Hope not Hate’s annual ‘State of Hate’ report highlights that far right extremists are preparing for a ‘war against Islam’ as a response to extreme terror plots attempted last year.
The chief executive of the campaign group, Nick Lowles, said a surging threat for far-right and violent terrorism is on the rise. This is being combined with online hatred, aimed particularly towards Muslims. Lowles warned, “We must be prepared for more terrorist plots and use of extreme violence from the far-right for the foreseeable future.”
The report says, ” The far right poses a bigger threat – in terms of violence and promotion of its vile views (particularly anti-Muslim views) – than is has in many years.
He told The Independent, “There is a huge spectrum of people but they all believe in this coming conflict.”
Just a few days before, Mark Rowley, the outgoing assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police, said that this terror threat was “significant and concerning”.
He revealed that, since the Westminster attack in March 2017, four far-right extremist plots have been exposed, with 10 Islamist plots foiling at the same time.
According to the report, 28 suspects have been arrested for far-right terrorism. This is added to the record high of 400 UK terror arrests in 2017 and a 77% increase of white suspects in the same year.
Rowley also added that the public should be aware and “gravely concerned” by the existence of National Action, a white supremacist group banned by the Home Secretary in 2016.
National Action is not solely the main concern. Far-right figures and commentators are reaching out to millions through social media in posts and videos. These personalities include ex Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopolous, Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson, and former columnist Katie Hopkins. The latter being thrown out from her LBC show when calling for “a final solution” after the Manchester Arena bombing last May.
Lowles said, “While these people are not directly inciting violence, it is the logical conclusion of their rhetoric.”
An example can be Finsbury Park mosque attack in June 2017. Darren Osborne, 48, ploughed a van into Muslim worshippers, killing one person and injuring several others.
Police said Osborne had been radicalised by reading messages from Robinson’s Rebel Media. This website had claimed that a “nation within a nation was forming just beneath the surface of the UK”.
The far right movement had lost support for more than 25 years, but the currently growing trend is likely to continue.