Rod Liddle’s facebook friends include a British National Party supporter, Barry Rogers, whose profile picture is a BNP general election banner.

Last night Rod Liddle joined the facebook group , “If Rod Liddle becomes editor of The Independent, I will not buy it again” and posted two messages:

Proud to be your latest member. Can I just point out that your letter to Mr Lebedev is defamatory, in quite a big way? I think I ought to warn you about that.
Also, Craig – learn to spell, you idiot.
And Samantha – I did not go far enough on cats.

Actually, looking at some of the posts here, there is an awful lot which is defamatory, not least “climate change denier” (I’m not) and “racist” (I’m not.) I may be appalling, unfit the breathe the same air as the rest of you, but I’m not those things.
Just thought I ought to point that out.

Sunny Hundal outlines on Liberal Conspiracy why none of the claims are defamatory and says:

“In his columns he styles himself as a defender of free speech, but when it concerns himself Rod Liddle is happy with making legal threats to shut down debate on his past writings.”

The facebook group has now exceeded its £500 target for an advert in the Independent and is looking to raise £1,000.

Hat-tip: Mohamed Ansar

The controversy over David Cameron’s alliance with Michal Kaminski re-ignited today following an interview in which the Tory leader once again defended the Polish extremist and centre-Right European leaders pledged their support to Gordon Brown.

In an interview with Johann Hari in the Independent, Cameron deployed his usual tactics of denial, evasiveness and anger when questioned about Kaminski, as he’s done every time he’s been confronted with the evidence of Kaminski and his party’s extremism.

Just like his response to Left Foot Forward when asked the same question last month, it appears political expediency trumps conviction, that pacifying the Eurosceptics in his party by signing up to Kaminski’s vision of Europe is all that matters – even at the expense of his own self-styled “liberal, nice, new Tory” credentials.

As Hari points out, the evidence shows that his claim that Kaminski is “not a homophobe” is “wrong – and shockingly so”. Cameron told Left Foot Forward that he “wouldn’t join up with parties that were racist, homophobic or extremist in any way”; he tells Hari that he’s “not allied with parties that have views on homophobia or racism that I think are unacceptable” and on and on…

Hari concludes:

“There are flickers of apparently real pro-gay feeling, but they are soon followed by excuse-making for some of the most anti-gay politicians in Europe. Which is the real Cameron? On this issue, I suspect even he doesn’t know.”

There was further evidence of Cameron’s isolation in Europe this morning with news that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor – both former allies of the Conservatives – will visit Gordon Brown for high-profile talks before the election, seen as “tacit support” of his re-election campaign.

The Prime Minister will also be given a central role at a special committee to discuss the economy in Brussels next Thursday, and the Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero – who has already given public backing to Brown – will visit London for the Progressive Governance Conference later this month, which Left Foot Forward will report from.

Johann Hari’s interview with David Cameron exposed the Conservative leader misremembering his own votes against gay rights. But LGBT Labour have outlined that it is not the first time that he has forgotten which way he voted.

In the Independent, Hari writes:

“I start to go over his record beyond Section 28 – and slap into a brick wall. In 2002 he voted against allowing gay couples to adopt. Yet when I ask him why, he flatly denies it. He says: “No… we were three-line-whipped on that vote and I abstained on it.” I point him to Hansard, which records his vote against gay marriage in cold, black ink. He says “my memory” is that he abstained, and that he now thinks “the ideal adoption is finding a mum and a dad, but there will be occasions when gay couples make very good adoptive parents. So I support gay adoption.”

But LGBT Labour point out a similar exchange with Sky’s Adam Boulton in November 2005:

David Cameron: I abstained on a three line whip which was …

Adam Boulton: You voted against it twice.

David Cameron: I abstained on the three line whip, Adam. I haven’t been through Hansard.

(Sky News, 24/11/05)

Cameron also used the interview to say:

“I’m not allied with parties that have views on homophobia or racism that I think are unacceptable.”

