Category Archives: Israel

EDL tries to win support among other minorities by inciting fear and hatred of Muslims, report warns

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nachum Shifren with Carroll and Lennon
Nachum Shifren with EDL leaders Kevin Carroll and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon

A white extremist organisation is forging links with Jewish, Sikh and gay communities to fuel prejudice and fear and hatred of the Muslim community, it was claimed today.

The English Defence League (EDL), which was formed last year in protest at Islamic extremist activity, has also reached out across the Atlantic to build close ties with the American right-wing group, the Tea Party.

Hundreds of EDL members are planning demonstrations in Nuneaton and Preston today to protest at the building of mosques and what they claim is the growing influence in the UK of Sharia law.

But a new report, written by Professor Nigel Copsey of Teesside University, warns that the growth of EDL membership will spread Islamophobia in communities sharing a perceived “historical angst” against Muslims.

New branches of the League, such as the Jewish Division, could exploit the existing religious hostilities caused by territorial disputes in the Middle East, says Professor Copsey whose report was commissioned by the organisation Faith Matters.

It claims that these inter-faith tensions were brought into sharp focus last month when the senior US Jewish leader and Tea Party activist Rabbi Nachum Shifren denounced Islam at a EDL rally outside the Israeli Embassy in London. Israeli flags have also been spotted at several EDL demonstrations across the UK.

As well as aggravating religious tensions, the EDL has established a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Division to “defend” gay people from Sharia law. There are also specialist divisions for women, soldiers and disabled people.

Professor Copsey warned: “True to the spirit of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the EDL is targeting other ethnic communities. These communities need to guard against approaches by the EDL.”

Founder and director of Faith Matters, Fiyaz Mughal, said: “The EDL’s main aim is to increase tensions, raise hate and divide communities. Their attempts to portray themselves as a legitimate and open movement cannot disguise their violent, anti-Muslim agenda. This hate can easily mutate against another community.”

The Faith Matters report is entitled The English Defence League: Challenging Our Country and Our Values of Social Inclusion, Fairness and Equality.

Independent, 28 November 2010

See also “EDL threatens social inclusion in UK, report warns”,IRNA, 27 November 2010

Jews against EDL launch unity voice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jews Against the EDLThe first joint initiative to combat Jewish support for the English Defence League within the community has been launched.

The “Not in our name – Jews against the EDL” campaign is backed by more than a dozen organisations, including the Board of Deputies, Community Security Trust, the Israeli Embassy, and Jews for Justice for Palestinians. More than 500 people have already pledged their support.

The initiative of the Union of Jewish Students, the campaign is a response to the creation of a “Jewish division” by the extreme right-wing anti-Islamic-fundamentalist group earlier this year, and the EDL’s pro-Israel protest outside the Israeli Embassy last month, which was supported by American rabbi Nachum Shifren.

The “Not in our name” group’s founding pledge states: “The Jewish community has always been at the forefront of anti-fascism. From Cable Street to defeating the BNP at the ballot box, we have been unafraid to speak out against those who seek to spread fear and hatred in our communities.

“Now our community faces a new threat. The EDL claims to be our allies in the fight against extremism. In reality, they are violent racists with BNP members and Nazi sympathisers among their ranks. It is time for the Jewish community to come together as one to expose the EDL as the racist thugs they are.”

UJS campaigns director Carly McKenzie said: “We felt this was a prime opportunity to bring the whole community together with one loud voice.”

Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, which is backing the initiative, said: “It’s terribly important for different sections of the community, as well as individuals, to stand up and say categorically, ‘not in our name’. It’s unbelievable that such an organisation can appropriate Jewish support.”

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “At the HET we educate about the dangers of racism and discrimination and it is vital that we stand up against groups such as the EDL who preach hatred and division in our communities.”

Jewish Chronicle, 11 November 2010

Three EDL hooligans charged with affray and public order offences

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Members of the English Defence League (EDL) were joined by American Rabbi Nuchrem Shifren in a protest at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, after an earlier protest outside the Israeli Embassy. London, UK. 24/10/2010Three English Defence League demonstrators have been charged with affray and public order offences after a scuffle with Muslim hecklers at Speakers Corner.

Shortly after their demonstration on Sunday outside the Israeli Embassy in Kensington, EDL supporters made their way to Hyde Park where Rabbi Nachum Shifren, the so-called “surfing rabbi” from California, gave a short speech. The rabbi had earlier called Muslims “dogs” and told the EDL “We will never surrender to the sword of Islam.”

