Weeklies on the Christchurch and Utrecht massacres
March 25th, 2019Left-wing and liberal weeklies draw a parallel between the Christchurch terrorist outrage and Hungarian government ideology. A pro-government commentator thinks that the Utrecht and Christchurch killing sprees are the result of the clash of Christian and Muslim civilizations.
Magyar Narancs in a front page editorial contends that the Christchurch mass murderer was motivated by anti-Muslim racist ideology. The left-wing liberal weekly notes that the hateful slogans and ideas advocated by the Christchurch terrorist as well as other similar murderers including Anders Breivik no longer belong to marginal and peripheral Nazi and alt-right groups, but are increasingly embraced by mainstream politicians and intellectuals as well. Magyar Narancs claims that the ideological vision of the far-right terrorist mirrors the ideas that are present in the Hungarian government’s anti-immigration campaigns and rhetoric as well.
Élet és Irodalom’s János Széky also draws a parallel between the world view of the Christchurch killer and anti-immigration intellectuals. The liberal commentator claims that the Christchurch murderer and Prime Minister Orbán advocate similar views about the alleged invasion of Europe by Muslim migrants. Széky acknowledges that the New Zealand terrorist was not directly inspired by the Hungarian government, but he sees ‘awkward and disturbing’ ideological parallels between them.
Magyar Demokrata’s editor-in-chief András Bencsik also comments on the Utrecht and Christchurcs acts of terrorism. Their main lesson, he suggests, is that wise people should avoid places where mosques are erected. The passionately anti-liberal pro-government columnist sees the two sprees as proof ‘once again’ that different cultures, particularly Christianity and Islam cannot coexist peacefully. Bencsik blames the ‘imperial ideology’ advocated among others by ‘the anti-Christ, old George Soros’ of trying to dilute European Christian culture by facilitating migration in order to create a neoliberal ‘Fourth Empire’ in Europe.