BNP launches lying attack on 18 year-old Maryport anti-fascist

When the then 16 year-old William Hague spoke at the Conservative Party’s Annual Conference back in 1977, the media loved it. Here was a (very) young man, politically-savvy and, like him or not, an excellent orator, taking part in the political process. An unusual sight then and a lot more unusual now. Even where they disagreed with him and his views, the media had the good sense to attack his views and not him as a person, judging that a vitriolic personal attack on a youth, no matter from which part of the political spectrum he hailed, would be counter-productive and would be deemed as, in some indefinable way, tacky and unnecessary.

The BNP though – as we’ve seen on numerous occasions – will attack anyone with whom they disagree. Or rather, anyone who has the courage to speak out against the fascist party.

While most of the country is applauding the government’s decision to allow 18 year-olds the right to stand in elections, the BNP seems to be doing its utmost to shut at least one 18 year-old up by making untrue allegations on its website about Jonathan Wood, anti-fascist campaigner who, with his friend Duncan Money, has contributed to the formation of Maryport Against Racism.

Jonathan and Duncan have come in for a lot of crap from the far-right since the media reported on their activities. Their photographs and personal details have appeared on a number of websites including Redwatch – intimately linked to the exceedingly violent Combat 18 and run by the poisonous little nazi bastard Kevin Watmough. Redwatch exists for one reason only – to encourage violence against the people who appear on its pages. The British National Party has NEVER condemned Redwatch for posting the pictures and details of these two teenagers. Nor will it.

This week, furious at the continuing great coverage that the two are getting for their anti-fascist activities, the BNP decided to go on the offensive itself – by making up a load of lies about Jonathan. Before it did that, it made sure that he was clearly identifiable in the article, pointing out precisely who his parents are (two councillors) and which council they serve on. The BNP might not be Redwatch but it can sure act like it.

Having identified him clearly, it then went on to state that, according to its less than impeccable sources, he had been arrested on four separate occasions; for car theft, joyriding, vandalism and drug offences. This information, it claimed, was provided by one of Jonathan’s former classmates at Netherhall School, who described him as ‘a bit of a looney’.

Just one snag. Well actually quite a few snags. Jonathan has never been a student at Netherhall School and he has never been arrested.

Clearly the whole article has been made up by either the BNP itself or the BNP member who provided the information. This isn’t the first time the BNP and its myrmidons have lied to the press and public about those who oppose them. The dirty tricks department must be the busiest part of the British National Party. That and the money-laundering department.

Well this time they were quickly proved wrong. Let’s hope the apology arrives or is posted up on the BNP website before the election, or at the very least the article is removed. But don’t hold your breath. The party has never yet resorted to the truth where a lie will serve its purpose and we don’t expect it to start now.

Ex-BNP Member Fights Race Hate

A FORMER BNP organiser turned anti-racism campaigner has been in Coventry promoting the fight against hate crime.

Andy Sykes spent a week in the city leading anti-racism training for police, youth workers, Youth Offending Services staff, Victim Support officers and firefighters.

The aim of the training was to promote awareness of racism and give people confidence to challenge it when they see it.

It is also hoped they will feed their training back to other people in their organisations and the communities in which they work.

As part of the training, participants had DNA samples analysed to reveal their ethnic background.

Alison Quigley, Coventry City Council’s hate crime reduction officer, who organised the training, found she is genetically linked to people in Russia, Iran and Romania.

She said: “One of the key points of the training is to make clear that there is no such thing as people being biologically British.

“The anti-racism training drives home the importance of not just challenging racist behaviour but also having the background knowledge to pinpoint the factual inaccuracies that lie behind many racist beliefs.”

Andy Sykes joined the BNP in 2001, thinking it was a progressive party concerned for the future of the nation.

He quickly became disillusioned and worked as a mole, passing information to the Trades Union Congress.

In 2004, he worked with an undercover BBC reporter on a documentary that provoked national debate about the far-right party.

