BNP Islamophobia not just a PR stunt

Posted on 2nd August, 2009 by

Martin Sullivan at Islamophobia Watch on his ongoing debate with Edmund Standing, a contributor to Harry’s Place and author of a recent think tank report which plays up the BNP’s anti-Semitism and plays down its Islamophobia, explains that the BNP’s shift towards Islamophobia is not just a vote-winning move:

I also agree with the article’s conclusion that the BNP is best described as “neo-fascist”, in the sense that it “draws its inspiration from fascist movements of the past while adapting its ideology and forms of organisation to the political situation in Britain today”. And the BNP’s adoption of paranoid fantasies about the imminent Islamification of the West is a clear example of that adaptation. As is was, the BNP leaders already held “beliefs about a well planned conspiracy by ‘international Jewry’ to destroy the white race through immigration and the promotion of race mixing”, to quote Standing himself. So it really wasn’t that much of a stretch for the fascists to embrace Eurabia-style theories about a Muslim plot to conquer Europe.

Just because Griffin and other BNP leaders remain at heart a gang of Nazi admirers and Holocaust-deniers who, in order to make the party electable, have chosen to cover up those aspects of their ideology and promote Islamophobia instead, it does not follow that they regard the latter as a mere sop to popular opinion, an opportunist attempt to “jump on the bandwagon” of anti-Muslim feeling, as Standing contends.

After all, Griffin’s “wicked, vicious faith” speech attacking Islam was not intended for public consumption. It was delivered at an internal BNP meeting, to an audience made up exclusively of party members and supporters, and obviously reflects the sort of political indoctrination that takes place within the BNP’s own ranks. It is hardly accidental that Arthur Kemp, the South African white supremacist whose latest book is entitled Jihad: Islam’s 1,300 Year War On Western Civilisation, is in charge of ideological education in the party.

Nobody ever disputed that the BNP was a racist party run by an anti-Semitic group at its core, but the idea that someone could say such things in a private meeting and not mean it is laughable.

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  • Yanoni

    Not read Edmund’s report, life is far too short to be dissecting every piece of propaganda however was their any mention of the fact that Ruth Smeed of the Board of Deputies of British Jews described the BNP website as the most pro-Zionist British political website on the Internet? I doubt it, these shills don’t even realise that they are one of the main vehicles for the racist and right-wing turn that Europe seems hellbent on embarking upon.

  • Tehmina

    Salaams Matthew, what do you make of this?

    http://andrewbrons.eu/2009/07/14/ahmadis-congratulate-andrew-on-his-victory/

    It is one thing to challenge the BNP’s policies using open debate, but quite another to congratulate one of their candidates on winning a seat… I am stunned.

  • M Risbrook

    I believe that Andrew Brons is a traditional nationalist. Nick Gri££in is a talented actor who may not be Islamophobic at heart.

    Several members of the BNP back in the Tyndall era looked up to Islam even if they did not want a single ethnic Muslim on British soil.

  • http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/ Indigo Jo

    @Tehmina: that happened several weeks ago and I tweeted it at the time, but what can we expect? They are Qadianis and the charlatan Ghulam Ahmad said he had nothing to do with those who called themselves “Musulmans”, i.e. Muslims, so why their leadership would congratulate an anti-Muslim party doesn’t need to be speculated on.

  • Tehmina

    M Risbrook: Wow, which BNP members looked up to Islam and what reasons did they cite? I didn’t know that…

    Matthew: Fair, but most Ahmadis are of Punjabi stock so it still doesn’t make sense from a racial perspective…

  • M Risbrook

    M Risbrook: Wow, which BNP members looked up to Islam and what reasons did they cite? I didn’t know that…

    I was a member of the BNP so I have first hand experience. Sadly many of the members who were inspired by Islam have either been cast out or pressured out of the BNP by Nick Gri££in’s henchmen and his rank and file Islamophobes.

    Cited reasons included opposition to liberalism and vice; strong moral values; economic and financial reform; family values; better policies on law and order.

