The following article has been published in the ABC Religion & Ethics and Times of Israel Blogs by ECAJ Research Director, Julie Nathan.

The con­tem­por­ary far-right in Australia is best described as a con­glom­er­ate of different ideas and ideo­lo­gies, held with varying intensity and activity, but connected by certain political positions. These positions, in general, include ultra-nation­al­ism and racism, and oppos­i­tion to mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, homo­sexu­al rights, equality for females, “the Left” and, in many cases, oppos­i­tion to democracy and the rule of law.

From 2015 to 2017, much of the far-right was heavily focussed on actively opposing Islam and Muslims being in Western countries. Much of the oppos­i­tion was fuelled by Islamist terrorist attacks over the previous decades. The Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney in December 2014 and the mass migration of Muslims into Europe, par­tic­u­larly into Germany, in 2015 gal­van­ised the far-right into action.

At the same time, neo-Nazi groups were re-emerging and con­sol­id­at­ing their pro­pa­ganda and public activity. Many of these groups were incubated online, and formed groups in Europe, North America and Australia. In late 2016, a neo-Nazi group arose in Australia, Anti­podean Res­ist­ance, which was polit­ic­ally active through the use of pro­pa­ganda posters and stickers, pre­dom­in­antly anti-Jewish, anti-homo­sexu­al and in favour of a “white Australia.” The group further called for the killing of Jews and homo­sexu­als, and the deport­a­tion of those of non-European ethnicity.

During 2017, many on the extreme-right began to embrace the “white-replace­ment” myth. This idea provides an updated con­spir­acy theory with which to demonise and attack Jews, and which also slots into the pre­vail­ing hostility towards those of non-European ethnicity and Muslims – by blaming “the Jews” for the mass immig­ra­tion of Africans, Asians, Arabs and Muslims into “white” countries. It became the gal­van­ising ideology which inspired and emboldened the far-right, from the Char­lottes­ville rally in August 2017 – with its signature chant, “Jews will not replace us” – to the massacre of Jews in Pitt­s­burgh in October 2018, whose per­pet­rat­or chillingly wrote before­hand, “Screw your optics. I’m going in.”

The latter shooting became the first in a series of deadly attacks inspired by the white-replace­ment ideology. This came home to Australia with the massacre of Muslims in two New Zealand mosques in Christ­ch­urch in March 2019 by an Aus­trali­an who believed that he was defending European Christian civil­isa­tion against another “Islamic invasion” – this time through Muslim migration, into Europe and other “white” countries.

Increas­ingly, the extreme-right are sharpen­ing their ideo­lo­gic­al per­spect­ives. The prime focus is on the notion of race. It is pre­dom­in­antly ethnic-European ultra-nation­al­ism whereby only those of European ethnicity are deemed to be Aus­trali­an and have the right to live here. People of all non-European eth­ni­cit­ies, except Indi­gen­ous Aus­trali­ans, are to be forced to emigrate.

Coupled with the racial ultra-nation­al­ism are the cultural motifs. Primarily, this is expressed in gender terms. Oppos­i­tion to gender equality is expressed by the aim of putting women back in the kitchen and bedroom as their sole role in life as wife, breeder and home maker, and revoking their right to vote. Homo­sexu­al­ity and other so-called “sexual devi­an­cies” are to be outlawed and erad­ic­ated, including by execution.

Right-wing extrem­ists usually perceive the demo­crat­ic gov­ern­ments of the West as being corrupt and owned by “the oligarchs” – a term usually used to refer to Jews; and that gov­ern­ments no longer represent their nation, but have become traitors to their nation and race. Right-wing extrem­ists also place the blame on “Cultural Marxism” (often code for Jews) and/or “the Left” (often portrayed as the lackeys of “the Jews”) as being the means whereby Western society is being racially and cul­tur­ally under­mined and “replaced” through immig­ra­tion, mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, feminism and homo­sexu­al­ity. “The Left” is often rep­res­en­ted as being pre­dom­in­antly found in academia and the media – two important social influ­en­cers.

The religious or spiritual dimension within the extreme-right is usually expressed through a nation­al­ist or racialist prism. Quite a few of them promote an intol­er­ant and extremely con­ser­vat­ive form of Chris­tian­ity, which includes hatred of Jews as “Christ-killers” and theo­lo­gic­al objec­tions to homo­sexu­als and to female equality. Others take on the older European pagan myths, which are often perceived as the pure essence of European spir­itu­al­ity, based in race and soil. Often there is rivalry between the Chris­ti­ans and the pagans, usually about whether Chris­tian­ity is a European religion, or a plot by Jews to control Europeans. Others seek to form an alliance of ethnic Europeans between Chris­ti­ans and pagans in order to fight “the Jew” and other non-Europeans.

There tends to be three core subjects of discourse and con­ten­tion – Jews, China and Islam – within the extreme-right. These three are each seen as a threat to Australia, and to the West in general, for varying reasons. It is these so-called threats that the extreme-right seek to wage war against. It is not uncommon to see online polls conducted by the extreme-right about which of the three poses the greatest threat to Australia, or whether one would rather live under occu­pa­tion by Islam or China – many consider they already live under Jewish occu­pa­tion, sometimes referred to as “ZOG” (Zionist Occu­pa­tion­al Gov­ern­ment).

