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Hello, we at LightUponLight.online welcome you to the first edition of our
online e-zine Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate, a magazine dedicated to combating FROM
THE

E
polarization and hate. We are experiencing an Age of Extremisms, in the
plural, an era where left-wing, jihadist and right-wing radicalization are
intersecting and producing an alarming rate of enhanced hate and
senseless violence.

D
This is perhaps no more evident than in the tragic attacks at two mosques
in Christchurch, New Zealand, that were followed shortly thereafter by
bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. The articles you’ll discover
here are part of Light Upon Light’s broader Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate campaign.
Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate represents an individual and collective methodology for
addressing the issues that surround polarization, hate and extremism.

I
A year ago, within a mater of days, the MAGA bomber was apprehended,
there was a racist attack on an African American couple by an indiviudual
that first tried to break into a predominately African American church in
Kentucky, and there was the mass murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue in

T
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Over the last year, the rising threat posed by
far-right wing extremism has become all the more evident and our organi-
zation had been at the forefront of combating it.

Most are now familiar with the threat posed by far right-wing extremism,
though a large segment of the population in the United States (and the

O
West, generally) sympathizes with their grievances. However, since the
Unite the Right rally in Charlottesvile Virginia in 2017, a growing awareness
and reaction to hate has only exacerbated polarization and social divide.
This is evident in public opinion polls, combative radical movements on
both sides of the political spectrum, and mutually reinforcing extremisms

R
from both far-left and far-right perspectives. For example, extremist
strands of far-left groups like Antifa call openly to violence, which in turn
fuels the propaganda of far-right ideologues and vice versa.
Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate offers a method for addressing the problems posed by
Ctrl
polarization, hate and extremism from a higher level of consciousness.

I myself am a former extremist. As Younus Abdullah Muhamad I helped

create the jihadist magazines that have essentially brainwashed the young
and ignorant to commit terrorism. When I was a propagandist from
2003-2012, we deliberately antagonized right-wing, anti-Muslim crowds
and helped push the onset of anti-Muslim sentiment. This galvanized
right-wing bloggers that were then on the fringes. However, we knew that
if their anti-Islamic message could become mainstreamed, polarization
would tear at the fabric of democracy and jihadists could portray the
growing anti-Muslim sentiment as representative of the West waging a war
on Islam altogether.
Essentially, we saw ourselves as setting the West up on a path to self-destruction. We were waging a
war of attrition, and in some ways it seems jihadists may be slowly realizing this objective. I am now
reversing that process. I’ve aligned myself with former extremists and victims of extremism to
advance Light Upon Light’s Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate campaign and method. These include Frank Meeink,
former white supremacist whom the Oscar-nominated movie American History X was based, Jeff
Schoep, former leader of the National Socialist Movement in the United States for many years,
Bradley Galloway, a former white supremacist, Ivan Humble, a former English Defense League
leader, Joshua Bates, a former member of the KKK and other white nationalist movements, Katie
McHugh, former editor at Brietbart and Alt-righter and several victims of extremism such as Erik von
Brunn, whose father killed a security guard outside the Holocaust museum in Washington DC in
2009 and Hope Hyder, whose father was murdered by a white suprmemacist .
I The launch of this magazine coincides with the third anniversary of the death of British
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death, the West was concerned with ISIS’ terrorism. Her murder, however, can be considered
on the threat posed by domestic divide, social and political polarization and, specifically, the rising
the onset of the intersection between jihadist and far-right extremism.
right-wing white supremacist threat in general.
In this edition,
In this initial initial edition
you’ll you’ll find articles
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We hope after checking out this issue you’ll go online and support us at LightUponLight.Online.

Thank you,

Jeee Mooon
CTRL+ALT+DEL-HATE
A paradigm shift in consciousness and
method for combatting extremism

Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate is more than merely a magazine. It is at once a

movement and a method for personal and collective change. Ligh-
tUponLight.online presents the Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate campaign as a
model for addressing the underlying issues that propel populism,
polarization, hate and extremism everywhere today. The battle
against extremism is truly a generational one; we must recognize
that the future of freedom, tolerance and democracy is at risk. We
must act now before things escalate. Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate is a path to-
wards a paradigm shift in consciousness, one that can facilitate the
next step in humanity’s spiritual and cultural development.
Victor Frankl, an eventual Holocaust survivor, was a young aspiring psychologist
living in Austria when Hitler occupied the country. Just before the United States
entered World War II, Frankl received an invitation to come to the American con-
sulate in Vienna to pick up an immigration visa. He’d been invited to the U.S. to
study. It could have rescued him from the Nazis. He also would have had to leave
his family behind with the threat of extermination in a concentration camp.

Frankl hesitated. He had doubts, but he had to make a decision. One day, shortly
thereafter, he noticed a piece of marble laying on a table at home. His father in-
formed him that he had discovered it at a synagogue the Nazis had burned down.
It was a piece of a sculptured ‘Ten Commandments.’ Frankl wanted to know which
segment the section included and his father answered, “Honor thy father and thy
mother that their days may be so long upon the land.” At that moment, Frankl
chose to remain behind.

The Frankl’s all ended up at concentration camps and, while most of his relatives
perished, Victor survived. It was then he formulated his therapy (logotherapy)
that argues that human experience cannot bypass suffering, that the primary hu-
man drive is not the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, but the pursuit of
purpose, meaning and significance. As a consequence of his decision to act on
higher principles, to pause before he jumped at his own self-seeking opportunity
to escape the Nazis, millions have benefited and heard of the horrors of the Ho-
locaust, shedding light into the nature of hate. Millions have benefitted from his
theory for psychology to advance later in life.

A key takeaway from his life is on identification, that we can control our reaction
to suffering and difficult circumstances. The Jews found meaning even in their
utter humiliation and in the face of genocide. As Frankl explained it,

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to
choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”

When reacting to current societal difficulties, we are faced with the typical knee-
jerk fight or flight response. Yet, the control stage of the Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate pro-
cess challenges to react to react to external stimuli, such as the threat posed by
radical figures and politicians of the “other side” or extremists calling us to find
meaning with their twisted ideologies and “final solutions” in ways that support
personal growth and sustain freedom, tolerance and the liberal values and hu-
man rights so necessary to advancing an enlightened world. Control over that
space can lead us off in a direction and a life of significance, purpose and hope.
When we reflect on the responses to polarization, hate and violent extremism today, we can see the impulses
of fight-vs-flight at work. On one hand, we buy into a ‘fight-like reaction’ when we address ‘the other’ at a similar
level of ignorance but fail to realize it. Everywhere we are divided. At its onset, the Internet age and digital rev-
olution seemed like it would democratize communication and create a vibrant marketplace for the exchange of
ideas. Instead, everywhere we map communications online today, we see division in two camps – mostly isolated
echo-chambers where we communicate only with those who already agree with us. We hardly listen to the views
of the opposing side. We counter-protest and scream angry insults under the same guise. #ShutItDown and Disin-
viting, De-platforming prevents ideas from being challenged in public. Radical movements like such provocation.
Claims of discrimination feed their conspiracies and confirm their own black-and-white worldview.

At the other end, a complacent indifferent and self-seeking narcissism leads to lethargy and lack of concern. Many
ignore the issue, satisfied with life and unable to recognize that the underlying conditions are furthering
dangerous populism, polarization and hate. In many Western countries we now see the prospects for potential
civil war. Geopolitically, a liberal world order most take for granted is threatened, just one financial crisis triggering
event or earth-shattering political fiasco away from global conflict and collapse. Once the fight or flight response
is controlled, however, individuals and collectives can pave alternative pathways, routes towards addressing the
issues at a higher order of consciousness. Studies show that non-violent activism can provide the same level of
internal excitement and satisfaction that extremists get from violence, or that addicts or shopaholics get from their
pursuits. Non-violent revolutions in the 20th and 21st century have been much more successful, both at replacing
oppressive regimes and replacing tyranny with better functioning political and social outcomes. How many violent
revolutions lead to even more oppressive leadership? This generates an important realization.
LT
When we look at the age of modern warfare- which starts with the American civil
war and runs into the current Global War on Terror – we see the gradual futility of
violence. Over 100 million people died in the 20th century in conflict. There were
two World Wars. Now the 21st century, so far, has been less bloody, but we can see
the futility of violence alone when we analyze results of the War on Terror that dis-
credited liberalism where it relied on democracy presented at the barrel of a gun.

It is hardly coincidence that the diminishing effects of war coincide to advance-

ments in communication and the enhanced interconnectivity of the human tribe.
The ALT phase of the Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate paradigm concentrates on ideas as they
relate to the battle for hearts and minds.

Current advancements in digital communications make the conveyance of ideas

increasingly instantaneous and make the global village increasingly
intrerconnected. However, at the same time, today’s technology induces limited
attention span, addiction to phones and disconnection from people, lack of
empathy and a predominant culture focused on material pursuits. Extremists take
advantage. Its why Russia attempted to push Americans to polarize on social
issues, race and politics, while ideologues espouse hate and recruit with passion
24 hours a day online. As Anders Breivik, who killed 8 people with a bomb in front
of a Norway government building and then shot 69 teenagers dead in 2014 quot-
ed from John Stuart Mill on Twitter just hours before his attack, “One person with
a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests.” We live today in
our emotive, rather than rational selves.

With support for human rights, liberalism and the global support for democracy
diminishing, the question becomes whether or not enough people with antithetical
beliefs to those of extremists like Anders Breivik can rise above self-interest and
attack the threat at the root. If not, tomorrow’s alternative looks authoritarian. If so,
there may be a paradigm shift in the human tribe that can take us to the next level
of consciousness.
Once Ctrl+Alt+ are grasped and embodied, our lives take on the meaning and significance.
Frankl described, even when there is suffering, we can be reborn, elevated in our spiritual
connection to self and society.

The struggle against violent extremism has been called the “Struggle of Our Generation.”
After 9/11, U.S. policymakers were concerned with jihadists. Now, far-right extremist attacks
outnumber those carried out in the name of Islam on America’s shores. Extremism festers at
home at abroad. A cycle of intersecting extremisms has created a cycle of mutually feeding
fanaticisms. The underlying socio-political and cultural factors facilitate enhanced populism,
polarization and radicalization. And things are getting worse. The situation in the U.S HIGH-
LIGHTS THIS. The U.S. Uniform Crime Reporting Program recently documented that 7,175
hate crimes were reported to law enforcement agencies in 2017, up from 6,121 in 2016. The
most common bias categories for these calls were race and ethnicity (59.6%), religion (20.6%)
and sexual orientation (15.8%). All data suggests that political polarization is soaring. While
Far-Leftist and Far-Right radicals antagonize each other, emotion drives the day. Meanwhile, a
Pew Research Center poll found that all but 4% of teens perceived anxiety, and depression as
problems among their peers, with bullying and drug addiction were considered “major prob-
lems” by over half of the respondents. Nine hundred and fifty-four different hate groups were
identified in the U.S. in 2017. In the ten-year period from 2008, 387 domestic extremist killings
occurred; 274 of those were committed by white supremacists and right-wing extremists.
Jihadists have committed fewer attacks but killed more people in the same period. Groups
life Antifa and isolated cases of far-left extremism since the election of Donald Trump indicate
enhanced risk for left-wing extremism as well.

What was initially anti-Al-Qaeda sentiment in the years after 9/11 mutated into a fear that all
Muslims in the West were pushing for shariah law. An exaggerated threat of ‘creeping shariah’
– the Muslims are coming! – and that all Muslims are one step away from becoming terrorists
galvanized the far right. Now, anti-Muslim and anti-immigration platforms are mainstreamed.
In reaction, a far-left anti-Western perspective uses the rise of the far-right to gain support,
particularly among minorities and immigrants, for narratives that portray Western Civilization
as barbaric, strictly genocidal and inherently evil. Capitalism, again, is the root of all ill. Free-

-
dom of speech should be curtailed. The cure for hate speech is safe space or silence. But
such notions are only likely to make matters worse.

Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate comprehension rises above the cycle of action-reaction-action-reaction.

Such a cycle grows and only pushes more division, polarization and hate. Finally, we recog-
nize what Albert Einstein once explained,

“the problems of our world cannot be addressed from the same level of consciousness that
created it.”

