Following in the footsteps of ISIS: Far right grows in Australia, takes advantage of corona
Australia is suffering from the
right-wing extremist movement growing on its soil, and the corona crisis in
turn is deepening this growth due to the movement’s own ideology regarding the
pandemic, as the country has recently faced many demonstrations and protests
against government measures to control the virus.
Extremists’ practices raise urgent
questions about the impact of the growth of extremism on Australia’s stability
and its position as an international site preparing to host the Australian Open
tennis tournament in mid-January. Do extremist currents intend to intensify in
conjunction with international times to further shed light on their presence?
How will this affect the crystallization of the movement internationally?
Far right’s
beliefs about corona and its danger to health
The extreme right-wing has adopted
special beliefs about the pandemic, including those who believe that it is just
a cosmic conspiracy to eliminate the white race for the benefit of others,
while some of them believe that it should be spread in the minority community
and those who differ from them. The most prominent belief in this context is
promoting the futility of vaccines issued against the virus.
The trends of the far right pose a
danger to societies wishing to limit the spread of the deadly virus due to them
continuously resorting to demonstrations and protests against imposing the
vaccine on citizens and against decisions to impose wearing a mask and other
health decisions that were imposed to control the growth of the pandemic
claiming more lives around the world.
Australian
protests and violence threaten security
Melbourne and some Australian cities
witnessed in November 2021 protest demonstrations against government
restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the corona virus, as well as to
announce their refusal to receive the vaccine. For its part, the Al-Azhar
Observatory for Takfiri Fatwas on September 22, 2020, quoted the Australian
intelligence service as saying that the far right shares in common with ISIS
the use of the same methods in terms of employing the spread of the corona
virus in recruitment and attracting new elements to its ranks.
The Observatory also reported that
the Australian intelligence service employs 40% of counterterrorism efforts to
thwart the violent acts that the far right seeks to practice in the country,
and that the intelligence has fears of the increasing violence of the movement
and its exploitation of the methods that ISIS broadcasts to its elements to use
in similar violent strategies.
On the other hand, these extreme
right-wing currents raise the security panic in the country in anticipation of
an increase in its organizational and numerical danger, and the police
announced in March 2021 that it had opened investigations into threats made by
people belonging to the far right against those who differed from them in the
state of Victoria.
Far right and
ISIS employ corona through similar strategies
Most of the common strategies
between violent currents, whether the far right or those with extremist
religious references, are to employ influential global events as tools to
maximize their influence, as the corona pandemic has shown a growing similarity
between the frameworks used by the currents during the pandemic, most notably
in the areas of polarization and hostility.
The right-wing currents benefited
from the video clips broadcast by ISIS elements, as well as al-Qaeda elements,
on ways to spread infection. Together, these currents relied on employing the
virus to take the lives of those who differed from them, while the far right
benefited from spreading conspiracy beliefs and getting rid of the white race
in recruiting a larger number of elements for its claim to maintain the race
and unite for that.
