Britain has a proud record of welcoming and absorbing different religions and strands of thinking into its complex and mixed society. It also has a vicious minority of racists who need to be opposed whenever they show their faces. It is unfortunate that this minority British tendency to bigotry appears to have formed an alliance with the German anti-Muslim organisation, Pegida, which has been largely contained in Germany due to swift action by German authorities and a successful and popular campaign against its dangerous propaganda.
A march in Newcastle on Saturday fronted by Pegida and supported by British organisations was used to promote racial hatred, bigotry, fear and ignorance by claiming that Islam was taking over the northeast of England. Pegida stands for Patriotic European Against the Islamisation of the West, which makes it ludicrous for the group spokeswoman to claim that “We are not anti-Islam.”
The ignorant thugs who gathered in Newcastle seem to take crude comfort from stirring hate against Muslims. These are the same thugs who are as likely to be found singing racist chants at football games as abiding by right-wing thinking espoused by self-styled experts of ignorance in Britain First or the British National Party. These people need to be exposed for the racists they are. It has long been a political truism that for evil to thrive, good men must stand by idly. Thankfully, a large number of good people that turned out in a counter rally is against allowing the evil of racism and bigotry to thrive.
