In Defence of British Muslims

In Defence of British Muslims:
A response to BNP racist propaganda

Lucy James
Quilliam is the world’s first counter-extremism think tank. Located in
London, our founders are former leading ideologues of UK-based
extremist Islamist organizations. Quilliam aims to generate new
thinking through informed and inclusive discussion to counter the
Islamist ideology behind terrorism, whilst simultaneously providing
evidence-based recommendations to governments for related policy
measures. Our strategic communications work involves research
projects, public events, specialist roundtables and media campaigns to
empower civil society to work towards improved national cohesion,
Muslim integration through respect for scriptural diversity, and
encouragement of political pluralism.
For further information contact:

Quilliam
Email: information@quilliamfoundation.org
Tel: +44 (0)207 182 7280
www.quilliamfoundation.org
In Defence of British Muslims: A response to BNP racist propaganda

Quilliam, August 2009
© Quilliam 2009 – All rights reserved
ISBN nu mb er: 978-1-906603-08-3
Disclaimer: The views of individuals and organizations used in this report do not
necessarily reflect those of Quilliam.
Contents
Forewords 4
Introduction 6
Part 1 Extremism Needs Extremism 11
Part 2 The BNP’s Accusations 17
Conclusion 37
“Islam... is a cancer eating away at our freedoms and our democracy and
rights for our women, and something needs to be done about it”
Nick Griffin, Channel 4 News, 9th July 2009.1
“[Islam is] a wicked, vicious faith”

Nick Griffin, The Secret Agent, BBC, 15th July 2004.2
1 Video available on iengage, ‘BNP’s Nick Griffin: ‘Islam is a cancer’’, 10 July 2009,
<http://iengage.org.uk/component/content/article/431-bnps-nick-griffin-islam-is-a-cancer>, [accessed 6 August
2009].
2 Nick Griffin was secretly recorded by the BBC for a documentary, The Secret Agent, defaming Islam at a BNP party
meeting in January 2004. He was charged for incitement to racial hatred on the basis of this and other statements
in July 2006 but was cleared. Paul Stokes, ‘Islam is a wicked, vicious faith, BNP leader tells court’,
The Telegraph, 26 January 2006, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1508787/Islam-is-a-wicked-vicious-
faith-BNP-leader-tells-court.html>, [accessed 10 August 2009].
3
Forewords
This is a very important piece of work. The political class has recoiled in shock
and indignation following the BNP's recent electoral successes, yet has failed
to confront the way they demonise British Muslims. Until now there has been
no systematic response to the propaganda and myth-making perpetuated by
the BNP in its treatment of all Muslims. Because of this vacuum the BNP have
been able to focus on an extremist Islamism as being representative of the
views of all Muslims. In this sense, extremism breeds extremism.
This document rigorously confronts BNP allegations against British Muslims.

The ten key charges made by Griffin and the BNP against 'Islam' are exposed
for what they are— a product of an extreme literalist Islamist tradition. By
exposing the way they cynically demonise all Muslims, this document gives us
the materials to thoroughly confront the myths, lies and distortions of the
BNP. I thoroughly commend this document to all those repelled by the British
National Party.
Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham
The increasing threat posed to British society by the rise of the far right has
become tangible: arson attacks on mosques in Luton, Greenwich, Stortford
and a Muslim charity in Glasgow; violent protests in British cities; and a seizure
of bomb-making equipment and munitions from houses of White-
supremacists in the north of England. These are devastating warnings.
Ideas, that stem from the racist rhetoric of the BNP, should not— and must
not— be allowed to simmer quietly among sections of our society who have
been disenchanted with mainstream politics in this country. As we have learnt
with Islamists, those with the loudest voices get their ideas heard. But we have
to be smarter.
British Muslim communities, and society as a whole, need to unite against the
accusations levied by the BNP, loudly projecting the moderate alternative, so
that these hateful messages of segregation do not gain ground. This paper
equips us with the arguments and facts to undermine the far-right’s
4
intellectually vacuous pronouncements against Islam. As we have done before,

Britain will defeat fascism. We’re all in this together.
Patrick Mercer, OBE, MBE, Conservative MP for Newark and Chair of the
Counter-Terrorism Parliamentary Sub-Committee
The threat of the BNP and the far right is something that has been with our
country for decades. The military boots and camouflaged trousers underneath
hate-filled t-shirts of the National Front in the 1970s and early 1980s have given
way to the slick suits and well-groomed hate-mongers of the BNP who choose
to call themselves the defenders of liberty in our country today. Defenders of
our liberties, they clearly are not!
This much needed document by Quilliam outlines the new tactic that the BNP
are now taking. Using perceptions and fears around Islam that exist in some
areas of the UK, they have targeted Muslims as being inherently alien to our
country. They do not mention the vast positive narrative of how Muslims have
worked within this country to support its development as proud citizens, or
the narrative of those hundreds of thousands of Muslims who laid down their
lives and sacrificed their freedoms for King and Country in the First and Second
World Wars.
Yet the BNP is trying to wash off its racist label by using divide and rule tactics,
taking the approach that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend.’ They are
attempting to ‘advocate’ for other Black and Minority Ethnic communities
against Muslims and Poles, yet their corrosive and factually inaccurate words
of hate make them one of the greatest threats to cohesion in our country
today. The future of Islam and Muslims is intertwined with the mutual respect
and empathy with other faiths, and which is inherent in Islam. That future
should not be hijacked by the BNP who will lead all who follow down the path
of misery, pain and violence.
Fiyaz Mughal OBE, Liberal Democrat Adviser on Interfaith, Preventing

Radicalization and Extremism
5
Introduction
Around 2005, the British National Party (BNP) initiated a conscious shift in
rhetoric away from a more general racism to something specific. Previously
they had been known for their anti-Semitic as well as anti-Black and anti-Asian
sentiments. Now there was a change in tactic. Feeding on the general
atmosphere of suspicion post 7/7, fed by the relentless tabloid press, the BNP
initiated a vicious, targeted attack against Britain’s Muslim communities. Nor
was their call on the British public to join the ‘BNP Crusade’ a tactic that they
were ashamed to admit.3 In 2006 Nick Griffin, Chairman of the BNP since 1999,
boldly stated that ‘the British National Party is positioned very firmly to benefit
politically from ever-growing popular concern about the rise of Islam’.4
Perhaps this was an attempt to avoid prosecution for inciting racial hatred;
under British law, Muslims do not exist as an ethnic group, and so cannot be
the victims of racial discrimination on the basis of their faith. In any case, the
BNP had officially replaced the term ‘Asian’ for ‘Muslim’:
“To go anywhere near inciting racial hatred is grotesquely unfair

because no one can change how they are born. On the other hand, to
criticise a religion in much stronger terms— even if it does cross the line
imposed by a law— I think is entirely justifiable because everybody has
the choice to change a religion if it’s bad” (Nick Griffin, 8 November
2006).5
“I used to think this [social unrest in towns in northern England] was an

Asian problem, a racial problem, so perhaps that makes me a racist.
Over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that since Sikhs
and Hindus and West Indians generally don’t do this then there is some
3 This symbolism is widely used, for example their leaflet ‘Islam: It’s not just about terrorism— it’s about our way of
life’, BNP (Herts: BNP), <http://bnp.org.uk/organisers/store/leaflets/national_leaflet_islam.pdf>, [accessed 10
August 2009].
4 Nick Griffin, ‘By their fruits (or lack of them) shall you know them’, Chairman’s Column, 21 March 2006,
<http://web.archive.org/web/20071014195717/http://www.bnp.org.uk/columnists/chairman2.php?ngId=30>,
[accessed 17 July 2009].
5 Nick Griffin, interviewed by Nick Martin for Channel 4 News, uncut version, 8 November 2006, (1:45),
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hzq7OHn9iI&feature=related>, [accessed 15 July 2009].
6
other factor here, so that makes me... a religionist” (Nick Griffin, 8

November 2006).6
Three years ago the BNP were still a fringe party who were struggling to get
public platforms and whom few took seriously on a political level. This has now
changed. Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons secured two seats in the European
Parliament in June 2009 for the North West and Yorkshire and Humber
respectively. These were seats that were gained on the basis of nearly one
million votes from the British public— 6.2% of the entire votes cast.7 Although
the figures were actually down on 2004 (the slump in Labour party support
meant the BNP’s proportion of the vote increased), the BNP have now gained
official recognition in European politics. They also gained three seats in the
county council and unitary authority elections (at February 2009 the BNP held
55 councillor positions8). Whereas previously they had been excluded from
public platforms, Griffin is now given frequent airtime on mainstream media
channels and primetime programmes. The BNP have also said that they intend
to spend taxpayers’ money, allocated via the European Union (EU), on funding
social projects aligned to their agenda.9
Yet despite this unprecedented access to the British media and European public
funds, mainstream politicians have failed to respond adequately. One could be
forgiven for thinking that their reaction has been one of political compromise.
Gordon Brown, for example, called for ‘British jobs for British workers’ in
January 2009, and ‘local homes for local people’ in July 2009— policies that
ring of far-right rhetoric and which, according to various sources, may be illegal
6 Nick Griffin, interviewed by Nick Martin for Channel 4 News, (4:45).
7 Martin Wainwright, ‘EU Elections: BNP’s Nick Griffin wins seat in European parliament’, The Guardian, 8 June
2009, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/07/european-elections-manchester-liverpool>, [accessed 10
August 2009].
8 ‘BNP takes two MEP seats’, Hope Not Hate campaign, 8 June 2009,
<http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2009/pages/candidates2009.php>, [accessed 12 August 2009].
9 Jon Swaine & Holly Watt, ‘BNP to use EU taxpayers’ money to fund chosen causes’, The Daily Telegraph, 20 July
2009, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/5863247/BNP-to-use-EU-taxpayers-money-to-fund-
chosen-causes.html>, [accessed 20 July 2009].
7
on the basis of discrimination.10 Several MPs have lamented the BNP’s

