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Christchurch Mosque gunman spent years preparing for attacks

SHAFAQNA- The Christchurch Mosque shooter meticulously planned his shooting rampage to maximise casualties, a prosecutor said at the start of sentencing hearings on Monday.

Crown prosecutor Barnaby Hawes said Tarrant told police that he wanted to create fear among the small Muslim minority in New Zealand. Tarrant had also expressed regret for not taking more lives and revealed that he had intended to burn down the mosques after the shootings, Hawes said. The shooter spent years purchasing high-powered firearms, researched mosque layouts by flying a drone over his primary target, and timed his attacks to maximise casualties, the prosecutor said.

According to AlJazeera, Brenton Tarrant, a self-confessed white supremacist, sat impassive as he looked directly at survivors and family members of those who died speaking about how their lives had been affected by the killings.

Maysoon Salama said she constantly wondered what her son was thinking in his last moments “armed only with his courage”.“You gave yourself the authority to take the souls of 51 people. Our only crime in your eyes is that we are Muslims,” she said. “You killed your own humanity and I don’t think the world will forgive you for your horrible crime. May you get the severest punishment for your evil act in this life, and hereafter.”

Brenton has pleaded guilty to 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and one charge of committing a terrorist act during the shooting rampage in the city of Christchurch which he livestreamed on Facebook.

A murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The judge can impose a life term without parole, a sentence that has never been used in New Zealand.The hearings were adjourned until Tuesday morning, Reuters reported.

Although Muslims have been in New Zealand for more than 150 years, the community of mostly migrants only numbers about 60,000 people — or about 1.3% of the country’s population.According to Muslims in New Zealand, racism has long been a reality for them — even if the country’s majority White population wasn’t aware of it.

The non-governmental body Islamic Women’s Council New Zealand (IWCNZ) became “gravely concerned” with the level of Islamaphobia and alt-right activity in New Zealand, according to its submission to an ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry into what the government knew about Islamophobia before March last year, and what it could have done to prevent the attacks, CNN told.”IWCNZ estimates there would not be a Muslim woman in New Zealand who wears the head scarf who has not been abused in public at some time,” the submission stated.

 

 

 

 

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