Category Archives: Far right racists

Molotov cocktails thrown at mosque in Crimea

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Unknown vandals have attacked Chukurcha-Jami mosque in Crimea, drawing Nazi swastikas before setting the mosque on fire in a new provocation to Crimea’s Tatar Muslim, Crimean News Agency reported on Friday, June 13.

The attack which occurred on Thursday, June 12, was caught on surveillance cameras video which showed men throwing Molotov cocktails.

Imam of Simferopol Muhammed Islamov said the incident was a provocation and the guilty would be found soon.

The attack is not the first on the mosque which faced another hate attack in 2004.

OnIslam, 13 June 2014

Middlesbrough EDL march: Police warn criminal behaviour will be dealt with ‘robustly’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Middlesborough EDLPolice have warned that any anti-social or criminal behaviour linked to a planned English Defence League demonstration will be dealt with “robustly”. It comes as hundreds of demonstrators plan to march through Middlesbrough later this month.

Cleveland Police officers are in talks with a number of groups over plans by members of the EDL from as far afield as London and Scotland to gather in the town on June 28.

About 250 EDL supporters have already confirmed they are attending on Facebook – with organisers saying full details of the demo will be released “at a later date”. It is understood that they may try to march through residential areas, finishing at the war memorial on Linthorpe Road. It comes after a recent demonstration in Newcastle city centre in which Teesside flags could be seen.

Counter demonstrations are also being planned by groups opposed to the EDL.

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South East Alliance to hold protest against Muslim Brotherhood in Cricklewood

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SEA anti-MB protest adA far-right organisation is planning to hold a protest outside the headquarters of a major Egyptian political group in Cricklewood on Saturday.

Members of South East Alliance (SEA) are due to demonstrate outside the headquarters of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) which is based in a flat above shops in Cricklewood Broadway.

MB was a praised political group in Egypt but were ousted from power amid popular demonstrations. They are believed to be launching a fight-back against Egypt’s military rulers from their new home.

SEA have denied speculated links to the English Defence League claiming they are “a non-political community based street movement”. However, their Facebook page is filled with anti-Muslim posts.

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Racist graffiti outside London primary school: Mother reacts furiously to media coverage

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daily Express Whites Not Welcome
Express reports on the ‘whites not welcome’ graffiti – omitting to reproduce the accompanying anti-Islam and anti-migrant slogans

A concerned mother has hit out at media coverage of racist graffiti at her local school after a series of articles claimed that white pupils alone were being targeted by the slurs.

Coverage of the vandalism, which was left on the entrance path to the Prince of Wales Primary School, focused entirely on just one of the messages which said “whites not welcome.”

But the mother who alerted the media to the graffiti has responded furiously to coverage by publications including the Daily Mail, Daily Express and Evening Standard who, she said, are creating “misconceptions and division.”

Jasmin Nathan, who has two sons aged nine and six at the school, sent several images of the graffiti to a number publications, including the Huffington Post UK. She has now said that she is “very disappointed and angry” that only the one image has been widely circulated.

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Progressive Christians should take on the Christian right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We need to expose the truth about certain Christian groups that are happy to ally themselves with far-right politics. Foremost among them is Christian Concern (previously called Christian Concern For Our Nation).

Christian Concern claims to speak up for Christian values in public life. They are one of the main groups behind the Coalition for Marriage, which has drawn in more moderately conservative Christians and gained significant media coverage with its outrageously untrue claim that the legalisation of same-sex marriages would allow churches to be sued for not holding them. Many middle-of-the-road Christians have been happy to endorse the group’s ‘Not Ashamed’ campaign, which encourages Christians to be open about their faith.

Rumours have long circulated that the leaders of Christian Concern held a meeting by phone with Tommy Robinson when he was leader of the English Defence League. Christian Concern last month had the opportunity to get rid of these rumours, when they were asked outright by a journalist (not me) if they were true. Christian Concern’s press officer, after consulting with its leaders, told the journalist that they had no comment to make.

Christian Concern deny being party-political – they had to apologise to their supporters in 2010 when they appeared to endorse the tiny Christian party. But in 2011, the group held a meeting on ‘Dismantling Multiculturalism’ with Gerard Batten, Ukip MEP for London. Proposals they appear to have agreed on include a ban on kosher and halal food in schools and hospitals, an end to Islamic banking in the UK and a ban on non-English signs in public (Batten has since tried to play it all down, saying these were only ideas). By last year, Christian Concern’s bulletins to supporters were commenting on Ukip’s local election success in joyful terms.

