Wound up, no doubt, by a relentless and increasingly violent output of anti-Islam and anti-migrant rhetoric, two fascist terrorists attacked a mosque in Peacehaven, East Sussex, a county known for its chalk cliffs and sea views.
Previously, the town had been featured in the film of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock and, in 1979, the iconic Quadrophenia. Now, a different kind of film has emerged, captured on the local mosque security system.
Defying its name
So now Peacehaven is defying its own name and has become tragically associated with terror. Two hooded figures are seen setting the fire that quickly took hold last Saturday night and was also captured on smart phone by locals as it happened.
You can tell how shocked they were, especially when they realised which building has been targeted. Worse still, if it can get any worse, there were people in the building.
Yes, that’s right. Remember all those online comments about setting migrant hotels ablaze? Remember Lucy Connolly, disgraced councillor and now poster girl for Reform UK?
Remember what she posted online?
Attempted murder
There is a direct, causal relationship between these comments and attempted murder. Free speech cannot, as we know, be wholly free.
But these days too many people on the right, free speech means it’s ok to scream hate, ok to use online platforms to “joke” about things like forced deportations, banning of religious assembly, forced removal of the hijab and the closing of mosques.
Free speech comes with consequences, and they came to Peacehaven in flames at the mosque on Phyllis Avenue.
The reaction was swift. The vast majority of local people are appalled at this latest outbreak of far-right inspired violence.
But then there are people like Danny Tommo, right-hand man to grifter, thug, and pre-eminent voice for anti-Islam rhetoric Tommy Robinson. ‘Tommo’, the man who declared, after the Southport murders of July 2024, that “Every city must go up.”
Harassing Muslims
Just a few days ago, Tommo with radicalised teenager Thomas Moffitt, aka Little Bob, and a handful of other well known bigots, were filmed harassing Muslims in Trafalgar Square.
At the same time, the usual gaggle of so-called ‘auditors’ or ‘citizen journalists’, aka far-right provocateurs, in this case led by Stockport’s Bigoted Ben Mills, were attacking a Palestine march in Manchester.
The thing about free speech, as far as these specimens is concerned, is that they only want it for themselves and their own fascist movement.
They’re not at all happy when any one of their ‘enemies’ – anti-war protesters, liberals, Socialists, Democrats, Muslims, women’s rights advocates, trans rights campaigners, Defend Our Juries groups, and a very long list of others – exercises that very same right.
Drip, drip of hatred
None of this, the massive upsurge in anti-Muslim violence, where incidents are happening on an almost hourly basis, is a surprise. The drip drip drip of hatred is having an effect.
Deranged young men are taking action.
Violence is their tool.
From Reform UK to Advance UK to Tommy Robinson to oxymoronic “Christian Nationalists” to open fascists and neo-nazis, the game’s afoot.
Major Muslim effort
And, as yet, there is no Muslim Community Security Trust. It’s becoming increasingly clear that a major effort is going to have to be made by British Muslims, from the smallest local business to the largest mosque.
With this in mind, we briefly focus on just one of the haters: Nick Tenconi is attempting to march his bunch of goons and thugs through Whitechapel on Saturday 25th October.
This is a deliberate targeting of the East London mosque and is, not coincidentally, within a short distance to Cable Street. 1936.
2025. Same streets. Same battle.
In terms of the scale of the provocation, it is no exaggeration to say that this is on par with Cable St, or with Lewisham in 1977, even if Tenconi’s forces are puny in comparison with the BUF or the National Front.
Whilst there has been some organisation to oppose this, it is not unfair to say that the Muslim community has been slow to mobilise.
One wonders how many more mosques will have to go up in flames before our leaders develop their own CST.
Weaponising bigotry
As I write, news is coming in of a racist attack on three Muslim schoolgirls in Birmingham, and I’m reading about an attacker, armed with a large pair of scissors, who targeted Muslim girls, not adults, leaving the Abdullah Quilliam mosque in Liverpool a few days ago.
Although now safe, the girls are traumatised and the mosque has told parents to be extra vigilant and to pick children up directly from outside the mosque.
Peacehaven is but one of many attacks. The weaponising of fear, bigotry, intolerance and hatred is now hitting the UK full force.
The sad thing is that in small towns like Peacehaven, those attending the mosque have been working in the local area for up to 30 years. Mosque founder Khuram Kiani said he was shocked and horrified by the incident because nothing like it has happened before.
Other residents, more candidly, say they’re disgusted by the attack, but not surprised. This is the climate of fear engendered by vile and reckless ‘free speech’ online, unfiltered social media platforms, racist memes, far-right politicians stirring it up and a government failing to get to grips with fundamental security issues.
Casting blame
And let us not forget the economic climate. Such outbreaks of violence do not come out of a clear blue sky. The hatred always grows when the economy is struggling.
In the UK, the gap between rich and poor is bigger than ever. Local services, from schools to hospitals to road and rail, are not entirely fit for purpose.
So the under-educated, the ill-informed, the men and women who’ve fallen into the racist, conspiratorial rabbit hole, blame those with darker skins or slightly different clothing.
Serious warning
Peacehaven is a warning. A very serious warning. There will be calls for the authorities to do more, and the Muslim community both in East Sussex and beyond should be able to rely on effective policing.
But we know that, in order to create a safe environment for our people, our properties, and our places of worship, we’ll have to do a good deal of the heavy lifting ourselves.
It was reported late yesterday that police have arrested a 46-year-old man in connection with the attack.
