NF posters appear in South Shields

The Shields Gazette reports on the appearance of posters in South Shields urging people to vote National Front in the forthcoming local elections and featuring a symbol of a mosque and minaret with the words “no more mosques!”.

The posters which have cropped up on lamp posts around Waterloo Square in the city centre have been condemned by local Muslims saying they risk “creating hatred toward Muslims”.

The local paper notes the appearance of similar posters by the Northern Patriotic Front which used images suggesting “all refugees are rapists.”

Shah Lalon Amin, chair of the Refugee Aid Network, said South Shields was a place of “renowned integration” and the posters circulating in the town days before Thursday’s elections was creating fear and disharmony.

He said, “It’s something that shouldn’t be tolerated. It’s demonising a place of worship and action should be taken against crimes like this…It’s stigmatising mosques and they don’t need this.”

Amin said mosques in the town had taken steps and hosted open days in a bid to welcome local residents and dispel alarmist myths about Muslims.

Amin told the local paper, “Islamophobia is on the rise and this kind of thing further helps to promote that kind of hatred.

“It’s creating racial and religious hatred towards a minority group. Mosques have been vandalised, attacked, and this sort of message, what does it say?”