When militant Christian campaigner Jim Dowson was banned from Hungary in April 2017 for posing a “danger to national security”, he was able to protest his innocence – and even appeal for funds for his legal defence – across a sprawling network of websites and social media pages which dwarfs many mainstream media outlets and political parties.
Research by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, which collaborated with the BBC for this investigation, has found that at the centre of this lucrative spider’s web of patriotic sites is the Knights Templar International (KTI) portal, which is named after the famous Medieval Christian crusaders and is closely tied to Dowson, although he denies having any official role in the organisation.
Its jokey memes, patriotic videos and far-right material are shared across 14 Facebook pages which have earned 2.5 million ‘likes’ from the social network’s users – including three serving British MPs, this investigation can reveal.
The KTI insists it is not a racist organisation, but the BIRN has also uncovered inflammatory language being used across its media platforms – Muslim communities in Western Europe referred to as “rats’ nests” and Roma branded a “criminal scum caste”.
With Dowson now banned from Hungary, formerly a key hub in the network, he and the KTI are turning increasingly to Belgrade for their media activities, we can reveal.
This includes filming ‘news’ videos from the capital, helping to launch websites and training far-right groups and activists, some with questionable pasts and connections, in how to win an ‘online war’.
Alongside the media training, the KTI, which Dowson describes as a “militant Christian order”, is preparing for what it believes is imminent war between Islam and Christianity by building a network of groups which will become militias when fighting begins, Dowson explained in an interview with James Kelso for the right-wing radio programme ‘The Trump Phenomenon’ in January.
This support has included providing tactical vests (protective body armour) and communications equipment to unnamed Serb groups in the tinderbox area of northern Kosovo.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
