Researching the Far-Right and the LynnMall Terror Attack

Before the Christchurch shooting in 2019, New Zealand had not experienced a terrorist attack in my lifetime. While the risk of another terror attack was described by the Security Intelligence Service as medium, meaning an attack was feasible and could well occur, the stabbing of seven people by an ISIS inspired terrorist at an Auckland supermarket still came as a shock.

I was asked on Twitter, just hours after the attack, if I would “delve into this guy's faith and ideology like you do with white supremacists”. The question was not asked in good faith- the account it came from has a history of Tweeting out Islamophobia- but stripped of that context it’s not a question entirely without merit. 

Between 2015 and 2020, far-right terror attacks increased by 250%- despite the overall number deaths from terrorism falling during those years. In the US, the Department of Homeland Security now considers white supremacist terrorists the greatest threat and far-right extremism is also considered a growing threat in the UK and Australia.

Jihadi terrorism peaked in 2014 and has been declining since, but this doesn’t mean there is no threat from terrorists motivated by this kind of ideology, as was made abundantly clear to New Zealand last week. Extremism researchers who study both the far-right and Islamic extremism have noted the reciprocal relationship between the two. This is outlined by Institute for Strategic Dialogue researcher Julia Ebner in her book The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism.

Ebner has spoken about the shared narrative between these groups, who both believe that there is a war going on between Islam and the West, but just think they are fighting on different sides of that war. She has compared this to the movie franchise Star Wars- you can be the light side or the dark side of ‘The Force’, but both sides are living in the same fantasy world. 

The shared fantasy world was apparent in the Telegram posts of Action Zealandia, New Zealand’s most extreme white supremacist group, in the days following the LynnMall attack. Action Zealandia claimed the attacker was specifically targeting Europeans and called the event “the natural outcome of multiculturalism. Forcing different cultures with competing beliefs together”. They then quoted the poem Stranger by Rudyard Kipling:

The Stranger within my gates, He may be evil or good, But I cannot tell what powers control-- What reasons sway his mood; Nor when the Gods of his far-off land Shall repossess his blood. 

The men of my own stock, Bitter bad they may be, But, at least, they hear the things I hear, And see the things I see; And whatever I think of them and their likes They think of the likes of me

In a warped way these words, from colonialism's unofficial poet laureate, remind me why I, a Pākehā man in white settler state, have dedicated so much of my time to researching and educating people about the local far-right since the terror attack in my hometown. The study of Islamic extremism is important and necessary, I don’t believe I am the person to do that work. These extremists come from cultures I’m not part of and adhere to a religion I wasn’t raised in, not to mention that they often communicate with each other in languages I don’t speak. Whereas Action Zealandia, bitter bad though they may be, are men of my own stock.

When an Islamic terror attack occurs Muslims are quick to provide condemnation as happened in this case. When a white terrorist carries out an atrocity there is not the same impetus for white people to condemn them, though I would argue it is necessary for us to do so, not just condemning the atrocity itself, but also the power structures that allowed it to happen.

Stark differences are apparent between the two terror attacks that New Zealand has experienced in the past three years. When the LynnMall attacker began to consume ISIS propaganda, and posted what RNZ described as “anti-Western, pro-Isis, extremist content” on Facebook, he quickly came to the attention of authorities and was later found guilty on two charges of possessing propaganda that promoted terrorism. Resulting from this he was under close surveillance from police for years leading up to his attack. 

The propaganda consumed by the Christchurch terrorist was not legally classified as objectionable material. The Royal Commission report into the shooting found his radicalisation came largely from content consumed on YouTube, in particular videos from Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern, who’s channels he had donated money to. Molyneux and Southern had come to New Zealand on a speaking tour the year prior to the Christchurch shooting. While the pair were denied a venue to speak on account of their abhorrent views, a group of prominent New Zealanders, including a former leader of the opposition, formed a new group to raise money for a legal challenge against Auckland City Council for denying them a venue, raising $50,000.

Unlike the LynnMall attacker, the Christchurch shooter did not come to the attention of authorities for his Facebook posts, which included being active in groups run by Australian far-right organisations, and sending a threatening message to a critic of one of those organisations- an incident that was reported to Australian police, who took no action. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation told the royal commission that prior to carrying out the massacre in 2019 the shooter “had not been identified” by it, “nor was he the subject of an … investigation”.

When he moved to New Zealand, the shooter obtained a firearms license, and amassed a cache of weapons and ammunition, avoiding suspicion even when he accidently shot himself, or when concerns were raised with police about the gun club where he practiced shooting. On March 15, 2019 he was able to drive unimpeded from Dunedin to Christchurch with his arsenal. I can’t help but wonder how different that day would have turned out had the shooter been under the same intense police surveillance as the LynnMall terrorist.

There has been increased scrutiny on the far-right from authorities. An NZDF soldier is awaiting court martial on multiple espionage charges. An Action Zealandia member was arrested in the lead up to the first anniversary of the Christchurch shooting in relation to a threat to the same mosque that was targeted, and another man was arrested a year later after a 4chan post detailing a plan to detonate car bombs outside the Linwood and Al Noor mosques on the two year anniversary of the 15 March attack. 

That arrest only occurred after a tip off from Paparoa, a group that tracks white supremacy and extremism online. Paparoa told RNZ this raised serious questions about what involvement the security agencies had in the operation, prompting Andrew Little, the minister responsible for the GCSB and SIS, to state that the country's spy agencies can't constantly monitor the internet to identify terror threats and instead rely on the public. 

Far-right social media has been quick to react to the LynnMall attack. Former New Conservative Party leader Elliot Ikilei, a man who has repeatedly denied the Christchurch shooter was a white supremacist took to Telegram with an image contrasting the response to the 2019 terror attack, (“Christchurch call, media saturation of ‘white supremacy’”) with the 2021 attack, (“...?”). The image also featured, as these right-wing memes often do, a photo of Jacinda Ardern in a hijab. 

Mike Allen, the Christchurch man who in 2019 threatened to “destroy mosque after mosque until they take me out” and raised money for the ACT Party (a donation David Seymour has defended keeping) took to Facebook with similar memes, and blamed the LynnMall attack on Patrick Gower’s On Hate documentary, which he claimed had incited hatred against white people. Allen it should be noted, has retained his firearm license and guns despite the threat he made in 2019, and his ongoing promotion of Islamophobic material. 

Lee Williams, the far-right YouTuber who was fired from his job for his racist videos and has now returned to the UK, posted a video to Telegram claiming the government is “weak in the face of Islamic extremism” and that “These same bastards in govt and media keep pumping out white supremacy is the greatest threat. They know full well there's no such thing.” Williams still retains his YouTube channel, but posts his most incendiary videos to Telegram, linking to them from tamer YouTube videos, a way to promote hate via YouTube while skirting a ban from the platform. 

Damien de Ment, a Qanon conspiracy theorist who was inspired by the January six riots in Washington DC and recently called for an uprising to overthrow Jacinda Ardern used the opportunity to drum up xenophobia, claiming “Jacinda Ardern undoubtedly will let terrorists enter NZ as Refugees.” while linking to an article on a far-right website known for promoting covid-19 conspiracy theories, adding sarcastically “if you question that you are White Supremacist or anti Islam.”

Far from leading me to the view that an attack inspired by ISIS should mean diverting some attention away from New Zealand's far-right, recent events have shown that if anything, they should be subject to more scrutiny. As the right looks to exploit a tragedy in order to promote agendas of hate, I’ll still be watching.

Byron Clark is a video essayist whose work focuses on New Zealand's far-right and conspiracy theory scene