Far Right-Wing and Radical Islamist Groups Exploiting Coronavirus Turmoil by Souad Mekhennet - Washington Post
Extreme right-wing organizations and radical Islamist groups are seizing on the turmoil and panic created by the coronavirus pandemic to advance their violent agendas, often using similar tactics and the same messaging apps, security officials and experts say.
In recent weeks, racist and anti-Semitic organizations, as well as the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and radical Shiite networks, have ramped up recruitment efforts, encouraged attacks and advanced hate-filled conspiracy theories about the virus.
Far-right extremist groups have called the pandemic a hoax and floated the falsehood that the crisis is being orchestrated by Jews or China. In the United States, they are exploiting the state of anxiety, including massive job losses, by scapegoating Jews, blacks, immigrants, politicians and law enforcement, according to security officials…