LONSDALE, the British sportswear label made famous by boxers and Eighties pop stars, faces creeping bans across the Netherlands because racist gangs have taken to wearing the brand.

Nightclubs and bars are refusing entry to people wearing the label, it is forbidden in some schools and a town in the south of the country is proposing a blanket ban after a series of race-hate crimes.

In the past week, a Muslim primary school in the town of Uden was subjected to its second arson attack. Witnesses said that teenagers involved were wearing Lonsdale tops. Civic leaders have announced plans to ban the label in the town.

The first attack came after the murder of Theo van Gogh, the film-maker and critic of Islam, last November, a killing that inflamed racial tensions and fuelled the growth of neo-Nazi gangs hunting for Islamic targets.

Last Sunday, a group of youths smashed windows at a mosque in the town of Venray, sparking riots between 20 Dutch youths and 60 Turkish immigrants that left one man in hospital. The Government responded by starting an investigation into the rise of organised right-wing extremism.

The term “Lonsdale youth” has become a widely used synonym for teenagers with extreme right-wing tendencies. A website, Lonsdalenews, has been set up to track racist incidents.

Right-wing extremists like tops bearing the Lonsdale logo, because a carefully placed bomber jacket can leave only the letters NSDA showing, one letter short of NSDAP, the acronym for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, Hitler’s National Socialist Party.

In an attempt to reclaim its image, the Lonsdale company, which is based in London, has begun a publicity campaign in the Netherlands with the slogan “Lonsdale loves all colours”.

Van Gogh was shot and nearly beheaded in daylight in Amsterdam and a note declaring Holy War against the West was pinned to his chest. After that murder, Dutch police uncovered a network of Islamic radicals, planning attacks on leading politicians, several of whom went into hiding.

In the weeks that followed, there were nearly 200 violent racist incidents, including 47 attacks on mosques and 13 on churches. Mohammed Bouyeri, 26, a Dutch Moroccan, has been charged with Van Gogh’s killing.

Mirjam Sterk, a government MP, said that the ensuing focus on Islamic extremists had blinded parliament to the rise of far-right extremism. “Only now is this problem being taken seriously. We have talked about radicalisation of Muslim youths extensively, but the process of radicalisation is broader and cannot be blamed on one side,” she said.

Peter van Heemst, the opposition Labour Party spokesman, said that the recent attacks “are not incidents, but part of a larger and alarming pattern of increased right-wing extremism”.

In December, the anti-racist Anne Frank Foundation gave warning that right-wing extremism was increasing in the Netherlands, and concluded: “The problem of this extreme right-wing and racialist culture among young people has never hitherto reached the proportions in the Netherlands that is has today.”

In the past, Lonsdale has refused to supply German shops popular with neo-Nazis and has moved to sponsor immigrant and gay-rights campaigns. The company reacted with dismay to the possible bans on Lonsdale clothing in the Netherlands.

Geurt Schotsman, the Lonsdale distributor in the Netherlands, said: “It is bad for us because we sell the brand, but it is also a difficult problem from a legal and philosophical point of view to ban certain clothing. For bars and discos, I understand the ban on some clothing, but in schools I think you are on a slippery slope.”

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