European victory— from David Cameron saying he was ‘sickened’, to Nick
Clegg’s assertion that they were ‘a party of thugs’11 — but this hardly equates
to a systematic challenge of their fascist ideology. Even The BNP and the Online
Fascist Network by the right-wing Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC), the most
recent systematic analysis of BNP ideology, significantly sidelined the BNP’s
hate-filled propaganda campaign against British Muslims.12 Nor are
mainstream politicians and affiliated research institutes the only ones guilty of
passivity. ‘The BNP election win affects Muslims more than any other
community’, writes Dr. Anthony McRoy, a researcher and religious journalist,
‘so Muslims cannot leave it to others to answer BNP campaigns targeting their
community’.13 Yet there is a distinct lack of a systematic and Muslim-led
campaign. A handful of Muslim individuals and groups have issued
condemnations: the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and Salma Yaqoob,
among a few others.14 Yet these do not provide detailed retorts and are
insufficient to combat the BNP’s public onslaught. Without answering the
charges being raised against them, Muslims leave these views unchallenged
and the door even wider for further hate-filled propaganda. What is more,
despite a change in rhetoric, the BNP have not suddenly left behind their
previous convictions against Blacks, Asians and Jews. The Equality and Human
Rights Commission (EHRC), for example, are currently investigating complaints
against the BNP’s membership criteria that restrict membership to those from
10 Various MPs, including David Cameron, queried the legality of the former comment. Deborah Summers, ‘Gordon
Brown’s ‘British jobs’ pledge has caused controversy before’, The Guardian, 30 January 2009,
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/30/british-jobs-british-workers>, [accessed 3 August 2009]. The
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) questioned the legality of the latter, see Jamie Doward, ‘Brown’s
policy of ‘local homes for local people’, The Observer, 5 July 2009,
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/05/labour-brown-local-homes-illegal>, [accessed 17 July 2009].
11 BBC, ‘BNP secures two European seats’, BBC News, 8 June 2009,
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8088381.stm>, [accessed 10 August 2009].
12 Edmund Standing, The BNP and the Online Fascist Network (London: Centre for Social Cohesion, 2009).
13 Dr. Anthony McRoy, ‘The BNP Win: What it means for Muslims’, Muslim Weekly, 2009,
<http://www.themuslimweekly.com/DetailView.aspx?NEWSID=TW00013219>, [accessed 10 August 2009].
14 Salma Yaqoob, ‘Tackling the ‘cancer’ of BNP fascism’, The Asian News, 16 July 2009,
<http://www.theasiantoday.com/article.aspx?articleId=1469>, [accessed 10 August 2009]; The Muslim Council of
Britain, ‘MCB alarmed over neo-Nazi victory’, 8 June 2009,
<http://www.mcb.org.uk/media/presstext.php?ann_id=356>, [accessed 30 July 2009].
8
particular ethnic groups and those who are White.15 Despite the work of the
group Unite Against Fascism, the Hope Not Hate campaign and the Searchlight
publication (among others), a more united effort is desperately needed from
society as a whole to ideologically challenge the BNP. The alternative is to allow
racist rhetoric to become more dominant in the mainstream.
This is an alternative that is already having dire consequences for British society.
The second quarter of 2009 has seen a dramatic increase in the reporting of
anti-Muslim attacks. It has also witnessed anti-Muslim protests for example,
among others, those in Luton in early June and Birmingham in early August.
In July 2009, The Sunday Times reported ‘England’s largest seizure of a
suspected terrorist arsenal since the IRA mainland bombings of the early 1990s’
from the homes of White-supremacists in the north of England, along with
maps of British mosques.16 Extremism only breeds extremism. A recent
Community Security Trust (CST) report revealed an unprecedented number of
anti-Semitic attacks in the first half of 2009, due to the Israeli offensive in Gaza
at the beginning of the year.17 Just as Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) and other Islamist
groups promote ideology which leads some to commit acts of terrorism, the
BNP publicly raising the temperature for far-right ideas can help explain the
increase in White-supremacist attacks.
This paper, then, has been written in order to address a considerable deficit in
the public arena. It is not a call on the BNP to change their rhetoric— such an
intention would be futile. They will continue this anti-Muslim tactic for as long
as it continues to win them votes. Instead, its aims are two-fold: firstly it is to
highlight the weak nature of the arguments behind the BNP’s anti-Muslim
campaign by taking Griffin up on his challenge:
“If you are confident that I am utterly wrong, that Sheikh Abu Hamza
is totally wrong, and you are utterly right then what is the problem?
15 Equality & Human Rights Commission, ‘BNP: Commission takes action over potential breach of race
discrimination law’, 23 June 2009, <http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre/bnp-commission-takes-
action-over-potential-breach-of-race-discrimination-law/>, [accessed 6 August 2009]. Despite considerably
sidelining the BNP’s anti-Muslim stance, the CSC report does illustrate that the BNP membership still hold radical
anti-Jewish and anti-Black sentiments. Standing, The BNP and the Online Fascist Network.
16 David Leppard, ‘Bomb seizures spark far-right terror plot fear’, The Sunday Times, 5 July 2009,
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6638139.ece>, [accessed 29 July 2009].
17 The Community Security Trust, ‘Anti-Semitic Incidents: January-June 2009’ (London; Manchester: The Community
Security Trust, 2009).
9
Let us on air and demolish us. Not by talking over us but by letting us
make fools of ourselves, let us state our case and then tear it to shreds,
but let us state our case and it will be more effective” (Nick Griffin,
2002).18
It is important to highlight that (contrary to Islamist notions) Islam is not a

united religion with a monolithic viewpoint. The counter-arguments put
forward here in response to the BNP’s accusations are by no means exhaustive.
Rather they are intended to provide a response and to set the ball in motion
for others to proceed. Secondly, this paper is a call on the media, mainstream
politicians, Muslim communities and the British public at large to arm
themselves with these— and other— counter-arguments in order to increase
the public response and drastically shift the debate. The propaganda of the
Islamists should not be taken to be representative of the vast majority of
Muslims in this country. We must not allow the far-right BNP and the Islamist
minority to bolster each other and monopolize the debate. In staying silent,
we are letting the extremist fringe groups win. We therefore welcome others
to use these arguments. Moreover, we call on the media to use them, as, whilst
positively already condemning the BNP, they will be more effective if they
intellectually undermine the BNP’s arguments rather than run smear
campaigns against them.19 It is not race or religion that matters, but what
type of person someone is; individual qualities rather than to what ‘faith’ or
‘ethnic’ category they belong. In the final analysis it is only those who seek to
uphold— rather than to destroy— the British values of liberty, freedom,
equality and democracy that should be considered part of the British
mainstream.
18 Nick Griffin, ‘Nick Griffin Abu Hamza’, Radio Academy, Part 2, 2002, (2:30).
19 In so doing, the media only stoops to the BNP’s level. For example, the Daily Mail recently ran an article accusing
a senior BNP member of having ‘Nazi’ written on his car number plate. Daily Mail Reporter, ‘The BNP councillor
who drives a car with ‘Nazi’ number plate’, The Daily Mail, 10 August 2009,
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205501/Outrage-BNP-councillor-drives-car-number-plate-resembles-
Nazi.html>, [accessed 11 August 2009].
10
Part 1 Extremism Needs Extremism

The BNP’s general accusation against Muslims and Islam is this: Muslims are
systematically going to Islamize Europe (destroying indigenous European
culture and replacing it with “Islamic” culture), after which they will establish
an Islamic state that will implement a literalist interpretation of scripture. In
itself, this general argument is evidently made on the basis of a very specific
version of Islam; the precise allegations (see Part 2) only cement this fact. From
what they’ve said about the pernicious aspects of Islam, this appears to be a
militant form of Islamism that blends with Saudi-Wahhabi doctrine.
Islamism is the belief that Islam is a political ideology. It claims that

political sovereignty belongs to God rather than the people, that their
reading of shariàh is state law, and that it is the religious duty of all
Muslims to create and pledge allegiance to an Islamic state that reflects
these principles. Despite its claim that up until the dissolution of the
Ottoman Empire in 1924 Islam had always existed as a political system,
Islamism is in fact a modernist movement influenced by products of
modernity such as socialism.
Wahhabism is a conservative revisionist Sunni movement, which was

founded by Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab in the eighteenth century.
It is common in Saudi Arabia and retains a non-ideological, socially
conservative, austere and literalist interpretation of Islam. Wahhabis
are not necessarily Islamists. But when the Wahhabi literalist mindset
combines with Islamism, this can lead to the creation of jihadist
readings of scripture that can result in militant Islamism.
The BNP appear to have not only adopted Wahhabi literalism alongside
Islamist principles of an Islamic state, but to have generalized them as
representative of Islam as a whole. Interestingly, on occasion, the BNP
distinguish between what they refer to as ‘radical Islam’ or ‘militant Islam’ and
Islam. At points the BNP have actually differentiated between what they refer
to as the different “strands of radical Islam”.20 Of these— in line with their
portrayal of Islam— the most frequent reference is to Wahhabism, which
20 Nick Griffin, Islamization of Europe, Clemson University, 24 October 2007, Part 2,

