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Far-right terror threat on the rise in Britain

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Extremists fuelled by online hate speech

Following an attack on Muslims in London a year ago, Britain is facing a growing threat from far-right extremists fuelled by online hate speech, forcing the authorities to react.

In a country hit by five attacks that killed 36 people in six months last year, "the biggest threat is from Islamist terrorism", Home Secretary Sajid Javid said earlier this month. But "extreme right-wing terrorism is also an increasing threat", the interior minister added as he unveiled a new counter-terror strategy.

A report found that four attacks have been carried out in UK over the past five years "by lone actors motivated to varying degrees by extreme right-wing ideologies".

Among them was Darren Osborne, 48, who a year ago drove his rented van into a group of Muslim worshippers near Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, killing one man and injuring 12 others.

The father of four's radicalisation ramped up in a matter of weeks, fed by compulsive reading of hate material online.

Mr Matthew Henman, from the Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre database, told AFP: "There is a clear increase in both the tempo of attacks conducted by right-wing extremists and in the seriousness, lethality, of such violence."

In past decades, extreme right-wing activity in Britain was confined to small groups with an older membership, which promoted anti-immigration and white supremacist views but was a low national security risk.

But the emergence of the neo-Nazi group National Action in 2014, and similar fringe outfits like Generation Identity, has helped forge a new, younger pool of extremists, according to the "2018 State of Hate" report by the anti-racism organisation Hope Not Hate.

The report's "online hate" section cited British figures such as conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson among those with the biggest reach on social media.

However, Mr Henman said he had seen "encouraging signals" from the government and security services, such as disrupting plots and banning National Action in December 2016 after the assassination of opposition Labour MP Jo Cox by a neo-Nazi sympathiser.

"As with the fight against militant Islamism, these policies treat the symptoms of right-wing extremism and not the cause," said Mr Henman, calling for a more "comprehensive approach" and adding the spike in far-right activity was "not occurring in a bubble".

"There is a broader role played by prominent elements in the right-wing media and elements of hardline government policy that have help foster and create an environment in which right-wing extremism can take root and spread," Mr Henman said.- AFP

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