The hate group known as the English Defence League (EDL) has many times been accused of targeting the Muslim community. Today it has showed its true colours.
When the EDL marched in Sheffield, largely outnumbered by opposition, they unfurled a banner inciting hate towards Muslims.
The banner had written on it: “Who the f is Allah”, but most notably “Keep calm and hate Muslims”.
Many times, we have caught far-right groups omitting information, purposefully or accidentally, hiding information from their supporters.
Walmart had recently sold an American man a cake featuring the flag of ISIS, after refusing to sell him one featuring the Confederate battle flag. The news went viral, and was picked up by news worldwide.
Knights Templar International (KTI), which is closely affiliated with far-right group Britain First, shared the news with a link to the video.
But what KTI didn’t tell you was that Walmart had already apologised and a Walmart spokesman said the cake depicting the ISIS flag was made by mistake by an associate “who did not recognise the flag”.
The Guardian story, which included the apology, was published on 30 June, two days before KTI published their post. Britain First published a link three days after.
Note: Knights Templar International is NOT the real Knights Templar or associated in any way. It is a rip-off serving for groups like Britain First.
Britain First is a BNP splinter group. Very active online and covert in its strategies, it propagandises on the traditional far-right views of Islam, immigration and abortion.
It has been notably accused of feeding racism and extremism, scapegoating minorities, sharing false information and deceiving the public.
Here are 10 things you should know about Britain First. 1. Britain First runs secret Facebook pages Britain First use covert means to draw in support from the online community, using secret pages such as the ones below.
They use these secret pages with similar content to ‘merge Likes’ giving their main page a boost. It also serves as a purpose to covertly promote Britain First ideology, or advertise the shop. 2. Britain First shares fake stories and images
The group has also slandered Muslim men, fabricating stories about them while stealing images off newspapers and purposefully hiding the full stories so people could not find out. Britain First also defamed a US Navy veteran – who was a Muslim – by photoshopping an image of him (see Point 4).
Britain First also stir anti-Islam rumours. One example is when Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps. Britain First claimed he was a “convert to Islam” when he actually wasn’t.
These are just some of the many lies and false information we have already exposed on this blog.
3. Britain First has a place on a nonsense website
ThatsNonsense.com, which is a site dedicated to debunking hoaxes, rumours, as well as online scams, has featured Britain First on its website at least twice.
It also said that Britain First “posts a consistent stream of hypocrisy, misinformation, urban legends and outright lies” and also noted how the group photoshopped an image aimed at inciting racial hatred (next Point).
4. Britain First defamed a Navy veteran
Britain First came under strutiny after posting up an image of a man holding up a photoshopped sign that read: “Boycott bigotry and kill all non Muslims”.
The man was in fact a veteran who has served in the US Navy, and the sign he was holding in real life was edited by Britain First.
He supposedly reported Britain First for defamation.
5. Britain First desecrated image of a murdered soldier
Britain First have used the name of murdered soldier Lee Rigby for their own gain, despite the objections of his family.
In the 2014 European Elections they even used the phrase “Remember Lee Rigby” as their party description on the ballot papers in Wales.
When Lee’s mother heard of the news, she said her and her family were “heartbroken”. She also said Britain First’s views were “not what Lee believed in and has no support from the family.”
In 15 July, after Lee’s mother had made the plea, Britain First continued to use his image and name again for their own gain.
6. A veteran exposed Britain First in a ‘charity scam’
In a video uploaded by a veteran, Britain First leader Paul Golding was filmed running a stall collecting money from the public. The veteran said Golding and his friend were collecting illegally.
When asked to produce his license, Golding didn’t show it. Being confronted, Golding and his friend coincidentally packed up and left.
7. Former member said Britain First use people to “line their own pockets”
A former Britain First member named Matthew Lester told Press TV how Britain First kept asking for donations.
He said: “There’s a fixed ideology to the group, and it’s capitalism. They are using people’s weaknesses to their own gain, to line their own pockets. It’s more and more looking like a BNP reboot.”
