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Hate group

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A hate group is a group or movement that advocates violence against or unreasonable hate or hostility toward those persons or organizations identified by their religion, race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. A hate group includes organizations or individuals that disseminate historically inaccurate information about these persons or organizations. This inaccurate information is used for vilification or may be the reason for hostility. Typically, they prejudge each individual in the target group as "unworthy" or "inferior" and want to exclude or hurt them. A hate group commonly works to achieve its goals using fear, hate, and intimidation as its modus operandi (or commonly used methods). In the democratic West, organizations dedicated to the incitement of racial violence, including white supremacist, black supremacist are commonly described as hate groups. Generally, these groups make no bones about it; they openly admit hating their targets. Sometimes Al-Qaeda, an Islamic terrorist organization, is classified as a hate group. Two main elements are present in hate group literature and tactics:

  • Dehumanizing or demonizing the target;
  • Conspiracy theories, possibly not well backed up or referenced;

Some people claim, without referring to scholarly works, that there are two additional characterizations:

  • Claiming to be a minority that speaks for a silent majority;
  • Proclamation of scholarly or scientific support for their theories. The support may turn out to be non-existent, pseudo scientific, partisan, or one-sided on closer examination.

The Webster's dictionary 1913 edition defines hate as "To have a great aversion to, with a strong desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; to dislike intensely; to detest; as, to hate one's enemies; to hate hypocrisy."

Hate groups throughout history

Violence by hate groups

The California Association for Human Relations Organizations (CAHRO) asserts that mainstream hate-groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White Aryan Resistance preach violence against racial, religious, sexual and other minorities in the USA. These groups have hate hotlines, Internet websites and chartrooms, and a hate propaganda distribution networks designed to transform the fears of the economically challenged, the paranoid and the ignorant into violence, and to brutalize minorities and vandalize their property. They further assert that pseudo-mainstream hate groups are perhaps the most dangerous. Most of the population automatically tunes out messages from known racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, because they know what their agenda is, but groups with a mainstream cover, who use mainstream terminology to spread their message, can find a much wider audience and thus be more dangerous.

An article by Joseph E. Agne, sees hate violence as a result of the successes of the Civil Rights Movement and assert that the Ku Klux Klan has resurfaced and new hate groups formed. The article talks about the use of propaganda via the use of magazines, songs, the Internet, cable TV, comic books, and other media to carry their message of hate. They field political candidates and boast of leaders at the highest levels of churches, corporations, and institutions. Agne asserts that it is a mistake to underestimate the strength of the hate-violence movement, its apologists, and its silent partners.

Verbal violence

Dr. Ehud Sprinzak an expert in terrorism and hate crimes asserts that verbal violence is "the use of extreme language against an individual or a group that either implies a direct threat that physical force will be used against them, or is seen as an indirect call for others to use it." Sprinzak argues that verbal violence is often a substitute for real violence, and that the verbalization of hate has the potential to incite people who are incapable of distinguishing between real and verbal violence to engage in actual violence.

Psychopathology of hate groups

According to a report published in 2003 in the FBI Law Enforcement bulletin, a hate group, if unimpeded, pass through seven successive stages of hate. In the first four stages, hate groups vocalize their beliefs and in the last three stages, they act on their beliefs. They point to a transition period that exists between verbal violence and acting that violence out, separating hard-core haters from rhetorical haters.

Stage 1: Grouping

Haters feel compelled to have others hate as they do. Through peer validation, they get a sense of self-worth and at the same time prevent introspection. Individuals that otherwise would be inefficient, become empowered when they form or join groups. In addition, groups provide a welcome anonymity in which to express their hate without being held accountable.

Stage 2: Self-definition

Hate groups create identities through symbols, mythologies, and rituals, designed to enhance the members' status and at the same time, degrade the object of their hate.

Stage 3: Disparaging the target

By verbally debasing the object of their hate, haters enhance their self-image, as well as their group status. Researchers have found that the more often a person thinks about aggression, the greater the chance for aggressive behavior to occur. Thus, after constant verbal denigration, haters progress to the next stage.

Stage 4: Taunting the target

Time cools the fire of hate forcing the hater to look inward. To avoid introspection, haters increase their use their rhetoric and violence to maintain high levels of agitation. Taunts and offensive gestures serve this purpose.

Stage 5: Attacking without weapons

This stage is critical because it differentiates vocally abusive haters from physically abusive ones. Violence coalesces hate groups and isolates them from mainstream society. The element of thrill-seeking appears in this stage. The adrenaline "high" intoxicates the attackers. Each successive hate derived thought or action triggers a more violent response than the one that originally initiated the sequence. Anger builds on anger. Adrenaline-high combined with hate becomes a deadly combination.

