Ukip leader calls for battle for hearts and minds of Muslims after Paris attacks and claims EU imperils UK because of risk of terrorists posing as migrants

Some British Muslims are “conflicted in their loyalties” between the UK way of life and what some elements within their faith are telling them, Nigel Farage has said in a speech.

In an incendiary intervention in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, the Ukip leader said there must be a battle for hearts and minds within the Muslim population.

Farage said there was “a problem with some of the Muslim community in this country” and that research suggested that British Muslims experienced a “tremendous conflict and a split of loyalties”.

A senior Ukip source said Farage was referring to polling earlier this year that suggested more than 90% of Muslims approved of the British way of life, but 27% had sympathy for the motives behind the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks.

The same poll showed that 11% said that organisations that publish images of the prophet Muhammad deserve to be attacked, and 68% said that acts of violence against those who publish images of the prophet can never be justified.

“The thing that makes me angry about what happened in Paris is frankly the fact that it was so utterly and entirely predictable,” said Farage. “I think we’ve reached a point where we have to admit to ourselves, in Britain and France and much of the rest of Europe, that mass immigration and multicultural division has for now been a failure.”

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Ukip claimed the speech was “the most important intervention from a mainstream politician in the UK on the subject of Syria and the UK’s security situation”.

Farage claimed that the European Union was “seriously imperilling our security” because of the risk of terrorists posing as migrants. Initial reports suggest one of the Paris terrorists had a passport belonging to a Syrian refugee.

He said the EU’s principle of free movement of workers had resulted in the “free movement of Kalashnikov rifles, the free movement of terrorists and the free movement of jihadists”. “I have tried again and again and again over the course of the last few months to argue that we must not let our compassion imperil our civilisation,” he said.

Speaking to MPs in parliament on Monday, the home secretary, Theresa May, said the Paris terror attacks were “nothing to do with Islam”.

“British Muslims and indeed Muslims worldwide have said very clearly these events are abhorrent,” she said. “The attacks have nothing to do with Islam which is followed peacefully by millions of people around the world.”

The former shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper – who is currently Labour’s spokesperson on the migration crisis, said the attacks in Paris were too serious to be used for such political purposes.

“Isis twists, distort and undermines Islam, they attack Muslims, Christians and anyone who gets in their way,” she said. “As Nigel Farage knows, people from Muslim communities across Britain and Europe have condemned the vile attacks in Paris.

“This is not the time to divide and denigrate our communities – that is what the terrorists want. Nigel Farage should retract these irresponsible and shameful remarks immediately.”

The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, described Farage’s comments as “grubby politics of the worst kind and sadly the type Farage does so often”.



He said: “For a man who talks a lot about patriotism, he now seeks to play community against community. These comments will be deeply offensive to millions of hard-working, proud and community-minded citizens.

“I think the only ‘conflict’ is in Farage’s head between being a rational politician and spouting lines like this,” he said.

The Green party’s former leader and only MP, Caroline Lucas, said: “Cynical attempts to use these atrocious terror attacks to divide our communities are beneath contempt.

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“We know that Isis aim to destroy multicultural societies and drive a wedge between people of different faiths and beliefs. The vast majority of people in Britain – from all religious groups and backgrounds – find Isis’s beliefs abhorrent.

“We must not play into the hands of the terrorists by using their attacks as justification to undermine the multicultural communities in which we live.”

Mary Honeyball, the Labour MEP for London, said Farage was “completely wrong” in suggesting that British Muslims were conflicted in their loyalties.

“There are over two-and-a-half million Muslims in Britain and the overwhelming majority are law-abiding citizens and completely loyal to the country in which they live, as Nigel Farage is well aware,” she said. “Suggesting that the community is in some way divided is not only completely prejudiced but also disgracefully inflammatory.”

During the election campaign, Farage controversially claimed that half a million Islamic extremists could cross the Mediterranean and gain access to the UK as a result of EU policies to address the migrant boat crisis.

He also claimed there was rising public concern about immigration partly because people believed there were some Muslims who wanted to form “a fifth column and kill us”, and that there had never before been a migrant group that wanted to “change who we are and what we are”.

Ukip won just one seat at the election, but the party won 13% of the overall vote and is hoping to play a big role in the EU referendum campaign.