The
Commission
for Countering Extremism said some groups “deliberately distort
the truth to persuade their audience to adopt discriminatory and
hateful attitudes”.
The
government agency’s first major report warned that the tactic was
drawing in white communities who would not normally support the far
right, and worsening social division.
The
report said prominent far-right figures including Tommy
Robinson, Jayda Fransen and former Ukip leadership candidate
Anne Marie Waters used rallies in 2016 and 2017 to “spread
anti-minority and anti-Muslim agendas”.
As
part of research into all forms of extremism across Britain, the
commission examined a series of protests sparked after a woman
claimed she was gang raped by Middle Eastern migrants in Sunderland.
The
original rape allegations were investigated by police but did not
result in any charges, and the alleged victim withdrew her support
from the campaign in her name in October 2017. Local councillors said
a string of 13 marches in as many months “whipped up anti-minority
feeling” and were linked to a series of hate crimes including a
violent attack on Asian men, vandalism and racist graffiti in the
area.
“The
marchers said they aimed to improve the safety of women and children
locally,” the report said. “However,
their rhetoric targeted ethnic minorities, despite nearly 85 per cent
of people convicted of sexual offences in 2018 in the Northumbria
Police force area being white.”
A
similar pattern has been seen with the use of grooming gangs as
a major far-right recruiting tool, which sees extremists characterise
the abuse as committed solely by Muslims. The
government report said locals who opposed the demonstrations were
abused and intimidated.
The
agency’s nationwide inquiry found authorities were failing to spot
local tensions being exploited, not protecting victims, and were
failing to “challenge the persistent behaviour of hateful
extremists who seek to mainstream their dangerous propaganda”.
Lead
commissioner Sara Khan said “hateful extremism” was allowing
people to make the “moral case for violence” while stopping short
the threshold for criminal prosecution. “If
we are to be successful in reducing the extremist threat in our
country, we must focus on challenging hateful extremism. My report
shows the destructive effect it is having on the lives of
individuals, our communities and wider society.”
No comments:
Post a Comment