The self-proclaimed racist who attacked a New Zealand mosque during Friday prayers in an assault that killed 49 people used rifles covered in white-supremacist markings and listened to a song glorifying a Bosnian Serb war criminal. These details highlight the beliefs behind an unprecedented, live-streamed massacre. Some of the material posted by the killer resembled hate speech prominent in dark corners of the internet. Beneath the online tropes lies a man who matter-of-factly wrote that he was preparing to conduct a horrific attack. The killer’s online postings identified him as “Brenton Tarrant”. Australia’s ABC national broadcaster identified a man by the same name, whose face matched that of the shooter, as a 28-year-old Australian former personal trainer who worked in the rural New South Wales town of Grafton. At least two rifles used in the shooting bore references to Ebba Akerlund, an 11-year-old girl killed in an April 2017 truck-ramming attack in Stockholm by Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek man. Akerlund’s death is memorialised in the gunman’s manifesto, published online, as an event that led to his decision to wage war against what he perceives as the enemies of Western civilisation. The number 14 is also seen on the gunman’s rifles. It may refer to “The 14 Words”, which some claim is a white supremacist slogan linked to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf . New Zealand terrorist attack leaves 49 dead, more than 40 injured He also used the symbol of the Schwarze Sonne, or black sun, another sign said to be linked to far-right groups. In photographs from a now deleted Twitter account associated with the suspect that match the weaponry seen in his live-streamed video, there is a reference to “Vienna 1683”, the year the Ottoman Empire suffered a defeat in its siege of the city at the Battle of Kahlenberg. “Acre 1189”, a reference to the Crusades, is also written on the guns. Four names of legendary Serbs who fought against the 500-year-rule of the Muslim Ottomans in the Balkans, written in the Cyrillic alphabet, are also seen on the gunman’s rifles. The name Charles Martel, who white supremacists are said to credit with saving Europe from invading Muslims in 734, was also on the weapons. They also have the inscription “Malta 1565”, a reference to the Great Siege of Malta, when the Maltese and the Knights of Malta defeated the Turks. New Zealand’s Muslims left shaken and fearful after mosque shootings leave 49 dead The names of two 15th-century Hungarian military leaders known for fighting against the advancing Ottomans are also mentioned. John Hunyadi’s name is written on a rifle, while Mihaly Szilagyi Horogszegi’s name is on an ammunition magazine. The shooter’s soundtrack as he drove to the mosque included an upbeat tune that belies its roots in a destructive European nationalist and religious conflict. The nationalist Serb song from the 1992-95 war that tore apart Yugoslavia glorifies Serbian fighters and Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who is in prison at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague for genocide and other war crimes against Bosnian Muslims. A YouTube video for the song shows emaciated Muslim prisoners in Serb-run camps during the war. “Beware Ustashas and Turks,” says the song, using wartime, derogatory terms for Bosnian Croats and Muslims. Christchurch mosque gunman posted racist manifesto online before rampage When the gunman returned to his car after the shooting, the song Fire by English rock band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown can be heard blasting from the speakers. The singer bellows, “I am the god of hellfire!” as the man drives away.