<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/10/rise-in-activity-from-right-wing-extremists-who-want-to-trigger-race-war-in-australia-asio-warns>
"Asio says violent rightwing extremists are still being inspired by the
Christchurch mosque shooting massacre carried out by an Australian man in 2019,
warning of an uptick in activity from hate groups “who want to trigger a so
called ‘race war’”.
And the home affairs department has told a parliamentary inquiry into rightwing
extremism that it is seeing increasing imports of Nazi imagery into Australia
despite a ban on displaying such symbols, and has also raised alarm about
violent extremist groups targeting councils in Victoria due to their support
for the LGBTQ+ community.
In its submission to the Senate inquiry, Asio – Australia’s domestic security
agency – said about a quarter of its counter-terrorism workload was related to
“ideologically motivated violent extremists”, as distinct from religiously
motivated extremism.
It said the ideologically motivated cohort, made up predominantly of rightwing
extremists including nationalist and racist groups, “are more likely to focus
on recruitment and radicalisation rather than attack planning in the
foreseeable future” but it warned of changing trends.
“Internationally, the March 2019 Christchurch attacks have been cited as
inspiration for nationalist and racist violent extremist (NRVE) attacks
overseas, and the attacks continue to resonate with NRVEs here in Australia,”
Asio told the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs references committee.
“Over the last 18 months, we have seen an uptick in the number of NRVEs
advocating sabotage in private conversations both here and overseas. It is
particularly pronounced among NRVE ‘accelerationists’ – meaning extremists who
want to trigger a so called ‘race war’.”
The Australian shooter who killed 51 Muslim worshippers at a Christchurch
mosque in 2019 was active in far-right groups in his home country. In 2020 he
was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The global anti-terror group Counter Extremism Project last week warned the
Senate committee about Australian neo-Nazis creating crowdfunding campaigns and
“active clubs” to train members in combat."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
