March 15, 2019, New York – In response to the Mosque shootings in New Zealand, the Center for Constitutional Rights made the following statement:

We are mourning today with Muslim communities in Christchurch, New Zealand, and throughout the world. The Center for Constitutional Rights sends our deepest condolences to the families of those who were murdered, and the communities that have been terrorized. We also support community-led efforts to hold corporations accountable for helping facilitate this violence. And we caution that this tragedy is already being used as an excuse to ramp up policing in Muslim communities. More police are never the answer. 

As we stand with those affected, we reaffirm our commitment to dismantling the global ideology of white supremacy behind this attack. The racist ideology is a strand of global interlocking systems of oppression that entrench mythologies of human hierarchy, and profoundly diminish our shared humanity. In these moments when we are confronted with the deadly implications of institutionalized oppression, we are comforted in the truth that our community, those with whom we are struggling for collective safety and human dignity through justice, cannot be divided or defeated.