Neil Erikson | |
---|---|
![]() Erikson in 2019 | |
Born | 1985 (age 39–40) |
Known for |
|
Political party |
|
Criminal penalty |
Part of a series on |
Far-right politics in Australia |
---|
![]() |
Part of a series on |
Neo-fascism |
---|
![]() |
![]() |
Part of a series on |
Islamophobia |
---|
![]() |
Part of a series on |
Antisemitism |
---|
![]() |
![]() |
Neil Erikson is an Australian far-right extremist and self-proclaimed neo-Nazi. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Erikson gained attention after posting a video of himself verbally abusing Iranian-born former Labor senator Sam Dastyari in a Melbourne bar. During the verbal attack, Erikson called Dastyari a "terrorist" and a "little monkey" and told him to "go back home". [7] [8] Erikson espouses the antisemitic canard and Jewish conspiracy theory of cultural Marxism. [9]
Erikson is one of the founders or leaders of the far-right neo-Nazi United Patriots Front and the Lads Society. He has been charged and convicted of multiple offences including assault, inciting contempt against Muslims, stalking, affray and riotous behaviour, making threats to prevent a clergyman discharging duties, and disturbing religious worship. [3] [10] [11] [12]
In 2014, Erikson was convicted of stalking. Charges were laid after Erikson called Rabbi Dovid Gutnick, threatening and insulting him. He spoke of circumcisions, blood money and Jewish sidelocks, and told Gutnick he knew his location and was coming to get him unless he paid. Magistrate Donna Bakos said Erikson's calls were motivated by prejudice and found he had little remorse for his crime. [13]
In September 2017, Erikson (by then a member of the Cooks Convicts [ citation needed ] and UPF members Chris Shortis and Blair Cottrell were found guilty of inciting contempt against Muslims after they made a video of a fake beheading while protesting the building of a mosque in Bendigo. [14] [2]
In 2018, Erikson was charged with making threats to prevent a clergyman discharging duties and disturbing religious worship, after he interrupted a church service at the Gosford Anglican Church by marching into the church dressed as Jesus Christ, holding a whip. [15] As of March 2019 [update] , Erikson had outstanding warrants and was wanted by NSW Police regarding an outstanding non-custodial arrest warrant related to the offence. [16]
In 2018, Erikson attended a rally in Perth run by Liberal MPs Andrew Hastie and Ian Goodenough in support of White South African farmers wanting to immigrate owing to South African farm attacks, a cause drumming up sympathy on the far-right, based partly on the White genocide conspiracy theory. [17]
Also in 2018, Erikson attended a Gold Coast "recruitment event" for the Liberal National Party of Queensland, for which he claims his flights were paid by someone else. [18]
In 2019, Erikson was involved in an altercation between Queensland Senator Fraser Anning and a 17-year-old boy. Erikson was recorded restraining the 17-year-old after the boy crushed an egg on the back of Anning's head while he was speaking at a political meeting in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin. The teenager egged Anning in response to comments made by the senator about the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, claiming that Muslim immigration had led to the attacks. [19] Erikson and a number of other UPF members tackled the boy to the ground, putting him in a headlock and repeatedly kicking and punching him. [20]
On 11 May 2021, Erikson was sentenced to one month jail at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, after refusing a community correction order and de-radicalisation program. Erikson lodged an appeal against the sentence in the County Court, which is scheduled for August 2021. [21]
On 30 July 2021, Erikson was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to 10 weeks jail for hurling homophobic abuse in a church in Hawthorn in May 2019. He was granted bail. [22]
Les Identitaires, formerly the Bloc identitaire, is an Identitarian nationalist movement in France. Like the French New Right, some generally consider the movement far-right or sometimes as a syncretic mixture of multiple ideologies across the political spectrum.
Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies. It can be motivated by Ultranationalism, neo-Nazism, anti-communism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, ethnonationalism, religious nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-semitism, anti-government sentiment, patriot movements, sovereign citizen beliefs, and occasionally, it can be motivated by opposition to abortion, and homophobia. Modern right-wing terrorism largely emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s, and after the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it emerged in Eastern Europe and Russia.
The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 is an Act of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia, that makes behaviour that incites or encourages hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person or group of people, because of their race or religion, unlawful in Victoria. The Act was passed during the premiership of Steve Bracks and went into effect on 1 January 2002.
Terrorism in Australia deals with terrorist acts in Australia as well as steps taken by the Australian government to counter the threat of terrorism. In 2004 the Australian government has identified transnational terrorism as also a threat to Australia and to Australian citizens overseas. Australia has experienced acts of modern terrorism since the 1960s, while the federal parliament, since the 1970s, has enacted legislation seeking to target terrorism.
Reclaim Australia is a far-right Australian nationalist protest group which is associated with nationalist and neo-Nazi hate groups. The group was formed in 2015, holding street rallies in cities across Australia to protest against Islam. It has protested in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle and Canberra. Reclaim Australia has also been described as a loose collective of groups.
