Radicalism and Terrorism - Time to call a spade a spade:Radical right-wing white supremacists who kill people are terrorists just like radical Muslims who kill people - by RM

Populism is dangerous and destructive and the wrong way to go

What a horrible and despicable act of  terrorism it was, committed by this white supremacist on innocent Muslim worshipers in New Zealand

This has to stop.  
 
The fact is that right-wing, white supremacists radicalism, based on Islamophobia, race, culture and adversary-immigration policies, is just as radical as Muslim radicalism, but unfortunately not defined as such, or confronted and fought openly by governments and the press, in the same way as Muslim radical  extremism is. 

Both extremists groups, once they get involved in violent acts, whereby innocent people get killed, are terrorists.  There is no difference between the two.

In Europe and the US, radical right-wing, white supremacists movements are usually still labeled as either nationalist, or populist movements by the media and  politicians, including Donald Trump in the US, Marianne Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders and Thiery Baudet in the Netherlands, Victor Orban in Hungary, Jörg Meuthen and Alexander Gauland, in Germany, Matteo Salvin in Italy, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson in United Kingdom, Michał Marusik in Poland, and Ulrich Schlüer and Pascal Junod in Zwitserland. 

In this context let us also not forget that all of the European politicians mentioned in the paragraph above are being cheered on by their "big brother",  Donald Trump on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, and sad to say, the "love" is mutual.

Unfortunately, this political right-wing alliance has resulted in some extremely negative effects on the well-being of many people around the planet, causing racial and religious tensions, a lack of direction in the area of the environment (the Paris Agreement), nuclear proliferation (the Iran Nuclear Deal framework), a British political debacle (Brexit),  and tariff wars..    

Democracy, as we knew it, is just about non-existent anymore. The Populist radical charade needs to be exposed for what it really is, before many more people lose their lives, as a result of terrorist acts committed by these white supremacists.

It is high time for Governments, politicians, and the press to take their heads out of the sand and call a spade a spade.A terrorist is a terrorist, if he is white, black, brown, or yellow, Christian, or Muslim, or whatever religion he or she professes.

EU-Digest

US Presidential Elections: Trump: "I Am The Law and Order Candidate"

Donald Trump reacted to the police shootings in Dallas in a speech on veterans issues in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

"We must maintain law and order at the highest level, or we will cease to have a country. 100%, we will cease to have a country.

I am the law and order candidate. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is weak, ineffective, pandering, and as proven by her recent e-mail scandal, which was an embarrassment, not only to her, but to the entire nation as a whole, she's either a liar or grossly incompetent. One or the other. Very simple," Trump said.

"Personally, it's probably both," Trump added.

Read more: Trump: "I Am The Law and Order Candidate" | Video | RealClearPoli

The Netherlands: Geert Wilders Was Right - or not ? So far Muslims havn't been very convincing he is not.

Recently in an Australian café, a self-declared jihadi seized at least 17 hostages, two of whom were killed; and in Pakistan, 148 people, including 132 children, were massacred by the same branch of the Taliban that tried to murder Mala Yousafzai to prevent her from being educated.

Whether the terrorist in Australia acted alone or had an organization behind him is irrelevant. It did not stop him from killing two hostages. The manager of the Lindt cafe, 34-year-old Tori Johnson, and a 38-year-old lawyer and mother of three, Katrina Dawson, lost their lives.

What we have in both slaughters are individuals motivated by the same ideology, Islamism, and committing attacks against innocent civilians. More alarming is that many people apparently seem not to want to talk about the motivations, apart from mental illness, behind both attacks: Islamic ideology.

Perhaps they fear being exposed to the same violence one day, or perhaps they fear jeopardizing business deals or votes. There may also be the temptation to run away from reality, in the hope that the more you deny it, the farther you are from it.

The ideology that flew planes into the World Trade Center in the U.S. and that took people hostage in Australia and that murdered over a hundred schoolchildren is one and the same. Without discussing it -- what is there in or about it drives people to violence and hatred? -- violent attacks, threats and intimidation are here to stay.

A wise and courageous man in Europe, Geert Wilders, has been speaking out about these truths for years -- and has been made to pay a huge price for it. When the filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in 2004 over his short film, Fitna [ordeal], the paper on the knife in his back promised that Wilders (and Ayaan Hirsi Ali) would be next. Wilders lives in a state-provided house with high security; for his defense of freedom, he has received countless death threats and has been called "a hate mongering racist," "a bigot," "an extremist" and other names intended not to flatter.

