One tweeted about "white genocide"
A pro-Brexit rally tonight features several speakers who have been accused of Islamophobia and other forms of racism.
The Bow Group’s ‘Brexit betrayal’ rally will be addressed by Catherine Blaiklock, Raheem Kassam and David Kurten.
Catherine Blaiklock recently resigned as the leader of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party after tweets were uncovered where she referred to “white genocide” and said “Islam = submission – mostly to raping men it seems”.
These tweets were uncovered by researchers from Hope Not Hate who found an old twitter account of hers which she had deleted upon becoming the Brexit Party’s leader.
On resigning, she described these tweets as “out-of-character comments that I made on social media some time ago” and said they “were unacceptable in tone and content”.
Other recent statements by Blaiklock on muslims have also been controversial though.
In September 2018, she questioned how a large mosque was being financed, saying:
“You have to question where such a small community gets £1.5m of donations from. It takes a lot of Bangladeshi takeaways dishes at £1 profit a time to raise and save these sort of amounts.”
She also said that she was uncomfortable when a woman in a burka delivered her a takeaway and she defended a Conservative councillor suspended from the party for islamophobia.
The Brexit Party was started by Nigel Farage after he criticised new UKIP leader Gerard Batten’s “obsession” with Islam after ‘Tommy Robinson’ was made an adviser. Farage himself has also been accused of Islamophobia.
Farage’s former chief adviser Raheem Kassam will also be speaking at tonight’s rally.
Kassam has described Islam as a “fascistic and totalitarian ideology”, spoke at a ‘free Tommy Robinson protest’ and defended Robinson’s threat to bring the “full force” of the EDL onto British Muslims.
Formerly the editor of Breitbart News, Kassam is now described by Hope not Hate as former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s “sidekick”.
Another speaker is UKIP London Assembly member David Kurten. In June 2018, he welcomed far-right social media stars Paul Joseph Watson, ‘Count Dankula’ and ‘Sargon of Akkad’ to UKIP.
In April 2018, Count Dankula was fined £800 after getting his dog to do a nazi salute in response to ‘sieg heil’ and ‘gas the jews’.
‘Sargon of Akkad’ said in a rant that his opponents were “acting like n*****s” and said “white people are supposed to be polite and respectful to one another”.
Another speaker is Sunday Telegraph columnist Janet Daley. In 1991, she was criticised by Sir Ian Mckellen and others after arguing the homosexual and heterosexual ages of consent should not be equalised.
Daley said lowering the homosexual age of consent meant teenage boys could be “initiated” into a homosexual “lifestyle”.
The Bow Group describes itself as the UK’s oldest conservative think-tank. No information on its funders is displayed on its website.
The group’s patrons include Norman Tebbitt, Norman Lamont, John Redwood, Ann Widdecombe, Roger Scruton and David Starkey.
The Bow Group is part of the ‘Brexit Advance Coalition’ along with British Friends of Trump, the Bow Group and others.
Last week, a Tory MP told a Bruges Group Brexit rally that conservatives are “battling cultural marxism”.
Suella Braverman’s use of this term was criticised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews – who said it had history as an antisemitic trope and asked her not to use it again. She has refused to apologise.
Joe Lo is a freelance journalist and a reporter for Left Foot Forward.
6 Responses to “Pro-Brexit rally features several speakers accused of racism”
Simon
The comments by the Bow Group membership look quite reasonable. Not everything you disagree with is “far right” you fucking communists.
ally
Well Simon, thats told them!
Tom
Thank you for doing this research and highlighting this, Joe! It’s important that the racism of the Brexit lobby, Farage’s party, UKIP and other individuals is called out and recognised as unacceptable and fascistic. Despite what ‘Simon’ says in the comments, decent people will not view these comments as ‘quite reasonable!’ Now, more than ever, I applaud journalists who expose racism and the Far Right. Well done and thanks!
Elvis
@Simon
Well, that’s exactly what a racist would say…
Patrick Newman
The focus on Labour and anti-Semitism has allowed the bigger problem of Islamophobia to not receive the attention it deserves – both in the Tory Party and beyond in wider society.