DEL-HATE moves to motivate ourselves and others to do something with our lives that can
raise collective consciousness. Altogether, Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate represents a paradigm shift that
can address hate and extremism at its root. We hope that you and those you know and love
will respond to the call!

To learn more, please contact us at: www.lightuponlight.online/contact

 Autobiography of a Recovering SkinHead
by Frank Meeink

Frank Meeink grew up in South Philadelphia. At a young age, he became enraptured by

the underground neo-Nazi movement and rose to become one of the movement’s most
prominent recruiters. Imprisoned at age 18, Frank overcame his hatred through contact
with African American teammates in a prison football league. Perhaps the first public
‘former,’ Frank now works to combat extremisms of all types and is the lead
interventionist at LightUponLight.Online. These are excerpts from his autobiography,
which the Oscar nominated movie American History X (1998) was based. In this
segment, Frank describes his transition…

Actually, my “kind” was almost nonexistent at Shawnee State Penitentiary. Among the
hundreds, maybe even thousands, of inmates housed in the sprawling prison, I met
fewer than half a dozen guys who’d been members of the white supremacy movement
before entering the system. And none of them were what I would consider serious. One
was a no-rank Klansman from some backwoods klavern. One was a self-proclaimed
“skinhead.” He had a huge tattoo of Hitler running from his collar bone to his waist, but
he’d never actually met a real skinhead crew member face-to-face until he met me in the
yard. The rest of the Shawnee’s Aryan Nationalists were just guys who’d been on mailing
lists.

Of course, there were plenty of racist bikers at Shawnee, and supposedly even a few
members of the Aryan Brotherhood. But none of them turned out to greet me on my
first trip to the yard. Instead, the chief of the Northsiders spotted me and filled me in.
While I’d be cracking up over at Menard, a war between the bikers and the Latin Folk
had gotten so out of control at Shawnee that the warden had placed most of the bikers
and all of the Aryan Brotherhood in protective custody, not to protect them so much as
to protect everyone else. They were all still
in there, leaving the Northsiders as the only
major white gang in general population.
Fortunately for me, the Northsiders were
freaking huge at Shawnee. The warden
couldn’t have put them into protective
custody; they wouldn’t have fit. The North-
siders were tight with both the bikers and
the Brotherhood because they were all
white and all badasses. And at least at Shaw-
nee, the Northsiders also leaned toward the
People. All that combined meant there was
no question where they stood on the whole
Biker versus Folk war.
It also meant they had backing in
the yard even after the bikers and
the Brotherhood got sent to
protective custody. The Latin Kings,
the Vice Lords, the Bloods, and all
the other minority People gangs
at Shawnee were willing to risk
their lives to protect the white
Northsiders from the archenemy Folk.
And once the leader of the Northsiders took
me under his wing in the yard, the Latin
Kings, Vice Lords, Bloods, and all the oth-
er minority People gangs knew it was their
responsibility to at least keep an eye on me,
swastika tattoo and all.
“You come to us if you need anything,” the
Northsiders’ leader told me.
That was a relief. No man is an island. But
when you’re the only real Aryan Nationalist
in the yard, and the Brotherhood and bikers
are in lockdown, it sure as hell feels that way.
“I appreciate it,” I said to the Northsider.
“You just ride under our flag for now, until
your boys make it back out.” He motioned his
hand toward the assemblies of Vice Lords,
Bloods, and Latin Kings scattered about the
yard. “They may not like you much, you be-
ing a skinhead and all,” he said. “But they’ll
murder any Folk who so much as breathes
on you.”
As it turns out, some of the
Latin Kings, Vice Lords, and
Bloods did come to like me,
in spite of the fact that I was a
Nazi. And I came to like some
of them, too, in spite of the face
they were “mud” by Identity’s
standards. We all found this
out only because of the
tensions being so high at
Shawnee.
When I first arrived, Shawnee felt like the
main block at Menard looked. Almost every
cell block was on restricted privileges and
the guards were on edge. So when the war
cooled a little and we finally got some
freedom we were all maniacs. We didn’t
want to walk the yard, we wanted to run
laps around it. We didn’t want to breathe the
fresh air, we wanted to suck it in with heav-
ing gasps. And there’s nothing like a good
game among convicted felons to get your
heart pumping.
Sports were bigger at Shawnee State Penitentiary than they were at Penn State Uni-
versity. If Joe Paterno could’ve recruited out of our yard, he’d have gone undefeated
his whole damn career. There’s something magical about a barbed wire end zone and
armed guards in the press box that gives a guy a real boost on the gridiron.

Everywhere else I’d been, the bikers fielded a team in every sport. But since most of
the bikers were in lockdown and the Northsiders didn’t seem interested in getting a
team together, I asked if they minded if I joined somebody else’s team. I had to do that
because I was riding under their flag. They looked around the yard at all the black and
Latin gang teams facing off, then they looked at me like they thought I was nuts. But
they gave me their blessing and I spread the word I was a free agent. One of the Vice
Lords I threw Spades with delivered an invitation for me to join their football team.
I wasn’t the only guy on the team who wasn’t a Vice Lord: two of our linemen were
Bloods. But I was the only white guy, and definitely the only Nazi.

The first game I played for the Vice Lords, I had to beg to even get out on the field.
They finally let me in the game after the Gangster Disciples’ team scored a touchdown
on them; the Vice Lords said I could do the kickoff return. I was a Nazi skinhead play-
ing tackle football in a prison yard with a bunch of black gangsters. This wasn’t Pop
Warner League. I hadn’t expected the kid glove treatment. They were going to make
me prove myself. I had to run that ball back. And I did, even though not one dude on
my team blocked for me that first play. The Gangster Disciples took special aim when
they tackled me. I looked like a fucking rag doll by the end of the second quarter. But
I kept hauling my ass up off the dirt and going back in for more. There was no way in
hell I was going to let those black players chase me off, not with the whole yard watch-
ing. So the harder they hit me, the harder I played. When I ran in for a touchdown
during the third quarter, my teammates high-fived me. And when an opposing play-
er hit me so hard in the fourth quarter that I actually went airborne, one of the Vice
Lords helped me to my feet. After that, I wasn’t the Vice Lords’ token skinhead; I was
their teammate.

