Luton: Three Months in the News and an election over. What now?

This is one of a series of posts focusing on the issues of Islamophobia currently being worked out in Luton and the UK. For the full list of posts see Seeking Peace in Luton - and Multicultural UK

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Tomorrow, Tuesday, it is thirteen weeks since an army march through Luton town centre put our town at centrestage in an emerging battle for the soul of this nation.

That sounds dramatic, but it is not offered as an excuse for a right wing rant. In fact it should not be read as a simplistic "either this or that" analysis of the situation and its solution. The reality on the ground is complex and ever changing. But the one quarter of a year since the Royal Anglian's homecoming parade on March 10th has kept this town in the media's and the nation's focus.

And Luton centrestage?  Sure enough, its been in the news a lot, but the BNP didn't get a seat in the east of England region. We await the local polling figures; we are so different to the rest of the region and I suspect it would been a very different case if settled on Luton's vote alone.  But I am not convinced our problems are going away.  The anger of the white community that often results in the racism and islamophobia that have emerged in these months are not going away quickly. And the heat is not going to go down, either metaphorically or literally, with wider governmental chaos and a general election a possibility, and a long hot summer forcast. 

(UPDATE:  Lutons vote that contributed to the regional vote is here. The overall number of votes cast was 42,072 , of which 3038 went to BNP -- 7.2%.  That is moderately encouraging, though many of the challenges come from the towns around that define themselves as "not Luton". )

Nethertheless, the three month anniversary, and the passing of the immediate election season, give an opportunity  to assess where we are and what is likely to emerge. So I have been looking back over my own posts on the subject since March 10th ( listed here:  Seeking Peace in Luton – and multicultural UK ),  the things I didn't get to write about, and the developments of the past week.

The small extremist Muslim demonstration during the army parade of March 10th did something to release an anger in the white Lutonian community that we must listen to. That anger was however clearly whipped up by far right agitators into a counter demonstration (see my post on the day Reporting Luton: strengthening the stereotype? ), a fact that has been ignored by the media, and has been played on by the BNP and the rest of the far right since. There is clearly a far right agenda at work here, that has served the BNP and the wider anti-immigration cause during the election. They made no secret of their desire to exploit the extremist Muslim demo against "our boys" in the army. However it would be wrong to say that most who vented their anger that day or even in the "marches" or "demonstrations" (I actually prefer the word mob or riot) on Easter Monday or May 24th were extreme right, or even in some cases that they were racist. Many of them were football supporters called up by the football firms (Luton MIGs and rivals are said to have declared a truce to stand alongside each other in the common cause). The web sites were full of racist and anti-Muslim hatred, but there were also lots who said they would come but opposed the racism or violence; and the events of May 24th showed the diversity of the crowd who gathered that day. ( This is what happened in Luton yesterday and  Luton: not one march but three!)

The challenge is not going away. Already there is another march / demo / riot planned for August 30th. And now we have a two BNP MEP's. Not here, but from places where exactly the same issues are in play.  A generation angry at feeling marginalised in their own nation, hit hard by the economic challenges, angry at business leaders and politicians for corruption and greed, and deflecting much of the blame on someone else. In this case the Muslims.  I do not agree with their solution and there is a lot more to be said about the nature of the problem, but I am listening to what they are saying.  We cannot allow the BNP MEP's (or councillors) to be the only ones doing that.

There was a good article in the Spectator a week or so ago that looked at the challenges ahead: The rise of British racism may be horribly close . Fraser Nelson wrote:

It is in places with Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities — that is, Muslim areas — that the BNP does well. Its focus there is not how people look, but how some act. The trick is to take the minority of veiled or bearded Muslims as a proxy for Islam as a whole. If a (mainly white) local authority bans Christmas lights, so much the better for the BNP. This is why the mill towns of the North are now proving more fertile ground than the London suburbs — and this is why Griffin has chosen the North West to stand in. A seat in the European parliament could be his passport to the mainstream media: it would be much harder to deny the BNP a slot on regular television broadcasts (such as the BBC’s Question Time) that routinely feature representatives of Ukip.  

He was right. Already we have had Griffin on the BBC this morning, saying he is there to listen to all his constituents who live in this country legally, and saying he could tell those who were legal. What was he implying? And that he was sure the Muslims wouldn't want to speak to him anyway. 

Early on in the campaign the BNP were quick to try to claim to speak for Englishness and Christianity, and that led to the church, and especially the archbishops being active in the campaign against the BNP. Their main candidate with a "Christian label" didn't make it, and it was a joy to see a poster with our two local Bishops urging us to use our vote wisely on the door of the church hall which was our local polling station.  Barth's Notes sums up the Christian election story here: Gone West

Much more to come on the BNP challenge I anticipate, but I find the whole situation very depressing and challenging. The work has only just begun. Within the churches and the wider white community we have got to begin to face the anger that the far right are tapping into and speak to it. And we have to do that in Luton.

As for the situation in the Muslim community, the local mosques, with the Luton Islamic centre at the heart of the campaign, are seeking to deal with the extremists that began the storm here.  Luton fights back against right-wing extremists  was a great article in the Independent with an interview of the secretary of the mosque, Farasat Latif last Wednesday, and  Tensions in Luton concern locals  was a article based on a BBC Radio Five Live show on Friday here . (about 18 minutes into the programme; available only until Thursday)  That involved quite a heated discussion with Anjem Choudary of al-Muhajiroun who have caused so much of the problem.  I also did  an interview on Five Live on Sunday morning here  (about 16.20 minutes in; available until saturday)

What is worrying are the reports that emerged last week that al-Muhajiroun are relaunching.
Let the odious al-Muhajiroun speak with the usual announcement of plans to set up an Islamic state in Britain. They have read the wind and obviously believe that the time is right. They like nothing better than a fight to get attention, and the climate just now is ripe with the BNP raising the stakes.

It is all deeply concerning. Not just for Luton but the nation. More soon.