White nationalist terrorism is such a threat to western democracies that a global war is necessary, Daily Beast world news editor Christopher Dickey explained on Saturday.

“The fight against extremism has to start with ideas and with language that is clear and unequivocal. Which is why we should be perfectly blunt about what Brenton Tarrant, the 28-year-old monster of Christchurch, claimed to represent, and did and does represent, which is white nationalist terrorism,” Dickey wrote.

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“Tarrant may have been a lone shooter when he slaughtered 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand on Friday, but he was not a ‘lone wolf.’ He was part of a much wider movement that is every bit as extensive as Al Qaeda was when it attacked the United States in 2001, and potentially much more dangerous to the future of Western democracies,” he continued.

“Now is the time for a Global War on White Nationalist Terrorism,” he argued.

“Networks of white nationalist apologists, sympathizers, supporters and facilitators—vital to any terrorist movement—are deeply embedded in the political and social fabric. They are literally the enemy within,” he explained. “And as an apologist, it should be said, President Donald Trump is in a class by himself. Trump is ‘a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose,’ as Tarrant wrote in his manifesto.”

“So, if we are going to think seriously about a global war on white nationalist terrorism, we have to admit that the American president is an enormous obstacle,” he concluded.

Read the full column.