HnH 'Infographic' worst example of deliberately misleading propaganda

Hope not Hate continue to cash in on the death
of Lee Rigby with dishonest infographic

Hope not Hate continue to attempt to cash in on the death of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich with the
launch of their new 'infographic' and its claim that it is a representation of anti-Muslim violence across the UK since May's events.

For some reason, HnH have also seen fit to include on their graphic not just marches by those it classes as 'far-right', but also wreath-laying ceremonies in memory of Rigby accompanied by what it claims are the number of those attending such ceremonies.

We can not see what the supposed link between the two is supposed to be. A quick glance at the map shows that there is no obvious link, with many areas which held wreath laying ceremonies experiencing no anti-Muslim events, and such events happening in areas where there was no wreath laying.

Hope not Hate also appear to have left off inconvenient wreath-laying events, such as the one in Woolwich attended by Labour MPs Stephen Timms, Saddiq Khan and Nick Raynsford. We assume that only events which cash in on Rigby's death in the correct fashion are approved by HnH: that is has ignored Labour organised events is understandable, as it will itself hope to share in the proceeds.

Then there are the 'anti-Muslim' incidents. Of the 31 they list, 13 related to either spray painting of graffiti or the leaving of bacon and pork at mosques. Included among the list is the vandalism at the Newport cemetery, where those who painted 'BNP', 'NF' & 'UKIP' on graves carefully avoided doing any other damage, and thoughtfully used a water soluble paint: we have discussed previously whether these were the actions of a far-right thug or a UAF/HnH supporter, and the same applies to these other incidents - it is in UAF and HnH's best interests to stir up religious strife.

Also featured are the arrests of Kevin Carroll and Tommy Robinson/Stephen Yaxley-Lennon in East London - nowhere near a mosque - and the threats sent to BBC political presenter Andrew Neill following his interview of Robinson/Yaxley-Lennon. The latter are more 'anti-Neill' than 'anti-Muslim'.

There are some outbreaks of honesty in their infographic, although perhaps unintentional. The supposed 'suspect device' left at a Liverpool mosque - which subsequently turned out to be a worshippers laundry - does not feature on the list.

HnH's Nick Lowles uses the opportunity in a blog posting to sell copies of his latest magazine, and he quotes liberally from his own editorial, saying:

"More importantly, ordinary people refused to let the extremists win. Most people understood that the actions of two people do not reflect the views of the British Muslim communities. "

Sadly, he seems to forget that while the actions of the two individuals in Woolwich may not be representative of their community, the actions of those who commit anti-Muslim vandalism or violence are not representative of theirs either. He then goes on to defend the 'Tell MAMA' organisation, despite the withdrawal of its government grant for massaging its own figures:

"It is disappointing then, amidst this hatred, that some journalists have attacked Tell MAMA, an organisation established last year to monitor and encourage reporting anti-Muslim hate crime, and even the very concept of Islamophobia. It is easy, sitting in their comfortable offices, to pick faults with Tell MAMA (an organisation HOPE not hate is proud to support) and downplay the level of violence. It is not they who are greeted by a nail bomb going off as they go to their place of worship or have to be woken from their beds in the middle of the night because someone has maliciously started a fire.
None of the journalists who attacked Tell MAMA and the concept of Islamophobia, have made a comment about Tipton."

Still no mention of
Karmani's positive
initiative

In the absence of any arrests or public comment on who the perpetrators of the Tipton event may be, it is difficult to make any informed comment beyond deploring all such violence. That Tipton
occurred does not however make 'Tell MAMA' right, and Lowles and Hope not Hate have consistently failed to deal with accusations that 'Tell MAMA' has deliberately lied over many months, in the process stirring up rather than damping down community divisions. To attempt to tie the two together from his 'comfortable office' is just more hypocrisy from HnH's head.

The article finishes with the usual publicity for groups and initiatives linked to Hope not Hate. Readers will be unsurprised to discover that there is still no mention of Imam Alyas Karmani's anti-grooming campaign nor any other event or initiative which is designed to improve community relations unless it is organised by an associate of Hope not Hate. Remember, only Hope not Hate are allowed to cash in on a soldier's death.

