Far-right group offers cash to 'useful idiots' to attack mosques in UK

Vandalism of mosques, schools and community centres in the UK has been driven by an online far-right channel recruiting for a wave of graffiti incidents.

Extremism experts told The National that offers of £100 ($130) appeared on the Telegram messaging app to draw in people – described as “useful idiots” by campaign groups – who could prove they sprayed anti-Muslim graffiti on the buildings in London.

The graffiti was found on seven buildings in the UK capital at the beginning of the year. At the time, the Metropolitan Police said it was investigating “a series of shocking hate crimes”.

Tech Against Terrorism, a non-profit organisation which monitors online extremism, shared the name of the channel and its tactics with The National on condition the name was not revealed. The organisation is concerned that such exposure could trigger copycats.

Tell Mama, which records anti-Muslim hate in the UK, has also encountered the group and shared similar material before a report it is due to publish next week.

Adam Hadley, Tech Against Terrorism's founder and chief executive, told The National its inquiry was sparked by the growing number of mosques being graffitied with derogatory, xenophobic, Islamophobic symbols and words.

“It seemed to be quite co-ordinated,” he said. “There was quite a lot of activity over a short amount of time.”

The investigations into the channel set up in September last year suggested that there was someone “driving this activity”, he said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced funding for mosque security during a trip to the Peacehaven mosque. PA Wire

Mr Hadley said researchers began accessing Telegram accounts linked to vandalism and within 15 minutes encountered “the name of a far-right organisation that we've never heard of that was promoting graffiti for mosques around the UK and specifically London”.

In the channel they found bomb-making manuals associated with extreme far-right and sometimes Islamist extremists. The organisation informed the police about what it had found.

We looked through all of our records and this group just came out from nowhere Adam Hadley ,

Tech Against Terrorism

Tech Against Terrorism researchers found the content was unlikely to have been created by bots and the authors “seemed to be real”. They concluded that a foreign state was probably behind the activity.

“We looked through all of our records and this group just came out from nowhere. It’s hard to describe, but the sense of the language was a bit wrong. It just didn't seem right,” Mr Hadley said.

“And clearly this fits with well-known methodologies of foreign intelligence services who aim to employ usefu