Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Anger as EDL plans return to Sheffield

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shopkeepers fear they may have to close as hundreds of English Defence League members plan a second gathering in Sheffield this weekend.

Tommy Robinson, leader of the far right group, said the event will take place from 1pm on Saturday and involve a “peaceful walk” into Barker’s Pool. Nearly 600 people on the group’s Facebook page said they would be attending.

Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said he planned the second gathering after claiming to be “sickened” when anti-fascist demonstrators disrupted a planned walk and wreath laying “in memory of Drummer Lee Rigby” at the war memorial in Barker’s Pool last week. Robinson said his members were “just normal people” wanting to remember the murdered soldier.

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CAIR seeks hate crime probe of Texas mosque vandalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

McKinney Islamic Association paintball attackThe Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-DFW), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, tonight called on state and national law enforcement authorities to investigate a paintball attack on a mosque in that state as a possible hate crime.

Officials with the McKinney Islamic Association in Mckinney, Texas, told CAIR that up to two dozen paintballs were fired at the mosque sometime between 11 p.m. on Saturday and 5 a.m. on Sunday. A vehicle owned by a member of the mosque’s congregation was also hit by a paintball after he left the facility. Worshippers have reportedly been verbally harassed recently by young people who gather near the mosque. Local police told mosque officials that they will recommend stepped up patrols in the area.

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Britain unites to warn racist thugs ‘you can’t cash in on Lee Rigby’s murder’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Oxford anti-EDL protestors

A far right bid to exploit soldier Lee Rigby’s murder failed today as people across Britain turned their backs on racism, the Sunday People reports.

Demos by the British National Party and English Defence League flopped – and a march in London was even outnumbered by a nearby protest against badger culling.

The scenes took place as suspect Michael Adebolajo, 28, was charged with Drummer Rigby’s murder. Michael Adebowale, 22, has already been charged.

Bigots using the atrocity to push a right-wing agenda faced a united front from people shouting slogans like “Fascist scum off our streets” and “we’re black and white and Asian and we’re Jews.”

At one rally not a single EDL supporter turned up.

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BNP met by hundreds of anti-fascists at Westminster

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP Westminster protest (2)Hundreds of anti-fascist campaigners have descended on Westminster today in protest at a planned march by the British National Party following the death of Lee Rigby.

Around 50 BNP members and supporters turned out for a march and motorcade outside the Houses of Parliament at 1pm after police stepped in to halt initial plans for a demonstration in Woolwich amid fears of it igniting community tensions.

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Danish supermarket chain lifts headscarf ban following campaign by Muslim women

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Netto hijab campaigners (2)

A well-known supermarket chain in Denmark has announced that employees will no longer be prohibited from wearing the Muslim headscarf at its stores. The move follows a two-week protest in the country led by a group of Muslim women.

The spokesman for Dansk Supermarked, which operates the Netto, Fotex and Bilka stores, told the media on Thursday that the chain has decided to end its policy of prohibiting employees from wearing headscarves. The chain has for the past decade not allowed its employees to wear headscarves at its stores.

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Local opposition to Lincoln mosque protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Local residents are opposing a planned protest against the mosque set to be built in Lincoln on the former site of the Boultham dairy, along with a supermarket and housing development.

As previously reported, the demo is organised via Facebook by a group called East Anglian Patriots, possibly an off-shoot of the English Defence League (EDL). The event is planned for 1pm on June 8 at the site of the former Boultham Dairy, where the new mosque and a supermarket were approved back in November 2012.

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Lewisham Muslims welcome BNP march restrictions

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lewisham’s Islamic Centre has expressed its relief at the “welcome news” that far-right group, the British National Party, will be barred from marching in the southeast London’s borough’s streets.

BNP leader Nick Griffin had planned out a route from Woolwich Barracks, near to the scene where soldier Lee Rigby was murdered, to the centre only a few miles away, which was scheduled to go ahead tomorrow (June 1).

However, police intervened in the BNP’s plans, citing potential for serious violence and damage to neighbourhoods.

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