As this blog outlined last month, Cameron’s Polish partners are planning a clampdown on gay websites, with one leading MP claiming they would “monitor homosexual websites because we are dealing with the promotion of the so called ‘positive paedophilia’.” Hari details other developments:

“A few days before we met, the MPs of this “not homophobic” Law and Justice Party demanded a crackdown on what they called “positive paedophilia by some homosexual circles.” Their senior MP, Stanislaw Pieta, said: “I’m not saying every gay is a paedophile, but in Britain 43 per cent of paedophiles are gay and they only make up 1 per cent of the population.” Their leader, Lech Kaczynski, says “the human race would disappear if homosexuality was freely promoted.” There are hundreds of such statements from the party, all on video.”

The Pink Paper picks up on Cameron’s view that no new gay rights are needed. The Liberal Democrats recently set out a series of proposals to enhance gay rights.

Last Saturday hundreds of Muslim civic and community leaders joined together during a public meeting in Birmingham to discuss the growing spate of unchallenged hatred and bigotry flourishing against British Muslims in our country. It took place on the same day that more than 1,500 supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) rioted in Stoke-On-Trent against the so called “Islamification of Europe”.

No less than six police officers were hurt and five police vehicles damaged as groups broke through police cordons, yet the story was hardly anywhere to be seen in our mainstream media. One wonders what the public, police and political reaction would have been if it was the other way round, if it was Muslims rioting and on a rampage.

There are growing levels of unchallenged attacks on British Muslims in many forms, with the fury continuing to mount. There have been cases of Mosques being vandalised, Muslim students being stabbed on university campuses and general anti-Muslim bigotry spiralling out of control without any rebuff.

Last week in Leeds, a bus driver was arrested after he allegedly called a female passenger a Muslim terrorist and asked her if she had put a bomb on his bus.

In Manchester, bereaved relatives have been forced to erect CCTV cameras at a cemetery after a series of attacks on Muslim graves, while on Boxing Day last year, a mosque in the West Midlands was burned to the ground by arsonists for the second time; these are just some examples of the overt attacks taking place against Muslims.

All over Europe, the far-right have come to realise that in today’s world, attacks on immigrants, blacks or Jews are no longer acceptable if they are to capture a mainstream following. Rather, it is much easier to target Muslims. The BNP’s Nick Griffin, who described Islam as a “wicked and vicious faith”, is already on the record as saying:

“Bang on about Islam … because to the ordinary public out there it’s the thing they can understand. It’s the thing the newspaper editors sell newspapers with.”

At a time when some of our journalists often embark on a battle between who can write the darker tale about Islam or Muslim life, the media coupled with a lack of political will and direction have created a situation where attacks on Muslims, overt and covert, have sadly become acceptable.

In July 2008 Peter Oborne illustrated how anti-Muslim sentiments had achieved a level of respectability in Britain that no other form of prejudice enjoyed. He wrote:

“While overt racism and anti-Semitism were unacceptable in modern society: the systematic demonization of Muslims has simply become an important part of the central narrative of the British Political class; it is so entrenched, so much part of normal discussion, that almost nobody notices.”

Findings from a recent survey conducted by the British Social Attitudes Survey show that the public are far more opposed to Islam than to any other faith. Such views flourish because little is made or shown of the other side. In a recent survey conducted by the Open Institute Society, British Muslims were found to be the most patriotic in Europe.

Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Muslim charities based in the UK immediately pledged to raise more than two million pounds in emergency relief while Muslim students raised more than £300,000 through ‘Charity Week’ at universities across the country for orphans around the world. But you will of course never hear stories of this sort. Because they bluntly do not fit the mainstream stereotype of a Muslim.

The overwhelming feelings at the public meeting called by the Muslim Council of Britain was one of frustration and anger that anti-Muslim sentiments and attacks were not being adequately addressed by both the police and our political class. Enough is enough; we must act.

The usual suspects will of course accuse us of playing the ‘victim’ card, but British Muslims call not for special treatment, but equal treatment. Just like any other community, we call for a concerted effort to challenge extremism of any form which concentrates itself against minorities in a bid to create divisions to the detriment of our society and our country.