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=916qkfhT8DU>, [accessed 20 July 2009], (09:40).
11
Griffin describes as comparable to “the most extreme and extraordinarily

intolerant Christian sect and then put it on acid”.21 In fact, they seem to be
most affronted by Wahhabism, the threat in the UK apparently coming from
“Islamic fifth columnists who are funded by rich fundamentalist Wahhabi
Arabs waging a jihad against Britain from the Middle East”.22 Griffin has also
made fleeting references to Deobandism, and even Islamist groups like the
Muslim Brotherhood and the UK’s al-Muhajiroun as such ‘radical strands’.23
Given these passing recognitions that Islam has ‘radical’ forms, one can assume
a more silent recognition that Islam has more mainstream forms. Whether or
not the BNP rank and file are aware, Griffin is a History and Law graduate from
Cambridge and he, at least, is more than conscious of Islam’s diversity. He
refers, for example, to Wahhabis as “an extraordinarily extreme, radical and
confident form of Islam” (emphasis author’s own).24 BNP propaganda, then,
intentionally ignores this by, in most instances, portraying Islamic extremists as
representative of all Muslims— a deliberate and calculated policy to ride the
wave of suspicion against Muslim extremist in the UK. Where the distinction of
‘radical Islam’ is made, it is emphasized that Britain is witnessing the impending
takeover by ‘radical Islam’, not only of Islam, but of Europe itself. One BNP
news article describes a BNP meeting saying ‘The main thrust of [the speaker’s]
talk, however, centred on the way Muslims become radicalised’ (emphasis
author’s own), as if radicalization is a predetermined conclusion.25 Griffin
therefore on occasion admits that there are moderate forms but concludes that
“certainly, the kind of Islam that we are seeing taking over Europe now is of
the harsher variety”.26 Luckily for him, this is just the variety of Islam that will
most bolster his anti-Muslim propaganda campaign.
Specific examples of the extremist nature of the accusations fired against Islam
by the BNP are the focus in Part 2. However, direct examples can also be found
21 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 2, (07:30).
22 BNP, Video: Islamification of Britain, <http://tv.bnp.org.uk/2009/07/islamification-of-britain/>, [accessed 20 July

2009], (2:40).
23 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 2; BNP, ‘Northants BNP April Meeting Told of the Dangers of Radical
Islam’, BNP News, 19 April 2009, <http://bnp.org.uk/2009/04/northants-bnp-april-meeting-told-of-the-dangers-of-
radical-islam/>, [accessed 4 August 2009].
24 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 2, (9:45); (6:30).
25 BNP, ‘Northants BNP April Meeting Told of the Dangers of Radical Islam’.
26 Nick Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 1, (5:30).
12
where the BNP have shared platforms with, or directly used, well-known
Islamist groups and/or Wahhabis as representatives of Islam:
- Video footage of The Saviour Sect, al-Ghurabaa and al-Muhajiroun is used

in a BNP publicity video.27
- Extremist events, such as one put on by Islam4UK, are monitored and

exploited for the BNP’s agenda.28
- Images of Islamists are used for news articles on Islam, i.e. as the ‘average’
Muslim. For example, a photograph of an Islamist group at Finsbury Park
mosque was attached to an article on the rate of Muslim population growth
in the UK.29
- Nick Griffin shared a platform with the Islamist extremist Abu Hamza in 2002
on the topic of freedom of speech. Both were prosecuted for inciting racial
hatred.30
- Wahhabis, such as Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, have been quoted as

examples of typical Muslims clerics, without qualification of their hard-line
views.31
This all provides clear evidence that extremism needs—indeed breeds—

extremism. Islamists bolster the message of organizations like the BNP; the
BNP bolster the message of the Islamists. The BNP and Islamists do actually
share many commonalities in terms of tactics and the ways in which they
operate. They both, for example, share the same binary and divisive world
views, denigrating cultures that they feel are opposed to their own: the
Muslims versus the kufr (‘unbelievers’, often the West) and the indigenous
27 BNP, Video: Islamification of Britain, (1:40); (1:52); (2:25).
28 Lee Hancock, ‘Islam4UK: Hate on our streets’, BNP News, 5 October 2008, <http://bnp.org.uk/2008/10/islam4uk-
hate-on-our-streets/>, [accessed 4 August 2009].
29 Lee Hancock, ‘Muslim population rising ten times faster than rest of the UK’, BNP News, 1 February 2009,
<http://bnp.org.uk/2009/02/muslim-population-rising-10-times-faster-than-rest-of-the-uk/>, [accessed 5 August
2009].
30 Griffin, ‘Nick Griffin Abu Hamza’.
31 Lee Hancock, ‘Mickey Mouse should be killed says Muslim cleric’, BNP News, 16 September 2008,
<http://bnp.org.uk/2008/09/mickey-mouse-should-be-killed-says-muslim-cleric/>, [accessed 4 August 2009].
13
White-British versus immigrant invaders.32 Along with such a worldview

necessarily comes a reliance on generalizations and a deliberate dismissal of
nuance: for Islamists all non-Muslims are in a conspiracy against Muslims, and
for the BNP all Muslims are in a conspiracy against the White-British. Bolstering
this worldview, both Islamists and the BNP are constantly monitoring the press:
highlighting prejudices, misinformation and ‘conspiracies’ against them.33 In
addition, they both seek to boost support by manipulating fears and
frustrations to promote their own ideas. The BNP’s tactical change to attack
Muslims rather than Asians, Blacks or Jews relies on two main grievances that
have grown in British society in recent years: a suspicion of Islam particularly
following 7/7, and a resentment of immigrants that has grown since the
recession. Conversely, Islamists have jumped on the resultant grievances that
the BNP have encouraged: a clear growth in anti-Islamic attacks and support
for White supremacy.
Furthermore, just as various Islamist movements have been called ‘conveyor

belts’ to terrorism, there is evidence supporting similar incidents within far-
right movements such as the BNP. Just as suicide bombers have been linked to
HT, BNP membership cards have been found in the houses of violent White-
supremacists.34 Moreover, Britain Awake, a blog run by a self-confessed BNP
member, is ridden with violent rhetoric calling for a physical attack, for
example, on a Muslim woman.35 Martyn Gilleard, a White-supremacist from
East Yorkshire, was convicted in June 2008 for planning terror attacks against
Muslims. A note found at his home said: "I am sick and tired of hearing
nationalists talking of killing Muslims, blowing up mosques and fighting back
only to see these acts of resistance fail. The time has come to stop the talking
and start to act." Here we have a chilling resemblance to jihadis who, despite
32 The perfect example of this is the books that are available on Islam in the online BNP bookshop. They are
overwhelmingly focused on the common theme of ‘us verses them’: the Crusades, the battle of Christianity
verses Islam, the invasion of Muslim empires etc. See
<https://excalibur.bnp.org.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Islam_19.html>, [accessed 7 August 2009].
33 For an example of the BNP’s use of this see BNP, ‘Daily Mail turns itself into a laughing stock yet again!’, BNP
Newsletter, 27 July 2009. For an Islamist example see HT’s section that is entirely devoted to denunciations of
negative media reports called ‘News Watch’ available on <http://www.hizb.org.uk/hizb/>.
34 A BNP membership card was found in the house of a White-supremacist in July 2009. Leppard, ‘Bomb seizures
spark far-right terror plot fear’; for HT’s links to terrorism see Michael Whine, ‘Is Hizb ut-Tahrir changing strategy
or tactics’, Center for Eurasian Policy Occasional Research Paper, Series 1 (Hizb ut-Tahrir), No. 1 (Washington DC:
The Hudson Institute, 2006), pp.5-7.
35 See Standing, ‘The BNP and the online fascist network’, pp.33-35.
14
sharing the same ideology as Islamists, get impatient and tactically believe that
it is time to act through violence as is necessary. The particular concern
regarding any extremist ideology is its capacity to motivate violence,
particularly as its adherents become increasingly angry and/or frustrated. This
is not to say that the movements in themselves are violent or directly espouse
violence, but rather their divisive ideology provides the ideational springboard
for acts of physical aggression. Violent attacks by White-supremacists have
increased since the European elections—since the public profile of the BNP has
been raised— resulting in campaigns and death-threats against their
opponents.36 The similarities to the growth in violent Islamist extremism are
obvious.
It is not being argued here that Islamists and the BNP are two sides of the same
coin. Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, has referred to Islamist extremists as
‘the mirror of the BNP’,37 which, though understandable, is inaccurate.
Although they clearly share common methodological preferences, their
historical and ideological variances are so different as to make them
incomparable. Members of the BNP, for example, do not adopt their political
beliefs with a view to entering paradise. The brutal fact is instead, given the
method of ‘grievances’ that both ends adopt, that the popularity of one relies
heavily on the successful survival of the other. And this, it seems, is something
the BNP are only too aware of. Sharing a platform with Abu Hamza in 2002,
Griffin exclaimed,
“Demonizing individuals such as myself and the sheikh [Abu Hamza]...

