Trump adds 'violent Antifa groups' in Europe to US list of foreign terrorist organizations

Source: Independent

Donald Trump’s administration has added four European left-wing groups to the U.S. government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, marking a global escalation of the president’s war on ideological opponents that treats “Antifa” similarly to the Islamic state.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration is designating Germany’s Antifa Ost, Italy-based International Revolutionary Front, and two organizations in Greece — Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense — as both “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” and “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” that the administration claims are “conspiring to undermine the foundations of Western Civilization through their brutal attacks.”

“Groups affiliated with this movement ascribe to revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideologies, including anti-Americanism, ‘anti-capitalism’ and anti-Christianity, using these to incite and justify violent assaults domestically and overseas,” Rubio said in a statement Thursday.

In September, the president signed an executive order singling out the militant antifascist movement and the people who financially support it as a “domestic terror organization.” There is no “domestic terrorist organization” designation under U.S. law, and Antifa is not a specific organization but a term that encompasses a wider ideologically driven movement against fascism.

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Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-antifa-foreign-terrorist-organizations-b2866044.html