Jim’s hat full of hate

Dowson: Camera shy

Yesterday HOPE not hate ran a story about Jim Dowson, a far-right extremist from Northern Ireland who was in Hungary on a tour visiting other far-right extremists, religious fundamentalists and anti-abortionists.

As the article points out, Jim Dowson has met with the MPs of the fascist party Jobbik who even kindly gave Jim Dowson a tour of our parliament here in Budapest.

Dowson has also been up to the Croatian border where there is great tension between the two countries over managing the influx of desperate people fleeing terror and tyranny and of course, where Hungarian fascists have been very keen to further inflame tensions.

Although we did try to catch up with Dowson in Budapest on a number of occasions, Dowson had minders with him and a driver at all times. In Budapest, Dowson was a regular visitor to Eötvös Loránd University where there are a small number of Jobbik supporters active.

Much of Dowson’s business in Hungary is however in the second city, Debrecen. For Dowson this is a good place as it is a largely Protestant City, the majority of whom are Calvinist like Dowson.

Dowson was trying to find properties to purchase or rent on behalf of ‘New European Family Forum’ a group that apparently has links to Nick Griffin and Roberto Fiore, through Dowson’s offices in Belfast. It is also the name of the front group Dowson is using for his further planned visits to Russia and the Ukraine.

According to a source in Debrecen, Dowson met a number of pastors of small and radical Protestant churches who he was trying to buy or rent land from. In the past, Dowson has ran his own church services and anti-abortion activities from an abandoned church in Scotland.

Hungary has very liberal laws on abortion and women’s rights and has done so from as early as the 1950’s although there is mounting campaigns by the far-right to restrict the availability of abortions. This is of obvious concern to women’s and civil rights groups.

As HOPE not hate reported yesterday, Dowson has already made the acquaintance of Polish anti-abortionist Bogdan Chazan who has become a hero to anti-abortionists in Hungary.

We did catch up with Dowson yesterday morning in Budapest but he refused a request for an interview and a photograph, lashing out at us, calling us “communist bastards.”

Dowson rewarding Bogdan Chavaz