…It might pan out like this.
Which is why, among other reasons, vicars and preachers should be unequivocal in their condemnation of the BNP.
October 26, 2009
August 19, 2009
BNP “Christian Council” uses God to justify racism
Read about this on There is Nothing British about the BNP.
August 10, 2009
Stormfront discuss Norwich North
On Liberal Conspiracy, Cath Elliot draws attention to the neo-Nazi discussion board Stormfront, who want to deport her in response to her article on the BNP’s lies in Norwich North, where the BNP’s clergyman Robert West ran for election.
Eliot notes an interesting contribution on the Stormfront message board from a BNP supporter:
“Its time to drop the reverend. Having a fake vicar puts us down with the crank candidates and thats where our vote has ended up.
People aren`t stupid ( well actually they are on the whole) but they have seen through this fake Reverend gimmick.”
And it seems that BNP supporters aren’t the only ones not entirely convinced by Robert West’s Christianity.
Have a look at this discussion:
July 28, 2009
Combating the BNP
Edmund Standing writes:
In 2000, BNP leader (and now MEP) Nick Griffin stood before an audience of American ‘white nationalists’ and proposed that while he had no intention of ’selling out’ the BNP’s principles, he now wanted to ’sell’ the party. So, he stated, the BNP would now use ’salable’ words such as ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’, and replace discourse about ‘racial purity’ with talk of ‘identity’. In recent years, particularly following the 7/7 terrorist atrocities, the BNP has sought to align itself with what is loosely termed the ‘anti-jihad movement’ and to shift its focus from attacking Jews and black people to opposing ‘Islamification’.
…
When it comes to Islam, the BNP hasn’t exactly had to work hard to whip up anti-Muslim bigotry and paranoia about ‘Islamification’. Looking at the scare stories on its website’s news section, a large number of them are drawn straight from mainstream media sources, and the party is being greatly assisted by the grossly disproportionate coverage given in newspapers to the outrageous statements and provocations of Anjem Choudary and his motley crew of social misfits who go under a variety of names but are essentially Al-Muhajiroun. In hysterical report after report (some of which I have documented here and here), a tiny minority of bin Ladenist fanatics and fantasists have been presented as a serious threat to our society.
The fact is, of course, that while Al-Muhajiroun is a dangerous group with many links to terrorism, it represents only the tiniest handful of Muslims in Britain, not that you would know that given the amount of time Choudary gets in the media. So, when the BNP claimed in its European election material that it would ‘ensure that British troops are not abused on the streets of our cities by Muslims’, it was in particular cynically appealing to the concerns of those who get the majority of their understanding of the world from reading simplistic and hyped up tabloid stories.
July 25, 2009
Meet Lega Nord’s “unofficial chaplain”
This is now a guest post on Harry’s Place, where you can also read more on Lorant Hegedus Jr.
A couple of months ago, I took a look at the BNP’s connections with Italian Far Right party Forza Nuova, whose thugs have intimidated Italian Protestants. Forza Nuova’s priest Giulio Tam openly embraces fascism, and conducts memorial services for Spanish Falangists in 2007, and the Italian Far Right.
Now that news comes that UKIP is forming an alliance with Italian separatist party Lega Nord, bringing in other European hard-Right parties, it’s worth taking a similar look at UKIP’s ally in Italy. Whilst this alliance is probably a “marriage of convenience”, it is nevertheless worrying that UKIP are lending legitimacy to those involved in neo-fascist politics.
One of Lega Nord’s MEPs, Mario Borghezio, has a conviction for setting fire to the belongings of immigrants who were sleeping under a bridge. Borghezio’s links to neo-fascists in France have recently been exposed in a French video documentary.
According to the Huffington Post, SSPX priest Floriano Abrahamowicz is considered the ‘unofficial chaplain’ of Lega Nord.
Who is Floriano Abrahamowicz?
In late January 2009, British Catholic SSPX priest Richard Williamson made headlines due to comments in an interview on Swedish TV playing down the numbers of Holocaust victims (Williamson estimated the real count to be between 200,000-300,000) and denying that the Nazis employed gas chambers to kill Jews.
Some days later, in an interview with Italian newspaper Tribuna de Trevise, Abrahamowicz defended his fellow SSPX member, claiming that the gas chambers were only used by the Nazis for ‘disinfection’, and complaining about the importance given to the Holocaust. The SSPX promptly dismissmed Abrahamowicz, distancing themselves from Holocaust denial.
