This individual was not raised in a bubble, and he was exposed throughout his teenage years to a high level of vitriolic political sentiment directed against Australian Muslims. While I believe it is important to understand the individual, these commentators, many of whom come from Muslim communities, have a compelling point.

Indeed, a number of commentators have argued that any attempt to understand Tarrant’s origins and the potential impact of bullying serves only to pathologise him, rendering him psychologically “abnormal” - as not one of “us” - thereby excusing a wider culture of endemic racism, hostility, and hatred directed toward Australian Muslims for two decades. Whether Tarrant first became radicalised in France, after seeing high levels of immigration and living in the same region when jihadist terror attacks occurred, as he claims, or whether it was at home, prior to going overseas, we do not know. We do know that these narratives claim that we are in the midst of a “white genocide” and that white people are simultaneously being bred out of existence and are complicit in their own destruction through the adoption of multiculturalism. We do not yet know at what point this young man started to engage with the dark world of far-right extremist narratives and why these narratives resonated with him so deeply. Tarrant used funds left to him from his father’s estate to invest and to travel - again, common pursuits for many young Australians. Many young Australian men in Tarrant’s position might have chosen to settle into married life locally or maybe move to the city for tertiary education and to pursue a career. He was, by some accounts, an avid consumer of heavy metal music. He became a successful personal trainer, earning respect from his clients.

Some locals and family members recall that Tarrant played violent video games and had trouble with women - though, again, such descriptions could apply a large percentage of Australian men. He played rugby league (albeit, apparently, not successfully), overcame weight issues (over which he was apparently bullied) and the loss of his father by suicide. Brenton Harrison Tarrant was born 29 years ago and raised in Grafton, New South Wales - a regional town that has produced many brilliant scholars, musicians, activists, sports stars, and even a short-lived Prime Minister.

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