Kenan Malik: Beware the politics of identity. They help legitimise the toxic far right

By Dilip -
Hate is a poison that… is responsible for far too many crimes,” said the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, after the killing of nine people in a far-right terror attack on two shisha bars in the German town of Hanau last week. “This is neither rightwing nor leftwing terror, it’s the crazy act of a deranged man,” responded Jörg Meuthen, a spokesman for the virulently anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

It’s an argument that’s becoming as depressingly familiar as the attacks themselves. The Hanau killings follow the murder last June of the Christian Democrat politician and champion of refugee rights Walter Lübcke and an attempt in October to storm a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle. Days before the attack, German police made raids across the country to take down a terror cell allegedly planning to plunge Germany into a “state of civil war” by attacking Muslims and asylum-seekers.

These incidents have raised again questions about the nature of German politics and culture. This is not, however, simply a German disease. From Anders Breivik at Utøya to Dylann Roof, who killed nine black people at a Charleston church, from Thomas Mair, who murdered the MP Jo Cox to Brenton Tarrant, currently awaiting trial for the Christchurch mosque shootings, far-right terror is a global problem. It’s not as endemic as Islamic jihadism but, especially in Europe and America, white nationalist violence is becoming a major issue.


Far-right terrorism does not exist in isolation, any more than jihadism does. As with jihadism, personal and political grievances become refracted through the politics of identity to create a worldview shaped by a noxious brew of visceral racism and conspiracy fantasies. The individuals involved may be delusional, but those delusions feed upon sentiments nurtured by our political culture. It’s not a general problem of “hatred” but the specific vilification of migrants and Muslims and the encouragement of ideas of white victimhood….read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/23/beware-politics-of-identity-they-help-legitimise-toxic-far-right

 see also

India’s Citizenship Emergency: Interview with Professor Niraja Jayal
Ayush Chaturvedi: Main Gandhi ke saath hun // Samar Halarnkar: In the time of Godse, a search for Hindus who will stand with Gandhi
‘Muslims have 150 countries to go to, Hindus have only India’: Gujarat CM // Insects Out & Squirming Means Medicine Works: BJP Secy on Protests
JNU Students, Teachers Attacked By Masked Men; Mob Chanting 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' Outside Gate
St Stephen's Students Boycott Classes In "Very, Very Rare" Move, For JNU
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF INDIA by 106 senior retired government officers: INDIA DOES NOT NEED THE CAA-NPR-NRIC
What is to be Undone
Advice to the Young
Ambedkar on Pakistan

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