ICCOVENTRY.CO.UK

Gays Among Minority Groups Targeted in BNPs Secret Plan for ‘Apartheid’ in Britain

LONDON, April 30, 2007 – Former British National Party activist, turned anti-fascist campaigner, Matthew Collins, Director of Searchlight’s Operation Wedge, has revealed the inside truth about the BNP’s plans for apartheid in Britain, and how to defeat the far right.

He was interviewed by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, on his weekly TV programme, Talking With Tatchell at the weekend.

The neo-Nazi British National Party is fighting a record number of seats in the May 3 local, Scottish and Welsh elections – over 800 seats in total. It is aiming to double its number of councillors.

Mr. Collins reveals that the BNP’s makeover as an ostensibly respectable British patriotic party is a con.

The BNP may have discarded its ‘bovver boot’ image in favour of slick city suits, and toned down its street thuggery, but behind the smiling face of its leader Nick Griffin lurks a hateful Islamophobia, racism and homophobia, Mr. Tatchell said.

The BNP is a menace to democracy and to minority communities; posing a particular threat to the security of Black, Asian, Jewish, Muslim and gay people, he suggested.

Mr. Collins explained the BNP’s strategy: it preys on deprived white working class communities; exploiting and manipulating their grievances – often fabricating claims of preferential treatment for immigrants and asylum seekers, in order to stir up a white racist backlash that it can then take advantage of.

The key to defeating the BNP is youth education in diversity and tolerance, the promotion of multicultural projects where people of all races work together to benefit all sections of the community, and government action to address the neglect and deprivation that prompts some alienated white working class people to turn to the far right, the programme suggested.

Mr. Collins also warns that in order to win broader electoral appeal the BNP has, at least publicly, dumped its more extreme policies, such as the repatriation of non-white people.

Now, he revealed, it has a more subtle, covert strategy to drive black people out of Britain – a secret plan for a regime of de facto apartheid, whereby non-white people will face gradually ever-increasing restrictions, exclusions and deprivations.

The BNP’s aim, Mr. Collins suggested, is to make life in Britain so unbearable for black people that they will want to return to the countries from which their forebears migrated.

UK GAY NEWS

The chilling documentary broadcast that once and for all, exposes the BNP as sinister Adolf Hitler-style nazis, secretly preparing Nuremberg Laws, be viewed by clicking the following link: -

http://doughty.gdbtv.com/player.php?h=0331ae60617c365f38073ef063afc6fa

New laws could give BNP members employment rights

New employment laws that came into force today could pave the way for political activists – including members of the British National Party (BNP) – to bring religious discrimination claims in the workplace, experts have warned.

Stuart Chamberlain, an adviser at Consult GEE, an employment consultancy, said that following changes to the Employment Equality (Religious or Belief) Regulations 2003: “Employers need to tread carefully as the potential to discriminate has widened. From today, the regulations will mean that refusing to employ someone or treating an employee differently because of their philosophical beliefs could result in a discrimination claim,” he said.

The relevant change concerns the statutory definition of “religion or belief”. Under the previous laws, this was defined as “any religion, religious belief or similar philosophical belief.” However, from today, the word “similar” will be removed with the definition amended to “any religion, or religious or philosophical belief.”

The change means that members of the BNP, such as Mr Baggs, whose religious discrimination claim against a medical practice that refused to interview him failed, could now be successful. Lawyers for Mr Baggs claimed that he was entitled to protection under religious discrimination laws because his membership of the BNP amounted to a “similar philosophical belief” to a religion or other religious belief.

However, the claim was dismissed after the employment tribunal ruled that the word “similar” meant that the philosophical belief in question must be similar in nature to a religious belief and that membership of the BNP did not meet this test. But according to Cath Thorpe, an employment partner at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain: “Under the amended regulations, the Baggs case may well have been decided differently.”

Other lawyers warned the amendment could extend to cover those with other beliefs.

Audrey Williams, an employment expert at Eversheds, said: “While this is a relatively minor amendment to the regulations, there could be far-reaching consequences. For example, it is possible that due to the changes, people who adhere to any shared, philosophical belief system such as animal rights activism or Marxism could also be protected from workplace discrimination.”

