@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 4/4
Even with that limitation, the figures raise an important question about how political rhetoric, public narratives & wider social tensions can contribute to environments in which hostility towards particular identities becomes increasingly normalised.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 3/4
The Home Office cautions that police-recorded hate crime figures are shaped by reporting & recording practices, so they should not be read as a complete measure of prevalence.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 2/4
The British Muslim Trust has also reported an increase in the severity of incidents affecting mosques, warning of a shift from attacks directed at buildings towards threats & violence targeting the people inside them.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 1/4
Religious hate crimes increased by 13%, including a 15% rise in offences targeting Muslims & a 10% rise in those targeting Jewish people.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.socialNew UK Home Office figures show that police recorded 146,825 hate crimes in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026, up 7% on the previous year.
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@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 3/3
MI5 says this rise in extreme right-wing terrorism has contributed significantly to the UK threat level being raised to SEVERE.
#radicalright #farright #rightwing #terrorismstudies #extremismstudies
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 2/3
He also highlighted how young this threat can skew: MI5 recently investigated a radicalised 13-year-old while a 16-year-old from Inverclyde was sentenced after planning an attack on an Islamic centre.
#radicalright #farright #rightwing #terrorismstudies #extremismstudies
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 1/3
Director General Sir Ken McCallum said the service has seen an increase in cases where extreme anti-immigration & anti-Muslim grievances are moving towards terrorist intent, including attempts to target mosques & locations connected to immigration and asylum.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.socialWhat happens when extremist grievance begins to tip into intent to commit violence?
MI5’s latest annual threat update identifies this as the most marked development in its extreme right-wing terrorism caseload over the past year.
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@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 3/3
When politics becomes something people follow, share, imitate & build identity around, understanding the cultural & communicative strategies behind that appeal becomes just as important as analysing the ideology itself.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 2/3
The article shows how influencers, polished aesthetics, memes & carefully chosen language can help move ideas from extremist subcultures towards wider political audiences.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 1/3
Young activists describe being drawn into communities through hiking groups, demonstrations & shared cultural identities while political strategists have deliberately repackaged far-right ideas for TikTok & other platforms.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.socialThis piece from @politico.com explores how parts of Germany’s far right have increasingly attracted young people through a combination of belonging, identity, rebellion & carefully designed social media.
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@perkinskeighley.bsky.social📢 CIRAF event announcement klaxon! 📢
@cirafcardiff.bsky.social is pleased to welcome Dr Martin Geoffroyoy from Cégep Édouard-Montpetit for a presentation on "The Far Right in Quebec: A Psycho-Social Portrait".
Find the abstract & register: tinyurl.com/bd2zf3yc
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 7/7
It is also about creating credible alternatives for belonging, support and connection before extremist communities fill that space.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 6/7
It also reinforces something that matters across radicalisation research more broadly: prevention is not only about challenging harmful ideas.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 5/7
That moves the focus from individual deficit to the social conditions that recruiters can exploit.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 4/7
What stands out to me is the shift away from asking “what is it about autism?” & towards asking what is it about particular environments, experiences & recruitment strategies that make extremist narratives resonate?
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 3/7
Extremist ideologies can exploit those needs by offering certainty, belonging, identity & apparently simple answers to complex problems.
@perkinskeighley.bsky.social🧵 2/7
Dr Georgiou's article instead points to a combination of factors that may increase vulnerability for some autistic people, including social isolation, bullying, loneliness, limited support, rigid thinking & a strong preference for order & predictability.