Alf Gunvald Nilsen argues that the advances made in Norway’s general election by the anti-migrant Progress Party, which looks set to become a junior partner in a right-wing coalition government, shows the country has not dealt with the roots of Anders Breivik’s crimes.
Category Archives: Right wing
Australia fails to rise up for Danny Nalliah
Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion reports that, contrary to their grandiose claim that the support they received in the general election would mark a “history making day for Australia”, Danny Nalliah’s rabidly Islamophobic Rise Up Australia Party received a mere 38,856 first pretence votes, representing 0.37% of the electorate.
However, as Richard Bartholomew points out, “the real point of such parties is to gain publicity and to nudge the mainstream parties in a particular direction rather than to win lots of votes; Nalliah is doubtless very happy with how the election went”.
‘Tory Taliban’ burqa ban bill to be debated in parliament
The Face Covering (Prohibition) Bill will get its second reading in Parliament today, and if passed into law the bill would would make wearing burqas in public illegal.
The bill was proposed by Conservative MPs Philip Hollobone [pictured], Peter Bone and Christopher Chope as one of 40 proposals in their “alternative Queen’s speech” in June. The proposals, which included leaving the EU and tougher regulations for asylum seekers, have earned the trio the epithet “Tory Taliban” from Labour MP Angela Eagle.
Corby MP blames van ads for attack on mosque
The Government’s “go home” vans have been blamed for a racist attack on a Northamptonshire mosque by a local MP.
Labour MP for Corby Andy Sawford said he was “appalled” to see a mosque was targeted shortly after the Home Office’s controversial vans toured the country.
New York: GOP mayoral candidate says campaign commercial star’s anti-Muslim rants ‘wrong’
CBS News reports that John Catsimatidis, the Republican candidate in the New York City mayoral election, has now dissociated himself from the views of a retired police officer, John Kassimatis, who featured in one of his TV commercials.
Earlier this week the New York Post revealed that Kassimatis had posted a series of anti-Muslim rants on his Facebook page. One claimed that “All terrorists are Muslims.” Kassimatis added: “There’s gratitude for you. You bring them here from their 3rd world shithole give them refuse [sic] and education and then they kill us. Wake Up America.” When some of his Facebook friends disagreed, he retorted: “So stop telling me about peaceful ones and kumbaya these animals must be put down.”
McCain blasts Fox’s Islamophobia: Would you have a problem with an American saying ‘Thank God?’
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) blasted Fox News host Brian Kilmeade for linking a commonly-used Arabic phrase to terrorism, during an appearance to bolster his case for a strong military response to Syria President Bashar Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons. The Arizona senator has long called on the Obama administration to arm the rebels fighting the Assad regime and is pressing Congress to adopt an broad-based use of force resolution.
RUAP candidate warns that Muslims will take over Australia
The controversial Rise Up Australia Party, known for headline-making, anti-Islam and anti-multiculturalism policies, has endorsed Dale Edwards as their candidate for Leichhardt.
The socially conservative RUAP officially launched their election campaign at the start of August, with Mr Edwards of North Cairns, describing their premise as “to keep Australia Australian. In other words, keep the Judeo-Christian values in place, and one of the main concepts is wanting a multi-ethnic Australia (like we’ve got), but we don’t want multiculturalism, which is the idea of having [migrant] enclaves of people.”
Britain ‘giving in to sharia councils’, Progress Party leader tells Torygraph
Britain is “giving into the claims of Sharia councils”, according to the leader of Norway’s anti-immigration party which is poised to enter government later this month.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Siv Jensen, the 44-year-old leader of the Progress party who cites Baroness Thatcher as her inspiration, said: “What I have seen that the UK has done is to give in to the claims of sharia councils, and I don’t think we should give into that. In Norway we have one law, and that is the Norwegian law.”
‘What me, an Islamophobe?’ Stephen Fry replies to critics
Under the headline “Stephen Fry hits back at accusations of Islamophobia”, the Independent on Sunday reported yesterday on the controversy over Stephen Fry’s endorsement of Nick Cohen’s “superb” defence of their fellow atheist Richard Dawkins and his position on Islam.
In a Twitter exchange on 22 August, responding to the criticism that Dawkins has described the Islamic faith as the greatest force for evil in the world and “clearly targets Islam in particular”, Fry sneered: “Wonder why. Oh, have a look around the world and see them slaughtering each other, let alone others. So charming to women too…”
You’ll note how, in Fry’s formulation, Islam the faith becomes “them”, the Muslims. And Muslims are then equated with murder and misogyny. A clearer expression of mindless bigotry would be difficult to find.
When his critic persisted in arguing that Dawkins was “entitled to call a small religious minority evil but branding an entire religion as ‘evil’ is beyond ignorant”, Fry didn’t have an answer. Eventually he just dismissed his opponents as “dickheads” and told them to “fuck off”.
Q Society launches campaign against halal certification
Writing in The Stringer (“The latest in racist religious vilification arsenal here in Australia”), Suresh Rajan draws our attention to the latest Islamophobic initiative by the Q Society, the group responsible for organising Geert Wilders’ tour of Australia earlier this year.
The Q Society’s supporters will be handing out free shopping bags on Saturday 31 August at selected supermarkets. The bags state “Halal certification schemes fund mosques, madrassas and jihad”.
The Q Society piously claims that the bags are “designed to generate discussion amongst Australian consumers”. So, nothing to do with inciting fear and hatred of Muslims and their faith, then.