White Nationalism and the ‘Islamophobia Industry’

White Nationalism and the ‘Islamophobia Industry’

Introduction

Islamophobia in Canada is a series of discourse and behaviours associated with having undesirable feelings, anxiety, hate, hostility, anxiety, and rejections towards Islamic culture and practices in Canada. The Islamophobia Industry is a group of likeminded individuals, media outlets, think tanks, political personnel, and institutions that purvey Islamophobia. It observes that people who challenge actions and remarks they perceive to promote hatred against Muslim cultures and practices are always physically assaulted. A recently witnessed senseless violence attack such as the 2017 Quebec mosque attack in Canada where six Muslims die has forced the question of what orchestrates the hate leading to white nationalist group attacks. Information about the above congregation is essential the effect of white nationalism on the spread of Islamophobia in Canada.

According to Bakali, the alt-right, and white nationalist groups, the pioneers of these movements; however, other like-minded groups generally referred to as soft power also exist (2018). The more covert players in this industry usually employ cultural, ideological and political ideologies to impact, direct and inform white nationalist movement views. The soft power group assists in circulating bigotry by labelling it as patriotism and conveying it through popular and respectable channels. According to Perry, and Scrivens, this relate liberal washings of white nationalism movements, where politically concealed xenophobia and Islamophobia are camouflaged under the layer of liberal discourse such fighting for the best interest of the public such as protection, freedom, and the rule of law (2018).

In one of the liberal washed hatred spreading conference held by a registered charity institution in Canada seeking to challenge the political disruptors questioning the disguised rule of law in the country, the prevailing narrative and message were that Muslims were infiltrating and imposing sharia laws in Canada. During the event, the movement reminded the crowd about the pessimistic views of the mass shooting in New Zealand. In their argument, Muslims are invaders who are corrupting western civilization. The act by the movement at the conference to vaguely deploy the term Islamist narrowed a global political spectrum to a very thin epithet for the senseless overthrow of the democratic means of establishing an Islamic State. Conversely, in an attempt to combat such hatred in Canada. Islamist bogeyman has become popular in Canada, which represents Muslims (Weller, 2017).

the call for preserving Canadian values from the corrupt politicians is more sensible than shouting and echoing racist and Islamophobic slogans in exception of the liberal manipulating of hatred. Consequently, protestors use the above technique as a way of conveying and dog-whistling white nationalist movements, ideologies of xenophobic through masquerading the ideas through a move formal and civic discourse.

Furthermore, the most dominant supporting group institution of the conference was Act for Canada, also known as the most prominent anti-Muslim groups globally.  The outlines from the website of ACT is one driving factor for the continued escalation of the Islamophobia in Canada. According to the site, the institution is categorically for citizens concerned with the triumphalist brand of Islam that aims to erase people’s cherished western culture for democracy with the objective of eventual Islamic supremacy in the West. Such post acts as an incitement to the public to develop hatred feelings towards Muslims in Canada (Weller, 2017).

Additionally, groups such as TAG TV, B’nai British, among others also supported the conference. Daniel Pipe’s Middle East Forum think tank purported to financially support the group as a way of protecting western values from the Islamist threats through emphasizing the dangers of lawful Islamism. The organizers of the conference condemned the New Zealand shootings by requesting the attendees to rise for a moment of silence in honour for a free speech rather than commemorating the victims of the New Zealand hate crime (Weller, 2017). The organizers spent a long day spreading non-stop pro-Zionist rhetoric. However, in the speech, the organizers openly denied the fact that Palestinians were being oppressed by Israelites and consuming a constant diet of Islamophobia bigotry. The camouflaging politicians and white nationalist groups in attendance stared calling for protecting Judeo-Christian democracy against oppression from multiculturalism. This was a referral to a speech by United States president George W. Bush referring to countries supporting in an administrative capacity the move by US soldiers to raid Iraq, to counter Islamist and preserving the rule of law in Canada. These acts escalate the hate crime in Canada as Christians see Muslims as evil whose cultures should be eroded. The hatred is evident, for example, one of the panellists Christine Douglass-William’s speeches egregiously referred to the New Zealand shootings as the known site for radicalization. This unfound pollicisation, without referencing any evidence against the Al Noor mosque, created more fear and hatred against Muslims in Canada.

In 2017, Christine Douglass-Williams was blocked from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for her lewd remarks which per the non-profit organizations in Canada were Islamophobia and created a hate crime against Muslims in the country. In her speech, Christine D. Williams warned Icelanders about the threats posed by the Islamic supremacy incursion into Iceland. She argued that the Islamist supremacy would be gracious and inviting and make the Icelanders feel loved and welcomed. Still, all will be to deceive the public and conquer their cultures and practices, properties and freedoms. This speech, in particular, created fear and hatred against Muslims. People started questioning their motives and dissociating themselves from Islamic cultures and practices (Perry, & Scrivens, 2018).

