Category Archives: Far right racists

Former FPÖ deputy convicted of inciting religious and racial hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Werner KönigshoferDisgraced Tyrolean politician Werner Königshofer stood in the dock again Friday, to face charges of religious incitement for a publication he had posted on his blog. He was fined €800 for disparaging both the religion of Islam and the Turkish ethnic group.

The case stems from a document, entitled “Tirol or Türol” (implying that the region is being overrun by Turks). Published without a named author, the document generally disparages Turks and Islam in ethno-racist terms, citing – according to Der Standard newspaper – the ‘creeping orientalism’ of the state, and describing the Turkish immigrants in the region as ‘seed cannons.’

The court found that despite protections on freedom of speech being generally guaranteed in Austria, that there were boundaries, and that Königshofer had crossed them.

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Derisory turnout for Bolton anti-mosque protest: fascists outnumbered by counter-demonstrators

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bolton anti-mosque protest June 2014Protestors demonstrated against a planned new mosque in Astley Bridge at the proposed site in Blackburn Road.

About 50 protestors, including members of the British National Party (BNP) and local residents, congregated in Blackburn Road, next to the proposed site of Taiyabah Mosque’s planned new building today.

Hundreds of people – among them people from the protest group Justice4Bolton and members of the local Muslim community – gathered on the site and on the opposite side of Blackburn Road to oppose the protest. Campaigners said it was a “disgrace” that the protest had been allowed to go ahead and that the demonstration was “opportunistic racism”.

A planning application has been submitted to Bolton Council for the construction of a new mosque building, with a dome and minaret tower, on disused land next to the current Taiyabah Mosque in Blackburn Road. The facility, if approved, will cater for more than 1,000 prayer mats and contain 19 classrooms.

Dozens of police officers were deployed to keep the peace during the demonstration, which lasted nearly an hour, and they managed to avoid any violent clashes. It is understood that no arrests were made.

Rhetta Moran, a Justice4Bolton campaigner, said: “I think it is a disgrace that they have been allowed to come out and campaign against a mosque. That land is the property of the mosque so they should not be allowed to drape their flags over the fences. This protest is opportunistic racism. They can dress it up as much as they like, it is Islamaphobic.”

One local resident, who asked not to be named, said: “I am as English as anybody else. The people in this community get on well and support each other, be they white or Muslim. We sort out problems for everybody in the community and work together. This new mosque will not create any problems.”

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Dawkins joins far right in denouncing prison sentences for SDL hooligans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yesterday Scottish Defence League supporters Chelsea Lambie and Douglas Cruikshank were jailed for behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm after being convicted of desecrating Edinburgh Central Mosque with bacon.

Both Lambie and Cruikshank, it should be noted, had previous convictions for threatening and abusive behaviour, which undoubtedly contributed to the judge’s decision to impose custodial sentences. Cruikshank got 9 months as against Lambie’s 12 months because unlike her he had the sense to plead guilty.

Lambie and Cruikshank do however have their defenders, who are outraged that they should receive prison sentences or even have been charged at all.

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Scottish Defence League supporters locked up for attacking mosque with bacon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Chelsea Lambie and Douglas CruickshankA teenage girl and 39-year old man, who desecrated a mosque by attacking it with strips of bacon, have both been given custodial sentences.

Eighteen-year old Chelsea Lambie from Paisley and Douglas Cruikshank from Galashiels, were told by Sheriff Alistair Noble, sitting in Edinburgh: “It does not seem to me there is any way to deal with this case other than by custody”.

In April of this year, the pair had denied behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm in the early hours of January 31 last year, when along with another person, they wrapped bacon around the main door handles of the Central Mosque in Edinburgh’s Potterrow and threw bacon into the premises. The Crown claimed the offence was racially aggravated.

During the five day trial, a security guard at the mosque, 34-year old Usman Mahmood, told the jury of eight women and seven men: “I was surprised if a person did it for a joke. It is against our culture and religion. We do not eat pork or even touch it. I felt very bad seeing this meat in my sacred place. It hurt my feelings when I saw this meat hanging inside the mosque in the worshipping area. It was very disturbing”. He added that the situation could have been “much worse” if there had been more people in the mosque. There was only one man in the prayer room at the time.

On the final day of evidence, after representations by defence lawyers, Sheriff Alastair Noble deleted the racial aggravation from the indictment and Cruikshank pled guilty to the amended indictment. Lambie continued to deny the charge.

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More anti-mosque hysteria in Bolton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taiyabah Islamic Centre plan (2)“Plans for new ‘super’ mosque in Astley Bridge” – that’s the headline to a report in the Bolton News this week. The article begins: “A HUGE new mosque is planned for Bolton.” And readers are told: “The development will cater for more than 1,000 prayer mats in the mosque building.”

