A group of right wing extremists including a Holocaust denier have tried to exploit a race-hate murder to promote the cause.
UK A Force for Good have laid flowers at the grave of Kriss Donald – the 15-year-old who was abducted, tortured and murdered in 2004 by a group of British Pakistani men. The Sunday Mail caught a member and two associates of the group paying their twisted tribute to the 15-year-old at the graveside in Glasgow and a memorial bench before boasting about it on social media.
Last night the organisation – led by holocaust denier Alistair McConnachie – were accused of using the murder to gain support for their far right agenda. Anti-racism campaigner Khaleda Noon, who runs charity Intercultural Youth Scotland, said: “His murder should not be used to continue perpetuating hate, which is what this is doing.”
UK A Force for Good describes itself as “Scotland’s premier pro-UK campaign group and think tank” and has tried to transform itself into a respectable political movement. Boss McConnachie, who was ejected from UKIP for his extreme views, joined two associates during the visit to Linn Cemetery last weekend where they laid flowers.
The trio then made their way to Kriss’s memorial bench on the Clyde to lay more flowers. The identity of the two associates joining McConnachie is not know but one, who goes by the name Keyser Sosse on social media, has shared conspiratorial views including claims warning that Sharia law is being brought into the UK by stealth.
It is not the first time the brutal murder of 15-year-old Kriss has been capitalised on by extremist groups, despite his mum Angela’s plea for his death not to be treated as a political cause. Four of the gang – Daanish Zahid, Imran “Baldy” Shahid, Zeeshan Shahid and Mohammed Faisal Mustaq – were found guilty of racially motivated murder and are serving life in prison,
Zahid Mohammed pleaded guilty to abduction, assault and lying to the police and served just two-and-a-half years. Since the teenager’s murder, his mum has been resolute in distancing herself from right-wing extremists who have tried to make an example of her son’s death to stoke up racial tensions or make right-wing points.
A Scottish Greens spokesperson said: “This is not the first time that the far right has tried to hijack and exploit Kriss Donald’s tragic murder to advance its own vile agenda. Kriss’s family called it out years ago, yet these groups refuse to leave them to grieve.
“The far right know the people of Scotland will always reject them and their hate-filled worldview, so they spend a lot of time and money trying to cover it up. They hide their hatred behind tragedies and use front groups with innocent sounding names to give themselves a veneer of respectability.
“This is another sickening example of that. Their brand of divisive and cynical opportunism has no place in a modern and progressive Scotland.”
Earlier this year, a group called Patriotic Alternative Scotland staged a gathering at Kriss’s memorial bench on the Clyde, claiming it was in tribute to “victims of anti-white violence” before unfurling a banner with his face on it over the M8.
McConnachie’s UK A Force for Good was set up in 2012 and is supported by former BNP members Max Dunbar and John Robertson. The men regularly participated in anti-independence rallies with McConnachie, 56, from Castle Douglas, also boycotting a Black Lives Matter protest in Edinburgh in 2020. McConnachie, Dunbar and Robertson also all stood in the last Scottish Parliament elections as the Independent Green Voice (IGV) party.
Although unsuccessful in getting elected, it prompted fears that the group’s members were trying to become more acceptable to the public, with some voters complaining to the Electoral Commission. Watchdogs launched an investigation after it emerged the Green party may have been deprived of as many as two Holyrood seats due to the Independent Green Voice name.
Some voters said they believed they were voting for the Green party, as the word “Green” displayed on IGV’s logo was much more prominent than the other words.
Scottish Labour MSP Neil Bibby said: “Kriss Donald was a tragic victim of a hate crime. He deserves better than to have his memory hijacked by groups determined to fuel division and prejudice. It is disrespectful to his family and all the people who knew and loved Kriss. I have every confidence people will see through these desperate, attention- seeking antics and reject the hateful politics of the far right in favour of hope and solidarity.”
McConnachie was ejected from UKIP in 2001 after his comments about the Holocaust in an email to Ukip members.
He said: “I don’t accept gas chambers were used to execute Jews for the simple fact there is no direct physical evidence to show that such gas chambers ever existed. There are no photographs or films of execution gas chambers. Alleged eyewitness accounts are revealed as false or highly exaggerated.”
In a later interview, he said he stood by the comments. The Sunday Mail contacted those involved in the tributes for comment.
While no one responded directly to our request, one member of the group, who goes by @KeyserSosse on Twitter, took to social media to harass our reporter prior to publication.
He wrote: “Please explain how paying respects to fallen and murdered people is making political points. I await with interest, you are pathetic and disrespectful. We are respectful and always will be.”
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