White Jihad: Fused Extremism?

Farright extremist groups keep emerging and attempt to create online coalitions relying on Telegram’s permissive stance towards terrorist and extremist content. This trend created the new ecosystem on Telegram known as Terrorgram, a set of Telegram channels, communal chats, and individual accounts that subscribe to, or promote neo-Nazism, militant accelerationism, racism, and neo-fascist ideologies. According to several studies, this new far-right ecosystem appeared to adopt jihadist terminology, narratives and calls for violence in a process termed as “White Jihad.” This fusion is both intriguing and perplexing as far-right militants frequently target and victimize Muslims, criticize Islam and attack Muslim institutions and mosques. This study seeks to build on previous work exploring this potential fusion by testing it empirically. Using a comparative analysis of the content in extremist publications from Terrorgram and jihadist magazines produced by the Islamic State (Rumiyah and Dabiq) and Al-Qaeda (Inspire), this study attempts to further understand the nature of this fusion and test whether “White Jihad” is empirically supported. The findings of this study contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the interactions between these two disparate extremist ideological groups, identifying commonalities and differences in the strategies employed in their propaganda and operational efforts.