Far-right terrorism a problem in Global North
IN an attempt to broaden the understanding of terrorism, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently presented a report on terrorist attacks based on xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, or in the name of religion and belief (XRIRB), also referred to as “far-right” terrorism, in a high-level meeting at the UN. The report was prepared on the request of member states as mentioned in the seventh review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (General Assembly resolution 75/291).
Acknowledging the continued threat posed by Al-Qaida and Da’esh, the 12-page report primarily focuses on terrorist attacks predominantly described as motivated by “far-right” or “extreme right-wing” ideology in Global North. By bringing the focus on right-wing violent extremism in Global North, the report makes it coterminous with terrorism.
A UN report is drafted by factoring in member states’ perceived or real sensitivities and that is why it may appear to be general. But that doesn’t discount the fact that the issue requires to be discussed as it may have several nodes of intersections between Global North and Global South.
The report cites the mass killings at Utøya, Norway, in July 2011 and the attacks against two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019. In the US context, which holds a disproportionate position in Global North and globally because of its size and economy, there had been several attacks, not mentioned in the report, rooted in right-wing extremism such as the attacks on the Jewish community across the US.
For instance, in October 2018, a shooter killed 11 persons at a Pittsburgh synagogue. In August 2019, a gunman killed 23 persons, mostly persons of Hispanic origin, in the El Paso area of Texas. In the relatively economically prosperous, Germany —Europe’s economic engine — there had been concerted reports of mass-scale infiltration of right-wing extremists across the polity. They include a judge who was among the 25 suspects arrested recently for planning to overthrow the democratic government and re-establish monarchy.
To be fair, the establishment in Global North is sensitive to the lurking dangers of right-wing extremism. In July 2019, FBI Director Christopher Asher Wray had informed that the FBI had recorded 100 arrests of domestic-terrorism suspects in the past nine months and that most investigations of that kind involve some form of white supremacy. This admission also, in a way, contributes to the course correction to the much-loaded discussion and action plans devised after 9/11.
A report by the Stimson Center indicates that during the 15-year period between 2002 and 2017, the US Homeland security spending totalled $979 billion (35 per cent of the overall CT figure). The unidimensional narrative directly impacted the lives of innocent Muslims in Global North. Many local civil liberty groups and individuals told the author in 2009 on a research project in Brooklyn’s Midwood area of New York City that they were victims of alleged surveillance by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) on Muslim public places, such as mosques. Later, the NYPD was made to pay the damages to Muslim men who had been stigmatised.
At the same time, generalising the landscape of right-wing violent extremism in Global North poses the same risk as what was done in the aftermath of 9/11 across the world and internally. First, even within Global North, each country has its own context of right-wing extremism and, therefore, the frame and its substance in each case requires more rigour. For instance, the US right-wing extremism was turbocharged under the Donald Trump presidency. A more sober approach by the Joe Biden administration aimed at social cohesion by the current political elite lowered the incidents of violent extremism, though the right-wing extremism continues to sway large swathes of population. It is a combination of factors rooted in the decline of blue-collar jobs on account of the export of manufacturing jobs.
Poor social capital — a concept popularised by political scientist Robert David Putnam through his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community — of some in a rapidly changing socio-economic structure may be an added catalyst of internalising hatred against others, particularly immigrants and minorities. Social media has come in handy, with online echo chambers reinforcing the prejudices about the minority groups in igniting the feelings of perceived victimhood. At the same time, America’s original sin of racism is another catalyst as prejudices and stereotypes can travel through generations unchecked.
Germany has its own context. In the midst of fresh immigrant inflow, which is also being promoted on account of the greying native population, racial anxieties have exacerbated with the invocation of imagined past glory.
The emotional triggers of the right-wing extremism in Global North may have their own context, different from that of Global South. As compared to Global South, there are inherent differences in state capacity and response to the challenge, and in the independence and ability of various institutions, including the media, to expose state complicity, if it exists.
At the same time, the tools and patterns for radicalisation and mobilisation are similar to those of outfits active in Global South. The role of online radicalisation, interpretive rigidity of religious texts, toxic masculinity, video games and dehumanisation of marginalised sections and minorities threads the global counter-terrorism landscape. For instance, terrorist outfits in Global South like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed or ISIS invoke the same techniques of hate speech and are against the diversity of human experience even within the Islamic world.
A cursory review of the literature of these organisations and their acts will attest to this fact. To give a specific example, in the late 1990s, militants active in J&K’s Poonch district routinely interfered with local traditions, according to the interviews of local Muslims by this author. For instance, the serving of food at an Urs ceremony, the death anniversary of a Sufi saint, was termed anti-Islam.
No doubt, there is a need for global acceptance of the right-wing extremism to make the discussions around counter-terrorism more nuanced, expansive and grounded. However, this shouldn’t create a greater distance between a more rooted response in varying contexts and multilateral discussions on counter-terrorism.
