charlottesville

I watched Imperium a few weeks back. I was interested in seeing the transformation of Daniel Radcliffe from the Harry Potter stereotype, as much as I was interested in the theme of the film. An FBI agent infiltrates white supremacist gangs and factions to foil a plot to use dirty bombs in a rally. It was a difficult film to watch, almost cringing at the actors portraying the faction members. And it was difficult to watch knowing the fact that it's not just a film but a reflection of the society. These groups exist and these ideologies exist — that was revolting enough, making an assumption that in reality, the clans must be behaving like this as well. I knew that somewhere, this must be happening already, as we are siting on a ticking time bomb, and it's just a matter of time when it all blows up. The Charlottesville incidents just prove this fact. It's time to wake up to racism, and terrorism. And more importantly, to rid off the media semantics and call a spade a spade. Charlottesville attacks were terrorist attacks and the government must gear up to quash extremist views.

9/11 had permanently changed the world. It made the world polarised. On one side, 9/11 meant more woes to the Middle East because that would just let Uncle Sam to interfere in the region in the name of national safety, something that it had been doing for a long time anyway. For the Middle East, American intervention is seen as a symbol of west's imposition of supposedly higher moral values on the region. This resulted in spreading of Islamic extremism like a wildfire since 9/11 that not only stayed limited to the Middle East but spread worldwide. The infographic here shows how the extremist attacks happened across the world. Disgusting is the ideology — of killing people of a different faiths and race, and disgusting are the people who preach this and carry out the attacks. This is straightforward geopolitics so far.

Yet the less talked about change about 9/11 is equally sinister, and it's not easily perceived. 9/11 brought the fear into the minds of the people — especially in the west. That these extremists can run their killing spree in the west, and that it's not an issue of mad people killing each other in a faraway land — it blew the bubble of security people were living in. Growing up in the subcontinent where India had been constantly battered by terrorist attacks, we never had that safety bubble that it wouldn't happen to us. In a day, that absurdity suddenly seemed quite possible.

Fear brings the worst out of us humans. We lose our sense of reasoning, and stop trusting people. We look at everyone with suspicion. The heightened fear of a Muslim extremist attack became so apparent that overnight anyone with a Muslim name or appearance was subjected to scrutinies, hate crimes and proving their allegiance to the state. I'd like to mention another brilliant film that captured the transition of mentalities around Muslim during this epoch — The reluctant fundamentalist. People felt threatened and wanted to do something to feel safe again. And that paved the path for white supremacy and neo-Nazism.

White Supremacist and Neo-Nazi rhetoric is not new. They have always been around but never reached a critical mass since WEII, because most people didn't believe in their threats, nor did the groups have issues to preach their hatred against. 9/11 have them an enemy. And with people losing their sense of judgement, the white supremacist doomsday threats were seen as credible.

Extremism alone didn't pave the path for these extremist right wing voices. Over last few decades the world had become more mobile than it has ever been. With increased level of business and exposure to education, geographical barriers seemed to be disappearing. That facilitated greater global mobility and it's evident that the net immigration has increased in the west, especially if in G20 states. Also, apart from the skilled migrants, number of unskilled immigrants had been on the rise as well, caused by heightened social, political and religious unrest in countries. More people in those conflict torn countries were forced to flee in fear of their life. Not only did these new immigrants raise fear the increased risk of extremist attacks ("who can say they weren't terrorist disguised as normal people" etc.) but businesses employed immigrants more to pay less for the same work.

And thus, migrants are linked to joblessness, social unrest, their inability to integrate into the society and imbibe its ethos. People started to have a feeling that the minorities have better privileges than the non-migrant population of the country. They are losing control of the stronghold they had over the local communities. The situation has worsened with the global economic downturn, and the working class was hit by the housing bubble, unemployment, relocation, poverty. In desperate times, people look for either something to salvage themselves, or blame someone for their misery. Immigrants were an easy target. And thus the majority of the large economies with a high net positive migration has witnessed a growing sense of nationalism.

