Centre for Social Cohesion Press Release 13 July 2009
On the day before two leading British National Party (BNP) members take their seats in the European Parliament, a new Centre for Social Cohesion report reveals that members and supporters of the BNP and its online activists display significant ideological affinity with key tenets of the neo-Nazi ideology. This included: support for violence; antisemitism and an admiration of the Third Reich; extreme racist views; and Holocaust denial.
The BNP and the Online Fascist Network shows blogs run by members and self-professed supporters of the BNP continue to host, and link to, material that is pro-Nazi, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic. The BNP continues to sell books produced by neo-Nazi publishing houses on its website.
Support for violence
> Lee Barnes – leading member and head of the BNP legal team – supports the National Front on his blog. He refers to the group as a valid ‘nationalist’ organization and suggests that they operate as a street force for the BNP.
> Barnes advocates the downfall of western civilization: ‘The West deserves all it gets. The faster the fools that run the West destroy the West the better.’
> The BNP supporting blog Britain Awake praises Combat 18 and supports violent attacks on Muslim women. Britain Awake is hosted by a self-described member of the BNP who claims to have attended the party’s annual Red, White and Blue festival.
Antisemitism and an admiration of the Third Reich
> The official BNP YouTube account and the official YouTube accounts of the Thurrock and Burnley BNP branches show close links with neo-Nazi and antisemitic activists and organisations.
> Blogs run by members and self-professed supporters of the BNP continue to host, and offer links to, material that is pro-Nazi, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic.
> A member of the Covert Tactics blog, strongly linked with the BNP, refers to Jews as ‘greedy subhuman scum’. One member, Tommy Williams, is a neo-Nazi whose name appeared on the leaked list of BNP members. The blog expresses admiration for Hitler and has on a number of occasions denied or trivialised the Holocaust.
Extreme racist views
> So-called patriotic concerns of the BNP mask an underlying fear of racial ‘dissolution’ and a commitment to ‘soft’ ethnic cleansing in the form of policies attempting to coerce non-white Britons into leaving the UK.
> Material found on BNP supporting YouTube accounts, blogs, and internet forums contravenes the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.
Holocaust denial
> The BNP website promotes books by neo-Nazi publishing houses which are dedicated to rehabilitating Nazism and denying the Holocaust.
Edmund Standing, author of the report, says:
“The report shows that the BNP is a party dedicated to promoting racism, and continues to attract and empower adherents to neo-Nazi ideology, whose supporters include admirers of Adolf Hitler.”
Douglas Murray, Director of the CSC, says:
“This report shows that members and supporters of the BNP continue to hold and express the vilest racist, antisemitic, homophobic and sexist views - shocking even to those of us who thought our opinion of the BNP could never be lower.”
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow at the CSC, says:
“The BNP leadership insist that they are a mainstream political organisation, yet this report demonstrates how abhorrent their views truly are."
For a pdf of the full report access this link
Press enquiries: 0207 222 8909 / 07538 248610 / pressoffice@socialcohesion.co.uk
The Centre for Social Cohesion is an independent think tank
* The Centre for Social Cohesion * Clutha House * 10 Storey's Gate * London * SW1P 3AY *
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