However, Consult GEE’s Mr Chamberlain said there are circumstances where it remains possible for an employer to discriminate on the grounds of belief.

“The regulations include a safety net of genuine occupational requirements to avoid situations where it would be unrealistic to expect an employer to not be able to discriminate on the grounds of religious or other belief. For example, a socialist publication is likely to be able to appoint a columnist with socialist views and not fear a discrimination claim from applicants of other political leanings.”

Times Online

Many minorities ‘live in poverty’

Some 40% of people from ethnic minority backgrounds are living in poverty, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has said. The figure is twice as high as it is for white people, and rises to 65% for those of Bangladeshi origin, it says. The charity’s research also suggests minorities are still overlooked in the workplace compared with others, despite often having better qualifications.

It says government policy needs an “urgent rethink” but ministers insist new measures are being considered. The foundation classifies individuals and families with incomes 60% of the national average as living in poverty, a measure also used by the government.

Equal opportunity

The foundation said more thought needed to be given to how assistance was targeted to minority groups to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace.

Publishing a series of reports examining the link between poverty and ethnicity, the foundation said 40% of people from minority backgrounds were currently living in poverty. This figure rose as high as 55% for those from Pakistani backgrounds and 45% for black Africans. Almost one in three of those from Indian and black Caribbean backgrounds are below the poverty line.

Success in raising educational standards among minorities had not been rewarded by commensurate progress in the workplace, the reports found. Pakistani and Bangladeshi men with degrees were less likely to be employed than their white counterparts while women from Asian backgrounds suffered high levels of unemployment.

These problems were not confined to first generation immigrants, it concluded, with British-born individuals from minority backgrounds less likely to be in work than their white equivalents.

Ministerial summit

“Although the past decade has seen some improvements, there are still some very serious problems which remain unsolved,” said foundation director Julia Unwin. “This research shows how policies need to address the different situation of each group and be followed through on a practical level.”

Employment and Welfare Reform Minister Jim Murphy said the lives of ethnic minority groups had improved over the last decade but acknowledged more needed to be done.

“The City Strategy programmes, a new partnership between government and providers, will help to tackle worklessness amongst ethnic minority communities,” he said. “The Ethnic Minority Employment Task Force will be proposing new ways of tackling employer discrimination ahead of a ministerial summit early in the summer.”

BBC

Quilt recalls horrors of Nazi cruelty

Quilts are pieces of cloth sewn together that in many cases tell history. Not all are designed to remember happy times. For Rosa Freund, the quilt she recently completed looks back on when she and others lived through the tyranny of Nazism.

A Holocaust survivor who started her life in concentration camps when she was 17 years old, Freund gathered patches from friends and then created a quilt to be a silent witness of those terrible days more than six decades ago when she was taken from her home on the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary.

One of the patches is of blue and white stripes, the colors of the uniform she wore in one camp. On the patch is a pocket that bears a gold number 672. “That was my work number,” the small-framed woman said.

Above the pocket is a candle of remembrance, which Freund said is important for her. It marks the horrors she saw at places such as Birkenau, Auschwitz and other death camps.

While 672 is a number she remembers, Freund almost had another number. She was one of about 800 people standing in line and was near the place where her arm would have been tattooed with a number. “They ran out of ink before they got to me,” she said.

So, unlike untold hundreds of thousands who were “inked” crudely with a number, Freund was not. She also took an old photo of her brother, Moshe; her sister, Klara and her taken before they were sent to concentration camps and had it transposed on a white piece of cloth and sewn to the quilt. The photo was discovered after World War II and was in her brother’s possession. He was living in Israel.

Perhaps the most telling of her personally designed patches is one of three smokestacks and the buildings that those who were to be killed entered.

“I lived three blocks from the crematoria,” Freund said.

Years later, those days of being near the crematoria came back in a haunting way. Freund said she was at a doctor’s office in the United States because of a skin problem. The doctor decided to burn off some of her dry skin. The smell of her own burning flesh rose to her nostrils, bringing back the stench of bodies being burned more than 60 years ago.

