Life And Society / Crime

Understanding how hate speech becomes acts of terror

08:44 am on 31 August 2023

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Emotional language, repetition and a sense of shared values are some of the ways people find common ground in conversation.

They are also methods used by two of the world's most infamous terrorists - Osama bin Laden and the Christchurch mosque gunman - to incite extremist violence.

Charles Darwin University's expert in forensic linguistics, Dr Awni Etaywe says examining their writings can help authorities identify other potential terrorist threats.

Etaywe spoke to Corin Dann.