The UK has a “two-tier approach” to extremism that fails to treat far-right attacks as seriously as Islamist ones, a leading thinktank has said.
The Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) says rightwing violence “is often classified as mere thuggery” by politicians, prosecutors and the security services. Equivalent acts by Islamists would “swiftly be labelled as terrorism”, it says in an article in the Guardian.
A week of riots across England and Northern Ireland that have targeted asylum hotels and mosques have been fuelled by neo-Nazi and extreme-right activity.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, and the Reform UK party leader, Nigel Farage, have claimed that Keir Starmer’s government is implementing a “two-tier” criminal justice system, with predominantly white rioters treated more harshly than non-white counter-protesters.
An article written by the directors of Rusi says a different double standard has been exposed by this summer’s riots which has allowed far-right activity to flourish.
“Rusi’s research suggests that the nature of far-right violence, which is often seen as low impact and disjointed, coupled with institutional bias and racism, means that far-right violence has historically not triggered the same responses from politicians, security services and the media as jihadist violent extremism.
“There exists a clear double standard, or two-tier approach, in how different forms of extremism are addressed, particularly when comparing security and legal responses to far-right and Islamist violent extremism,” the article says.
Written by Rusi’s acting director of the terrorism and conflict research group, Dr Jessica White, the Rusi research fellow Claudia Wallner and its director of terrorism and conflict studies, Emily Winterbotham, it calls for the threat from the far right to be redefined.
“Far right-motivated violence is often classified as mere ‘thuggery’ or hooliganism, while similar acts motivated by Islamist extremism would likely be swiftly labelled as terrorism. This inconsistency undermines the perceived severity of far-right threats and hinders the political will and the necessary legal precedent to take equivalent action,” it says.
Starmer understated the politically driven actions of the far right, the authors claim, when he described an attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers as “far-right thuggery”. “While his [Starmer’s] intent was to acknowledge the ideological underpinnings of the violence, the term ‘thuggery’ downplays the organised networked, and ideological components of the riots, as well as the individuals and groups involved,” the article says.
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Rusi sees merit in calls for severe incidents of far-right violence to be treated as terrorism. “Recognising severe cases of far-right violence as terrorism would align with a more equitable legal strategy, ensuring that all forms of extremism are prosecuted with the seriousness they warrant,” the article says. The recent riots should be seen in the context of “a pattern of violence” across Europe largely ignored by politicians and the public.
“Similar far-right riots have occurred in Dublin in 2023 and in Chemnitz in Germany in 2018, both in reaction to stabbings that sparked widespread anti-immigrant sentiment, with far-right groups exploiting the incidents to incite violence against migrants and refugees,” it says.
Rusi maintains strong ties to the defence and security community. It claims to be the world’s oldest thinktank, established in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington.
Allegations of a two-tier system biased in favour of BAME or leftwing protesters emerged after the pro-Palestinian protests in the UK since 7 October. The former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, now a Conservative leadership candidate, claimed in March that two-tier policing had governed the handling of those protests.