doesn’t just create hate against us, it creates hate amongst particularly
the young men who follow us... and it tends to create hate amongst
lots of working class whites ‘well all Muslims are really like the
demonized Abu Hamza’... The more you demonize us, the more you
create tensions which you don’t want”.38
36 Matthew Taylor, ‘Far right launch campaign of violence and intimidation against opponents’, The Guardian,
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/02/far-right-campaign-of-violence>, [accessed 3 August 2009].
37 Eleanor Harding, ‘BNP mirror’ Islamic extremists spotted in Tooting’, Your Local Guardian, 22 July 2009,
<http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/topstories/4504872.Islamic_extremists_spotted_in_Tooting/>,
[accessed 3 August 2009].
38 Griffin, ‘Nick Griffin Abu Hamza’, Part 1, (8:00).
15
This is utterly disingenuous given the BNP’s systematic demonizing campaign

that deliberately creates, manipulates and fuels the tensions which we
apparently ‘don’t want’. Moreover, Griffin’s use of language here is telling. He
speaks of Abu Hamza, an extreme Islamist, in deferential terms, referring to an
uneducated ex-nightclub bouncer as ‘the sheikh’ (he is not), thus elevating his
status and legitimizing extremists to talk for ‘Islam’.
16
Part 2 The BNP’s Allegations

The BNP’s basic argument is this: Muslims will Islamize Europe, and will then
install an Islamic state which will be run under a literalist interpretation of
shariàh. The initial accusations (2.1-2.2) address the apparent process of
Islamization—the takeover of Britain by Muslims. The majority of accusations
(2.3-2.9) are what will happen under the resultant Islamic state. The final
accusation (2.10) is what the BNP believe is already happening in European
societies because of a Muslim presence.
2.1 The “Islamification” of Europe
“Britain is being relentlessly pushed towards the acceptance of Islam as

a dominant force...”39
“Europe is going to become Islamic, virtually without a fight”.40
“[We ask to what extent] there is a concerted effort— a jihad— by

Islamic fifth columnists to change the nature of British society and
Western democratic values to conform to Islam”.41
The BNP’s principal opposition to Islam, given the vehement anti-immigration

stance of the party as a whole, is that it is obliterating the ‘indigenous’ culture
of the UK (the White- English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish) and replacing it with
something that is foreign— a ‘barbaric desert religion’.42 The slogan the BNP
uses is ‘the Islamification of Europe’. Such an accusation particularly plays on
the concerns in local level areas where there is a relative majority of Muslims,
for example in Leicester. This theme— an impending Islamic takeover of
European indigenous culture— therefore serves as an undercurrent to, and a
justification for, all other accusations. Griffin has made the claim that before
7/7, the British Government were estimating that the Muslim population in
39 BNP, Video: Islamification of Britain, (1:12).
41 BNP, Video: Islamification of Britain, (3:00).
42 BNP, ‘Nationalism and Islam’, 28 July 2006,

<http://web.archive.org/web/20071014195726/http://www.bnp.org.uk/news_detail.php?newsId=1057>, [accessed
16 July 2009].
17
the UK was as high as four million, but that straight after the bombings they
reduced this to around 1.6 million.43 This seems highly unlikely given that the
last official estimate in the 2001 Census was 1.6 million and, although the latest
Whitehall estimate in April 2008 was two million,44 this is still a far cry from
four million in 2005. Constituting just 3.3% of the UK’s population, despite the
higher birth rate among Muslims, it seems incredibly unlikely that the UK is
going to witness an ‘Islamic’ takeover. Nor does the situation change across
the Channel. France’s Muslim population, which is by far the largest in Europe,
is estimated at between five and six million (8-9.6%);45 Germany, the second
largest, is estimated at only three million (3.6%).
The BNP are not alone in such allegations. Elements of the right have been
compounding such ideas of ‘Eurabia’ and condemning European tolerance that
has enabled mass immigration without serious challenge.46 However, it is the
far-right who is guilty of manipulating the figures and adopting
scaremongering tactics for political gain. For example a YouTube video, Muslim
Demographics, is a sensationalist account of the impending Islamization of
Europe that has since been ‘debunked’ by the BBC for using false statistics and
manipulating its sources.47 Other sources have started responding to such
accusations.48 According to one political analyst, the hype surrounding this
demographic time bomb is all ‘speculation based on speculation’; population
projections are an inherently inexact science. Furthermore, ‘For the number of
Muslims to outnumber non-Muslims by mid-century, it would require either
44 Alan Travis, ‘Officials think UK’s Muslim population has risen to 2m’, The Guardian, 8 April 2008,
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/08/population.islam>, [accessed 16 July 2009].
45 Given a law dating back to 1872, France does not categorize their census according to religion and consequently
figures are hard to determine. BBC, ‘Muslims in Europe, Country Guide’, BBC News, 23 December 2005,
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4385768.stm>, [accessed 16 July 2009].
46 The most academically sound account is Christopher Caldwell, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe:
Immigration, Islam and the West (London: Penguin, 2009). However, others have also alluded to this including
Niall Ferguson, Bernard Lewis and Melanie Phillips.
47 For the video see ‘Muslim Demographics’, YouTube, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU>,

[accessed 16 July]. For the BBC’s rebuttal see Richard Knight, ‘Debunking a YouTube hit’, BBC News Magazine, 7
August 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_8189000/8189231.stm>, [accessed 11 August
2009].
48 Jason Burke, ‘Fears of an Islamic revolt in Europe begin to fade’, The Observer, 26 July 2009,
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/26/radicalisation-european-muslims>, [accessed 29 July 2009];
William Underhill, ‘Why fears of a Muslim takeover are all wrong’, Newsweek, 11 July 2009,
<http://www.newsweek.com/id/206230>, [accessed 21 July 2009].
18
breeding on a scale rarely seen in history or for immigration to continue at a

pace that's now politically unacceptable’.49 An ‘Islamic’ takeover also assumes
a united Islamic front which, given the diversity of Muslim communities and
interpretations is not just unlikely, the in-fighting makes it impossible. Even,
hypothetically, if Muslim European citizens did become a majority, if they
interact in public life as secular democrats, the values of society will not be
replaced. This fear assumes that Muslims are incapable of interacting in public
life as secular democrats— something only Islamists argue. No doubt, then,
that the Muslim population will continue to steadily rise, but this is hardly the
impending obliteration of European indigenous culture by a host of Islamic
invaders.
Moreover, Muslims have been a part of the original fabric of Europe for many
centuries. In Eastern Europe, particularly, places like Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Kosovo and Albania have seen significant Muslim communities living there
since the Ottoman expansion into the Balkans in the fourteenth century. Small
Muslim communities in Serbia and Macedonia have also established
themselves since then. In Western Europe, the Umayyad’s conquered what was
then Hispania (now modern day Spain and Portugal) in the early eighth
century. Muslims first settled in Germany and Britain in the eighteenth century
through economic and diplomatic migration. Britain’s first communities settled
as sailors who were recruited to work for the East India Company. The next
wave came in the nineteenth century given the opening of the Suez Canal in
1869. Muslim communities have therefore been resident in Europe as far back
as the eighth century. Whether or not these original Muslims arrived through
trade, invasion or on the back of imperialism (particularly the case of Britain),
Islam has been a component of European and British culture for centuries.
Indeed, a 2009 Gallup poll found that 77% of British Muslims felt that they
identified ‘very strongly’ or ‘extremely strongly’ with their country; higher, in
fact, than the British public as a whole at 50%.50
49 Underhill, ‘Why fears of a Muslim takeover are all wrong’.
50 Gallup & The Coexist Foundation (2009), ‘The Gallup Coexist Index 2009: A Global Study of Interfaith Relations’,
Muslim West Facts Project: What the People Really Think (Gallup Press: Washington), p.19.
19
2.2 A religion of immigration
“People who emigrate in order to spread the cause of Islam and Allah
are particularly blessed. This religion has, right at its heart, a divinely
ordained push to emigrate to other people’s countries in order to
convert them to Islam”.51
“It’s a religion at one level. It’s a very efficient imperialistic machine for
taking over other people’s countries and territories on the other. So it
just does what it always has done... A conscious and deliberate plan...”52
‘the Crescent Horde – the endless wave of Islamics who are flocking to
our shores to bring our island nation into the embrace of their barbaric
desert religion’. 53
According to the BNP, the looming ‘Islamification of Europe’ owes a great deal
to the inherent nature of Islam as a religion— one that encourages emigration
with the intention of mass conversion. Griffin bases this argument on the
migrations of the Prophet referred to by Muslims as hijrah (‘migration’).
(Griffin, as far as can be found, is unaware of the term itself despite adopting
the argument.) In the Qur’an it is mentioned in the form of haajaru meaning
‘those who immigrated’ in nine separate verses. In all nine verses immigration
is mentioned in the context of struggling to maintain your faith and fleeing
from harm that might be inflicted upon you because of your beliefs. Therefore,
the Islamic concept of hijrah, derived from the Qur’an, has no connection with
any form of systematic conversion. The first migration in Islam took place when
the Prophet ordered a group of his followers to leave Mecca and migrate to
Abyssinia, due to the persecution they were facing. The Prophet himself did
not migrate until there was a real threat to the lives of all Muslims in Mecca,
after which he was the last to leave Mecca for Medina. Moreover, when the
early Arab Muslims conquered what is now Syria, the Umayyads did not
proselytise or accept new Muslims. They much preferred the economic
advantages of the medieval jizyah (see 2.8) from a Christian population, than
53 BNP, ‘Nationalism and Islam’.
20
propagating or enforcing Islam as a religion. And these are the first generation
of believers, whom many Muslims try to emulate. Furthermore, mainstream
Muslims do not advocate forced conversion. The Qur’an in fact states that
‘There is no compulsion in religion’.54 Such sentiments are repeated: ‘But if
they turn back, then on you devolves only the clear deliverance (of the
message)’.55
The BNP go further than accusations of rigorous proselytising— they

