Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's decision to have seven mosques shut down was no surprise. The group of people who support racist right-wing parties and are anti-Islam and anti-immigrant in Europe have already been considering mosques as a threat for a long time. Not only is there this problem in Europe, but there is also the same case in the U.S. Trump's former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon welcomed the rise of the right parties in Europe with great enthusiasm by ascribing a revolutionary meaning to it. Bannon, who was fired from the White House for babbling, returned to his executive position in Breitbart News.
The billionaire businessman Robert Mercer, who was a major donor of Trump during the elections, was financing Breitbart which is the platform for extremist new right-wing movement. Mercer family couldn't keep Bannon, who was sacked by Trump, in charge of Breitbart any longer. Bannon, who got kicked out of Breitbart, made it his business to follow the extreme right-wing parties in Europe. In fact, he watched the Italian elections on site closely. Bannon gushed over the victory of the radical right-wing parties in the elections.
Bannon establishes ideological links between the radical right-wing parties in Europe and the Tea Party, which represents supporters who are more inclined to the right-wing in the Republican Party in the United States. Moreover, he calls these parties the “Global Tea Party.” Bannon has very close relationships with right wing leaders in Europe. Among them are Britain's former leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage and French National Front leader Marine Le Pen. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, who is an anti-Islam and anti-immigrant politician, is also involved in Bannon's Global Tea Party. Wilders, who deems himself as a "Christian Zionist," just like Bannon, is also hardline pro-Israel.
In the United States, Fred Fleitz, who was positioned as the second man after John Bolton in the National Security Council, is not much different than Sebastian Kurz. Fleitz has also held senior posts in the Center for Security Policy (CSP), which is known for its anti-Islam sentiments. Fleitz often expressed his views in Breitbart News. Fleitz and CSP argue that the mosques in America are working to promote a secret jihadist agenda. That's why Fleitz's appointment to the highest level of the NSC by Bolton worried American Muslims.
What Richard Grenell, who was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Berlin at the end of April, said in an interview, which was published in "Breitbart News" early this month, has led to a minor crisis. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is the most admired right-wing leader of Grenell, who said that he wants to work to empower right-wing parties in Europe. Naturally, Grenell came under backlash in Germany because of his statements. There were those who accused Grenell of talking like a colonial officer, not like a diplomat, and there were people who wanted him to be deported. Bob Menendez, a senior Democrat member of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, also asked the U.S. Department of State to start an investigation against Grenell. Grenell retracted his statements which were published in Breitbart and said, "I think I should cooperate with all governments and political parties to support transatlantic relations."
Grenell, whose first action was to pay a visit to the Israeli embassy in Germany, attracted vehement criticism by demanding German companies to stop their activities in Iran when Trump annulled the nuclear deal.
In fact, Grenell makes an impression that seems to be the pro-Israel stance of the Trump administration, just like U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton. I would like to jog your memory again; Grenell was official spokesman of Bolton, who was the U.S. ambassador to the UN for a while during the term of former U.S. President George W. Bush. It is the same power that made Bolton National Security adviser, and made Grenell the Berlin ambassador.