Rabbi Shifren was heckled by passers-by and scuffles allegedly broke out with EDL members. Bryan Kelso, 28, from Luton, Christopher Long, 38, from Roehampton and Brian Bristow, 37, from Doncaster were arrested and charged with affray and public order offences. The men have been bailed to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on November 3.

Jewish Chronicle, 26 October 2010

‘Jews against EDL’ organiser explains why she opposes pro-Israel racists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On Sunday the English Defence League mobilised outside the Israeli embassy for a rally in support of Israel with the guest speaker being Rabbi Nachum Shifren of The Tea Party, USA.

When I found out about the rally, which I was told was organised by the small but particularly vocal Jewish division of the EDL, I was fuming.

I felt there had to be a counter demonstration. So a few friends and I started organised one.

The EDL said of the event “we sympathise with what Israel are going through, it’s the only country in the west that is tackling the issues we highlight”. They go on to say… “our fore-fathers fought a Nazi regime and won to protect our god given human rights, we cannot allow such fascist ideologies try to rule our streets once again using the same racist tactics”.

The EDL dare to use the language of anti-Fascism to legitimise their political agenda. Speaking as a Jewish person, the idea that they would attack minorities and say they are doing it in part to protect and honor Jewish history is obscene.

Siobhan Schwartzberg at Liberal Conspiracy, 26 October 2010

See also “Protesters: ‘EDL lies when it says it speaks for Jewish people'”, UAF, 25 October 2010

‘Qaradawi won’t talk to Jews’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Well, so Harry’s Place claims. They quote that reliable source, the Elder of Ziyon blog, as follows: “The 8th Annual Doha Conference on Interfaith Dialogue is to start tomorrow, but prominent Islamic Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi is boycotting the conference, according to Palestine Today. The reason? Because there will be Jews there!”

In fact Qaradawi’s position on interfaith dialogue is quite clear. Back in 2005 he stated that he objected to dialogue with Israel’s chief rabbi because “he supports the murder of Palestinians on a daily basis, supports the destruction of homes and the eviction of people, and supports the crimes and the barbaric slaughter that are taking place every day. How can I shake his hand and sit down with him?

But Qaradawi said he had no problem engaging in dialogue with representatives of the Jewish community who oppose the repression of the Palestinians: “I welcome Jews who dissociate themselves from what Israel is doing, and I welcome being with them.”

He concluded: “I oppose dialogue with Jewish rabbis living in Israel, who support the crimes committed by Israel. With them there is no possibility [of dialogue]…. We will hold a dialogue with those who are reasonable among them, as well as with the Christians, as indeed I have been present at a number of conferences for Islamic-Christian dialogue. But with those ‘who do evil’, as Allah said, we shall neither argue nor shall we have any dialogue.”

The source of these quotes? None other than the Middle East Media Research Institute, an institution that is of course highly regarded by the contributors to Harry’s Place.

Arson attack on West Bank mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Beit Fajar mosque arson2BEIT FAJAR, WEST BANK — Arsonists set fire to a mosque in this Palestinian town early Monday, charring Korans, burning holes into the carpet and scrawling “revenge” in Hebrew near the doorway.

The attack, which residents blamed on Jewish settlers, threatened to stir passions amid a crisis in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks over settlement construction.

Witnesses at Beit Fajar, a major stone-cutting center south of Bethlehem, said that a car carrying several people pulled up at the mosque about 3 a.m. and that a fire was blazing after they left. “We smelled smoke, and young men outside were shouting that the mosque is on fire,” said Maryam Ismail, who lives across the street. She said neighbors rushed over with hoses and buckets to douse the flames.

Throughout the day, men gathered at the mosque to survey the damage. There were large, scorched gaps in the carpet, linked by a snaking trail of flammable fluid. The walls and ceiling were covered with soot, and a box of singed Korans was removed by Palestinian police officers. “A mosque must be burned,” was scrawled in Hebrew near the door, along with a Star of David.

Washington Post, 5 October 2010

Israel: Kadima MK proposes ‘banning the burqa’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A member of the current Knesset is proposing a law that would prohibit the wearing of any garment that obscures the face and prevents identification, in any government office, at any entertainment venue, and on any means of public transportation. According to the legislator proposing the law, Kadima MK Marina Solodkin, its primary purpose is to liberate women from irrational religious restrictions. The bill mainly targets devout Muslims.

Solodkin explained, “This past Passover vacation I was in southern France. And in this French province, I saw for myself, women in full burqa. I said, enough! For me, as a former Soviet citizen and believing Jew, I will never allow it in Israel.”

