THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Fascist gangs are turning Athens into a city of shifting front lines, seizing on crimes and local protests to promote their own movement, by claiming to be the defenders of recession ravaged Greece.
Thugs wearing the black T-shirts of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party are carrying out attacks on immigrant markets and in public squares, according to the United Nations, with victims speaking of areas in the capital which are now strictly off limits.
Malik Abdulbasset, an Egyptian-born shopkeeper, found himself the target of one of the mobs on Wednesday night after the barber across the road was stabbed during a robbery.
Golden Dawn members led a crowd of enraged locals in a protest on Mikhail Voda St that turned violent despite the presence of riot police.
While no one witnessed the attack on the barber, residents were adamant the assailant was black.
After battering his Egyptian assistant, the mob turned on Mr Abdulbasset, who had defied police to keep his shop open.
"I had to turn and point to my Greek children and my Greek wife and say, look I am Greek, we are Greek, if you want to kill us we cannot stop you but you are killing your own."
The riot police watched on but did not intervene and threats of more protests were pasted on nearby doors. » | Damien McElroy, Athens | Friday, November 02, 2012
