Asa Bennett profiles Gerard Batten, UKIP MEP for Greater London, who heads the party list for that region and is guaranteed certain re-election.
Category Archives: Analysis & comment
Belfast pastor James McConnell denounces Islam as the devil’s doctrine
Police have launched a probe into a a potential hate crime after an outspoken evangelical pastor defended describing the Islamic faith as “satanic” and a “doctrine spawned in hell”.
Senior Pastor James McConnell made the remarks as he addressed his congregation at the Whitewell Tabernacle Metropolitan Church on Sunday evening. They were described as “very offensive”, “hurtful” and “irresponsible” by a representative from the Belfast Islamic Centre.
There has also been an outcry on social media, with some calling for a police investigation into his comments. One posted: “If this was a Muslim Imam speaking about Christianity, he would be arrested for inciting hatred.”
During his sermon, the clergyman said: “Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell.” He also likened Muslims to the IRA, saying there were cells spread right across the UK.
When contacted by the Belfast Telegraph last night, the pastor said he stood over his remarks. When asked why he made the comments, he said “because it is against the holy scriptures”. “The Bible says there is one God the father and one Lord Jesus Christ and that is what I believe and that is what Christianity is all about.”
Bishop refuses to take action over vicar’s ‘creeping Islamisation’ article, says he ‘would not wish to discourage’ such views
Last week Canon Eric Woods, the Vicar of Sherborne in Dorset, published an article in the Western Gazette opposing “the invasion of halal meat”, which he claimed was part of “the creeping Islamisation of our country”. Unsurprisingly, Woods’ article has been enthusiastically welcomed by far-right Islamophobes and fascists.
I wrote to the Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Reverend Nicholas Holtam, to complain about Woods’ shocking outburst of anti-Muslim bigotry.
Anglican vicar condemns ‘invasion of halal meat’, says Christians oppose ‘the creeping Islamisation of our country’
Steve Rose draws our attention to this comment piece (see below) by Canon Eric Woods, the Vicar of Sherborne, which was published in yesterday’s Western Gazette.
It isn’t the first time that Woods has promoted halal hysteria. As he mentions, he wrote an article about “the invasion of halal meat” for the same paper last year.
The two articles contain the same ignorant nonsense about halal abattoirs slaughtering animals while they are fully conscious – as we have previously pointed out, 88% of halal meat produced in the UK is from animals that have been stunned before being killed and the slaughter of sheep without pre-stunning has been illegal in New Zealand since 2010.
More disturbingly, both articles also feature the paranoid fantasy about “creeping Islamisation” that you would expect to find in a comment posted by some drunken thug on an English Defence League Facebook page, rather than in an article written by someone holding a responsible position in the Church of England.
Sherborne Abbey is part of the Diocese of Salisbury. The Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Reverend Nicholas Holtam, can be contacted here.
Update: See “Bishop refuses to take action over vicar’s ‘creeping Islamisation’ article, says he ‘would not wish to discourage’ such views”, Islamophobia Watch, 19 May 2014
Race row erupts after Brent UKIP candidate slates Muslims in ranting email
A UKIP candidate in Brent has been drawn into a race row after he lambasted Muslims in a ranting email to planning chiefs.
Heino Vockrodt, who is standing for the Dudden Hill seat on May 22, accused Muslims of grooming sex slaves, compared a Willesden road to war torn Helmand Province and claimed Islam was an ideology not a religion. The 52-year-old financial and commercial consultant also claimed Islam was against ‘everything modern Britain stands for’ during his correspondence.
In the email, seen by the Times, Mr Vockrodt also labelled town hall bosses as “Yes-Sayers, Appeasement Chamberlains and look-The-Other-Way cowards” for allegedly turning a blind eye on developments of an Afghan centre in Willesden in fear of being called racists. According to Mr Vockrodt the centre had ignored planning rules to carry out developments on its building despite being turned down twice by the council.
He said: “…just like in all the other cases where Muslims are grooming to sex slaves under the eyes of the authorities, the council does NOTHING for political correctness (not that there is any).” He continued: “All the old owners of the neighbouring shops have been squeezes out by Muslims. The entire parade –once lovely owner/occupier shops –resembles Helmand province now. Time to call MI5 & MI6 for sure.”
He added: “Islam is a mono-cultural, totalitarian ideology. It is NOT a religion. It is against multi-culturalism and only promotes its own culture. It is against everything modern Britain stands for.”
