On Monday, Would possibly 18, two assailants, ages 17 and 18, attacked the Islamic Middle of San Diego, which housed each a mosque and a college, killing 3 adults. The attackers wore Nazi SS insignia and had the phrases “race war” written on their guns.
The assault underscores the central function of Ecu historical past within the discourse and beliefs of the worldwide a long way appropriate. It used to be the most recent fatal manifestation of weaponization in Ecu historical past to justify violence in The united states within the provide.
However this isn’t only a US downside. Ecu historical past used to be additionally explicitly discussed within the manifesto of the Christchurch shooter in New Zealand in 2019. The Christchurch assault itself used to be impressed by way of Anders Breivik’s assault in Norway in 2011, which used to be essentially motivated by way of a violent white nationalist worldview.
All of those attackers drew inspiration from Adolf Hitler and the SS to justify each anti-Semitic and Islamophobic violence. However inside the white nationalist imaginary, Ecu historical past starts a lot previous. It extends to visions of a natural white race within the Greek and Roman eras, in addition to the idolization of ancient figures corresponding to Charles Martel, the Frankish chief who defeated the Muslim military at Excursions in 732.
It additionally attracts closely on imagery from the Ecu Crusades to recapture the Holy Land, which started within the twelfth century. The Knights Templar – a crusade-era order of Christian warrior priests – have captured the preferred creativeness of the a long way appropriate in Europe and the USA, in particular a few of the alt-right.
Political actors around the spectrum invoke the previous to supply legitimacy within the provide and counsel inevitability sooner or later. However for far-right leaders, Ecu historical past is especially simple to weaponize. It supplies a ready-made set of memes, metaphors, photographs and tropes that legitimize hate speech – and hate crimes – within the title of defending Christian Europeans from the perceived danger of Jewish and Muslim invaders.
Caution indicators
In 1992, I first set foot within the Islamic Middle of San Diego. As an undergraduate scholar at UC San Diego, I used to be there to announce that our Muslim Pupil Affiliation used to be elevating finances for the primary Bosnian Muslim refugees arriving in our district. We needed to hang this assembly as a result of lots of the congregation within the mosque had no concept that even Muslims existed within the former Yugoslavia.
Rapid ahead to Would possibly 2026, the 2 attackers used a digicam to movie their bloodbath on the Middle and broadcast it on Discord, with the phrases “race war” etched into their weapons. The apply of writing with a firearm isn’t an remoted incident within the historical past of Islamophobic assaults, neither is their recording on video.
In March 2019, an Australian-born guy attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. He killed 51 folks and filmed his assault, posting it on Fb. The video remains to be circulating at the Web nowadays.
The Christchurch attacker used 5 rifles inscribed with the names of more than a few Ecu ancient figures and battles towards Muslims, in addition to the racial slur “kebab remover”, a sinister euphemism for ethnic cleaning related to the 1991-1995 Bosnian civil battle.
This word is a tribute to Bosnian Serb chief Radovan Karadžić, the very warlord whose crimes towards humanity brought about such a lot of Bosniak refugees to escape the rustic – and plenty of of those that arrived in the USA settled in San Diego. It used to be Karadzic who attached “kebabs” with Bosniak Muslims, and “get rid of the kebab” remains to be an Islamophobic meme a few of the Ecu far-right, the place ubiquitous kebab retail outlets at the continent are ceaselessly equated with Muslim immigration.
The New Zealand-based gunman additionally etched battles from the Crusades on his guns, and his on-line manifesto named Anders Breivik as his hero. Breivik detonated a bomb within the heart of Oslo in 2011, killing 8 folks, ahead of massacring an extra 69. Breivik used to be obsessive about the medieval crusades, dressing up as a Knight Templar in his manifesto.
An assault by way of New Zealand neo-crusaders impressed two assaults in the USA the next month. In April 2019, 3 individuals of a Kansas armed forces calling itself the Crusaders have been arrested ahead of they might perform a plot to bomb an rental complicated housing Somali Muslim households and a mosque.
That very same month, a 19-year-old scholar entered a synagogue in north San Diego County and opened fireplace on a congregation marking the general day of Passover, killing a 60-year-old girl and wounding 3 others. This identical attacker had in the past attempted to set fireplace to an area mosque, impressed by way of the Christchurch taking pictures.
This attacker used to be a nursing scholar at San Marcos State College the place I train, and he studied within the development around the boulevard from my historical past division. He instructed scholars that he admired Hitler, and his colleagues reported this to our management, which didn’t reply to warnings about his weaponization of historical past.
Armed historical past legitimizes violence
Their manifestos purportedly envision their taking pictures as the muse for a “crusade.” They even known as themselves the “sons” of the New Zealand striker.
On April 24, 2026, I returned to the Islamic Middle, no longer as a scholar, however as a historical past professor lecturing in the neighborhood. And as a historian, I used to be uniquely certified to warn them that, in line with my learn about of the previous historical past of Islamophobia in our area and globally, there’s an greater chance of violent assaults, together with on the Middle itself. Tragically, my worry got here true only some weeks later.
In that lecture, I lamented that whilst Crusader historical past is ubiquitous, there isn’t a unmarried magnificence or program on Muslim-American and Arab-American historical past on my campus or in all the San Diego space. That is the category that I stand for and feature been combating for since 2012, after I moved completely to the realm.
We will be able to struggle radicalization that stems from a racist, myth model of Ecu historical past. We will be able to do that by way of no longer simplest educating courses about Ecu army conquests and the Crusades, but in addition in regards to the wealthy, lengthy historical past of abnormal Muslims and Arabs coming to each the USA and Europe, seeking to make a greater long term for each their youngsters and their newly followed international locations.