Symon Hill writes at Politics.co.uk, 6 June 2014

Stevenage pub withdraws from hosting EDL members before march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marquis of LorneA pub will no longer host English Defence League (EDL) members before they march tomorrow (Saturday).

The Marquis of Lorne, in Stevenage High Street, had agreed to allow EDL members to meet at the pub prior to their 1.30pm march through the town. They have now withdrawn and have yet to decide whether to open their doors throughout the day.

A statement on the pub’s Facebook page reads: “We at the Marquis of Lorne agreed to the EDL starting their march here purely as a business opportunity – not for political reasons. We have now withdrawn. We apologise to anyone we may have offended over this matter.”

At present the EDL is still advertising The Marquis of Lorne as a meeting place on Facebook.

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EDL thug Dean Kenney admits part in Birmingham riot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dean Kenney (2)
Dean Kenney (centre of photo) with fellow EDL thugs and (right) boasting about contaminating halal chicken with bacon

A right-wing thug who boasted of contaminating supermarket Halal chicken with bacon has admitted in court to committing violent disorder at a 2,000-strong English Defence League rally. Dean Kenney, 41, from Bannister Green Villas, Felsted, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to taking part in a demonstration last July which saw EDL members, 300 anti-fascists and police clash in the town centre.

They marched to Centenary Square where then EDL leader Tommy Robinson delivered a speech outside the Symphony Hall. Then the violence started between EDL supporters and police wearing full riot gear. A portable toilet was tipped over spilling waste over the street and missiles were thrown, including bottles and cobblestones. It was estimated around £6,000 of damage was caused to a sign at the entrance to the Hyatt Hotel as demonstrators again clashed with police.

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How the right exploits Christianity and secularism to attack Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The European right is advocating a Christian identity for Europe not because it wants to promote Christianity but because it wants to push back against Islam and the integration of Muslims – or what the National Front calls “the Islamization of Europe.”

Public spaces have become a major battleground. There are bans on “head scarves and other signs of religious affiliation” in schools (in France) and on full-face veils on the streets (in France and Belgium), and efforts to block the construction of mosques (throughout Europe) or just minarets (in Switzerland, mosques are allowed but without their distinctive towers, the latter being considered the “expression of an intolerant culture”). The pushback against Islam also concerns the individual body, with, for example, campaigns to prohibit circumcision and halal food in Norway.

Notably, these measures are being advocated in the name of protecting not Christianity but liberal secularism. The hijab is said to offend women’s rights; circumcision, children’s rights; ritual slaughter, animal rights. Oriana Fallaci and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, two radical spokespersons for the feminist resistance to Islam, became darlings of the conservative right in Italy (Fallaci) and the Netherlands and America (Hirsi Ali).

This anti-Islam rhetoric is spreading to the mainstream. The coalition government of the Netherlands requires would-be immigrants to accept progressive values before they are given a residency visa. Applicants are asked whether they tolerate the mixing of boys and girls in school, gender equality, nudity in public and gay rights. Although all applicants must take these tests, given the concerns revealed in these questions and the demographics of migration into Europe, there can be little doubt that the exams are designed to challenge adherents to Islam. Such measures are unfair to Muslims, and they violate European states’ professed commitment to multiculturalism and the separation of church and state.

Olivier Roy condemns the hijacking of Christianity and secularism by right-wing Islamophobes.

New York Times, 4 June 2014

Tories admit convicted racists into European parliamentary group

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two anti-immigration politicians with criminal convictions for inciting ethnic tension were admitted on Wednesday night to David Cameron’s eurosceptic alliance in the European parliament.

The situation is the result of an unexpected move that defied the reservations of some in Downing Street in which Tory MEPs overwhelmingly voted to join forces with the Danish People’s party and True Finns. The two parties are former allies of Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence party.

The decision helps take the European Conservatives and Reformists group [ECR], established by Mr Cameron in 2009, to 55 seats, making it the fourth biggest group. A planned vote on also admitting the anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland was postponed after Mr Cameron warned that this would sour relations with Berlin.

Morten Messerschmidt, a senior DPP figure and a rising star in Danish politics, was convicted in 2002 for publishing material that appeared to link a multiethnic society to rape, violence and forced marriages. Jussi Halla-aho, a newly elected True Finn MEP, was convicted in 2012 of stirring ethnic tensions after writing a blog on freedom of speech that claimed Islam “reveres paedophilia”.

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