Barking: 'Muslims Against Crusades' Incite Anger

Looking like a group of extras who have walked off of the set of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, a bunch of Muslims naming themselves Muslims Against Crusades today turned up in Barking to hurl insults at soldiers from the Royal Anglian Regiment as they marched through the borough in a homecoming parade. Their aim of course was to arouse the ire of the British public, and this they succeeded in doing. They had already offered a primer in souring the public mood through their recent fly-posting of posters promoting their demonstration on a local war memorial.

Some EDL members were on hand to shower the protesters with beer and unflattering epithets. The bearded black-flag wavers then scurried away to seek police protection which was promptly provided. It was just such a protest in Luton last year that precipitated the formation of the EDL, and although once again the number of simian-brained Islamists was comparatively small in number (circa 40), the anti-British Islamo-supremacist sentiments to which they give voice are all too widespread amongst concentrations of Muslim population in the UK.

Is this a race issue? No, of course not. Is Communism a race? No. Is Nazism a race? No. Is Christianity a race? No. Is Islam a race? No. Moreover, you can see amongst the protesters one of the worst kinds of Islamic extremist: the indigenous convert (ginger beard) who freely chose to reject his country and civilisation. Islam is a particularly unpleasant ideology which should be no more immune to criticism than any other.

Unsurprisingly, the London Evening Post described the EDL and other unnamed groups who opposed the protest as ‘far-right’ (sic). Then again, the journalist who composed the piece is named Rashid Razaq, so you would hardly expect such a man to be objective would you? Typically, his piece was accompanied by the photograph below which shows some angry white people, rather than the other pictures which I have borrowed from the Shield Wall blog. Razaq’s piece of course sought to portray the protesters and the counter-protesters as being morally equivalent in their respective ‘extremisms’. To whom did he accord the last word in his piece? Any guesses? Here it is:

Muslim councillor Manzour Hussain said: “Muslims Against Crusades do not represent the vast majority of law abiding, peaceful Muslim members of our society who respect Britain's armed forces. They certainly do not represent the views of the Muslim community of Barking and Dagenham.”

That’s right, they never do represent Muslims or Islam do they? Just as Mohammed’s slaving, genocide, torture, rape and paedophilia don’t inform Islam (so they tell us, although they never actually deny that these things took place), even though all Muslims state that he is the paragon of all humanity and for eternity beyond any criticism. The truth is this: those Muslims who practise their faith and actually believe in it, rather than those unfortunates who happen to have been born into it and are not permitted either to leave it or refute it, tell us whatever is expedient to further their agenda. Granted, Muslims Against Crusades don’t represent “law abiding, peaceful Muslim[s]”, but they do represent those who subscribe to the words of the Qur’an and the deeds of Mohammed.

Video Footage of Demonstrators (courtesy of The Iconoclast, New English Review)

Other BNP Target Seats to Watch: Dagenham and Rainham, Stoke-on-Trent South and Barnsley Central

Well, time and tide wait for no man and I’ve only made it to outlining the BNP’s prospects in what I consider to be eight of its top ten seats rather than the whole lot. Still, an analysis of prospects in Morley in Outwood was also added to the mix. So, in which other seats should we expect a strong BNP showing?

Dagenham and Rainham
So, starting with the final two of my unfinished top ten we come to Dagenham and Rainham with odds from Paddypower.com of 33/1 on the BNP winning the seat. If it does, I’ll probably have a coronary, but we should see a healthy poll for the party here. It is a new constituency so there’s nothing to go on by way of direct comparison with 2005 and I have no time to trawl through ward-level stats to gain an indicator of possible BNP support. Still, this is where the BNP have chosen to field Michael Barnbrook, brother of BNP London Assembly member Richard. Labour BNP-baiter Jon Cruddas looks likely to be the favourite, but as this is East London the BNP should do pretty well. At an absolute minimum it should be looking at 5% of the vote as an absolute minimum, but 10-15% and a third place or above would in my opinion constitute a decent showing. UKIP are also contesting Dagenham and Rainham.

Stoke-on-Trent South
BNP campaigning in Stoke-on-Trent has according to Simon Darby's blog been going well, and besides anticipating a strong vote for Simon Darby himself in Stoke-on-Trent Central we should see fellow party member Michael Coleman increase the party’s share of the vote. The BNP stood here in 1997, 2001 and 2005, increasing their total number of votes and vote share on each occasion as follows: 1.2% (568); 3.8% (1,358) and 8.7% (3,305). A share of 12% or above would be a respectable result. It’s a solid Labour seat and is likely to remain in that party’s hands. As in Dagenham and Rainham, the BNP will also be vying with UKIP for the Eurosceptic nationalist vote.

Barnsley Central
The BNP have enjoyed rapid growth in the South Yorkshire borough of Barnsley in recent years, and it’ll be well worth watching their performance here. Unlike in many of West Yorkshire’s towns and cities, Barnsley has pretty much escaped Islamic colonisation, but the locals are all aware of the fate that has befallen other Yorkshire towns such as Keighley, Halifax and Dewsbury and are keen not to have that experience repeat itself on their patch. Barnsley Central was first contested by the BNP in 2005 when they won 4.9% (1,403 votes) of the poll, but in the local elections of 2008 they polled very strongly and took second and third place in a number of wards. Barnsley Central is comprised of 8 wards, but in 2008 only half of these held elections. Nonetheless, the results in these four point to a likely significant increase in both the overall number of votes captured by the BNP today as well as a greater vote share: Central – 621 (3rd place); Cudworth – 650 (2nd place); Monk Bretton – 668 (2nd place) and Royston – 392 (3rd place). This gives a total of 2,331 from half of the constituency’s wards.

A reasonable result for BNP candidate Ian Sutton would therefore be 4,000 votes and upwards with a 14%+ share of the vote. This is solid Labour territory, but is certainly a seat in which the BNP stand an excellent chance of muscling the Conservatives into fourth place, for the latter polled only a little over 13% at the last two parliamentary elections and less than 10% in 1997. The Liberal Democrats have been only marginally more popular than the Tories, so there is an outside chance that we could see Ian Sutton taking second place. UKIP are likely to come last in fifth place.