Counter-jihad

Counterjihad is an anti-Islamic, islamophobic, far-right, and 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."

Arun Kundnani, in a report published by the International Centre for Counter-terrorism, writes that the counterjihad movement has evolved from earlier European far-right movements through a shift from race to values as identity markers:"In moving from neo‐Nazism to counter‐jihadism, the underlying structure of the narrative remains the same." Continuing on this note, he writes that comparing the counterjihadist worldview to the older, neo-nazi one, "Muslims have taken the place of blacks and multiculturalists are the new Jews." 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'."

Cas Mudde argues that various conspiracy theories with roots in Bat Ye'Or's Eurabia are important to the movement. The main theme of these theories is an allegation that European leaders allow a Muslim dominance of Europe, whether by intention or not, through multicultural policies and lax immigration laws. According to Hope not Hate counterjihad have largely replaced earlier neo-nazism and the traditional far right thus making their ideas more respectable.

English Defence League rally in Newcastle, UK, 2010

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. 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. Bruce Bawer argues that the association of criticism of Islam with violence implies that "to be opposed to jihad is, by definition, not only a bad but a downright dangerous thing."

Executive director of the Institute of Race Relations, Liz Fekete, has argued that although most of the counter-jihad movement "stops short of advocating violence to achieve their goals", the most extreme parts share much of Breivik's discursive frameworks and vocabulary. She counterposits this with more mainstream counterjihadists, that warn of Islamisation as a result of naïvety or indecisiveness, whom she identifies as a source of legitimacy for the former.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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".
3. This, in turn, has allowed Muslims to settle in Western lands, and thereby allegedly opened them to attack from within.
4. 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.

In the US, the Counterjihad movement has been described as a “closely knit cadre of activists” who have gained influence with the help of "right-wing media personalities and politicians."

The Southern Poverty Law Center has compared Counterjihad to Cold War anti-Communist hysteria

In the span of the two years since the start of Barack Obama’s presidency in early 2009, an astonishing number of people have [been] convinced that 0.6 percent of the U.S. population is on the verge of trampling the Constitution and imposing an Islamic, Shariah-guided caliphate in its place. Like the communists that an earlier generation believed to be hiding behind every rock, infiltrated “Islamist” operatives today are said to be diabolically preparing for a forcible takeover.

Organization

Paul Beliën, the editor of counterjihad blog The Brussels Journal

Blogs such as Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, Politically Incorrect, Gates of Vienna and The Brussels Journal are central to the counterjihad movement. 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. Think tanks such as the International Free Press Society and the David Horowitz Freedom Center have had an important role in providing funds and establishing international links. 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.

The International Free Press Society lists representatives from many parts of the counterjihad spectrum on its board of advisors. This includes representatives of the right-wing U.S. elite, such as Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum and Frank J. Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy on one side, and European far-right politicians such as Geert Wilders and former member of the Danish People's Party, Lars Hedegaard, on the other. On its board of advisors, Eurabia theorist Bat Ye'Or is also present, while owner of the blog Gates of Vienna, Edward S. May, serves as outreach co-ordinator on its board of directors.

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 throughout 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 by 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

Robert Spencer, joint leader of Stop Islamization of America and editor of counterjihad blog Jihad Watch

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 initiative'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

• Islamofascism
• Islamophobia
• Eurabia
• Pan-nationalism
• Persecution of Muslims
• Stop Islamization of America
• Stop Islamisation of Europe
• English Defence League
• War against Islam