Xenophobic extremism has raised its ugly head in Germany again. Last week, a right-wing neo-Nazi went on a shooting spree in two hookah bars in Hanau in Germany, killing nine people of ‘immigrant backgrounds.’ He then went home and shot dead his mother before turning the gun on himself. Most of his victims were from Turkish and Kurdish families. They were first or second-generation German nationals. Yet the assailant perceived them as “outsiders who deserved to die”. Preliminary investigations reveal that the assailant was radicalized online and possessed licensed weapons. Investigators are rightly treating the mass killing as a terrorist attack as it was motivated by right-wing xenophobia.
This was Germany’s third attack perpetrated by right-wing extremists over the past year. Apparently, several other attacks were foiled. Indeed, just a week ago, German police arrested 12 members of a far-right terror cell that was reportedly conspiring to gun down worshippers at mosques across the country. While right-wing extremism has a long history in Germany, the flood of refugees from war-torn Syria, Libya and Afghanistan in 2014-15, evoked a tidal wave of xenophobia in Europe. Unlike other European leaders German Chancellor Angela Markel adopted a refugee-friendly policy. Her laudable approach to a humanitarian crisis came under fire from the far-right, and it is to the far-right’s hate propaganda that the roots of recent terror attacks in Germany can be traced. Political parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) have been peddling conspiracies that white people are being exterminated by foreigners migrating to Germany. They may have representation in parliament but the methods they espouse are illegal and extra-constitutional. They are encouraging youth to pick up guns against minorities and immigrants.
German security officials have identified around 12,000 people in the country as known right-wing extremists. Their numbers are likely to be larger as many, such as the Hanau terrorist, work below the radar, unknown and unidentified. Their activities must be closely monitored and punished if illegal, as should their patrons and inciters in the political parties. The Hanau attacks are said to have set alarm bells ringing in the German security establishment. Security officials elsewhere in the world, too, need to wake up from their slumber. Majoritarian and anti-minority extremism is spurring terrorist acts in several countries across the world. However, governments are turning a blind eye to such majoritarian terrorism. Indeed, they are reluctant to even treat it as terrorism. This selective approach must end.