interest and racism that arose from the pseudo-science of eugenics. Fascism may have arisen in Italy and Nazism in Germany but the ideas that fed both came from across Europe and North America, including Great Britain. 

At today’s vigil, a young man took the microphone and tried to rouse the crowd with cries of “Never again! Never again!”. My response was, to be truthful, half-hearted. There is always going to be another time. As Nome Chomsky notes though, not only must we challenge the ideas that feed terrorism but also the situations that lead people to think they have nothing personally to lose by turning to violence. People who are secure and content do not pick up a gun. 

The problem of terrorism is ours and we must own it, no matter in doing so how uncomfortable the truths that we will face. Only by having the courage to do so can we continue to live in a society that can, on the whole, be called ‘free’.