At the end of our games, most of my Vice Lord teammates would be panting for air
and rubbing their knees, and most of the Northsiders in the audience would be creak-
ing their way down off the bleachers that ran along one side of the field. I on the other
hand would be bouncing around like a puppy on crack. And two of my teammates,
Little G and Jello, would bounce right along with me. The three of us would race
across the yard to the basketball court to get in a little three-on-three time before
the guards sent us back inside. Our team was all heart and no height. At 5’9” I was the
tallest of the three of us, if we didn’t factor in Jello’s fade. If the courts were full, we’d pace
the sidelines, waiting until one of the games ended, then we’d challenge the winners. If
nobody’d let us play, we’d just run. Some days we ran sprints; others we ran laps. But no
matter what we did, we always did it at top speed and together.

Frank transformed in prison and left the white supremacist movement. Once released,
he rebuilt his life and began to share his story and speak out against hate. Excerpt from
later Chapter:

Driving back to Philly after one of my speaking engagements, I got the best idea of my
life. Mike Boni, a pretty big-time lawyer associated with the Anti-Defamation League,
was my chauffeur that evening. Mike felt like a brother to me – an older brother succeed-
ing in a world I could barely imagine, but still a brother. We talked sports nonstop. That
a guy like Mike Boni seemed to think I was worth talking to gave me hope that maybe I
could make good one day. I think that’s probably why I talked about my big idea with him
in the car that night instead of letting it float out the window into darkness.

The idea was simple: take black kids and white kids from different parts of Philly, kids
who’d otherwise grow up to hate each other, and put them in the one place where they’d
have to work together and make it out. Where is that place? Center ice.

The more speeches I’d given, the more I’d realized that my real turning point had been
playing football on that prison league. If it weren’t for being trapped in prison with no
escape other than that league, I never would’ve spoken to guys like Jello and Little G, let
alone come to think of them as friends.

“I think maybe we could do the same thing with hockey,” I said to Mike.
“Why hockey?” “Because the key to making it work is the kids can’t know how to skate
when they join up. With football or baseball, if you’re a fast runner or good with a ball,
you’ve got an edge before you even start. But in hockey, none of that matters if you don’t
know how to stand up on skates.”
I got so excited I was practically screaming in Mike’s ear. “Just thinking about it. We
could take the shit that keeps them different and erase it with the only thing they’d have
in common. No matter what color they are, they’re all going to be landing on their asses.
Even ice, man, even fucking ice.”

This was the beginning of over two decades of working to combat the movement Frank
once supported.
address extremism with emotion and anger that equates to an equal, opposite and
sometimes even more heightened extremism you only feed the extremism you are
attempting to combat. You can see this everywhere these days.

For around 15 years Choudary and his ignorant adherents had manipulated the
press and received coverage in countless media outlets. As a result, it was easy to
look at Anjem Choudary as the voice of the Muslim community.

The EDL
ED slowly started taking over my life. I was living in an echo chamber within
the secret halls of social media. In the echo chamber all conversations are
controlled and anyone within them that does not toe the line completely would be
shunned and rejected. At the same time, you end up constantly recruiting online,
planning, and getting to know others.

Despite the escalation of my commitment, at one point a seed was planted that
would ultimately sprout and induce a transformation in my opinion. In 2010, we held
a demonstration in Peterborough. It was a typical EDL demo, there was trouble and
abuse against the Muslim community, as well as a few arrests. Two weeks after the
confrontation, the local mosque wrote an open letter inviting the EDL to come in for
a cuppa and a conversation. We never went to that meeting, but for me it left a
mark. Why did the Muslim community want us to go back to talk to them? That
question sat in the back of my head for about a year before I acted on it.

Around Christmas in 2011, I took my children shopping in a town called Norwich. It

was there I would get to ask my questions. While walking inquisitively behind two
Muslim women with my daughter at the mall, I noticed them go into a room on the
first floor. I peeked through the window and noticed a room full of Muslims. A white
Muslim man noticed me standing through the window and came out to greet me. I
expected confrontation, but to my surprise, the Muslim guy leaned forward and gave
me a hug. It was comforting and I almost immediately blurted out that I was from the
EDL and I thought it would be good to talk. In all my 41 years, I had not actually
ED
interacted with a Muslim. We met the next day while my children were at school.

Khalil was a white Muslim convert. Our communications lasted more than six
months. In that time, I got the honest answers I craved from the beginning. Intimate
dialogue was key. Throughout my meetings with Khalil I remained in the EDL doing
all the same things I had before. Then I met Manwar Ali, a former Jihadist from
Ipswich, who had bought a church. It was rumoured that he would turn it into a
mosque, so a demo was organized, but I decided to meet Manwar instead to tell
him we did not want his super mosque. When he reassured me that it was going to
be a community center for everyone, we started a dialogue which continues to this
day.In 2012 my sister died and six months later my dad passed as well. The EDL
family was not there for my grief, but Manwar was. I began to think that my hate
might be misguided.

Then in 2013 British soldier Lee Rigby was killed on the streets of London by two
Muslim extremists. The next day both Manwar and Khalil called me to apologize
saying that the killers did not represent true Islam. This cemented my trust in them.
After Lee Rigby’s murder there was a big surge in support for the EDL and hate
crimes against Muslims increased. I could not help but wonder if some of the
perpetrators were members who I had recruited and radicalized.

Walks were being organized across the country in support of Lee Rigby and so I
asked Manwar if he would take the risk to walk with me. He agreed. As I went to
meet him that day I saw his daughter, and then his wife, followed by 16 other
Muslims. His daughter held a big box of roses and was handing them out to people.
It was very emotional. I got a lot of praise that day for reaching out, but Manwar got
attacked by some groups within his community who saw him as a traitor.

By now I was becoming very disenchanted by the EDL ED and one day I just posted on
their website “I’m done. I’m out.” At this moment I changed from being the hater to
the hated. I understand why people hate me. I may have stirred something up and
encouraged conflict in their mind. I was accused of all sorts of things like being a
Muslim convert or lover. I became very lonely again. But luckily, since my kids were
now older, I was able to get a job in a shop. My supervisor was a black immigrant
from Portugal and we became friends. I learned about his story and he learned
about my mine. Once again. I learned about finding common ground and
challenging myself.

