Paving the way for Nick Griffin

Page 35
Q-News, Issue 362
April 2005

Quiet, almost forgotten, Keighley is about to become very important. With Nick Griffin running in a town which already has two BNP councillors, Azhar Hussain looks at how the town’s significant Muslim population is responding and how the sitting MP may be held accountable for Griffin’s rise.

Keighley’s reputation has always been one of a quiet, conservative industrial town whose fortunes rose and fell at the mercy of changing economic circumstances. Local people had little control of these circumstances and the town felt rather separate from the rest of the country. It has received little attention from outsiders except the occasional, polite query as to why its name is pronounced keethley rather than keeley. As we approach a general election, the campaign in Keighley will be closely watched and eagerly commented upon by pundits up and down the country. The town has, all of a sudden, become very important.

We have the BNP’s Nick Griffin to thank for that. With his decision to stand in the Keighley constituency, the battle lines have been drawn. A confident BNP boasts about its previous successes in a town in which it has two councillors. The BNP is challenging the mainstream political parties to a public debate claiming they represent the honest views of the silent majority.

The response to the BNP has been swift and varied. The local paper has been full of letters from local politicians and ordinary residents denouncing the BNP as a racist organisation. The Keighley Together campaign, a cross party initiative, has been launched. Its activities include public meetings, posters for people to display in their windows and distribution of half-black and half-white wristbands. The Unite Against Fascism coalition has also been busy distributing leaflets branding Nick Griffin a Nazi. According to the BNP, others have taken a more physical approach and put bricks through the window of a BNP councillor’s home. Another individual adopted graffiti at the train station to convey what he thinks the BNP stands for: “Britain Needs Pakis!”  

Yet the Muslim community, the subject of the debate remains largely silent. Lacking the social organisation and capacity to articulate public responses, many Muslims are simply hoping that the current discussion on immigration is a cyclical storm that will soon subside. Privately people are deeply concerned by recent developments, however. The message emerging from the mainstream parties: “We are not against immigrants or immigration, we only want controlled immigration,” has reassured people as much as the BNP’s claim: “We’re not racist, we just want Britain to be for whites only.”

Beyond immigration, the picture is just as bleak. Whilst Blair is waging a war on terror, the local Labour MP, Anne Cryer is waging her own war on “forced marriages”. This has angered the once Labour-faithful older generation of Asian Muslims. In contrast, after the initial anger against Cryer’s remarks diminished, most of the younger generation agree that the issues she raises are real and must be tackled. But what they are appalled by is the lack of sensitivity in the approach, the shallowness of the analysis offered and the inappropriateness of the suggested solutions. Such is the strength of the feeling that some have gone as far as to assert that Cryer has paved the way for Griffin.  

There is a growing disenchantment with the choices the political parties offer. The only clear benefit in voting appears to be to maximise the number of non-BNP votes. Muslims have real concerns about educational underachievement, drugs and the joblessness of their young generation, yet no party appears to transcend political rhetoric and offer practical solutions at a local level.

Perhaps it is too early to predict with any certainty how Muslims will vote but what is clear is that family and village affiliations that were part of the baggage first generation immigrants carried over from their native lands will play an important role. My fear is that in the final analysis many will conclude: “They’re all the same so I may as well keep the uncles happy.”

Whilst Keighley’s Muslims are unhappy with their politicians, they view their white neighbours with much less suspicion. Locals are surprised to hear their town described as “racially sensitive”. Yes, racism must be taken seriously as it negatively affects the opportunities available to young people, hampering their economic progress. But Keighley is not a community that is perpetually under the shadow of simmering racial hatred. We must remember that the incidents that grab the headlines are usually an exception.

Events such as the Keighley Together campaign and a recent forum on British Muslim identity, organised by a local group of young Muslim professionals, are signs that the threat of the BNP is forcing Keighley’s community into positive action. If sustained, we can hope that a defeated Griffin will walk away from Keighley leaving behind a more cohesive, albeit infamous, town.