  • LeedsLad

    Oh my God, Muslims are just so naive. The CSC is a private interests group and is only interested in “a focus on extremism, radicalisation and different forms of Islamism”. Why would they pay a particular attention to Islam and not their own Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity.

    Why give credit to people whose credibility and pointless efforts is all there for people to see. BNP is good for Muslims cos they will at least wake them up compared to these hypnotists who go behind a cloak of “human rights” when there is no such word in Hebrew vocabulary.

  • Thersites

    “the idea that someone could say such things in a private meeting and not mean it is laughable.”

    Not with a fascist party.

    They are elitist, which means that the leadership feel no obligation to be truthful with lower-ranking members, any more than with non-members. Nazi prejudice against jews is entirely racial, based on the belief that the wickedness of the jews is innate and incurable, whereas prejudice against muslims comes from a variety of sources- to a large degree as a concealment of racism but also as a means of recruiting people into the party who are not yet ready to recognise the real truth, but there is no absolute and irrevocable enmity. A few years ago the B.N.P. had a muslim convert standing as a candidate in a local election and there is the famous extract from Speer’s memoirs:

    Hitler had been much impressed by a scrap of history he had learned from a delegation of distinguished Arabs. When the Mohammedans attempted to penetrate beyond France into Central Europe during the eight century, his visitors had told him, they had been driven back at the battle of Tours. Had the Arabs won this battle, the world would be Mohammedan today. For theirs was a religion that believed in spreading the faith by the sword and subjugating all nations to that faith. The Germanic peoples would have become the heirs to that religion. Such a creed was perfectly suited to the Germanic temperament. Hitler said that the conquering Arabs, because of their racial inferiority, would in the long run have been unable to contend with the harsher climate and conditions of the country. They could not have kept down the more vigorous natives, so that ultimately not Arabs but Islamized Germans could have stood at the head of this Mohammedan Empire.

    Hitler usually concluded this historical speculation by remarking: “You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japaneses, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to use than Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?”

  • Martin

    “A few years ago the B.N.P. had a muslim convert standing as a candidate in a local election”

    It was in fact back in 2003, and according to the leaked BNP membership list the candidate in question, one Steve Bilton, is no longer a member of the party. Hardly surprising, in view of Nick Griffin’s well-publicised 2004 rant about Islam being a “wicked, vicious faith”. Bilton appears to have been a naive individual, who had joined the BNP a couple of months before he stood as a candidate. He told the local press that people who thought the BNP was racist were confusing it with the National Front.

    And if you want to understand the BNP’s attitude to Islam, rather than quoting Hitler it’s surely more relevant to quote Griffin himself.

    In an article published in 2006, Griffin denounced those on the far right “whose one-track concern about ‘the Jews’ is blinding them to the clear and present danger of resurgent Islam”.

    He wrote: “To even hint of making common cause with Islam – or put ourselves in a position when opponents can suggest to the masses that this is the case – is political insanity…. When the overwhelming majority of the instinctively patriotic people of our nations feel threatened by an alien force which is self-evidently evil by Christian and democratic secular values alike, to place oneself in the position whereby our political opponents can portray you as an enemy sympathiser, a collaborator, a traitor, is political suicide.”

    In reply to a critic who had asked “What is it about the Koran or Muhammad that makes Islam evil?” Griffin wrote:

    “How about the Koran’s advocacy of world conquest and the subjugation or murder of non-Muslims? How about the fact that Allah told his followers that the whole world is their Promised Land (tough on the previous occupants), which is surely a bit more drastic than the most extreme Zionists’ claim on the bit of desert between the Nile and the Euphrates?

    “Or how about the mass beheadings of POWs, the rape of their wives and the enslavement of their children, as practised with gusto by Muhammad, thereby providing religious justification for such horrors and an example of Islamic ‘best practice’ for all time? What’s evil about Islam? Go ask the Serbs, go ask the Sikhs, go ask the remnants of once vibrant Christian communities in Pakistan or Egypt, come ask the mothers of Keighley.”

