US: Anti-fascist group might be labelled 'terror group'

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration is giving "major consideration" for listing the U.S.-based Antifa, short for "anti-fascists", a domestic terror group.

"Major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an 'ORGANIZATION OF TERROR.'," Trump said in a tweet on Sunday and warned the officials at the city of Portland, the home of Rose City, the oldest and most active Antifa group in the U.S.

"Portland is being watched very closely," Trump said and advised the mayor of Portland to "properly" do his job.

Scott Crow, one of the former Antifa organizers, told CNN in 2017 that the idea of Antifa is to curb hate speech wherever it happens if it is endangering people's lives.

"The idea in Antifa is that we go where they [right-wing] go. That hate speech is not free speech," Crow said.

"And so we go to cause conflict, to shut them down where they are, because we don't believe that Nazis or fascists of any stripe should have a mouthpiece," Crow added, defending Antifa's no-platforming tactic.

Since the election of Donald Trump as president of the U.S., a number of Antifa protesters is on the rise, comprised of mainly young, progressive, liberal and left-wing Americans.

Conservative groups in the U.S. slam Antifa groups for being violent during protests and hampering free speech.

Antifa idea is traced to Nazi Germany and Anti-Fascist Action, a militant group founded in the 1980s in the United Kingdom.