From religious slogans shouted at anti-immigration protests, to far-right leaders publicly displaying their Christian “conversion”, religion has increasingly become a visible tool for moral legitimization for nationalist movements in the UK and other countries, writes The Telegraph.
From Tommy Robinson to the Dover protesters, several radical leaders invoke religion to justify their ideas, fueling a new wave of Christian nationalism.
Last year, in the UK, there were approximately 50,000 Christmas carol services. Largely, these were similar to each other – either improvised or sophisticated, ticketed or open to the general public – all having, in broad terms, the same ingredients: readings and prayers, scenes of the Lord’s birth, songs more noisy than harmonious, seasonal snacks, and a general atmosphere of good cheer.
At one of these jobs, held in the afternoon of December 13, in the Whitehall area of London, most of these elements were present. But there were also some peculiarities: dozens of gendarmes from the Metropolitan Police, on alert; a well-represented opposition movement, a few streets away; and the pastors chosen to speak seemed, for the most part, figures known more from the internet than from churches.
Whether this setting created a truly festive atmosphere for those present probably depended on each one’s perception of the host and the main speaker of the evening, the far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Crosses around the neck and balaclavas: protests in Dover and Portsmouth
The scenes with “protesters” against migrants, masked with balaclavas, from Dover and Portsmouth, from last week, were disturbing for observers across the political spectrum. Led by Daniel “Tommo” Thomas, a far-right activist previously convicted for attempted kidnapping, the group of men who blocked roads and intimidated locals stood out, if not for anything else, by their sober, paramilitary-like attire: faces covered, all in black. Without additional elements, except for the crosses worn around their necks.
The message conveyed was clear: these were people of faith, led by someone who presented himself as a “born again” believer. Thomas, 37 years old, a former military man, educated at a private school in Hayling Island, Hampshire county, was in the past one of Robinson’s close associates. During his two years in prison, served for an attempted kidnapping in 2016, he says he found his faith.
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