I soon moved to a better job and had more money to spend on my kids, but I still
had very few friends and I started to miss the EDL. Afraid of being drawn back in, I
reached out to a woman from the Suffolk Hate Crime team named Debbie Charles.
I told her I was at a crossroads in my life, that I had been a hater for five years and I
understood radicalization. Debbie offered me a job running a workshop on
radicalization for autistic people. It was Debbie who gave me my second chance in
life, which drives me to do what I do today.

Since then I have worked with multiple groups and reached a lot of
people. I am a lad from a council estate and to be able to empower
someone to understand themselves better feels amazing. In the process,
I have found answers to questions that I have always had. In the process,
I have discovered myself.
Two Sides of The Same Coin:
Far Right and Jihadist Extremism By Jesse Morton
On August 9, 2016, nineteen-year-old James Alex
Fields Jr. climbed into his Dodge Challenger and
set off from Ohio towards Charlottesville,
Virginia. He was heading to what would become
the largest white supremacist gathering in the Unit-
ed States in over a decade, Unite the Right. While
on the way, Fields Jr. got a text from his mother.
She’d seen a news clip that suggested there may
be violence between white supremacists and
counter protestors. “Be careful,” she warned. Her
son soon responded, “They’re the ones that need
to be careful Mom.” He then attached an image of
Hitler.
Fields Jr. went on to participate at Unite the Right,
and when mayhem broke out, he panicked and
proceeded to drive his Challenger into a crowd of
“communist anti-white supremacists,” as he would
later describe them on a phone call from jail. Fields
Jr.’s senseless and disturbed action injured several
and killed one, thirty-four-year-old Heather Heyer.
James Fields Jr. was convicted of first degree
murder in January 2019. The trial revealed that he
had posted an image on Instagram of a car plough-
ing through a public protest three months before
Unite the Right. Beneath the image he typed, “You
have the right to protest, but I’m late for work.”
We may never know the extent to which Fields Jr.
was influenced by far-right propaganda but
reflection points to an awkward and mutually
reinforcing relationship between far-right and
jihadist extremism that has only since exacerbated.
At the time of Fields Jr.’s atrocity, the world was con-
cerned with similar vehicular attacks from ISIS. Six
ISIS inspired vehicular attacks had already
occurred between May 2016 and Unite the Right. ISIS
directed them, not via clandestine communication,
but through open online ideological dissemination.
In their glossy English-language magazine, Rumiyya,
the transnational terrorist organization had called
for “lone wolf” vehicular attacks against Western
civilians that would “unexpectedly mow their busy
sidewalks, smashing into crowds, crushing lives and
severing limbs.” Yet two months prior to Fields Jr.’s
terrorism, the first right-wing extremist copycatted
the tactic and drove into a crowd outside a mosque
in the United Kingdom, killing one and wounding
several more.
Similarities between the far-right and jihadists are
not merely tactical. The leaderless resistance or
lone wolf model jihadists like ISIS and Al-Qaeda
have popularized actually has its origin in the theory
of a white supremacist ideologue – Louis Beam.
Additionally, there are increasing and uncanny re-
semblances in ideological principal, objective, and
the methodology and template for the dissemination
of propaganda. In the post- Christchurch,
Muslim massacre and manifesto-led copycat killer arena, we are witnessing a growing acceptance and
support from radical right circles for such atrocious extreme right-wing activity. There is much we can
learn from the period where the primary enemy was the transnational salafi jihadist movement.

I should know. From 2003 to May 2011, when Osama Bin Laden was killed and many thought the War
on Terror was over, I helped develop and design the method for online and offline jihadist radicalization
right-wing groups are now utilizing and emulating. I also consciously assisted in creating far-right wing,
anti-Muslim sentiment, exploiting the scare induced by jihadists abroad and seeking to promote
domestic polarization. It was not an independent strategy. We were following the indirect directives of
jihadist strategists and ideologues abroad.

When the reciprocal relationship between far-right and jihadist extremism is analyzed in detail, it points
to the reality that even after death Osama Bin Laden’s war of attrition is essentially having its intended
impact. The objective of forcing division and polarizing Western societies is a deliberate jihadist strategy
that now endangers sustainment and support for liberal democracy everywhere. Though most people
still take the progressive ascent of liberalism for granted. There need be no more evidence that this is
the case than in the right-wing Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shootings in March 2019.

In the aftermath of the Christchurch shootings, ISIS chief spokesman Abu Hassan Al-Muhajir released his
first instructions in six months proclaiming that ISIS was far from defeated and that, “The scenes of the
massacres in the two mosques should wake up those who were fooled, and should incite the supporters
of the caliphate to avenge their religion.” On April 21, 2019, just a month later, on Easter Sunday, several
suicide bombers struck at three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka killing over 250 people
and injuring 500 more.

Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch killer left behind a manifesto entitled the Great Replacement, a theory
originally promoted by a French quasi-intellectual that was dedicated to disseminating the notion that
Muslim immigration in Europe would eventually displace the white population and lead to the Islamiza-
tion of European civilization. He posted his manifesto online and decried Muslims “invaders.” Now he is
known as Saint Tarrant in many circles and in months thereafter two young men would copy his method
and cause to subdue “invaders” by carrying out attacks in Poway, California and El Paso, Texas. For cer-
tain the ‘great replacement’ theory as applied in America applies to Hispanics rather than
Muslims. However, a concentration on domestic extremism in Western nations will only further facilitate
the realization of jihadist efforts to induce chaos, exhaust resources and transfer concern away from
jihadists in overseas sanctuaries planning attacks to outdo 9/11 and retaining a capacity to inspire their
own “lone wolf” actors.

