LONDON (Reuters) - British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin was cleared on Friday of charges of inciting racial hatred.
A jury at Leeds Crown Court had heard that Griffin told supporters Islam was a "wicked, vicious faith" that was turning the country into "a multi-racial hell-hole".
In a 2004 speech in Keighley, West Yorkshire -- secretly filmed by the BBC -- Griffin urged a crowd to
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vote for his far-right party to help stop what he described as a campaign by Muslims to take over the country.
Griffin, 47, and BNP head of publicity Mark Collett, 26, were charged with using words or behaviour intended to incite racial hatred. Both had denied the charges.
Judge Norman Jones, the Recorder of Leeds, had stressed to the jury that it was not the BNP on trial, and that the alleged crime was racial, not religious, hatred.
"This is not about whether the views of the BNP are right or wrong," he said before the jury retired to consider its verdict on Thursday.
"This is not about whether assertions made about Islam are right or wrong, this case is about allegations of the commitment of a crime."
He told the jury stirring up racial hatred did not mean creating racial hatred, but inflaming or exciting it.
Griffin maintained throughout the trial that his comments were not racial, but were attacking religion, and were designed to stir his audience to political activity.
The judge said it was up to the jury to decide whether Griffin's comments were an attack on Islam or whether his words were carefully crafted using Islam as a cloak to stir up racism.
He said Griffin knew that his "less than sophisticated audience" would find the terms Asian and Muslim synonymous.
In February, Griffin and Collett were cleared of two other race hate charges arising out of the same BBC programme.
The BNP, which took over as the country's most prominent far-right party after breaking from the National Front in 1982, has 54 local authority seats, many in poorer areas with large multi-ethnic populations.
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2006-11-10 02:36:21 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
MAD.. its BNP not BMP .. wanker.. look at what you type...
2006-11-10 05:31:47 · update #1
Karen S .. thanks for the Email.. ( keep in touch ).. nuff said
2006-11-10 05:33:30 · update #2
good day for freedom of speech and common sense.
bad day for blinkered bleeding heart liberals spouting hackneyed remarks about, racists, bigots, nazis etc...many of those who oppose the BNP are unaware of the social aspects and shortcomings of mass immigration(especially immigrants who have only contempt for the hosts)
Take time out to read the bnp manifesto,these people have your interests at heart and have the guts to tell it how it is.
2006-11-10 06:51:40 · answer #1 · answered by ? 3 · 6⤊ 4⤋
BNP are a racist party. Enjoy their leaders' other uses of free speech.
NICK GRIFFIN, 47, married, four children. Cambridge law graduate. Attended his first National Front meeting aged 15. Became NF vice-chairman. Joined BNP in 1995
Received nine-month suspended prison sentence at Harrow Crown Court in May 1998 for inciting racial hatred in his magazine, The Rune. Elected leader of BNP in 1999
ON RACE “Without the White race, nothing matters. [Other right-wing parties] believe that the answer to the race question is integration and a futile attempt to create “Black Britons”, while we affirm that non-Whites have no place here at all and will not rest until every last one has left our land”
ON THE HOLOCAUST “The ‘extermination’ tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie and latter witch-hysteria”
ON POWER “When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate. We have to have a body of trained young men capable of defending our organisation. If people come to crack our heads we will break theirs”
MARK COLLETT
AGED 26, single, educated at Loughborough Grammar School and Leeds University, graduate in business and economics, self-employed graphic designer. Former chairman of the Young BNP, now the party’s director of publicity.
ON WINSTON CHURCHILL “Churchill was a f****** c*** who led us into a pointless war with other whites standing up for their race.”
ON THE PRINCE OF WALES “He’s a f****** traitor. Did you hear him say we needed more mosques in this country? All Muslims are anti-British terrorists.”
ON WHETHER BRITISH-BORN BLACKS ARE BRITISH “Just because a dog is brought up in a stable doesn’t make him a horse.”
ON THE ROYAL FAMILY “The Royals have betrayed their people. When we’re in power they’ll be wiped out and we’ll get some Germans to rule properly.”
ON AIDS A “friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it.”
ON JEWS “There’s not a European country the Jews haven’t been thrown out of. When it happens that many times, it’s not just persecution. There’s no smoke without fire.”
ON ADOLF HITLER “Hitler will live forever; and maybe I will.”
Still want to support this horrid pair? If you do then you too are a racist, anti semitic, homophobic, Holocaust-denying fool.
The BNP is the front for groups who commit acts of violence and arson against non-white families. They appeal to the frustrated and stupid. But make no mistake, vote for BNP and you are voting for measures against blacks and Asians which will match those taken by the Nazis against Jews in the years before World War 2. Measures which Griffin, incidentally, denies ever took place.
2006-11-11 08:34:52 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
i've got heard it mentioned that the biggest ingredient in the shortcoming of pink squirrels is overpopulation of people, somewhat than the superiority of greys. that's why you notice greater reds in the North of england and Scotland, the place the human inhabitants is sparser, and much less in the overcrowded and polluted South. pink squirrels only are not getting on all that properly with people, that's why they have all run off to Scotland the place no bugger lives. Greys look better adapted to coping in polluted, city environments - they did come over from u . s . after all.
2016-10-21 14:28:38 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The problem nowadays is that you only have to criticise a minority group in any way to be branded a racist. If you comment on Isreals barbaric ethnic cleansing your an anti semitist, if you pick holes in the muslim religion and say they should adapt to our country not we adapt to thier backward religion then your a racist anti muslim.
Too much political correctness, too less freedom of speech and bad political ideas of bringing everyone to west european countires instead of helping people build thier own countires brings people to vote for the BNP and such parties.
A racist is someone who hates a certain race, not wanting foriegn people to overrun your country is not racist but self preservation.
Attempting to wipe out a certain race or killing loads of a certian belief is worse,, like the USA and Isreal are doing now.
2006-11-10 03:33:44 · answer #4 · answered by Ganymede 3 · 3⤊ 3⤋
A good day for justice and a well deserved smack on the nose for the lefties. They are the real enemies of Britain.
2006-11-10 08:55:17 · answer #5 · answered by Veritas 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Unless you liberals pull your heads out of your middle class ars.es and face up to the misery, homelessness, unemployment, crime and poverty in this country - in which immigrants play a big part, the BNP will go from strength to strength. People can only be pushed so far before they make drastic decisions.
2006-11-10 03:53:55 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 4⤋
What a great day awhite racist hate monger has been found not guilty ,that will really help this country .You should hang your head in shame ,two days after the kris donald verdict you peddle this filth .Aracist is a racist no matter the colour of his skin.Griffin is not worth the pain of the mother that bore him .
2006-11-10 02:57:46 · answer #7 · answered by joseph m 4 · 11⤊ 4⤋
Great result it's good to see the jury wasn't rigged against the BNP which it wouldn't surprise me if it was what with free speach being only if you agree with the PC brigade
2006-11-10 03:06:57 · answer #8 · answered by covleg 1 · 3⤊ 6⤋
You could be reported for putting an advertisement on your question.
In fact, I'm thinking of doing that now.
2006-11-10 05:01:54 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 3⤋
A pity the little twerp got off, but you can't win them all.
2006-11-10 06:40:06 · answer #10 · answered by Huh? 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