Before he livestreamed the massacre of 50 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the suspect, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, was unknown to the world.
Growing up in Grafton, on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, Tarrant was described as an awkward and shy young man who was uncomfortable around girls.
“He spent most of his time on computers, learning the ins-and-outs of computers, and playing games on computers,” his 81-year-old grandmother, Marie Fitzgerald, told Australian TV news. “I don’t think girlfriends were on the agenda — he said getting married was too hard.”
Tarrant worked as a gym trainer at the Big River Squash and Fitness Center in Grafton. According to CNN, he was described as “normal as one person is to the next” by his former employer, who said Tarrant “never showed any extremist views or crazy behavior.”
Before the Christchurch shootings earned Tarrant instant notoriety, with his 87-page “manifesto” being circulated on white supremacist sites around the world, there were no signs pointing to his links to the movement.
However, from the manifesto’s title, “The Great Replacement,” it is clear that Tarrant drew inspiration from the controversial far-right French thinker Renaud Camus, author of the 2012 book “Le Grand Remplacement.” (Camus has condemned the New Zealand attacks and tried to distance himself from Tarrant’s rhetoric, but his nationalistic, anti-immigrant ideas have earned him a following.)
Camus argues that the white Catholic French population, and the white Christian European population at large, is being systematically replaced by non-European people, mainly Arabs and Berbers from the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
Controversial, anti-immigration French writer Jean Raspail and nationalistic British politician Enoch Powell are hailed by Camus as modern-day “prophets.”
Raspail’s novel “The Camp of the Saints,” which depicts the destruction of Western white civilization through mass Third World immigration, was denounced as racist and xenophobic.
Powell’s rhetoric also demonized immigrants. In his infamous 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech in Birmingham, which led to his sacking from the Conservative Party, the MP said: “In this country in 15 or 20 years’ time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.”
While Powell and Raspail are not directly referenced in Tarrant’s manifesto, his anti-immigrant ideology is said to have been heavily influenced by their rhetoric.
Tarrant describes his own views as “dramatically” changing between the beginning of April and end of May 2017.
“In this time period a series of events broke down my own reserves, my reservations, my cynicism and revealed the truth of the West’s current situation,” he wrote, adding that “these events turned my thoughts from pursuing a democratic, political solution and finally caused the revelation of the truth, that a violent, revolutionary solution is the only possible solution to our current crisis.”
During this time, Tarrant was traveling through France, Spain and Portugal when an Uzbek man hijacked a lorry in Stockholm and drove into a crowd, killing five people. Tarrant described the incident as his turning point. “It was another terror attack in the seemingly never-ending attacks that had been occurring on a regular basis throughout my adult life.”
He then began to plot his attacks, the inspiration for which he explained in his manifesto. While much of it reads as a rambling Q&A with himself, it offers an insight into the hateful ideology that gripped Tarrant’s mind.
Ideas
On immigration
“We are experiencing an invasion on a level never seen before in history. Millions of people pouring across our borders, legally. Invited by the state and corporate entities to replace the white people who have failed to reproduce, failed to create the cheap labor, new consumers and tax base that the corporations and states need to thrive.”
“Mass immigration will disenfranchise us, subvert our nations, destroy our communities, destroy our ethnic binds, destroy our cultures, destroy our peoples.”
“The invaders must be removed from European soil, regardless from where they came or when they came. Roma, African, Indian, Turkish, Semitic or other. If they are not of our people, but live in our lands, they must be removed.”
“The enemies of our children are being born in our lands right now, even as you read this. These same children will one day become teens, then adults, voting against the wishes of our people, practicing the cultural and religious practices of the invaders, taking our people’s lands, work, houses and even attacking and killing our children.”
On diversity
“Diversity is not a strength. Unity, purpose, trust, traditions, nationalism and racial nationalism is what provides strength. Everything else is just a catchphrase.”
On democracy
“Democracy is mob rule, and the mob itself is ruled by our own enemies. The global and corporate ran press controls them, the education system (long since fallen to the long march through the institutions committed by the Marxists) controls them, the state (long since heavily lost to its corporate backers) controls them and the anti-white media machine controls them.”
On Muslims
“A Muslim man or woman living in their homelands? No. A Muslim man or woman choosing to invade our lands, live on our soil and replace our people? (sic) Yes, I dislike them. The only Muslim I truly hate is the convert, those from our own people that turn their backs on their heritage, turn their backs on their cultures, turn their back on their traditions and became blood traitors to their own race. These I hate.”
On Turks
“If you attempt to live in European lands, anywhere west of the Bosphorus. We will kill you and drive you roaches from our lands. We are coming for Constantinople and we will destroy every mosque and minaret in the city. The Hagia Sophia will be free of minarets, and Constantinople will be rightfully Christian-owned once more.”
On US President Donald Trump
“As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policymaker and leader? Dear God, no.”
On German Chancellor Angela Merkel
“Merkel, the mother of all things anti-white and anti-Germanic, is top of the list. Few have done more to damage and racially cleanse Europe of its people.”
On Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
“Erdogan, the leader of one of the oldest enemies of our people, and the leader of the largest Islamic group within Europe. This warlord must bleed his last, whilst he visits his ethnic soldiers currently occupying Europe.”
On London Mayor Sadiq Khan
“Sadiq Khan, the current mayor of London at the time of writing, an open sign of the disenfranchisement and ethnic replacement of the British people in the British Isles. This Pakistani Muslim invader now sits as representative for the people of London. Londinium, the very heart of the British Isles. What better sign of the white rebirth than the removal of this invader?”
Conclusion
What turned Tarrant from a shy, awkward teenager into a hateful, armed white supremacist now standing trial for the massacre of 50 people as they prayed in two mosques in Christchurch? His own manifesto suggests he was influenced by the European far right and the anti-immigrant ideas of Renaud Camus, Jean Raspail and Enoch Powell.
