Der Spiegel: How Right-Wing Extremists and Islamists Are the Same [View all]

[pampango]

The two groups appear to be diametrically opposed, but a deeper look reveals they have a great deal in common. The totalitarian worldview has many manifestations.

Their extremism and the absolutist nature of their ideas are comparable. Miliopoulos says that such groups seek to capitalize on people's fears. For Pro-NRW, that effort manifests itself in the way the party equates Islam with Islamism -- religion with ideology.

Their own ideology, however, is seen as the absolute truth, another characteristic that Pro-NRW shares with the Salafists. No doubts and no differentiations are allowed. Both ideologies are rooted in an extreme simplification of reality, allowing them to easily decide who is right and who is wrong. Nuance would only endanger their simple truths.

"Totalitarian thought is rooted in the willingness to promote one's own opinion with violence if necessary," Miliopoulos says. The Salafists made clear in Bonn, for example, that they are prepared to fight for what they see as the infallibility of their beliefs. And not just with words, but with rocks, sticks and knives if necessary.

In the final analysis, extremists such as those from Pro-NRW and the Salafists are united in their aspiration to do away with democracy and the freedoms it guarantees.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-similarities-between-right-wing-extremists-and-islamists-a-832294.html

Good to see that some in Germany get it.