repeatedly label Islam as ‘a very efficient imperialistic machine’. Certainly, Islam
had spread as far as Spain within a century of the death of the Prophet by a
mixture of preaching and ‘the sword’. However, ‘imperialistic’ cannot be so
whimsically ascribed. As well as through invasion, Islam was also spread as a
natural result of expanding trade routes. The largest Muslim-majority country
today, Indonesia, converted on the basis of trade links with Yemeni traders—
not forced conversions. Other historical examples also render such a label
extravagant. The Mughals, for example, were a Muslim dynasty that ruled the
princely states of India for over three hundred years. If, as the BNP claim, Islam
is inherently imperialistic, the question remains as to why they didn’t actively
convert all of the Hindus under their dominion to Islam. One can also ask why
a systematic policy of forced conversions did not take place under the Moors
in Spain. Those religiously justified conquests of the medieval period that did
take place need to be contextualised to all religions, not just attributed to
Islam. This was the politics of many religions in the medieval period; the politics
of today is different.
2.3 Incompatible with secular democracy
“[the] basic principles of Islam... are incompatible with Western secular

democracy”. 56
“It [democracy] is most definitely not a fundamental of Islam... If you

have a democracy, the people make the rules. Under Islam, Allah and
the Qur’an are the rules”.57
54 The Qur’an, trans. by M. H. Shakir (Qum; Iran: Ansarian Publications, 1993), 2:256.
55 The Qur’an, trans. by Shakir, 16:82.
56 BNP, Video: Islamization of Britain, (1:22).
21
“As far as any good Muslim is concerned the only law you need is
contained in the Qur’an”.58
The BNP base this accusation on the notion that Muslims believe that only God
can be sovereign, hence rendering the power of the people redundant. The
political sovereignty of God is an Islamist, not a strictly Islamic notion. The BNP
have therefore taken a specific ideology (an Islamist ideology authored
specifically by Egyptian and Pakistani political writers under Soviet influences)
and applied it to the religion as a whole. To begin with, there is no mention of
statehood in the Qur’an. The contemporary understanding of statehood (as a
sovereign, authoritative system) was, in fact, only first put forward in the
fifteenth century and is therefore a modern concept. So there is no legal
precedent in the Qur’an that Muslims must establish a ‘sovereign’ state.
Although all Muslims believe that they should abide by various readings of
shariàh, it is a (very vocal) minority for whom shariàh must become state law.
Historically, under traditional Muslim Caliphates, shariàh was not adopted as
‘official’ law and was always left to people to follow. In fact, the Ottomans had
a legally pluralistic system (the Millet system). ‘An Islamic Europe’ declared
Griffin ‘would be a Europe ruled— as are all full Islamic states— by the Qur’an,
shariàh law’.59 This is a gross manipulation of Islam based on the premise of a
minority of Muslims who have adopted their faith as the basis for a political
ideology, and plays entirely into the hands of al-Qaeda and its affiliated
groups.
Instead, mainstream interpretations of Islam believe that Muslims can live

anywhere where they are given the human right to fully practise their religion;
a right that is protected by provisions under democratic regimes. Khaled Abou
El Fadl, one of the world’s leading Muslim scholars, says Muslims believe that
‘not only are Islam and democracy and human rights reconcilable, but that
Islam mandates and demands a democratic system of government’ (emphasis
author’s own).60 Arab and Persian Muslim scholars were particularly influential
in the development of medieval science and philosophy (see 2.9) some of
which, it can be argued, helped to lay the groundwork for the European
60 Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists (New York: Harper Collins, 2007), p.
183.
22
Enlightenment— a period in which key ideas such as freedom, democracy and

reason originated. Al-Farabi, for example, was a Muslim scholar at the turn of
the first millennium who is accredited as one of the rationalists inspired by
Aristotle; one of the greatest Muslim scholars of all time believed that a
working democracy was the ideal state. Before the emergence of modern
Islamism, historically Muslim scholars never believed that ‘Allah and the Qur’an
are the rules’. For example, Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350) said that
whoever cited any ruling was ‘God’s rule’ was from outside the fold of Islam.61
The claim for ‘God’s rule’ was a Kharijite seditious call from hypocrites in early
Islam, and 1,400 years of Islamic history has illustrated that the Khajarites have
been rejected.
Historical and present-day examples support the fact that Islam is not
inherently anti-democratic. The Tanzimat Reforms set in motion under the
Ottoman Empire, for example, attempted to reorganize the civil, criminal and
financial legal systems according to the French model. Today, elections take
place in Muslim-majority countries around the world: Bangladesh, Indonesia,
Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey to name a few. Although some can barely be
deemed democracies by contemporary standards— for example, the
controversy surrounding Iran’s recent elections— others have been notably
successful. Indonesia, for example, the country with the largest Muslim
population in the world has, over the past decade, seen the increasing rise of
secular Muslim parties at the expense of the Islamists.62 A contemporary
thinker and one of the Arab world’s best-selling author, Alaa al-Aswany,
succinctly summarizes the issue: ‘the retrograde Wahhabi reading of Islam that
is now widespread helps to entrench an unfair and mistaken image. It is our
[Muslims’] duty to start with ourselves. We must save Islam from all the
nonsense, falsehoods and retrograde ideas that have attached themselves to
it. Democracy is the solution’.63
61 The Independent, ‘Ed Husain: You ask the questions’, The Independent, 14 April 2008,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/ed-husain-you-ask-the-questions-808652.html, [accessed 11
August 2009].
62 Williamson, ‘Democrats win Indonesia election’, BBC News, 9 May 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-
pacific/8042095.stm>, [accessed 20 July 2009].
63 Alaa al-Aswany, ‘Western hostility to Islam is stoked by double standards and distortion’, The Guardian Comment
is Free, 20 July 2009, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/20/islam-west-muslims-media-
prejudice>, [accessed 21 July 2009].
23
2.4 Terrorism
[one] characteristic of immigrant Muslim populations in all nations has

been their widespread support for terrorism.64
Here is another flagrant example of the BNP’s appropriation of Islamist

extremists— in fact, specifically jihadis (those who use violence in the name of
Islam for political ends)— as representative of Muslims as a whole. In one
particularly snide piece of reporting on an Islamist terror cell, the BNP
concludes sarcastically that ‘there appear to be an unusually large number of
people from this community [Muslims] who are unrepresentative of that
community [terrorists]’.65 This is a considerable accusation, for which they fail
to provide statistics. Having sourced the survey on which they base this
assertion, their claim of ‘widespread support’ seems to be a little less
astounding than the phrase might suggest. The 2006 survey by NOP, ‘Attitudes
to Living in Britain: A Survey of Muslim Opinion’, which they cited,
characterised only 9% of their respondents as ‘hardcore Islamists’— i.e. those
who support terrorism. In fact, 85% of respondents believed that it was
unacceptable for religious or political groups to use violence (6% were unsure).
The BNP are therefore basing this bold accusation of ‘widespread support’ on
a 9% figure.66 It certainly seems more than a little misguided given the report’s
executive summary, which concluded from the statistical data that ‘while a
small minority of Muslims sympathise with extremism and Islamist terror, the
vast majority do not’.67 Finally, some statistics appear to be just wrongly cited:
they claim that 75% said that Britain was not their country, when the actual
survey says that 61% in fact do. It is little wonder, then, that their statistics
were referred to vaguely as ‘NOP Research in 2006’.
The reality is that the vast majority of Muslims condemn terrorism in no

uncertain terms. Hamza Yusuf, an American Muslim who is one of the West’s
64 BNP, ‘Updated with Video: Islam is a cancer eating away at our freedoms, says Nick Griffin’, BNP News, 10 July
2009.
65 BNP, ‘”Not representative of the community”: Islamist terror cell used British charity money and dole payments
to supply Taliban’, 11 March 2009, <http://bnp.org.uk/2009/03/%e2%80%9cnot-representative-of-the-
community%e2%80%9d-islamist-terror-cell-used-british-charity-money-and-dole-payments-to-supply-taliban/>,
66 NOP (2006), ‘Attitudes to Living in Britain: A Survey of Muslim Opinion’, p.35.
67 Anthony Wells, ‘NOP of British Muslims’, 8 August 2006, <http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/291>,

24
most influential Muslim scholars, regularly denounces terrorism in the name of

