How to make a far-right

In 2022, I wrote in these pages that the US assassination of al-Qaeda (AQ) leader Ayman al-Zawahiri marked the end of President Bush’s War on Terror. I followed this up with another claim: that this would not mean the end of terrorism, and that the terrorism we would face in the West was far-right.

I concluded that the War on Terror may be over, but if we fail to address economic inequality and the lack of grassroots opportunities for young people in the most deprived areas of the UK, and if we continue with the political talk about culture wars and immigration that suggests to these same people that they no longer belong and that there is an “us and them”, then we could be encouraging the opening shots of a new wave of violence. I was concerned that the spark was there, and that another Zawahiri could ignite it.

The previous Conservative government accelerated the creation of an environment in which right-wing ideology could take root. The past week has seen that spark ignite. Not everyone who attended the protests that began after the tragic events in Southport was a far-right extremist, but as many of them degenerated into racist violence, it was clear that a significant percentage held extremist views.

Keir Starmer is right when he promises that the “small mindless minority” involved in the criminal activities that make up a large part of the protests will face the full force of the law. While this is necessary, there must also be recognition of the underlying causes of these protests, otherwise more people will join this minority.

As an intelligence officer, I came across terror suspects who had applications to join the police and the military, or who had previously been members of violent gangs. It’s not that they wanted to infiltrate the security services – they wanted something that offered work for those organisations. It’s not the case that’s looking for them, they’re looking for a case.

As Joseph Conrad claimed in The Secret Agenthis novel about anarchist terrorists at the beginning of the 20th century: “The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket.” There will always be young people (mainly, but certainly not exclusively, young men) who seek meaning in adventure and conflict, and there will always be charismatic individuals who use them to achieve selfish ends by giving them a sense of belonging and a shared worldview.

Humans need more than the satisfaction of our basic needs and desires. We seek status, belonging, and meaning. We can find these in the service of political parties, religious beliefs, nation-state groups, in the pursuit of wealth and material possessions, in making art, in raising a family. But when these other options are not open to you, and you are then told that you are a victim and there are people to blame for your victimization, you can choose to find status, belonging, and meaning in an organization like Zawahiri’s. Or in a far-right group.

The more extreme the circumstances you find yourself in, the more extreme the solution you consider. Over the last 14 years we have seen an accelerated growth of the same circumstances, so rich for AQ’s recruitment campaigns in Muslim communities, in white working class communities.

Islamic extremist groups have a long history of recruiting from the poorest in society. Economic inequality is a powerful motivator. In the UK, the government, with the failure of the “levelling up” initiative, has overseen a period of rising inequality. There are entire communities who feel they have been left behind by global economic forces from which their governments have failed to protect them.

There are multiple generations who feel that the cities where they live lack the opportunities to live the lives that others in more prosperous parts of the country take for granted. Significantly, some protests have degenerated into looting. As jihadists climb the hierarchy of a group, they often reward themselves with material wealth. While Zawahiri blamed the West and his own government for perpetuating inequality, online right-wing influencers and even government ministers have blamed immigrants for inequality in the UK.

Islamic extremist groups have recruited en masse from countries where democratic freedoms were lacking, and have positioned themselves as both victims and opponents of political repression. In the UK, there is a general frustration with the political process, both the choices presented and the vast disparity between the number of votes and the number of seats won, most clearly in the case of the right-wing Reform Party.

There is growing disdain for an elitist, distant bureaucracy, disconnected from voters’ daily lives. Delivering on Labour’s election promise to deepen devolution settlements for existing Combined Authorities and extend devolution to more areas could help to re-engage disenfranchised communities.

In any case, this will not allay fears on the far right that the new government will accelerate the introduction of cultural Marxism. This far-right conspiracy theory describes intellectual attempts to replace Christian values ​​with identity politics through a culture war.

In the West, the far right has positioned itself as both victims and combatants in this culture war. They profile themselves as resisters of censorship on sensitive cultural and political issues, as society becomes increasingly politically polarized, and as defenders against attacks on aspects of the country’s culture and history that are still a source of deep pride for many.

While there have been real examples in recent years of the curtailment of necessary public debate on various issues due to concerns about offending minority groups, both fringe and mainstream politicians have amplified the right-wing narrative of cancel culture, and the more extreme narrative that Western culture is under threat from mass immigration and cultural Marxism. However, the narrative has taken hold because there is some truth to it.

Rather than challenging it with arguments that emphasise the complexity of the challenges we face, successive Conservative ministers have used simplistic narratives in their quest for political survival. Labour must avoid further blunders on issues seen as major culture war battles, challenge the binary narratives on both sides of the political divide, and encourage reasoned debate about the limits on free speech.

Labour should force dogmatists of all persuasions to accept that we can amplify the voices of previously silenced communities without silencing others, that we can rethink our understanding of our own history without rewriting it, and that we can account for our failures and remain proud of our successes. Real multiculturalism is about finding ways of living together, recognising the value of different ways of life, rather than imposing one way of life or one correct way of interpreting the world.

These messages need to be targeted at our young people. Of the 20 children arrested for terrorism offences in 2021, 19 were associated with far-right ideologies. Towards the end of lockdown, school leaders raised concerns about exposure to extremist material online as children were isolated. One who served a predominantly white, disadvantaged community said: “What we’re facing is a very strong sense of us and them. The idea that if you’re not white, your voice and presence are not as welcome.”

In a carbon copy of the global jihadist community, there is now a global far-right community, stretching from the US through Europe to Australia and New Zealand. Russia is at the heart of this community. Pro-Russian narratives are prominent in the global far-right community. Rinaldo Nazzaro, leader of the global far-right organization The Base who this week placed an ad in the US seeking a leader for his organization ahead of the elections there, is an American living in Russia. Following AQ’s goals, Nazzaro believes in accelerating racial conflict through violent means, in order to destroy society so that it can be rebuilt (al-Qaeda literally translates from Arabic as “The Base”).

In the fight against Islamic extremism, I saw the attempt to fit often vague and loosely connected groups into clearly defined organizational structures (this was what the authorities that persecuted them were used to in their own image), but often interactions between extremists were more about encouragement, knowledge sharing, and establishing global narratives than evidence of formal structures. We see this now with right-wing groups.

It’s unclear whether Southport’s initial tweet blaming Channel3Now on a Muslim immigrant was intentional misinformation, but pro-Kremlin Telegram channels shared and amplified the site’s false post, as did right-wing influencers with international connections and similar language and narratives. Accusations of “two-tier policing” in reference to policing at recent pro-Palestine protests have been used before in the US by the far-right around the BLM protests.

The immediate response to these protests should be focused on restoring law and order (although it should be noted that many jihadists have been radicalised and have built networks in British prisons). Addressing the root causes requires a response that engages the whole of civil society. We need investment in education, grassroots sports, the arts and other activities that create belonging and meaning for children. We need to counter, rather than censor, far-right content that is perpetuated by malicious online networks.

There is a need to develop a counter-narrative that acknowledges the inequalities that global economic forces have created, enables open and honest conversations about immigration (setting it in the context of our complex history, highlighting its many benefits and addressing concerns), and destigmatises a patriotism that allows for self-reflection on our past, while recognising our shared good fortune of living in the UK. More than anything else, we must invest in the communities left economically and politically dispossessed, focusing on strengthening local communities to solve nationally neglected problems.

If we don’t fill the economic, cultural and political void that so many communities now find themselves in, there are toxic ideologies that will.