And so a 52 year old white male Thomas Mair has been charged with the brutal murder of 41 year old Labour MP Jo Cox. . He should have been charged with terrorism related offences.
Police found neo-Nazi paraphernalia in Mair’s home. According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, Mair was a dedicated supporter of the National Alliance, the once premier neo-Nazi organization in the United States, for decades. Mair purchased a manual from the NA in 1999 that included instructions on how to build a pistol.
Nobody in the media has yet identified Mair for what he is: a terrorist. Mair reportedly called out “Britain First” when he killed Cox. Just imagine the media’s response had he called out “Allah Akbar” or God is great. Talk about double standards.
The Quilliam Foundation, whose work focuses mainly on combating Islamic extremism, calls it for what it is in this statement:
“We call on the media to treat this act as it would any act of suspected jihadist terrorism. We call on society to expose, isolate and challenge all extremist ideologies and narratives for what they are. And we call on states to continue tackling extremism of all kinds, with consistency and urgency.
“Within a week of the jihadist terrorist attack in Orlando, we must remember the negative symbiosis between Islamist and far right extremism, and the atmosphere that both extremism create which is conducive to terrorism of any kind.”
It’s time for the media and society to be clear about what terrorism actually means.
