Osian Owen, Chair of Plaid Ifanc Bangor, writes about his experience in the anti-fascist rally in Llangefni this weekend.
It was my duty, not my desire to go to Llangefni. My duty as a citizen who loves this country and its people. We were warned by one of the organizers of the rally that some of the things we would hear would hurt and anger us. As Leanne said, “An attack on you is an attack on all of us.” True. The North Wales’ Infidels’ rally wasn’t solely an attack against Muslims, immigrants, and refugees, but an attack against anyone who holds the basic principles of respect, democracy and equality.
I felt my stomach turn when I saw the banners with the words “No More Mosques ‘,’ Refugees Not Welcome’, and ‘White Supreme’. White supremacy; an idea I believed was dead and buried. But what made me feel worst was seeing the red dragon, our flag, waving above these flags. How could they dare to do this in the name of Wales?
At one point during the demonstration, the crowd of opponents began to sing Calon Lân. Stereotypical, perhaps, but suitable. Consider the words, ” Calon Lân yn llawn daioni - A pure heart is full of goodness.” But unfortunately this doesn’t apply to the infidels. As one of the speakers said on the day, ‘They only know hate.’ And this hate is dangerous. These people spread the message of hatred and intolerance, and creates stigma and animosity towards immigrants. People then swallow the lies because they’re trying to find someone to blame for the problems in our country. The danger is that this ideology is slowly penetrating into mainstream politics. That’s why it was great was to see politicians and activists from various political parties come together yesterday. Yesterday was not the time for party politics or tribalism, but rather a day for us to come together to reject this kind of ‘politics’. 
One of the things that truly baffles me about such organizations is that they’re determined to use the world wars, and the military, to create a sense of British nationalism which in turn is used to justify their anti-immigration rhetoric. In world wars our ancestors battled against Nazi ideology, while the ideals of the infidels are consistent with this ideology. Is this unfair for me to claim? No, not when one of the leading infidels in the rally yesterday proudly and shamelessly did the Nazi salute. It’s enough to make someone sick.
It would be very unusual in a rally of this nature not to hear scaremongering concerning refugees. One of their slogans on their posters was ‘Refugee or ISIS?’. I want to make it absolutely clear to the rest of the world today, in the same way that ISIS doesn’t represent Muslims; these infidels don’t represent the Welsh!
“Evil prevails when good people do nothing”. It was my duty, not my desire to go to Llangefni, but our message yesterday was clear: we reject racism, we reject fascism, and we celebrate diversity! This is everybody’s Wales.
