White Supremacist Terrorism ‘Propagated Online’ Rises in the US

The United States has seen a steady rise in hate crimes and associated acts of terrorism at the hands of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups over the past decade.

Following what is now being called a terror attack by a white supremacist on Muslim churchgoers in New Zealand on Friday, media groups in the US have again pointed out the sharp rise in domestic terrorism at the hands of racist and nationalist groups in America, according to CBS News.

A church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, saw a deadly attack that killed 11 people in October 2018. In Charlottesville, Virginia, a white nationalist rally saw three killed, one by a hate group member who drove his car into pedestrians. Nine churchgoers at a 2015 prayer meeting in a Charleston, South Carolina, church were shot in cold blood as they welcomed a man they thought wanted to join them in prayer, and six were killed by gunfire in 2012 as they worshiped in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

Heavy security was added at mosques around the US on Friday. Although officials and investigators noted that there had not been a direct threat, they affirmed that right-wing extremism and racially-motivated terrorism appeared to be rising in America.

"We're seeing an increase in the propaganda," noted the deputy head of counterterrorism for the state of New York, John Miller.

"[Right-wing hate groups] are borrowing propaganda techniques from other terrorist groups," he added, cited by Cbsnews.com.

Daesh used online hate speech to inspire followers, even as white supremacists do the same, noted the report. Attacks by far-right nationalists against immigrants in Europe leapt 43 percent between 2016-2017, while in America, right-wing extremists were linked to a minimum of 50 murders in 2018, a 35-percent rise over the previous year, according to CBS News.

"I would say the majority of it is propagated online. In fact this morning after the [New Zealand] attacks, I was seeing celebrations of the attacks online on the anti-Muslim hate sites. It's really disgusting," noted Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper, cited by Msn.com.

In February of this year an active-duty Coast Guard lieutenant was arrested after it was discovered that he had been collecting a large amount of weapons as a means to start what the white supremacist avowed would be a "race war."

"All of these guys watch," observed former White House Homeland Security advisor Fran Townsend.

"They watch the reaction, they watch the tactics of those that went before them. And we ought to acknowledge that there is a rise in […] nationalism around the world," she added, cited by Cbsnews.com.

The FBI currently has an estimated 900 active domestic terrorism cases in their workload, including many tied to white supremacists, according to reports.