Stopping race hate a global task
Jacinda Ardern has spoken out about the March 15 mosques shootings after reports the El Paso killer supported the man accused of the Christchurch massacre, who preached white nationalism.
“I think New Zealand would have only one memory that they would wish there to be around March 15 and that would be the absolute resolution of the entire country against acts of hatred, against acts of violence and against acts of terrorism,” the Prime Minister told reporters at Parliament.
The shootings at an El Paso Walmart store in the state of Texas killed 20 people. El Paso is on the border with Mexico.
AP reported that El Paso police were investigating an online post shortly before the shooting, possibly by the suspect. It expressed concern about an influx of Hispanic voters replacing ageing white voters in Texas. It also expressed support for the man accused of killing 51 people at two Christchurch mosques in March.
Ardern said stopping white nationalists was a global challenge.
“As an international community
we have to be united against acts of hatred, violence and terrorism.”
She hinted that more countries will be signing up to the “Christchurch Call to Action” — a pledge by countries and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online — when she attends leaders’ week at the United Nations in September.
Seventeen countries, the European Union and eight major tech companies have signed up to the accord launched in Paris in May.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited the Al Noor Mosque yesterday.
He was Prime Minister of Norway in 2011 when 69 mainly young people were shot and killed by Anders Breivik.
Stoltenberg told 1 News last evening that the Christchurch attacks had taught the world there were “many different forms” of terrorism.
“These attacks are committed by lone wolves but they are at the same time connected, because they use each other as inspiration and they refer to each other in the different manifestos and I think we have to fight terrorism in many different ways,” he said. “Partly it’s about police, security, intelligence. Nato has a role to play, but it’s about attitudes, values, what we all stand up for our open and free society for tolerance.”
Nato is a post World War II security alliance including the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and Turkey.