Solodkin continued, “When I followed the campaign in France, I started asking questions. But not questions about why the ban on the burqa was being proposed. Rather, I asked why it was not proposed beforehand! So late… Where were the Western liberals when they saw what was going on in their own countries, to their own citizens?”

Two days after France’s lower house of parliament banned the burqa, Solodkin proposed her own anti-burqa bill to the Israeli Knesset.

Haaretz, 2 October 2010

The lesson of 9/11: Don’t dare upset the Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hardly a day goes by without us witnessing appalling atrocities and provocations in the supposed name of Islam: suicide bombings, fatwas, stonings, burnings of effigies and flags, Holocaust denial, and other crude forms of anti-Semitism. Women in Gaza and Muslim countries daren’t even have an orgasm without first obtaining the permission of their Islamofascist rulers. And who in the West dares to utter a word in protest?

A loony pastor in Florida, however, with no more than fifty followers, threatens to burn a few Korans and the Western media descends into a state of frenzy, the story leading all the major networks for days.

Such disproportionate oversensitivity to and appeasement of Muslims constitutes a worrying sign that the West may already have given up the fight against the evil of Islamofascism….

I am under no illusion about individuals such as Pastor Jones or, for example, elements of the English Defence League. What I do admire, however, is their refusal to lie down while their world and way of life – and in their own countries – is being transformed in front of their very eyes.

Anyone who is more concerned about a few books being burned by some deranged pastor – and we are not talking state-sponsored, 1933-style destruction here – than about the creeping Islamization of our planet is no less irrational than the mook with the handlebar moustache.

Melchett Mike at the JC Blog, 11 September 2010

Note the appearance of Zionist Federation vice-chair Jonathan Hoffman in the comments to this post, expressing his support.

BNP want Jewish ‘comrades’ to fight Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL We Support IsraelMembers of far-right organisations are urging colleagues to support an unlikely ally – Israel. Small groups of BNP and English Defence League supporters are championing the Jewish state as part of a perceived struggle with the Muslim world. They call for Israel and the BNP to be “comrades in arms”.

One person commenting on a pro-BNP blog suggested that the party should open an office in Israel to “show solidarity with the Israeli people”. But Jon Benjamin, Board of Deputies chief executive, warned: “No one in their right mind should have any truck with the BNP or their ilk.”

A blogger on The Green Arrow, an independent website which supports the BNP, encouraged others to look to Israel to avoid the West’s “meek surrender to Islam”.

Under the name Reconquista, the blogger wrote: “Against the backdrop of an enormous anti-Israel propaganda campaign waged by Muslims and by the Marxist left, Israel continues to fight for its very survival.

“I believe it is absolutely imperative for British Nationalists to be fully aware of the lies, deceptions, hypocrisy and moral cowardice surrounding Israel and the Jewish people.”

One person commented on the blog: “I have written several times calling for committees for the mutual defence of white and Jewish communities to be set up here. Both people are under attack… Jewish people need to stop opposing us as their enemy.”

Another adds: “We need Israel. We must join with them to fight this terrible wave of Islam trying to take over the world. The Jews know all about ethnic cleansing, and they will never allow themselves to be in that position again.”

In May, the extreme right-wing anti-Islamic fundamentalism group the English Defence League launched a “Jewish division”, encouraging Jews to “lead the counter-Jihad fight in England”.

Mr Benjamin said: “Short-term political expediency and pronouncements of this kind are merely a cynical ploy by the BNP to try to re-invent themselves to capture the support of those who should know better.”

A CST spokesman said: “There may be the odd BNP activist who thinks that antisemitism is stupid, and there may well be others who think that supporting Israel is a good idea, but none of it changes what the BNP is all about.”

Jewish Chronicle, 12 August 2010

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Jerusalem Post interviews sinister right-wing bigot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

douglas_murrayToday’s Jerusalem Post carries a long, rambling interview with Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social Cohesion.

Among the aperçus Murray offers is the bizarre claim that multiculturalism led the British police to refuse to investigate murders if they were classed as honour killings (“This is a community matter, they’d say”), the assertion that “you are more likely to become a major terrorist if you’ve gone to university” (as demonstrated by the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who got “in touch with the top jihadis via his Islamic studies society”), and the revelation that Inayat Bunglawala, of all people, is a “very unpleasant sinister figure”!

Whereas there is of course nothing unpleasant or sinister about a right-wing bigot like Murray, who holds that “there’s a very rational fear in being scared of Islam today and wanting to act against it” and who advocates that “conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board“.