Bigotry, hatred and attacks against British Muslims are nothing new. But its unchallenged growth in our country can no longer be ignored. The half-hearted response by the government to this growing phenomenon has been far from adequate to date. The phase for window dressing is over. Now is the time to act.

What is urgently needed is clear leadership from both our police and the government in policy directions in dealing with Islamophobia in all its forms.

In 2005, in response to growing levels of anti-Semitism, a Parliamentary Committee was established to combat the threat. Likewise, at a time when British Muslims are now the new target for hatred and attacks, it is high time a dedicated committee is now set up to investigate Islamophobia in our country.

At a time when we join hands together in remembering the evils of the Nazi Holocaust, it would be most fitting to leave Carly Whyborn of the HMD Trust with the final say who, on Holocaust Memorial Day, referring to the treatment of minorities in Britain, said:

“We can pause to look at how we treat those around us. We can all make the choice to challenge exclusion when we see it happening – we can choose to stop using language that dehumanises others and we can stop our friends and family from dehumanising and excluding others.”

Our guest writer is Kawsar Zaman, law student at the LSE

BNP leader Nick Griffin will join Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis, holocaust deniers, anti-immigration extremists and eugenicists at the white supremacist American Renaissance conference in Virginia next month.

The convicted racist will appear alongside Dan Roodt, author of “Afrikaner Survival Under Black Rule”, David A. Yeagley, author of “What’s Up With Dark Men?”, lawyer to white supremacist groups Sam G Dickson, segregationist Jared Taylor – who believes Martin Luther King “left a legacy of division and resentment” – Raymond Wolters, a ’scientist’ who wishes to conduct experiments into race and IQ, and racist filmmaker Craig Bodeker.

American Resistance, a newsletter published by Taylor, promotes pseudoscientific research which argues that non-whites are genetically and morally inferior; their conference seeks to bring together various right-wing racist people and ideas. Infoshop News adds that:

“The Anti-Defamation League writes that AmRen, “promotes their views by attacking racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, which they call ‘one of the most divisive forces on the planet’ and therefore ‘dangerous’” and that, “many of North America’s leading intellectual racists have written for American Renaissance or have addressed the biennial American Renaissance conferences”.”

A campiagn has been launched to put pressure on the hotel hosting the event to cancel or face a boycott. Yesterday Left Foot Forward reported Griffin’s attempt to use the Haiti earthquake for political gain.

Ignoring criticism at the end of last week, Nick Griffin has hijacked the devastation in Haiti to push his political agenda.

In a speech to the European Parliament earlier today, the British National Party leader said:

“The death toll in Haiti is shocking, but this winter more than 50,000 pensioners in Britain alone will die premature deaths because of the cold and the cost of heating. Across Europe the death toll will run into hundreds of thousands”

In an apparently compassionate move, Nick Griffin challenged MEPs to give up their attendance allowance but hardly paused for breath before making points about taxation and the economy:

“All here are well paid – and can afford to give. I will give my attendance allowance for today, if every other British M.E.P. will do the same. But our constituents cannot afford your generosity with their taxes.

“Globalism has destroyed our industries, the banks have ruined our economies, EU red-tape is strangling our entrepreneurs and the carbon tax scam is plunging millions into deadly fuel poverty.”

Griffin made other points about “global cooling” and “EU cold taxes.”

On Friday, the BBC reported that Griffin had made similar remarks on Twitter and Facebook which were criticised by Labour MEP Glenis Willmott. Last Thursday, Left Foot Forward outlined how Richard Barnbrook had sought to make political capital out of the murder of Sukhwinder Singh.

David Cameron defended his European allies once again last night, claiming some of the charges levelled against them are “absolutely not true” and insisting he “wouldn’t join up” with parties that were racist or homophobic.

The allegations of extremism about the Tories’ European partners are well known, and have been covered extensively by Left Foot Forward. UK Gay News, however, have unearthed new evidence of homophobia against Michal Kaminski’s Polish Law and Justice party.

