ABSTRACT
This chapter critically analyses the relationship between religion and domestic terrorism from the New Zealand crime and justice context. It focuses upon the state’s response to the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings where 51 people were killed by a lone white supremacist gunman. After the attack, earlier surveillance of the Muslim community was formally critiqued in a Royal Commission of Inquiry, and this has impacted domestic counterterrorism and policing efforts to credibly engage with religious communities whilst remaining attentive to the threat of faith-based extremism. This chapter outlines three goals: 1) Explain the tensions inherent in policy engagements around religious communities and counterterrorism; 2) Explore how in the New Zealand context, government engagement with religious communities might best occur after the Christchurch Mosque shootings, particularly when it comes to concerns around terrorism; and 3) Theorise how this relationship between religion and terrorism may be pertinent for international audiences.
