Soroor Ahmed accentuates the rise of Christian fundamentalism and extremism in the backyard of the West, which concentrated its energy more in the Muslim world and failed to look within. This has come to the fore once again with the arrest of 25 right wing extremists in Germany.
The report of the attempted military coup in Germany initially sounded like fake news. But it wasactually true.
After all, how can one in the ‘civilized’ and democratic West ever dream of such a bid which is commonin the ‘barbaric’ world. Notwithstanding the January 6, 2021 naked aggression on the Capitol Hill inWashington, one took the news of crackdown on extreme right wing group in Germany with a sense ofdisbelief. All this simply because the international media has painted the White world inbrightest of colours while rest of the planet in the darkest.
The truth is that this is not the first instance of attempted military takeover in any country of theWest in the modern time. There is no doubt that the countries of Europe, the United States, Canada, etc. are much advanced than many others in the East and South. But the fact remains that they are facingalmost the same problems and challenges as other nations of the Second and Third World areconfronting.
On December 7 – that is exactly 23 months after the armed attack on the US Parliament which had thebacking of the country’s then President (Donald Trump) – authorities across Germany carried outraidsin 11 out of 16 states and arrested 25 people (one each from Austria and Italy too) on the plea thatthey were plotting the military takeover of the country. As per the official reports, they were themembers of extreme right group, Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich).
They are supporters of Nazi Germany, want to establish imperial Germany of 1871 and do not recognisethe post-World War II Constitution and laws. They are of the view that Germany is in control of the US,United Kingdom and France.
They are against COVID vaccination drive and rubbish the pandemic as a great conspiracy for checkingthe population.
The members of this outfit are openly anti-Semitic and admire Adolf Hitler. As per the western mediareporting, it is a male dominated group with men forming 75 per cent of members – mostly above 40years.
Those arrested include a top military official, a judge and a lawmaker.This is not the first time that such arrests have been made. In the past too their activities weredetected. They have infiltrated into the system and security agencies.
Though this was a very serious development, the global media did not pay due attention. After a day ortwo of reporting, the news disappeared from the scene.
As the FIFA World Cup was at its peak and war in Ukraine was goingon, the international media gotenough opportunity to sweep the issue under the carpet. If that was not enough, they were busyhighlighting the reports of women protests against Hijab in Iran and Afghanistan.
Curiously, whenever they would carry stories from these two Muslim countries, the media would hasten toadd that there is strict censorship there. But, if there is so difficulty in reporting from these twoneighbours, how is it that the western media are flooded with stories on movement againstHijab?
One may accept the argument that collecting news from these two countries may not be so easy. But whyis it that the media adopt self-censorship when it comes to report such a serious matter from Germany,which is an open country. Why didn’t any follow up analysis appear after the initial reports onDecember 7-8?
One cannot deny that religious extremism and terrorism had grown strong in several parts of the Muslim world. However, experts are of the view that they are also a misplaced reaction to the westernhegemony. Yet their action cannot be defended as they are totally un-Islamic.
Ever since the decline of Communism in 1990, more after September 11, 2001, the western media haveconstantly been highlighting the threat from these groups.Thanks to the media, the world today isin the grip of Islamophobia.
But how is it that Christian-right have suddenly grown so strong in the entire West. Europe and theUnited States claim to be liberal and tolerant society yet it is there that not only Muslims, but evenJews, are being frequently targeted and killed. Mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples are beingattacked.
When the world is thinking ahead and people even of obscure African and Asian countries are strugglingto remove dictators and ruthless rulers, a section of Germans were planning to throw out the electedgovernment and replace it with monarchy. Sounds absurd. While the western media remained busy in theircrusade in the Muslim world, they failed to highlight that there exists a very strong group in their ownbackyard which calls Coronavirus a product of a conspiracy.
But Germany is not an isolated example. Rightist forces have come to power even with the help ofballots in a couple of East European countries, Italy, Sweden, etc. In France too they have emerged verystrong. Electorally they gained a lot of support in Germany too in the last few years. In the UnitedStates and now even in Canada, White supremacists often take up guns to eliminate the non-Whites.
In fact, the Russia-Ukraine war is also the outcome of the rise of ultra-nationalism.However, when all these forces were gaining strength in the West, the global media was lookingelsewhere. They were carrying stories on the Muslim world, China and other countries.
Islamic terrorism may be a reaction of the western imperialism. But, may one ask as to what isresponsible for the rise of Christian fundamentalism and imperialism? Where have all the liberals anddemocrats gone? It seems that they concentrated their energy more in the Muslim world and failed tolook within. How can even a small section of Germans – otherwise a developed society – can dream of goingback to the age of kingship?
Why talk only about right wing extremism and racism of 2022. When Communism was gaining ground in theWest in the post-World War-II years, the same media was more busy highlighting the rise of this ideologyin far-off Indo-China or Africa. What they would seldom highlight is that ultra-Left terroristoutfits were very active in the developed world, too. How can one forget the Red Brigade of Italy,Baader-Meinhof of Germany or Japanese Red Army?
In the same way, the West was more keen to restore democracy in the Third World when the truth is thatit did nothing to remove dictatorship in the two of the western most countries of Europe – Spain andPortugal. They were under the rule of ruthless dictators till mid-1970s. The so-called nursery ofdemocracy, France, had always seen political uncertainty and turmoil. There was threat of militarytakeover of that country till late 1960s.
If today a sizeable section of Germans believe that their country is under the control of the USA, theUK and France, till 1970s a large section of French, especially Communists, would accuse the Americansof ruling and exploiting their country.