There’s nothing wrong with patriotism per se.  Pride in your nation, in your culture, heritage and in your country’s historical achievements can give a person a sense of satisfaction, a unique identity and a sense of place and belonging.  Patriotism when it morphs into nationalism however, can be toxic and in the worst examples, even deadly.

Nationalism has many forms, some forms are relatively benign (witness the Scottish Nationalist movement which seeks independence from the United Kingdom in pursuit of a nation state that is governed through a Scottish identity by means of the democratic process and explicitly rejects any racism). Other forms, however, seek to promote a sense of excessive pride, of highly selective national history and of exceptionalism for the ‘insiders’ and of exclusion that can manifest itself as a belief in indigenous superiority and devaluing others which can lead to hatred and justification of violence against those cast as ‘outsiders’.

The irony is that the far-right, and now increasingly, the centre-right openly lament that the left promotes ‘identity politics’ but the far-right’s very core beliefs are wrapped up entirely in identity politics that talks about how someone dresses, the language they speak, the food they eat etc. without even being able to identify what British identity specifically means. Instead they fall back on Islamophobic phrases such as ‘Judaeo-Christian identity’ or those people that can trace their British lineage back to an arbitrary date.

Britain’s far-right has historically been at the margins of British politics.Their parties and movements have gone through various splits and re-inventions but their core beliefs in either nativist or ethno-nationalist superiority and their use of violence has meant that the mainstream parties have traditionally followed a policy of ‘cordon-sanitaire’ where they have openly refused to engage with or work in coalition with the fascists and this policy has so far kept the far-right from the corridors of power.

This policy has started to breakdown however.The erosion of this policy has many components, some of which have been decades in the making.The events of 9/11 brought Muslim identity and the question of the loyalty of Muslims under the spotlight in the West above all other ‘outsider’ groups.Prior to this seminal event the far-right groups in the West tended to focus their hatred on whichever ‘outsider’ group formed the largest or significant minority.The events in 2001 changed the focus of the majority of these hate groups to targetting Muslims.Indeed in the immediate aftermath following 9/11, some non-Muslims suffered violent attacks because the perpetrators mistakenly believed the victims to be Muslim due to their appearance.

The rise of social media has also meant that propaganda can be circulated quickly and cheaply.The far-right used to rely on handing out leaflets they printed to people they thought would accept their message.Social media has also enabled far-right groups to ally with other, similar groups from other countries where they can exchange tactics and amplify one another.‘Bots’ have also been used by these groups to amplify their messages on social media and give a false impression of the size of their support.

Israel, a violent ethno-nationalist state that was founded by means of terrorism, promotes a number of myths about itself.One of them being that Israel is a democracy.This is impossible for an Apartheid State. Israel also claims to be friendly to Muslims states that want diplomatic relations with Israel. In reality, Israel is the enemy of every Muslim and has spent a fortune in promoting Islamophobia.Israel has also sought to prevent Muslims states from becoming democracies in preference of being ruled by dictators they can strike secret deals with.

Israel promotes Zionist propaganda through evangelical churches in the US in a toxic symbiosis where each party thinks its people are chosen by God and that all others will eventually be wiped out by their maker.This lobby has sought to bend US foreign policy in favour of Israel no matter what the details are.

The Israeli effort to spread anti-Muslim hatred was also boosted in the wake of 9/11 through ‘think tanks’ based in Western countries.These organisations have promoted the idea that the West and Islam are fundamentally incompatible and that Israel is a bastion of the West.Some of these think tanks are neoconservative organisations that are cut-outs for the Israeli state and exist to promote Israel’s quest for regime change in the Middle East of any leader that supports the Palestinians as outlined in the Clean Break report written by Richard Perle for Benjamin Nethanyahu.

This network of think tanks, together with wealthy Zionist activists, have secretly funded the far-right groups to further attack Muslims and Islam in the West as reported in the Fear, Inc 2.0 report.They exploit local grievances over government resources, the promotion of the idea that outsiders are given favourable access to these resources and that even the judicial system is biased in favour of outsiders (witness the hysterical reporting on so called ‘two-tier’ policing that is whipped up by the likes of tech billionaire Elon Musk.An accusation that falls apart instantly when you look objectively how ethnic minorities are treated harshly by the police and judiciary).Musk also promotes the idea that the UK is on the brink of a civil war.Musk has been busy promoting far-right voices on his X (Twitter) social media platform under the guise of ‘free-speech’.

Another trope that is actively pushed is the apparent imposition of Sharia law.This fiction is designed to spread fear in the West that somehow the governing class will do away with English law and replace it with Sharia law for everyone regardless of their religious beliefs.This strategy formulates an alliance between the ‘intellectuals’ and thought leaders with the street thugs around a common cause, attacking Islam and Muslims.

Those Zionists have been busy consolidating their ownership of key media assets including social and traditional media where they seek to shape attitudes of consumers in relation to Israel, Muslims, Islam and in particular the narrative relating to the Palestinians.

Another conspiracy that gets promoted by this network of organisations is the ‘Great Replacement Theory’ which originated from French author Renaud Camus and seeks to promote the idea that ‘Western elites’ have conspired to replace the indigenous Western populace with non-white immigrants, particularly Muslims, through mass migration and demographic growth combined with a drop in the birth rate of white Europeans.This conspiracy has spread like wild-fire across the West and puts the blame on a ‘globalist elite’ that is hell bent on changing the cultural identity of the West.The ‘migrant crisis’ in Europe which has seen unprecedented numbers of migrants illegally entering the European mainland in the wake of several wars and destabilisation campaigns (as advised in the Clean Break report) in the Middle East by the West has only accelerated this belief.

Israel has also weaponised Western guilt that dates back to the Holocaust to justify violence and political support. Witness the unflinching support Germany, in particular, has given Israel in its Genocide against the Palestinians and its violent treatment of pro-Palestine campaigners on German streets. Germany cannot atone for one genocide by enabling another genocide.

As the cordon-sanitaire erodes, these toxic ideas are seeping into the mainstream parties, just witness the transformation of the Conservative Party.The party has always had a reputation for barely concealed racism before it made attempts to start reaching out to specific ethnic groups in the 1990’s such as Britain’s Indian community, but in the post-Brexit era the policy has transformed the party into one which can barely conceal its Islamophobia from the front bench downwards.The party has embraced Zionism and Hindu Nationalism, two ideologies that target Islam and Muslims.This transformation has even left Muslim Conservative voices such as Baroness Warsi so disillusioned that she resigned from the Conservative party in 2024 and now sits as a cross-bench Peer in the House of Lords.

MPACUK has always called out the threat that Israel poses to Muslims and now, more and more people, including a few on the far-right, have realised that Israel does indeed implement policies that are detrimental to people who want peace and freedom.Increasingly, voices on the left and right of the political divide have understood the nefarious role that Israel has played in influencing the foreign and domestic policies of so many countries. How can citizens be truly sovereign if Israel is dictating the agenda in their nations?People on both sides of the political divide need to set aside their differences and neutralise Israel’s evil influence on their countries and ensure their politicians and media are working in their interests.