In August 2024, the UK was engulfed in widespread unrest following anti-Muslim rallies. The protests were sparked by disinformation about the identity of the killer who had stabbed children in the town of Southport. Far-right accounts spread messages on social media claiming the attacker was Muslim. The simple but effective tactic enraged supporters of the UK's far-right political forces, whose ideology includes promoting a negative image of Islam.
We are talking about such political parties as For Britain and Britain First. Although the first one ceased to exist in 2022, the second one is relatively young: it was officially registered in 2021. However, the riots of August 2024 and their causes showed that there is a real threat from anti-Muslim “constructions” erected by far-right politicians. This is especially obvious in the context of the programmatic documents of such parties.
“Our politicians and media would have us believe that migrants staying in hotels at taxpayers’ expense are refugees fleeing for their lives” – a For Britain party statement links the issue of migration with Islamic doctrine, which is “completely incompatible with freedom”. “Child marriage, ‘honor killings’, domestic violence, rape, and the abuse of women are common throughout the Islamic world, and Sharia law tolerates many of these abuses,” reads another.
Such statements often ignore the fact that poverty, wars, low living standards – the consequences of Western colonial policies – cause greater harm to Muslim women. So, “For Britain” has outlived its usefulness. What ideas does the political program of the “Britain First” party convey? Details of the documents are revealed in the study by Russian scholar Mikhail Golovin “Securitization of Islam in the Discourse of British Right-Wing Radical Parties”.
“… How likely is it that immigrants <…> will be able to integrate <…> into our British way of life?” the party members ask. At the same time, Sadiq Khan, who was born into a working-class family of immigrants from Pakistan, has been mayor of London for the third term in a row. However, the ideologists of the Britain First party perceive the current circumstances as genocide of the indigenous people, and skillfully operate with facts: “… Christians will become a minority in Britain under the current demographic trajectory.” According to experts, by 2050 the share of white Britons will decrease by 10%, and the Muslim population will almost triple: from 6% to 17%.
“If we do not revive Christianity as the central foundation of our national life, we will continue to sink and degenerate as a society, and sooner or later this decline will be irreversible” - it is difficult to argue with this position of the ideology of the Britain First party. Traditional religions contain a huge potential for the spiritual development of humanity. It is depressing that party members seek to renew society only for its individual representatives, to the detriment of the followers of other faiths.
“Introduce a ban on the use of non-stunning religious slaughter rituals…”; “Replace the ‘multi-faith’ religious education curriculum with a new approach that is predominantly Christian” – these aspects of the Britain First party’s policy are worrying. The UK’s far right is not successful at elections but its existence highlights the contradictions in British society. The conflict between Christianity and Islam in the UK, which should have no place in the modern world, could flare up with unexpected force. This was vividly demonstrated by the events of August 2024, when the spark was an outright lie.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Benjamin Davies/Unsplash