They are planning a clampdown on gay websites, with one leading MP claiming they would “monitor homosexual websites because we are dealing with the promotion of the so called ‘positive paedophilia’.” Speaking at Metro’s Cameron Direct question-and-answer session yesterday the Tory leader said:

“Some of the stories that have been written about them are absolutely not true. It made perfect sense for us to leave the grouping we were in. I have a very high regard for Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel for example, but we disagreed about the future of Europe.

“I wouldn’t join up with parties that were racist, homophobic or extremist in any way.”

Mr Cameron also defended his plans for marriage tax breaks and said he wouldn’t be afraid of standing up to President Obama.

The row over Rod Liddle’s potential appointment as Editor of the Independent rumbles on today with an Early Day Motion in Parliament and greater clarity on what Rod Liddle definitely did say on the Millwall Online website. Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy has an excellent summary of the latest but Left Foot Forward drills down on his anti-semitic remarks about Auschwitz.

In response to Roy Greenslade’s article on his media blog yesterday, Rod Liddle posted a comment saying:

But while we’re on the subject, one of the replies here mentions your ludicrous distortion of context. I haven’t even read all the quotes you;ve taken but one I do remember writing – about Auschwitz. My point was that it has become a degraded spectacle – hence the reference to the burger bar and grill. There really is one. My reference to smoking was about how the place had become a sort of politically correct EU institution and had lost some of its bleakness. I also objected to what seemed to me the Polish propaganda which accompanied the visit.

You can read the full thread here but the “context” is straightforward. Gaz_from_MK starts the discussion with a thoughtful post on a recent trip to Auschwitz where he writes:

“as part of a top few days in Krakow last week I spent a day with my girlfriend in Aushwitz and Bernbau (Aushwitz 2).

“I haven’t stopped thinking about it since to be honest. Very moving and has left me having a long hard look at myself…

“It moved me and left me wanting to know more about the events of that period of time. Thats just my view and i’m not looking for rows with deniers or anyone else. If you can go at some point in your life then do. Also Krakow is beautiful and cheap.”

Rod Liddle writing as “monkeymfc” is the first to comment. In full, he writes:

“I went a year or so back. Fcking outrageous that you can’t smoke in Auschwitz. I had to sneak round the back of the gas chambers for a crafty snout. And the Polish guide kept lying about Polish involvement in the persecution of the Jews.

“Also, I wasn’t convinced by the newish Auschwitz Burger Bar and Grill which they’ve got when you go through the entrance, near where all those shoes are on display.”

Liddle is then encouraged by ringo_the_lion, meateater, and w@cker. The latter writes:

“still one of my favourite pull downs for “er indoors!” there we were, in the execution yard next to block 11 in auschwitz 1. when er indoors sparks up a smoke. some polish c**t, polish is c**t, shouted out something sharp and rapid in polish at her. she was forced to stub out her butt to the sound of me cackling away at her and calling her the usual pleasant names i have for her.”

Liddle responds:

“Incredible though, Wack, even the poor fcking Jews were allowed to smoke.”

How does this tasteless joke about the holocaust tally with with Liddle’s claim in the response to Greenslade’s post that, “My reference to smoking was about how the place had become a sort of politically correct EU institution and had lost some of its bleakness.”

It was even too much for some of the regular commenters. Londonlion writes, “Got to be honest, some of the comments on this thread make me sick.” OKR backs him up writing, “Spot on London. The post to start the thread was a nice read … Theres plently of things to have a good piss take out off, this wasnt one of them.”

Liddle again responds to the goading (presumably with a reference to the Israel Defense Forces):

“Ah, great, the IDF. Lovely people.”

I could carry on but I won’t – there’s plenty more in the thread if you have the stomach. We live in a free country, Rod Liddle is entitled to say what he likes, blah, blah, blah. But I challenge Catherine Bennett, Toby Young, or any of his other supporters to defend his suitabability to edit a national newspaper after all this.

And if you want to help stop him, email your MP and encourage them to sign the Early Day Motion.

Hat tip: Sunder Katwala

BNP London Assembly Member Richard Barnbrook has sought to make political capital out of the murder of Sukhwinder Singh, stabbed to death by robbers in Barking last Friday.