Jews are usually seen as the fun­da­ment­al problem. Attitudes towards Jews tend to range from deporting them to killing them en masse. Jews are portrayed as con­trolling the mech­an­isms of power – gov­ern­ment, finance and media – plus under­min­ing the cultural values of Western Christian civil­isa­tion. Con­spir­acy theories abound blaming “the Jews” for the majority, if not all, of the problems in the West.

Dis­cus­sions on China and Chinese Aus­trali­ans revolve around two com­ple­ment­ary positions. First, that Chinese Aus­trali­ans should emigrate, due to being racially non-European, regard­less of how many gen­er­a­tions their families have lived in Australia. Second, that China, as a growing world power, presents a major economic and security threat to Australia. China is perceived as infilt­rat­ing Australia, and of using Chinese Aus­trali­ans as a fifth column, in order to take over Australia.

The position on Muslims and Islam has the broadest variety of per­spect­ives. One position is that Muslims are a foreign element, with the majority of them of non-European ethnicity and should therefore be forced to emigrate. Islam as a religion is perceived as being incom­pat­ible with European Christian culture, and therefore has no place in “Christian” countries. Islamist terrorism has birthed and rein­forces many of the negative views of Islam and Muslims. The position at the other end sees Islam and Muslims as natural allies against Jews, homo­sexu­als, feminists and other “undesir­ables.” One neo-Nazi even promoted the idea that Australia should encourage Muslim immig­ra­tion in order to counter such “social degen­er­acy.” Because Nazism is an ideology based on race not religion, it has no par­tic­u­lar issue with Islam or Muslims, as attested to by Hitler’s allying with some Islamic leaders in the Middle East. Some right-wing extrem­ists have been putting out memes such as “Islam is right about the homos” and “Islam is right about women” in order to provoke and confuse those on the Left.

One of the main themes expressed by the extreme-right is that a war is coming – a civil war, a race war – between the ethnic-European races and those of non-European ethnicity. This is often expressed as “RAHOWA” (Racial Holy War), or as “GTKRWN” (Gas The Kikes, Race War Now), or as “White Revolu­tion” (“Kike” is a highly derog­at­ory word for “Jew”). This war is seen as inev­it­able and as something to be desired, if only because it is seen as the only way left to “take back” their countries from their “race enemies” and the “race traitors” – all destined for either death or deport­a­tion. Another component of this race war is the “Day of the Rope” concept which refers to the public hanging of all “race traitors” – namely, “whites,” and par­tic­u­larly politi­cians, academics, journ­al­ists and Leftists, who have supported “non-whites.”

Hitler has made a comeback among many on the extreme-right. Even those not normally con­sidered to be sub­scribers to Nazi ideology are promoting Hitler as the knight in shining armour – unfairly tarnished by “the Jews” – and as the saviour of the European races. Many espouse his­tor­ic­al revi­sion­ism whereby Hitler was “the good guy” and that the allies chose the wrong side. They point to “race mixing” and “sexual degen­er­acy” as examples of the con­sequences of Hitler losing the war and of his enemies having won. Holocaust denial is rampant among the extreme-right, while at the same time seeking another Holocaust. Hitler has become the ultimate hero and meme in their pro­pa­ganda war.

The concept of accel­er­a­tion­ism is hotly debated, whether to let society fall apart in due course or to take action to bring it on more quickly. Either way, the extreme-right see the ultimate goal as being achieved through race war. Mass murderers like Robert Bowers in Pitt­s­burgh acted on accel­er­at­ing the social frac­tur­ing by playing their role in ini­ti­at­ing race war. Others see the actions of accel­er­a­tion­ists as being coun­ter­pro­duct­ive to the white ethno-nation­al­ist cause, as it gives ammuni­tion to the author­it­ies and civil society, which is then used against the ethno-nation­al­ists and other right-wing extrem­ists.

In their paranoid fantasy, many right-wing extrem­ists believe that there will be a genocide of the European races, and that this is imminent, unless there is a race war. This belief is one of the driving forces for accel­er­a­tion­ism. The more they believe ethnic Europeans are under exist­en­tial threat of extinc­tion, the more violent they will become, resulting in more terrorist attacks against minor­it­ies in majority ethnic-European countries.

One way of dealing with right-wing extrem­ists is to bring the full force of the law against them, espe­cially when they espouse, threaten or incite violence. Another way is with de-rad­ic­al­isa­tion programs, to wean them off their destruct­ive course. In many ways, radical Islamists and radical ethno-nation­al­ists have parallel ideo­lo­gies and are on parallel paths – intol­er­ant, suprem­acist, violent, total­it­ari­an and genocidal. Lessons learned with one may well be useful and applic­able to the other.

Julie Nathan is the Research Director at the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ), and author of the annual ECAJ Report on Antisemitism in Australia.