Britain’s panicked take on ‘Islamists’ has enabled the spread of racism and emboldened the far-right UKIP party, argues Rachel Shabi.
Category Archives: Right wing
Stand Up to UKIP holds protest against Farage
Most people believe UKIP contains racists, poll finds
The UK Independence party has a three-point lead for this month’s European election – but most people think the party contains racists, according to an opinion poll.
Nigel Farage’s party is on 29%, ahead of Labour on 26%, the Conservatives on 23% and Liberal Democrats on 10%. But 27% of those surveyed thought Ukip was a party with “racist views” and “many racist members”, while 35% thought that, while the party was not racist, it did “seem to attract some candidates or supporters with racist, extreme or odd views”. Some 26% said Ukip was not racist and their “more controversial candidates are just saying the things ordinary people actually think”.
The poll came as Ukip suspended another would-be councillor for expressing extreme views on Twitter. Harry Perry posted comments on Twitter describing the prime minister, David Cameron, as a “gay-loving nutcase”, Muslims as “devil’s kids” and homosexuality as “an abomination before God”.
Farage accepted there were “some idiots” in the party as he condemned Perry’s comments as “entirely inconsistent” with remaining in Ukip.
Brentwood Conservative candidate David Bishop resigns over ‘inappropriate’ tweets
A Conservative candidate in the upcoming Brentwood Borough Council elections has resigned over anti-Islamic and homophobic Tweets.
David Bishop posted “It’s good to be anti-Islam” two days before he was cemented as the party’s candidate for the Brentwood South ward in the Brentwood Borough Council elections later this month.
The tweet included a link to controversial ‘comedian’ Pat Condell who has attracted criticism in the past for the inflammatory nature of his online rants.
In the video a clearly animated Mr Condell accuses Islam of the sexualisation of young girls, “aggressive separatism, “phoney grievance mongering” and a “psychopathic level of misogyny”.
Two days after being named the Tory’s candidate the Zero Radio DJ reposted a Tweet made from another account which cites the arrest of four Muslim men over the rape of a 14-year-old girl before adding “’#Islam ‘the religion of peace’ & rape”.
Tory activist: ‘Every single Muslim should be expelled’
Stephen Lees, a long-term Conservative activist, has tweeted that all Muslims should be expelled from Britain, and all mosques demolished. His Tweet came a few minutes after he tweeted a link to a Telegraph article entitled “Head teachers raise ‘serious concerns’ over Islamic school take-over”.
Farage dissociates himself from Harry Perry, but why no action against Magnus Nielsen?
It would appear that the UK Independence Party may be about to suspend Harry Perry, the party’s candidate for Stockport Council whose offensive tweets and support for the English Defence League were exposed last week.
The Independent reports that UKIP leader Nigel Farage was asked about Perry and replied: “I’ve never heard of the bloke until last night. I’ve no idea who he is. I think he comes from the north west of England. Clearly his attitude and views are entirely inconsistent with being a member of UKIP. Simple.”
But what about Magnus Nielsen, the UKIP candidate for Camden Council whose offensive Facebook comments have received widespread coverage in the media? Farage can’t claim he’s never heard of Nielsen, who has a long history as a party activist. He stood for UKIP in the Barnet & Camden constituency in the London Assembly elections of 2000, 2004 and 2008. He was also the party’s parliamentary candidate for Hampstead & Highgate in the 2005 general election and for Hampstead & Kilburn in 2010.
UKIP election candidate probed over ‘disgusting’ homophobic and anti-Islamic Twitter messages
UKIP is investigating after the Manchester Evening News uncovered ‘disgusting’ anti-Islamic and homophobic messages posted online by one of its election candidates.
Harry Perry, who is standing for the party in Offerton, Stockport, has published a torrent of extremist views on his Twitter account in recent months. He also sent a Facebook message to a Liberal Democrat candidate calling homosexuality ‘evil’.
Mr Perry, who is retired and lives in Hazel Grove, last stood for the party in the same seat in 2012, when he got 349 votes.
On his Twitter account, @harryperry15, he calls for Pakistan to be ‘nuked’, dubs David Cameron a ‘gay-loving nutcase’, Muslims ‘devil’s kids’ and homosexuality an ‘abomination before god’. Last June he also described multiculturalism as ‘evil’, earlier tweeting at the EDL leader Tommy Robinson to ask why he didn’t have a political party he could join.
He welcomed Godfrey Bloom’s controversial remarks on ‘bongo-bongo land’, replying ‘well said’ – and tweeted that Asian areas of the north west were now ‘third world countries’ thanks to immigration.
The revelations came as an embarrassment to his party as it launched its north west European election campaign in Manchester on Thursday.
‘No such thing as a benign Muslim’ says UKIP candidate
A UKIP candidate has sparked controversy by posting an offensive comment on Facebook, saying ‘there is no such thing as a benign Muslim’.
Kevin O’Doherty posted the remarks on the social media website in relation to a story he shared about a Birmingham school at the centre of allegations of a takeover plot by Islamic hardliners. He is standing as a UKIP candidate in the Central St Leonards ward in the Hastings Borough Council elections on May 22.
The post, dated April 21, said: “There is no such thing as a benign Muslim, only a latent adherent of Koranic dogma.” It has since been removed from the internet.
Is the far Right setting the Daily Mail’s agenda?
In the last week, the Daily Mail has run stories emanating from the far Right without revealing this fact to its readers, Ryan Erfani-Ghettani shows.
UKIP condemns candidate James Elgar’s ‘deplorable’ tweets about Muslims and women
Ukip is distancing itself from a teenage council candidate who has been reported over offensive tweets.
James Elgar’s Twitter feed included a post with the hashtag #ThingsAsianBoysDo saying they “groom and rape underage white girls, stab and rob innocent old white people, bomb innocent white people”.
Another said no women were in the final of Celebrity Big Brother because they were “all in the kitchen where they belong”.
On the day of the Boston bombings in April last year, a tweet read: “So there are Muslims cheering and celebrating the Boston Bombings today…really, really sums them up. #scum”.