(MintPress) – A recent report by the King’s College in London (KCL) found that The English Defense League (EDL), a radical right-wing group, is seeking to exploit fears of sex abuse by Muslim males as “rape jihad” to further its strongly anti-Islamic advocacy. The EDL is part of a resurgent far-right nativist political movement sweeping Europe and influencing national elections.
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens of KCL’s International Center for the Study of Radicalization, one of the report’s authors, commented, “The EDL has successfully exploited concerns about the sex-grooming gangs in the north of England, turning the issue into one of Islam versus the west.”
The EDL allegations stem from May 2012 prosecutions of nine individuals in Rochdale, England — all Muslim males originally from South Asia who abused young girls, some as young as 13. The victims were reportedly plied with food, alcohol, drugs and gifts so they could be passed around the group of men for sex.
The Rochdale gang was jailed for a total of 77 years for charges including rape, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault and trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The English Defense League has used these prosecutions to recruit new supporters rallying around the erroneous notion that the Rochdale case is part of a “rape jihad” included in Muslim teachings.
The English Defense League describes itself as an organization “peacefully protesting militant Islam.” Although there are no official membership statistics, the EDL leadership estimates that it has 100,000 members. An independent 2011 survey published in the Guardian newspaper put the number of active supporters at 25,000-35,000.
HOPE Not Hate, a campaign mobilizing people opposed to the EDL’s “politics of hate,” labeled the EDL a “racist organization” that is the “largest right-wing threat in the United Kingdom today.”
EDL membership is overwhelmingly young, White, male and virulently opposed to immigration.
The rise of the radical right in Europe
Fascist and neo-nazi groups have seen a resurgence across Europe in recent years prompted in part by groups opposed to the wave of new immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia.
The National Front in France and the Freedom Party in the Netherlands are among a new breed of right-wing political parties not seen since the rise of the Nazi party in Germany leading up to World War II.
The Golden Dawn, a far-right neo-Nazi group in Greece, has seen rapidly increasing popularity, spurred in part by the woes of the Greek economy. The political party captured 7 percent of the popular vote during the 2012 elections, enough for the party to enter the Hellenic Parliament for the first time with 18 seats.
The party supports putting immigrants into forced labor camps and has called for landmines along the border with Turkey.
Golden Dawn policies resemble those put forth by some members of the Tea Party in the United States. The right-wing, small-government movement emerged in 2009 on a platform promoting lower taxation and fewer entitlements.
Some of the more extreme members of the movement have called for mass deportations of the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States and for a border fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Others, including Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), have stressed the idea that Muslims in America are a fifth column seeking to undermine democracy with Islamic shariah law. In 2012, the Tea Party-backed Congresswoman announced publicly that Muslim Brotherhood agents had “penetrated the Obama administration,” which she claimed were attempting to “enforce Islamic speech codes.”