Call for ‘Muzzer blood’ to be spilled over plan to rebuild Farnworth mosque
Bolton BNP protesting against the Sughra Mosque development and (right) Frank ‘Muzzer blood’ Whittle
Earlier this month Bolton Council’s planning committee unanimously approved plans by the Sughra Masjid to demolish their existing one-storey place of worship, which has occupied the site since 1987, and replace it with a three-storey building.
Hardly a terrifying example of the creeping Islamification of Farnworth, you might think, but that hasn’t prevented the far right from whipping its supporters up into their usual racist frenzy over the issue.
An online petition against the development has been launched, with the backing of the fascist Bolton Patriot website. So far it has attracted over 500 signatures, along with the usual vituperative abuse of Muslims (“Cannot believe how the western wold allows the scourge of the world race who are so barbaric and full of hatred take over. Absolutely sickens me. I cannot stand what they stand for and don’t even consider them human”).
US court upholds ruling against SIOA, Geller denounces appeasement of ‘Islamic supremacists’
A federal appeals court has rejected a controversial blogger’s attempt to trademark the name of a group she founded called “Stop Islamization of America,” ruling that the name is too offensive to Muslims to qualify for protection.
Pamela Geller has stirred controversy across the globe with her portrayal of Islam as a religion hijacked by violent radicals bent on imposing Islamic rule over America. She’s probably most identified as a leader of protests in 2010 against the construction of a mosque near the ground zero site in New York.
The case decided Tuesday was yet another dispute pitting Ms. Geller against a government agency making claims that her zealous critique of political Islam crosses the line into hate speech.
The case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concerned a federal law allowing the government to refuse to register a trademark that disparages a “substantial composite” of a group.
A three-judge panel ruled that her group “Stop Islamization of America” isn’t eligible for a federal trademark because it said the name suggests an association between “peaceful political Islamization” and terrorism that many Muslims would find offensive. It affirmed an earlier ruling by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which hears and decides trademark disputes.
Carole Malone channels Taj Hargey
“Halal meat controversy is about unnecessary cruelty to animals and NOT Islamaphobia.” Well, that’s what Carole Malone claimed in her column in yesterday’s Sunday Mirror.
According to Malone, not previously known for her command of the finer points of Islamic theology, halal slaughter is not mandated by the Qur’an but is based on the Hadith – described by Malone as “teachings written 300 years after the Prophet died which are often used to justify hardline views”. Therefore, Malone asserts: “No Muslim is bound by his or her religion to eat halal meat.”
You might think this line of argument sounds familiar, and you would be right. Malone has lifted it straight from an article by the appalling Taj Hargey, published by the Daily Mail on its Right Minds blog last week.
You can understand why Islamophobes should be enthusiastic about Hargey’s article, which describes the sale of halal meat products by Subway and Pizza Express as “covert religious extremism and creeping Islamic fundamentalism making its way into Britain by the back door”. With a nod to the witch-hunt currently being conducted in Birmingham schools, Hargey concludes: “It is high time the white, liberal, Guardian-reading classes stopped behaving like apologists and woke up. There is a fundamentalist Trojan horse in our midst, and we must take corrective action.”
Tory MPs promote halal hysteria – Labour MP joins them
Shipley MP Philip Davies has blamed “the politically correct brigade” for halal meat being sold to unwitting customers across the country.
Two years ago the Conservative MP called for all halal and kosher meat to be labelled, but his motion in Parliament was defeated by three votes, “voted down largely by the politically correct brigade”.
Now it has been revealed that many supermarkets, restaurants and fast food chains were not labelling meat to signify it had been ritually slaughtered.
Mr Davies has now tabled an amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill to ensure the compulsory labelling of kosher and halal meat.
The hateful views of UKIP candidate Magnus Nielsen
I sent a letter to the Camden New Journal this week exposing the bigoted views of local UK Independence Party council candidate Magnus Nielsen. They didn’t see fit to publish it.
Evidently the CNJ doesn’t think it newsworthy that a rabid Islamophobe like Nielsen is standing for local government in a borough with a large Muslim population. At any rate, whereas the Hampstead & Highgate Express ran an article on it, and Nielsen’s obnoxious views even made the national media, the CNJ hasn’t bothered to report the story.
The CNJ did, however, think it appropriate to publish a letter from Nielsen last year claiming that “the logic of ‘affirmative action’ on behalf of the self-styled ‘underprivileged’ is seriously flawed and can only have disastrous consequences for society as a whole”, and that a House of Commons which reflected the diversity of the British electorate would necessarily discriminate against “able-bodied, happily-married, heterosexual, men of Anglo Saxon heritage”.