Freund was one of five Holocaust survivors who made a trip recently to Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista to speak about the time of death and destruction unleashed against Jews and others in Europe by Germany’s Nazi regime.

The program was part of an educational process of the Holocaust survivors of southern Arizona who meet weekly at the Jewish Family and Children Service of Southern Arizona. For the past five years, the group has come to the post to speak to military members, civilians and schoolchildren. This year’s event was called “Children in Crisis, Voices of the Holocaust.”

Exhibits about the Holocaust from the Afikim Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering Jewish life, also are on display.

Freund completed the quilt just before April 15, Holocaust Day. The quilt’s appearance at the fort was the first of many planned for outside Tucson.

Tucson Citizen

The ‘Toytown Nazi’ BNP get uppity with columnist Richard Littlejohn

The BNP’s National Press Officer, Dr. Phil Edwards (or Stuart Russell, depending on who he’s talking to), is currently in something of a tizz about Richard Littlejohn, the Daily Mail columnist who on April 27th described the BNP as ‘Toytown Nazis’ in an article that made it very clear where he stood with the party. The appropriate section of the column is reprinted below:

‘…While we’re talking rubbish, a couple of weeks ago I asked where were the candidates in the local elections who would promise to keep or reinstate weekly collections. If you look down the list in the Mail of those councils who have scrapped them, all three main parties are guilty.Since our campaign started, it has become the big election issue. A number of people have written to tell me that the BNP is pledged to empty the bins every week. For quite a while, I have been concerned that decent people are contemplating voting BNP because they think that Labour, the Tories and the LibDems are all as bad as each other. This column doesn’t go in for endorsing any party. It’s up to you how you cast your vote. But I would implore you not to vote for the BNP. They may have been to Man at C&A, but underneath they’re still the same unpleasant bunch of racist, anti-Semitic skinheads they’ve always been. If you want to protest, try UKIP or the English Democrats, or the Monster Raving Loony Party, for that matter. Anyone but this bunch of disgusting Toytown Nazis. Democracy encompasses the right not to vote. That’s also a protest against the system. I don’t care if the BNP promise to empty the dustbins twice a day. Frankly, I’d rather put up with an overflowing wheelie bin, full of six-month old waste, crawling with rats. It’s bad enough having vermin in our rubbish without having them infest the Town Hall, too.’

As much as any decent person must despise Littlejohn for much of the tosh he comes out with, it must be admitted that on occasion he produces an interesting phrase or two.

Edwards, describing Littlejohn as a ‘tiresome hack’, was furious but managed to get his revenge instantly. Just a day or two before, he had received the following email from Atlantic Productions:

‘I am writing to you to request an interview with Nick Griffin for a Channel 4 programme we are producing. I hope you are able to pass on the request (below) and we look forward to hearing from you…We have been commissioned by Channel 4 to produce a one-hour documentary on anti-Semitism. The programme is authored by Richard Littlejohn, the newspaper columnist, and will air at peak time later in the year…In the film, Littlejohn will look at the causes of anti-Semitism and examine how it is no longer only associated with far right neo-Nazi extremists but is also finding a home with extreme Islamists and elements of the political Left. He will explore the complex relationship between this new form of anti-Semitism and attitudes in Britain towards the state of Israel and its foreign policy.’

Although he doesn’t actually say this in his reply to Atlantic Productions, Edwards states on his blog:

‘The BNP have no policies which espouse or encourage anti Semitism, so why they should contact us illustrates just how out of touch are the likes of Littlejohn.’

Perhaps we can help him out as his memory seems to be at fault – possibly due to the copious amounts of beer he claims to be able to down. Maybe Atlantic and Littlejohn did a quick five-minute search of the internet for ‘nick griffin’ and ‘jews’, which would have found them these little snippets:

‘He [Griffin] had become editor of The Rune, an antisemitic quarterly produced by Croydon BNP. Griffin was opposed to attempts to modernise the BNP, accusing those who wanted change of “rainbow Conservatism”. He also announced that the BNP should prioritise denying the Holocaust to schoolchildren.’

