This is a cross-post from Student Rights
On 14 January 2015 Zack Davies, a member of the neo-Nazi organisation National Action (NA), tried to murder Dr. Sarandar Bhambra with a machete because he “looked Asian“.
Only prevented from killing Dr. Bhambra by the intervention of a former soldier, Davies was todayconvicted of attempted murder and will be sentenced in September.
While Davies was not a student, this brutal attack shows the risk members of groups like National Action pose to the public.
Given the group’s efforts to target campuses, with activists potentially including Davies appearing at universities across the UK during 2014, this attack highlights the importance of vigilance from institutions.
A virulently racist organisation which has declared: “to be British you have to be white”, NA regularly shares Nazi imagery and Holocaust denial online.
Members promote anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, claiming: “the entire civil service is in the hands of the Zionists” and “the Zionists have taken control of the country”.
They also state that the Greek fascist party Golden Dawn “are a perfect example of what we’d like to replicate”, quote Adolf Hitler, and produce racist posters targeting immigrants.
Davies was reported to be: “obsessed with the “no compromise” tactics of the group called Islamic State and Jihadi John”.
This reflects a Twitter post made by the group in April, which showed a cartoon of an NA member dressed as the IS executioner in the process of beheading a Jewish man.
Such violent rhetoric was also on show at a conference held by the group in May, at which a membershouted: “Gas the kikes, race war now!”
Student Rights have logged evidence of NA targeting campuses at Coventry University and the University of Warwick, appearances at UCL and London Metropolitan University, and the University of Leeds.
The group also claims to have appeared in Nottingham, Newcastle and Cambridge, and in April 2014carried out a poster drop at Swansea University.
As such, given the clear threat posed by men like Davies, Student Rights hopes students will report any evidence of NA on their campus immediately – and get in touch if they have any concerns.