Barnbrook, writing on his Daily Telegraph blog, almost appears sincere, yet the real motive for his apparent “personal message” soon becomes clear, in the comments and on the BNP’s “London Patriot” website, where BNP member and 2004 Assembly candidate Carlos Cortiglia – who also has a Telegraph blog – writes:

“The suspects? The usual suspects are most most probably out of work and living on benefits and with all the time in the world to go around ‘culturally enriching the United Kingdom’.”

The next post on the the website is titled “Immigration: What is it Good For? Absolutely Nothing”. In May 2008, the Telegraph published a post (since pulled) titled “Blame the Immigrants” in which Barnbrook wrote:

“I have had enough of political correctness. I have had enough of people being afraid to actually say what they really want to say. Yes….It is the immigrants.“

UKIP’s European allies are under the spotlight following West Midlands MEP Nikki Sinclaire’s resignation from the European Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD) in protest at the “variety of extremist views” in the EFD and reports this afternoon that a Danish MEP has been questioned by police over “serious racial offences”.

Ms Sinclaire cited “anti-Semitism, violence and the espousal of a single European policy on immigration” amongst UKIP’s EFD partners as reasons for her resignation, adding that former UKIP leader Nigel Farage told her he wished UKIP “had only 12 not 13 MEPs”.

The UKIP-watch “Junius” blog backs up Ms Sinclaire’s allegations of extremism. It says:

“A Danish member of the EFD, UKIP’s group in the European parliament, has previously received a prison sentence for ‘racial offences’. He was later forced to resign his job after being caught ‘Heiling Hitler’ in a Copenhagen bar.”

“She stood for us as a candidate without declaring the fact that she’d been declared bankrupt in 2005 and the NEC of the party take a pretty dim view about that.

“We’ve tried to do what we can, we do full criminal record checks on people, we’re doing what we can to get good people.”

In November, Left Foot Forward reported the conviction of former UKIP MEP Tom Wise for fraud, and reported the European Anti-Fraud office’s past investigations into UKIP and the current probe into Ms Sinclaire’s fellow West Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass.

Rod Liddle’s description of “Somali Muslim savages” and the implication that British Muslims and the Left are uncritical of practices such as beheading, stoning and mutilation – and seek to silence such criticism – have been brushed aside by leading mainstream Muslims.

Maajid Nawaz, Director of the Quilliam Foundation, told Left Foot Forward:

“If it’s offensive, it’s offensive, and it should be criticised and we’ll criticise it – and we’ll get criticised for that. But the people criticising us are themselves the extremists.

“Where Rod Liddle gets into trouble is when putting this together with everything else.”

Liddle, who’s in the running to be the next editor of the Independent – which Left Foot Forward reported yesterday – had written in the Spectator on November 19:

“Time for a quick update on what the Muslim savages are up to. Here’s a story from today’s Daily Mail, with a cut-out-keep picture, of Somali Muslim savages stoning to a twenty year old woman for the crime of adultery.“

He concluded his article with a sarcastic sideswipe at Somalis:

“Incidentally, many Somalis have come to Britain as immigrants recently, where they are widely admired for their strong work ethic, respect for the law and keen, piercing, intelligence.”

And on Saturday, in a column on the now-abandoned Islam4Uk march through Wootton Bassett, he wrote:

“F*** off back to where you’re from, then, you Muslims.”

• Join the Facebook group to stop Liddle becoming the Indy editor.

The British National Party has been fined £500 by the Electoral Commission for submitting its accounts late, though a far bigger sanction hangs over its head – it faces a maximum penalty of prosecution for failing to give a “true and fair view” of its financial circumstances.

The Times says they have until Friday to produce further details, and quote BNP Deputy Leader Simon Darby’s justification for the “errors”, “if we had said we wanted to spend 10p, it wouldn’t do us any good. … there’s a bit of hyperbole with politics”.

The Electoral Commission, however, played down the possibility of prosecution as “media speculation”.

A spokesperson for the commission told Left Foot Forward:

“Prosecution is the most extreme punishment available. Our role is to make sure the system works well, to try and help parties with all aspects of compliance, to help them submit their accounts on time, and generally assist them.

