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News & Comment
Europe’s Far Right Marchers ‘Pray for an Islamic Holocaust’ in Poland
News:
A Washington Post headline on the 12th of November read, “‘Pray for an Islamic Holocaust’: Tens of thousands from Europe’s far right march in Poland”. The marchers were commemorating the independence of Poland on the 11th of November 1918, when Poland regained statehood after 123 years of being divided up within the borders of Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Comment:
The hateful slogan: “Pray for an Islamic Holocaust” was accompanied by other nationalistic slogans such as “Clean Blood”, “Refugees get out!” and “White Europe.” This yearly celebration of independence has become a distinctly racist and fascist celebration over the past 3 years and has been growing steadily in size. Yesterday’s marchers numbered 60,000 and they defined themselves by their colour, their language and their adherence to the Catholic Church.
The Muslim refugees that flooded into Europe are considered as alien invaders by the far-right Poles, and Poland’s far-right ruling Party, the Polish ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has refused entry to refugees since coming to power in 2015. The irony is that they prayed for “an Islamic Holocaust” when European countries and the US already ensured such a holocaust in Syria when they intervened to support Assad’s grip on power by preventing the Syrian revolutionaries from gaining access to weapons to defend themselves against Assad’s butchery, and now these victims of Western meddling in Syria are considered a threat to the countries they were forced to flee to. Nationalism is such a raw and primitive bond that fairness and reason will not flourish once the calls for clean blood and Holocaust become widespread.
As the marchers represent the nationalistic fever growing in Poland, so too do they represent patriotism. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of (PiS), which controls both Poland’s president and prime minister, revived his Party’s call on the day of the independence march for Germany to pay for the destruction and death caused by its occupation of Poland in World War 2: “The French were paid, Jews were paid, many other nations were paid for the losses they suffered during World War Two. Poles were not,” Kaczynski said as he continued with words of grandiosity: “It is not only about material funds. It is about our status, our honor ... And this is not theater. This is our demand, a totally serious demand”.
Kaczynski’s nationalism is fueled also by the same anti-immigration slogans that are empowering other right-wing parties throughout Europe, and far-right leaders from other countries were welcomed at the march. Poland’s interior minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, who is a member of the right-wing government said of the banners “It was a beautiful sight...We are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.”
Kaczynski is a Eurosceptic who believes that the nation state “is the only institution able to guarantee democracy and freedom,” and who said “Who attacks us will not win. Poland will remain Poland”, he said to European journalists as he poured doubt upon the European Union: “The question is, if the Union in its current shape, with its horrible bureaucracy and institutionalized undermining of the nation state, is able to survive”. His doubts about the European Union are valid, but whether you agree with him that the nation state can “guarantee democracy and freedom” will depend upon which end of the gun you are looking down when the calls for “Clean Blood”, “White Europe” and “Holocaust” for Muslims continue to dominate national agendas in Europe.
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Abdullah Robin