He is the founder and leader of the Netherlands' Party for Freedom (PVV), ranked number one in the polls; the creator of the film Fitna, and also author of the book, Marked for Death: Islam's War Against the West and Me.

Wilders warned Australia. He has devoted his life to warning us all. In a February 2014 television interview, he spoke to Australians about Islamism:

"Look how in societies today where Islam is dominant and prominent, how any non-Islamic person, whether it's a Christian or an apostate or a woman or a critical journalist, how they are treated. This is in a very bad way, often with the death penalty or imprisonment or all those kind of terrible things."

Read more: Geert Wilders Was Right?

Dutch prosecutors summon far-right leader over alleged racist remarks - by Thomas Escritt

Dutch authorities moved closer toward prosecuting far-right politician Geert Wilders on Thursday, naming him as a suspect and summoning him for interrogation over alleged racist remarks he made in March.
Wilders will be questioned on suspicion of insulting a group on the basis of race and inciting discrimination and hatred, prosecutors said in a statement. If convicted, he could face up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 7,400 euros ($9,400).

Wilders, whose controversial brand of anti-immigration, anti-Muslim populism has propelled his Freedom Party to second place in opinion polls, provoked widespread condemnation when he called for "fewer Moroccans" at a campaign rally in March.

Interrogating a suspect is the final step in the process of bringing charges, prosecutors said. A spokeswoman stressed no decision had yet been taken about charging Wilders but said there was a "significant chance" he would end up in court.

"I'm furious ... that I am being investigated by prosecutors and will probably end up in court," Wilders told journalists in parliament after learning of the summons.

Read more: Dutch prosecutors summon far-right leader over alleged racist remarks - Yahoo News UK

Syria conflict: At least 500 Europeans fighting with Syria rebels, study finds, stoking radicalization fears

Hundreds of Europeans have joined rebel forces in Syria to fight against Bashar Assad, according to the most comprehensive study on the issue to date, and while their motivations vary from thrill-seeking to religious conviction, the European Union's counter-terrorism chief warns some of them could return home as dangerous Islamic radicals.

The EU's Gilles de Kerchove told the BBC there were at least 500 Europeans taking part in Syria's civil war, and it was "likely many of them will be radicalized" fighting alongside some of the known Muslim extremist militias in the country, and that the returning EU nationals would pose, "a serious threat" to security in European nations.

Peter Neumann, Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) at London's King's College, says he believes the number of fighters from countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium( and the Netherlands) to be "at least in the mid-hundreds to high-hundreds."

Note EU-Digest: the EU organization Eurojust based in the Hague and the Dutch organization "Muslims and Government" (CMO) are concerned about the fact that in the past few months more young Dutch Muslims have left to join the fight in Syria with radical Muslim fighters, including the Jabath al-Nusra terrorist group, than in the whole past year. The major concern is that when these radicalized fighters return to their home countries in Europe they could become a danger to society.  

Read more: At least 500 Europeans fighting with Syria rebels, study finds, stoking radicalization fears - CBS News

European Political Scene: The ten most radical and dangerous European politicians

Geert Wilders from the Netherlands also on the list

Populist politicians from European Union countries are grossly oversimplifying the complicated European economic situation and, by doing so, intensifying the euro crisis a little bit more each day.   They are playing with fire that could threaten the entire European project, says the German newspaper Der Spiegel.

They are also fueling, both directly and indirectly, stereotypes and resentments about purportedly lazy southern Europeans on the one hand and domineering Germans on the other. Their goal: To attract as many voters as they can for their own gain. All of this, of course, comes at the expense of a united Europe.

From Silvio Berlusconi to Marine Le Pen, some EU politicians “resort to cheap populism in order to rack up domestic political point”.

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Greece’s Syriza party has been highlighted as the ‘most dangerous man in Europe’, for his efforts to pressure governments into abandoning austerity measures.

Also on the list is Markus Soder, the Bavarian finance minister, who said this week that “Athens must become an example demonstrating that this euro zone also has teeth,” and that “Greece should leave the euro zone by the end of the year.” Like Soder, Timo Soini, a Finnish MEP wants aid to Greece to stop.

Both the Italian Silvio Berlusconi, and the French Marine Le Pen,  among others, are listed for campaigning for returning to national currencies. Berlusconi-owned newspaper Il Giornale raised up a storm last week when they captioned a picture of Angel Merkel with “Fourth Reich”.

Le Pen, along with Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the Austrian Freedom Party, make the list partially because of their dangerous hyperbole. Le Pen stated recently that “the European Commission is in the final stages of creating a European Soviet Union,” while Strache noted that the “[ESM] will destroy not only our state, but also our democracy and constitution.”

