Not a Traitor, Just Wrong.

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BBC, BNP, Christianity, Christianity and Islam, Counter-Jihad, Counterjihad, Cultural Marxism, Defend the modern world, English Defence League, Guardian, Islam, Judeo-Christian, Multiculturalism, Muslim, Nick Griffin, No to Turkey in the EU, Pamela Geller, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, Robinson, Tommy Robinson

It isn’t a crime to change your mind. A greater folly is to surround your political conviction with an invulnerable coat of armour, letting it stand unaffected by changing evidence or opposing argument.

Tommy Robinson has clearly changed his mind. He hasn’t recanted his past beliefs, but he has substantially moderated them to almost that effect. He no longer believes (so he says) in making Muslims ‘uncomfortable’, or in tarring fundamentalist believers with the same brush as ‘moderates’. Talking to the Guardian, he even went so far as to apologise to the Muslim community for any offence he has given these past few years as EDL leader.

Although this might be disappointing for some, we should try to respect it. I don’t believe, like Nick Griffin, that Robinson was ever a puppet, or that the EDL was a deliberate misdirection of patriotism, a ‘shady Zionist plot’, or a government funded psy-op. It always seemed to me a perfectly sincere enterprise with a clear manifesto and a brilliant organisational structure. It was also something which – in its heyday- did great things for our cause and our defence.

It won’t surprise you then to hear that I disagree wholly with Robinsons new outlook.

His entire conversion, for me, rests upon a flawed idea; namely, the idea that Islam can be moderated by the sentiment of nationality.

What Tommy is now asking of Muslims in effect, is that they become British first and Muslim second, or in other words, that they take the here-and-now as seriously as the hereafter.

But, as anyone who has read Qur’an knows, the Muslim faith hinges on a belief that this earthly life, with all its loyalties, bounties and appearances is merely a test and a prelude to a greater reality. The ‘Muslim’ (literally ‘one who submits’) treats this life as a preparation, a period of moral labour necessary to unlock the doors of death and dwell forever in paradise.

To be ‘British’ by contrast, is of no value whatsoever, or at least not relative to the promise of eternity.

With this in mind, the creation of a distinct ‘British Muslim’ identity seems unrealistic to me. The two loyalties would be locked in constant battle, and the fallout would be toxic.

It would be nice if Tommy’s optimism was proven correct. I’m not convinced it will be.

D, LDN.

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Where Now for the English Defence League?

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America 911, American Liberty, anti-Semitism, Barack Obama, British National, Christianity, Civilisation, Counter-Jihad, Defend the modern world, Demographics of Europe, EDL, English Defence League, Islamism, Islamophobia, Kevin Carroll, London EDL, Nick Griffin, No to Turkey in the EU, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, Rihanna Muslim, Robinson, Tommy Robinson

On Tuesday, EDL leader Stephen Yaxley Lennon (otherwise known as ‘Tommy Robinson) announced that he and co-founder Kevin Carroll are to leave the organisation, in their words to pursue “better, democratic ideas” by which to continue the fight against Political Islam.

Generally speaking, this announcement came as a great surprise to those within the EDL, and the reasoning since given for it by Robinson has confounded much of the liberal press too. Only a month beforehand, he had been tweeting typically hostile comments toward Islam and Muslims, and yet suddenly the former hooligan appeared to have been tamed.

Why? Personally, I’m not sure. Nobody is more shocked by all this than me. According to many different gauges, the organisation seemed only recently in peak health. The EDL page on facebook has never been so popular, with roughly 161,000 ‘likes’ and a second unofficial page with 40.000 more. The demo in Tower Hamlets last month was hardly disastrous, and there is a large and popular outing planned for the coming weeks in Bradford.

But even if the ‘why’ remains shrouded in mystery, the ‘where next’ must now be addressed. Currently, the English Defence League is leaderless. Many thousands of activists face an anxious wait to see who replaces Robinson as their public representative. Some candidates (including the ‘pot-plant guy’ from UKIP) have already been ruled out. I have no nominations of my own.

But a leader must be found soon. The danger of a prolonged state of flux is mass defection. The BNP will almost certainly be eyeing this up. I’ve yet to check the BNP website (I haven’t got the stomach at the moment), but there will inevitably be a semi-literate post claiming the resignations as a ‘victory’ for Nick Griffin. They are, of course, nothing of the kind, but such is the nature of fascist solipsism.