I don't see any difference between nationalism and racism. Nationalism is a concept to differentiate people who belong to the land, pledge their allegiance no matter if the state is right or wrong, and dissuade diversity. The plague of nationalism is on the surge across the world, but it's particularly noticeable in the US and Europe. At best case, they are outfits like organisers of #whitelivesmatter, at worst, they end up in the Neo-Nazi clans. It is even horrific to find that the right-wing nationalist outfits are finding their feet as legitimate set-ups. Recent elections in France, Netherlands, Austria,  Hungary, Greece, Switzerland - nationalists have not only found their foothold in the legislative system, but also were close to winning the elections in some cases. That was scary.

It was scary seeing nationalist parties progress so much, with their politics of hate, but two biggest events last year completely upstaged the notion that common sense will prevail. UK left the European Union, spurred by the campaign full of lies and scaremongering. And on the other side of the pond, Donald fucking Trump has become the most powerful man on earth. Different countries, same rhetoric. UK, despite its receding importance in global political landscape, delivered a boost to all nationalist voices around the world. The aftermath of Brexit is of course election of Donald Trump. Desperate working-class people, trying to change their living condition, have fallen prey to the opportunist vultures, supported by expensive campaigns, sourced from the donors who benefit most from the election results.

It's a long prelude to the Charlottesville attacks. It was always due coming. The signs are all there. Brexit wasn't that much of a threat on a global scale, although the heightened levels of hate and race crimes since the Brexit results show that a lot of people wore a mask before, of being open-minded, liberal - and suddenly, their true self is out in the open. But the biggest threat is the orange haired clown sitting at the White House. A complete moron with immense power is never a good combination, and seeing all nationalist people across the world hailing him a hero, it spells danger. This may sound controversial, but Donald Trump, with all his shockingly horrific view of Americanism, being elected for the White House is equally cringeworthy as was the declaration of Al-Baghdadi his Caliphate. One's vile, the other's evil, both morons, both have thousands of moron followers who hails them and acts to their orders without thinking…you get the picture, right?

Charlottesville is scary for another reason. For the nationalists, the common demographic happened to be white working class - disenfranchised, marginalised public. However, many of the Charlottesville alt right protestors were university students, a segment typically seen to be left wing. It is worrying that the sphere of influence has grown in size. The anti-immigrant nationalist rhetoric has reached beyond its grassroot support base. People are more prejudiced, and eager to show their prejudice under the helm of the new leaders. Yet the situation observed in Charlottesville was more disturbing, seeing the alt right drop its reformist mask and show their white supremacist face. They gave nazi salutes, bore confederation cross, chanted anti Semitic slogans, and then stopped to another low by planning to use murdered Heather Heyer's funeral. This is the real face of America's alt right. If nationalism is desperate, their white supremacist agenda is pure evil. And if you think that's an American problem, you're making the same mistake as done while branding Muslim extremism a Middle East problem. Just look at the anti-immigrant sentiment that swept though Britain post-Brexit. Then there are anti-Islam Britain First and EDL, who went want to portray every Muslim in the UK as terrorists.

Terrorist. That's a term I consciously avoided so far because media semantics is another area that needs immediate rethinking. Okay. Imagine a terrorist. What do you see? Muslim man, long beard, possibly carrying a rucksack? Was it far off my guess? What about hate preacher? Middle age Muslim man with long beards and even better if he wore a cap? Well, as far as Islamic terrorist or Islamic hate preaching goes, these images probably match the profiles of the most notorious ones. How do these people fit in the profile of terrorist? Timothy McVeigh, Anders Breivik, KKK, hundreds of killers involved in school shootings, IRA, ETA. They are all white, perhaps Christians as well. And that's just one demographic section. There are examples from all corners of the world. There are governments carrying out organised ethnic cleansing - directly or indirectly. The new addition to that list is James Fields. Yet, we seem to be too frivolous to use the term terrorist with Muslim attacks, and try our best not to use the term for any other community. What about hate preachers? What about The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Britain First, EDL, Nigel Farage and UKIP, Front National, Jobbik, Geert Wilders, Golden Dawn? What about Katie Hopkins? And above all, the dumbfuck Donald Trump, spending more time posting halfwit tweets slagging off half the world's population? Do you see these people as hate preachers? I guess not, but they no doubt are. The jihadi extremists do it in the name of their religion, and the other bunch do it from a moral high ground. They think they represent liberal western civilisation. They are wrong. Their views are as primitive as is the Islamic terrorists they are directing their hatred.

