Australian Senator Fraser Anning draws flak for calling Islam 'fascist' religion, targeting Muslims for New Zealand mosque attack

Queensland Senator Fraser Anning has been slammed for his remarks in the wake of the New Zealand mosque shootings as he blamed the Muslim community for being “perpetrators” of violence all over the world and called Islam the “religious equivalent of fascism”. In a media statement issued on Friday afternoon, Anning said that the attacks highlighted the “growing fear over an increasing Muslim presence” in Australia and New Zealand and pinned the blame for the bloodshed on latter immigration policy.

“I am utterly opposed to any form of violence within our community, and I totally condemn the actions of the gunman. However, while this kind of violent vigilantism can never be justified, what it highlights is the growing fear within our community, both in Australia and New Zealand, of the increasing Muslim presence. As always, left-wing politicians and the media will rush to claim that the causes of today’s shootings lie with gun laws or those who hold nationalist views but this is all clichéd nonsense. The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place," he said. He concluded his statement with a passage from the Bible and said that those who followed a violent religion that called on them to murder “cannot be too surprised when someone takes them at their word and responds in kind”. And while the statement has now been removed from his social media accounts, he later tweeted:

  Responding to criticism on his comments, Anning wrote on Twitter that he wonders if the outrage would be the same outrage “from the left wing” when the next “Muslim terrorist attack” occurs.

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He also shared an image of a protesting Muslim man carrying an inflammatory placard and asked if any left-wing leader would condemn such protests.

Forty-nine people have been killed, and at least 20 are seriously injured, as gunmen targeted two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch. New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as an “unprecedented act of violence.” Follow LIVE updates on the New Zealand mosque shootings here