Islam in Modern Turkey

Abstract

while the ultimate goal of White nationalists is to establish an ethno-national state, American militant Islamists seek to make America part of a global caliphate; similarly, whereas RAHOWA is at the intersection of race and religion, jihad has nothing to do with race. This is not to say that these two cohorts cannot be or should not be compared, but to underline the need to point out divergences as much as similarities, and then justify the comparison as viable and imperative. A second issue relates to the transnational aspect, which is rather poorly framed. Kamali does refer to transnational aspects of White nationalism and militant Islamism (235, 250), but her account of the concept is inadequate. Although the book primarily focuses on American militant White nationalists and Islamists, it inevitably emphasizes cross-border aspects and dimensions of the phenomenon here and there. However, it says little, if anything, about how European White nationalist groups (e.g. the German AfD, Les Identitaires and its youth wing Generation Identity in France, the Italian Lega Nord, and Jobbik in Hungary) interact with and influence American White nationalists and vice versa. Similarly, although the book points to how some Muslim ideologues from various parts of the world, such as al-Mawdudi and Qutb, have shaped the worldviews of American militant Islamists, underlining the transnational aspect, no serious insight is provided into how American militant Islamists interact, if at all, with organized transnational political Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood or militant networks such as the Al-Qaeda. A third issue concerns the book’s suggestion that an ethics of empathy is the way forward for confronting terrorism, tackling systemic/structural racism, and building a shared sense of belonging among citizens. Kamali rather naively claims that her alternative counterterrorism strategy, i.e. holistic justice, would be instrumental not only in preventing White nationalist and militant Islamist terrorism but also in developing greater understanding between people of different backgrounds (265). One could argue, however, that empathy is too abstract and fragile to counter the systemic and institutional problems that are thoroughly discussed throughout the book. Overall, Homegrown Hate is a thought-provoking, informative and timely book, successfully demonstrating that White nationalist terrorism is as significant as militant Islamism. This is a must-read for students, academics, journalists and, in particular, policy-makers and actors in security bureaucracy, who are interested in White nationalism, domestic terrorism and counterterrorism in the USA.