October 11, 2019

How many people have to die before Germany's far-right terror network is taken seriously?

topic:	Racism
located:	Germany
editor:	Gurmeet Singh

There is a persistent lie at the heart of centrist politics: that we are all OK now, and all prejudices are either the result of a crazed minority or are indeed, banished with the past. Things used to be bad, for women, for people of colour, for the Jewish people – but we’ve gotten over all of that. Now, everything and everyone is basically OK.

This kind of attitude is deeply harmful when it comes to the serious appraisal of social issues. It is an attitude that dismisses or ignores the truth. A truth that reveals itself in the form of bullets.

The recent horrific attack in Halle has been met with widespread shock and alarm in Germany. But a salient question is, why? Why is the country shocked? The nation’s Jewish population have been sounding the alarm for some time. Max Czollek’s 2018 book 'Disintegriet Euch' loudly argued that German society is in some critical way still obsessed with the idea of a Leitkultur – a leading culture. One of this culture’s most prominent tendencies is to cover up problems within it, like Anti-Semitism. Czollek argued that Anti-Semitism and racism would continue to pervade German society, without the majority doing much about it. Hence, it was up to Jewish people and people of colour to come together in solidarity to challenge the ideas of the leading culture.

The attacker in Halle, named as Stephen B., a 27-year-old white supremacist, not only built his weapon at home using instructions from an online guide, he also filmed and live-streamed the attack, as did the Christchurch terrorist. This shows that terroristic imaginations are becoming embedded in a decentralised network: that people who run amok don’t necessarily need to be a part of any ‘traditional’ far-right terror group. They can simply get the instructions they need online, and play to an online audience.

However, an important clarification. This does not mean that these people are alone. They are not ‘lone wolves’, disgruntled with society, loser-types, alienated, alternating between reading Herman Hesse and Adolf Hitler. Indeed, they build upon a very stable and very organised network of terror, present in German society, which has been allowed to thrive in a political climate somewhat sympathetic to their aims.

Not only are there political actors whose sympathies are far-right (the AfD), but there are those whose political beliefs and actions are very amenable to the far-right, (Horst Seehofer). The latter, of course, makes far-right attitudes somewhat respectable in broader society. Not to mention the numerous examples of the German police and armed-services being implicated in far-right actions.

Wider German society might genuinely be shocked, but this shock reveals an important truth. Namely, that it has ignored the warning signs for decades. Indeed, it is this attitude of ‘everything is OK, and everyone is OK now’ that has allowed far-right terror networks to flourish.

There are associated issues, of course. Anti-Semitism in Muslim communities is an issue in the country too. Though both forms are outright deplorable, far-right Anti-Semitism has much more of a grounding network and support in the country than the ‘Islamically-grounded Anti-Semitism’ or ‘Anti-Israeli Anti-Semitism’ in Germany. The size, scope and funding of the networks simply does not compare.

And indeed, the Anti-Semitic actions from various Muslim actors have allowed the wider German society to ignore the far-right terror threat. It has looked upon Anti-Semitic violence as a ‘Muslim problem’. Just another problem these 'dirty migrants and foreigners have brought with them', ranging from misogyny to cruelty to animals. Indeed, this kind of attitude not only puts the blame solely on Muslims and foreigners, but it also absolves a large part of the German society of any responsibility in allowing the far-right terror network to grow.

So I ask a simple question: how many people have to die before people take the far-right terror network seriously?

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