After a radical right-wing terrorist murdered 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, President Trump downplayed the threat of white nationalism – a threat he has helped to fuel.
Updated March 16, 2019: The death toll of the New Zealand terrorist attack has now risen to 50 and President Trump has since defended Fox News host Jeanine Pirro after her Islamophobic comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar.
On Friday, 50 Muslims were murdered in an act of right-wing terrorism. The two shootings took place at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The 28-year-old terrorist, whose name we will not publish, live streamed the shooting in a horrific act of depravity. The terrorist moved with precision as if he had been tactically training for the attack. Before the attack, he published a manifesto that espoused white supremacist views. The terrorist cited President Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity” and other various right-wing influencers as inspiration.
After tweeting condolences for the victims, but not condemning Islamophobia, President Trump then described immigrants at the border using rhetoric that the terrorist himself used.
When asked about the threat of white nationalism, President Trump, who has spent his political career fanning the flames of white nationalism and Islamophobia through xenophobic fear-mongering, claimed that he doesn’t believe it is a rising threat.
Reporter: "Do you see white nationalism as a rising threat around the world?"
Trump: "I don't really."
We saw a nearly 50% increase in white nationalist hate groups between 2017 and 2018. https://t.co/LMTb73Nxzt pic.twitter.com/8rVhQKHRfW
— Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) March 15, 2019
When asked if she agreed with Trump, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said “No.” The Prime Minister also said New Zealand would change its gun laws.
While President Trump refused to name the threat, the Australian Prime Minister called the shooter an “extremist, right-wing, violent terrorist.”
I highlighted the growing threat of American radical right-wing terrorism in an article for The Independent:
Last year, the FBI announced that hate crimes rose 17 percent in 2017 — the third consecutive year hate crimes have risen. Just yesterday, The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published their “Year In Hate” analysis tracking hate groups around the US. They found hate groups surged by 30 percent over the last four years. That makes 2018 the fourth consecutive year of hate group growth.
White supremacists “were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016 … more than any other domestic extremist movement.”
On June 23, 2017, the Trump administration cut funding ($400,000) from the “Countering Violent Extremism” program which backed an anti-white supremacist organization founded by former neo-Nazis.
Today, we published a thread that featured research from scholars that include PHDs and experts on the radical right. We covered the history, scope, and drivers of the global threat of white supremacy, nationalism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism and what we can do to combat it:
After Aristotle's climate theory and the Biblical Curse of Ham were no longer the primary theories of white supremacy, Eugenics took their place.
20th-century eugenicists—in the US and Europe—perpetuated the fake science of white genetic superiority.
— Rantt Media (@RanttMedia) March 15, 2019
As the rise of the radical right unfolded in Europe, Trump reminded us how deep-seated white supremacy is in America.
The US surge in right-wing extremism is merely a resurfacing of pre-existing sentiments hidden in our whitewashed history books.
— Rantt Media (@RanttMedia) March 15, 2019
Why are we discussing the US surge of right-wing extremism in the context of the #NewZealandTerroristAttack?
Because the radical right is now a collaborative international enterprise
The Christchurch terrorist said he was radicalized by the US right
(5)https://t.co/SV4jt8eiDp— Rantt Media (@RanttMedia) March 15, 2019
When they're banned from one platform, they join another.
Britain First (the anti-Muslim hate group that Trump retweeted) joined Gab after they were banned from Twitter and Facebook.
Gab was used by the neo-Nazi Tree of Life Synagogue terrorist.
— Rantt Media (@RanttMedia) March 15, 2019
We could also try a community-based approach similar to what was deployed in Manchester.
A good start would be for @realDonaldTrump to take the threat of radical right-wing terrorism seriously and fund programs to combat it—like the one he defunded.
— Rantt Media (@RanttMedia) March 15, 2019
Mr Ahmed Baba is the founder of Rantt Media, CARR’s media partner. This post was originally hosted by Rantt Media. See the original post here.
© Ahmed Baba. Views expressed on this website are individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect that of the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR). We are pleased to share previously unpublished materials with the community under creative commons license 4.0 (Attribution-NoDerivatives).
