As San Diego Mourns the NZ Mosque Deaths, White Supremacist Enablers Continue Their Lies
At a vigil held near the Bea Evenson Fountain in Balboa Park on Sunday evening, hundreds of San Diegans gathered in remembrance of the 50 lives lost in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The names of the fallen were read and their stories remembered. A well-orchestrated line up of speakers from the Muslim community as well as allies and interfaith leaders spoke,sang and prayed for an end to White supremacy, Islamophobia and racism, gun violence and war in our world.
Called “San Diego Stands with New Zealand,” the vigil was organized by CAIR San Diego, the Muslim Leadership Council of San Diego and the Islamic Center of San Diego
A highly visible and restrained police presence, including San Diego Chief of Police David Nisleit, served to remind attendees of the ongoing threat of violence against Muslims around the world.
Even as speeches denouncing the savagery echoed through the plaza, the ever present danger of yet another assault was never far from my mind as I stood amidst the mourners.
The crowd included many local activists and politicians who’d come to pay their respects and stand in solidarity. This wasn’t a time for socializing or politicking, and, generally speaking, people were good about listening to what was being said.
"It's the worst nightmare of every congregation in these times where we have to worry about who is coming to attack us," said Dustin Craun, the Executive Director of CAIR San Diego.
On Thursday, a 28-year-old white supremacist entered two mosques in New Zealand killing 50 Muslims and injuring more than 40 others.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s response was one of compassion and of action.
“While work is being done as to the chain of events that led to both the holding of this gun license and the possession of these weapons, I can tell you one thing right now: Our gun laws will change,” Ardern said.
The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) New Zealand’s organization covering all of its citizens and visitors under a no-fault scheme if they're injured in an accident, will assist with funeral costs,along with tax-free "survivor grants" available for the partner, children and dependents of the victims.
This is in stark contrast with the Trumpian timeline, via the Washington Post:
The man who allegedly gunned down 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue last October did so after ranting that Jews “bring in invaders” — meaning refugees — who “kill our people.” After that happened, Trump publicly lent support to the conspiracy theory that George Soros was funding the migrant caravans, and he has repeatedly described them as invaders since.
After we learned that the alleged New Zealand shooter used that word — “invaders” — Trump insisted that “illegal aliens” constitute an “invasion.” After this mosque massacre, Trump tweeted support for a Fox News journalist who is under fire for claiming a Muslim congresswoman’s hijab renders her devotion to the Constitution suspect.
Robert McKenzie, a former counterterrorism adviser at the State Department, currently tracks white nationalist and white supremacist group activity online for the New America Foundation. He says he regularly sees clear evidence that Trump’s rhetoric energizes this activity.
Elsewhere in the United States, enablers and apologists for White nationalism and supremacy sought to muddle the waters concerning their culpability for encouraging violence.
The 4D approach to responding to crises, namely Dismissal, Distraction, Distortion, and Dismay was there for all to see.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney went on Fox News to push back against calls for Trump to be more forceful in his denunciation of white supremacy, calling it political rhetoric from people who hate the president.
"I don’t think it is fair to cast this person [the New Zealand terrorist] as a supporter of Donald Trump, any more than it is to look at his ‘eco-terrorist’ passages in that manifesto and align him with Nancy Pelosi or Ms. Ocasio-Cortez,” Mulvaney said, referring to the House speaker and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), both Democrats.
“There are folks who just don’t like the president and everything that goes wrong they’re going to look for a way to tie that to the president.”
President Trump went on a twitter rampage, dispatching 50+ messages promoting conspiracy theorists and theories, threatening a rerun of Saturday Night Live with official investigation, calling out a labor leader, and, of course, statements in support of white supremacy.
From Mark Sumner at Daily Kos:
Trump went on multiple rants about Fox News, specifically defending Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro for their racist, misogynistic, and Islamophobic statements. If that wasn’t clear enough, he retweeted a white supremacist, delivered a whole swatch of tweets about how blocking immigration at the southern border was a national emergency, and tossed on a gory tweet about a girl stabbed “100 times” by a member of MS-13. If none of that was good enough, he retweeted a false story about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar being “removed from Congress.”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1107637405010530305
https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/1107648664200196098
The usual gaggle of right wing nutcases wasted no time spreading false flag conspiracy theories about the mosque shootings. Rush Limbaugh, praised by the President last month, went on the air to blame the left:
"There's an ongoing theory that the shooter himself may in fact be a leftist who writes the manifesto and then goes out and performs the deed purposely to smear his political enemies, knowing he's going to get shot in the process," opined Limbaugh, without providing any evidence for his remarks or even a source for these claims. "You know you just can't — you can't immediately discount this. The left is this insane, they are this crazy. And then if that's exactly what the guy is trying to do then he's hit a home run, because right there on Fox News: 'Shooter is an admitted white nationalist who hates immigrants.'"
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Ann Vandersteel told her audience the shooter’s actions “were that of a white supremacist, and if you consider white supremacy and the KKK have its roots in the Democrat Party, this clearly is a leftist tactic.”
There’s the ol’ gin-up-the-fear approach when confronted with too many of those darn facts. Via Huffpost:
Congressman Steve King (R-White Nationalist) Iowa)...who was unceremoniously stripped of all his House committee assignments this year for previous white nationalist rhetoric ― shared a graphic that imagined “another civil war,” this time between red and blue states.
“One side has about 8 trillion bullets, while the other side doesn’t know which bathroom to use,” states the meme, shared on one of King’s verified Facebook pages.
And then there’s this:
https://twitter.com/deray/status/1107694365764255744
Finally, here’s Brendan O’Connor at the Nation:
The ideas that animated this murderer have not merely bubbled up from the toxic sludge of 4chan and 8chan and YouTube comment sections; rather, centuries of violence have brought us to this point. Worse, they’re getting a hearing in the pages of The Atlantic and The New York Times, when David Frum writes that accelerating immigration has “splintered” the country or Ross Douthat argues that Stephen Miller must have a seat at the table to make a “lasting deal” on immigration reform.
Murderers like the one in New Zealand are not ghosts of some distant past or deviations from a civilized present but enforcers of hierarchies that exist today and harbingers of a revanchist future.
“I am happy that I am alive,” Mohammed, a Fijian Muslim who was in Al Noor mosque, told The Guardian. “I am new to New Zealand and at the mosque you find your friends and family.” He continued: “We are not safe any more. Where are we safe now?”
These are the stakes; this is the struggle: to break the grip of fascism and white supremacy everywhere they have taken hold, both online and off, before they choke out life itself.
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Lead photo by Doug Porter