And this is what is worrying. That these opportunist people are given a platform - by the media, by the public, by the system - to spread their hatred. There was a speculation whether Charlottesville spelled the end of the Alt right in America. On the contrary, it was found that its supporters became bolder and flew Swastikas on their house in the open. It was all there in Charlottesville - Confederate flag, Swastikas, Nazi salute, chants like "Blood and soil" and "Jews won't replace us". It was shameless display of blatant racism, and equally shameful silence from a waste of a space president. He stayed silent as long as possible - which already emboldened the Neo-Nazis, and then a meek criticism that seemed completely unlike Donald Trump speech. His vocabulary does not stretch to repugnant. Then he made a U-turn by calling the protesters Alt-left, and tried to blame both parties of intolerance. And then he defended keeping the confederate statues that caused the clash. The president spoke of bigotry, yet he turned out to be the biggest bigot during this crisis.

It's not all gloomy in the end. Except, of course, for the terrible loss of Heather Heyer. It was unfortunate that it took death of a person to get the condemnation of the rally it deserved at the very first place. The resistance and the counter-protests have gathered more supporters than the white supremacist militias did. It is a consolation that the picture is the same in most of the places, wherever the fascists held a rally, they either give up, or outnumbered and overshadowed by the anti-racism supporters. There was a stream of photos that went viral where one Neo-Nazi is seen to be punched in the face after he did a Nazi salute. Now, the judgement is divided whether use of violence was justified. Probably not. But let's draw a parallel here. During an Islamic terrorism act, the entire Muslim community is expected to prove their allegiance to the government, criticising the attack. If they don't do it, it is expected that they discretely support terrorism. The white supremacists, on the other hand, adhere to the views of America's dark racist past. Their objective is no different. But there is not attempt to criticise them as terrorist sympathisers. If the Muslim terror suspects and sympathisers can be kept under surveillance and arrested, why couldn't their counterparts? And lastly, it's crazy how a Muslim terrorist is shot dead within seconds whilst Anders Breiviks and James Fields are safely led away by police, despite their crime was equally despicable.

From that perspective, the best work is probably done by an anonymous twitter user @YesYoureRacist, by identifying all Alt-right supporters on the rally. In a group, people do awful things, but when they realise that they are singled out, that might put an end to their little adventure with the big boys. It's sort of vigilantism, which is again dubious, but when it should have been police and intelligence but they failed, somebody had to bring it out in the daylight. The little escapades of these tin soldiers had to be made public. Some might end up losing jobs, being socially outcast in the community, rethink their mistakes and follow a normal course of life. The few others, let's call them terrorist material, should then have to be kept under surveillance by the police as potential terror suspects. Turning the table in the deportation debate, it was quite easy to deport an immigrant carrying out extremist activities, but if it's your own country you're planning to blow up, where would they be deported?

Nazism didn't happen in Germany overnight. It started with the election of an overzealous maniac by popular mandate. And the history repeated itself again last year. Unless uprooted at its nascent stage, it will be too late. The right-wing already are in the motion. They are given more voice in the media for some reason. The popularity of the right-wing press is mind-boggling. Perhaps the media watchdog wanted to observe the freedom of speech a little more. But what is freedom of speech for rabid dogs? That's what these fanatics are. It's a pity that many feel marginalised in the new ethical world but joining a fanatical movement is not going to solve the problem. Brexit happened last year. Trump was elected eight months back. Where did all the promises go? Apart from the failed attempts to implement racist Muslim ban and the Mexico wall, trump managed to do fuck all. Either people are already beginning to realise that it was all lies and empty boasts, or they are brainwashed enough not to see that nothing's happening. They have become right-wing automatons. They can't see that all religion, culture, social cohesion — none of it is the root of the problem. It's the wealth, and its distribution. This sentence might make you brand me as a Commie, but I don't mind, just as I think you are a racist, and you are trying to sugar coat it with patriotism and culture and all other nonsense.