The Q Society of Australia Inc. was a far-right, anti-Islam and homophobic organisation that opposed Muslim immigration and the presence of Muslims in Australian society. Q Society described itself as "Australia's leading Islam-critical organisation" and stated that its purpose was to fight against the "Islamisation of Australia". The Q Society was so named because it was founded at a meeting in the Melbourne suburb of Kew in 2010.
Sam Dastyari is an Australian former politician, who from 2013 to 2018 represented New South Wales in the Australian Senate as a member of the Australian Labor Party. Dastyari was previously General Secretary of the New South Wales branch of the Labor Party. He was the first person of Iranian origin and Azerbaijani descent to sit in the Australian Parliament. As a Senator, Dastyari was the subject of a Chinese-related donations scandal, which eventually led to his resignation from the Senate on 25 January 2018.
Moshe D. Gutnick is an Australian Orthodox rabbi, and a member of the ultra Orthodox Chabad Hasidic movement. Rabbi Gutnick is a senior member of the Beth Din in Sydney, Australia. Gutnick is currently President of the Rabbinical Council of Australia and New Zealand. Gutnick is the head of the NSW Kashrut Authority. He formerly served as the rabbi of the Bondi Mizrachi Synagogue in Sydney.
Menachem Leib "Manny" Waks is an Australian activist. He was previously part of the Orthodox Jewish community in Australia and later became known for his activism against child sexual abuse in the Jewish community worldwide. He founded Tzedek, an organisation to fight child sexual abuse in Jewish communities. Waks assisted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in investigating Melbourne Yeshivah centre of the Orthodox Chabad movement of Judaism on their handling of child sexual abuse cases. After publicising child sexual abuse in the Jewish community in Australia, Waks moved to France.
Islamophobia in Australia is distrust and hostility towards Muslims, Islam, and those perceived as following the religion. This social aversion and bias is often facilitated and perpetuated in the media through the stereotyping of Muslims as violent and uncivilised. Various Australian politicians and political commentators have capitalised on these negative stereotypes and this has contributed to the marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslim community.
The United Patriots Front (UPF) was an Australian far-right extremist group that opposed immigration, multiculturalism and the religion of Islam. Formed in 2015, the group has been largely dormant since their Facebook page was deleted following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.
Blair Cottrell is an Australian far-right extremist and neo-Nazi. He was a founding member of the United Patriots Front (UPF) and the Lads Society. He has been convicted and served prison time for stalking, arson, illegal sales of steroids, and burglary.
William Fraser Anning is an Australian former politician who was a senator for Queensland from November 2017 to June 2019. Anning is known for holding far-right, nativist, and anti-Muslim views, and has been criticised for his use of the Nazi euphemism for the Holocaust, when he proposed a plebiscite to be the "Final Solution" to "the immigration problem" in his maiden speech. Anning also generated controversy for his statements shortly after the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, in which he blamed the attacks on "the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate".
The True Blue Crew (TBC) is an Australian far-right extremist group. Members and supporters have been linked to right-wing terrorism and vigilantism, and members have been arrested with weapons and on terrorism-related charges. Experts who have studied the group say it appears to be "committed to violence".
Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party, also known as the Conservative National Party or simply the Conservative Nationals, was a national-conservative political party in Australia founded by Fraser Anning in April 2019, when he was a senator for Queensland. Anning had previously been a senator for One Nation and Katter's Australian Party, and sat as an independent before founding the new party. The party contested the 2019 federal election, but failed to win a seat.
The Lads Society is an Australian far-right, white nationalist, Islamophobic extremist group founded by several former members of the United Patriots Front (UPF) in late 2017. It established club houses in Sydney and Melbourne. The Lads Society came to national prominence after it staged a rally in St Kilda, Victoria, targeting the local African Australian community. Attendees were seen making the Nazi salute and one was photographed wearing an SS helmet.
Far-right politics in Australia describes authoritarian ideologies, including fascism and White supremacy as they manifest in Australia.
Thomas Sewell is a New Zealand–born Australian neo-Nazi activist and organiser, known for controversial public stunts, violent criminal conduct, and promotion of National Socialism. He is the leader of the National Socialist Network, the European Australian Movement and the founder of the Lads Society. The groups led by Sewell focus on promoting white supremacy and far-right activism in Australia.
Far-right terrorism in Australia refers to far-right-ideologically influenced terrorism on Australian soil. Far-right extremist groups have existed in Australia since the early 20th century, however the intensity of terrorist activities have oscillated until the present time. A surge of neo-Nazism based terrorism occurred in Australia during the 1960s and the 1970s, carried out primarily by members of the Ustaše organisation. However in the 21st century, a rise in jihadism, the White genocide conspiracy theory, and after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have fuelled far-right terrorism in Australia. Both the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are responsible for responding to far-right terrorist threats in Australia.