Counter-jihad

Counterjihad is an anti-Islamicislamophobic/ far-right intellectual political current. The roots of the movement goes back to the 1980s, but it did not gain significant momentum until after the September 11 attacks.

Counter-jihad ideology

In the words of Toby Archer, a scholar of political extremism and terrorism, "Counter-jihad discourse mixes valid concerns about jihad-inspired terrorism with far more complex political issues about immigration to Europe from predominantly Muslim countries. It suggests that there is a threat not just from terrorism carried out by Islamic extremists but from Islam itself. Therefore, by extension, all European Muslims are a threat." According to prominent counterjihadist Edward S. May, writing under the pseudonym Baron Bodissey, the counterjihadist movement is based on the belief that "Islam is above all a totalitarian political ideology, sugar-coated with the trappings of a primitive desert religion to help veil its true nature. The publicly stated goal of Islamic theology and political ideology is to impose the rule of Islam over the entire world, and make it part of Dar al-Islam, the 'House of Submission'."

Toby Archer detects a difference between the European and American wings of the movement. The American wing emphasizes an external threat, essentially terrorist in nature. The European wing sees a cultural threat to European traditions stemming from immigrant Muslim populations. While Archer notes that the perceived failure of multi-culturalism is shared across much of the political spectrum, he argues the counter-jihad movement is a particular conservative manifestation of this trend. He acknowledges the movement’s conservative defense of human rights and the rule of law but he believes by rejecting progressive policy it rejects much of what Europe is today.

The views of the counterjihad movement have been criticized as a source of support for the anti-muslim views of individuals inspired to take violent direct action. Anders Behring Breivik, responsible for the 2011 Norway attacks, published a manifesto explaining his views which drew heavily on the work of counterjihad bloggers such as Fjordman. "'Baron Bodissey,' wrote on [his] site Sunday that 'at no time has any part of the Counterjihad advocated violence.'" Bruce Bawer argues that the association of criticism with violence implies that "to be opposed to jihad is, by definition, not only a bad but a downright dangerous thing." Daniel Pipes argues that a “close reading of his manifesto suggests” that Breivik wanted to discredit and undermine the counterjihad movement's dedication to democratic change to further Breivik’s “dreamed-for revolution” as the only alternative.

Theologist and philosopher Marius Timmann Mjaaland has described the role given to Christianity in some parts of the counterjihad movement and has identified three aspects of the movement's ideology that supposedly links it to fascism-like conspiracy theories: Firstly, the establishment of an allegedly continuous and coherent connection between the present-day conflict between the Christian West and Muslims, whereas analyses based on established historical science will dismiss any such claim as unfounded. Secondly, a claim that mainstream politicians and media in Western countries have in effect become internal enemies or "traitors", by respectively allowing the creation of multicultural societies and advocating "marxism" and "political correctness". This, in turn, has allowed Muslims to settle in Western lands, and thereby allegedly opened them to attack from within. And, lastly, a nietzscheian, post-Christian worldview where the distinction between good and evil is given little attention, to the point where Christianity's ideal of "loving one's neighbour" is entirely omitted. Christianity is reduced from a system of belief to an identity marker, and a political mythology is built, that draws heavily on the crusades.

Organization

Counterjihad begun mainly as a Internet-based movement, centering around blogs such as Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs and Gates of Vienna and The Brussels Journal. Notable figures include the blogs' editors, respectively Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Edward S. May and Paul Beliën, as well as writers such as Bat Ye'or, David Horowitz and Fjordman. In time, a network of formal organisations has been established, with its main centers in Europe and the United States. A transatlantic umbrella organisation was established in 2012.

Europe

The "Counter Jihad 2007" conference, which took place in Belgium, has been regarded as a crucial event in the movement's history. During this first large conference, the Belgian, Flemish-nationalist party Vlaams Belang acted as host, allowing the conference access to the European parliament building as a venue. A March 2012 Counterjihad-conference in Denmark drew 200-300 supporters from through out Europe. Ten times the number of left-wing protesters staged a counter-demonstration. The 2012 conference in Denmark, was alleged by its organisers, the English Defence League to mark the starting point of a pan-European movement. The umbrella organization, Stop Islamisation of Europe, was founded Anders Gravers Pedersen, who also sits on the board of the Stop Islamisation of Nations. There are numerous affiliated "Stop the islamisation of..." and "Defense Leagues" in several European countries, among them Stop islamisation of Denmark, Stop islamisation of Norway, and the English Defence League affiliate the Jewish Defence League.

United States

The U.S.-based Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) is currently being led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, as a program under their American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). According to the AFDI website, the initiative aims, among other activities, to:

• Create state organizations that work towards the initative's aims at a local level
• Organize grass root small groups at the local level to fight what it labels "specific Islamic supremacist initiatives" in American cities
• Build strategic alliances with activist groups in Europe and Israel to engage in open and stealthy counter jihad measures
• Promote candidates who "fight against the march of Islamic supremacists"
• Host conferences "that educate Americans about Leftist indoctrination and Islam’s quest for domination"

SIOA has been accused by the Anti-Defamation League of

promot[ing] a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda under the guise of fighting radical Islam. The group seeks to rouse public fears by consistently vilifying the Islamic faith and asserting the existence of an Islamic conspiracy to destroy "American" values.

See also

• Islamophobia
• Eurabia
• Pan-nationalism
• Stop Islamization of America
• Stop Islamisation of Europe
• English Defence League