A teenager who egged far-right Australian Senator Fraser Anning after he made offensive comments about the victims of the Christchurch attack has said he will donate most of the money raised to cover his legal fees to the victims of the massacre.
Will Connolly, 17, quickly became an internet sensation and anti-white supremacist hero after cracking a raw egg on Anning's head to protest the senator's victim-blaming statement on last Friday's mass shooting, which left 50 people dead.
Connolly, now known as "Egg Boy," was detained following the protest. After being egged, Anning turned around and struck Connolly in the face twice before his bodyguards tackled the teenager and pinned him to the ground.
A GoFundMe page set up to raise funds for "legal fees" and "more eggs" has thus far raised more than 47,000 Australian dollars ($33,000). The page says the target is AU$50,000 (35,000) in honor of the 50 people killed at two Christchurch mosques by gunman Brenton Tarrant, who is an Australian citizen.
After being released without charge, Connolly posted a video to Twitter explaining, "Don't egg politicians. You get tackled by 30 bogans at the same time," using a derogatory slang term to describe unsophisticated Australians. "I learnt the hard way."
He added, "This was the moment I felt so proud to exists [sic] as a human being. Let me inform all you guys, Muslims are not terrorists and terrorism has no religion. All those who consider Muslims a terrorist community have empty heads like Anning."
The New Zealand Herald reported that Connolly now intends to give most of the money raised to the Christchurch victims. The newspaper spoke with the person who set up Egg Boy's GoFundMe page, who said "he is committed to sending a majority of the money to the victims of the Christchurch terrorist attacks."
Just hours after the shootings and while the death toll was still rising, Anning released a statement saying, "The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place."
The far-right politician—who regularly espouses white supremacist conspiracy theories and has called for a "final solution" to large-scale immigration—was quickly condemned around the world.
On Sunday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern added her voice to the condemnation, the Herald noted. Asked by a journalist what she thought of the comments, Ardern replied, "They're a disgrace."
And Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Anning should feel "the full force of the law" for assaulting Connolly after being egged.
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