Munich Shooter Considered Himself Aryan, Admired Hitler & Breivik. No Wonder the Media Has Moved On

[Snarkoleptic]

http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/munich-shooter-considered-himself-aryan?src=newsletter1061045

The date of the shooting, July 22, appeared to have been deliberately chosen. Exactly five years to this date, in 2011, the right-wing extremist and self-styled “counter-jihadist” Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people at a youth camp in Norway. Sonboly selected the date to honor Breivik, his personal hero. According to the Bavarian investigators, Sonboly was gripped with an obsessive hatred of Turks and Arabs. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany's leading dailies, reported that Sonboly also admired Adolf Hitler and considered it an “honor" to share a birthday with the Führer. It has also been revealed that Sonboly supported the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s leading right-wing party.

The first videos of the shooting that appeared on social media hinted at Sonboly's racist ideology. In one, his hatred of Turks was audible. Among Sonboly’s nine victims were seven with Muslim backgrounds.

Sonboly's racist ideology was deeply connected with a fascist, racial supremacist ideology spawned in Central Asia. Sonboly considered himself as an “Aryan” and was proud of his supposed heritage, especially because of his Iranian and German background. The narrative of Aryans being a “master race” (“Herrenrasse”) is not just widespread in Europe or the United States, but also in parts of Central Asian countries. When Persia changed its name to Iran (“Land of the Aryans”) in 1935, Afghanistan and Tajikistan protested against it. Like Iran, both countries still consider themselves the cradle of the Aryan people. From a scientific perspective, while the historical Aryans lived 3000-4000 year ago in several parts of Asia, they had little connection to those who popularized the racist Aryanist ideology in the 20th century.

Sadly, the belief of belonging to a superior race is still widespread in these central Asian countries and goes hand in hand with anti-Arab views, hatred toward Turkic people and sometimes, Islamophobia. In Iran, for example, “Arab” is still a common curse while Tajikistan's dictator Emomali Rahmon advised parents to use Persian names instead of Arabic ones when naming their children. In Afghanistan, some ethnic Pashtuns and Tajiks fancy themselves the “real Aryans” and express racism toward minorities like Uzbek or Hazara people. In this context, it should not be a surprise that the hardcore adherents of these ideologies have, at times, expressed admiration for Hitler.

[TexasProgresive]

1. When I heard that he was of Irani descent I thought that odd

as most of these radicals seem to be Sunni as opposed to Shi'as. Stupid me, duh! I know that Iran considers itself the cradle of the Aryans. It's one of those important details that glaze reporters' eyes over.

[REP]

3. Most Iranians prefer to be referred to as Persian, not Aryan

Not to be confused with Parsis, whose name also means Persian, and are Iranian Zoroastrians who fled to India about a thousand years ago to retain their religious identity.

I know some truly useless stuff.

[TexasProgresive]

5. Me too

Just ask my wife. She'll say I full of useless trivia.

[awoke_in_2003]

2. Yep

Doesn't quite fit the anti-Muslim narrative

[JustinL]

4. has Bill Maher corrected himself yet?

Last week, he wove this incident into his Islamophobic narrative and said it played into Trump's hands.