Study: Far-Right And Islamists ‘Feed’ Eachother?

A U.S. based researcher in a June 2012 paper for the Hague-based International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), asserted that groups such as the English Defence League (EDL) and Islamists are perhaps ‘feeding’ eachother.

Photo: The ICCT

The paper notes,

Quote: ‘Terrorism studies scholars have also recently identified the danger of ‘cumulative extremism’ – the possibility that right-wing extremism and radical Islamism reinforce each other through a dynamic in which each one’s narrative encourages support in the opposing group, in a spiral of fear and mutual demonisation… The narratives of the EDL and radical Islamist groups therefore become mutually reinforcing.’

It also notes,

Quote: ‘With the Breivik case and groups like the EDL, we see a trend of groups and individuals who have appropriated the official narrative of the ‘war on terror’ and chosen to open a domestic ‘front’ against fellow citizens.’

This perhaps signifies the correlation between both sides of the extreme. The same paper asserts that rightist violence in Europe can be comparable to Islamist bloodshed committed in Europe too.

Further reading:

1. Study: Rightist Violence In Europe Comparable To Islamist Bloodshed