Europe under strain: political extremism aspects

[davidbfpo]

A timely review of the situation in Europe, just after the first anniversary of the lone wolf Anders Breivik's murderous attacks in Norway:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...ence-seriously

The opening sub-paragraph:

The threat of far right terrorism and political violence ought to be taken at least as seriously as the radical Islamic one. Obstacles include the false belief that far right violence is local and not globally connected.

Citing Arun Kundnani’s report 'Blind Spot? Security Narratives and Far-Right Violence in Europe' for the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) in The Hague and looking at the German neo‐Nazi group – the Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund (NSU, National Socialist Underground) – which operated:

for thirteen years without arrest, during which time eight people of Turkish origin, a Greek man, and a policewoman had been killed, despite federal and regional intelligence services reportedly having infiltrated the group’. .. it remains unclear why the NSU was not intercepted earlier.....appears that part of the problem was that efforts to counter right‐wing violence rested with regional states, which did not consider it a priority, in contrast to initiatives to counter the threat of jihadist violence, which were well‐resourced and centrally co‐ordinated at the federal level.

This passage makes the argument far better:

since 1990, at least 249 persons have died in incidents of far right violence in Europe, compared to 263 who have been killed by jihadist violence, indicating that both threats are of the same order of magnitude

I have seen Europol reports on acts of terrorism which show nationalist attacks far outnumber Jihadist attacks; nationalist cannot always be equated with far right IMO.

There is more detail on the issue on:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...d-to-far-right