The three most notable and recent cases of far-right-inspired terrorism appear to have come from people who had no known, overly obvious or hardened link to Nazi organisations. He was not known or regarded as a far-right sympathiser or as someone who harboured murderous desires against his local MP. For his daily update of hate, he simply went to his local library and used the internet there. Darren Osborne , the man who drove into a group of worshippers outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, north London, in June last year, killing father-of-six Makram Ali, had always been an unpleasant individual, often in trouble with the law.
The most recent case of far-right terror involved a young man called Ethan Stables , from Barrow in Furness, who was planning to commit a massacre at a gay bar in June last year, but was arrested after a young woman rang not for the first time to report his disturbing rantings. We know that he had tried and failed to join National Action, but its members felt he lived too far away from the centre of their cells and activists.
So why is this threat suddenly so imminent, so more profound than ever before? Since , Hope not Hate has published an annual State of Hate report. Since at least we have seen that the demise of the electoral far right in the UK has been giving way to something far more sinister, which is evolving from the embers of the two better-known far-right groups operating in the UK, the electorally dead and insignificant British National party BNP and the moribund EDL which this week has been shaken by a paedophile scandal involving one of its leading members.
Although both spawned cheaper imitations upon their demise, they also spawned a million angry voices on social media. It took a different trajectory entirely — so much so that it and the other groups on the British far right are almost violently opposed to each other. In recent months however, the group appears to have shifted more towards street-level activities, those more akin to the EDL for instance.
In disseminating the actions of a few to the news feeds of the many, Britain First have been better at controlling the content and message of its outputs; a lesson learned from the EDL and the damage caused by the proliferation of videos on YouTube showing EDL to be overtly racist and incoherently drunk. And from this better controlling of the message has emerged three somewhat unique characteristics. With allegations of Britain First organising combat training for its members, such developments can only be seen to be extremely worrying particularly if — or when?
Second is the increasing emphasis on militarism. In doing so, its messages resonates with the geo-political where the resistance required in Birmingham or Bradford for instance is the same as that required in Baghdad or Kabul. And thirdly is the eschatology underpinning the message. Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting.
About the Author. For the past decade and a half, he has been researching the phenomenon of Islamophobia which has included researching the far-right and counter jihad groups. You can find him on Twitter DrChrisAllen.
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Blog Admin November 21st, This is a dirty, nasty, difficult struggle and you have to work with what is available. But it wasn't a protest - it was an anti-Muslim riot. Groups of football hooligans from 22 clubs rampaged through the streets. Worryingly, a couple of coachloads of "off duty" soldiers from two regiments joined the mob. The EDL smashed their way through two police lines, overturning riot vans, but were blocked by a third police line.
They then directed their anger on the Asian community, smashing up shops and attacking Asian people. All of them have staged a number of violent anti-Muslim protests around the country. On that day troops from the Royal Anglian Regiment held a parade to welcome soldiers home from Afghanistan.
As they marched through the town's streets a small group of young Muslims protested. An angry crowd set upon them, also attacking other Asians watching the parade, including Luton's mayor. Hoping to capitalise on the situation, a group of football hooligans and fascists organised two anti-Islam protests in Luton on 13 April and 24 May. The protest in May saw hundreds of thugs rampaging through the town's Asian area.
Unite Against Fascism organised a counter-protest. Thousands turned up and the EDL were run out of town. When the EDL organised a second protest in the city, on 5 September, some of the local UAF officials refused to call a counter-protest, worried that it would lead to a riot.
This was a mistake. Hundreds of people turned up and once again the EDL were forced to flee the city. Again thousands of black, white and Asian youth supported UAF's call. They drove the thugs off the streets. The EDL were clearly put on the back foot. But a series of protests over the next few months enabled them to build up their forces.
Once again they were opposed by large numbers of anti-fascists. This was followed on 5 December, when about EDL protesters assembled in Nottingham following an earlier parade by members of the 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment returning from Afghanistan. The movement around the EDL appears to be escalating.
The central question is, what kind of organisation are they? The media like to portray these hooligans as working class "yobs". No survey has been conducted on the class base of the EDL, but what little we know about them suggests that many come from "petty bourgeois" professions - the classic base of fascism. The leadership of the EDL clearly comes from the "petty bourgeois", but as they grow they are atracting more working class support. For example, one of the leading figures behind the Luton protest is a self-employed carpenter and another runs his own internet company.
Although these young men are drawn to the defence leagues by the promise of violence, the political cement that holds them together is anti-Muslim racism - Islamophobia. In Switzerland the building of mosque minarets has been banned. In France there are attempts to ban the veil being worn by Muslim women in public.
Here in Britain the Labour government has played a despicable role in fostering Islamophobia. The "war on terror" and the criminalisation of Asian youth have helped legitimise the ideas of the EDL. The rise of the EDL is as rapid as it is shocking - but it is explainable. They all talked about the fear of losing their job or business and all of them blamed "foreign" workers. As their world is threatened their fears and frustrations are directed at a scapegoat. Today this is Muslims.
Another feature of the ideas that propel the EDL can be seen on their website. It is more than economic questions that motivate them. They argue that their sense of culture and self-worth is collapsing around them.
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