The ideology of severe white nationalist movements is also a threat in the United States, recently classified as a National Security threat which has claimed many lives compared to Islamic terrorism.  However, many American  believe otherwise, a move which has escalated hatred crime in the United States. According to the report by New Times, the mass shootings witnessed in California and El Paso was as a result of camouflaging remarks between the white supremacist, campaigning for anti-Muslim hysteria globally and the Anti-Semitic typically related with far-right. According to Patrick Crusius, a man who orchestrated the El Paso mass shootings, their manifesto not only rallies against the Hispanic invasion of Texas but also supports the killings of people against the western civilizations (Bakali, 2018). Since the election of Donal Trump, who categorized immigration as an invasion, almost over six million Americans have viewed the ad from the official Facebook handle of Trump, creating a suggestion that social media outlets spike hatred crimes in America. A further study has also revealed that Trump’s campaign strategy preceded a shift in Americans’ views on Islamic cultures and practices in the United States. There has been a gradual rise in the rate of hate crimes in the United States. The move by Trump to retweet racist British commentator, Kate Hopkin has amplified far-right anti-Muslims figures in the country. In his tweet, Kate Hopkin attacked London’s mayor Sadiq over the committed knife crime in the capital. Also, her description of Baltimore, a city most occupied by blacks as disgusting, rodent-infested mess where no human would want to live. Trump’s continued relationship and engagement with Hopkin’s racial tweets is a testimony that amplification of anti-Muslim sentiments is a deliberate strategy of the White House to escalate hate crime in the United States (Bakali, 2018).

Politicians in Canada and across Europeans countries have continued to promote xenophobic ideologies and policies. At a press conference, one of the politicians promised to ensure the disappearance of the minorities that fails to bend to the majority by granting the police order of shoot to kill criminal suspects. Bolsonaro, in his speech, described black oppositions and activists as animals belonging to the zoo (Perry, & Scrivens, 2018). Similarly, Salvini ordered the ethnic shops in the country to be forcefully closed at 9 pm since they are operated by foreign people who harbour and sell drugs in the country. He further describes the foreign citizens as drug dealers who shit and mess on the doorsteps. The politician also threatened to bulldoze the house of a dirty gipsy on the eve of the Roman commemoration of the butchering of 3000 majority people in Auschwitz gas chambers (Perry, & Scrivens, 2018). Finally, Terry Tremaine promotes the anti-Semitic theory relating George Soros for planning and executing the mass migration of millions of Muslims to Canada.  In his statement, Tremaine accused Canada of secretly initiating an illegal program of breeding Soros-like human race and declared the Canadians do not want their colour to blend with those of others (Weller, 2017).

Today, it is globally recognized that at the centre of the shared far-right ideas is the excellent replacement theory in Canada. The theory claims that the genocide of white citizens can be achieved through migrants’ replacement, particularly from Muslim countries. These overlapping xenophobic agendas of the politicians in Canada and the United States is a clear indication of how latent anti-Semitism is the driving force globally. In America, white nationalism groups, such as Gate stone Institute, Daniel Pipe’s Middle East Forum and Steve Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism accuse frequently prominent Western Muslim civil society of spreading Muslims extremism. the latter threatens to conquer Western civilization by stealth.  International Institute for Islamic Thought (III), which is the largest American Muslim foundation has in recent days repeatedly been accused and put under fire from the camouflage politicians and far-right propagandists for infiltrating Canadians and imposing Sharia Law (Weller, 2017).

Conclusion

Whatever the political differences and disagreements, groups, communities and politicians need to find a way of shaking hands and forging bonds of solidarity in the fight against Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry. to survive this scare, people and different political groups, media outlets must resist  divisive and xenophobic remarks. additionally, replacement theories and distractions by efforts from camouflaging politician’s attempts to divide people based on religion and colour which is the obvious far-right method to ruin both Jewish and Muslims communities in Canada. Leaders should fight to stop defamation and denigration of organizations such as IIIT, as this disempowers the very forces among Western Muslims that are categorized as the front line runners of the fight against Islamist extremism in Canada (Weller, 2017).

References

Bakali, N. (2018). The redefining far-right extremist activism along Islamophobia lines. Islamic Perspective, 19, 1.

Economou, M. A. (2019). Migration, Alterity, and Discrimination: Media Discourse and its Implications for Health Outcomes in Syrian Newcomers to Canada (Doctoral dissertation, UC San Diego).

Elman, M. F. (2019). Islamophobia. Israel Studies, 24(2), 144-156.

Gottschalk, P., & Greenberg, G. (2018). Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment: picturing the enemy. Rowman & Littlefield.

Perry, B., & Scrivens, R. (2018). A climate for hate? An exploration of the right-wing extremist landscape in Canada. Critical criminology, 26(2), 169-187.

Perry, B., & Scrivens, R. (2019). Epilogue: The Trump Effect on Right-Wing Extremism in Canada. In Right-Wing Extremism in Canada (pp. 143-172). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Perry, B., & Scrivens, R. (2019). Permission to Hate in Canada. In Right-Wing Extremism in Canada (pp. 89-119). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Weller, R. C. (2017). ‘Western ‘and ‘White Civilization’: White Nationalism and Eurocentrism at the Crossroads. In 21st-Century Narratives of World History (pp. 35-80). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.