Edmund Standing
Edmund Standing blogs for various online media publications including Harry's Place, Butterflies & Wheels, Z Word and Jewcy. He is also the author of two Centre for Social Cohesion reports on the far-right.
According to the biography at the end of the CSC report, Standing has an MA in Critical & Cultural Theory from Cardiff University.[1]
Contents
The BNP and the Online Fascist Network
Standing produced two reports on the British far-right for the Centre for Social Cohesion: The BNP and the Online Fascist Network (2009); and Blood & Honour: Britain's Far-Right Militants (2010) co-authored with Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens. The latter of these was produced along with Nothing British, a Conservative-aligned campaign against the far-right.
Both CSC reports acknowledged far-right targeting of British Muslims, portraying it as an aspect of traditional neo-Nazi racism.[2][3] While this account may be adequate in the case of Blood & Honour, it arguably elides the extent to which the BNP has been influenced by other Islamophobic currents and notably the counterjihad movement.
The weakness of the BNP report in this respect was highlighted even by relatively sympathetic observers, such as a contributor to the Spittoon, a blog co-edited by the CSC's Houriya Ahmed. The blogger, 'Shikwa‘ defended the report and its author Edmund Standing against charges that it deliberately downplayed anti-Muslim bigotry but added:
- Ever since however, Standing has engaged with the ensuing debate by arguing that anti-Muslim bigotry is merely a 'tactic‘ of the BNP and not an integral part of their ideological outlook. I don‘t think we should be jockeying for position on this issue – who does the BNP hate the most – but I was uncomfortable with Standing‘s argument. Even if he‘s right and the BNP is just adopting an antiMuslim stance to win votes that is an alarming indication of the way some people are starting to view Muslims in this country.[4]
Another contributor commented:
- If you look at the Youtube channels examined by Standing in the CSC report then you will find videos dedicated to taqiyyah. This is clearly concern with Islam as a religion, not the skin colour of its followers. So far as my understanding of Standing's arguments goes, they simply cannot explain this.[5]
This appears to be a reference to 'Islam - Al Taqiyya (the art of deception)' a video posted to the 'BNPrenaissance' account, which has since been removed by Youtube.[6]
A video of the same name has since appeared at an another youtube account, featuring an image of the bus destroyed at Tavistock Square in the 7/7 bombings doctored to show an 'Islam is Peace' poster on its side.[7]
The employment of concepts such as 'Taqiyya', a standard counterjihad trope, reflects a wider flirtation between the BNP and the counterjihad movement.[8]
The BNP and the Online Fascist Network noted the support of some pro-BNP bloggers for violent anti-Muslim protests in Luton.[9] However, it made no mention of the role of activists linked to the counterjihad movement in fomenting the protests.[8]
This reticence about the links between the counterjihad movement and the far-right is arguably a reflection of the influence of counterjihad ideology on the Centre for Social Cohesion itself.[8]
Publications
- The BNP and the Online Fascist Network: An investigation into the online activities of British National Party members and online activists, Centre for Social Cohesion (2009) PDF of report
- Edmund Standing, ‘Islamophobia and the Abuse of the Discourse of Anti-Racism, Butterflies and Wheels, 6-January-2010
Spittoon Articles
- Towards a Reasonable Discussion on Immigration, 25 May 2009, cross-post from Harry's Place.
- Neo-Nazi Group Glorify Murder of Minorities, 19 September 2009, cross-posted from Harry's Place.
- Baroness Warsi – Good on immigration, Crap on religion, 26 October 2009.
- Dishonest BNP spins article by George Carey and deliberately misquotes him, 9 January 2010.
- The BNP: Political party or quasi-religious cult?, 15 January 2010.
- Has the BNP had a Damascene conversion?, 3 April 2010.
- Sultana ‘Inspired by Muhammad’ Tafadar and the IHRC, 14 June 2010.
- White Liberals and Politically Correct Racism, 31 July 2010
- The forces of unreason descend on Ground Zero, 24 August 2010, cross-post from Harry's Place
- Al-Muhajiroun and Incitement to Murder, 20 November 2010, cross-post from Harry's Place
- Birmingham City Council bans Christmas for fear of offending Muslims, 22 December 2010.
- The Conservatives and Islamism: The Promises and the Reality, 17 January 2011, cross-post from Harry's Place.
Affiliations
References
- ↑ The BNP and the Online Fascist Network: An investigation into the online activities of British National Party members and online activists, Centre for Social Cohesion (2009) PDF of report
- ↑ Edmund Standing and Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens Blood & Honour: Britain's Far-Right Militants (Centre for Social Cohesion, 2010) p.33
- ↑ Introduction by Douglas Murray to Edmund Standing, The BNP and the Online Fascist Network, (Centre for Social Cohesion, 2009) p.1.
- ↑ Shikwa, Yahya Birt hits the nail on the head, The Spittoon, 8 August 2009.
- ↑ Comment by Yossarian in response to Shikwa, Yahya Birt hits the nail on the head, The Spittoon, 8 August 2009.
- ↑ Google cache of [1], accessed 11 April 2011.
- ↑ Islam - al taqiyya (the art of deception), YouTube, accessed 11 April 2011.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Tom Mills, Tom Griffin and David Miller, The Cold War on British Muslims, SpinWatch, August 2011, p.31.
- ↑ Edmund Standing, The BNP and the Online Fascist Network, (Centre for Social Cohesion, 2009) p.34.
