Fabulous.

You write a post talking about the need for communities such as Nelson to weed out both Islamic terrorists and BNP supporters and you get linked to by a bunch of nazi white supremacists.

Subsequently, I’ve taken the thing down.

How they saw my call for decent muslims and whites to stand against both Islamic fascism and BNP fascism as some sort of rallying cry is simply beyond me.

Either they are being naughty and twisting my argument or they’re a bit thick.

I’ll let you decide:


If London is currently viewed as the new frontline in our war against terror, then the Pennine cotton spine could be seen as the new battleground.

Leeds is only an quick hour away from Butler Sheetmetal HQ in Colne. Its surrounding areas aren’t dissimilar to the ones you’ll find round Burnley, Nelson, Colne or any other town in the North which suffers similar problems. If anything, Colne’s immediate neighbours could be classed as infinitely worse.

We’ve been tarred with the BNP brush for some time now, but to suddenly think that you’re a fertile breeding ground for terrorists is another thing entirely.

The fear of a backlash is real says the BBC, but they still manage to put it into context:

Shahid Malik, one of Labour’s Muslim MPs and probably the best placed among them by virtue of age to gauge the mood of younger generations, has said before there is a sense of double standards and injustice among some, particularly over foreign policy towards the Palestinians.

But he also says quite frankly there is a nervous reluctance among Muslim communities to admit extremism exists – much in the same way many white people cannot confront racism.

Shahid Malik is the son of the ex-Mayor of Burnley and was one of the prominent community leaders seen during the Burnley riots.

If I’m being frank, the Burnley area is despicably racist, which is borne out by the increase in support of the BNP. But, it cuts both ways. There is hardly anyone in Nelson who can’t tell you five anecdotes relating to Asian gangs abusing and attacking people as they see fit.

The chicken and the egg argument of causality is no longer relevant and is nothing but opportunistic apologising for terrorism or racism. Let’s forget about who started what and concentrate on how we stop it.

And is this the kind of social deprivation and disenfranchisement that fuels suicide bombers?

IF EVER there were model immigrants, they were the Tanweers. The close-knit family, originally from Pakistan, had made a good life in Britain, running their fish and chip shop and living in a large detached house in the Beeston area of Leeds, with two Mercedes cars parked outside.

Or is it just a case of teenage rebellion?

One leading analyst of the Islamic diaspora even compares the lure of extremist Islam to 1950s teens listening to Elvis in an attempt to shock their parents. “The son of a Pentecostal preacher in Brixton was recruited by the radical Muslims,” says Nadhim Shehadi, acting head of the Middle East program at Chatham House.

“This young man initially tried to upset his parents by becoming a rapper,” says Shehadi. “But when his parents stopped objecting, he became a jihadi instead.”

The antiestablishment nature of this new Islam and its apparent status as an alternative to capitalism and secularism is also winning converts among native Britons.

Getting pissed and staying out too late, or becoming a goth and slying the odd fag is teenage rebellion, not going to London and blowing yourself up.

The Government has to act and act quickly, but so do the townsfolk of places like Colne.

We need our communties to be free from BNP racists, Islamic extremists and their apologists. We should ban the BNP and root out the lunatics without fear of upsetting the apologists.

This also requires the members of both white and Asian communities to stand up together and reject their own respective cancers without fear of repercussions. But, we need the Government to lead with legislation that both communities feel address their concerns.

Yes, it’ll be draconian.

Yes, our civil liberties might come into question.

But, there is no excuse for communities harbouring and cultivating terrorists or racists. There is no excuse for communities turning a blind eye to racism or terrorism. And there is no excuse for apologising for either.

The lid was viciously ripped off this can of worms as soon as we found out it was homegrown terror that ripped the lid off the bus in Tavistock Square.

The argument that killing innocent civilians in Iraq fuels terrorism can be applied to the BNP in very ordinary communities such as Colne.

It is the excuse they’ve been looking for, but an excuse we cannot let them feed on.

However, there is one thing that neither the racists nor the terrorists want; and that is for ordinary civilians of all types to unite together and eradicate their enemies within.

If we do, we can then stand proudly as a true beacon of integrated multiculturalism.

If we don’t, we’re in trouble.