Today, the alt-right and other anti-establishment and far-right extremist groups are replicating the
methods we jihadists utilized as concern shifted from attacks plotted and directed from abroad to
inspired homegrown violent extremists during the era I was busy radicalizing and recruiting in. We
exploited laws of free expression, walked up to the line of free speech, threw our middle fingers in the
air, so to say, and then stepped back, waiting for the media to cover the shenanigans. Media, always
driven by good-for-ratings sensationalism, helped us reach millions. The made us seem a thousand
times bigger than we were, and we grew exponentially while experts spoke of the power of online
radicalization and pushed many more hundreds to explore our craftily-designed propaganda, which
pulled from Hollywood and Madison Avenue as much as it did the mountainous regions of the
Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

Of course, most Western Muslims rejected the message but a small fringe of the frustrated embraced it
and as we increasingly became the subject of discourse many more opened up to the jihadi
counter-culutre we created. All the attention was great for recruitment. As they focused on us, we
pushed the far-right anti-Muslim crowd more-and-more. I appointed a prominent member of our orga-
nization to “be the clown” as he described it after being convicted for threatening communication. He
was an orthodox Jewish convert to Islam, already well-known for his extremism. He would express
anti-Semitic perspectives but also galvanized a growing anti-Islamic sentiment from amongst right-wing
bloggers. Those bloggers were the earliest representatives of today’s virulent Islamophobia industry.
Anti-Islamic sentiment grew exponentially. Wherever right-wing activists needed evidence of Muslims
seeking to implement sharia law in the West, they would point to our network that soon stretched around
the English-speaking world.

The growth of Islamophobia went on to serve as a crucial piece of far-right ideology. In Europe, groups
like the English Defence League, Britain First, Alternative fur Deutschland, the National Democratic Party
of Germany, Front National in France and others coalesced around an anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant plat-
form that has galvanized alt-right, alt-lite and far-right extremism in the United States as well. By the
time Donald Trump won the 2016 election, the far-right had adopted similar tactics; memes sympathetic
to Hitler and provocative placards held at public demonstrations provoked the media; media coverage
provoked anti-far-right sentiment but also served as a tool for recruitment on the fringe; after Unite the
Right the alt-right has retreated back online and is now utilizing alternative social media platforms such
as Gab and 4chan to maintain its message. These are the same tactics and methods we jihadists utilized
during the era I was active in.

The alt and far-right have borrowed heavily from the jihadists they seek to annihilate. However, the
reinforcing and symbiotic relationship between them increasingly poses a serious threat to geopolitical
stability. Jihadists claim the West is at War with Islam and Muslims, that therefore attacks against Western
civilians are justified and necessary. At the same time, jihadist attacks fuel the belief that all Muslims are
potential terrorists. This in turn fuels anti-Muslim sentiment which is not only crucial to far-right extremist
recruitment but also to polarizing the political landscape, particularly when the Left comes to the aid of
Muslims in the name of multiculturalism.

The situation is deliberate on the part of the jihadists who are waging a generational war. After 9/11,
Al-Qaeda lost its base and decentralized. We followed their key strategist, Abu Musab al-Suri’s who
recommended that the organization maintain itself by having supporters disseminate the ideology and
inspire attacks wherever they were to the extent that they were able to. In the United States we could
unabashedly support Bin Laden. In a 2004 speech to the American people he stated, “All that we have to
do is send two mujahideen to the farthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written Al-Qaeda
in-order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political loses
without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.”

We followed his instructions and waved the Black Flag at protests on the streets, outside mosques, on
YouTube and all over New York City. Indeed, our propaganda was shared all-over right-wing media as
well. It made us look more powerful than we were. After I left the movement in 2012, those I worked
alongside of fled underground temporarily due to social media bans and heightened scrutiny. They didn’t
come out openly until Syria became a safe haven and the so-called Caliphate of ISIS was inaugurated.
In that same manner, the Alt-Right has gone underground and is migrating to the darknet, to encrypted
communication platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram and alternative social media platforms such
as 4chan and Gab. We can expect their resurrection when U.S. presidential elections return in 2020, but
are likely to see more “lone wolf,” leaderless resistance attacks in the interim.

Perhaps the saddest reality of it all is that at the end of the day jihadists and the far- right have nearly
identical ideologies. The Southern Poverty Law Center has defined the alt-right as: “A set of far-right
ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that ‘white identity’ is under attack by ‘multicultur-
al forces’ using ‘political correctness’ and ‘social justice’ to undermine white people and their civilization.
Characterized by a heavy use of social media and online memes, Alt-Righters eschew ‘establishment
conservatives,’ skew young and embrace white ethnonationalism as a ‘fundamental value’.”

We might concoct an almost identical definition for jihadists as well, something like:

“A fundamentalist ideology, held by disparate groups and individuals whose core belief is that Muslim
identity’ is under attack by ‘multinational forces’ [the West] using political ploys such as democracy and
human rights to undermine Muslim unity and their civilization. Characterized by a heavy use of social
media and online propaganda, jihadists eschew ‘moderate Muslims,’ skew young and embrace unity
under a pan-Islamic caliphate as a ‘fundamental value’.”

These similarities are uncanny, and the way they intersect is ultimately dangerous. The far-right serves
Bin Laden’s “bleeding you to bankruptcy” war of attrition. In the grave, he couldn’t be more pleased with
the rise of right-wing extremism. Now it seems the far-right is preparing to wage its own war of attrition,
waiting to bring back a pristine past that reminds the reflective onlooker of World War II’s fascism. These
are the threats that can only be addressed with a paradigm shift that prevents both far-right and jihadist
extremisms and the mutually reinforcing relationship between the two from feeding the fuel of
polarization.

Since that deadly end to Unite the Right at Charlottesville in 2017, the subsequent transition to primary
concern for the domestic far-right wing threat, and the expanding support and acceptance for the ‘lone
wolf,’ leaderless resistance attacks of people like Brandon Tarrant, the reciprocal relationship between
right-wing and jihadist extremism should have become clear. In the long run, this reciprocity will only
accommodate the “war of attrition” Osama bin Laden inaugurated with 9/11 and that Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi recently adopted in his first video released since his pronouncement of the so-called caliph-
ate. In it, the terror leader instructed adherents to, “widen your reach” and proclaimed that “Our battle to-
day is a war of attrition to harm the enemy, and they should know that jihad will continue until doomsday.”

