Islamic community leaders say a royal commission into the Christchurch terror attack must lead to change after highlighting institutional prejudice and unconscious bias in New Zealand’s government agencies.
The royal commission’s 792-page report was made public on Tuesday, more than 20 months after 51 Muslim worshippers were killed and dozens more injured in the March 2019 attack.
The report found New Zealand intelligence services had not appropriately investigated the threat of right-wing extremism before a lone gunman opened fire on the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch.
It criticised security agencies for instead placing disproportionate scrutiny on Islamic terror threats.
Speaking from Al Noor Mosque on Tuesday with other Islamic leaders, victims and their families, Muslim Association of Canterbury spokesman Abdigani Ali said: “We should have been safe here”.
He said it was “alarming” that the risk posed by right-wing extremism “was so poorly understood and resourced”.
“We’ve known for a long time that the Muslim community has been unfairly targeted with hate speech and hate crimes. This report shows that we were right,” Mr Ali told reporters.
“The report shows that institutional prejudice and unconscious bias exists in the government agencies and that needs to change.”
Mr Ali said the association accepted the report’s 44 recommendations at this stage, but needed to speak with communities across New Zealand to hear their thoughts.
He flagged other important matters that fell outside the report’s scope, and recommendations that either weren’t mentioned or were given too little attention.
For example, he said the report did not go into enough detail on the necessary role of education in increasing understanding of the diversity of cultures and religions.
The Islamic Women’s Council New Zealand, meanwhile, said the inquiry’s terms of reference “severely restricted” the royal commission’s work, and justice had not been served.
The council took issue with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s insistence that there were “no failures within any government agencies that would have allowed the individual’s planning and preparing to have been detected”.
The council said it was “concerning the commissioners found systemic failures and an inappropriate concentration of resources towards Islamic terrorism, and yet state that these would not have made a difference to the terrorist being detected prior to the event”.
“It is difficult to see why they would recommend changes throughout the report, if such changes would have had no impact in this particular case,” a statement from the council said.
For Al Noor Mosque Imam Gamal Fouda, the report highlighted the importance of investing in building and protecting public trust for national security.
“This will take time, and a collaborative approach where we learn from each other and share the strength we all bring,” he told reporters.
He urged New Zealand to respond to the attack not with division, but with unity, compassion, kindness and love.
Mr Ali said the Muslim community didn’t want any community to go through the trauma and pain that they had, and that the report needed to lead to change.
“We have 800 pages of words, and now we need them translated into powerful action,” Mr Ali said.
“This is a matter of national security.”
The report’s recommendations included the need for reforms to hate speech laws, changes to firearms licensing, and the creation of a new national security and intelligence agency.
It also recommended the appointment of a new counter-terrorism minister and additional funding for research into extremism in New Zealand.
Ms Ardern vowed on Tuesday that the government would implement all recommendations by March and issued an apology for the disproportionate scrutiny placed on the Muslim community prior to the attack.
“An apology would be hollow without action, so, in order to ensure New Zealanders are safe, the government has agreed in principle with all 44 recommendations contained in the report,” she said.
With additional reporting by AAP.