    But, according to Edmund Standing, Griffin doesn’t genuinely believe any of this. He’s just engaging in a cunning political manoeuvre in order to win popular support.

    And Thersites, who holds that “there is no absolute and irrevocable enmity” between the BNP and Muslims, appears to agree with him, telling us that the BNP has adopted anti-Islam rhetoric merely “as a means of recruiting people into the party who are not yet ready to recognise the real truth”.

  • M Risbrook

    I have no idea how sincere Gri££in is. Bear in mind that he is a 50 year old man with a track record of business failures and no other sellable skills apart from politics. It’s his livelihood and he is in the game primarily for the money.

  • LeedsLad

    lol, didn’t you guys see how happy he was to be elected?

    Griffith is just a wage slave who will only be good at getting fat. Committed people discuss ideas, not constantly berating about a couple of poverty stricken lot as a “danger”.

  • M Risbrook

    Gri££in was only elected because the Green vote was split by two no-hope far left parties. If they didn’t stand then the Greens would almost certainly have trounced Gri££in and taken the 8th seat.

    A member of the Green Party told me that the far left parties standing in a critical region at the last minute and splitting the vote which resulted in a BNP victory was unforgiveable, and that Arthur Scargill and Bob Crow should hang themselves in shame.

  • Thersites

    As you say, Martin, Griffin speaks of those wuth a “one-track concern about ‘the Jews’…blinding them to the clear and present danger of resurgent Islam”, says that allying with muslims “is political insanity”, placing themselves “in the position whereby our political opponents can portray you as an enemy sympathiser, a collaborator, a traitor, is political suicide.” He is speaking of immediate- “clear and present”- concerns and opportunities. For all his talk of “Christian and democratic secular values”- and I rather doubt that Griffin’s definition of either would be accepted by many Christians or democratic secularists- the far right have more in common with islam than with conventional politics. Both believe in the right and duty of “the best of mankind”- however defined- to rule the rest of mankind. No doubt Griffin believes in the inferiority of muslims- after all, most of them don’t belong to any of the 57 varieties of native British groups the B.N.P. recognises- but the current emphasis on antimuslim rhetoric is tactical rather than an essential aspect of the B.N.P.’s ideology.

  • M Risbrook

    The bizarre thing about the BNP is their tireless support for Christianity yet no significant Christian church supports the BNP. The C of E and Methodists have even banned their staff from being members of the BNP. I doubt that many church congregations are fertile recruiting grounds for the BNP.

    An increasing proportion of rank and file BNP members are neither nationalists nor far right, but instead, liberals and Daily Mail types who happen to hate Islam.

  • Saggal

    Well, sounds a lot like a lose-lose situation for Muslims to me. The BNP state explicitly it’s Muslims they are going after “…our nations feel threatened by an alien force which is self-evidently evil by Christian and democratic secular values alike…” while the Zionist propagandists, such as Thersites, inform us that no, actually, the BNP love Muslims! All the hate directed at Muslims by the BNP is only done to conceal the real thruth -BNP’s hate of the Jews. LOL.

    LeedsLad makes a lot of sense. We can’t expect people who hate us (zionists) to highlight the Islamophobic manifestos of far right political parties. From Thersites, we learn that the BNP’s stated Islamophobic agenda does not mean what it says. Gosh, these people are exactly like their cousins “the birthers”.

    Thersites, only one religion/race in the world self-describes as God’s chosen people, superior to all other religions/races and it’s not the Muslims. But I know you won’t give up…so maybe I will come back to read your response when I return from my holidays in Sept.

  • Thersites

    Come on now, Saggal, what is your evidence that I am a zionist, let alone “a Zionist propagandist”? Where did I say “the BNP love Muslims”?

