“Praise the saints”

Abstract

This chapter traces the transnational wave of extreme right-wing terrorism which began in March 2019 when the Australian extremist Brenton Tarrant murdered 51 people in two consecutive terrorist attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, an atrocity which he livestreamed on Facebook. It explores both the unique features of this attack as well as the other successful and attempted mass casualty attacks that followed in its wake: Poway, California; El Paso, Texas; Bæarum, Norway; and Halle, Germany. This is followed by an examination of the cumulative momentum that the Christchurch terrorist attack generated and the violent, subcultural milieu online that nurtured this “wave” of violence. It explores the “dark fandom” of this online environment and its construction of a set of secular “saints” and “martyrs” whose acts of racist terrorism are applauded and glorified as a means of inspiring and inciting others to commit further atrocities of their own.