“They £500 fine is for submitting a late statement of accounts. This is completely unrelated to the latter issue. They have until Friday to produce more details.”

On Tuesday, the commission published full details of party spending for last year’s European Elections. The figures show an increase in BNP spending of £54,030 from the 2004 European Elections, up from £228,813 to £282,843. When the breakdown is examined, however, some alarming figures come to rise.

Their spending on party political broadcasts more than doubled from £5,165 to £12,810 – with spending on advertising rising more than 25,000 per cent to £83,932 having been only £333 five years before. According to the BNP’s Election Return Invoices, downloaded from the Electoral Commission website, the papers which accepted BNP advertising in the 2009 European Elections are:

Though the BNP failed to get a seat in the East of England, their success in North West England might lead the publishers of the ten North West newspapers that accepted their money to ponder how big an influence they played in Nick Griffin’s narrow win.

As the fallout continues from Islamist extremist Anjem Choudary’s plans to hold a march through Wootton Bassett, demands are being made to ban not only the march but Choudary’s Islam4UK outfit itself, with yesterday’s Guardian reporting Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling’s call to “ban the organisation”.

There are currently 45 proscribed organisations under the terms of the Terrorism Act (2000), which states (p. 2, Ch. 11, Part II, Sec. 3.5) that an organisation is considered to be “concerned in terrorism” if it:

(a) commits or participates in acts of terrorism,
(b) prepares for terrorism,
(c) promotes or encourages terrorism, or
(d) is otherwise concerned in terrorism

If these criteria are met, the final decision on whether to proscribe then rests with the Home Secretary, who must further consider (Memorandum to the Terrorism Act 2000, 2008 No. 1931, p. 2, Sec. 7.2):

• The nature and scale of the organisation’s activities;
• The specific threat that it poses to the UK;
• The specific threat that it poses to British nationals overseas;
• The extent of the organisation’s presence in the UK; and
• The need to support international partners in fight against terrorism.

These conditions cannot yet be applied to Islam4UK, a Home Office spokesman told Left Foot Forward – despite it being a front for al-Muhajiroun. He added:

“Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism. Decisions on proscription must be proportionate and based on evidence that a group is concerned in terrorism as defined in the Terrorism Act 2000.

“Organisations which cause us concern, including those which might change their name to avoid the consequences of proscription, are kept under constant review. As and when new material comes to light it is considered and the organisation re-assessed as part of that process.”

The remarks echo those of Parliamentary answers on the legality of Hizb ut-Tahrir, another extremist organisation which Tory leader David Cameron claimed had received public funds to run Muslim schools, a claim he later retracted.

On March 16th last year, Security Minister Lord West told the Lords that:

“Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) along with other organisations which cause us concern is kept under continuous review. As and when new material comes to light it is considered and the organisation re-assessed as part of that process. Any decision to proscribe must be based on evidence that a group is concerned in terrorism as defined in the Terrorism Act 2000, and must be proportionate.“

An answer repeated by Crime and Policing Minister David Hanson in response to a question from David Amess on the proscription of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the Commons on November 12th.

Plans to profile passengers at airports will prove as ineffective as the new body scanners in combatting terrorism, experts have warned. The Quilliam Foundation, Britain’s leading counter-extremism think tank, says that profiling would also damage existing counter-terrorism efforts.

Last night they published a dossier highlighting the wide range of ethnicities, ages and genders of al-Qaeda inspired terrorists since 9/11. Cases include:

• Shoe bomber Richard Reid, son of an English mother and Jamaican father, who tried to blow up a Miami-bound American Airlines flight in December 2001.

• Muriel Degauque, a white Belgian woman, who killed eight in a suicide bombing at an army recruitment centre in Talafar, northern Iraq, in September 2005.

• Samira Ahmed Jassim, a 50-year-old woman who ran a network that recruited and trained more than 80 female suicide bombers, arrested in Iraq last January.

• Up to 1,500 boys – some as young as 11 – were rescued from a Taleban training camp in Pakistan in July.

