Fascism is on the rise in the UK, a Church of England bishop has warned, condemning the \u201ctwisted theology\u201d of the self-described \u201cChristian patriots\u201d who demonstrated at ports on the south coast last weekend.<\/p>\n
The masked, black-clad, anti-migrant<\/a> agitators \u2013 led by Daniel \u201cDanny Tommo\u201d Thomas, a former bodyguard of the far-right influencer Tommy Robinson \u2013 were heard chanting: \u201cChrist is King.\u201d<\/p>\n Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall in Leeds, said the incidents in Dover and Portsmouth were part of an increasingly worrying and disturbing rise in attempts \u201cto tear the social fabric of our country\u201d this year.<\/p>\n Arun Arora: \u2018There is no national flag that sits atop the cross.\u2019 Photograph: Arun Arora<\/p>\n Arora said the disorder that followed the \u201cevil\u201d killing of Henry Nowak<\/a> in Southampton earlier this year, the subsequent racist firebombings in Belfast<\/a>, anti-migration protests in Thetford, Norfolk, and a recent incident in Lancashire \u2013 in which the BBC reported that a six-year-old boy had a racial slur scrawled on his forehead<\/a> \u2013 were \u201cthe first steps on the journey to open fascist nationalism that takes pride in conflict, hostility and division\u201d.<\/p>\n Arora added: \u201cThe biggest threat to England\u2019s fabric today is to be found in the tidal wave of nationalism that threatens to destroy the foundations of community, to devastate social cohesion and threaten any sense of unity within this United Kingdom.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have seen on our streets in Southampton, in Belfast, in Thetford, in Portsmouth, in Dover is the playing out of a new machtpolitik \u2013 the ideology that argues that might is right \u2013 that threatens not only those of us who are likely to be targeted or attacked but threatens our way of life as a country.<\/p>\n