Category Archives: Fascism

Young people vote far-right in Europe | Europe | DW.COM | 14.12.2015

Rudolf van Hüllen, a political researcher and expert on right-wing extremism, believes that young people in Germany don’t fall for the NPD in droves, because the country does a good job educating them about the horrors of the last time a far-right regime was in power during the Third Reich. Starting prevention early, he says, is key.”That’s what makes youth and young adults less susceptible to any form of extremism: right-wing, left-wing and Islamism,” van Hüllen told daily “Die Welt.” “I see encouraging success there. It’s a strong and self-confident generation that’s growing up today.”Still, the NPD is also aiming to garner more support among young people by shedding its skinhead neo-Nazi style .

Source: Young people vote far-right in Europe | Europe | DW.COM | 14.12.2015

Statue to Hungarian fascist sparks outcry | News | DW.COM | 13.12.2015

Around 300 protesters gathered Sunday in the city of Szekesfehervar where a life-size bronze statue of Balint Homan is slated to be unveiled at the end of the month.Homan was a civic leader and academic widely seen as an architect of anti-Jewish laws in the 1930s. He also called for the deportation of Jews from Hungary in 1944, while part of a fascist Hungarian government propped up by Nazi Germany.The prospect of paying tribute to Homan with a statue has led to widespread outcry inside Hungary and among international diplomats.”An openly anti-Semitic, fascist politician should never get a statue anywhere in this country,” Andras Heisler, head of Hungary’s largest Jewish group, the Federation of Jewish Hungarian Communities (Mazsihisz), told the crowd at the protest

Source: Statue to Hungarian fascist sparks outcry | News | DW.COM | 13.12.2015

Exit Polls in France Show National Front Losing Regional Elections – The New York Times

A week after the National Front came out on top in the first round of voting, France sent a far different message, with the party losing even in a northern region where its charismatic leader, Marine Le Pen, had been widely expected to win.

Source: Exit Polls in France Show National Front Losing Regional Elections – The New York Times

ISIS launches app to spread terror agenda – Times of India

For IS, social media is prominent in formulating recruitment strategies.According to theconversation.com, Facebook is a key platform to gather young fans, supporters and recruits to incite them to acts of violence by the means of propaganda and the use of Islamic grievance.When it comes to real-time orchestrating of terror strikes, IS network works with encrypted messaging applications — including Kik, Surespot, Wickr and Telegram — that are very difficult to hack.

Source: ISIS launches app to spread terror agenda – Times of India

Why Fascism is Rising Again (And What You Can Learn From It) — Bad Words — Medium

My story is nuanced. I have tried to distinguish between proximate cause, and ultimate cause. The ultimate cause of fascism is the right — but the proximate cause is the left. More simply, the origins of fascism are in the right’s extremism — but it is the left’s self-imposed irrelevance that allowed it to rise, and perhaps propelled it. You may disagree with my story, and you are welcome. It is just one synthesis among many. And yet, I caution you against the oppositional extremism that so defines our age. To fully account for fascism’s rise, because it is the most poisonous alloy of both, we must speak openly and honestly about the failures of both the left and right.For in the story of the rise of New Fascism, we see precisely the same elements at work as in Eternal Fascism. The pie shrinks. Leaders and institutions squabble — while the pie keeps shrinking. And then, the critical moment. The center breaks. The demagogue is free to sing his song of darkness. Night falls. And the golden age of the volk, the long march to the promised land, through the valleys of blood and despair, begins.I have written too much. I am tired now, as are you. So let us stop here to pause and reflect. Fascism, the poisonous admixture of the worst of both left and right, is a cancer that may infect the body politic at anytime that body is dulled and slowed, rendered infirm and frail, by stagnation. And the obligation of all reasonable people is to fight it. Not just because it destroys, and calls destruction glorious destiny, nor because it kills, and calls murder noble justice. But because in its glorification of destruction is the end of all that civilization can be said to stand for. Not just the fabric of our societies, but the possibility of our humanity.

