In early October, the east German city of Halle became the scene of yet another terrorist attack on European soil. Armed with multiple homemade weapons, explosives, and Molotov cocktails, a 27-year-old right-wing extremist aimed to storm the local synagogue to commit a massacre during Yom Kippur. After he failed to enter the premise, he shot… Continue reading “Lessons not learned: From Christchurch to Halle”
Armed robberies were often the first crimes nascent right-wing extremist organizations carried out after deciding to take the terrorist “option.” Little research has been done on the financing of radical-right terrorist groups, especially when it comes to Germany. However, the finding within terrorism research that “money is the lifeblood of any organization, including the ones… Continue reading “How Crime Helps Finance Radical-Right Terrorism”
Prioritising free speech above the harms that extreme speech may cause has dominated the moderation strategies of social media platforms. Note: This piece was originally published at Scroll.in as part of a series on Extreme Speech Online, edited by Sahana Udupa, Elonnai Hickok, and Edward Anderson. The author thanks organisers of a workshop in… Continue reading “Debate over regulating right-wing extreme speech online must shift to harms such speech can cause”
On March 9th, before the German 4th division football match between Chemnitzer FC (CFC) and VSG Altglienicke, supporters of the CFC were holding a moment of silence including a pyrotechnical display for Thomas Haller, the former chief of the notorious hooligan gang “HooNaRa” (Hooligans Nazis Rassisten, or Hooligans, Nazis, Racists), who died the day before.… Continue reading ““HooNaRa”: Football Clubs in (East)Germany and their problems with right-wing extremism”
Without the delivery of integration work at the local level, any effort to counter extremism is effectively built on a shaky foundation with too much sand in the mix. “Communities Defeat Terrorism” was the tagline when I worked as the head of strategy and policy in the office of the UK’s National Coordinator for Prevent… Continue reading “To Defeat Terrorism, We Need to Invest in Communities”
The political goals of the New Right can largely be summarized by two central concepts: the intellectualization of right-wing extremism through the formulation of an intellectual metapolitics, and the pursuit of a (right-wing) cultural hegemony. Here, metapolitics denotes efforts to take intellectual control of public debates, shaping them on a theoretical meta-level by coining particular… Continue reading “On the Ideology and Strategy of the New Right”
In the wake of the right-wing terror attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, countries across the globe are scrambling to improve surveillance and monitoring of right-wing extremists. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced an immediate review of New Zealand’s security agencies, with 250 police officers investigating why the terrorist was not on any security… Continue reading “How to Prevent Hate”
Like in the UK’s “Yellow Vest Movement,” the radical right is very skilled at hijacking movements unrelated to their own. How do we combat this? Prevent – the UK’s counter-radicalisation strategy is currently undergoing an independent review, in part designed to examine accusations that the policy is having potentially negative impacts upon communities. This has… Continue reading “We Need Innovative Methods To Combat Radical Right Extremism”
Decent people everywhere are still reeling from the tragic, senseless violence of Christchurch massacre. It appears that the accused killer was a product of the violent, hateful meme culture of the radical right online. Furthermore, he chose to livestream his rampage on a favorite platform used by anti-Muslim extremists: Facebook. Unfortunately, for many of us… Continue reading “Analysis of Anti-Muslim Images and Text on Facebook”
The political goals of the (German) New Right can largely be summarized by two central concepts: the intellectualization of right-wing extremism through the formulation of an intellectual metapolitics, and the pursuit of a (right-wing) cultural hegemony. Here, metapolitics denotes efforts to take intellectual control of public debates, shaping them on a theoretical meta-level by coining… Continue reading “New Right in Germany: Myth and Reality”