Most fail to recognize this interrelationship and to grasp the multidimensionality of the current local and
geopolitical arena. Unfortunately, true solutions would be quite distinct from those we see promoted,
solutions that only advance the type of hyperpolarization that facilitates the potentiality of collapse from
within. Othering those who otherize will not work. Conflating every MAGA hat wearing conservative with
far-right wing extremists will only exacerbate divides. Attacking all protestors as if they are fascists only
fuels the conspiracy theories of the ideologues looking to further and fuel hate. It is the same mistake
made when they conflated Islamists and jihadists in my era. Instead, we need to attack the problems of
polarization, hate and extremism with a collective consciousness and cultural shift that recognizes our
own inherent tribalism. As an alternative, we must seek to birth an empathetic civilization. Ctrl+Alt+Del-
Hate offers a method and perspective to achieve such a solution. That
method is built on three fundamental principles. We promote:

1. Global democratic identity;

2. Creative pacifism; and
3. Enlightened Humanism

In an Age of Extremisms, we all have an obligation to contribute to “the struggle of our generation,” and
we’ll be seeking supporters to help us build out a network parallel to those of extremists of all varieties,
one dedicated to breaking all cycles of reciprocal harm and hate.

We must secure the exsistence
of our people and a future for
white children everywhere.
We must secure the
exsistence of all
people and a future
for children
everywhere
 The Former’s Perspective:
Right Wing Extremist Recruitment
& Radicalization Online
by Brad Galloway

The question of online radicalization is one of the most pertinent topics

related to the mounting concern for right-wing extremism. It will be
important to include the perspectives of former white supremacists like me
and those collaborating on the Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate initiative at
LightUponLight.Online, as we try and dissect just how important the
internet, and now darknet, is for the far-right. ‘Formers’ must play a role
in educating and informing on the subject. There are far too many mistaken
in
notions and limited transitions from inquisition to implementation of
programming.

I come from a middle-class family in Toronto and was introduced to the white
nationalist movement by a high school friend in a pub. I was in search of an
identity. He sold the white power skinhead ideology as the answer to my
grievances, as to why I was not succeeding in life. He blamed Jews and gays.
The
The lifestyle was what I was seeking. The brotherhood. A place to belong.
I became a white supremacist for over 17 years. As such, I was active before
the internet, so those conversations were harder to have back then. They can
now be connected to everyone on the planet at the blink of an eye.

Since my entrance into the movement, the internet has enhanced right-wing
radicalization copiously. It has now essentially trans-nationalized the
movement. The first group that I belonged to was a small collective of local
white power skinheads. For the most part, the action was on the streets and
white
hardly online. I was not so much a recruiter at the beginning. At the same
time, however, the internet was becoming a bigger part of everyone’s life,
and I soon started exploring the earliest white power chat rooms online. From
there I was linked to the neo-Nazi site Stormfront, the most notorious of
them all. Back then platforms like Napster made for music sharing; music has
always played a key tool for recruitment and remains extremely important for
cultivating
cultivating extremism
extremism today.
today.

You have to indoctrinate first and progress in understanding the extremist

culture before you can become a recruiter, however. Later I joined Volksfront,
a group founded in the Oregon prison system, which would grow to activity in
11 countries. While with Volksfront, I realized the power of online community
in creating a sense of identity that could totally differ from the decision of my
life. It took many years of witnessing movement infighting
and violence, losing friends to related factors such as prison, overdose
and
and murder and finally finding solace in the idea of marriage, children
and education to remove myself from the movement and heal from hate.
I left the movement approximately eight years ago now, and today I research
violent extremism and work with LightUponLight.Online to combat extremist
movements and their intersectional nature. Over the last eight years, we’ve
seen an uptick in research, policy focus, and program development relating
to counter-extremism and the specific topics of online radicalization and
recruitment. Now, as we transition from being primarily concerned with
jihadists
jihadists to the far-right wing realm, our specific insight as formers is
often called upon to help inform social media companies, government
agencies and academia. In those conversations, I’ve highlighted how right-
wing extremist activity operates on multiple platforms and how extremists
are actively recruiting individuals across these platforms, often in
combination.

While right wing extremists have been operating online on older platforms
such
such as Stormfront, they have become more and more reliant on recruiting
individuals through newer platforms such as Gab, 4Chan or 8Chan. There has
been a more recent shift to Telegram, where ISIS has made its home.
However, the older platforms are still effective for recruitment perhaps
for more specific target populations, such as Neo-Nazis or Neo-Pagans. Never

theless, there has been incredibly limited movement in a direction

that might allocate appropriate attention and resource to pull from
what we
what we preach.
preach.

One of the most useful topics we typically cover in these discussions

revolves around one-on-one online recruitment. Often extremist
recruiters and adherents will create a profile under a real or preferred
screen name and attempt to approach members both new and old for intimate
discourse in chat or instant messaging services. Recruiters attempt to
poach new recruits from social media platforms in the comments section.
poach
Heavy recruitment is achieved in times where different factions are
fighting or planning protests or events. This is the state we find
ourselves in currently.

An experienced recruiter looks for signs of right-wing extremist

knowledge and a willingness to move from more general right-wing sites
or social media outlets to more specific and more secure locations, to
discuss evermore extreme ideas. The private or direct messaging function
discuss
is extremely important. Dialogue here personalizes the sense of belonging.
Good recruiters are enticing. Once we explain this to those tasked with
addressing the situation, the question of what we can realistically do
about online recruitment ensues.

The most popular idea to circumvent this activity is the removal of

content. We formers then pitch programming to intervene with would be
content.
recruits and groups to reduce membership. Then nothing happens or if it
does we are included only in some minor capacity. What we’re doing at
LightUponLight.Online and with the Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate magazine amalgamates
all the options while creating some sort of standard intervention procedure
to address this growing problem. These processes will help us measure the
outcomes of our engagements. We’re reverse engineering the extremist
method we formers had mastered before. We’ll be identifying those most
method
applicable for a transition from the circles of online recruitment to
private one-on-one discourse.

As such, Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate magazine is a counter-narrative tool but one

useful for promoting engagement and conversation, to insert new ideas
into the online echo chambers in which extremism flourishes, to provide
one-on-one intervention services, to combat the narrative of key
influencers, to force them to respond and to record the results of our
influencers,
deconstruction of their arguments.

Understandably there is no “golden ticket,” but perhaps for the first-time

there will be an actually viable option that attacks the problem
holistically. I always promote a multisectoral approach to combatting
violent extremism. A combination of law-enforcement, government and
community groups and practitioners is the most viable option. There is
room for partnerships that would truly make ours an even more successful
room
endeavor. The holistic nature of Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate facilitates an approach
to the problem from many different angles at once. It differs from
programming that focuses on only one stage of the continuum between
prevention and post -radicalization rehabilitation.

