A senior member of the BNP who burned a copy of the Qur'an in his garden has been arrested following an investigation by the Observer.
Footage of the burning shows Sion Owens, 40, from south Wales and a candidate for the forthcoming Welsh Assembly elections, soaking the Qur'an in kerosene and setting fire to it.
A video clip of the act, leaked to the Observer and passed immediately to South Wales police, provoked fierce criticism from the government.
A statement from the Home Office said: "The government absolutely condemns the burning of the Qur'an. It is fundamentally offensive to the values of our pluralist and tolerant society.
"We equally condemn any attempts to create divisions between communities and are committed to ensuring that everyone has the freedom to live their lives free from fear of targeted hostility or harassment on the grounds of a particular characteristic, such as religion."
Owens, who has previously stood for a council seat, was last Tuesday unveiled by the BNP as a candidate for next month's assembly elections. Several photographs place him alongside party leader Nick Griffin, including one showing the pair embracing during a party conference.
The footage comes at a time of heightened tensions. Internationally, protests continued in Afghanistan last week against the recent Qur'an burning by the US pastor Terry Jones in his Florida church.
Jones's act triggered a wave of global violence that nine days ago led to protesters storming a UN Afghan compound, killing three UN staff members and four Nepalese guards. Police had feared that far-right British extremists might attempt to stir tensions here by replicating Jones's stunt.
Superintendent Phil Davies of South Wales police, who led the investigation, said: "We always adopt an extremely robust approach to allegations of this sort and find this sort of intolerance unacceptable in our society."
Owens was arrested within hours of police receiving the video. A second person, believed to have filmed the Qur'an burning, is also in police custody.
It is unclear when the incident took place, but the five-minute footage is already understood to have been circulated to extremists. There is no evidence that Griffin was aware of the film.
When Jones went ahead with his "punishment" of the Qur'an on 20 March it was initially largely ignored until it was streamed on the internet and preserved on YouTube.
The footage of the burning in Britain clearly identifies Owens, who is wearing a "Whitelaw No Surrender" T-shirt. The film starts with the Qur'an lying in a Quality Street tin before Owens begins dousing the holy book in flammable liquid and then setting fire to it. The camera zooms in as the Qur'an burns.
Saqed Mueen of the international security thinktank, the Royal United Services Institute, described the act as proof of the "globalisation of outrageous stunts". Concern over Islamophobic provocation among far-right elements is epitomised by the rise of the English Defence League, which was founded in 2009 and claims to have thousands of members in scores of regional branches.
The EDL's rise coincides with the decline of the BNP as a political force, evident during last year's poor general election performance. Although Griffin's party had 338 candidates in the parliamentary elections, a record number for a far-right party in Britain, its share of the vote in key seats fell.
The BNP fared little better in the council elections, failing in its concerted attempt to win control of Barking and Dagenham council and losing all but two of its 28 wards.
The news that a senior BNP figure has been arrested after a film showing him burning the Qur'an will only discredit the party further, according to anti-fascist campaigners.
Photographs show Owens at a Welsh Defence League demonstration with a group of alleged Nazis including Wayne Baldwin, who has been pictured posing in front of a swastika flag. The Observer has also been passed images that show Owens's face apparently superimposed on Hitler's body.
Owens was officially announced last week as the BNP's number three candidate for the South Wales West constituency of the Welsh assembly.
In 2008 he stood for the BNP in council elections, polling almost a fifth of votes in his ward but finishing last out of three candidates. His campaign posters at the time show him standing on a ticket against "mass immigration, enforced multiculturalism, political correctness".
Although the BNP announced a record number of candidates for the Welsh assembly elections last week, anti-fascist groups maintain the party is a fading force, claiming that it has struggled to field candidates in the forthcoming local elections in areas that used to be target seats.
The Guardian
He is or was the Swansea BNP organiser and was always an out and out nazi who didn't really try to hide it it.
ReplyDeleteHere's a couple of screengrabs from two or 3 years ago that I took.
http://www.imagebam.com/image/077bd118311200
http://www.imagebam.com/image/713a6418311199
I did have a load more and I'll try and dig them out.
Wow someone burnt a piece of paper.
ReplyDeleteWow someone burnt a piece of paper.
ReplyDeleteIts what he did and why he did it that shows what type of individual this person is and what he represents. It represents pure hate. Burning of any book is vile and abominable. Just look at history and see when and who burnt books, and why they did it.
This person is racist and out and out nazi. His hate is personified by his actios in burning the Koran. That is why we have hate laws in this country. And rightly so.
Wow someone burnt a piece of paper
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a bit like "Wow someone said something"...except what they said was hateful and they said it with the intention of inciting religious hatred.
It's not what you do, it's the intention that counts and in this case the intention was to incite religious hatred...and possibly to also incite people in the Middle East to kill each other in protest!
I hope they throw the book at him, no irony intended
"Wow someone burnt a piece of paper".
ReplyDeleteWow, a neo-Nazi braindead troll wants us to take racism with a pinch of salt.
It's not the burning that's the issue. It's the videoing and use of the Koran burning to make a hate statement against Islam, moreover Muslims.
Wow someone burnt a piece of paper.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you'd say that if a Muslim burnt the Bible?
The Nazis famously held book burning sessions of all literature that basically, they said could 'corrupt Aryan youth' such as Oscar Wilde and leading Jewish writers....maybe even the odd Koran or Omar Khayyam or two.
ReplyDeleteI see more of a similarity between Owens and Goebbels here rather than some redneck American preacher feeding off the likes of al-Qaeda.
On the subject of Terry Jones, I wonder whether black American Christians are allowed into his 'church'?
http://tribune.com.pk/story/144202/muslims-in-the-middle/
ReplyDelete: - MUSLIMS IN THE MIDDLE
(INTERESTING ARTICLE, KETLAN! - PLEASE REPUBLISH)
I think it's as significant that he's wearing a Whitelaw t-shirt who are a neo-Nazi Blood & Honour band.
ReplyDeleteI thought you weren't supposed to do stuff like that in the BNP these days?
Looks like it's been thrown out too. That's what happens when the three parties become desperate.
ReplyDeleteThrown out?
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like the CPS have decided to go for a race hate charge so have dropped the lesser public order charge now.
I thought you weren't supposed to do stuff like that in the BNP these days?
ReplyDeleteThe BNP are gradually reintroducing the harder stuff back into their publications. In a couple of years the BNP will look similar to the NF circa 1985 in terms of its propaganda.
There's an article by Michelle Harrington (Pat's wife) in the latest issue of the BNP magazine Identity. It blames the Middle Eastern turmoil on the Rothschild banking family and it's supposed opposition to (usury free) Sharia banks. Complete nonsense of course but the Rothschilds have loomed large amongst anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists for over a century.
I wonder if you'd say that if a Muslim burnt the Bible?
ReplyDeleteYes i would, my faith is stronger than someone trying to incite me.