By Edmund Standing, Researcher, Centre for Social Cohesion
Recently, the Centre for Social Cohesion, a non-partisan independent think-tank, published a report which I authored, entitled 'The BNP and the Online Fascist Network'. The purpose of that report was simple.
The British National Party, under Nick Griffin, has worked very hard to create a wholly false image of itself as a mainstream, 'patriotic' nationalist party, that has left behind its links with neo-Nazism. That deception has met with considerable success. The truth is very different.
In the report, I demonstrated, through looking at BNP supporting blogs, forums, and YouTube accounts, as well as official party literature and material sold via its website, that the BNP has not changed in substance at all. Rather, it is a racist party, founded by neo-Nazis, with a racial ideology that continues to share much in common with neo-Nazism.
However, it is also a party that now has a number of elected councillors and two MEPs. A few years ago, no-one would have thought it possible that the BNP could ever enter the political mainstream. In this article I shall discuss how and why this has happened, and what needs to be done to combat it.
In 2000, BNP leader (and now MEP) Nick Griffin stood before an audience of American 'white nationalists' and proposed that while he had no intention of 'selling out' the BNP's principles, he now wanted to 'sell' the party. So, he stated, the BNP would now use 'salable' words such as 'freedom' and 'democracy', and replace discourse about 'racial purity' with talk of 'identity'. In recent years, particularly following the 7/7 terrorist atrocities, the BNP has sought to align itself with what is loosely termed the 'anti-jihad movement' and to shift its focus from attacking Jews and black people to opposing 'Islamification'.
This focus on Islam has been combined with an even more intense campaign against asylum seekers and the encouragement of white self-pity. Then, of course, there is the very real problem that many voters, especially from old Labour heartlands, are feeling increasingly alienated from the political process, which is seen to be the domain of an arrogant and self-serving liberal intelligensia wholly disconnected from the concerns of ordinary working people. So, for its European election campaign this year, a key BNP slogan was 'Punish the Pigs', with the party presenting itself as a bulwark against the arrogant and greedy politicians of the mainstream parties.
Griffin is a man who has rightly been described as a 'political chameleon' and under his guiding hand, the BNP has been developing in a similar manner. Looking at the kind of statements it gives to the media and its huge shift away from neo-Nazi racial discourse and towards nationalist populism and a 'little Englander' approach, the BNP appears, superficially, to have changed dramatically. Elsewhere, I have argued that this is entirely to be expected and that it actually illustrates something very positive about modern Britain: the BNP has had to change its rhetoric because the majority of white Britons are not racists and would be instantly turned off by a party attempting to 'sell' ideological racism and a policy of mass repatriation of all non-white citizens.
There are a number of factors involved in the rise of the BNP as an electoral force, and I do not think that a sudden conversion of large numbers of white Britons to hardline racist sentiment is one of them. The question of Islam is one factor. Recently, I have been accused by the usual suspects of not bothering to properly examine the BNP's anti-Islamic rhetoric because I don't take anti-Muslim bigotry seriously enough or don't really care about it. At worst, it has been implied that I am an anti-Muslim bigot myself or, to use the catchphrase, an 'Islamophobe'.
This approach indicates a complete failure in understanding of the true nature of the BNP's anti-Islam campaign, and the fact that writers who are supposedly anti-fascist should choose to attack a report aimed at exposing racism is disappointing to say the least. The reality is that Griffin and co don't really care about Islam. Griffin may be an odious figure, but he's not a complete idiot, and he knows very well that Britain is not on the verge of turning into an Islamic State.
Following his strategy for making the BNP electable, Griffin has tried to steer the party towards populist issues, picking up on fears and resentment among the electorate in an attempt to use such issues as a Trojan horse for his underlying racist agenda. The truth is that the BNP hates Muslims because they are predominantly brown skinned. In 'white nationalist' ideology, everything ultimately boils down to an obsession with race.
