Australia provided fertile ground for Islamophobic culture, experts say

(emphasis added)

By Adam Taylor and
Rick Noack March 15 at 6:41 PM

-snip-

Australian media reports have suggested that the man worked as a personal trainer in Grafton, a city in the state of New South Wales, after graduating from school in 2009 and before leaving to travel in Europe and Asia two years later.

It remains unclear whether he had established links to far-right groups, but such groups have been active in Australia for decades. Some experts say that anti-Muslim rhetoric has been normalized by mainstream right-wing news outlets, many of which are owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch.

These publications have fomented “the kind of Islamophobic culture which makes it easier for extremists to think that they are legitimized to enact their deadly fantasies,” said Ghassan Hage, a Lebanese Australian academic at the University of Melbourne.

But although Australia may be fertile ground for far-right radicalization, the suspect’s rhetoric — and, notably, the target — also suggests that the motivation for the attack was not traditional far-right nationalism, but a newer kind of international, Internet-
inspired extremism.

“The fact is that he chose New Zealand quite carefully,” said Aurelien Mondon, an expert on the far right at the University of Bath in Britain. “He wanted to make clear that Muslims weren’t safe anywhere.”

-snip-

full article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/australia-provided-fertile-ground-for-suspect-in-christchurch-massacre/2019/03/15/81ac9c9c-4734-11e9-94ab-d2dda3c0df52_story.html