Turning right - a review of last week's Radio 4 documentary on the far-right

[In fact, a review of all bar the last few minutes which was missed because the tape ran out. We weren't going to bother using this because of the damn tape but a few people have asked what the programme was like so this is for them.]

A most peculiar programme, as most who listened to it would surely agree. It never quite managed to get to any particular point - something that might possibly be blamed on the constant attacks on the BBC's alleged bias towards the political left or right, depending on who is claiming bias at the time.

It begins in a Hampshire village, complete with duck pond and ex-Tory, ex-UKIP, now BNP organiser Roger Robertson. Robertson's political acumen is astounding. He blames immigrants for all Hampshire's ills (whatever they are), particularly last year's hosepipe ban. As we've pointed out before, the BNP chooses not to look at poor investment by the profit-fixated water companies nor the huge changes that are becoming apparent because of global warming - but immigration as the sole cause of water shortages.

The interviewer asked Robertson to take him to meet a typical BNP-supporter in the village. Robertson, a foot-shooting buffoon surely destined to lead the party in the future, took him to an elderly female supporter who promptly and helpfully announced; 'I suppose in a way I'm racist'.

A Cllr Haffey, who lives in the village next door, is an outspoken opponent of the BNP, pointing out how much damage has been caused by nationalism over the last century or so and how the BNP's leader and most of the officers that surround him have criminal records.

Robertson's unnamed acolyte, when asked about the BNP's reputation for thuggery, said that we had that completely wrong, going on to claim, oddly, that what we must be thinking of is Mosley's Blackshirts. After all, she pointed out, a lot of BNP supporters are Christian. So there.

The 2004 State of the Nation poll, which was the basis of the Joseph Rowntree Trust's assertion that 20-25% of the voting public would consider voting BNP in a future election, which led to Margaret Hodge's highly-damaging statement before last year's local elections, has recently been updated with the 2006 results, showing that the figure has dropped to around 10.3%, which bodes a bit for the BNP.

This ties in rather neatly with the dismal results of the most recent local elections where the BNP's optimistic dream of gaining a further 50-60 seats turned into a gain of just one (now lost thanks to a BNP councillor defection) despite a record-breaking 750 candidates.

The programme then moved to Barking and Dagenham where the leader of the BNP contingent on the council, pornmeister Richard (Dickie to his friends, believe it or not) Barnbrook, was interviewed. Curiously the interviewer chose not to ask Barnbrook about the lies told by the BNP to gain its seats (Africans for Essex, for example) nor to pick him up on his odd assertion that the BNP was there to represent the 'indigenous' population including first and second generation Africans and Asians, nor for his bizarre and unlikely claim that 1 in 5 first and second generation minority groups voted for the racist BNP. Rather the interviewer, in a brief spasm of interviewing prowess, mentioned the poor performance of Barking and Dagenham's BNP councillors.

According to the leader of the council, Charles Fairbrass, the BNP's attendance record is appalling - around 51% - which Fairbrass suggests is a direct result of the fact that they simply didn't expect to win. He also criticised the BNP contingent for not turning up to the training sessions for new councillors.

Barnbrook had no hesitation in accepting the attendance figure of 51% and the non-attendance at training sessions but blamed that on the fact that many of the BNP councillors work and, the training sessions being held during working hours, they simply couldn't get the time off. Curiously, though unsurprisingly, the interviewer allowed this to slide, though he should have pointed out that councillors are legally entitled to time off work to attend to council business (including training sessions) and receive generous payments to make up for any shortfall in wages. Besides that, if anyone has stood for council without checking with their employer first, they're an idiot.

Barnbrook also supervises the councillors for the BNP nationally. Strangely he appeared completely ignorant of all the serious convictions of the councillors he's supposed to be supervising. When asked about a BNP councillor convicted of assaulting his wife and a police officer, racially abusing a group of Asians and being banned from every football ground in the country, Barnbrook claimed to be unaware of him. Also James Lloyd, who left the tenancy of the Blue Lagoon pub at Tipton after a shooting and various other violent incidents and amid police claims that he failed to co-operate with the subsequent investigations. And what about the BNP councillor convicted of three assaults on members of his wife's family (David Enderby)? Again and again, Barnbrook claimed not to know anything of these individuals and, sadly, the interviewer gave up.

