A recent story in the news and relayed by the Religion of Peace site, is a good reminder to us that the boundary between the lunacy of neo-Nazism and that of Islamic jihadism is both thin and very permeable. CNN are reporting how a former neo-Nazi sympathising police officer, Nicholas Young, is appealing a 15 year gaol sentence that was imposed on him at a court in Virginia, USA after he was caught by the FBI providing material support for the Islamic terror group ISIS.
Nicholas Young, who had worked as a transport police officer in Washington DC, converted to Islam following a family bereavement, after which he spiralled into depression and apparently became vulnerable to the blandishments of Islamic evangelists. They ran into Young during an investigation into another Jihadi, and became aware of Young’s conversion to Islam and his propensity to believe various Islam originated conspiracy theories, such as that Muslims are ‘oppressed in America’. The FBI decided to keep an eye on him, they arrested Young when he transferred Google Play codes worth $245 to an undercover investigator posing as a Jihadi. Federal agents had kept Young on their radar for six years since 2010, although some of what Young had said to undercover agents had raised red flags, such as Young saying that he’d shoot anyone who entered his property, Young did not cross any legal red lines until he sent convertible items, the Google Play codes, to the agent.
When the police raided and searched his home, they found a large amount of pro-Hitler and neo-Nazi material, as well as a iPod containing pro-jihad songs along with other material that pointed to at least an unhealthy interest in ISIS as well as Nazism. I must admit that I was not surprised to see that someone with an interest in neo-Nazism would end up converting to Islam, both of these ideologies are violent, hateful and have within them a strong current of anti-Semitism. For someone who is screwed up in the head enough to be a Hitler worshipper, it’s not that far a moral or ethical step to become a follower of Mohammed, either instead or as well as a fan of the uni-testicled Austrian corporal.
If Young’s dual fandom of Mo the murdering paedo and Hitler the mass murdering alleged coprophile, looks a little familiar to British readers, then they would be correct. We’ve had neo-Nazis convert to Islam before and we have seen the mentor of the London Nail Bomber David Copeland, namely David Myatt, formerly of the National Socialist Movement, choose Islam. However Myatt has renounced Islam and allegedly now follows a Hellenic form of occultism. There is also, across the Pond, the case of Devon Arthurs a neo-Nazi who chose Islam and then killed his room mates after they mocked Islam. In addition, there is the case of the late Ahmed Huber who despite being a far rightist, also had had contacts with Bin Laden associates.
There does seem to be a bit of a pattern, not just from the above cases, but also when we look at others who have chosen to convert to Islam, such as Nazi war criminals, in that some converts to Islam are also interested or involved in Nazism, or other forms of political extremism. It is more often than not the case that some disturbed, extremist and mentally ill people become attracted to an Islamic path, because Islam meets their psychological needs, including their need to involve themselves in violence. The Islamic path, which Islamic evangelists dishonestly promise to its new recruits, says that it has all the answers to life, the universe and everything, and in addition it includes the violence that some converts crave. Apart from the light smear of spirituality that Islam has, when we look at the ethics of Islam, the hatred of out groups, the enforced conformity, the violence and the sense of self entitlement that Islam has, there seems to be very little difference between Islam and Nazism.
The boundaries between extremisms may look thick and impermeable; those on the violent far Left and those on the violent Far Right may believe that their views are poles apart from each other, but the reality is that many extremisms are very similar to each other. A person attracted to the idea of doing violence to others is likely to gravitate towards ideologies that allow this propensity to be indulged, either as violent rhetoric of the sort found in Islamic or neo-Nazi literature, or as actual violent attacks on perceived enemies.
There seems to be an increasingly well worn path from racialist* or extreme identitarian paths such as neo-Nazism, to equally hateful Islam. We should be more aware and more concerned that there may be many other individuals out there who are not content with the tiny neo-Nazi groupuscules that they reside in currently. These individuals may crave an ideology such as Islam, where violence and hatred are much more mainstream than they are in either their small neo-Nazi groups or in wider Western society. For the sake of security, we should keep a much closer eye on those who, although they may seem as if they are fully fledged neo-Nazis, could be just a few steps or pushes away from becoming an Islamic terrorist. Beware the jackbooted Jihadi I say, as I reckon such types could pose an increasing security problem for the future.
* I prefer to use the word ‘racialist’ rather than ‘racist’, since ‘racialist’ more properly describes those who believe that one subsection of the human race is superior to others, and that those of different skin colours are inferior.
