White supremacists have traditionally hated Jewish people, accusing them of being behind the problems of either the world, their nation, or both. The reasoning has varied over time, but it’s generally focused on two things: Jewish people are different, having their own language in Hebrew and displaying a number of unusual clothes, rituals and practices; and many of the wealthiest families have been Jewish (the second is what happens when a Pope forbids anyone from being a moneylender or banker, but places which need these services force Jews into those trades.)
Now, what happens when you pull Jews out of the equation? The answer can be found in Le Grand Remplacement, published in France in 2011 and written by Renaud Camus. It takes the traditional theory of conspiratorial Jewish people trying to undermine “white culture” and substitutes a centuries-long enemy of Jewish people, Muslims.
According to the book, which became a bestseller among European white nationalist groups, Islamic people have arranged to infiltrate European nations with the intent on forcing first the implementation of sharia law and then the subjugation of all white people.
Whereas the supposed proof of Jewish conspiracy was their (easily explained) family wealth, the proof of Islamic conspiracy can be found in their attempts to assert their religious views in new home countries. The case they make thus seems stronger; many Islamic people do, in fact, prefer Islamic law. In every nation to which large numbers of Muslims have moved, there have been at least attempts to institute local sharia law. There is a valid concern about creeping Islamism (because Islam has both religious and political components, any growth in the Muslim population is likely to bring with it political issues.)
Where the theory breaks down is in the notion of coordination, and in the denial of moderate Islam. The second is a contentious point because Islamist radicals have been instructed to infiltrate and undermine moderate Islamic movements, rendering all of them at least mildly suspect. Because of previous incidents of “Westernized” Muslims launching attacks, it becomes reasonable to hold doubts about others who make similar claims, while simultaneously recognizing that many of those who claim to hold Westernized views are being honest. This is the terrible dichotomy which stems from having bad actors within any group.
The first, on the other hand, is outright garbage. It supposes that millions of people, the vast majority of which are refugees, are somehow coordinating to infiltrate and then overwhelm their European hosts. These are people who are being pushed out of homes, driven away from lands where they’ve spent all their lives and where most of their prized possessions remain. While, again, there may be some bad actors among them, they are not a secret army wearing a Trojan horse. Even had an entire village, city, or country made such an incomprehensible decision as to show their allegiance to Islam by forsaking all they have and moving to the Europe for a takeover bid, logistics would deny them. While people from similar areas are often kept in the same refugee camps, they are distributed across Europe as openings arise… this theoretical “jihad squad” of thousands would find themselves living hundreds of miles away from each other… and surrounded by people from other villages and towns at which they have traditionally been at odds.
In such a circumstance, an Islamist can find a handful of others and form a terrorist cell, or they can attempt to rally people for a political movement. but the notion of some conspiratorial “great replacement” is ludicrous.
What is seen, instead, is a cultural shift as aspects of other cultures are introduced to a society. There is no replacement; there is the inevitable movement of change, in the same way that societies have been changed by motor vehicles, television, the personal computer and cellphones.
The effort to fight back against that in favor of some mythical idealized past, conveniently tied to racist dreams of superiority, is what brought the theory to the United States. One might think the “Great Melting Pot” would be a difficult place for such a viewpoint to take hold, but it has… shifting, in this case, to the Hispanic population. Despite concerns about President Obama’s openness to migration for refugees, the percentage of Islamic people in the United States has never grown large enough to be considered a serious threat to cultural dominance. Immigrants from the south, however, have been steadily rising as a percentage of Americans.
While this is in part due to the declining birth rate among multi-generational American families (a trait common to nearly all Western countries, as creature-comfort diversions, concerns about the ability to maintain an existing lifestyle with growing families, and often the availability of abortion combine to discourage marriages and reduce family sizes) it is also due to the relative freedom from violence and the greater opportunities available for those willing to work for them. Emigrants from Central and South America have regularly sought to move to the United States, often permanently. This has resulted in many cultural shifts, exemplified by many in the experience of “press 2 for Spanish” when dealing with call trees.
American white nationalists, struggling for decades to expand their movement, have seized the opportunity given by the President’s rhetoric against our neighbors to the south. They have taken the “Great Replacement” theory of Europe and have adapted it to America. After decades of decrying the Jews (whom they still despise) they are targeting their efforts directly upon migrants from Central and South America, calling them invaders and likening them to soldiers. They are forwarding the notion that it is part of a great scheme to subjugate “the white race”.
As with the European model, the very notion is idiotic and breaks down upon the most casual analysis. Unlike the refugee resettlement programs of Europe, people moving to America have considerable control over their eventual location, and can thus theoretically shift entire communities into the U.S. The territorial differences, though, are more pronounced between Central American countries, not less. The enmity between Hondurans and Salvadorans and Mexicans is similar to that which exists between Haitians and Cubans… and anyone who lives in Miami can tell you that just because neither is white, that doesn’t mean their populations, on the whole, like each other.
There is no “Great Replacement”. There never was, and never will be, any “Great Replacement”, either in Europe or in the United States. There is racism, and there is a desire to smear all people who are different with the same brush, and there is an unwillingness to consider that, just as there are bad and good Caucasians and people should be examined by the merit of their actions, the same holds true for people of every other skin color.
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