Earlier this month however, in an interview given to Stephen Heiner, Abrahamowicz suggested that Holocaust denial is far more widespread in the SSPX than most assume. Heiner claims:
My fellow-priests agreed with all that I said in my interview with the Tribuna de Trevise. But no one imagined the media effect it would produce. So it was the very fact of publicly attacking the Jews which made my confreres and superiors tremble and then shook their friendship.
In an extreme example of the Livingstone Formulation, Williamson’s Holocaust denial was merely ‘criticising Zionist policy’, which has become the ‘new Messiah’:
Touching the new Messiah, i.e. criticising Zionist policy, is the ultimate lèse-majesté. At present the Vatican is bowing down before the Zionist reign. So the Society, by entering into friendship with Ratzinger’s Vatican ought to sacrifice to the gods… In order to avoid saying that it is forbidden to touch the new Messiah, the affair has been classified as a “historical question”, falling outside the competence of a bishop.
If true, Abrahamowicz’s claim that he has support from other SSPX priests is of some concern. Equally concerning is that UKIP has entered into an alliance with a party that considers Florian Abrahamowicz as a moral authority.
UKIP have just run a campaign in Norwich North claiming to offer an alternative to the BNP. UKIP leader Nigel Farange has said of the BNP:
“There are no circumstances, no possible situations, in which we would even consider doing any type of deal with the BNP whatsoever [...] I’m simply amazed that the BNP thought we would even consider such a thing, given that we are a non-racist, non-sectarian party.”
So, Mr. Farange, what makes Lega Nord any different?
Congratulations to HOPE Not Hate NORFOLK…
…For running an excellent campaign in Norwich North. Thank you!
July 22, 2009
More on Robert West’s campaign in Norwich North
Also posted on HOPE Not Hate NORFOLK
The constitution of Robert West’s Christian Council of Britain contains scandalous comparisons with the African slave trade. In Norwich North, where West is running for a seat, it now emerges that the BNP has apparently been lying about council housing, claiming that locals are losing out to African immigrants.
July 21, 2009
July 20, 2009
Giulio Tam leads memorial service for neofascist martyr
Note: some of the links in this article will take you to Google Translate versions of Italian web pages. This page also contains links to a Far Right site (Forza Nuova).
Forza Nuova is roughly speaking the equivalent of the BNP in Italy. As I have previously noted, Forza Nuova has links with the BNP: an alliance which casts doubt on the BNP’s claims to represent a Protestant Britain fighting Catholic Europe, given that Forza Nuova regularly preaches Far Right ultra-traditionalist Catholic theology and politics, and is notorious for violence against Protestants.
Today Milanese newspaper La Repubblica reports that Forza Nuova’s priest Giulio Tam has overseen a memorial service for Gino Lorenzi, seen by neo-fascists as a ‘martyr of partisan brutality’. You can watch Tam preaching (in Italian) here.
According to Forza Nuova, Lorenzi was crucified by Italian Communists in 1945, following the end of the Second World War. La Repubblica claimed that Forza Nuova had organised a commemoration service in order to commemorate the assassination of Lieutenant Gino Lorenzi, crucified and shot by partisans in Mignagola on the 4th May 1945, and two other officers of Mussolini’s Social Republic.
Here are some photos from the event:
However, neither Giulio Tam nor mainstream Milanese newspaper La Reppublica gave any mention of the five people whom Lorenzi had allegedly shot. According to Paci Paciana, two fascist soldiers had crossed the town of Gaiarme, when they came into contact with communist partisans. One soldier escaped; the other died. In revenge, three soldiers (one of them Lorenzi) were ordered to round up and kill six young people from Gaiarme. Lorenzi allegedly refused to listen to the town’s priest, who pleaded with him on behalf of the young people of Gaiarme.
Yet whilst Paci Paciana claims those shot were young people from the village seemingly chosen at random, and Bergamo News also reports that Lorenzi’s victims were civilians from Gaiarme, La Repubblica claims that those shot were communist partisans. Whilst it is unclear whether Lorenzi had indeed been crucified, he does not appear to be the martyr whom Forza Nuova have portrayed him as.
Thus Giulio Tam’s memorial service for Lorenzi was interrupted by anti-fascist protesters, who placed seven mannequins (one for each of Lorenzi’s victims) stained with red blood in the parking lot near where the service was taking place. Attached to the mannequins were the names of Lorenzi’s victims. You can see the photographs at the Paci Paciana website.
Here is an example:
Protesters also unfurled a banner from a crane which read “Bergamo è antifascista” ["Bergamo is anti-fascist"], whilst the song Bella Ciao was blasted out at a high volume.
