Intelligence and Security Committee Report: Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism/Targets
TARGETS
167. MI5 provided the Committee with information on the individuals and communities who are subject to what they term 'grievance narratives' or targeting activity, by Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism (ERWT) groups and individuals.[1]
Ethnic and religious groups
168. Accelerated by the refugee crisis and recent Islamist terror attacks, Islamophobia has superseded general immigration as the key driver for the growth of the Far Right in the UK. 'Cultural Nationalists' commonly focus upon Islam, claiming it presents a threat to a so-called 'White, Christian Europe', and the Identitarian 'Great Replacement theory' alleges that mass migration of Muslims and the demographic growth of Islam present an existential threat to the West. However, anti-Muslim rhetoric is a consistent theme across all ideologies within the Far Right.
169. Antisemitism and Jewish conspiracy theories remain a key element of Far-Right rhetoric, and are particularly central to neo-Nazi and White Supremacist' narratives. Antisemitic narratives typically involve an alleged global conspiracy whereby Jews supposedly control Western governments to facilitate their own agendas.
170. ERWT grievances, particularly 'White Supremacist' narratives, centre upon the belief that the so-called 'white race' is superior to all others, and they target Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
171. In October 2020, the written evidence set out the threat level to six faith communities in the UK (the Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu communities) and it was assessed that Extreme Right-Wing Terrorists are more likely to target faith communities than terrorists of other ideologies and that the threat is greatest for Jewish and Muslim communities.
172. With regard to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, the written evidence noted:
- The recent BLM protests and counter-protests are ***.
- It is likely that BLM protests would present a ***.
- There is a realistic possibility that UK-based RW individuals ***.[2]
LGBTQ+ community
173. A number of ERWT grievance narratives advocate the defence of "so called 'traditional values', promoting the heterosexual cisgender family unit as the 'cornerstone' of some alleged 'ideal', claiming that LGBTQ+ communities present a threat to, and are at odds with, this vision".[3]
174. 'White Supremacist' Ethan Stables announced online that he was planning to carry out an attack on an LGBTQ+ event at a pub in Cumbria.[4] Stables was convicted in February 2018 of preparation of terrorist acts (S.5 Terrorism Act 2006), as well as for making threats to kill and possession of explosives, and was later sentenced to an indefinite hospital order on 30 May 2018.
Politicians and other public figures
175. Many who adhere to Extreme Right-Wing (XRW) ideologies rail against the so-called 'establishment.' Anti-establishment narratives suggest the establishment is complicit in the so-called betrayal of the 'white race', presenting immigration policies as examples of the government sanctioning the demise of a 'white' cultural heritage. MI5 judges that:
an increasing mainstreaming of these principles, coupled with a widespread crisis of authority, increases the ERWT threat to figures associated with the establishment, for example MPs.[5]
176. This is a tangible threat in the UK, as borne out by the murder of Jo Cox MP by Thomas Mair in 2016, and the conviction of National Action member Jack Renshaw of plotting to murder Rosie Cooper MP. It is notable that a higher preponderance of female politicians are targeted by the Far Right, both here in the UK and across Europe. In July 2019, it was reported that the television news programme Newsnight had carried out a study in conjunction with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue looking at the nature of public commentary on prominent political figures across Europe which found that "abuse of female politicians is rife online—and much of it is being directed by established Far-Right groups and figures. The investigation revealed evidence that female [political] figures receive proportionately more abuse than their male counterparts—and that a significant proportion of it takes the form of misogynistic and violent anti-female vitriol".[6]
177. JTAC assesses that an attack which targets MPs is *** and that the primary threats come from Islamist terrorism and ERWT.[7] In December 2020, MI5 was ***.[8]
178. There has been evidence of Far-Right 'hackers' using cyber attacks to release the personal information of their political opponents (a practice known as 'doxxing'). In November 2018, a hacker known as 'Johannes' targeted a number of German public figures, politicians and online personalities (all of whom had voiced support for refugees or criticised the Far Right) and designed an 'advent calendar' whereby he released the personal details of a single individual each day, gradually building up to the release of details pertaining to Chancellor Angela Merkel and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.[9] MI5 advised that ***.[10]
National institutions and infrastructure
The police
179. The police may be considered by some Extreme Right-Wing Terrorists to be part of the system they wish to change, and may justify their targeting of the police services on this basis:
- On 25 August 2018, a UK-based member of the 'White Supremacist' group Sonnenkrieg Division (SKD) distributed a poster on the social media website Gab urging sexual violence against female police officers.
- In September 2019, West Midlands Police was the subject of a 'doxxing' attack (the publishing online of personal identifiable information) by the Feuerkrieg Division (FKD)—this included posting the addresses of the district police headquarters, stations, learning facilities, offices and detainment centres on the FKD's Telegram web portal.
180. In September 2020, written evidence noted that there had been *** UK police ***, and that *** other subsets of the population (such as politicians and minority groups).[11] Nonetheless, it remains *** Extreme Right-Wing Terrorists will target the police as noted earlier in this Report—National Action member Jack Renshaw was arrested on 5 July 2017 for a plot to kill a named police officer as well as Rosie Cooper MP.[12]
UK national infrastructure
181. In January 2020, conspiracy theories began to circulate alleging a connection between Covid-19 and the introduction of 5G masts, and it was reported that ERWT groups had started posting messages online encouraging their supporters to conduct attacks against 5G masts. Within some XRW circles, it is possible that national infrastructure is seen as a legitimate target in order to accelerate the fall of a modern Western state (and thereby instigate a 'race war' in order to create a fascist, white ethno-state).
182. In April 2020, a 5G mast in Birmingham was set alight in what is believed to have been an arson attack inspired by the 5G/Covid-19 conspiracy theory. Videos of the attack have been shared on multiple Right-Wing Extremist online groups supporting the action and calling for further attacks. It is unknown whether these attacks were terror related— ***. In September 2020, the threat assessment in relation to the electronic and broadcast communications sector ***.[13]
- ↑ MI5 Strategic Intelligence Group paper, 27 June 2019.
- ↑ ***.
- ↑ MI5 Strategic Intelligence Group paper, 27 June 2019.
- ↑ ***.
- ↑ MI5 Strategic Intelligence Group paper, 27 June 2019.
- ↑ 'A web of abuse: How the Far Right disproportionately targets female politicians', BBC News, 15 July 2019.
- ↑ JTAC paper, 21 October 2021.
- ↑ JTAC paper, 14 December 2020.
- ↑ Julia Ebner, Going Dark: the Secret Social Lives of Extremists, 2020, pp. 231–232.
- ↑ Oral evidence - MI5, 28 April 2021.
- ↑ ***.
- ↑ ***.
- ↑ ***.