‘A Griffin publication, Who are the Mindbenders?, claims to prove that the minds of British people are brainwashed through Jewish control of the media. The booklet includes a list of all known Jews working in the media as though they are working together for a joint cause. He proves Jewish control of the BBC by naming a mere 19 Jews who work for the corporation. He has never repudiated this work.’

‘In another article he said, ‘I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that 6 million Jews were gassed and cremated or turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the earth is flat… I have reached the conclusion that the “extermination” tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter-day witch-hysteria.’ (Carlisle Two Defence Fund Bulletin)

‘In 1997 he told an undercover journalist that he had updated Richard Verrall’s Holocaust denial book Did Six Million Really Die?. He also described his former MP, Alex Carlile, QC, who had reported The Rune to the police, as “this bloody Jew… whose only claim is that his grandparents died in the Holocaust.”‘

‘Despite Griffin’s new moderate image, he remains a Holocaust Denier. He has attacked fellow Holocaust denier David Irving for being too moderate (!) for admitting that some Jews did indeed die during the Holocaust claiming the “True Revisionists will not be fooled by this new twist to the sorry tale of the Hoax of the Twentieth Century.”‘

‘On his farm in Wales Griffin has, according to Wales on Sunday, two pigs one called “Anne” and another called “Frank” – a crude anti-Semitic parody of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl whose wartime diary, written whilst she was in hiding in Amsterdam is a world famous indictment of Nazi persecution of the Jews. Anne Frank was later betrayed and died in a concentration camp. Apparently Griffin thinks this is funny.’

That may be why Atlantic contacted the BNP about anti-semitism. It may also explain why Littlejohn referred to the BNP as ‘disgusting Toytown Nazis’.

Curiously, Edwards didn’t seem to find the implied accusation of anti-semitism inaccurate enough to complain about, choosing instead to get his revenge on Littlejohn for the perceived insult to the BNP. Here’s his reply:

‘Further to your request for an interview with Nick Griffin for a Channel 4 programme you and Littlejohn are producing about the causes of anti-Semitism, I would like you to read the following comment by Littlejohn in his scurrilous Daily Mail column of April 27:

“Please don’t vote for these Toytown Nazis…While…..[truncated] It’s bad enough having vermin in our rubbish without having them infest the Town Hall, too”

Neither Nick Griffin nor anyone else in the BNP would wish to associate themselves with the likes of Littlejohn. I will put this correspondence on the BNP web site under Columnists and Doc’s Diary for all to see just how unpleasant are Littlejohn and all his works. Please do not contact the BNP again on behalf of Littlejohn.’

So an accusation of anti-semitism is okay but being referred to as ‘vermin’ isn’t? The mind boggles.

BNP candidate’s nazi shame

A British National Party activist who claims he is a respectable businessman is really a Nazi fanatic who dresses in German uniform and flies a swastika flag.

Window firm boss Karl Newman, 47, a candidate for the far-right BNP in Thursday’s local elections, denies he is a racist or Nazi sympathiser in campaign leaflets. But, in fact, he dresses in World War Two Wehrmacht uniforms and has a sick fascination with Hitler.

He has spent years restoring two wartime troop carriers built by Jewish concentration camp labour. One has a giant swastika on the bonnet and he flies another of the Nazi flags from the back. Newman even takes out six-year-old son William in the vehicle at weekends.

Pictures on his website show him in Nazi uniform. In one a cardboard cut-out of Hitler is driving one of the vehicles, called Kubelwagens.

Confronted by the Sunday Mirror, he said: “I am aware they were built by slave labour – but I can’t do anything about that.”

Newman, standing in Greenlands ward of Redditch Council in the West Midlands, added: “OK – so the BNP is only for white people, but that does not mean I am a racist.” Claiming to be a Christian, he said his Nazi obsession was “just fun”.

Labour councillor Mark Shurmer said: “These pictures are disgusting.”

Sunday Mirror

LMHR guerilla gigs and mass UAF leafletting on May Day

LMHR guerilla gigs and mass UAF leafletting on May Day – in link-up with PCS civil servant’s union – to say ‘Make your vote count – stop the fascist BNP’.