When and if one arises, the most important question for a new EDL leader must not be “What went wrong?” but ‘What can yet be achieved?”

Although Robinson cited ideological reasons for his resignation, there were perhaps other factors involved, such as a declining turnout for demonstrations and lessening media profile. To attain greater victories in the future, significant changes to the core mission of the EDL will be required. To this end, here are five suggestions for the new leader:

1. Reduce the number of irregular demonstrations in favour of larger-scale demos to mark significant occasions (the aftermath of a terror attack/St George’s Day etc..). Make clear to members that their attendance is expected rather than merely desired. Make the rallies pleasant, static affairs with speeches and music, rather than kettling and confrontation.

2. Ensure a number of ethnic-minority spokespeople (especially ex-Muslims) to blunt the accusation of racism.

3. Get rid of the fascistic and irrelevant ‘In Hoc Signo Vinces’ slogan. It has connections with totalitarianism. As a replacement, consider something like the Luxembourgian National Motto ‘Mir wolle bleiwe wat mir sin’ – “We Want to Remain What We Are.”

4. Create a formal membership structure. This will make it possible to expel those who make fascist salutes or threats at rallies.

5. Stand firm on fundamental principles. This is a liberal-democratic country and Muslims are antithetical to our way of life.

Whatever approach is pursued, now is plainly not the time to throw in the towel. The current of Islamisation remains as strong as ever, and the methods hitherto employed by the EDL have borne real fruit. Thousands of patriotic souls have braved all kinds of inconvenience to make a fraternal stand against something toxic and dangerous to our country. They must not be betrayed, or left in want of hope.

D, LDN.

On the EDL, the BNP and the Difference Between Them.

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BNP, Counter-Jihad, Defend the modern world, Demographics of Europe, English Defence League, Eurabia, Far-right politics, Jessica Ennis, Nick Griffin, Tommy Robinson

I’ve loved the English Defence League from the moment of its inception. After years of the anti-Islam cause being copyrighted by the ‘blood and honour’ lunatics of the Far-Right, here at last was a collective to stand just as ferociously against the Islamist tide as the BNP, but at the same stroke commit themselves to Britain in its modern, multiracial, capitalist reality.

This was a first in British, and arguably European political history; a splintering of the ‘far-right’ away from biological nationalism towards the grander domain of culture.

Since then, I’ve done my best to support them, writing about them frequently and defending them from the (predictable yet incessant) accusations of the Liberal-Left. I’ve never been part of an EDL procession myself, but I’ve witnessed them from the sidelines many times. They seem to be wonderful affairs, loudly despised by everyone I oppose. True to its ideals, the EDL on parade contains quite a mixture of social types. Just go along and see them and you’ll find young and old, Black and White, straight and gay, Christian and Sikh, Jew and Gentile etc… all united for a common end. Not since the early days of Communism could such a phenomenon have organically occurred so often.

The EDL leadership is preferable to that of the traditional Right too. Tommy Robinson/Stephen Lennon may not be an eloquent, academic type, but he seems perfectly sincere in his beliefs and pleasant in their expression. He’s never denied the Holocaust, or involved himself on matters of race-relations, or called into question the validity of the Capitalist system. He’s just a patriotic, affable young man who wants Britain to go back to how it once was, by which he means how it was in the 1980s and 1990s before the Blair-wave of immigration, and not, like Mr Griffin, back to the Victorian era.

Every time Tommy Robinson is interviewed on Newsnight, I like to imagine Nick Griffin sitting at home with his rottweilers and a large glass of scotch, seething at the screen. He must loathe the attention heaped on this young man, and more than this, he must resent the ability of his organisation to get boots on the street in a way the BNP could never do.

But it isn’t just personalities that divide EDL and BNP, but principles too. The ideological differences between the two groups are worth returning to again and again. Despite the myths and fables put about by Liberal crazies, they really are nothing like each other.

To understand why, consider two cases of modern British ‘diversity’; first, the mixed-race athlete Jessica Ennis, and secondly, the British-based Jordanian preacher Abu Qatada. These aren’t two names you’ll often read in the same paragraph as each other let alone sentence, but stay with me on this one….

According to BNP ideology, the former, as a product of Black-White miscegenation, represents as much of a threat to British survival as the latter, perhaps even more. The latter by contrast could even be considered an ally against the famous ‘Jewish conspiracy’  deemed responsible for the very climate of ‘race-mixing’ in which beautiful creatures like Ms Ennis are created.