Islam. “We must in one voice condemn and completely reject the concept of
indiscriminate killing in this religion”, Yusuf declared in 2004. “It is neither
from the religion, nor is it sanctioned by the religion in any reading of our pre-
modern tradition. It is a modern phenomenon”.68 Moreover, ‘Islam was
hijacked on that [sic] September 11 2001, on that plane as an innocent victim’,69
Yusuf notoriously declared. Other polls can be used to support the views of
individuals such as Yusuf. Most recently, the 2009 Gallup poll found that only
6% of British Muslims believed that the use of violence for a noble cause was
completely justifiable and only 0.5% that attacks on civilian targets were
completely justifiable.70 Nor have these numbers recently increased. "The
numbers have been pretty steady over a number of years," said one of the
authors of the Gallup poll. "It is important to separate the mainstream views
from the actions of the fringe groups, who often receive disproportionate
attention".71 The BNP’s claims are therefore greatly— and dangerously—
exaggerated. And it’s not just that Muslims say they don’t support terrorism,
there is proof in their actions. The convicted terrorist Andrew Ibrahim, for
example, was identified and handed over to the police by Muslims at a mosque
in Bristol.72 Another example, in May 2009, was where Muslims in Luton
organized demonstrations against the members of al-Muhajiroun (an extremist
group who had caused outrage at the Royal Anglican Regiment’s
homecoming). Qadeer Baksh, the organizer of the demonstration declared
that ‘a small minority are giving us a bad name and allowing the British
National Party to capitalise’.73 He is entirely correct— extremist Muslims are
exactly what the BNP are feeding off— and the UK needs more mainstream
Muslims to condemn the BNP and counter the extremists in both speech and
actions.
68 Hamza Yusuf, A Message to Humanity (Alhambra Productions, 2004).
69 Scott Kugle, Rebel Between Spirit and Law. Ahmad Zarruq, Sainthood and Authority in Islam, (US: Indiana
University press, 2006), p.19.
70 Gallup (2009), ‘The Gallup Coexist Index 2009’, pp. 39-40.
71 Magali Rheault, quoted in Burke, ‘Fears of an Islamic revolt in Europe begin to fade’.
72 BBC, ‘Teenager facing terrorism charges’, BBC News, 29 April 2008, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7373929.stm>,
73 The Times, ‘Moderate Muslims ‘drive extremists off Luton streets’, The Times, 30 May 2009,
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6392580.ece>, [accessed 22 July 2009].
25
2.5 No freedom of speech
“Freedom of speech is haram [‘forbidden’]. It is all there in the Qur’an.

You don’t need to think for yourself. Follow the Qur’an; follow the
Hadiths... that’s all you need”.74
Within every society there are ‘taboo’ subjects that face limitations on their
expression in a public arena. Most interpretations of Islam, however, do not
simply forbid freedom of speech. To say that everything Muslims need is in the
Qur’an and requires no freedom of thought or discussion is a falsehood, as
centuries of diverse Islamic theological debates, literature, and wealth of
hadiths (oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Prophet) attest
to. Mohammed Hashim Kamali, an Afghani Muslim scholar, has written
extensively on the subject concluding that ‘without freedom of speech it would
be inconceivable to command good or forbid evil’.75 That said, freedom of
speech is usually subjected to restrictions depending on interpretation. Many
Muslim scholars apply the principle that one’s freedoms end when they
encroach on another’s. Under such an interpretation, believers are not allowed
to insult others’ prophets, holy books or other aspects of religion. The Qur’an
declares: ‘And do not abuse those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest
exceeding the limits they should abuse Allah out of ignorance.76 Kamali defines
the restricted subjects as ‘slanderous accusation[s]’, ‘blasphemy, sedition and
insult’.77 That said, religious permissions and restrictions have nothing to do
with how society is organized politically, and whether free speech is granted
or not. Religious injunctions that command Muslims as to what they can and
cannot say are not the same as the political idea of a legally protected right to
freedom of speech. Blasphemy, for example, is haram (forbidden), but nowhere
are Muslims commanded to make it illegal (via criminal punishment). Hence,
again, the BNP’s argument makes the common Islamist (not Islamic) assumption
that a religious prohibition automatically equates to a political proscription.
Haram is a religious value; freedom of speech is a political value. Muslims are
free to choose freely whether or not they wish to do what is haram
(blaspheme) and it is God who will hold them to account, not the law.
75 Mohammed Hashim Kamali, Freedom of Expression in Islam (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1997), p.28.
76 The Qur’an, Shakir 6: 108
77 Kamali, Freedom of Expression, p.117.
26
As it is religiously haram to insult religion for Muslims, at times they can react
violently to it, at odds with Western secular attitudes. Significant examples
include the murder of film director Theo Van Gogh, the banning of The Jewel
of Medina, the Danish Cartoons controversy and, ultimately, the Rushdie
Affair. As with anything, though, responses naturally differ according to the
individual. Zaki Badawi, for example, who was a leading voice for Muslims in
Britain, defended freedom of speech by declaring that as much as he disliked
The Satanic Verses, he would give sanctuary to Salman Rushdie were he to
knock on his door.78 Suppressive responses will occur, but are made on an
individual and/or extremist group basis, rather than because they reflect the
‘official’ Islamic response. Verse after verse of the Qur’an calls on individuals
to think, reflect, and consider the meaning and purpose of human existence:
‘Do they not reflect in their own minds? Not but for just ends and for a term
appointed, did Allah create the heavens and the earth, and all between
them’.79 To claim that the Qur’an is not given to intellectual reflection is to
deny the encouragement of the Qur’an to early Muslim scientists who acted
on these instructions and advanced in science, medicine and philosophical
thought (see 2.9).
Extremists cannot be allowed to manipulate these issues. Whilst Islamists are

manufacturing the fervour around ‘offensive’ depictions of Islam, far-right
extremists like the BNP are taking advantage of the tensions. In 2006, for
example, they were accused of increasing tensions with the launch of a leaflet
campaign that included controversial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.80
Hence, although Islamic attitudes towards freedom of speech raise issues of
how compatible Muslim cultural sensitivities are with Western principles, it
does not justify the BNP’s accusation that Muslims are forbidden from free
speech. The question should be why today’s Muslims are not responding more
fervently to the Qur’anic injunction of thought and contemplation, rather than
having to pacify accusations that freedom of speech in its entirety is haram
for all Muslims.
78 ‘Obituaries: Zaki Bawdawi’, The Times, 25 January 2006,

<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article719195.ece>, [accessed 23 July 2009].
79 The Holy Qur’an, trans. by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Birmingham: Islamic Propagation Centre International, 1990),
30:8.
80 Matthew Taylor, ‘BNP accused of exploiting cartoons row with Muslim leaflet’,
The Guardian, 5 October 2006, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/05/uk.advertising>, [23 July 2009].
27
2.6 The second-class status of women
“by our standards of complete equality with women, [Islam is] a religion
which treats women as second class citizens automatically”.81
In one particularly scathing attack, Griffin condemns Islam’s treatment of

women by utilizing the examples of testimony and inheritance. In both
instances he resorts to highly conservative Islamic interpretations of women’s
rights along the lines of notoriously Wahhabi ideals. For the issue of
inheritance, such conservative interpretations would take quite literally the
Qur’anic injunctions that give a man twice the amount of a woman’s
inheritance. This was made on the basis that a woman’s wealth was hers alone,
whereas the responsibility of maintenance, housing and other financial
responsibilities was placed upon the man, and he was therefore compensated
for his expected expenditure. For the testimony of women, such conservative
interpretations would take the following Qur’anic verses quite literally: ‘and
call in to witness from among your men two witnesses; but if there are not
two men, then one man and two women from among those whom you choose
to be witnesses, so that if one of the two errs, the second of the two may
remind the other’.82
Fatima Mernissi, a Moroccan Muslim feminist, wrote ‘If women’s rights are a
problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Koran
[Qur’an] nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those
rights conflict with the interests of the male elite’.83 Literalistic interpretations
of the above verses are regarded as outdated by many Muslims. As El Fadl
argues, rulings were written for a particular time and place: ‘At the time these
rulings were revealed, they were sought to achieve particular moral objectives
such as justice, equity, equality, mercy, compassion, benevolence, and so on.
Therefore, it is imperative that Muslims study the moral objectives of the
Qur’an and treat the specific rulings as demonstrative examples of how
Muslims should attempt to realize and achieve the Qur’anic morality in their
83 Fatima Mernissi, Women and Islam: an historical and theological enquiry, trans. by Mary Jo Lak (New Delhi:
Women Unlimited, 2004), p.ix.
28
lives’.84 One must bear in mind, for example, that in seventh century Arabia
women had to bear the burden of domestic work and often worked between
12 and 16 hours a day, so it was perhaps feared that they may forget certain
details when giving testimony. At the time, the Prophet was progressive in his
attitude to women. When women were regarded as little more than
possessions like cattle or camels, the Prophet provided women with status and
rights before the law. Even Griffin acknowledges this: “at least Muhammad in
the Qur’an gave a degree of codification and a degree of protection [to
women]”.85
Unfortunately, under many regimes— notably in the Arab world and