Bella Ciao is a famous traditional anti-fascist Italian song, sang by the partisans:
Of course,watever the truth about Lorenzi’s death, it seems that he was clearly no saint, and Forza Nuova’s ‘commemoration services’ are designed to feed a myth about heroic soldiers of the Italian Social Republic (Nazi Germany’s puppet state in Italy) bravely fighting for Italy and a divine cause (and let’s be clear, neo-fascism should never be considered a divine cause).
Forza Nuova is currently calling for Lorenzi to be beatified, and concludes its piece on Lorenzi with this:
May our children and children’s children one day, hopefully not far away, call him a blessed martyr in a Black Shirt. It took sixty years to recognize so many blessed martyrs who died in Spain at the hands of murderous Reds! So do not despair, because the reward is His Providence and our Faith!
Closer to home, I reported yesterday that the BNP’s Christian thinktank, the Christian Council of Britain, is claiming that British people are currently experiencing a ’slavery of the mind’ which is ‘worse’ than the ‘Negro slave trade’.
The attempt to mix Christian theology with Far Right politics is a recipe for disaster, and sensible Christians will surely steer well clear of the likes of the BNP and Forza Nuova, and the toxic theology of their priests Robert West and Giulio Tam.
July 19, 2009
“I really like the Welsh BNP logo. I bet Rev West did also.”
This post also features at HOPE Not Hate, Norfolk.
A hat tip to Edmund Standing, who has helped me with much the information for this post. Edmund Standing blogs at Pro-British Anti-Extremist, and has just written a report for the Centre for Social Cohesion entitled ‘The BNP and the Online Fascist Network.’
The BNP’s very own “reverend” Robert West recently addressed the Swansea branch of the BNP. This video is featured on the Green Arrow blog, run by BNP activist Paul Morris, who also promotes antisemitic material. Morris comments:
“I really like the Welsh BNP Logo. I bet the Reverend West did also.”
The BNP Wales use a celtic cross as a symbol; a symbol often used by neo-fascists.
You can see it here:
What is curious about the BNP is, although they are essentially a fascist party, they have attempted to use Christian identity politics and racial versions of Christian theology in an attempt to win Christian votes. For more on this phenomenon, you can read this compilation of anti-fascist articles about BNP Christianity.
Here is Rev West addressing the Wales BNP:
West cites Genesis 10 and Acts 17 as proof that ‘each race has its own space’. Genesis 10 is a rather self-defeating passage for Rev West, as it claims all ‘races’ are descended from Noah, and thus all have a common ancestry. D’oh! Acts 17 describes Paul and Silas visiting a multi-cultural Athens, Berea and Thessalonica and speaking with Jews, Greeks and foreigners.
Whilst West uses this to support his anti-immigration views, what is interesting to note here is that West he completely sidesteps the question of race (perhaps the elephant in the room for those who believe in Welsh/Celtic racial supremacy). Morris, meanwhile, waxes lyrical about the ‘Welsh Resistance’ Youtube channel:
Currently its library of videos is rather small but I am assured that it will soon be bursting at the seams as the site owners move old footage into its new home.
Can I ask that all patriotic Youtube activists subscribe to this channel and establish links with their people to ensure you maximise our viewing base in order to promote the cause of the British National Party.
As usual, can I request you to go here, rate and leave a comment for our Youtube activists.
Amongst the friends of Welsh Resistance, we find pembrokeshiresspark, who thinks ‘Nick Griffin is God and Simon Darby is Jesus.’ She informs us that she is a Christian, and tags the above video of Robert West as a Youtube favourite. Yet is this the kind of Christian whom West is proud to count as a supporter?
Rev West was recently challenged about his interpretation of Christianity, given that Jesus was Jewish:
At the end of the clip, you will notice he makes reference to the constitution of the Christian Council of Britain. There’s plenty to say about the constitution, but one point particularly grates:
Though the significant differences between the two ‘isms’ of Islam and ‘Political Correctness’ were recognised it was noted that both alike oppose: true Christianity, the rule of law, a genuine and conserving liberalism in a true democracy; and the proper concept of free Nations and of the open and liberal societies nurtured therein and thereby. It was particularly borne in mind that, in the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the Negro slave trade within the British Empire, a worse form of slavery (of the mind) should not be imposed upon the peoples who had withstood absolutism and totalitarianism in their history, both at home and abroad. The Christian Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland therefore resolved not to regard our inalienable freedoms and rights as negotiable; but rather to be preserved, conserved and held-in-trust for our progeny, and for all peoples.
These words are shocking and disturbing for black Britons, and other Britons utterly appalled by the slave trade and ashamed of this aspect of British history. Yet they are also an insult to British Christians, of whom none other than William Wilberforce is one of the most famous:
Rev West surely owes the people of Britain an apology.
