Terrorist Attack in Germany a Product of Mainstream, Not Just the Alt-Right

Crescent International

The February 20 attack in Hanau by a German terrorist that killed nine people shows that the promotion of Islamophobia does not threaten only Muslims.

Non-Muslims cannot ignore what is being normalized in their societies. The German terrorist’s victims included non-Muslims as well.

As reported by the British regime channel, the BBC, Peter Minnaman a young man of Cameroonian decent was wounded and Mercedes Kierpacz, a 35-year-old German of Sinti Roma background was killed.

It appears that the right-wing German terrorist shot innocent people simply based on their non-Arian looks.

Of the nine people killed by the German terrorist Tobias Rathjen, five were Turkish nationals killed randomly at a Shisha café visited mainly by German residents of immigrant background. Eight others were wounded.

As details of the white-supremacist terrorist attack in Germany trickle down to the masses, social and corporate media outlets focus their attention mainly on the Alt-Right.

This narrow-minded outlook and analysis are the primary reason for the rise of Islamophobia and it is not the alt-right which cultivates Islamophobia, but the so-called mainstream.

The late scholar, Dr. Edward Said in his 1997 book, Covering Islam clearly illustrated how the news media have portrayed “Islam” as a monolithic entity, synonymous with terrorism and religious hysteria.

The reality presented by Dr. Said is not a post-9/11 narrative. Islam has for decades been demonized by the mainstream Western political establishment.

In November 2018, Time magazine published a detailed report about how the ruling “centrist” government of Austria is normalizing right-wing extremism. While the report is a step in the right direction, it is a drop in the ocean.

Let’s get to the central question: how do mainstem Western politicians like Tony Blair, mainstream media like the CNN, the Atlantic and the BBC cultivate anti-Muslim bigotry?

Whenever Western media outlets cover political violence in the Muslim world without mentioning how often such political violence and instability are the result of Western-backed dictatorships, that is a soft peddling of Islamophobia.

It frames Muslim political activism and violence as completely unjustified and totally irrational.

People must remember that 15 or 20-years ago Breitbart, Tommy Robinson and their ilk did not exist, or existed on the fringes.

It was the mainstream media which constantly discussed Muslims and Islam in the context of irrational violence creating an opening for shallow websites like Breitbart.

It was the mainstream media and politicians that manufactured the message that Muslims and Islam are a threat and the alt-right took it a step further.

Now Muslims are projected as a threat, they are here, so let’s get rid of them.

In the aftermath of the German terrorist attack against innocents, it is important that people direct their criticism not only at the alt-right, but towards the mainstream.

The contemporary alt-right in the West is the non-Muslim version of Daesh.

Were it not for the Western media’s projection of Daesh as an “Islamic group” it would not have attracted much attention from ignorant Muslims.

Both Daesh and alt-right are the products of the failing imperialist political system.

They both have the same weaknesses and strengths but most importantly both have been provided an environment to grow in by the same NATO regimes.
GermanyIslamophobiaanti-Islam campaignCorporate MediaNATO