Security fail: Threat before mosque carnage ‘dismissed’
Public-sector staff slept on the job or ignored New Zealand Muslims’ warnings about danger they faced, a group claims. Kurt Bayer reports
ANew Zealand Muslim group reported a threat that explicitly mentioned March 15 just weeks before the Christchurch mosque shootings that killed 51 people.
The Islamic Women’s Council (IWCNZ) revealed that it warned police on February 21 last year about the Facebook message sent two days earlier, which threatened to burn the Qur’an outside a Hamilton mosque on March 15, 2019.
Police inquiries found the man who sent the comment had his location identified in Christchurch — but he was not deemed a threat.
The Islamic Women’s Council says if police and government agencies had listened to their warnings and concerns over this and other threats then the Christchurch mosque massacres would never have happened.
The Muslim group yesterday made public its submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque Attacks. .
“There were repeated major public service delivery failures in relation to government dealings with and responsibilities towards the Muslim community in Aotearoa New Zealand,” said Frances Joychild, QC, who represented IWCNZ before the royal commission.
“It is likely that, but for the failures (particularly of the security services and police), the horrific events of March 15, 2019, might not have occurred.
“If effective public service delivery had occurred and the requested structures and support put in place, the country would likely have been in a far better position to prevent or limit the destruction caused by the shooter.”
Aliya Danzeisen, who leads IWCNZ’s Government engagement, says the group’s efforts to get the Government’s attention prior to March 15 were “extensive and crossed several years” covering the past and current governments.
“Evidence indicates that publicsector employees were, at best, asleep on the job and, at worst,
It is likely that, but for the failures (particularly of the security services and police), the horrific events of March 15, 2019, might not have occurred.
Frances Joychild, QC
intentionally ignoring our pleas and actively undermining our work,” Danzeisen said.
“If this can happen in the most open and transparent country in the world, all communities are at risk. People need to know IWCNZ’s story so that those involved in Government work never allow this to occur on their watch.”
The Islamic Women’s Council lodged a 127-page submission that highlights years of rising Islamophobia in New Zealand which increased in the days leading up to the March 15 tragedy.
On February 20, 2019, the Facebook page of the Women’s Organisation of the Waikato Muslim Association (WOWMA) received hostile posts. One said the Qur’an would be burned at the Hamilton mosque on March 15.
The message was blocked and when reported to police, an officer “did not seem to take the matter too seriously”, saying the individual was known to police, had a mental illness and “would likely not harm anyone”.
Police said the man’s location indicated he was in Christchurch.
Before March 15 last year, authorities had enough intelligence to warrant a co-ordinated national strategy, the Islamic Women’s Council says, which would have alerted every mosque in the country to a threat to one mosque on Friday, March 15, 2019, and for all mosques to take extra security measures.
“Whether or not the threat was connected to the Christchurch killer is irrelevant,” its submission says.
If the mosque gunman had been subjected to the same scrutiny as “many Muslim religious groups and individuals who were having trouble getting into the country”, he could have been watched, the group says.
“This is not a situation where SIS members can claim to have been caught by surprise. They were appraised,” the IWCNZ submission states.
“The question is why did they not take the warnings of IWCNZ members seriously. At the same time there were terror attacks, hate crimes and alt-right activity occurring in other . . . countries. The internet was flooded with anti-Muslim rhetoric. Why were IWCNZ warnings not placed alongside world events and action taken accordingly?”
Dr Maysoon Salama, national coordinator of IWCNZ and whose son was killed on March 15, said it was vital that government agencies provided culturally and religiously responsive support: “Yes, there has been short-term assistance, but the impact has been huge and will require long recovery time.
“There is clear need for establishing an independent Muslim Arbitration Tribunal for the impacted families, to deal with issues such as inheritance. Such a legal body or commission should be wellresourced to understand Islamic faith and laws.”.