On Tuesday 1st May Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) are joining forces with the PCS (civil servants) union, who are taking national strike action that day, in their “Make Your Vote Campaign” to encourage people to get out and vote on Thursday 3rd May, to stop the fascist BNP gaining any further ground.

MayDay will be a carnival of anti-fascist and trade union resistance. The BNP already have 49 council seats – 49 too many! We will be putting on a “gig on a truck” at key places around Leeds & West Yorkshire, and Dudley, Birmingham and Sandwell, stopping off to distribute Unite Against Fascism leaflets which expose the thuggish racist reality behind the BNP’s suits and weasel words. It’s a fun way to tackle a serious issue and it works!

UAF & LMHR speakers will also address PCS strike rallies in other parts of the UK – trade unions unite people of all colours, religions and nationalities, while the BNP are seeking to divide us.

PCS members and other trade unionists, bands/DJs/MCs, and anyone who wants to join the opposition to the BNP is urged to come along and take part.

Tuesday May 1st

Dudley: 9am-10am, PCS picket lines, The Waterfront, Merry Hill, Dudley.
Birmingham: 11am Chamberlain Square, PCS strike rally
Birmingham/Sandwell/Dudley, 12noon-4pm
West Midlands events contact: Lee Billingham 07838 156052 westmids@lovemusichateracism.com

Leeds: 9am PCS picket lines HMRC Castle House / DWP
Leeds: 11am PCS rally, Queens Hotel
Morley: afternoon, venue tbc
West Yorkshire events contact: Alison 07828 150735 alison@lovemusichateracism.com

LMHR

Stars unite in anti-BNP campaign

Falklands hero Simon Weston has added his voice to a campaign against the BNP in the Assembly elections. He has been joined by Twin Town star Rhys Ifans.The pair have added their support to the campaign by Unite Against Fascism.

The group claims that in English towns where the controversial party has been successful, racist attacks have increased. Unite wants to stop the BNP securing any seats in the Assembly next Thursday.

Simon Weston said: “I am against bigotry of all forms and I hate people using race to whip up fear and intimidation. I urge people not to propagate that kind of rhetoric.”

Notting Hill star Ifans added: “To Nick Griffin and the BNP – the ethnic communities you dare to vilify in Wales are speaking Welsh, feeling Welsh and will forever be welcome in Wales.”

South Wales Evening Post

Addressing the threat of the BNP: A student debate (Lancaster University)

Click on image for full size
A pdf file of the double-sided leaflet (423k) can be downloaded from here.

Addressing the threat of the BNP:
A student debate (Lancaster University)

Addressing the threat of the BNP: A student debate
As part of Love Music Hate Racism

Furness Lecture Theatre 2
5:00pm – Monday week 2 (April 30th)
(Followed by ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ at Sugarhouse from 8:00pm)

Behind the facade of suited respectability, the BNP is a fascist organisation in the tradition of Hitler’s Nazis. It was created from a split in the openly fascist National Front and is funded from neo-Nazi donations, festivals and music sales. Its aim is an all-white Britain, which could only be created using mass violence and an end to democratic freedoms. Many of its members have convictions for violence and racial hatred. Nick Griffin, the BNP leader has been convicted of incitement to racial hatred after he denied the reality of the Nazi Holocaust that resulted in the murder of 15 million people including Jews, trade unionists, Roma, black, lesbian, gay and disabled people.

The fascist BNP is standing a record number of candidates in local council, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections on 3 May, including one in Lancaster. The BNP’s vote has increased by more than 75 fold in just six years – from just over 3,000 votes in 2000 to over 238,000 in 2006.

The BNP can be stopped – The vast majority of people oppose the BNP’s politics of race hate, violence and division. The fascists rely on a low voter turnout to win elections, so by supporting anti-racism events like this and going to vote on May 3rd you are sending out a message that the BNP are not welcome either on campus, in Lancaster or anywhere else.