Only one surprise in an entirely predictable day

There has been an air of predictability about today.

 

EDL leaders Kevin Carroll and Tommy Robinson/Stephen Yaxley-Lennon were arrested for attempting to deviate from the route set by the police for their 'charity walk'. This was after a pair of UAF activists assaulted Carroll - there is no indication as to whether the UAF pair were also arrested. Carroll and Robinson/Yaxley-Lennon both protested their innocence despite having set out to be arrested in the first place. They then bizarrely claimed that the police were enforcing 'Sharia law'.

Elsewhere, EDL activists laid a wreath at the place where Lee Rigby was murdered before predictably decamping to the local pub.

While all this was happening, Hope not Hate kept up a running commentary. Not just any old running commentary, but one designed to lead UAF activists directly to the EDL, as can be seen from the following messages from their Facebook feed.

Predictably, the whole thing has been a farce. The EDL's poorly organised attempt to hijack Armed Forces Day has distracted attention from what should be a day celebrating the military. The presence of UAF, and their assault on Carroll and Robinson/Yaxley-Lennon served to give their attempts publicity it didn't deserve. Between the two organisations, they managed to tie up a huge number of police resources to achieve precisely nothing.

Meanwhile, Hope not Hate were busy stirring the pot for all they were worth, with such detailed information - which added nothing to the news value of what they were supposed to be 'reporting' - clearly designed to lead to a violent confrontation.

The saddest thing about it all is that we are sure all three organisations are sat back feeling quite proud of what they have 'achieved' today.

Possibly the only unexpected thing to happen today came from a Hope not Hate posting in the
discussion following the last screen capture above. It would appear that Hope not Hate are just as much in favour of bombing Muslims in the Middle East as sections of the EDL are of beating them up in the UK. We are informed that Matthew Collins - the ex far right thug now employed by HnH - was in charge of their Facebook postings today. Perhaps old habits die hard?

 
 

Will anyone remember the Armed Forces on Armed Forces Day?

Tomorrow is Armed Forces Day. Our focus as a nation should be on the armed forces, and particularly on recent events in Woolwich.

Instead, we have an EDL march which couldn't have descended further into farce if it had been organised by a bunch of 5 year olds. We have UAF on the prowl with counter demonstrations, and their activists in SE London sending e-mails about organised fights. We have Hope not Hate stirring the pot while using Lee Rigby's name to raise funds for what is essentially a private company owned by Nick Lowles. We have speakers denied entry to the UK, charities refusing donations, instructions to anti-fascists about face masks and HnH gloating over it all. It's shaping up nicely to be a day of civil unrest.

Was it too much to hope that the focus could be on the Armed Forces for Armed Forces Day?

Islamic Emergency Defence slips beneath Hope not Hate's radar

While Hope not Hate were running their campaign to ban Pam Geller and Robert Spencer from the UK, their old friend Anjem Choudhary - whose Al Muhajiroun group was supposed to be one of the hate groups they opposed - was launching a fresh group to circumvent government controls.

As reported in 'The Sun', Choudhary's new group - which he was pushing through his Twitter feed

Choudhary's Twitter feed, showing his support for
'Islamic Emergency Defence' (IED)

(pictured) - aims to set up 'task forces' and mete out 'instant justice'. Choudhary admits to having an 'advisory role' with the group, but does not run it.

The selection of the name Islamic Emergency Defence and its initials IED were, according to a spokesman, 'completely coincidental' to any similarity with the initials for Improvised Explosive Device.

Over on Hope not Hate's website, Director Nick Lowles wrote only a week ago that "While many people look just at the extremism on the right wing, it is important to also monitor those who deliberately stoke sectarian tensions within the Muslim communities too."

It may be that Lowles and his colleagues simply missed the story: they are after all nice, middle class kids who probably don't read the 'Sun', which is reserved for the working class in their view. Far better to read the 'Guardian'. Even so, as Al Muhajiroun is one of the groups they supposedly monitor, it is not unreasonable to expect them to have spotted it. Perhaps they could launch a front page campaign demanding that the Home Secretary ban the group, similar to the campaign they launched against Geller and Spencer?

