Category Archives: Analysis & comment

Quilliam clears the way for closer co‑operation among ‘counterjihadists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spencer, Carroll, Geller and Lennon in Stockholm

Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll’s surprise announcement that they have left the English Defence League has been enthusiastically welcomed by Pamela Geller.

Geller writes that she and Robert Spencer – recently banned from the UK because of their record of inciting hatred against Muslims – both “strongly endorse” Lennon and Carroll’s decision. It has become “clear to all of us that the best way to proceed is to leave the EDL behind and move forward in new directions”, says Geller, and she and Spencer “look forward to working with Robinson and Carroll in the future as we continue this great struggle for freedom”.

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Tommy and cousin Kev quit the EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL and NF
The English Defence League demonstrating alongside the neo-Nazis of the National Front

Today the internet has been buzzing with the news that Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) and Kevin Carroll have resigned from the English Defence League. It even qualified for coverage on national TV.

The EDL leaders’ break with the organisation they helped to found was announced this morning in a press release from the Quilliam group (“Quilliam facilitates Tommy Robinson leaving the English Defence League”), which quotes Lennon as saying: “I have been considering this move for a long time because I recognise that, though street demonstrations have brought us to this point, they are no longer productive. I acknowledge the dangers of far-right extremism and the ongoing need to counter Islamist ideology not with violence but with better, democratic ideas.”

Lennon and Carroll will expand on their motives for leaving the EDL at a press conference this evening which has been organised by Quilliam.

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French cartoonist combines anti-union propaganda with Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Plantu CGT cartoon

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France draws our attention to the recent controversy over a cartoon published in Le Monde last week.

Drawn by the paper’s longtime cartoonist Plantu, the illustration refers to recent court judgements – backed by the French trade union organisation, the Confédération générale du travail – that a number of retail outlets including the home improvement store Castorama were operating illegally on Sunday.

A snarling Muslim is depicted as shouting “I forbid you to go to school” at a young girl, while a CGT representative shouts at a woman employee “I forbid you to go to work on Sunday”. It is difficult to say who this is more offensive to – Muslims or trade unionists.

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EDL ‘foot soldier’ fined for racist assault on Muslim woman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tracy DaviesA woman from Charlton has been fined £150 pounds and ordered to pay £100 compensation after assaulting a woman wearing a burka in an unprovoked attack.

Tracy Davies has been found guilty of racially aggravated common assault. Her victim – a 55-year-old Somali woman – was shopping with her daughter in Woolwich when the 46 year old from Charlton Lane shouted racist remarks before hitting and punching her several times. Davies denied having carried out the attack – but a number of witnesses claimed otherwise.

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Catholic school puts Muslim pupils in isolation for growing beards, says there is ‘nothing in the Qur’an’ to justify this practice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mount Carmel High SchoolTwo Muslim teenagers at a Roman Catholic school have been banned from lessons for refusing to shave off their beards.

The 14-year-olds have been in “isolation” at Mount Carmel High School in Accrington for almost a month, the school confirmed. It means they have not been allowed to join normal classes since the start of term, despite claiming they could not remove their facial hair on religious grounds. And they will not be allowed to go back until the matter is resolved.

The school said the rule was part of the schools’ dress code but a relative of one of the boys said it was “pure discrimination”.

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A postscript on Anne Marie Waters and Dispatch International

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anne Marie Waters (2)We have already run two pieces on National Secular Society council member and One Law For All spokesperson Anne Marie Waters and her involvement with the notorious “counterjihad” publication Dispatch International (see here and here).

However, it’s also worth noting that Waters’ new role as a contributor to DI has gone down very well elsewhere in the “counterjihad” network. Here is George Igler congratulating Ingrid Carlqvist on her recruitment of such a well-known figure from the secularist movement:

George Igler congratulates DI on recruiting Waters

Carlqvist we have previously introduced – she is co-editor of DI and a firm proponent of the view that western civilisation is being dumbed down as a result of “huge immigration from low IQ countries”. But who is George Igler?

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NSS council member and OLFA spokesperson continues to build links with EDL supporters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anne Marie WatersLast week we reported on the frustration of plans by the “counterjihad” publication Dispatch International to organise meetings in Malmö and Copenhagen at which Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll were to describe their heroic struggle against “England’s Islamization”.

A fall-back plan to have the English Defence League leaders address a small group of sympathisers, with their speeches broadcast by video link, was thwarted when police impounded Lennon’s passport. Attempts to hire premises for larger public rallies had already collapsed after bookings were cancelled when the purpose of the meetings became clear. Management at the Malmö Konferenscenter/Folkets Hus objected that the EDL was an “extreme right organization” and declared “we will have nothing to do with organizations of this type”.

During this same period Dispatch International‘s difficulties intensified when PayPal asked to examine the content of the publication to see if it contravened their rules against the promotion of racism and xenophobia. DI refused to cooperate, no doubt reasoning that such an examination would indeed reveal that it was in breach of the ban on hate speech, with the result that its PayPal account was withdrawn.

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Anti-Islam Freedom Party gets over a fifth of the vote in Austrian elections

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BELGIUM-CITIES AGAINST ISLAMISATIONAustria’s far-right Freedom Party gained over one-fifth of the votes in Sunday’s general election, while the ruling two-party centrist coalition got its worst-ever result. The swing comes amid a Europe-wide surge in support for the far right.

Though Austria’s two major centrist political parties, the conservative Popular Party and the center-left Social Democrats, have retained their majority in parliament, the resurrection of the far-right in Europe is a solid tendency marking a shift in the political mentality of Europeans.

Euroskeptic and right-wing parties in Austria have gained support from people who think the issues that matter most to them aren’t being addressed.

The extreme, radical right is drawing mass support from working-class, blue-collar voters, Sylvia Kritzinger, a political scientist at the University of Vienna, tells RT’s Peter Oliver. “Because of the policies they put forward, like immigration reform, anti-European integration, anti-corruption in the political system.”

The Viennese people Peter Oliver talked to are certain they want to “slow down immigration,” stop the EU “dictating everything” and “put Austria’s interests first.”

The leader of the Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache [pictured], insists he is not a racist. “I love Austria, I don’t hate foreigners,” he says.

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Gove plans witch-hunt of Muslim schools, with assistance of Murdoch press

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tauheedul Islam Girls' High SchoolYesterday’s Sunday Times reported: “A state-funded school in Blackburn has become the first to force its pupils to wear a hijab both in and out of class.”

The report expressed concern that the rules at the Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School “require its 800 pupils ‘to wear the hijab outside the school and home’, ‘recite the Koran at least once a week’ and ‘not bring stationery to school that contains un-Islamic images’, such as pictures of pop stars”.

Not only that, but an antisemitic Saudi preacher is said to have visited the school. Haras Rafiq, described as “a former government adviser on the prevention of extremism”, is quoted as saying that he warned the Department for Education about this two years ago, but they ignored him.

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Guramit Singh met with EDL leaders just before going on the run

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Guramit Singh and EDL leaders in Luton

Last week Guramit Singh Kalirai, at one time a leading figure in the English Defence League, was sentenced to over six years in prison for his part in a violent attack on a shopkeeper during an attempted robbery. Kalirai wasn’t in court because he absconded ahead of the trial. A warrant is now out for his arrest.

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