This report looks at the impact of the Rotherham Grooming crisis and the impacts that it has on the rhetoric of far right groups like Britain First on-line. We analysed the lexicon of anti-Muslim hate through the Britain First Facebook page soon after the release of the damning report on the Rotherham grooming scandal.
What is sadly clear is that the comments left on the Britain First Facebook page on the day of the launch of the Rotherham grooming report, showed that comments and language ranged from outright prejudice against individuals of Pakistani heritage, to prejudice and hate against Islam and Muslims. The report also showed the trajectory of that hate and how it turned into wanting to take action against mosques and Islamic institutions. This report makes for sombre reading as to how national events can lead to the targeting of whole communities and innocent individuals who happen to be of the same racial, cultural or religious heritage.