Current Events & Trends: European right-wing extremism still on the rise

Sep 14, 2015
2 minutes read time
A line of Syrian refugees crossing the border of Hungary and Austria on their way to Germany.
A line of Syrian refugees crossing the border of Hungary and Austria on their way to Germany.
By Mstyslav Chernov via Wikimedia Commons

Germany has traditionally been a bastion of economic and social stability in the increasingly troubled eurozone. It also continues to be the leading state in the European Union, with France alongside it.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains one of the most powerful and influential leaders in the world, and Germany holds a great deal of sway among its NATO partners and in the United Nations. Modern Germany has built its leading position on strong, responsible fiscal policies and relative internal peace. Yet with such a checkered past in terms of racial violence, that peace can be fleeting.

While racial tensions and violence will continue to be an issue in Germany, where some still harbor resentment over the two World War defeats in the past century, neo-Nazi groups are upping the ante in terms of spreading terror among immigrant populations and asylum seekers.

Der Speigel, Germany’s top newsmagazine, recently reported on the resurgence of racially motivated violence and harassment in parts of the country: “Germany these days is a nation split in two. On the one side is a populace that is showing greater solidarity with refugees than ever seen before . . . The other half of the country is extremely difficult to tolerate in some places.

“Racist violence is on the rise. The German Interior Ministry registered 173 instances of criminal right-wing offenses against accommodations for asylum-seekers during the first six months of this year, almost three times as many as during the same period the previous year” (“Is the Ugly German Back? Flames of Hate Haunt a Nation,” July 24, 2015).

Europe in general is an increasingly unsafe place for some minorities, including European Jews, who are facing a wave of anti-Semitism even in generally more tolerant places such as France, let alone more traditional hotbeds of discrimination such as Greece. This world is currently under the sway of Satan, who hates human beings and does all he can to inspire us to destroy ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:4). Thankfully, Satan will at last be deposed, his rule brought to an end, when Jesus Christ returns to usher in a new era of peace for all mankind. (Source: Der Spiegel).

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Rudolph Rangel III

Rudy Rangel attends the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation along with his wife Judy and two children. 

Tom Robinson

Tom is an elder in the United Church of God who works from his home near St. Louis, Missouri as managing editor and senior writer for Beyond Today magazine, church study guides and the UCG Bible Commentary. He is a visiting instructor at Ambassador Bible College. And he serves as chairman of the church's Prophecy Advisory Committee and a member of the Fundamental Beliefs Amendment Committee.

Tom began attending God's Church at the age of 16 in 1985 and was baptized a year later. He attended Ambassador College in both Texas and California and served for a year as a history teacher at the college's overseas project in Sri Lanka. He graduated from the Texas campus in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in theology along with minors in English and mass communications. Since 1994, he has been employed as an editor and writer for church publications and has served in local congregations through regular preaching of sermons.

Tom was ordained to the ministry in 2012 and attends the Columbia-Fulton, Missouri congregation with his wife Donna and their two teen children.