When it comes to Islam, the BNP hasn't exactly had to work hard to whip up anti-Muslim bigotry and paranoia about 'Islamification'. Looking at the scare stories on its website's news section, a large number of them are drawn straight from mainstream media sources, and the party is being greatly assisted by the grossly disproportionate coverage given in newspapers to the outrageous statements and provocations of Anjem Choudary and his motley crew of social misfits who go under a variety of names but are essentially Al-Muhajiroun. In hysterical report after report, a tiny minority of bin Ladenist fanatics and fantasists have been presented as a serious threat to our society.
The fact is, of course, that while Al-Muhajiroun is a dangerous group with many links to terrorism, it represents only the tiniest handful of Muslims in Britain, not that you would know that given the amount of time Choudary gets in the media. So, when the BNP claimed in its European election material that it would 'ensure that British troops are not abused on the streets of our cities by Muslims', it was in particular cynically appealing to the concerns of those who get the majority of their understanding of the world from reading simplistic and hyped up tabloid stories.
Likewise, when the British media regularly feature quotes from Choudary saying the 'Islamic flag' is going to fly above 10 Downing Street, the BNP's response that 'we aren’t prepared to stand back and watch as Britain drifts into being an Islamic republic' sounds perfectly reasonable.
It's not just a case of media scare stories, however. Another important factor that is undoubtedly greatly assisting the BNP in its promotion of anti-Muslim sentiment is the problem of largely self-appointed Muslim 'community leaders' and organisations and their very vocal and, to the majority of Britons, unreasonable lists of demands of how British society should change to accommodate what is presented as Islam and the 'rights' of Muslims.
In the final part of this two part series, Edmund explores how best the political establishment and society should combat BNP and show them up for exactly the racist, bigoted party it is.
eGov Monitor
It's a long read but well worth it
ReplyDeleteI am not afraid of your silly crap, I will knock the smirk off Standing's stupid face i relish the thought. you are weaklings
ReplyDelete"you are weaklings"
ReplyDeleteAnd you are a freak.
If anyone would like to read about this 'Red Squirrel' fruitloop, Denise's article here
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2009/04/squirrels-nuts-cracked.html
may well be of interest. It's even got a picture - though you may well need therapy after seeing it.
'It's a long read but well worth it'
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly.
This nutter sounds like the one who was threatening to kill you the other week Ketlan. First you, now Edmund, tomorrow the world, huh?
ReplyDeleteMs Red Squirrel is a close friend of both Morris (Green Arsehole) and Loony Lee Barnes.
ReplyDeleteMs Red Squirrel is the editor of The Strider, the Odinist publication published by the youth wing of the BNP to indoctrinate impresionable young athiest minds with racial Odinism.
On the Red Squirrel blog, she includes prayers to say to Odin which she stronly believes will cause Odin to come down from Valhalla to wreak havoc upon non-white Britains.
What a complete and absolute religiously fanatic this neo-nazi loser is!
Yes, we know know who was making the death threats against you, Ketlan, Red Squirrel. Her cage is rattled whenever this blog takes pot shots at Odinism or her hallowed Green Arsehole!
Isn't Red Squirrel Green Arrow's bit of fluff?
ReplyDeleteThe neo-nazi trolls who inhabit blogosphere are finally forced to uncloak themselves as they know their end is nigh!
ReplyDeleteWhy a neo-Nazi would call herself "Red" is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteSurely "Red" is the colour of socialism and communism, the very colour people of that fascist ilk would supposedly despise.
It says on Red Squirrel's blog that interests include Ásatrú".
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell's Ásatrú ??????
Apparently this Red Squirrel freaky bitch is on MSN, if you want to hack into her account: -
ReplyDeletewodens_vitki@hotmail.com (MSN)
For a reply to Edmund Standing's article see here.
ReplyDeleteÁsatrú just means that she is a plain old pagan, or in other words believes in Odin. Nothing new or interesting just the same old right wing rubbish with a fancy name!
ReplyDeleteRobert,
ReplyDeleteA very interesting link! Does this mean that the BNP is morphing from a RACIST white supremacy organisation based on pseudo-scientific ideas of genetic superiority, to a CULTURIST Eurocentric organisation based on the ideology of cultural supremacy?
If so should we confront this new aspect, or subsume it under the general category of 'racism'?