[ . . . ] "
Middle-aged, middle-class Christian Australians, two of them teachers, ambushed and killed two police officers and a neighbour. This should and must and trigger debate about new directions in extremism in Australia and equally, should stimulate a wider introspection about the increase in polarisation and extremism in Australia.
Christian extremist ideology
It is important to try to unpack, even with the still limited information available, what we do know about “Christian extremist ideology”. The deputy commissioner of Queensland police, Tracey Linford, indicated that evidence pointed towards the attackers subscribing “to what we would call a broad Christian fundamentalist belief system, known as premillennialism”, which drove a direct attack upon police.
Premillennialism may be understood as a form of evangelical Christian belief centred on the second coming of Christ. It has a number of offshoots grounded in different interpretations of text, primarily, but not limited to the Book of Revelation."
[ . . . ]