particularly under the influence of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia— women are
still being treated as they were in the seventh century rather than by modern
day standards of equality. British Muslims, however, are not responsible for
Saudi practices. British Muslim women play an important role in the civic,
political and economic life of the UK (although there is still unquestionably
some way to go). Modern Muslims need to subvert this stereotype, move in the
spirit of the Prophet and award today’s Muslim women full status in
inheritance, divorce and marital matters. After all, if Christians were to abide
literally by the rulings of St Paul on women, as found in the New Testament,
Christianity would also face allegations of inequality and sexism as well.
Mernissi writes, ‘That his [the Prophet’s] egalitarian message today sounds so
foreign to many in our Muslim societies that they claim it to be imported is
indeed one of the great enigmas of our times. It is our duty as good Muslims
to refresh their memories’. 86
2.7 Crime and Punishment
“The idea that a young child should have their hand cut off for stealing
because when starving they stole a loaf of bread, as happens in Islamic
countries, is to us absolutely barbaric. But it’s what you get”.87
84 El Fadl, The Great Theft, p. 156.
86 Mernissi, Women and Islam, p.ix.
29
The BNP are here referring to the hudud— punishments that have been
prescribed according to the type of crime committed. Unfortunately, they have
been given prominence in recent times given their application in countries like
Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Sudan. However, these are either
Islamist or Wahhabi states that attempt to implement a literalistic
interpretation of the Qur’an and so, once again, the BNP have portrayed
extremist notions as ‘the’ interpretation of Islam. The last caliphate (the
Ottomans) explicitly repealed the hudud as a legal and theological reform in
the nineteenth century, doing so with the full co-operation of the Mufti of the
Ottoman state. Yayha Birt, a British Muslim convert, explains the general
suspicion of Western societies towards shariàh and clarifies the position on
hudud. ‘The main reason for the adverse and fearful reaction’, Birt writes, ‘is
that Shari’ah is popularly used as a synonym for penal law with its fixed
penalties that can involve capital punishment. However, there is no Muslim
representative body advocating Islamic penal law in Britain’.88
Rather than being ‘what you get’, the hudud have in fact been rarely practised
as they literally appear in the Qur’an, given that it is an archaic system out of
line with current scholarly theological interpretations and modern day
principles of human rights. Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia— and many
more besides— are Muslim-majority countries that do not abide by such a
penal code. Nor were they always practised under past Muslim regimes, for
example, they were rarely enforced under the Ottoman Empire. In fact there
is an Arabic concept— maslahah— which states that laws are allowed to be
withdrawn at any time if they are not in the public interest. Abdal-Hakim
Murad, a British Muslim scholar and lecturer (also known as T J Winter), refers
to the hudud as ‘parameters’ rather than ‘a complete blueprint’.89 For the vast
majority of Muslims the hudud, like the traditional Christian practice of stoning
adulterers, are archaic and un-Islamic forms of modern justice that should not
be applied in their society. As Murad writes, ‘our din [religion] is not, ultimately,
a manual of rules which, when meticulously followed, becomes a passport to
88 Yahya Birt, ‘The Trouble with Shari’ah’, <http://www.yahyabirt.com/?p=139>, [accessed 10 August 2009].
89 Abdal-Hakim Murad, ‘British and Muslim?’, September 1997, <http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/british.htm>,

30
paradise. Instead, it is a package of social, intellectual and spiritual technology

whose purpose is to cleanse the human heart’.90
2.8 Persecution of non-Muslims
“[Under an Islamic state] there would be no freedom of worship or

freedom of unbelief”.91
“In a traditional Islamic society, everyone who is not a Muslim is

compelled to second class status... they must get out of the road when
Muslims come...” 92
“It’s [dhimmi status] a form of perpetual religious and cultural

apartheid whereby the non-Muslim population is ground down”.93
Here the BNP are again endorsing extremist Wahhabi notions of intolerance
and inequality as representative of Islam in its entirety. The Prophet gave non-
Muslims entitlement to protection by law, referred to as dhimmi status, given
that they paid a tax called the jizya. The Charter of Privileges, one of many
examples, was granted to the monks of St Catherine’s Monastery by the
Prophet in 628 CE. It protected the Christians, and prevented discrimination on
the basis of their religion. It defended their jobs, their churches, and their right
to remain and not to fight in wars for the Muslims, as well as offering military
protection on their behalf. It also explicitly stated that were a Christian
woman to marry a Muslim man, she may still visit her church to pray.94
Examples can also be found of the protection of non-Muslim’s rights in Islamic
history. The Ottomans, for example, created the Millet System that allowed
each faith community access to its own courts and judges. Their Tanzimat
Reforms rendered members of all faiths and no faith equal in the eyes of
Ottoman law.95 And both the Ottomans and Mughals commissioned the
90 Abdal-Hakim Murad, ‘Islamic Spirituality: The forgotten revolution: The poverty of fanaticism’,
<http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/fgtnrevo.htm>, [accessed 5 August 2009].
94 A. Zahoor & Z. Haq, 'Muslim History: 570 – 1950 C.E.' (Gaithersburg, MD: ZMD Corporation, 2000), p.167.
95 Ernest Edmondson Jr. Ramsaur, The Young Turks. Prelude to the Revolution of 1908, 2nd ed. (İstanbul: 1982), pp.
40–1.
31
building of churches, synagogues and temples. At a time when European states

were persecuting their religious minorities and burning dissidents at the stake,
many Muslim civilisations were welcoming the persecuted and offering them
protection under their law.
That is not to say that the concept of jizyah should be revived. As El Fadl argued
previously, the historical context of given verses must be considered. The idea
of jizyah, therefore, needs to be firmly contextualised to the medieval period
when countries generally organized themselves along the lines of religion—
the wars of Catholicism and the reformation in Europe, for example. As politics
is no longer based on religion, but citizenship, the ultimate Islamic aim of
freedom of religion has been attained and so it is no longer needed to ‘protect’
minority status with the jizyah. The majority of Muslims would recognise this.
For contemporary Muslims the challenge is to get beyond the comfort of
Muslim history and adapt to the modern world, where citizens have full rights
and equal status before the law, regardless of religion, race, gender, culture,
or sexuality. Kamali, for example, confirms that ‘All are equal in the eyes of
God regardless of race, colour and religion. No man has a claim to superiority
over another, and there is no recognition in Islam of a class or caste system, a
superior race, a chosen people or any related concept’.96 As the Prophet was a
leading reformist of human rights in his day, so must today’s Muslims take a
leading role and emulate this. The BNP’s adoption of such narrow-minded
repression is illustrative, once again, of their promotion of Islamist ideology: a
highly polarized worldview, misrepresentative of the majority of Muslims.
2.9 No belief in scientific enquiry
“[Under an Islamic state] there would be no scientific enquiry”.97
This accusation is baseless. No mainstream Muslim, Islamist or Wahhabi rejects

scientific advancement. The Westaphobic nature of Wahhabism may prevent
adherents from studying the social sciences, but they believe in the exploitation
of scientific advancements in order to empower them towards their utopian
vision of a return to the ‘golden age’ of Islam; what El Fadl refers to as ‘the
96 Mohammed Hashim Kamali, The Dignity of Man: An Islamic perspective (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society,
2002), p.45.
32
selective logic of the puritans’.98 Muslims have embraced scientific enquiry

throughout their history. Medieval Arab and Persian Muslim scholars, between
the eighth and sixteenth centuries, helped to lay the basis for modern science,
some would argue inspired by the intellectual reflection and reasoning of the
Qur’an (see 2.5).
At the very least, it is popularly held that the Qur’an encourages the
acquisition of scientific knowledge because it helps Muslims understand Allah’s
creation: ‘Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the
alternation of the night and the day there are signs for men who
understand’.99 Muslim scholars from Avveroes (Ibn Rushd) to Avvicena (Ibn
Sina), from India to Baghdad and Persia to Spain, contributed towards
scientific discoveries. Admittedly, compared to these medieval scholars, some
present day Muslims particularly in the Arab world have an insufficient
understanding of modern science. However, that is not to say that Islam has ‘no
belief in scientific enquiry’, rather that Muslims need to reignite their interests
in science. New voices, such as Sheikh Usama Hassan who commended Darwin’s
Theory of Evolution as not inconsistent with creationism, need to be
amplified.100 Citing a Prophetic tradition, El Fadl writes ‘wisdom and
knowledge have no nationality and therefore... Muslims are free to learn as
long as they use this knowledge to serve God and pursue Godliness on this
earth’.101
2.10 Muslims cause social problems: rape and drug cases
‘[one] characteristic of Islamic immigrant populations is large scale social

unrest’.102
“You cannot possibly separate out the hard drugs trade from the
question of Islam, and particularly Pakistani immigration. That is where
100 For example Usama Hassan, ‘Knowledge Regained’, The Guardian: Comment is Free, 11 September 2008,
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/11/religion.darwinbicentenary>, [accessed 20 July 2009].
102 BNP, ‘Updated with Video: Islam is a cancer’.
33
it’s coming from...”103
“Wherever there are large numbers of young Muslim men, groups of

them team up to lure girls— often as young as twelve or thirteen— into
a nightmare world of sexual abuse, rape, beatings, drug addiction and
prostitution”.104
“Gang rape is a phenomenon that comes from the Muslim

community.”105
‘the practice of “grooming”— where young White females are lured in

sex abuse traps by Muslim males’.106
‘The Islamification of the West had partly been done by rape’.107
“Intimidation happens at every level. You find it anywhere— literally

anywhere— in Europe where there is a significant Islamic population.
You find young school children of any other community picked on,
bullied, spat upon, beaten, at school. And you find it at the higher
levels”.108
103 Nick Griffin, Newsnight, 2009, (1:30), <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOuYmkdms8w&feature=related>,

