Within the context of our policies for Integration, Hate Crime and the Prevention of terrorism, do we need a “Hateful” Extremism policy at all? In October the results of the Extremism Commission’s review of the Extremism Strategy were published. The “Challenging Hateful Extremism” report is critical of the Government’s approach to countering extremism thus far… Continue reading “The UK’s “Hateful Extremism” report: more muddled thinking on an already over-crowded pitch”
As contemporary society becomes immersed in visual culture, extremist imagery is becoming progressively organised around a network of symbols, rituals, and collective meanings. Therefore, it is particularly informative to examine the correlation existing between cultural aspects of extremism and criminal transgression. Traditionally, video games, especially violent ones, tend to avoid any recognisable settings or direct… Continue reading “Framing Far Cry 5: The Gamification of White Separatist Propaganda”
The extreme right has posed a consistent threat for years – ADL statistics show that between 2009 and 2018 in the US, the extreme right accounted for 73% of extremism or terrorism related deaths. However, there is also evidence that this threat is escalating. The Global Terrorism Index has recently reported that far-right terrorism has… Continue reading “New ISD Report: Interventions Initiatives & the Radical Right”
The UK education system has, since the statutorisation of Prevent, been legally obliged to both nurture ‘resilient’ students and refer those whose resilience has been or is at risk of being eroded. Resilience being understood as the ability to ‘bounce back from adversity’, or in other words, being able to both reject and remove oneself… Continue reading “A Case for Making Students Resilient to the Far-Right?”
Cartoonists are modern jesters but, unlike those merrymen of yore, they are no longer safe. It has been traditionally accepted in modern societies that the media play a key role in the way they function. Journalists counteract the abuses of power by governments, frame political issues and are implicitly recognized as being part of the… Continue reading “In Sri Lanka, Cartoonists Take on the Alt-Right”
Last month’s massacre of 22 people in a Texas Walmart by a man who wanted to resist “a Hispanic invasion” is only the latest horror story as the radical right continues to murder and terrorize. For the first time in memory, a consensus of U.S. law enforcement officials agree that white supremacist domestic terrorism has… Continue reading “U.S. Domestic Terrorism: What Is To Be Done?”
Since 2017, one-third of terror plots with an aim to kill were linked to far-right ideologies. In September, the highest-ranking counterterrorism officer in Britain, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, declared the far-right to be the fastest growing terrorist threat to Britain. According to the Met, in the last year, a quarter of all terrorism… Continue reading “Far-Right Terrorism Is Now Britain’s Fastest Growing Problem”
Analysis of statistical data shows that, on the whole, the positive trend in the deradicalization of Russian society is likely to continue. Russia has published the full results of opinion polls regarding xenophobia, including attitudes toward LGBTQ people in 2018 and the first half of 2019. If we supplement it with data on hate crimes,… Continue reading “How Tolerant Is Russian Society?”
Even after hosting companies refuse to keep extremist sites like 8chan online, they find other ways to communicate on the dark web. How do we combat this? In the wake of the El Paso shooting, attention turned once again towards imageboards such as 8chan, and their role in radicalization and the spread of terrorist propaganda.… Continue reading “The Radical Right Is Finding New Ways To Communicate Online”
8chan’s ability to bring the worst of the human mind out into the open drives its traffic. 8chan is one of the most notorious message boards on the internet. Its contents include subjects ranging from extremist political ideas to extreme pornography. Unsurprisingly, it stands by the slogan “Embrace Infamy.” Visitors receive an equally intriguing salutation:… Continue reading “8chan: Where the Appalling Becomes Appealing”