Right wing protesters disrupted a vigil for victims of the terrorist attack in Brussels on Saturday. Local citizens had taken to calling the groups “fascists” and “Nazis” as the protesters arrived at the quiet memorial of those killed last week in the March 22nd attack. Up to 400 members of a right-wing faction named The Nation converged on the area and began disrupting the event. One witness, Melissa Block reported that:
“a group of right-wing extremists clad in black have marched to the center of this rally and have taken over,” she said. “They’re shouting, ‘ It’s because of you’,” meaning the migrants here in Brussels.”
The protesters shouted at Muslims attending the rally, threw rocks and bottles at the crowd then attempted to engage in other forms of mayhem but were vanquished when local police used a fire hose to disperse the crowd. Brussels residents had been planning a “march against fear” on Sunday but it was cancelled after authorities appealed to the public citing strained security resources.
Here in the United States, presidential candidates, conservative pundits, and members of the Tea Party have been using similar rhetoric to gin up fear and votes during this election season. Ted Cruz has been trying to walk back statements about policing Muslim neighborhoods while Donald Trump has implied that he would use nuclear weapons against ISIS.
The comparisons of right-wing ideology here and abroad are startling. The constant drumbeat of “us” versus “them,” the blaming of a strange or foreign people on the ills of an entire region, the fear of being “overrun” by refugees, economic hardships supposedly caused by immigrants from other countries, and the always popular “crime and rape” of women and children that right-wingers like to toss out. Unfortunately, there has been an increasingly vocal contingent of supporters who have seized the spotlight and exploit tragedy for their sordid purposes – whatever they may be.
The problem has become a world-wide epidemic. Is there an answer to the hate and violence? Or is the world heading toward an inevitable confrontation between races, sexes, genders, colors, and all our differences against anything and anyone that isn’t exactly like we are? Are we headed toward the next world war because we’re not all white, Christian, and heterosexual?