Speakers from: National Union of Students, Amicus, Love Music Hate Racism and Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

Muslim community unites with anti-fascists to call for vote against the BNP

Today the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) will call for a vote against the fascist British National Party (BNP) during Friday prayers and distribute leaflets, produced jointly with the Unite Against Fascism campaign, to highlight the danger of the BNP to the Muslim community.

The BNP has vilified the Muslim community, calling its local election campaign last year a “referendum on Islam”. It has spread racist myths about Muslim men ‘grooming’ white girls for sex and asserts that Islam has expanded by rape and violence. BNP leader Nick Griffin has labelled Islam a “wicked vicious faith”. In the run up to this May’s elections the BNP has whipped up Islamophobia to oppose plans to build mosques in Dudley in the West Midlands and in Stratford in London.

In 2006 the BNP gained a record 238,000 votes, which brought its councillors up to an unprecedented 49 seats.

A strong alliance between the Muslim and the anti-fascist majority including the trade union movement has been crucial to defeating the BNP previously in Tower Hamlets and Oldham.

Dr. Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the MCB said:
“The Muslim community is an integral part of British society – fascism is not. We believe that it is both a civic and Islamic duty for Muslims to use their votes, to defend democracy and to oppose hatred. We are proud to join the diverse coalition of Unite Against Fascism to stand against fascism – we call on all Muslims, and fellow Britons everywhere, to use their vote on May 3rd.”

Denis Fernando Joint Secretary of Unite Against Fascism said:
“The fascist BNP are utilising the same tactics as the Nazis did before them – attempting to make electoral gains by whipping up hatred against minority and vulnerable communities. A recent Gallup poll showed that almost three quarters of Muslims had a loyalty to Britain, whilst less than half of non-Muslims shared the same view. UAF is proud to work with the Muslim community to oppose the extremist policies of the BNP which pose a threat to Muslims, and all those who value democracy.”

Muslim News

UNISON to ’stop racism’ in anti-BNP campaign

UNISON is preparing to take its campaign against the BNP and other far-right parties to the streets of Scotland this weekend.

The union’s branches are organising a number of initiatives in different parts of the country on Saturday April 28 to take the message out to the public that ‘racists have no place in Scotland’. It’s part of their UK-wide campaign to prevent the organisation building on its 2006 ballot gains.

UNISON has produced large numbers of leaflets and posters urging its members to be careful with their vote on May 3.

Scottish organiser Dave Watson said: “UNISON members care for the whole community in Scotland; we won’t allow racists to wreck Scotland’s economic and cultural future. The BNP preach their message of hate, but try to hide it under a veneer of respectability. They use lies and rumour to pedal myths about, migrant workers and asylum seekers. We have been working to expose those myths and welcome much needed workers into Scotland.”

He pointed to a recent economic report which found the influx of migrant workers into Scotland had boosted the economy, saying that without them the building trade would collapse, the catering and tourist trade would suffer and the health service would fall apart.

With the new proportional representation system, particularly in the local elections, there is a danger that low turnout could lead to BNP candidates being elected by default, Mr Watson said. “We are urging our members and the general public to get out and ensure they cannot destroy our democracy.”

However, Dr Phil Edwards, National Press Officer for the BNP has accused UNISON of hypocrisy.

He said: “Most members do not tell the union what political party they are in. There are many members in the union who support the BNP and they are appalled by this. It is not democratic for them to campaign against us but not stand for election themselves. They get hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding from other people’s money – we haven’t got any money. How can you define racism? We are not racists – we are race realists.”

24dash

Is ‘Christian nation’ rhetoric aiding the far-right?

Christian denominations and church groups have been falling over themselves to denounce the British National Party (BNP) in the last few weeks, ahead of the impending local elections.

During the last European elections, I was taking part in a BBC phone-in on political extremism when the BNP’s press officer called the programme. Not only was the BNP a Christian party, he claimed, but the institutional church had let the country down. His party would defend British culture because churches had failed to do so.

Since then there have been two noticeable changes. First, the BNP has stepped up its religious rhetoric. In recent local elections, the party’s literature included copies of the controversial Mohammed cartoons. It also helped establish a ‘Christian Council of Britain’. The goal is apparently to appeal to those in the population who identify with Christianity, but feel panicked both by ‘liberal secularism’ and the growth of Islam.