Source: Why Fascism is Rising Again (And What You Can Learn From It) — Bad Words — Medium

Doris Matsui, Congresswoman Born in Internment Camp, Responds to Trump – The New York Times

The circumstances are different — Roosevelt rounded up citizens; Mr. Trump wants to bar Muslim visitors — but the motivation is the same, she said: “It is fear of the unknown that would drive people to fear-mongering and then outright bigotry.”Ms. Matsui’s husband, Robert T. Matsui, who spent 26 years in Congress and was succeeded by his wife after he died in 2005, was a sponsor of the 1988 redress legislation. He was 6 months old when his family was uprooted from Sacramento, limited to one suitcase a person, and shipped north to the Tule Lake segregation center on the border with Oregon, one of the 10 internment camps.As the House was about to give final approval to the apology and reparations in August 1988, Mr. Matsui said in a speech from the House floor that the acknowledgment of wrongdoing “demonstrates the true character of America in a way that the whole world can recognize.”The votes in the House and the Senate were bipartisan, though more than half of Republicans in the House and nearly half in the Senate opposed the measure, despite Reagan’s endorsement. Opponents objected to the cost and the precedent of paying reparations, and to second-guessing decades-old actions taken during wartime.The opponents included some Republicans still in Congress or prominent in national politics, among them Mitch McConnell, now the Senate majority leader; Senator John McCain of Arizona; and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio, who was a member of the House and is now running for president.

Source: Doris Matsui, Congresswoman Born in Internment Camp, Responds to Trump – The New York Times

Israel attacks West Bank college twice in one week | The Electronic Intifada

The Israeli army attacked the Palestine Technical University in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem twice this week.Nine Palestinians were shot Thursday as Israeli soldiers tried to suppress a protest on the campus. On Monday, five students had to be hospitalized for gunshot wounds.Known as Kadoorie, the university has been subject to a series of such attacks since early October, when students began organizing marches against the Israeli occupation.Live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas have all been fired by Israel during the attacks.Twenty students have been detained so far, the International Solidarity Movement stated last week.None of the students has been released.Military campThe university is located next to the massive wall that Israel is building in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, Israel confiscated 200 dunums (50 acres) from Kadoorie to build the wall and another 23 dunums (5.5 acres) for a military training camp within the campus.Israel has also established a military checkpoint at the university’s entrance. The attacks have been so severe that the university has had to close on occasions.Students have also reported that Israeli soldiers have pointed their guns directly at them, giving the impression that the soldiers were about to open fire.When a number of students responded to such threatening behavior in October by throwing stones and fireworks at the military training area, the Israeli soldiers fired large quantities of tear gas into the university.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBw1rIhIC5s

Source: Israel attacks West Bank college twice in one week | The Electronic Intifada

For God and country: more U.S. pastors seek political office in 2016 | Reuters {American Taliban on the march under cover of Christianity – next – revive and create new inquisition – when will they come for you?}

Since 2012, about 900 preachers from evangelical fundamentalist churches across the United States have made recordings of politically infused sermons and sent them to the IRS. The federal tax agency, which declined to comment, has yet to take any action.Lane and his network of pastors say they are well within their rights to bring politics into the church. “The founding fathers never meant for the church not to participate in government,” said Lane. “They meant for the government not to interfere with the church.

Source: For God and country: more U.S. pastors seek political office in 2016 | Reuters

Donald Trump: Calls to ban US presidential hopeful from the UK over ‘hate speech’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A petition to bar Mr Trump from Britain reached more than 300,000 signatures amid an outcry over the comments and will be considered for a debate in parliament, as are all petitions with more than 100,000 signatures.”The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the UK,” the petition said.London mayor Boris Johnson called Mr Trump’s comments “complete and utter nonsense”.”I think he’s betraying a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him frankly unfit to hold the office of president of the United States,” he added.”Crime has been falling steadily both in London and in New York – the only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.”

Source: Donald Trump: Calls to ban US presidential hopeful from the UK over ‘hate speech’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Bay Area Muslims Suprisingly Resistant To Fascist Proposals: SFist

Michael Kim, age 46, of Lafayette, is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and for seven years served as an active duty naval officer “How is it possible that this country I love, that I’m a community member of, a nation I defend, is turning its back on me so harshly?” he said35-year-old emergency room physician Asad Tarsin who lives in Dublin, said “I feel we are at a crossroads at a nation. I think that with crossroads there’s a degree of concern if we as a country are going to make the right decisions.”Somehow, bless her, Tarsin has found a way to be hopeful and generous. “I think I have more faith in my fellow Americans than I do a segment of the population that’s been duped by a rhetoric of fear.”Now that’s a faith to which we should all subscribe.

Source: Bay Area Muslims Suprisingly Resistant To Fascist Proposals: SFist