No False Alarm:

The Rebirth of Fascism in the West

Rasa - The prolonged period of economic stagnation and the worst refugee crisis since the end of the Second World War has seen Far-Right racism and extremist groups surging across Europe and the United States.

News ID: 425691

Date: 11 December 2016 - 23:18

RNA - They are nationalist, anti-establishment and Eurosceptic – and they are pouring more fuel on the flames of Islamophobia, virulent racist hatred, and radical authoritarian nationalism. These radical right-wing parties have seen a surge in support for their Fascist rhetoric and populist, controversial campaigns. Some of them have even managed to seize power across the Old Continent, from Athens to Amsterdam and many points in between.

As a consequence, the growing erosion of Western system of human rights and rule of law continues to gather momentum, so much so that it has forced UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein to react. He says anti-foreigner, anti-Muslim rhetoric full of unbridled vitriol and hatred is proliferating to a frightening degree, and is increasingly unchallenged.

Sad to say, the warning has come too late. Influenced by national syndicalism and anti-Muslim hysteria, Far-Right leaders and groups have successfully managed to combine right-wing positions with elements of left-wing politics and anti-immigrant groupings to defeat mainstream political elites, depict Europeans as victims of Muslim immigrants, and propel Fascist political parties to triumphs.

It  gets worse: The neo-Fascist rhetoric has led to increased surveillance power, increased police power, increased military power, and support for continued war against Islam - instead of support for military withdrawal and rolling back the bogus War on Terror in the Middle East and North Africa.

The unimaginable has also become imaginable in the United States where the plague of cynicism has taken root. President-elect Donald is equally normalising the xenophobia, the Islamophobia, the racism, and the politics of resentment that fueled his campaign.

Subsequently, in many American cities and towns, cynicism has largely replaced the idealism of progressive liberalism. The human rights the US promised has for many immigrants and refugees failed to materialize. And the border regime has reignited xenophobia and Islamophobia, where many feel simply uninspired by the faceless, non-existent American Dream.

There is no false alarm here. All these facts and figures cannot be sugarcoated. The world is in the midst of the worst refugee crisis and economic stagnation since the Second World War, and all the United States and NATO allies think about is staying the course, prolonging the War on Terror, and destabilising the heartlands of the Muslim world.

They refuse to see that their war on Syria alone has driven more than six million people from their homes and into overflowing refugee camps in nearby countries. They refuse to see that hundreds of thousands of them will continue to put their lives in peril again and head to where they may have a chance - Europe.

It’s the same situation for migrants and refugees leaving North Africa and Asia, particularly Afghanistan – who also resort to deadly escape routes and make those same journeys in search of safety. Meaning, Far-Right marches and demonstrations will become commonplace and the migrant and refugee situation will only get worse.

Western governments should realise that the answer today is not to announce measures to strengthen and control their outer borders, or introduce relocation plans and not accept any migrants and refugees. The answer is not to sharpen the law so there is no wiggle room for extremists and perpetrators of hate crime either; or put in place national "exit programs" to help individuals to leave Far-Right movements.

Western governments need to acknowledge that their War-on-Terror policy needs to be rethought, including the ongoing war on Syria as well as the economic warfare against Iran and Russia. This way, they can at least stop opportunistic politicians and Far-Right parties from communicating on issues related to the Syrian refugee crisis. Some might claim they know very little about the humanitarian crisis there. But they know enough to act.

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