The Hindu : International : BNP in race row

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

International

International

BNP in race row

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 18. Barclays Bank has closed nearly half a dozen accounts of the far-right British National Party (BNP) after its leaders were secretly filmed by the BBC making racist remarks against Asian communities and intimidating them.

"The bank had been looking at the situation for some time, but the BBC documentary provided evidence enabling the bank to act,'' an official said.

The move, welcomed by anti-racist groups but condemned by the BNP chairman, Nick Griffin, as "absolutely scandalous'' , came as the police launched an investigation to decide if any action was warranted against those BNP members who were shown making inflammatory remarks. In an undercover documentary, The Secret Agent, telecast on Thursday, senior BNP activists were seen abusing Asians, calling them a threat to British culture and threatening to "shoot Pakis''.

One young party organiser, Steve Barkham, boasted how he brutally beat up and repeatedly kicked an Asian youth during the 2001 race riots in Bradford. The film also showed one party-man, Stewart Williams, saying, "All I want to do is shoot Pakis'', and another saying that it was his `dream' to sit in a van full of explosives and fire at a Muslim prayer congregation.

Mr. Griffin was filmed calling Islam a "vicious, wicked faith'' and accusing Muslim youths of kidnapping and raping white girls. "You have got to stand up... .because otherwise they will do for someone in your family, that is the truth,'' he told supporters.

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