106 ‘Updated with Video: Islam is a cancer eating away at our freedoms, says Nick Griffin’, BNP News, 10 July 2009.
107 Nick Griffin, cited in BBC News, ‘BNP Leader Repeats Islam Attack’, BBC, 16 July 2004,
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3898695.stm>, [accessed 14 July 2009].
34
BNP leaflet, August 2008, Lancashire109
The BNP have initiated various campaigns that seek to demonize Muslim
communities in their entirety for various social ills and crimes that exist in
Britain. The first of these is a campaign that took place recently in the north
of England, in which they charged Muslim communities with ‘grooming’:
where young Muslim men lure White girls into a world of rape, drugs and
prostitution. This takes place, apparently, ‘wherever there are large numbers
of young Muslim men’. The second of these was a campaign that blamed
British Muslims— and Pakistanis in particular— for the hard drugs trade that
exists in Britain. A BNP member was in fact charged in August 2009 for
incitement to commit religious hatred by distributing the said leaflets.110 Other
more general accusations were also fired against Muslims. In one leaflet
entitled ‘Racism Cuts Both Ways’ that was put through letterboxes of the
general public, Muslims were referred to as ‘Muslim thugs’, ‘Muslim sex gangs’
and ‘Muslim paedophile gangs’, alongside provocative images of women in
burqas, radical Islamist campaigners, and abused and murdered members of
the White-British public.111
109 Available off http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2008/8/30/fascists-blame-muslims-for-

heroin-trade.html [accessed 23 July 2009].
110 North West Evening Mail, ‘Man charged over anti-Muslim leaflets’, North West Evening Mail, 12 August 2009,
<http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/man_charged_over_anti_muslim_leaflets_1_597190?referrerPath=news/>,
111 BNP, ‘Racism Cuts Both Ways: The Scandal of Our Age’.
35
These accusations have been included because of the hyperbolic nature of their
content, rather than to defend the fact that Islam does not tolerate such
actions. Needless to say, alongside a large proportion of civil society in the UK,
as well as other religions, Muslims regard both drugs and rape as haram.
Criminals in Britain act as individuals, on the basis of their own sinister
motivations, not because they belong to a particular group or religion. A senior
BNP official had to be sacked in April 2008 because he declared that rape was
a myth, saying ‘Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a
terrible physical ordeal’.112 Given this episode, you may expect the party to
understand that those with abhorrent views do not necessarily represent party
ideology, as a Muslim criminal does not represent Islam. No doubt a Muslim
who committed a crime would be deemed as un-Islamic as this BNP official was
sacked. The drugs trade and rape need to be tackled but they do not require
wild accusations against Muslim communities that create fear in the public at
large and absolve all other social groups from blame.
112 The Daily Mail, ‘Sacked: The BNP candidate who said ‘some women are like gongs— they need to be struck
regularly’, The Daily Mail, 22 April 2008’, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1005781/Sacked-The-BNP-
candidate-said-women-like-gongs--need-struck-regularly.html>, [accessed 24 July 2009].
36
Conclusion
The BNP are spreading hate towards British Muslims and feeding the Islamist
narrative that Muslims cannot accept secular democratic principles. They
repeatedly portray Islamists as representing all Muslims, but consistently fail to
provide adequate evidence for their claims. Moreover, the BNP have
ridiculously alleged that a demographic take-over of Muslims is imminent, and
erroneously claim that all Muslims seek to forcibly convert others in their bid
to Islamize Europe. Like true populists, they sensationalize unacceptable
practices within Islam (most of which are taken outside of their cultural context
from the Middle East and beyond) that crucially, the vast majority of British
Muslims do not tolerate. Finally, the BNP have also been propagating
falsehoods including the dangerous accusation that most British Muslims
support terrorism, playing to their supporters’ post-7/7 fears. Not only does
this hatemongering gnaw at the very fabric of our diverse communities, but
it has also seen both White and Islamist supremacists channel their hatred into
acts of violence.
This paper has taken up Griffin’s challenge to take on his ideas and ‘rip them
to shreds’. It is now imperative that the British electorate reclaim the ‘British’
from the British National Party, just as we have asked Muslims to reclaim ‘Islam’
from the Islamists. But by not speaking up, both sides continue to feed off
each other. ‘If you have any extreme section in one group’, Griffin somewhat
pointedly remarked, ‘when the other group constantly gives way to that kind
of thing then the extremists grow, not only in confidence, but also in
prestige’.113 This is exactly what we need to avoid. However, let’s not leave
Griffin with the last word, but rather hand over to one of Britain’s most
influential Muslim scholars. ‘Islam is, and will continue to be’, writes Abdal
Hakim Murad, ‘even amid the miserable globalisation of modern culture, a
faith that celebrates diversity. Our thinking about our own position as British
Muslims should focus on that fact, and quietly but firmly ignore the protests
both of the totalitarian fringe, and of the importers of other regional
cultures... which they regard as the only legitimate Islamic ideal’.114
113 Griffin, Islamization of Europe, Part 3, (07:05).
114 Abdal Hakim Murad, ‘British and Muslim’, (1997), <http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/british.htm>, [accessed
11 August 2009].
37

In Defence of British Muslims

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

In Defence of British Muslims

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

In Defence of British Muslims:

A response to BNP racist propaganda

For further information contact:

In Defence of British Muslims: A response to BNP racist propaganda

© Quilliam 2009 – All rights reserved

ISBN nu mb er: 978-1-906603-08-3

“[Islam is] a wicked, vicious faith”

This document rigorously confronts BNP allegations against British Muslims.

Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham

intellectually vacuous pronouncements against Islam. As we have done before,

Fiyaz Mughal OBE, Liberal Democrat Adviser on Interfaith, Preventing

“To go anywhere near inciting racial hatred is grotesquely unfair

“I used to think this [social unrest in towns in northern England] was an

other factor here, so that makes me... a religionist” (Nick Griffin, 8

6 Nick Griffin, interviewed by Nick Martin for Channel 4 News, (4:45).

on the basis of discrimination.10 Several MPs have lamented the BNP’s

It is important to highlight that (contrary to Islamist notions) Islam is not a

Part 1 Extremism Needs Extremism

Islamism is the belief that Islam is a political ideology. It claims that

Wahhabism is a conservative revisionist Sunni movement, which was

20 Nick Griffin, Islamization of Europe, Clemson University, 24 October 2007, Part 2,

Griffin describes as comparable to “the most extreme and extraordinarily

21 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 2, (07:30).

22 BNP, Video: Islamification of Britain, <http://tv.bnp.org.uk/2009/07/islamification-of-britain/>, [accessed 20 July

24 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 2, (9:45); (6:30).

26 Nick Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 1, (5:30).

- Video footage of The Saviour Sect, al-Ghurabaa and al-Muhajiroun is used

- Extremist events, such as one put on by Islam4UK, are monitored and

- Wahhabis, such as Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, have been quoted as

This all provides clear evidence that extremism needs—indeed breeds—

27 BNP, Video: Islamification of Britain, (1:40); (1:52); (2:25).

30 Griffin, ‘Nick Griffin Abu Hamza’.

White-British versus immigrant invaders.32 Along with such a worldview

Furthermore, just as various Islamist movements have been called ‘conveyor

“Demonizing individuals such as myself and the sheikh [Abu Hamza]...

38 Griffin, ‘Nick Griffin Abu Hamza’, Part 1, (8:00).

This is utterly disingenuous given the BNP’s systematic demonizing campaign

Part 2 The BNP’s Allegations

2.1 The “Islamification” of Europe

“Britain is being relentlessly pushed towards the acceptance of Islam as

“Europe is going to become Islamic, virtually without a fight”.40

“[We ask to what extent] there is a concerted effort— a jihad— by

The BNP’s principal opposition to Islam, given the vehement anti-immigration

39 BNP, Video: Islamification of Britain, (1:12).

40 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 1, (6:15).

41 BNP, Video: Islamification of Britain, (3:00).

42 BNP, ‘Nationalism and Islam’, 28 July 2006,

43 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 2, (02:20).

47 For the video see ‘Muslim Demographics’, YouTube, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU>,

breeding on a scale rarely seen in history or for immigration to continue at a

49 Underhill, ‘Why fears of a Muslim takeover are all wrong’.

2.2 A religion of immigration

51 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 1, (7:10).

52 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 2, (5:05).

53 BNP, ‘Nationalism and Islam’.

The BNP go further than accusations of rigorous proselytising— they

2.3 Incompatible with secular democracy

“[the] basic principles of Islam... are incompatible with Western secular

“It [democracy] is most definitely not a fundamental of Islam... If you

55 The Qur’an, trans. by Shakir, 16:82.

56 BNP, Video: Islamization of Britain, (1:22).

57 Griffin, The Islamization of Europe, Part 1, (2:25).

Instead, mainstream interpretations of Islam believe that Muslims can live