Far-right extremists preparing civil war on Islam in UK: Report

Far-right extremists are moving increasingly online as they prepare for what they believe is a "civil war on Islam" in Britain, according to a new report released today by a UK-based anti-racism group.
Hope Not Hate, a campaign group which investigates neo-Nazi groups to combat far-right extremism, warns that the UK must be prepared for more terrorist plots and use of extreme violence from the far-right for the foreseeable future.
"We are facing a surging threat from far-right terrorism and violent extremism.

We fear further violence from the extreme right in the months to come," saidNick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate.
"This rising terrorist threat is the consequence of the increasingly confrontational tone of online far-right rhetoric, combined with the almost universal extreme-right belief that a civil war between Islam and the West is coming," he added.

What makes Muslim ban 3.0 so dangerous

Two years ago this December, Donald Trump issued his now infamous statement: “Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”

Nearly a year into his presidency, Trump has sought to put three different Muslim bans into place, with the last now making its way through the courts.

In a December 4 ruling, the Supreme Court decided to allow Muslim ban 3.0 to be implemented while challenges to its constitutionality make their way through the lower courts. In this, the Supreme Court overturned appellate courts’ earlier decisions to halt its implementation during the appeal process.

To be clear, this decision was not based on the merits of the case or the ban’s constitutionality. Nonetheless, for many Muslims, it indicates that institutionalized Islamophobia isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In the context of a president and administration that has repeatedly stoked anti-Muslim sentiments, this latest act of state violence is depressingly unsurprising.

Unlike earlier versions of the ban, which initially imposed three-month restrictions on six or seven Muslim-majority countries, version 3.0 indefinitely targets nationals from eight countries. Syrian and Somali nationals are being banned altogether, while nationals from Iran, Libya, Yemen and Chad face a range of restrictions and barriers to entry.

North Korea and Venezuela are also included in the latest ban, as a fig leaf to cover Trump’s expressed intention to target Muslims’ entry to the United States in arguments before the courts.
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