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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Norway and the Far Right in Europe-- links to the U.S.

Many analysts (myself included) have quickly focused in on the impact of the far right in Europe in the context of the attacks in Norway.  For example, Joerg Forbrig discusses the spread and success of the far right in an article on CNN's Global Public Square.

It must be kept in mind that the far right has not only found success at the regional and national level, but also in the European parliament.  Another important point is that the far right, particularly organizations like Geert Wilder's Freedom Party and the English Defence League (as well as Defence Leagues which have formed in other European countries) have made linkages with anti-Islam and far right organizations in the U.S.  This is not just a European problem it is a Transatlantic problem.  Many far right organizations in Europe get funding and other resources from U.S. sources as well as wealthy supporters in their own countries (as detailed in investigations by the Guardian ).

Mainstream politicians in Europe have fed into the support for the far right by pulling far right discourses into mainstream rhetoric. Since I began studying these issues in the 1990s the rhetoric has clearly shifted towards the far right. Proclamations that "multiculturalism has failed" (particularly ironic in countries like Germany that have not practiced it) have fed into an emphasis on Muslims and their lack of integration.  The securitization rhetoric has fed into the perception of Muslims as threat.  Certainly this has not necessarily led to what happened in Norway, Breivik has been planning for many years and was motivated by his own demons.  However, it is critical that mainstream politicians don't turn a small minority into a scapegoat for larger public ills.

1 comment:

  1. Ma’am.

    My name is Michael. I’m Coptic, and I’ve stumbled across your post by chance.

    I’m actually amazed that you have taken that stance toward the Right in the West (conservatism). Maybe you are not aware of the disaster creeping to your shores.

    You see, my country fell to Islam in 640; and since then, we are second-grade citizens who live continually in fear. We were the rulers of our own country until Islam came. It has destroyed our civilization and has persecuted us to this day.

    Now Islam is invading the West by mass immigration. Islam is not compatible with civilization nor modernity. With every single new Muslim on your lands, you are risking the future of your children—to be Muslim slaves, as was the case with more than 1.5 million Europeans in the past 14 centuries, or second-degree Dhimmis—and the safety of your country and civilization.

    I am also with multiculturism. I believe that Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, atheists, can live together in peace, providing the absence of Islam. It is Islam that the Right is against, not Buddhists or Hindus—haven’t you asked yourself, Why?

    Maybe you’ve come to think like that because the brainwashing led by the Left for the past 60 years. I know that you will probably dismiss the idea laughingly—but this is the problem: you would not think of it altogether; instead, just dismiss it because it is not compatible with the system you and other Westerners have been infused with since an early age: Brainwashing, and no other word for it.

    Ma’am, defending one’s own country against unwelcomed dangerous foreigners is no crime. Imagine being forced to take an ex-con in your apartment and if you refuse you’re called racist and Con-phobic!

    Because of our severe experience in Egypt, I don’t want you in America or Europe to suffer the same thing: to be harassed and persecuted by Islamic majorities in your own lands and being forced to obey your ordained place in an Islamic society (Dhimmis). I don’t hate anybody, I just want you to be safe. And I’m against Islam, not Muslims, for they are my fellow-humans and fellow-citizens here in Egypt. Loving a problematic brother does not delete being aware of the danger that might come of him. Being aware and alert isn’t hostility towards others.

    In sum: prevent islamization of your country at all costs. Or else, …… like us in Egypt. God be with you. 

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