A “battle of ideas” would also be needed, added Quilliam. On body scanners, which at the weekend the Prime Minister announced would be fast-tracked into Britain’s main airports, leading security experts have been quick to point out the flaws in the technology.

Conservative MP Ben Wallace, a former researcher at QinetiQ, the defence company which developed the scanners, told the BBC that it was “unlikely” they would have picked up the current liquid and powder-based explosive devices being used by al-Qaeda.

And last night’s Newsnight revealed that the scanners – hundreds of which would be needed at a cost of £100,000 each – would be “useless” at detecting body bombs, of the type used by al-Qaeda operative Abdullah Hasan Tali al-Asiri in an assasination attempt on Saudi Minister for Counter Terrorism Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in August.

Islamist extremist Anjem Choudary has compared British soldiers to Nazis.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5Live this morning, he said (1:41:40-1:52:00):

“We don’t have conscription in this country, you can freely join the army and leave at your will, and you know, if it’s just a matter of doing your job one can make comparisons, of course, with Nazi Germany in the Second World War, they could say that they’re just doing their job.“

When pressed he added:

“I think if you look at the atrocities which were committed during the Second World War, a comparison can be made, a good example of that is bagram air base and the case of Aafia Siddiqui, you know a Pakistani woman who was raped continuously, her children were incarcerated and she suffered, you know, a horrendous torture at the hands of the alliance who are occupying afghanistan at this time.

“You can compare that with some of the concentration camps in Austria and other places during the Second World War.”

The comparison with Nazis actually applies to Mr Choudary himself, the various organisations he has represented and his allies, for whom extreme anti-Semitism is never far from the surface. In 2002, Choudary acolyte Iftikhar Ali was found guilty of inciting racial hatred for distributing leaflets for al-Muhajiroun – of which Choudary was right-hand man to then head Omar Bakri Muhammad – that called for a Jihad and said:

“The hour will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.”

When arrested Ali said:

“What is written on the paper is true. The Jewish people must die.”

Choudary, who is planning to march through Wootton Bassett under the Islam4UK banner – a platform for al-Muhajiroun, has been criticised for his remarks by mainstream Muslims. Dr Shaaz Mahboob, Vice-chair of British Muslims For Secular Democracy (BMSD), told Left Foot Forward:

“We stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Wootton Bassett and the Armed Forces. The vast majority of British Muslims accept our Armed Forces are doing an admirable job under exceptionally difficult circumstances. It is only because of the sacrifice of these brave soldiers that extremists like ‘Islam4UK’ are able to protest freely.

“Anjum Choudary and his followers betray everything this country stands for and the very constituency they claim to represent, which is ordinary British Muslims. We plan to hold a counter-protest to demonstrate that ordinary Muslims are deeply opposed to the values of Islam4UK.”

The sickening theft and mutilation of the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign from Auschwitz raises once again the spectre of the sordid trade in Nazi memorabilia. A simple google search reveals just how easy it is in the online world to buy, sell and browse all manner of items from the Third Reich.

One such site, Militaria-net, styles itself as “one of the worlds premier sellers of fine quality Third Reich related items including medals, badges, insignia, field equipment, uniforms, daggers, CD’s, Posters and more”, a “‘one stop’ shop” for all your Nazi needs, with over 1000 items on sale.

It boasts of offering a “comprehensive range of reproduction Third Reich Militaria and related items”, ideal for “collectors and re-enactors, museums, film/TV, and Theatre Groups” – though the complete lack of vetting means anyone can buy from them. Within a few clicks, anyone on the planet is able to buy, for example, an “iconic brownshirt worn by Hitlers Stormtroopers”: “100% cotton shirt with french cuffs, silver pebbeled buttons and belt hooks”, complete with “wool multi piece swastika armband for that early NSDAP look”.