At the same time, leading figures within the Church of England have also become far more vocal in their calls to stem the tide of secularism, and to defend the predominant ‘Christian culture’ of Britain. The uncomfortable fact is that this puts the Church into the position of arguing the same political point about national identity as the BNP.

Of course the rationales of these messages are very different. The agenda behind the BNP’s claims is essentially a cultural one – partly in opposition to an alleged liberal elite, and partly in an attempt to whip up fear of minority faiths. In contrast, few would question the commitment of the Church of England to combating racism. But the time has come to face the fact that when it uses ‘Christian nation’ rhetoric, it risks encouraging support for right-wing extremists.

It may be no coincidence that it has been the Church’s two most senior black leaders, Archbishop Sentamu and Bishop Nazir Ali, who have made the most prominent pronouncements against ‘the secular tide’. The Church must surely be aware of the dangers of its arguments. But it is doubtful that this will limit the damage, with the BNP also now claiming (no doubt disingenuously) some non-white members.

These problems look likely to get more uncomfortable. The BNP now has 47 councillors in the UK, and church schools could face BNP representatives appointed to their governing bodies. Local authorities, after all, have a duty to nominate some governors from different local political parties. If this happens, they may find these representatives wholeheartedly endorsing the admissions policies that many church schools run, favouring Christians over others in local communities, as a strategy for encouraging social division.

But the terrain is changing. A recent Tearfund survey found that just 53% of the population identified in some way with Christianity. That is a colossal drop compared to the last national census, when 72% did so.

This is tough news for a Church that wants to rely on ‘cultural capital’. But there is another way. Instead of adopting a defensive stance which pleases those seeking to make political capital out of civic ‘de-Christianization’, the Church has an opportunity to refocus on the vocation of Jesus – which means costly discipleship, not cultural dominance.

It is easy to make a claim to speak for the sentiments of an, albeit dwindling, majority of the population. It is far harder to mount a practical stand for justice, and base one’s political authority on the quality of one’s actions in the here and now. But in an increasingly religiously plural society, it will be the quality of contemporary political witness, not appeals to a bygone age, which will sort the sheep from the old goats.

Ekklesia

Race hatred behind No.10’s mosque petition

THE RACE HATRED of a woman behind a Downing Street anti-mosque petition can now be revealed.

No.10 refused to act over Jill Barham’s petition despite being bombarded with emails objecting to the threat of “terrible violence and suffering” against Muslims if the mosque goes ahead.

Blink reported earlier this month that far-right organisations were backing the petition.

We can now reveal that Barham spouts vile racial hatred on her blog under the name “English Rose.” She has also posted links to a number of extreme-right websites.

Blink has now send another email to Downing Street’s webmaster requesting that No.10 take action over the petition, as many of the 39,000 signatries would be horrified by Barham’s race-hate views.

The UK English Rose blog includes a string of tirades against Islam including “Muslims who rape western women”, and has a link to the Battle for Britain which has a picture of two monkeys which it calls Trevor Phillips and Diane Abbott.

In an email to Downing Street’s webmaster today, Blink wrote: ‘We are extremely concerned that many of the people who signed Jill Barham’s petition were unaware of her racial hatred, which is displayed on her blog.

‘It is obvious that many of the signatories would not have signed the petition if they had known this. As the petition has been fatally undermined, we call for it to be taken down immediately.
‘We also object strongly to the name “KILL ALL NI**ERS” who is listed on No.10’s website signing this petition. It is outrageous to have such unbridled racism should be published on the Prime Minister’s website.

‘We reiterate that the petitioners reference to “terrible violence and suffering” is a clear implicit threat of violence against Muslims should the so-called mega mosque be given the go-ahead.’

Blink urges our readers to email Downing Street at: webmaster@pmo.gov.uk to urge that this petition is amended to remove the reference to “terrible violence and suffering” and that the words “KILL ALL NI**ERS” are removed from the signature list.

Blink (Black Information Link)