I fear Scotland is losing the war against Far-Right fanatics, says threatened MSP
Sarwar in plea over deepening extremism
AN MSP who has been repeatedly targeted by racist thugs fears Scotland faces a growing threat from Far-Right fanatics.
Anas Sarwar called in police after being subjected to abusive messages and even a threat to torch his constituency office.
Branding Mr Sarwar a ‘brownskinned heretic’ who was no longer welcome ‘in a white nation’, the messages included footage from a white supremacist march.
They were sent by 53-year-old Alexander Agnew, who appeared in court last week and admitted a number of criminal offences.
Today, as Agnew is unmasked as an office-bearer of the hate-filled New British Union of Fascists, Mr Sarwar tells The Scottish Mail on Sunday that he fears Islamophobia and division are on the rise.
The Labour politician was exposed to racist threats as a child, once opening a letter containing a mocked-up picture of his mother tied to a chair with guns pointed at her head and the chilling message: ‘Bang bang, that’s all it takes.’
Shocking as that must have been, he feels hatred and intolerance in society are getting worse.
He said: ‘My fear is we’re fighting against the tide, but the tide’s stronger than we are.’
Mr Sarwar has repeatedly spoken out against Islamophobia, and hopes to hold a Scottish summit with social media giants such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to explore ways of stopping their sites being used to spread hatred.
But he admitted he fears he is fighting a losing battle and there will be another ‘horrible moment’ – as terrible as the murder of MP Jo Cox by Scots-born Thomas Mair – before action is stepped up.
Mr Sarwar grew up in a political household and has faced racism and Islamophobia all his life.
His father Mohammad Sarwar, now Governor of Punjab, became the UK’s first Muslim MP in 1997. Death threats, through the post or in phone calls to the family home, were a ‘regular occurrence’.
Mr Sarwar said: ‘I was about 12 or 13 when I opened a hate-filled letter, with a picture mocked up of my mum sitting on a chair, tied up, two guns pointed at her head with the caption, “Bang bang, that’s all it takes”.’
Despite enduring a childhood marred by death threats, he believes Islamophobia, hatred and division are now worse.
Mr Sarwar fears for the safety of his young children in such a world and does not want them to follow him and his father into politics.
He doubts he would even have entered politics himself if he had known what lay ahead.
He said: ‘I’m doing this because I genuinely believe my children are going to grow up in a more divided world, and a more hatefilled world than I did. Politics has got more divided, more bitter, more challenging and difficult.
‘I’m not sure I would be a newbie in politics if this was the climate ten years ago. And I certainly wouldn’t wish it on my children or anyone else’s children. It’s not a pleasant place to be, and that’s not good for Scotland.’
In June 2016, a week before the EU referendum, Ms Cox, Labour MP for Batley and Spen in Yorkshire, was murdered in the street near her constituency office.
Mair, a neo-Nazi loner, originally from Kilmarnock, was jailed for life. A court heard he shouted ‘this is for Britain’ as he attacked her.
The murder highlighted the rise of the Far-Right in the UK, but Mr Sarwar believes the threat is now even worse.
He said: ‘The dangers have heightened. The tragic case of Jo Cox shows we are not immune to people taking their hatred to a level of horrific, horrible violent acts. I don’t think we’re immune to that in Scotland, just like we aren’t across the UK.
‘I do fear about how bad it gets. My plea to people is, let’s not wait for a horrible moment that makes us stop, reflect and change. Let’s do it now.’
Mr Sarwar has taken precautions at home and work to protect himself and his family, saying: ‘There is advice we get from police.’
Boris Johnson, frontrunner in the Conservative leadership contest, has been accused of Islamophobia for comparing Muslim women to ‘letter boxes’ and ‘bank robbers’.
Mr Sarwar believes such comments are a symptom of a much wider problem in society.
He said: ‘Too often people think Brexit, Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, and other things, are the cause.
‘I don’t think they’re the cause, I think they’re the symptom. There’s a much deeper cause we need to address. The cause is heightening inequality, us versus them narratives, distrust of our institutions, be they political or non-political.’
In March, a pensioner from Dumfries who sent abusive emails to Mr Sarwar was fined £400.
In one of the messages, sent last year, Donald Brown, 72, told the politician to ‘go back to Pakistan because you’re probably happier among your own kind’.
Mr Sarwar said: ‘We have a choice, we can give up, not say anything and just let the tide overrun us. Or we can continue to fight back against the tide and hope the moment comes when we can push stronger than the tide and fight back, and defeat it.’
When asked where Scotland is heading if the tide of hatred continues to be too strong, he said: ‘That’s the fear. I shudder to think what the answer is.’ Ruth Davidson: Page 27
Scotland isn’t immune to people taking their hatred to a level of horrific, horrible violent acts