Source: The Economist

IS IT correct to find parallels between violent white supremacism and neo-Nazism on one hand, and the nihilist fury of ultra-militant Islam on the other? A Franco-American scholar, Scott Atran, is convinced that these deadly phenomena are two sides of the same coin. Unless people grasp that point, he thinks, our ability to cope with either scourge may be limited.

Of course there are superficial resemblances which anyone can see. In August, when a fanatic drove his car into a group of liberal, anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, he was copying a tactic that had already been used by self-styled warriors for Islam in at least four European countries.