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All Hail Q! The forging of a right-wing religion and its extreme threat to security
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QAnon will be a threat to security for months, if not years, to come. The challenge of QAnon is only exacerbated by its growing synergy with organised religion as they seek to infiltrate wider sections of the evangelical movement.

The QAnon movement has been metastasising quickly. Its swerve toward the American radical-right was broadcast to the world during the 6 January assault on the US Capitol Building. The world saw Jake Angeli, the ‘Q Shaman’. Bare-chested and festooned with horns and fur, he seemed to exemplify the chaotic, maddening devotion to Donald Trump that this mostly online cult promulgates.

Originating in the seedier corners of the /pol/ message board on 4Chan, Q and their Anons have pushed the fascistic, antisemitic fringe theory that Donald Trump was “waging a shadow war against a cabal of Satan-worshipping, child-eating paedophiles who are conspiring to obstruct and overthrow him”. This has been popularised into a fluid belief system that violently stormed the floor of the US Congress.

QAnon’s foray into Christianity

Italian historian and specialist on fascist ideology, Emilio Gentile makes a distinction between what he calls “political religion” and “politicised religion”.

The QAnon movement falls under the guise of a ‘politicised religion’ where a secular religion is borne out of clerical thought and values. A deep dive into Q channels on messaging service Telegram exhibits a deluge of biblical scripture and religious rhetoric – demonstrating a nexus between the fascistic and the theological.

Unsuspecting Christians, perhaps concerned with election fraud or the very real issue of child abuse, can even be lured to QAnon through respected church leaders. The Omega Kingdom Ministry in Indiana is a prime example of this, as churches dotted across the US seek to merge QAnon with Protestant Christianity.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/countering-radical-right/all-hail-q-forging-right-wing-religion-and-its-extreme-threat-security/