Australian senator blamed victims’ faith for the Christchurch massacres

Evidence

At home in Australia, right-winged conservative senator Fraser Anning placed the blame for the act of terror on Islam, the faith of the victims. “The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place,” Anning said to media only hours after the massacres. Anning then finished his absurd statement by adding untimely insult to unimaginable injury: “The truth is that Islam is not like any other faith. It is the religious equivalent of fascism. And just because the followers of this savage belief were not the killers in this instance, does not make them blameless.” — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 919

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Direct evidence for the global-synthesis view — vertical as well as lateral circulation of scapegoating rhetoric across national elites, complementing the reader’s Iftikhar reading.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 919
• XREF: connects to: The Christchurch killings were rooted in the denial that Muslims can integrate and belong. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 234