Terrorism Analysis: Does the Far Right Encourage Violent Extremism?

Transparency in the British intelligence services seems to be spreading. A few years ago it was considered revolutionary when MI5, the domestic service, finally allowed its director to be photographed. Now its current head, Jonathan Evans, provides what amounts to a-state of-security speech on a regular basis More recently, John Sawers gave the first public statement by a head of the foreign intelligence service MI6.

That public approach is now in Britain's regions as the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (WMCTU) allowed a BBC reporter to visit its top secret headquarters and interview some of its members.

The event soon drew national media attention. A senior member of the WMCTU warned that the activities of far-right groups, such as the English Defence League (EDL), which has been staging frequent anti-Islamist/anti-Islam demonstrations across England, fuel Islamist extremism.

In some areas, we have evidence that once they have gone and the high-profile policing of the event has occurred, there's fertile ground for those groups who would come in to encourage people to have this reality - this is the way white Western society sees us. And that's a potential recruiting carrot for people and that's what some of these radicalisers look for - they look for the vulnerability, for the hook to pull people through and when the EDL have been and done what they've done, they perversely leave that behind.

Some in the media labelled the EDL as a “recruiting sergeant” for al-Qaeda. Not surprisingly, representatives of the EDL offered a different interpretation, arguing that terrorism such as 9/11 and the July 2005 London attack occurred long before it appeared on the scene. Soon the debate was became which came first, the chicken or the egg.

It is apparent however, that the extreme right does contribute to a polarised environment which aids Islamist recruitment. It also poisons community relations. I once heard a police officer from a city near Birmingham declare say that efforts to build bridges with Muslim communities had gone nowhere because the local atmosphere was so fraught thanks to far-right actions.

In its discussion last week, what the British media failed to consider was the impact of the far right elsewhere in Europe on Islamic extremism. In early October, Newsweek's Christopher Dickey raised alarm bells about the rise of far-right Muslim bashers like the Netherlands' Geert Wilders:

It's important to remember how few people are involved in any of this [terrorism]. Most have South Asian, North African, or Turkish backgrounds, but they represent a minuscule percentage of the tens of millions of Muslims who now live in Europe. Unfortunately, the focus of public fear and anger is not limited to the terrorists themselves. The atmosphere has grown increasingly ugly for many Muslims as xenophobic politicians have gained ground in recent elections all over the continent.

Dickey quotes anthropologist Scott Atran, author of a new study of terrorism Talking to the Enemy: "The far right and the jihadis need one another."

Why the two are fundamentally intertwined is simple. The far right, to win votes, capitalises on a fear of Muslim extremism, especially terrorism. That aids extremists by playing into a narrative long cultivated by a spectrum of radicals, including Osama bin Laden.

In this narrative, Islam is under attack from western Christian nations as part of a clash of civilizations. Muslim-bashing in the West becomes further evidence that Muslims are unwelcome in these places and will never be accepted because of their religious faith. Alienation rises, and the most alienated are drawn into the web of the extremist recruiters and potentially into terrorism cast as defenders of the faith. If a terrorist act ultimately occurs, then that is more fuel for the far right. And so on and so on in a potentially long-running cycle.

If this cycle has begun and when it will end are questions that go far beyond the English Defence League and indeed beyond "England".