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Opinion | New Zealand mass shooting: is any country safe from terrorism?
- Has social media, populist politics and xenophobia created a community of extremists like Christchurch massacre gunman? Paul Spoonley believes so
Reading Time:3 minutes
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The events in Christchurch on Friday when a white supremacist shooter killed at least 49 Muslims in two mosques as they gathered to pray has raised fundamental questions about safety and security in liberal democracies.
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New Zealand has a reputation as a tolerant and welcoming country. It has had high levels of immigration in the last decade and is a very diverse society – a quarter of all New Zealanders were born in another country and there is a large Maori population – 15 per cent.
Parliament is a case in point, with white female Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Maori Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and seats reserved for Maori political representation. But that reputation has been called into question with the shootings in Christchurch, even though Ardern made it clear she rejected on behalf of the country the politics involved in the shooting.
The incident gained international media attention, not helped by the gunman’s use of online media to explain what he was doing and even show it, by live-streaming the massacre.
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The incident raised a number of concerns, not only for New Zealand but liberal democracies around the world.
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