Stage 6: Attacking with weapons

Some attackers use firearms to commit hate crimes, others prefer close-contact weapons. Requiring the attacker to be close to the victim, shows the personal anger aspects of hate. Some attackers chose to discharge firearms at a distance, thus avoiding personal contact. Personal contact empowers and fulfills the deep-seated need of the hater to have dominance over their object of their hate.

Stage 7: Destroying the target

The ultimate goal of haters is to destroy the object of their hate. With the power over life and death comes a great sense of self-worth and value, the very qualities haters lack, however, the ultimate destiny of hate is the physically and psychologically destruction of both the hater and the hated.

Hate groups on the Internet

In the mid-1990s, the popularity of the Internet brought new international exposure to many organizations, including groups with extremist beliefs such as white supremacists, Holocaust deniers, and other groups. A number of authority figures stated publicly that the Internet allowed hate groups to introduce their messages to a widespread audience, and it was feared that their memberships would gain in popularity and numbers as a result. Some scholars suggest that the information overload brought forth by the Internet may be manipulated for the purpose of damaging specific groups or organizations.

Since the advent of the Internet, a common tactic by hate groups is the use of Cyberstalking. Several white supremacist groups have founded Web sites dedicated to attacking their perceived enemies, such as Ken McVay, founder of the Nizkor Project; or Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. These web sites, which gather "dirt" on their targets and claim to reveal the "truth," have been known to resort to slander and libel to attack their foes.

Listing of hate groups

In the USA, one of the several organizations that try to counter intolerance and hate groups is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL lists the following groups as hate groups, or white or black supremacist groups, anti-Semitic, anti-government, or extremist groups that have committed hate crimes

Hate groups in a wider sense

The classification of other groups as a hate group is more controversial and little or no consensus has developed as to whether political, religious or anti-religious movements deserve the label "hate group". Some advocates have applied it to some radical activists who engage in "questionable and often illegal" methods to achieve their goals, such as Operation Rescue, and the Animal Liberation Front. Others claim that the term "hate group" is used as a propaganda tool to discredit opponents. Generally, hate group watch organizations and governments do not consider these groups serious and violent enough to mention them in their lists.

Hate groups and new religious movements

Apart from the above mentioned NRM Nation of Islam (that the ADL lists as a black supremacist group), some advocates who regard certain fringe religious organizations, new religious movements or (controversially) "cults" as spurious and condemn their methods, also call them "hate groups". For example, the prominent counter cult activist Anton Hein considers Scientology a hate group because that religious movement has, in his opinion, a long, documented history of hate and harassment activities, which—along with lying and deception—are condoned and encouraged in Scientology's own 'scriptures.' (See, for example, Scientology's Fair Game policy.)

In turn, a number of new religious movements have used the term "hate group" to label certain former members of these groups. Disaffected former members of these organizations have worked to expose what they believe is the "truth" about the groups in question, though the methods used by some of these former members have been known to be polemic, hostile and verbally abusive. Alleged cults and new religions have seized upon the hostile acts of their former members and cited them as examples of persecution and bigotry by these former members. Supporters of these groups have waged campaigns of their own to label former members as hate groups, even to the point where they publish literature and Web sites dedicated to attacking these disaffected persons.

CESNUR’s president Massimo Introvigne, writes in his article "So many evil things: Anti-cult terrorism via the Internet", that fringe and extreme anti-cult activism resort to tactics that may create a background favorable to extreme manifestations of discrimination and hate against individuals that belong to new religious movements. Critics of CESNUR, however, call Introvigne a cult apologist who defends harmful religious groups and cults. Somewhat in concurrence with Introvigne, professor Eileen Barker asserts that the controvery surrounding certain new religious movements can turn violent by a process called deviancy amplification spiral.

Elan Vital, an NRM and an organization that supports the work of Prem Rawat, labels its vocal critics that call themselves "Ex-Premies" a hate group, because it believes that their actions and expressions contains similar elements and characterizations as presented in Introvigne's article and question their character and motives as well as their tactics.

See also

References

  1. Sprinzak, Ehud. Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination. New York: The Free Press (1999)
  2. Schafer,John R. MA & Navarro. Joe, MA . The seven-stage hate model: The psychopathology of hate groups. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin , March 2003 Issue
  3. Denning, Dorothy E., and Peter J. Denning. Internet Besieged: Countrering Cyberspace Scofflaws. New York: ACM Press (1998)

External links

General

New religious movements

Web sites attacking former members of alleged cults and fringe religious groups