Tumblr Alexandre Bissonnette obsessively searched for Donald Trump on social media and posed with a MAGA hat in the months before he killed six Muslim men at a mosque in Quebec City.

Alexandre Bissonette wore the hat. A Canadian, Bissonette hadn’t voted for Donald Trump. He lived in a French-speaking province, far from the U.S. president’s campaign rallies and “America first” appeals. But some of the first photos to emerge of the 27-year-old after he stormed a Quebec City mosque and killed six Muslim men in January 2017 showed him wide-eyed with a slight smirk and a red “Make America Great Again” cap casting a shadow over his pallid face. “Make America Great Again” has become more than a U.S. political slogan. For Bissonette and other white nationalist, radical right and anti-immigrant extremists all over the world, it’s a symbol; a kind of political messaging that transcends the specifics of country and language. “The hat and the MAGA acronym have really become shorthand for this white nationalist movement,” said Barbara Perry, a professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and an expert on the far right. Searching for MAGA symbolism is one of the easiest ways to notice online extremists and members of hate groups, Perry and other researchers have found — a game of “Where’s Waldo?” for racists. A 2018 study by extremism researcher J.M. Berger that analyzed tens of thousands of alt-right Twitter accounts found the most common word in their profiles was “MAGA” and the most frequent pairing of words was “Trump supporter.” And this embrace of pro-Trump symbols isn’t limited to social media. MAGA hats and slogans have shown up in Britain at rallies supporting anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson, on banners in Australia following the terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, and as an accessory for prominent European white nationalists who wear it to troll their fellow citizens.

SOPA Images via Getty Images A man at a Tommy Robinson rally in London holds an alt-right "Kekistan" flag while wearing a Make America Great Again hat.

Canada’s far right has a particular affinity for MAGA apparel. It often appears on white nationalist media personalities and far-right trolls attempting to disrupt anti-racism demonstrations. The head of the World Coalition Against Islam, a Canadian extremist group that openly refers to Muslims as “sewage,” routinely wears a MAGA hat at rallies. “In Canada, the MAGA hat is widely seen as a hate symbol — a middle finger to other Canadians, especially to women and people of colour,” Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, which monitors extremism, wrote in an email. The country’s oldest retailer, the Hudson’s Bay Company, recently apologized for selling “Make Canada Great Again” hats and removed them from its stores after public backlash. MAGA symbols abroad aren’t solely the province of extremists, but they tend to attract a certain type. Anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim politicians, in particular, have adopted the Trump-associated slogans and paraphernalia. Leader of Italy’s far-right League party Matteo Salvini posed with a MAGA hat on his office shelf and held an “Italians first” rally, while Islamophobic Dutch politician Geert Wilders promised to “make the Netherlands great again.” The anti-immigrant Alternative For Germany party’s deputy leader Beatrix Von Storch, whom German prosecutors investigated for inciting hatred against Muslims, wore a red “Make Germany Safe Again” hat during an election campaign.