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The Daily Mail, Michael Adebolajo, the BNP & Harrow Mosque

Arthur | 31.05.2013 11:23 | Anti-racism | Social Struggles | London

The Daily Mail newspaper says "Hurrah for the Blackshirts"

Daily Mail owner Viscount Rothermere meets Adolf Hitler

Daily Mail incites readers to support French NF leader

Nick Griffin's visit to Libya reported in NF News

Stormfront posts confirm Nazi presence against Harrow Mosque

Conveniently ignoring embarrassing facts like the long-term pattern of Daily Mail support for far-right politics, and BNP chairman Nick Griffin's famous support for Libyan terrorist Colonel Gaddafi etc, the Daily Mail, ITV and BNP are misrepresenting the presence of Michael Adebolajo at a counter-protest to defend Harrow Mosque in 2009 (a counter-protest which was in fact also supported by Tory councillors).

1. The Daily Mail & Fascism

The facts, in context, are that in January 1934 the Daily Mail owner Viscount Rothermere wrote and put his name to a full-page article crying "Hurrah!" for Sir Oswald Mosley's traitorous "Blackshirts" - the British Union of Fascists, while as recently as April 2012 the Daily Mail called on its 100 million on-line readers to support Fascist leader Marine Le Pen, and in July 2012 the Daily Mail praised the Nazi slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei", which was emblazoned across the gates of Nazi death camps (see links).

Viscount Rothermere supported the Nazis during the 1930s, believing Hitler's regime would restore the German monarchy, and Rothermere met with and was photographed with Adolf Hitler. In the Daily Mail editorial of 10 July 1933, Rothermere wrote: "I urge all British young men and women to study closely the progress of the Nazi regime in Germany. They must not be misled by the misrepresentations of its opponents. The most spiteful distracters of the Nazis are to be found in precisely the same sections of the British public and press as are most vehement in their praises of the Soviet regime in Russia. They have started a clamorous campaign of denunciation against what they call "Nazi atrocities" which, as anyone who visits Germany quickly discovers for himself, consists merely of a few isolated acts of violence such as are inevitable among a nation half as big again as ours, but which have been generalized, multiplied and exaggerated to give the impression that Nazi rule is a bloodthirsty tyranny." On 7 Dec 1933, Adolf Hitler wrote to personally thank Viscount Rothermere, stating: "I should like to express the appreciation of countless Germans, who regard me as their spokesman, for the wise and beneficial public support which you have given to a policy that we all hope will contribute to the enduring pacification of Europe".

2. Nick Griffin supported Col Gaddafi & planned "to work with the Muslims"

On 29 May 2013 the ITV website claimed to show "footage of Woolwich suspect leading (sic) protest" - linking to a video of Lee Rigby's killer, the knife-criminal and murderer Michael Adebolajo "speaking at a demonstration at Harrow Central Mosque". The BNP website seized on the ITV report as "proving (sic) the link between Islamic extremism and the far-left", despite the fact that when BNP chairman Nick Griffin was leader of the NF, Nick Griffin supported Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi, who sponsored the murder of 270 innocent people in the Lockerbie terror bombing, and despite Nick Griffin confirming on camera that the far-right "intend to work with the Muslims"! A Daily Mail article of May 29 said the same video shows Adebolajo "encouraging 1,500 followers (sic) to turn against Britain in a hate-filled rant", and that Daily Mail article has been heavily promoted by far-right groups, including by EDL splinter-group Casuals United, which is (ironically) led by ex-convict and convicted knife-criminal Jeff Marsh.

3. Tory support for the Harrow Mosque counter-protest...

The background to this controversy is that after an earlier demo against the mosque in Harrow (in north west London) had been called (by BNP list member and EDL activist Bill Baker) and then cancelled, a 2nd demo against Harrow Mosque was re-scheduled by Stephen Gash of the group SIOE (Stop Islamisation of Europe), who'd previously been shown on TV acting as a spokesman for the EDL. A counter-protest was convened to defend Harrow Mosque, on grounds of previous EDL violence and EDL links to racist thugs. The facts that neither the Daily Mail, ITV nor BNP report are first that Michael Adebolajo's repulsive speech was entirely unofficial, impromptu and self-initiated - at no time was this moron "leading" the counter-protest; second that while 1,500 people (from all different ethnicities and political and religious backgrounds) did join the counter-protest, the "followers" who grouped around Adebolajo numbered no more than 20 or 30; third that the counter-protest's supporters were SO diverse they included TORY councillors.

The Daily Mail also claimed that "moments after his speech... some of the crowd hurled bricks and fireworks at the police", without, some more factual inaccuracies notwithstanding, bothering to mention that while police behaviour on the day was mostly commendable, only a tiny number of people threw missiles, and anger at the police had been provoked by the police (rightly or wrongly) protecting a group of far-right thugs who chanted "EDL" and gave Nazi salutes (and to prove the point, Nazis discussed their presence at Harrow on the KKK-founded web forum Stormfront, confirming attendance by thugs from a Nazi group called the British Movement - see image).

As for Michael Adebolajo, far from being linked to left-wing politics, in fact Adebolajo is a follower of the far-right group Al-Muhajiroun - a splinter of Hizb-ut Tahrir, a group founded by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, who was a follower of Haj Amin al-Husseini - who was Arab language broadcaster for Rothermere's ally Adolf Hitler and a recruiter for Hitler's SS. Finally, while it is shocking that Michael Adebolajo attended the Harrow event, to put this in perspective, the same protest was also supported by Conservative councillor Jeremy Zeid! Councillor Zeid used the counter-protest to tell a TV news crew that a rumour Harrow Mosque might be used to host Sharia courts was "a non-issue", and that (in his opinion) "no-one has a problem with a Sharia panel", in the same way that "with my own religion, in Judaism, we have a Beth-Din, which means a house of the law" (thereby contradicting the assumptions that have been made about this counter-protest by the some media and by far-right groups). Councillor Zeid said that "there are people just trying to stir it up" - and that includes far-right scum like Michael Adebolajo and his counterparts in white Fascism, and includes sections of the tabloid press.

Tory councillor supporting Harrow mosque counter-protest -