Husaria Manchester, Karol Peruta and Extremism Targeted at Settled Polish Communities

March 4, 2019 Article

Concerns about the views of the leadership of a Polish community group has intensified after Husaria Manchester has procured the lease for a community centre inside of a former church in the Manchester area.

Karol Kamil Peruta, who appears as Husaria’s main contact on YouTube, following its founding in 2017, has posted a litany of anti-Muslim content on social media and follows several far-right Polish groups and individuals on his personal Twitter.

He appeared in a Facebook Live video on the official page of Husaria Manchester on February 6, stating that the group had obtained a lease to use a disused church as a community space.

In 2016, an anti-Muslim and Islamophobic meme appeared on Mr Peruta’s Twitter account, which depicted an individual in a niqab as a bearded man with explosives attached to their chest in the place of their breasts. The tweet has since been removed but remains archived.

Following the terror attacks in Manchester and London in 2017, Mr Peruta called for Islam to be ‘banned’ on his personal Facebook account.

A blog written in 2015 by Mr Peruta claimed that Muslims, “cheat and lie. They steal and break the law. They are lazy and filthy.” This is one of many examples seen by Faith Matters brought to our attention by concerned members of the Polish community.

Activists in the Polish community have shared a photograph Mr Peruta took with Paul Golding, leader of the far-right street defence movement Britain First. An interview with Mr Golding, recorded in 2017, also appears on the Twitter feed of Peruta.

Mr Peruta has ranted against interracial relationships in the Polish community, adding that such relationships were turning ‘traditional’ Polish shops into ‘pseudo’ stores which stock halal products, where the store’s profits could be going towards the funding of a mosque, an Islamic centre, or terrorism. He went on to lament the ‘stupidity’ of Poles who welcome their ‘own destruction’ by working with Muslims. Peruta ended his hateful rant by suggesting that he will upload photos of such ‘pseudo’ Polish stores in what amounts to a boycott, in pursuit of ‘authentic’ Polish stores in Manchester. The attached image claimed that Polish barcodes begin with the digits 590. The post, which appeared on his Facebook on September 30, 2015, gained almost 100 shares.

In Peruta’s blog entry from 2015, he states this about Muslims: “They cheat and lie. They steal and break the law. They are lazy and filthy”. There are many other examples of such dehumanising rhetoric used by Mr Peruta which have been sent to us by concerned members of the Polish community.

He follows the Twitter account of the disgraced former priest Jacek Międlar – a far-right extremist banned from entering the UK due to his antisemitic views.

Mr Peruta’s Twitter account follows several nationalist and extreme right-wing pages – from the National Radical Camp (ONR) to the National Rebirth of Poland (NOP).

A photograph later removed from Mr Peruta’s personal Facebook page showed individuals with ONR flags at an event in 2017 (see below).

A year earlier, on June 19, 2016, near Rochdale, Karol Peruta was photographed with the controversial revisionist historian with links to the ONR, Leszek Żebrowski, who was labelled an antisemite in a 2016 article published by Gazeta Wyborcza.

It was around this time in 2016 that Mr Peruta shared a meme on Facebook which referred to ‘Good Night Left Side’ – a neo-Nazi parody of the anti-fascist idea of ‘Goodnight White Pride’.

Nor is this the only example of this rhetoric appearing on his social media. A Facebook ‘like’ which appears on his profile is the neo-Nazi page ‘Anti-Antifa Hooligans’ which includes videos of individuals carrying out acts of graffiti and men performing Nazi salutes. Another nationalist meme was anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT in nature. Now, there’s no evidence of Karol Peruta interacting with the page, or liking any of the content, but the page itself boats almost 20,000 fans and draws in support of ultranationalists from across Europe. Why Mr Peruta liked such a page is, therefore, concerning.

An individual assisting Husaria Manchester with grave cleaning in the Birmingham area was photographed wearing a ‘Good Night Left Side’ t-shirt on April 18, 2018.

The official page of Husaria Manchester has been used to promote the neo-Nazi group Ogniwo (The Link).

