Objectives We apply Unnever and Cullen’s (2010) Racial Animus Model to examine support for punitive counter-terrorism policies before and after the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack. Methods We utilize a natural experiment of survey data from Australians before (n = 1191) and after (n = 1344) the attack. Both surveys included a between-groups vignette describing a terrorist as either a right-wing or Islamic extremist. We examined if support for counter-terrorism policies differed between the two conditions and two surveys. We tested whether perceiving Muslims as threatening predicted support for punitive policies, and if the attack mitigated this association. Results Participants were more supportive of punitive policies when a terrorist was motivated by Islamic extremism, but only in the pre-Christchurch sample. Those who perceived Muslims as threatening were more supportive of such policies, but this association was weaker among post-Christchurch participants. Conclusions Results support the Racial Animus Model and suggest that empathy might play a role in weakening anti-Muslim animus.