White nationalists tipped to reappear
Expect white nationalists to reemerge after a period of silence following the Christchurch mosque shootings, a far-Right expert warns.
The Wellington-based ‘‘Dominion Movement’’, a white nationalist group with views aligned with those of the Christchurch mosque shooter, went underground shortly after the March 15 shooting.
Fifty Muslims gathered for Friday prayers were shot in an attack believed to be motivated by white supremacist beliefs. A 28-year-old Australian man has since been charged with murder.
Massey University professor Dr Paul Spoonley said the Dominion Movement was among other nationalist groups that had fallen silent – but they would not disappear.
‘‘They will reappear, and they might not be called the Dominion Movement. We really do need agencies and the media and researchers like myself to be monitoring these groups.’’
Spoonley said he maintained a map of about 70 far-Right organisations operating in New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s, watching them emerge and disband.
‘‘What’s frustrating is that, even though the organisation might have gone, the people who were members are still around. That’s the difficulty tracking the activists.’’
He said there were usually about 250 far-Right activists in New Zealand, often young, working-class men who felt disengaged and disempowered and longed for a ‘‘racial nirvana’’.
‘‘The numbers are not important – it only takes one. So we should be concerned, no matter how small or large they are.
‘‘We absolutely ought to know about them, because we need to do something about them.’’
It was important for the wider community to denounce such views, and to undermine the reasons those groups appealed to people – such as socio-economic marginalisation.
Professor Greg Barton, chair of global Islamic politics at Deakin University, said where some groups radicalised young people through predatory grooming, white nationalist groups motivated aspirants through feelings of acceptance.
‘‘These are people who s .... post and hang out online and form a sense of identity with a group of people they meet. And, collectively, move in increasingly dark directions.’’