This comes to no surprise as Britain First continuously tries to cash in from supporters, even through donations.
8. Britain First leader urged young supporters to start breeding
In a video taken in Luton, Britain First leader Paul Golding was caught on film urging his younger supporters to produce the “next generation”.
Golding said immigrants and Muslims have a very high birth rate, so he said to his supporters: “We need to produce the next generation.”
Later he said: “I’m looking specifically at the young men here and the young women because you’ve got to get out there and you’ve got to produce the next generation of our people!”
9. Britain First leader wore knickers on his head at the cenotaph
Britain First leader Paul Golding once turned up to a Remembrance Sunday march at the cenotaph with a pair of women’s knickers on his head.
Courtesy of politicalscrapbook.net
However, he told Channel 4 that someone else “had put them” on his head. 10. Former leader admits group is “overrun with racists and extremists”
Britain First founder Jim Dowson said he quit in July 2014 and said Britain First is now “overrun with racists and extremists” and described the group’s tactics as “unacceptable and unchristian”.
He told the Independent: “No matter how many times I told [Paul Golding the current leader] I did not want decent Muslims intimidated, he just continued doing it... I have come to the conclusion that no matter how hard I tried, you cannot escape from the fact that the group is being overrun with racists and extremists.”
Also, Britain First was caught ‘Liking’ a status left by a supporter suggesting someone, or some people, to ‘dynamite the hell’ out of a mosque.
It was not long ago when we caught far-right group Britain First scaring people by passing off ISIS propaganda as truth for their anti-immigration and anti-Islam views.
Now they’ve shared the same image onto their affiliate page ‘English and Proud’.
As we noted before, the Independent said the plans were ISIS propaganda. The researcher who brought this into light even said that the propaganda “could not be taken as fact”.
Coincidentally, Britain First published the same untrue information in their rag of a newspaper and did not state anywhere in the column what the researcher said.
Without a care in the world, Britain First is sharing exactly what ISIS terrorists are wanting people to believe.
The Bedfordshire News has reported that the Britain First march that took place in Luton cost nearly £300,000. And the local taxpayer will be having to pay the bill.
The protest was attended by 500 police officers from 15 different forces and the protest had a large impact on businesses.
The Mall shopping centre, which is Luton’s central retail area, recorded a reduction in footfall of approximately 22%, about 16,000 shoppers down, compared to that typically expected for this time of year.
PCC Olly Martins said: “Whilst in the past these costs have eventually been reimbursed, it is anticipated that they will now fall directly upon Bedfordshire taxpayers alone.”
Marches in Luton by the English Defence League, and now Britain First, have cost £3.5m in the last five years.
Britain First, which is continuing to ask for your donations, will probably not want this news to be shared.
Many far-right UK groups have a habit of hijacking tragic events.
Lionheart GB, which has been accused by critics of being tied in with far-right group Britain First, were caught trying to make money through the recent terror attack in Tunisia.
A day after the shooting, they shared an image that offered thoughts for the families and friends of those who were killed. But in the text was a link which directed people straight to the ‘Patriot Store’, an online store which sells t-shirts, badges and other merchandise.
This is the page people are directed to when they click on the link in the post.
A shop. Lionheart GB has exploited the deaths of innocents for financial gain.
When Britain First came to Luton on 27 June, they were not wanted and not even by the veterans who turned up to oppose them.
Below is a photo taken of the veterans who called Britain First leader Paul Golding a ‘coward’ and said Britain First are ‘ripping off military charities, disrespecting veterans and too scared to answer our questions!’
Not too many Britain First supporters came into Luton on 27 June.
In a video taken of a speech yesterday, Britain First leader Paul Golding was caught urging his younger supporters to produce the ‘next generation’.
Talking of immigrants and Muslims (who Britain First have been accused of scapegoating), Golding said they “have a very high birth rate, whereas our people prefer to go out and get drunk, and to have careers etc etc but we’ve lost that touch…we need to produce the next generation.”