Still, we cannot wait for other sectors and those that constantly interview
and request our input to come on-board. Much of what they do is merely an
effort to
effort to portray
portray they
they are
are interested
interested in
in addressing
addressing the
the problem.
problem. This
This is
is
especially true with regard to social media companies. Grassroots efforts
must complement those that aim to remove extremist content. Ultimately,
the message to those that are active or interested in right-wing extremist
ideologies is that there is help. You can change and find a movement here
that offers an alternative sense of importance and that can help to answer
your own frustrations. The message to those we advise and counsel is that
we need
we need less
less ‘say’
‘say’ and
and more
more ‘do’
‘do’ to
to achieve
achieve the
the objectives
objectives broadly.
broadly.
“The quality of ideas seems to play a minor
role in mass movement leadership.
What counts is the arrogant gesture, the
complete disregard of the opinion of others,
the singlehanded defiance of the world.”
~Eric Hofer the True Believer
I
nte
rvi
ew wi
thHopeHyde
r

Phot
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edi
t:L
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 How did and do you overcome and heal from it?

I came to a place of awareness in my late twenties and in that awareness I was told by what
I know now as my intuition that I had not yet healed from my father’s death. I asked
existence for help. “Please heal me,” I asked out loud one night following many weeks of an
intense surfacing of raw and painful emotional energy. Things started to occur that were
direct responses to my request for healing. All these opportunities to heal that showed up
had in common their ability to support me in transmuting all the energy within my being that
I had just been holding onto - the complexity of pain. Now many years into this deliberate
healing journey I understand it’s a daily devotion to create a context in which wellness can
thrive for me. The healing continues. I understand so much more than I ever could have as a
six year old. The thing about trauma is that when we do not have a path to process it what
ends up happening is we internalize all that emotion and start to turn how we feel about what
happened into we how we feel about ourselves. This ultimately results in too much unnecessary
self-harm and self-neglect. Trauma consumes a lot of energy and unless we learn how to process
it we will never get to a place of using our energy for its primary purpose - to freely flow
from our souls into this reality and thrive.

What do you do now to combat hate? What motivates you now?

I have a somewhat unorthodox view of hate but there are many nuances to the way that hate is
embedded in and expressed in our world culture. I am invested in seeing things as they are and
not being so quick to reduce complex moments in time to a convenient 'us. vs them' narrative.
Often the public discourse becomes this field of noise and finger pointing that has no interest
in resolving disharmony into harmony and inventing was to foster connection instead of fuel
division. I write about these issues and am prepared to share more of my perspectives just to
bring another dynamic and more food for thought into the mix. Many people cling to bigotry,
stereotypes, and biased perceptions of themselves and others as a way of life. I do my best to
treat each person I meet with the awareness that they are a worthy individual. I do my best not
to impose harmful prejudice upon others. I think that hate is motivated more by the impulse to
exercise power over another. For example, in instances where profound misogyny exists, I don’t
think women are actually hated. The blatant suppression of power of women anywhere is
actually a statement that those seeking to suppress are actually threatened by women’s power -
that’s why they have to work so hard to suppress women! I’m more focused on empowering
those who are being hated to really understand how inherently worthy they are and how much
those who hate them are only doing so to exert power. Part of what perpetuates hate is how
hard it is not to internalize the hateful way you may be treated in the world. If you are in a
group of people that is often targeted by the hateful behavior and practices of those that seek to
control, oppress and use you it is absolutely critical that you learn that acceptance begins within.
Never believe what those who seek to harm and oppress you say about who you are and what
you are capable of and worthy of experiencing.

How did you process the current period of heightened extremism? What can
we do to effectively process and address the issues that evolve around racism,
white supremacy, social and political polarization currently?
I don’t really see it as a resurrection. I think it’s just more visible. There are many people
who would be ashamed to admit or refuse to admit that they believe in the supremacy
of white people. This confusion is built into the DNA of this entire nation. The idea of
America is rooted in myth of inherent white male supremacy. That being said our culture
today shows that anything is possible. We have a ways to go in terms of untangling this
mess of consciousness at the root instead of trying to keep everything too superficial.
We’re all humans. Humans with various percentages of melanin active in our bodies.
We come from different places with different histories and environments. As a species we
are diverse and rich. All of the divisions that harm us are manufactured by people and are
against nature. There is so much more room for tolerance and even understanding
between people. Our technological connectivity is fostering more awareness about what
humans have in common with each other. This spreads the opportunity to awaken
compassion and empathy within people which eventually inspires kind action. In order
to address and process the issues around white supremacy, racism, social and political
polarization is to have more neutral, non-monetary or political agenda driven
conversations about where these illnesses came from and how to heal them in our world.
We have to reveal that these issues are extremely unnatural and toxic of our species. We
often grow weary. We are used to the way things are done and it may seem impossible to
change things. The truth is that we can create whatever kind of world we want to live in
today and if enough people buy into the vision the world can shift rapidly.

It seems we are also living in an era marked by a global case of PTSD, of

collective trauma inside American society and around the world at-large.
How can we apply what you have come to realize to the collective
issues of humanity?

People need to understand that they don’t have to live in mental pain and emotional
anguish or be ashamed of any trauma they have experienced. We are not here to live
trauma free lives. We are here to discover life and the power of being a human being
in this life. Making more non secular healing pathways and practices more available
to more people is a start. If you don’t make an effort initiate healing you will miss out
on the deeper appreciation and enjoyment of life that is here for all to experience.
Eve
Everyone deserves to enjoy life. If we stop being violent towards ourselves and each
other life can be what it was intended to be instead of the distorted mess many
generations of humans have created. It is a perspective of unconditional love for life
that manifests as kindness to one another without exception.

Can you summarize in a few words the most important take-away from
your cumulative life experience?

The most important takeaway from my cumulative life experience so far that comes to mind
at this moment is that ‘being alive is a rare and sacred gift. whatever you do don’t take it for
granted’. whatever is obscuring this awareness within anyone points to exactly what needs
to be healed within them so that clarity is restored.
If you or anybody you know has been touched or affected by the hate of anther or
by a hate-based movement in any way, please call our 24/7 Helpline: 

202-486-8633
parallelnetworks@pnetworks.org