Even convicted Holocaust-denier David Irving is cashing in. According to the Telegraph, he too has set up a website selling Nazi memorabilia, reportedly selling strands of Adolf Hitler’s hair, Hitler’s walking stick, and a goblet and spoon given as a christening present by Heinrich Himmler to Hermann Goering’s daughter, described as “unacceptable” by Dr Shimon Samuels, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, who told the Daily Mail:

“This Naz-eBay is extremely distasteful to the point of sick. There’s a market out there for Nazi memorabilia. If this is done to glorify Hitler, as I imagine it is, then it is unacceptable.”

Trade in Nazi memorabilia is banned in Austria, France, Poland and Germany, where it is also illegal to deny the Holocaust, display the Swastika, own a copy of Mein Kampf or give the Sieg Heil salute. In Britain, home to many memorabilia websites, none of these are a criminal offence.

BNP MEP Andrew Brons has contradicted himself over the existence of al Qaida. In the space of one blog post, he calls them “terrorists who have already committed terrorist acts” before saying “there is considerable doubt” they even exist.

The far-Right fantasist wrote:

“Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida are terrorists who have already committed terrorist acts and intend to commit more in the future …

“Returning to Al Qaida, for a moment, there is considerable doubt about its existence as an organisational entity as distinct from an ideological one.”

Brons, described by the Guardian as “the genteel face of neo-fascism”, has a long history of Hitler-worship, homophobia and violent anti-Semitism and racism.

He edited the National Front’s 1983 manifesto, writing:

“We believe the gradual dismantlement of the Apartheid system over the last 17 years to be retrograde … The alternative to Apartheid, multiracialism, envisages an extinction of the White man.”

• More damning evidence of Brons’s Fascist past can be found on Hope Not Hate, Socialist Unity and Pickled Politics.

Hungarian Nazis have held a meeting at a pub in Camden. Fifty thugs from the far-Right Jobbik party – which sits alongside the British National Party in the European Parliament – met at the Gloucester Arms in Leighton Road, Kentish Town, last weekend.

Jobbik, like their BNP counterparts, have long been accused of violent extremism, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, and were today described by the Leader of Hungary’s Opposition as an “extremist scandal-party” which has “violence written on its flag”.

Their slogans include “Who would like to live as Hungarians in Hungary”, and they have campaigned to decriminalise the banned paramilitary Hungarian Guard terror group.

Earlier this year an organisation allied to Jobbik called “The trade union of Hungarian police officers prepared for action” distributed a newsletter which said:

“Given our current situation, anti-Semitism is not just our right, but it is the duty of every Hungarian homeland lover, and we must prepare for armed battle against the Jews.”

It is not just Hungarian Fascists holding meetings in London pubs, however. South African white supremacist group “The Orania Movement” reportedly hold regular meetings at the Aardvark pub in Canada Water in Docklands.

A Searchlight investigation discovered that “the country that provides the largest number of visitors to the British National Party website is South Africa”, and that there are a growing number of South African BNP members – the most prominent being Arthur Kemp, editor of the BNP website.

The landlords of neither the Aardvark nor the Gloucester Arms were available for comment.

One of the ringleaders of the attack on Saeeda Warsi this week defended himself on the Today programme this morning. Sayful Islam, long exposed as an extremist living off the the British taxpayer, had said of the September 11th terrorist attacks:

“When I watched those planes go into the Twin Towers I felt elated.”

That was in 2004; today he said of the egg-throwing:

“I don’t regret anything, obviously if Islam permits it I would never condemn anybody for what they do.

“I mean, we can see people like Saeeda Warsi, she is always supporting the British troops, now if she’s somebody that claims to represent this Muslim nation, then she would never side with the disbelievers against the Muslims, this is something fundamental in Islam that we know, that we always support and ally with the Muslims, regardless of obviously what their stance and opinions are we always stand with them.”

Sayful, who has been denounced by the Muslim community as an extremist, is the self-styled spokesman for Islam4UK, a front for firebrand cleric Omar Bakri and Anjem Choudary’s al-Muhajiroun – a fact conceded by Islam4UK, though access to their website now appears to be blocked.

The group, whose support has been exaggerrated in the past, was forced to cancel a “March for Sharia” through London in October. Their aim is to create a global Islamic empire or caliphate governed by Sharia.