He later said: “I’m looking specifically at the young men here and the young women because you’ve got to get out there and you’ve got to produce the next generation of our people!”
People in the crowd started laughing throughout his speech, in which he used words like ‘our people’ and ‘DNA’.
The video has been uploaded on Vimeo and is titled “White Supremacy speech”. You can watch it here.
Far-right Britain First claimed 2,000 supporters would descend into Luton on 27 June. But according to press and eye-witnesses, no more than 150 supporters turned up. And even that was believed to be an over-estimation by one journalist.
If we calculate this figure as a percentage of the current 776,703 ‘Likes’ on the Facebook page of Britain First, then it’s 0.019%.
This isn’t even 1%.
Let’s face it, Britain First is a poor excuse of a party, and was never wanted in Luton in the first place.
In the latest post, they compared their two leaders appearing in court with D Day.
It is sickening to even compare.
Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy.
This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces.
The three attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait shocked the world yesterday.
And of course, far-right group Britain First attempted to cash in on the news by sharing news links and even a video of deputy leader Jayda Fransen expressing condolences.
Screengrab from Britain First/Facebook.
The caption along with the video mentioned the attacks in Tunisia and France, but absolutely nothing about the attack in Kuwait – when innocent Muslims were killed whilst praying in a mosque. Over 100 people were also injured.
Britain First deliberately attempt to stir up hate and get some Likes on their page (as well as other secret pages that belong to them).
On 24 June 2015, they shared an image showing two seemingly Muslim teens holding up a flag that said “Respect Ramadan No Bikinis”.
Britain First wrote in the caption “How about respect the West! Don’t like it, go back to an Islamic country.”
Photo wasn't taken in the West
This image wasn’t even taken in the West. Two teenagers took this photo in the Muslim-majority country of Morocco. And authorities took this poster down soon after.
Moroccan Minister of Tourism Lahcen Haddad was quoted by Moroccan news website Le360 saying: “We cannot allow people on their own to begin to dictate their law. Nobody has the right to set themselves up as guarantors of virtue, and still less to tell tourists how they should dress on a beach.”
The company’s website also states it is based in Sialkot, Pakistan.
Coincidentally, the company even promoted itself last year by sharing a photo of Britain First. And deputy leader Jayda Fransen can be seen in the background.
Far-right hate group Britain First is nonsense, but did you know it has even been featured on a site which highlights nonsense from around the web?
ThatsNonsense.com, which aims to debunk hoaxes, rumours, as well as Internet and email scams, has featured Britain First at least twice.
In 2014, the site noted how important it was for people to check their sources.
Speaking of Britain First’s Facebook page, it said that the page “posts a consistent stream of hypocrisy, misinformation, urban legends and outright lies.”
It also said that “in the same way as Like-Farming pages exploit social media users to gain followers, Britain First continually post – amongst the hate-filled bigotry and misinformation – a series of wholly irrelevant information that is designed purely to accumulate Likes, Comments and Shares.”
An image showed a Muslim holding a sign that said “Boycott Bigotry and kill all non-Muslims” and was shared over 600 times by Britain First supporters and the gullible.
In reality, the image was of a war veteran who was holding up a sign that said “Boycott Bigotry”.
ThatsNonsense.com rightly pointed out that “radical groups like Britain First are not a reliable source of truth, which is why it is important on social media that you fact-check your sources before hitting share, if not for any reason than to avoid embarrassment when you find out you’ve shared information with your friends that simply isn’t true.”
Just last month we caught Britain First attributing a quote to Russian President Vladimir Putin which he never even said. As shameful as it is, Britain First have yet again recycled the image.
According to Hoax-Slayer, this is part of a viral hoax that claims in a 2013 speech to the Duma, Putin advised Russian minorities that they should adapt to Russian culture if they wish to live in the country.
However, there is NO RECORD of Putin making such a speech nor are there any credible news reports about Putin’s supposed words.
This is yet again another reason why Britain First cannot be trusted.
Note: This Knights Templar International group, which is associated with Britain First, is not linked to the REAL Knights Templar.
