President Trump, Britain First and the politics of hatred.

Updated 30/11/17   We have now sent a letter based on this post to the US Ambassador from the Centre and Churches Together in Luton.

This morning the President of the United States of America has validated one of Britain’s  most obnoxious and hate filled extremist groups. By retweeting three tweets by Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of street protest movement and self-styled political party Britain First, Donald Trump has shown us that that his office is supportive of the views of that organisation and the wider extremist right. 

Lets be very clear, the tweets purportedly carry video of the actions of Isis and violent Muslims.  They are unverified, true, but we know these things happen. We condemn them.  However what Britain First do, and what the US President has now joined his support to, is use these to tarnish the beliefs of the whole Islamic faith, to identify them as supporters of terror. This is totally unacceptable. 

We have had a long story of direct engagement with the leaders of Britain First in Luton . The story of that is told here by our director Peter Adams.  We wrote to them as church leaders  in Luton. We have met with them. We have worked to challenge their presence in our town. And we have reached out to those impacted by their hatred.  We are appalled that now the President of the most powerful nation in earth has now allied himself with their agenda of hatred.  

We must now as Christians be sure that the many Christians in the USA who support President Trump know of what he has identified himself with. Please feel free to pass on this quick post and the blog post it links to . Thanks