Magazine peddling mosque attack conspiracy disappears from Whitcoulls shelves

A conspiracy theory magazine suggesting the Christchurch terror attack was a “false flag” operation appears to have been pulled from Whitcoulls shelves.

A special issue of New Dawn – on sale at several branches of the national bookstore chain on Monday – featured a two-page article about the terrorist, suggesting he wasn’t the perpetrator of the attack that claimed the lives of 51 Muslim worshippers.

The man was sentenced in August 2020 to life without the possibility of parole on 51 charges of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder and a charge of committing a terrorist act.

Mehmet Sabeheddin, an editor involved in that special issue, defended it, saying it focused on “conspiracies, metaphysics and high strangeness” and did not claim to be a regular news magazine.

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The issue also included conspiracy theories on the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccine efficacy and world domination by a cabal of billionaires.

Whitcoulls has not responded to requests for comment, but when a Stuff reporter visited Lambton Quay and Cuba St stores in Wellington on Tuesday, there was no sign of the magazine on the shelves.

A Lambton Quay staff member said it was “not available at the moment” and to “contact our head office for more information”.

A Cuba St staff member said copies of the magazine had been removed “a few days ago” and that all other questions should be directed to the company’s head office.

A staff member in Johnsonville said: “That magazine was stocked by us in the past, it is no longer stocked by us and we have no further comment on that.”

A staff member at New Lynn in West Auckland, which also stocked New Dawn, said the magazine was not on shelves on Tuesday, but he did not know why.

When Whitcoulls Queensgate was called, staff said the magazine was still shown as available on their internal system at multiple stores.

New Dawn responds

Sabeheddin said New Dawn had been distributed in Aotearoa for more than two decades and this was the first time it had attracted controversy.

A disclaimer stated articles were published on the basis they were not to be regarded as expressing the opinion of the publisher, he said.

New Dawn was openly promoted as the “world’s most unusual magazine”, Sabeheddin said.

“We specialise in being a forum for alternative, non-mainstream ideas that question consensus reality. We specialise in underground subjects, the weird, in rejected knowledge.”

Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand spokesperson Abdur Razzaq said the slogan provided a clue the magazine peddled narrative that had no meaningful information, except to confuse and raise conspiracies.

“We have sent communications to Whitcoulls on this matter and expect them to play their part in promoting social good as an iconic New Zealand company,” he said.

Sabeheddin, who also contributes his own articles for New Dawn, said the piece on the Christchurch attacks was included as a side filler to his main articles on terrorism.

The author was “longtime academic researcher of conspiracies and propaganda”.

Kate Hannah, director of The Disinformation Project, said readers should not take such magazines too lightly.

“People who see and/or consume such content must understand that there are larger and more dark agendas present.”

She some of the commentary in New Dawn was borderline in legality, because it described the content of livestreamed video of the Christchurch shootings, as well where it had been published, which could encourage people to seek it out.

Watching and distributing the video is illegal in New Zealand, following a ban from the Chief Censor.