In the last few days, the attention of not only the British, but also a significant part of the society and the media throughout the West has been focused on the events in Oldham, where clashes took place the day before between militant Islamophobes and equally militant members of the Muslim Defense League.
The latter decided to oppose the provocative activities of the world-famous Islamophobe Tommy Robinson in areas with a high concentration of Muslim population, as part of a pre-election campaign taking place across Europe.
In general, it should be said that the European Parliament elections to be held at the end of this week are unlikely to be «decisive», given the realities of the competitive multi-party system with its «pendulum» principle, but they can definitely be turning points.
The European Union project is in crisis, and if its populist and nationalist opponents, who are actively using Islamophobia to mobilize their supporters, do not hide their intentions to defeat it, the EU’s supporters are trying to buy time to carry out reforms within it that will allow it to survive and develop.
It is not surprising that in such a struggle there are real political upheavals, as in Austria, and passions run high.
One of the main fronts in this political battle has become the United Kingdom.
The country has already made the decision in principle to leave the EU (Brexit), but the inability of the political classes in London and Brussels to agree on the terms of this exit and future relations has meant that the British will still participate in these elections to the European Parliament.
For the ruling Conservative Party, which led Brexit, it is important to maintain its positions, while a victory for the Labour Party, which has always opposed it, could reopen the question of a new referendum to reconsider the decision for the country to leave the EU.
And it is the populists, whose vanguard is the UK Independence Party (UKIP), who are trying to use these elections to shake up the political system of both the United Kingdom and the EU, which is united on the continent.
This time around, UKIP decided to put fresh faces in the form of scandalous YouTubers, most notably Carl Benjamin (pictured below), instead of the tired Nigel Farage.
In addition to the criminal investigation, this provoked a campaign of milkshakes being thrown at Benjamin and other UKIP leaders and agitators during their public appearances around the country.
Benjamin and his comrades are currently trying to create and capitalize on an image of victimization, which was undoubtedly their intention from the beginning.
In this regard, the involvement in the campaign in the UK and across Europe of the controversial Milo Yiannopoulos (pictured below together) as Benjamin’s confidant — an aggressive gay Islamophobe and professional provocateur whose tour of Germany we wrote about earlier — is telling.
In addition to Yiannopoulos, UKIP decided to use other heavy artillery of Islamophobia — Tommy Robinson, whose tour of the country focusing on Pakistani neighborhoods has already led to street clashes, as recently happened in Oldham.
Members of the recently formed Muslim Self-Defense attacked Robinson’s event, throwing — they said — chicken eggs at him, or — their opponents said — stones.
Now Robinson’s and UKIP’s supporters are trying to portray themselves as victims of political and religious violence, and their opponents as aggressive bigots who do not respect freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.
However, they fail to mention that Benjamin let the genie of violence out of the bottle, as he needed scandal and provocation in the form of a not-so-peaceful and politically correct promise to sexually assault a political opponent to attract attention.
As for the actions of the Muslim self-defense, on the one hand, the Islamic authorities in the United Kingdom refrained from approving them for various reasons. These actions can be criticized both for their form, as objects were thrown at a rally attended by families with children, and for their content, as they created a desired victim image for Islamophobic provocateurs.
On the other hand, it is completely wrong to portray such self-defense as some kind of belligerence on the part of Muslim activists against the peacefulness of white and fluffy Tommy Robinson and his comrades.
Whatever the latest Muslim Self-Defense guys have thrown, it does not go beyond street clashes, which are perfectly normal for a country like the UK with its aggressive soccer fans.
Meanwhile, Robinson’s supporters are already engaged in real political terrorism.
For example, it should be noted that Thomas Mair, a neo-Nazi (pictured below), brutally murdered another member of the Labour Party, Jo Cox.
Another neo-Nazi, Jack Renshaw (pictured below), was recently convicted of plotting to kill another member of the British Parliament, another Labour Party member, Rosie Cooper.
Against this backdrop, Benjamin’s threats of sexual violence against a female member of the Labour Party are not only morally reprehensible, but also completely harmless.
It is therefore not surprising that the British respond with milkshakes, despite the fact that UKIP supporters use knives to settle such scores.
At the same attacked rally of Robinson’s supporters in Oldham, the following cheerleaders were present, which after the events in New Zealand, where their like-minded individual shot over 50 Muslims in a mosque, gives Muslims reason to worry about their safety and protect it themselves.
Especially since in Britain itself they are already launching bloody attacks on mosques and declaring a hunt for all Muslims.
And Tommy Robinson himself is the last person who should be talking about peacefulness, since the actions of the English Defense League, which he founded, have always had a completely different sentiment.
In short, it is clear that the Islamophobic nationalist-populist forces are trying to provoke a new wave of aggression in British society, while shifting the blame from the sick head to the healthy one.
As it can be seen, there are quite a few people in British society who are ready to give them a no less decisive rebuff, and these are not only Muslims, but also ordinary white Britons who are throwing milkshakes at these provocateurs all over the country.
The question, however, is how the ordinary British voter will judge the actions of the opposing sides.
The answer to that question should be known in a few days.