Another populist to make the cut is Nigel Farage, the prolific leader of the UK’s Independence Party, who famously described Council president Herman Van Rompuy as having “the charisma of a damp rag”.

Calling Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Freedom Party, “the role model for many populists”, the Spiegel suggests that he has been turning to anti-EU sentiment to gain ground in the polls. In a publicity stunt last year, he presented a large drachma note to the Greek embassy. Like Berlusconi and Le Pen, he is calling for a return of the national currency, the Dutch guilder.

Finishing up the hall of infamy is Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He is alleged to have curbed democratic freedoms by imposing a restrictive media law and a new constitution, leading the European Commission to threaten to block subsidies. In response, some laws were modified, but Orbán claimed that “Hungary has prevailed”.

Cinzia Alcidi, a research fellow at the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies, said national politicians had an obligation not to inflame passions.  "I think there is a sort of division emerging between the creditors and the debtors," Alcidi said. "I think that this element should not be underestimated. I perceive this as the biggest threat to the European project, and the EU as a whole."

EU-Digest

US Political Radicalism: "Tea Party Victory, Global Defeat"- by Gareth Evans

You wouldn’t expect much interest beyond the United States, or even beyond his own state, when an 80-year-old conservative legislator, who has already served six terms, loses his party’s endorsement to run yet again. But the crushing defeat of Senator Richard Lugar in the recent Indiana Republican primary, in a Tea Party-supported campaign of shocking mindlessness, has reverberated in capitals around the world, including my own.

With the defeat of Lugar, and the simultaneous exit of the last Republican moderates, like Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who were prepared to put national interests ahead of partisanship, the Senate is unlikely to produce the 60 votes needed to ratify further US-Russia arms-control treaties, should they be negotiated. Moreover, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which would replace a fragile international moratorium, cannot come into force without US Senate ratification.

At a personal level, I am also afraid that Lugar’s defeat may be the end of an era of enormously attractive and distinctive civility in the way that America’s most senior legislators conducted themselves. As Australia’s foreign minister, and a global NGO head, I met Lugar many times, and, whether or not we agreed on issues, he was always a model of gentle courtesy.

In the past, anguish at home and abroad about the quality of US governance – its apparent arrogance, mindless parochialism, and incapacity to deliver coherent, credible, and decent policy outcomes – has for the most part proved short-lived. Maybe that will be the case again. But the passing from the national stage of Richard Lugar has properly rung new alarm bells not only among concerned Americans, but also among policymakers far removed from the US and its partisan battles.

Read more: "Tea Party Victory, Global Defeat" by Gareth Evans | Project Syndicate

Europe: Islamization or Islamophobia? - by RM

Recently a friend of mine forwarded me a copy of the New York 9/11 speech by Dutch anti-Islam right wing politician Geert Wilders. My first reaction was to discard this as spam, but than I realized that if I did not react, others who did not have the background information available on this issue might start to believe his nonsense. So I decided to make use of my democratic right of free speech,  a right which Geert Wilders would like to see removed from Muslims.

Geert Wilders NY 9/11 speech was just another of his many attempts to create fear and diversion in our Western secular societies. As usual the information, as in most of his right-wing, racially and religiously slanted speeches,  is loaded with unsubstantiated statements, fables. and half truths.

Radicalism of any kind is often bred out of fear and ignorance, and usually is a tool used by those who seek political power and control. Hitler effectively used this to go after the Jews and today we have politicians like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Kent Ekeroth, Sweden, Jean-Marie Le Pen from France, Italy's Mario Borghezio, Flip DeWinter in Belgium, Heinz-Christian Strache from Austria and Markus Beisicht in Germany, who have taken up Hitlers banner of "ethnic cleansing".

In America the critique against Muslims might still be mostly underground, but nevertheless is also quite prevalent. Presently, however, unlike Europe, Latinos (not Muslims) dominate the immigration debate there.

The fact remains, unfortunately,  that these days Islamophobia , like anti-Semitism, hostility towards or discrimination against a person because of their faith or racial group, runs deep again in our society. The failure of some people or groups of people to distinguish between the actions of religious extremists and terrorists, and the vast majority of Muslims and their faith, has reinforced a belief in the collective guilt of Muslims.

Believe it or not, Muslims have the same constitutional rights and freedoms as all others citizens in the EU and the USA. No one has the right to make them collectively responsible for 9/11 or whatever crime some crazy politician can come up with.

Hopefully many others will speak out against this poisonous  and dangerous radicalism coming from far right populist politicians.before it totally gets out of hand.

EU-Digest