Many people around the globe watched with horror as the Taliban consolidated its control over Afghanistan this week. Far-right extremists like Donald Trump supporters and neo Nazi terror groups, who often push Islamophobic messages and promote Islamophobia, rejoiced in the fact that an insurgent group with a weaker arm could defeat a powerful power and one commanded a Democratic president.
Experts warn that extremists will use the scenes from the past week, the US-led 20 year war in the country, as a recruiting tool to spread misinformation, increase their ranks and fuel organization.
White nationalists have used the political backlash from the US troop withdraw to support their claims of the legitimacy and ineptitudeof the Biden administration, as well as calls for Donald Trump's reinstatement as president. Sara Kamali, a scholar who wrote Homegrown Hate, Why White Nationalists And Militant Islamists are Waging War Against the United States, spoke to BuzzFeed News via written comments.
Nick Fuentes is one such white nationalist. He is a 23-year old vlogger and antisemite and cheered the attack on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. He has an ally in Republican Rep. Paul Gosar from Arizona. Fuentes, who seemed to be praising the Taliban for being a conservative and religious force, told his Telegram subscribers Monday that the defeat of the US government is unambiguously a good development.
Fuentes and other white nationalists have used Islamophobia to recruit and propagandize. This makes Kamali's support for the Talibans militant Islamist worldview even more fascinating. Kamali stated that it is notable because he is supporting militant Islamists as mutual targets for American aggression, reaffirming the White nationalist narrative about victimhood.
She added that this shared narrative of victimhood sanctioned the war many White nationalists consider themselves to be fighting against the US government, peoples of color, and immigrant communities.
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Joe Biden, the President of the United States, set the April goal to have troops out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary the September 11 terrorist attacks. This was the longest US-led war. Biden stated that the collapse of Afghanistan's government and military would not occur as fast as this week. This despite the fact that spy agencies in the US were warning privately about the grim outlook.
Over the course of the week, Taliban fighters took over cities and government buildings. They finally seized the Kabul presidential palace on Sunday, after President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan. Only one area of Kabul's airport is not under Taliban control. This is where the US and other Western countries are desperately trying to evacuate thousands fleeing the Islamist insurgents.
Telegram and other encrypted social networking apps allowed extremists such as Fuentes to watch with excitement as the Biden administration's failures seemed to get worse every hour, and the Taliban tightened their grip on Afghanistan.
The Taliban is an epic, said a far-right vlogger who is associated with a violent neo Nazi group. He posted a Telegram post on Monday that has been viewed over 20,000 times. Invasion by the US in 2000 was necessary. They stayed for over 20 years and spent $1 trillion dollars and many lives to keep them away. The Taliban took over the entire country within 12 hours of our departure. LMAO.
Numerous extremist figures and groups shared dozens of similar posts, while still praising Taliban, their racism and hatred of the Middle East and antisemitic views were easily apparent.
I believe Islam is poisonous. This was my first post on Telegram, which was linked to the neofascist street-brawling club, the Proud Boys. However, these farmers and men with minimal training fought to take back their country from the [Western Neoliberals]. They seized their government and made their national religion the law. It was hard to ignore that.
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Kathleen Belew (an expert on the US white-power movement and author of Bring the War Home) tweeted that the evacuation of the US Embassy at Kabul evokes the 1975 fall of Saigon, an event that fueled decades of organizing.
She said that it won't take long for them to adapt their old recruitment strategies to this new context. The frustrations of veterans from the Global War on Terror, and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) about this... will allow some of them to be recruited and radicalized.
Kamali also said that Ghost Skins are past and current members of military and law enforcement that don't openly show their white nationist beliefs, but are part the complex makeup extremist groups.
Although the US military did not lose as much blood in Afghanistan against the Taliban, there was still resentment among veterans and servicemembers about the withdrawal from Afghanistan. It was also deemed that the mental and physical pain, as well as the loss of lives, were for nothing.
She added that this anti-government resentment would be another weapon in White nationalists' arsenal to recruit Ghost Skins.
There are many reports of US contractors and veterans voicing criticisms of the events in Afghanistan. The military and law enforcement agencies have been known to have issues with extremists within their ranks. At least 62 of those arrested for their alleged participation in the Capitol Riot were current or former military personnel, while at least 15 others were former or active police officers. Belew pointed out that they are not all vulnerable to extremist recruitment.
However, some extremists with military ties are already profiting from recent events.
BitChute published a video on Sunday showing the Taliban capturing cities. The founder of the neo-Nazi domestic terrorist group the Base, and a former contractor to the Department of Homeland Security in Afghanistan, said that the Taliban's goal was to cause the fall of society. We need to think bigger, and try to organize at a regional level, like the Taliban.
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