For the EDL, the second is an anti-Semitic crank and national-security threat who should be immediately deported, while the first is the opposite of a threat; she is a reason to hoist the flag higher and sing the anthem with greater enthusiasm.

Do you understand? The BNP is a blind alley. Only fools are still found running up it. The EDL, together with parties friendly to it like Liberty GB, are a surer bet, and though I don’t like to invest much hope in any political force, perhaps together they can be the answer we’ve been waiting for.

D, LDN.

Islamic Britain: Should London be Partitioned?

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British National Party, Counter-Jihad, Defend the modern world, East-End, Islamification of Britain, Islamisation of London, london, Margaret Hodge, Multiculturalism, Nick Griffin, Rihanna Muslim

Looking very much into the future, what will the predicted demographic shifts in the British population do to London?

I have isolated London simply because it is ‘my’ city, or at least the one in which I live. My home city of Bristol has been spared the Islamisation process up to now, and that may not change, given Bristol’s fortunate isolation. What happens in London furthermore, often sets the trend for other large cities in England, so it’s worth focusing on.

As I type, London is divided into different sub-regions, each with a vastly different identity and standard of living. The most obvious of these divisions is the simple contrast between the Eastern and Western halves of the city.

In West London, where I live, the cost of housing is far above the English average. The neighbourhoods are less diverse than is typical of other major cities, and few areas have a concentrated population of Muslims. Overall, the residential areas are safe, and gang-violence is rare.

Over in the East, the reverse is true. The housing can be astonishingly cheap, and the urban areas are some of the most diverse in Europe. Tower Hamlets, a borough coterminous with the ‘old East End’, has an ethnic-minority majority, largely formed of Bangladeshi Muslims. In Newham and Hackney too, ethnic minority populations are dominant, numerically and culturally.

This division is often extreme. To compare the atmosphere of say, Richmond-Upon-Thames, with the streets of Newham is like considering two different civilisations. One rich, white, cheerful and safe, and the other, poor, diverse, depressed and dangerous.

Regarding all this, some important questions present themselves, including the following –
Given the inevitability of a clash between these two contrasting standards of living, which half of London will ultimately enforce its identity on the other?

And if neither manages this, will London eventually become a partitioned city like Bradford, with a poor Islamic East, separated from a salubrious rich West?

The 2011 census shocked many. It shouldn’t have. Anyone who lives in London barely raised an eyebrow. London is cosmopolitan in the extreme. And rightly so.

I adore the mix of peoples where I live. I associate everyday with Spaniards, Colombians, Lebanese, Chinese, and Polish people. It’s rare I talk to someone whose native language is English.

This is wonderful. To be offended by it is to be offended by the world. I wouldn’t trade London for Cumbria or Wales in a million years. I know that Nick Griffin resides in Welshpool these days – and he’s welcome to do so, but he and his party have no right to try and enforce that homogeneity on the rest of us.

Perhaps it’s because I’m of Latin appearance that the BNP don’t thrill me. But despite my own reasons, who would really endorse a party in whose world the half-black Ryan Giggs isn’t ‘really’ Welsh and the Jewish Stephen Fry isn’t ‘really’ English? Who would even dare suggest the former in a Welsh pub?

But then ‘immigration’ as a word has a neutral value. One cannot say ‘Immigration is a good thing’, unless one knows what kind of immigration one is endorsing.

Few would argue that immigration from any source is a good thing, or at least they wouldn’t when talking of the area they themselves live.

A Swedish family of 4 moving next door to you raises the price of your home. A Pakistani family of 8 moving next door to you lowers it.

Let’s not pretend we don’t understand why.

London is becoming less and less English, both in the East and West. London is becoming like the world. The immigrants of the Western world are moving to the West of the city, and the immigrants of the East to the Eastern half.

The unity of London is not something one should lazily count on. Belfast today is officially one city, but in reality, there are strict borders between faith communities still in place. Could London become like this?

Quite possibly. I don’t believe that the Western half of London will ever give way to the East. More likely is that the wealthy West will buy up the properties of the East-End and renovate them, pricing the locals out, as happened with Canary Wharf.

But in general don’t bet against the idea that London could be partitioned. It isn’t a mad thought anymore.

D, LDN.