That won't happen, of course. There are few Labour votes to be gained in opposing Islamic extremism with the same fervour they apply to opposing right-wing extremism whatever Lowles may state publicly. Of 51 news links on their websites news feed, only one deals with Islamic extremism. Of 15 front page stories on 'Nick's Blog', only one deals with Islamic extremism - regarding Mohammed al Arefe, while of 28 posts on the 'Insider' blog, none deal with Islamic extremism.

Elsewhere, on our Facebook page this morning we posted of an initiative in Bristol - an inter-faith prayer group dedicated to the memory of Lee Rigby - which was held in a mosque, and which was organised by a Muslim woman.

It seems to us that as every day goes by Hope not Hate is more about Hate and less about Hope. Where was their mention of the Bristol event as a symbol of hope? Where are the mentions of Imam Alvas Karmani's initiative against sexual grooming in Bradford? Where is their condemnation of Choudhary's latest group of extremists?

Nick Lowles, Ruth Smeeth and their colleagues at Hope not Hate should hang their heads in shame. Their hypocrisy is not advancing Hope, it is only interested in their own Hate and advancing the Labour vote for their own political and financial gain.

HnH climb the Woolwich bandwagon as anti-UKIP meetings fail

The failure of Hope not Hate's 'Stand up for HOPE' series of meetings has seen them being changed into something else. Originally planned as a nationwide 'consultation' exercise to decide what to do about UKIP, the failure of the meeting in Warrington to draw more than 5 members of the general public has seen them morph into something else.

With the death of Drummer Lee Rigby still fresh in people's minds, never let it be said that Hope not Hate doesn't know how to cash in on a good murder. After a series of posts attacking the EDL and BNP - deservedly so - for attempting to make political capital out of the murder, Hope not Hate has clearly decided that 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em', and has announced that the rest of the 'Stand up for HOPE' tour will not focus on UKIP. Instead, Nick Lowles writes, "The meetings were initially set up to talk about the rise of UKIP and if, and how, we should respond. However, given recent events there has obviously been a lot of interest in the re-emergence of the EDL following the Woolwich murder and our views about Islamist hate preachers."

Nick Lowles - tacit admission that
attempt at gaining public support for
anti-UKIP stance has failed

And so now we see 'Stand up for HOPE' being transformed due to public apathy into nothing more than a publicity bandwagon riding on the back of a dead man. The temporary re-emergence of the EDL - although in numbers far smaller than seen a few years back - has given Hope not Hate a justification for its own existence, and a means of drawing crowds which their 'consultation' on UKIP could never manage. Of course, this means that HnH will continue to attack UKIP - there was never any intention to do otherwise. The original purpose of the 'consultation' exercise was to provide a fig leaf of popular support to their refocusing on a legitimate, non-racist political party after spending months misrepresenting both UKIP and its members. After embarrassingly low turnouts at meetings, it became clear that this would never work, as most genuine HnH members - those who were fighting against racism, and not for the Labour Party, that is - refused to back this repositioning.

So where does this leave Hope not Hate? Lowles' blog proclaims as a triumph a turnout of 26 people for a HnH meeting in Shrewsbury (population 67,126) and talks of the biggest meeting of the week being attended by 70 people in Leicester (population 441,213). Allowing for organisers, security, speakers and their aides, that would give adjusted attendance figures of 20 and 60 respectively.

Will Cllr Thya Idaikkadar be removed from the
HnH Harrow meeting if he mentions Labour racism?

Lowles goes on to talk about meetings scheduled for next week. Interestingly, one is in Harrow, where the local Labour Party has been shattered by allegations of institutional racism with 9 councillors leaving to form an independent Labour group. One wonders whether Lowles will address the issue there in a way Hope not Hate have failed to do on their website, where mentions of Labour racism are studiously avoided. It is more likely that - should any of the independent Labour group attend - they will be asked to leave the premises if they raise their concerns and rock the Labour boat. I look forward to the irony of seeing 9 Asian independent Labour councillors being removed from a Hope not Hate meeting because they raised the issue of racism. As Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail is fond of saying, "you couldn't make it up".