This is why, it is absolutely paramount that we do everything to prevent this wildfire of hatred. And for that, people will need to speak up. Disagreeing in silence will not give a clear message that you are opposed to the horrific ideas of the neo-Nazis. We need to square up to them. Protest can be as cynical as brace Saffiyah Khan, smirking on the face of the Britain First scum, or literally punching them. You have to match them strength to strength. I'm opposed to the idea of violence, and a keen believer in Gandhi. But where the right form militias, hold camps how to attack/fight the enemy (who is the enemy anyway?), or to the least resort to intimidation and racial slur, repeating lines of Das Kapital or Beatles is not going to make much difference, will it? There is no space for debate yet, because that's not what the right is after. They have the pseudo alt-right mouthpieces like Milo Yannopoulos and Tommy Robinson but they are just red herrings, the agent provocateurs. They are dangerous as their reach spans the furthest, in terms of brainwashing the confused and misrepresented youth, but it's the lesser known direct action groups that people need to watch out for. They are possibly hard to identify and their whereabouts are therefore stay unknown to the authorities and protestors. Take a parallel with the Islamic extremism. You have hate preachers like Anjem Chaudhury, who provokes the youth, and perhaps preaches them about carrying out attacks, but is never found to be linked directly to any of the terrorist attacks. Then you have/had the notorious terrorists like Bin Laden, Al-Baghdadi, the Samantha whatever…they are masterminds but are so heavily monitored that it's unlikely that they'll be involved in the attacks themselves. But it's the unknown brainwashed misguided misrepresented people, working in little sleeper cells who are carrying out the majority of the terrorist attacks. London, Nice, Barcelona, Paris — it's the less known or unknown faces that are involved in the attacks. Just like James Fields. A less known individual. It is important to gather and pass information so these terrorists are identified. Identified so police track their whereabouts and also identified amongst the anti-racism and other protest groups. Outnumbering the opposition is a great tactic and so far, it worked greatly in the UK where the protesters outnumbered the right-wing demonstrators. And when the threat of white-supremacist Zealots have calmed down, and people see the emptiness of their propaganda, then it's the time to engage in talks,. Talks to the vulnerable, underprivileged section of the population who have been continuously exploited and given false hope of a brighter future. It's only by education, and by forming a truly inclusive society can we rid of the evils like racism, religious hatred.

Going back to where I started, talking about Daniel Radcliffe, I am a big fan of Harry Potter books. They drew inspiration from many modern day events and that's why, the significance of the books never fade away from the memory. You just keep on identifying incidents with the book, and you get a new meaning of the series. The reign of terror ran by Voldemort and his death eaters were reminiscent of the Nazi Germany. The persecution of the muggles and witches born in non-wizarding family reminded of the atrocities of the Third Reich. Apart from the historical accounts of the WWII, Harry Potter books showed how the reign of terror actually started. A sudden appearance of the dark mark in the sky. March of past death eaters. Death of an individual. The government's attempt to play it down. Persecution of the ones who asked for tougher measures. Failures of the government to protect the vulnerable. Until it's beyond control. It's just this unfolds in Harry Potter. And this is how the first signs have started appearing. Terrorism is evil for humankind. The governments are doing enough to curb Islamic terrorism, but not enough to eliminate the threats posed by the Neo-Nazis, the white supremacists, the alt-right. The threat should have been taken seriously for a long time, but the movement is nigh on getting its critical mass. It's time to act fast. It's not the time to be philosophical about the problem, but quash it brutally, before it turns into a raging wildfire of communal hatred that will engulf our entire society irrespective of colour, race, religion.

I am an alarmist. And I see patterns. And the patterns like above do not bode well. At the end of Harry Potter, everybody fought together to defeat the evil forces of Voldemort. Battle of Hogwarts gave us hope. That in the end, the Good wins. Yet, the reality is more complicated than the books. We don't always get the happy ending. Can we fight together shoulder to shoulder forgetting our petty differences? Because that's what is needed to make that happy ending. To give Donald Trump and his "fine people" alt-right a kick up their backside. Let the history repeats itself, but the threats of extremism is uprooted at its nascent stage.