The Rise of the Extreme Far-Right is the latest threat to our Freedoms and Liberties says Stephen Lambert.

THE RECENT violent attack on a mosque in North London by an Islamophobe, leaving one man dead and several seriously injured, is the latest in a long line of domestic terrorist acts on mainland Britain.

The extreme far-right, with its pernicious racist ideology, is as much of a menace as it close cousin Islamist extremism. Both feed off each to bring fear and division in out society. The rise of anti-Muslim view-points isn't just confined to the UK, but elsewhere in Europe too. The growth of right-wing authoritarian nationalism coupled with the rise of anti-minority hatred is becoming deeply entrenched in several European liberal-democracies including Britain. The anti-terrorism expert Rob Wainwright of Euro-Poll claims the next worrying development, after radical Islam, is ''the significant rise in nationalist, xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic sentiments across the EU, each resulting in acts of far-right extremism.

Although the radical right UKIP, with its focus on white identity politics and immigration control, poses no real threat to our national security or democratic way of life, other extreme far-right groups do. This phenomena is by no means toy town fascism or a moral panic, but is firmly rooted in moral and social realism.

According to the charities Hope not Hate and the Jo Cox Foundation, Britain First is probably the only group experiencing rapid growth on the far-right.'' It has supplanted Nick Griffin's quasi-fascist BNP, whose party is virtually defunct. With its populist anti-migrant programme and commitment to street politics based on direct action against Muslim public figures, Britain First strongly resembles the inter-war British Union of Fascists (BUF) headed up by the former Labour/Conservative MP, Sir Oswald Mosley. Staunchly racist, homophobic and Islamophobic, many of its supporters are known soccer hooligans with criminal convictions for violence and GBH.

Last christmas the Conservative Government added the extreme right-wing party, National Action, to its list of banned organisations. National Action, a self-defined neo-nazi group, with an active membership of 280 and a pervasive social media presence, staged a number of protests in Newcastle and other major cities last year. As the Home Secretary Amber Rudd rightly pointed out it has no place in our democracy. Both MI5 and MI6, there state's security services, have noted there are genuine concerns that British, sometimes foreign born neo-fascists, have connections with a European wide terror network.

According to figures obtained from the British Home Office, hate crimes against Muslims, soared by a staggering 70% in 2016-2017. The Government's Prevent programme has witnessed a surge in far-right referrals. Over a quarter of cases investigated were related to extreme right-wing activities. 57% of 'lone wolf' foiled terrorist assaults on British soil have been instigated by right-wing extremists. The social characteristics of the extreme right display striking similarities to those who subscribe to Radical Islam or to extreme left-wing domestic organisations like the former Militant Tendency or Revolutionary Communist Party (both now re-branded). This is known as the ''horse-shoe theory'' where extremists from both the far-right and far-left come together in their mutual contempt of liberal-democracy, difference and ''the other''. These groups have become ironically symbiotic. Their interdependent relationship with one another contributes to their continuation and survival.

Some are psychologically fractured individuals with too often authoritarian personality disorders. Others have become socio-economically marginalised seeking out scapegoats or become alienated or anomic from the wider society with an embedded set of grievances. Not only do these individuals have a 'chip on their shoulder' - in too many cases they have an entire forest! All have bought into a divisive, hate-driven racist and poisonous narrative.

Although some members are drawn from a disenfranchised 'lumpen-prolerariot' or urban under-class, the leaders of far-right groups tend to university educated. Some have found a niche in deregulated large scale bureaucracies built on rigid managerial hierarchies. As the distinguished journalist Nick Cohen notes in his book, 'What's left' and elsewhere in The Observer, a significant minority are workplace bullies ('little Hitlers, Evan Brauns and Little Lenins') who misuse their power to the detriment of the silent majority. It comes as no surprise to those in the field that the former leaders of the National Front (NF) and British National Party (BNP) - Andrew Broms, Nick Griffin and Adam Walker are graduates. All all taught in northern English Colleges as did the former leader of the now racialized Ukip, Dr. Paul Nuttall.

The rise of the British far-right is attributable to a number of factors. One, the rapid growth of fundamental Islamic extremism has fuelled support for white supremacist groups like the English Defence League (EDL), Britain First or lone-actors like the long-term unemployed Darren Osbourne, now in police custody over the Finsbury Park Mosque attack. Two, as a response to the ''loss of centre ground'' in post-truth politics. And three, the election of the populist maverick Donald Trump to the top world job of American President, has spawned increased cases of racial hatred both in the US and UK. According to the campaign group Tell Mama the number of Islamophobic attacks in Manchester rose five-fold in the week after the suicide bombing with 139 incidents recorded by the police compared to 25 the previous week.

For others the contentious and emotive Brexit process has unleashed a strand of intolerance. The rise of Marie Le Pen's Front National (with the tacit approval of Russian leader Vladimir Putin) where she gained over 10 million votes in March's Presidential election (coming second to Macron), together with Geert Wilder's Dutch Freedom Party, has helped to legitimise the world-perspective of neo-fascism last seen in the 1930s throughout Germany, Italy and Spain. There remains a danger that Ukip could become more radicalised under a new leader. With a possibility of negotiations breaking down between the British Administration and EU leaders over the thorny issue of immigration, Ukip could enjoy a future resurgence in urban and coastal small town Britain.

As Europe has become infected with a chilling strand of far-right populism we as a nation must re-affirm our commitment to the liberal democratic values of parliamentary democracy, equality of worth and opportunity, the rule of law, mutual tolerance and a respect for other faith and belief systems. The Government's policy decision to establish a Commission for Counter-Extremism is to be welcomed by all fair minded people. Extremism is in its varied forms is the enemy within. We must never let extremists and terrorists turn citizens and communities against each other.