When I recently watched “V for Vendetta,” I highly doubted whether the fiction movie had anything to do with Great Britain’s present politics. In fact, the movie was describing a scene that took place after United States’ fictional collapse.

It has been several weeks since I watched “V for Vendetta”, but now I am reading strange news in world newspapers that remind me of that movie. The world media report that a British politician is facing trouble for not being an Anglo-Saxon. He actually does speak English with British accent and I assume was born in Britain. The whole discourse is indeed his name, which sounds and is Muslim. But people who defend him say that he is “totally assimilated Greek-Armenian” (though his grandfather was Armenian and his grandmother was Greek).

There is no doubt that “totally assimilated Greek-Armenian” sounds more “acceptable” to these people than simply "a person whose grandfather was a Christian convert." Especially having the fact in mind that England’s first written document, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, says that “The first inhabitants [of the British isles] were the Britons, who came from Armenia” (but don’t you dare to tell this to Anglo-Saxons!). But indeed even a Greek-Armenian is not “good enough.” It has to be “totally assimilated” to be “acceptable,” while “totally assimilated” Muslim-named-person is totally unacceptable for these racists.

One would expect Britain to be tolerant…

Race troubles British political party

LONDON, April 8 (UPI) — The British National Party faces a revolt over selecting the grandson of an asylum-seeker to stand for a Bradford ward in next month's local elections.

BNP hard-liners are refusing to accept the candidacy of Sharif Abdel Gawad on racial grounds, even though officials said he is a totally assimilated Greek-Armenian whose grandfather was a Christian, the Guardian newspaper reported Saturday.

Scores of party contributors have denounced Mr. Gawad's selection on online notice boards. They contend the BNP should remain an all-white party and the decision to appoint Gawad was made over the heads of rank and file members.

A BNP spokesman said those members who refused to accept Gawad have no place in the party.

In 2004 party leader Nick Griffin tired to force through a rules change allowing non-white people to join the BNP. After widespread opposition from members, leaders were forced to abandon the effort.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved