Forgive me if you will for breaking a long silence with something which seems so self-interested but I have been studying the language of British fascism for the last few months and am considering proposing some research on how the language of British extreme groups (particularly fascist ones) has fed into both the left and religious fundamentalist groups in modern Britain. I considered sending an email to Mr David T and others to see if they had any leads on the subject, especially in areas that I don’t touch on below) but then a small dim neon light pulsed inside my head displaying the words “HP readers are the experts” (which, of course, you are.) And so, consider this a thread to discuss extremism (both the historical and present day kind).
Peripherally I am interested in people like Horst Mahler – former member of the Baader –Meinhoff gang and current neo-nazi who saw 9/11 as the outbreak of a clash of civilisations which would end up with all races back where he thought they belonged. And Armand (aka Ahmed) Huber who seems to be employed as the link between Al Qaeda and the Neo-Nazi right and who has a picture of Osama bin Laden next to one of Adolf Hitler on the wall of his study in Bern. Also of course In Hizb and the Muslim brotherhood and Sayid Qutb and their relations to Nazism and other western political extremes.
But mainly I am interested in how both the populist fascism of Mosley’s BUF and the rabid racial fascism of the likes of Arnold Leese (much more of an influence on the post-war British extreme-right, including the BNP, than Mosley in my opinion) which themselves fed on the conspiracy theories of the protocols and the racial pseudo science of the likes of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, has fed into groups in modern multi-cultural Britain (including present day neo Nazis and Islamists and anyone else you can think of.)
There also might well be something to be said about Christian clerical –fascism and what I’ll call “green fascism”, the “back to the land” style anti-modernist dystopias which appealed to some pre-war aristocratic British fascist fellow travellers and may well have a connection with anti-modernist currents today.
Any lively discussion on any aspect will be a great help to me – any thoughts on the matter (however undeveloped) are welcome. So please outline them below if you would be so kind.
