Letters | Call Christchurch mosque gunman what he really is – a terrorist
- Hesitance to call mass shooters ‘terrorists’ is not helping to prevent more of them from arising
Terrorism – we are sadly all too familiar with the term. The most recent tragedy that shook the world was one in New Zealand, where a man called Brenton Harrison Tarrant shot at worshippers in two mosques, leaving 50 dead. He planned it well in advance, mentioned it to like-minded people in online forums and live-streamed the entire operation on social media.
He is now mostly being labelled a “self-described white supremacist”, a “suspect” or a “shooter” by leading media outlets. Why is it so hard to call this man a terrorist? He admitted as much in his manifesto. Quite vocally, and indeed, repeatedly.
Yet sadly, aside from a few news outlets, most do not hold a uniform standard of labelling terrorists. The copy-pasting by news agencies of content as is from Western outlets is helping to reinforce the Islamophobic double standards which led to this attack.
Muhammed Adnan, Sham Shui Po