The programme then moved to the cosmetic changes that have been made to the BNP. Nick Griffin, busily re-writing history, stated that the BNP evolved out of the old National Front, where there had been a 'neo-fascist strain', a 'racist strain' but not, according to him, a 'thuggish strain', describing any suggestion as 'massively over-exaggerated'. When asked if all this was behind the party, Griffin said yes, but it all takes a long time. It certainly does - the BNP moved away from the NF in 1982, a quarter of a century ago.

Griffin 'accepted' that anti-semitism had been a part of the party ethos but was no longer. When asked if he still believed the Holocaust was the hoax of the 20th Century, he responded;

'No, I do not.'
'What made you change your mind?'
'Primarily European law. If I say that now or believe that now, I'm liable to be extradited to France...I believe what the law says I must believe.'

Startlingly, the interviewer didn't take this any further.

Moving on to the BNP's attempted exploitation of Christianity for its own ends, the programme interviewed former BNP councillor (deservedly ousted in May this year) and fake-vicar Robert West, the leader of the BNP front-group, the Christian Council of Britain.

West, sounding uncannily like Andy Hamilton, was allowed to sermonise on what he perceived to be the evils of multiculturalism, claiming the purity of races as 'God's will', a phrase that certainly made me nervous. Picking selected chunks from the Bible, he spoke against race-mixing, claiming that God's command is that nations should live apart.

The Anglican Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, rejected this outright, stating that the claims made by West were similar to those made in South Africa to justify apartheid.

'It's nonsense, it's wrong and it's not at all in the spirit of the Gospel... I think what the BNP is doing is making use of a flag of convenience, namely the Christian heritage of the country. In the past they've spoken about the 'real' religion of the country being pagan worship of the Norse gods.'

From there, the programme went off to Griffin and West's bizarre ideas on Islam, neatly and concisely demolished by Inayat Bunglawala, spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, then drifted into apocalypse-mode with a discussion about the possibility of civil war.

Griffin quoted the arguably-insane Rear-Admiral Parry, who claimed last year that Britain would be in the grip of civil war within five years. While acknowledging this and stating that he believed this to be true, Griffin also stated that he expected the BNP to be in government (by which we assume he means would have enough MPs to control the government) by 2040, indicating that he at least has a rich fantasy life.

Finally, the programme wondered if, after its dismal performance in the recent local elections, the BNP can still hope to become a serious political force. Professor Peter John of Manchester University responded:

'I don't think so...Local campaigns maybe - nationally, no.'

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

British government says Jewish-Muslim inter-faith dialogue vital

The British government has revealed that it wants an inter-faith framework to bring the country’s Jews and Muslims closer together.

Hazel Blears, the Labour Party chairman, told a conference of UK rabbis and imams in Manchester on Monday that the Government wanted the event - and a further conference run by Jewish and Muslim women later this week - to be the springboard for greater inter-faith cooperation between the religions.

The relationship between the British Jewish and Muslim communities has long been icy cold, with disagreements mainly over perceived Islamic anti-Semitism and disputes over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict leading to virtually no public dialogue between the faiths.

Only recently have relations appeared to thaw, with the first ever speech by Inayat Bunglawala, assistant general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, to a Jewish community group in London calling for major reconciliation.

Speaking to the National Imams and Rabbis Conference on Monday, however, Blears said the event, held in Manchester, should be a springboard to future cooperation. The conference is held to promote rare scholarly dialogue between Islamic and Jewish leaders.

"The Government sees this conference, and the women’s conference, as being the next step towards establishing a nationally recognised framework for interfaith dialogue and co-operation between the Muslim and Jewish communities," Blears said, in a speech to the conference entitled ’Building Alliances, Respecting Differences.’

Good place to live

Also in her speech, Blears said that - despite the threat of racism, Islamaphobia and anti-Semitism - Britain remains a good place to live for ethnic minority communities.