Mr Peruta gave the Israeli Embassy in Poland a one-star review on Facebook, describing them as ‘liars’, days after official commemorations for Holocaust Memorial Day took place on January 27.

Given that Husaria Manchester has worked with mainstream Polish organisations, we are concerned that many are unaware of the views expressed on the social media accounts of Koral Peruta.

Husaria Manchester has worked with other mainstream Polish groups – from community outreach to the cleaning of gravestones, with children, and other communities. Organisations like the Kresy Family and the Polish Expats Association will abhor and reject the views expressed by Karol Peruta, and our research will be forwarded to them, to ensure such examples of entryism is not allowed to continue.

Faith Matters will be handing its evidence to Manchester County Council.

The post Husaria Manchester, Karol Peruta and Extremism Targeted at Settled Polish Communities appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Husaria Manchester, Jacek Miedlar, Karol Kamil Peruta, Manchester, News, Polish communities

Rebel Media: A Platform Promoting Division, White Nationalism and Fear Mongering

March 4, 2019 Article

We are launching this report on Rebel Media and its influence online in a world where click-bait content, conspiracy theories and untruths become fact in the minds of some.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE

This report, entitled ‘Rebel Media – a platform promoting division, white nationalism and fear mongering‘ highlights the following. Key points include the following:

  • Ezra Levant has made a career out of using inflammatory language to gain audiences. He is the founder of Rebel Media and he has previously accused Gypsies of being “rapists, drug-dealers, thugs and murderers”.
  • Former contributors on the payroll of Rebel Media have included Tommy Robinson, Lauren Southern, Katie Hopkins and Paul Joseph Watson. They are notorious for their anti-Muslim, anti-refugee and anti-migrant views as well as promoting views of a clash of cultures between the West and the East.
  • Central to Rebel Media’s message is the platforming of far right ideology, many would identify as ‘counter-Jihadi’ and with slants that seek to portray a world view of ‘them and us’ – with Muslims in Europe being viewed as ‘them’.
  • There are three heavily emphasized themes that make up Rebel Media’s output. These include, white nationalism, the rejection of ‘political correctness’ and its criticisms of Islam.
  • It has 1.156 million subscribers on You Tube and 169,000 plus Facebook followers. It also has 161,000 Twitter followers meaning that it has a substantial online reach that can influence people across national boundaries.
  • Groups like Rebel Media have successfully tapped into a wellspring of discontent and unease, ramping up fears that white people are facing a rapid decline managed by elitist institutions on the side of minorities and ‘homosexuals’ and by using immigration as a tool against white people.
  • Rebel Media essentially believe that there is an Islamist infiltration through increased number of Muslim migrants.
  • Ezra Levant, the founder of Rebel Media, was investigated for possible contempt of court charges for filming inside the Old Bailey in September 2018. The investigation was subsequently discontinued. He was filming Tommy Robinson during his trial for recording a short social media film outside Leeds Crown Court, which was hearing a grooming trial at the time.
  • Two former ‘Rebel’ staffers have suggested that Rebel Media raises over $1,000,000 dollars in subscriptions per annum. It also received a $2 million payment from the anti-Muslim think tank, the Middle East Forum.
  • It continues, like Infowars, to promote a view of white victimisation in a global world where liberal elites are conspiring against them.

The author of the report, Rabbil Sikdar said:

“Much more work needs to be done to counter the fake news around Muslims and the insinuation that building mosques or having halal-certified food amounts to a ‘Muslim takeover’. It alludes to a soft power approach by Islamists. People who buy into this false narrative are then likelier to protest against Islamic institutions like mosques and faith schools or call for fewer Muslims, or even support authoritarian measures against them. Rebel Media are essentially existing as a platform for the spread of fear and hate, and all their contributors work on this line. They have essentially globalised hate and we should be really concerned by that”.

The post Rebel Media: A Platform Promoting Division, White Nationalism and Fear Mongering appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Canada, Counter-Jihadists, Ezra Levant, Katy Hopkins, News, Rebel Media, Tommy Robinson, white nationalism