Karl du Fresne column

Like most New Zealanders, I was shocked and saddened by the murders in Christchurch.

But I was relieved to see that at least one journalist, Karl du Fresne, has retained a sense of balance about New Zealand people and our nonracial attitude. The reason I migrated to New Zealand (as have many others, including Muslims) had much to do with the general friendliness of New Zealanders of all colours and creeds.

That some creature took it into his head to commit mass murder should be no reflection on normal New Zealand where, until now, we have been fortunate to experience little or no hate crime.

I urge New Zealand to refrain from selfflagellation: unfortunately, hate crime is common in the rest of the world. In the same newspaper that published du Fresne’s commentary, there was a short letter mentioning the murder of 300 Christians in Nigeria during February and March.

We here in New Zealand are kept in the dark about these horrific events by media that fails to report them. Let your newspaper assume some blame for our ignorance.

Peter Davies, Porirua [abridged]

Even before the victims of the terrorist attack have been buried, Karl du Fresne demonstrates an appalling lack of compassion that needs to be challenged if we as a country are going to learn and come back a more tolerant and peaceful society after the Christchurch tragedy. His lack of any expression of compassion for the families and communities of those murdered is shameful.

On March 21, du Fresne wrote a slightly selfsatisfied article rightly congratulating the sympathetic responses of many New Zealanders, without even mentioning the 50 victims. Meanwhile, earlier this month, he felt quite comfortable defending Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and George Pell.

We all need to check our values and behaviours, our weaknesses and strengths – including Mr du Fresne. At the moment he is part of the problem.

As-salamu alaykum, kia tau te rangimarie, peace be with you.

Mike Sansom, Island Bay [abridged]

I am an old, white, privileged, male like Karl du Fresne. Our position in society makes us very poor judges of societal bias, and his ad absurdum arguments betray his even slimmer grasp of the issues. I give his column a tenth the weight of that alongside it, by Shabnam Dastgheib, who poignantly articulates the casual racism ‘‘strewn around’’ this wonderful country that could be better than it is.

Boyd Swinburn, Westmere, Auckland