far-right

Far right banned from the police

Julien — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:13:59 +0100

A British policeman has been suspended from duty after his name appeared on a leaked list of members of the far-right British National Party (BNP). He was on a list of 13,000 names published on the internet, complete with addresses and telephone numbers. British police officers and prison guards are banned from being members of the BNP under race relations legislation.

A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "The BNP is an organisation whose aims obviously contradict the police officer's duty to promote racial equality. Police officers cannot do anything that calls into question their impartiality, especially in the issue of race."

The BNP had decried the publication of the membership list, thought to have been made by a disgruntled ex-party member, saying it will expose its members to persecution. Various members of French and British far-right groups - and their opponents - talk to us about the divisive issue.

Fitna is just a really bad film

Julien — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:50:52 +0100

A few months ago we announced that Dutch politician Geert Wilders was preparing an anti-Islamic film that would "add fuel to the fire". Yesterday, the long awaited video made its debut online. We ask our Observers what effects it might have in their countries, from Holland to Pakistan. After all the fuss, maybe not that much.

The film was supposed to be released on a specially created website, but the American company Network Solutions, which manages domain names worldwide, refused to allow Wilders to use Fitnathemovie.com. So the rightwing party leader decided to use the viral method instead. The film was released at 7pm last night on several internet platforms. "Non-censored" video sharing site LiveLeak was the first to host it, followed by Google Video. Rightwing blogs then posted the URLs so that people could find it. Wilders knew to use peer to peer networks (Kazaa, eMule etc) so that the video was soon all over the Internet in various formats. His was a clever move, as such networks are notoriously difficult to censor. In just three hours, the film had been watched more than a million times on LiveLeak alone, and three million by the following afternoon, which probably makes it one of the fastest selling videos on the net.

A film to fuel the fire

Julien — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:29:10 +0100

An image of the Koran taken from the film. The text says: “Warning: this book contains shocking images”. Published 26 Jan. 08 by De Telegraaf

Article compiled with the help of our Observer in Holland, Carl Konigel.

This Friday the Pakistani authorities ordered a countrywide block on YouTube. According to an official quoted by AP, this radical measure was put in place to stop anyone from seeing the trailer of Geert Wilders' new film. However, not one shot of the film is available on YouTube. Only Dutch daily De Telegraaf has received the images, and they have so far only published a few screenshots on their site. So, despite no one having yet seen the film, every one from Holland to Pakistan is dreading it and the fuel it will add to an already-raging fire.

Holocaust denier's Oxford talk sparks debate online

Julien — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:04:00 +0100

Material compiled by Team Observers

Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP), was invited to speak at the venerable Oxford Union debating society on Monday, Nov. 26, sparking protests and heated debates across the country. Almost a thousand students turned up to demonstrate against the politician. A group of around 50 managed to break into the building where the debate was to take place and staged a sit-down protest for over an hour. Outside, the crowds chanted, "BNP – off the streets" and "Nazi scum - go home". Griffin was invited along with the controversial historian David Irving, who was imprisoned in Austria for denying the Holocaust. The event has fuelled debate in the UK, which has seen the popularity of the far-right rise since the 2005 London bombings. You can post questions about the issue to our observer David Berry, university lecturer in ethical issues surrounding free speech.