"I do not deny the pernicious influence of racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism," she said. "I know that many families have suffered at the hands of racist bullies and thugs. I do not dismiss the threat to community cohesion presented by the BNP (British National Party) and other right-wing organisations. But Britain remains a fair, tolerant country, where communities respect one another and people live in peace.

"That success is anchored in a simple approach: we respect religious differences, but are united in a transcendant belief in democracy, human rights and the rule of law. No religion should face persecution or prohibition by the state. But no individual citizen should face barriers or discrimination within their religion either. We have a right to religious freedom, and we all have a right to other freedoms too, including free expression, but not at the expense of other people’s rights and freedoms."

Moderate image

Earlier this month, Bunglawala ended years of glacial relations between Muslims and Jews by appearing to call for reconciliation between the faiths in an interview with the European Jewish Press, which followed his address to the Jewish Community Centre for London.

In the interview, Bunglawala declared that there was "an enormous amount" that Muslims could learn from the way Jews have integrated into the UK, demanded an end to Islamic anti-Semitism, and hinted that the Muslim Council of Britain could recognise Holocaust Memorial Day for the first time.

The move by Bunglawala towards reconciliation is likely to be partly motivated by a desire to be seen in the moderate camp of the British Muslim community, and shed the MCB’s previous image of being too extreme.

The MCB has recently fallen out of favour with government ministers in the UK, who regard it as doing too little to combat Islamic radicalism within Britain. Ministers are currently working on a way of getting a greater amount of ethnic minority funding straight to communities themselves, and bypassing big organisations which they fear are doing too little to combat extremism.

European Jewish Press

British Muslims extend a friendly hand to Jews

Opposition to growing racism helps bridge a religious divide

Britain's leading Muslim organisation will tomorrow signal a radical shift in its position when one of its senior members addresses a Jewish audience for the first time.

The decision by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) to attend a high-profile debate entitled 'Does more unite Muslims and Jews than divides them?' is being described as 'highly significant' by members of both communities. The move has led to speculation the MCB will drop its controversial opposition to Holocaust Memorial Day.

Inayat Bunglawala, the assistant general secretary of the MCB, who will take part in the debate, said both communities have become concerned at the growing rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. 'It is crucial that we do not allow the Israel-Palestine conflict to hamper good and productive relations between Muslims and Jews in the UK,' Bunglawala said.

His comments have been warmly welcomed by members of the Jewish community. 'This debate is a very significant event,' said Nick Viner, chief executive of the Jewish Community Centre, which has sponsored the debate. 'The MCB and the Jewish community haven't seen eye to eye on many issues. I doubt we'll finish up with both sides saying everything is warm and cuddly, but by bringing people together we hope to have an intelligent debate.'

The debate, at the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead, north London, has already caused deep controversy within parts of the Jewish community. The Observer understands that there was initial pressure on the JCC to withdraw Bunglawala's invitation to speak.

But Jeremy Newmark, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, said tomorrow's meeting could turn out to be 'a very important moment'. 'All too often some national Muslim organisations have endangered such co-operation by allowing rhetoric around the Middle East to slide into demonisation and anti-Semitism,' Newmark said. 'We are pleased the assistant secretary general of the MCB has now publicly acknowledged this and look forward to hearing him expand on how his organisation intends to tackle this problem.'

The MCB has been stung by criticism that it has not done enough to reach out to other faiths. Ruth Kelly, the communities secretary, highlighted the MCB's refusal to take part in Holocaust Memorial Day as a cause for concern. 'I can't help wondering why those in leadership positions who say they want to achieve religious tolerance and a cohesive society would choose to boycott an event that marks, above all, our common humanity and respect for each other,' Kelly said.

Rabbi Julia Neuberger, who will be attending the event, said that it was time for Jews and Muslims to acknowledge their similarities. 'I have always felt Jews and Muslims are much more like each other than Christians in the way they approach their faith,' Neuberger said. 'To Jews and Muslims, their faith is much more a way of life.'

Observer