A report has named Anti-Muslim populist movements as the predominant actor behind radical right wing extremism, and exposes an Australian Government record of letting it flourish that continues to this day.
The Report, prepared jointly by the UK’s Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) and Hedayah, a UAE-based violent extremism research centre, was published on Monday 22 March 2021.
It revealed that the mosque shooter in Perth in 2010 was affiliated with an anti-Muslim and Neo-Nazi violent extremist organisation later banned in Canada and Germany.
At the time, the mosque shooter was charged with non-terrorism offences and fined $9000. Another person who has avoided the terrorist label.
The organisation in question continues to operate freely to raise funds and recruit members. Over a number of years, including just last month, evidence of their recruiting efforts have been forwarded to National Security with no action by the Australian Government.
The Report also revealed that four (4) neo-Nazi groups banned in Europe and North America are operating in Australia.
The report also found anti-Islam protest movements and anti-Muslim narratives to be the predominant actor behind radical right wing extremism in Australia – a fact never once acknowledged by ASIO or Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
The Report defines ‘Anti-Muslim Populism’ as a fusion of anti-Muslim hatred and populist forms of nationalism, including tropes around Islamisation and negative depictions of Islam.
This finding shatters the assumption that this problem festers in the dark corners of the web.
AMAN has been pushing for Facebook and Twitter to reject pages, groups and accounts that create echo chambers for the dehumanisation of Muslims – forums that inspire radical and violent responses.
The first Recommendation of the report is “long-term and sustained work in challenging formulaic or rigid conceptions of Islam, refugees and migrants circulating in radical right extremist milieus (both online and offline).”
“Surely the first step to countering Anti-Muslim populism is to name it. It should have been recognised ten years ago, and it is even more troubling that is not recognised today by ASIO or the Home Affairs Minister,” said Rita Jabri-Markwell, spokesperson for Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (AMAN).
That hatred of Muslims is the motivation behind the neo-nazi upsurge, is as you note “a fact never once acknowledged by ASIO or Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.”
The present government tries to confuse the picture and seems unable to take a firm stand against this threatening rise of white supremacist terrorists. That it has pushed ASIO into obfuscating about right-wing violent extremism because so many Liberal party members feel the term “right-wing” is offensive will be its shame.
Some have even tried to claim that Nazism was left-wing, in an effort to cloud the perspective. Unfortunately for them the level of education in this country is too high to be so easily fooled, unlike the USA.
Terrorism against Islam is a sign of the Last Hour. The Muslims have to bear it up till the Australian Government takes action.
The citizens of Australia have forgotten the history how Australia was created as a state.