How children as young as nine are being indoctrinated by the far-right – as revealed by former neo-Nazi
Exclusive: Nigel Bromage warns far right is radicalising lay people as ‘pawns’ to perpetrate violence and destruction in wake of recent unrest
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Your support makes all the difference.Children as young as nine are being radicalised by their far-right relatives, a reformed neo-Nazi has warned.
Nigel Bromage, who was involved in far-right groups for two decades but now runs a deradicalisation charity, told The Independent the youngest person that his organisation has supported was a boy who was using neo-Nazi references after being radicalised by his older brother.
Discussing the recent explosion of violence, he warned the far right is radicalising lay people to use as “pawns” to perpetrate violence and destruction.
Extremists have managed to get people to believe the misinformation and lies they are pushing and mobilise them as people “feel voiceless and unheard”, he added.
His exclusive interview comes in the wake of far-right violence erupting across the UK in the aftermath of the fatal stabbing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport. False information spread rapidly online claiming the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker who came to the UK on a small boat crossing.
Rioters have attacked mosques, ambushed riot police, set fire to a hotel housing migrants and torched a public library and Citizens Advice Bureau building.
Mr Bromage, director of Exit Hate Trust which helps people who want to leave racist groups, said his organisation had come across children who have been radicalised by parents or older siblings. One case involved a nine-year-old who had been fed extremist views by his brother.
The 59-year-old said the child’s older brother became involved in the movement via extreme right-wing forums – explaining his organisation had helped both brothers leave the far right.
Nazism is built on the notion the “struggle is from the cradle to the grave”, Mr Bromage said.
He added: “When babies are born, they are dedicated to Adolf Hitler and national socialism and they will be brought up believing that they have to protect the white race and there is an ongoing war against the system.
“By the time they are five or six, sadly, they are pretty much indoctrinated into being against the system and being against people of different ethnicities.”
The Exit Hate Trust takes self-referrals as well as referrals from friends and family.
Mr Bromage said the trust talks to couples involved in far-right groups, adding it tends to be the man in a racist or extreme right-wing organisation when then gets their girlfriend or wife involved.
They are just being used as pawns within this plan of the far right to cause destruction
“Then this then disseminates down to the children being promoted racism and extremism,” he said.
Mr Bromage noted family members can use racist games, music, memes or other forms of humour to indoctrinate children.
Worrying signs of racist behaviour have been seen from young people during the riots over the last week. In footage on social media, a girl was seen skipping down the street holding the arm of an older woman while chanting “P***s out”, just before an anti-immigration march in Belfast.
An 11-year-old boy was arrested during disorder in Hartlepool last Wednesday, while a 14-year-old boy is the youngest person charged in connection with the riots so far.
Anki Deo, senior policy officer at Hope Not Hate, wrote Plugged in but Disconnected: Young People and Hateful Attitudes, a report which explores how harmful attitudes are formed in young people.
The researcher said that from focus groups with secondary school teachers, they discovered that young people could pick up harmful views at home.
She said: “A lot of the teachers were railing against the idea that the young people they were concerned about were weird loners, they were saying some of them were actually reasonably popular.
“They are not necessarily social outcasts. A lot of the social relationships and structures in the home were making it difficult for teachers to reinforce a positive narrative in schools. Teachers felt they were parroting things they’d heard at home.”
Mr Bromage said demonstrations were predominantly made up of political activists when he was involved in the far right but now protests include both extremists and frustrated members of the public.
The campaigner said: “The far right are really good at promoting their message of hate and division. So what they will do is they will create memes, tell lies about stories, edit films so what you are actually seeing is a small cut of a much larger film with really emotive headings.”
He warned that some protesters are “getting lost in this mayhem and destruction”, adding that “they are just being used as pawns within this plan of the far right to cause destruction”.
Mr Bromage argued that social media can radicalise someone in months, turning them from being angry to believing direct action and violence is the only solution.
He compared this to the much slower radicalisation process when he was involved in the movement – explaining they would have to wait two or three months for a response after writing to PO boxes in the US.
Discussing his trajectory, he recalled going to protests from around the age of 15 “simply for the excitement”.
“I was born a working-class lad in a council flat, and it was a bit dull and not very exciting,” he said. “But once you had actually been on a march and then started to go on two, three, four, or five – it was like a drug. You absolutely embraced it and looked forward, sadly, to the confrontations and the flag-waving and the drums and all that type of thing.”
Mr Bromage recounted how he slowly became involved in the far right – joining groups which were increasingly extreme.
He also explained how his mother died from cancer when he was 18 and his dad died five years later after being hit by a van. Aged 23, the far right effectively became his family as he had no siblings.
The campaigner said he then ended up joining the National Front as a foot soldier, going to meetings and demonstrations and starting up a Rock Against Communism band called Buzzard Bait.
After this, he became an organiser in the West Midlands for the British Movement, an openly Nazi group, and went on to become a recruiter and local organiser for Combat 18, the neo-Nazi group which has pushed white supremacy.
He left that life behind in 2000 after members of the racist group tried to throw a Black man through a shop window in Birmingham and he intervened to stop them.
Since starting campaign work, Mr Bromage said he has been forced to move house twice due to receiving threats of violence.
He said his organisation has been subjected to many threats of violence and abuse – some of which have come from as far away as the US – and had lost members of staff due to this.
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