True, the report goes on to quote support for the planning application from local councillors and a statement by the architect that the new building is intended to “play a part in bridging the gap between the negative perceptions of Islam and the true meaning of Islam”. But the impact of the headline and introduction to the story is clearly to reinforce an “Islamification of Britain” narrative.

Only last month a plan for a mosque expansion on a much smaller scale elsewhere in Bolton provoked threats of violence and an intervention by the far right. So it was entirely predictable that the Bolton News report would result in an outburst of right-wing Islamophobic hysteria. And so it proved. After a day deleting offensive and abusive posts from readers the Bolton News was forced to close comments on the article.

A more responsible report of the plan would have emphasised that the Taiyabah Islamic Centre, the organisation responsible for the proposed development, already owns a large complex of buildings in Draycott Street and Blackburn Road from which it has operated since 1988. The existing mosque has places for 700 worshippers. So the “huge new mosque” doesn’t represent such a dramatic transformation of the situation as the Bolton News article suggests.

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Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark banned from protesting at Copenhagen mosque opening

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The anti-Islam organisation Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (SIAD) has been told by police to stay away when Denmark’s first grand mosque opens its doors for the first time today in Copenhagen.

The organisation had asked the police for permission for a non-violent demonstration in front of the mosque – located on Rovsingsgade on the border of the city’s Østerbro and Nørrebro districts – but the police rejected its application.

The police cited that they feared that the demonstration in front of the mosque would lead to personal attacks and vandalism, and that there would be a “considerable risk that public peace would be compromised”, they told SIAD in an email. Instead the police referred the about 50-person demonstration to outside the front of parliament at Christianborg – a proposal that SIAD rejected.

“We could just have well have done it at Thorsø Station then,” Anders Gravers, the chairman and founder of SIAD, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “We wanted this to happen in front of the mosque.”

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Muslim leaders demand action over fascist mosque invasions

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain First Luton mosque invadedMuslim leaders urged the police to take action yesterday amid a rising tide of fascist “mosque invasions.”

Senior members of Luton’s Islamic congregation warned that far-right group Britain First’s inflammatory tactics were provoking younger Muslims and could end in deaths.

The fascist party posted a video of leader Paul Golding – a former British National Party councillor – and heavies forcing their way into mosques to hand out racist leaflets and Bibles to intimidate worshipers. The video ends with the message: “Are you sick of sitting on your hands and doing nothing?”

Luton Central Mosque president Mohammed Shafait told the Star: “People are fed up. He is going around all over the country abusing people.”

“I say he’s the one who is a terrorist”, argued Mr Shafait in response to the video’s description of the 40,000-strong Muslim community as “Luton extremists”.

“It’s pretty disgusting”, said anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate spokesman Simon Cressy, “They are intending to whip up racial and religious hatred.”

Britain First’s insignia describes the organisation as a “defence force” and includes the Latin motto nihil obstat – nothing stands in the way.

According to Mr Shafait, the police has been called several times but no action was taken. “I don’t want anyone to take the law into their own hands,” he added in despair. “It doesn’t matter who you are – Muslim, Christian, all faiths – stay within the law,” urged Mr Shafait. “This guy doesn’t — he makes a video then he shows to other party members that he is doing this. He is a terrorist. He’s a coward.”

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Far right campaigns to ‘ban the burka’ … in Berwick-upon-Tweed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scottish Defence League (2)Berwick will be the location of another pair of demonstrations this summer as far-right groups announced intentions to march through the town.

Far-right groups the Scottish Defence League and the North East Infidels plan to travel to Berwick in order to hold a protest on July 5.

At a meeting last Friday Berwick Trades Union Council along with local anti-fascist campaigners discussed the two groups’ planned protest.

A statement was released expressing the council’s “revulsion and deep concern at the prospect of these fascist thugs once again invading our community with their messages of hate and division. In February last year Berwick put up a tremendous display of solidarity in opposing the SDL and EDL. The fascists on the other hand chanted racist slogans and caused mayhem in the town centre.”

The statement went on to call for a local response, which will be in the form of a counter demonstration inn the same vein as last year.

“We call on all those who supported the anti-fascist demonstration last year to do the same this year but this time to make it even bigger and stronger. Let’s tell these racist thugs they are not welcome in our peaceful and inclusive community. We have an organising meeting on Friday June 20 open to all those groups and individuals in our community who want to show a collective opposition to the fascists.”

The visiting groups are describing their march as a Ban the Burka event, and are planning to wear balaclavas as a sign of protest.

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