    As you have difficulty grasoing simple ideas I will explain carefully. I do not doubt that the B.N.P.- membership and leadershio and followers- hate muslims. The leadership, especially, also hate jews particularly. Among the reasons for their hatreds, they regard muslims as almost entirely members of inferior races whose presence in Britain pollutes the various varieties of race the B.N.P. believe to be Truly British, while the jews are members of a race in many ways wickedly superior to the True Brits and are members or agents of a global conspiracy responsible for every attack on the true Aryan races. Those “attacks” include the admission of non-white immigrants- such as muslims- into Europe. Many of the B.N.P.’s suppporters are probably inspired by simple hostility to blacks or muslims, but in the leadership’s eyes they are not yet properly educated and don’t realise it’s all a jewish plot.

    “only one religion/race in the world self-describes as God’s chosen people, superior to all other religions/races and it’s not the Muslims.” Actually, isn’t it the muslims who believe god told them they are “the best of mankind”? If you look at the jewish record as “the chosen people”, they are chosen only for specific purposes and they aren’t given much choice about it. When they can they don’t do as they’re supposed to. Most of the torah is a record of god punishing or lecturing them for not doing what he chose them to do. Furthermore, it is only religious jews who regard themselves as chosen. in the eyes of the B.N.P. leadership the religious beliefs or nonbeliefs of individual jews aren’t relevant- their evil is entirely racial and hereditary. A month’s holiday? You obviously aren’t too persecuted in the U.K. if you can afford to take a month’s holiday. Anyway, don’t overheat your brain and stay off the conspiracy theory books while you’re away.

  • Thersites

    “The bizarre thing about the BNP is their tireless support for Christianity yet no significant Christian church supports the BNP. ” I think the B.N.P. and most of the churches would dieagree about just what christianity entails. Griffin’s support for christianity - like his support for “secular democracy”- probably depends on rather different definitions of both to the ones others would use. One possible reason for his support of christianity may be as an internal tactic- wasn’t there quite a large odinist and neo-pagan membership in the old B.N.P. and N.F.? Quite possibly they were the sort of people Griffin wanted to get rid of and keep out in his quest for respectability and emphasising the new model B.N.P.’s christian credentials is supposed to show they’re separate as well as showing they’re respectably British.

  • M Risbrook

    My impression is that the BNP’s support for Christianity is generally the cultural aspects surrounding modern western Christianity rather than the theological or spiritual side of Christianity. Examples of this are celebrating Christmas and singing hymns in school assemblies rather than deep study of Christian theology and regular prayer.

    I suspect that people who adhere to traditional or fundamentalist Christianity, and do not share the cultural aspects surrounding modern western Christianity, will incur a similar wrath imposed on the Muslims by the BNP. Traditional Christianity from nearly 2,000 years ago is an un-British Middle Eastern desert religion!

  • Thersites

    Well the celebration of Christmas- and quite a bit of Easter too- mainly consists of adaptations of pagan or prechristian customs. Under the Commonwealth both were strongly discouraged. The greatest influence on Anglican hymns was the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams, an atheist Fabian. Like Richard Dawkins and most educated Englishmen he was a cultural christian- or cultural Anglican. ” Traditional Christianity from nearly 2,000 years ago is an un-British Middle Eastern desert religion!”…and in many ways even more repellent.

  • http://www.drmaxtor.blogspot.com DrM

    Risbrook makes a good point about the cultural nature of the Christianity practiced in the UK. Saggal, you’re correct about therShites. This zionist cretin actually suggested that Palestinians blow up their own ambulances to make “israelis” look bad. Nuff said.

  • Thersites

    Can’t you think up a new lie, Dr. Mabuse?

  • M Risbrook

    Various members of the BNP (including their phony vicar) have set up an outfit called the Christian Council of Britain that is staunchly Trinitarian.

    http://www.ccob.co.uk

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChristianCouncilof_Britain

  • George Carty

    Various members of the BNP (including their phony vicar) have set up an outfit called the Christian Council of Britain that is staunchly Trinitarian.
    Not very imaginatively named, is it?