Category Archives: UK

Sheffield anti-mosque protest: EDL hurl missiles and charge police lines

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Sheffield protest September 2013Supporters of the English Defence League charged police lines and hurled missiles when the right-wing group held a demonstration in Sheffield today.

Hundreds turned out for the rally at Sheffield Lane Top, which was sparked by now-abandoned proposals to turn The Pheasant pub on Barnsley Road into a mosque. A counter demonstration was also held by Unite Against Fascism and One Sheffield Many Cultures.

Police said around 400 EDL supporters attended, with 250 involved in the counter-protest, while four arrests were made – two for drunk and disorderly, one for criminal damage to a police vehicle and one for possession of cannabis.

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EDL thug spared jail for violent attack on anti-fascist protester

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John Claydon arrestedA thug who repeatedly punched an anti-fascist protester in front of children during an EDL march in Hull city centre has walked free from court. John Claydon, 46, was caught on CCTV punching David Harding, who was part of a small group of men and women taking part in a counter-protest.

Yesterday, Recorder Michael Smith sentenced Claydon – who has convictions for violence from 1999, 2001 and 2007 – to an 18-month community order and 100 hours’ unpaid work. HGV driver Claydon, 46, of Dronfield, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

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Torquay ‘Knights Templar’ were inspired by Breivik murders, court told

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John Roddy and Tobias RuthTwo friends obsessed with Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik plotted a far-right hate campaign in Torbay, a court was told today. John Roddy, 20, and Tobias Ruth, 18, daubed racist graffiti on a mosque and spray painted Brixham police station. The pair styled themselves as Knights Templar in homage to Breivik and sent letters to Islamic centres telling worshippers to leave the country.

At Exeter Crown Court today Ruth, from Brixham, was sent to a Young Offenders Institution for two years and nine months. He had previously admitted conspiracy to cause criminal damage and to send malicious communications. Roddy, from Torquay, walked away from court with a suspended jail sentence. He admitted the conspiracy charges and possessing a terror manual on his computer.

Their arrests came in January after an area of Lymington Road in Torquay was sealed off by armed police who feared they may be dealing with a terrorist cell.

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UKIP no longer proposes ‘burqa ban’ law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UKIP logoUKIP deputy leader Paul Nuttall has stated that his party no longer proposes a state ban on the Muslim veil in some public places.

Nuttall told the Huffington Post yesterday that “our view is pretty much that if people need to see your face, then quite frankly it should be shown” – for example in a bank – but that the party would not bring in legislation to impose a ban, because they are “libertarians”.

Not so long ago, of course, UKIP did propose to legislate for such a ban. In its manifesto for the May 2010 general election the party pledged to “tackle extremist Islam by banning the burqa or veiled niqab in public buildings and certain private buildings”.

As Nuttall points out, that was under a different leader – namely Lord Pearson, who had close connections with the likes of Pamela Geller, the US Islamophobe who was recently banned from entering the UK because of her record of anti-Muslim hatemongering.

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‘Man tried to pull off my niqab,’ says 14-year-old

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 14-year-old British teenager has described her horror when a man tried to pull off her face veil in the street. She told the BBC Radio four World at One programme that it had made her nervous when out and about.

The student said it was her own choice to wear the veil and neither of her parents had encouraged her to do so. She said it meant she avoided the pressures to keep up with the latest trends and look a certain way.

She spoke to the BBC’s Sima Kotecha .

BBC News, 19 September 2013

Bristol EDL riot: The berk in a ‘burkha’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Craig OakleyA rioter told police he wore a balaclava to imitate someone in a burkha during the trouble that broke out during a march in memory of murdered soldier Lee Rigby.

Craig Oakley, 41, joined a march the judge described as little more than a “pub crawl” for men aged between 18 and 35 – some of whom were members of the English Defence League. The march was organised in Kingswood via social-networking website Facebook following the death of Drummer Rigby in Woolwich, London on May 22.

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This ban does not bode well for Britain’s multicultural future

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A piece of cloth roughly 6″ x 12″ does not impede the ability of the witness to provide truthful evidence under oath in the courtroom. We must ask ourselves whether this court ruling is really about due process of the law, or about Britain’s multicultural future.”

Amani El Sehrawey analyses the wider implications of the judicial ruling that a Muslim woman must remove her niqab to give evidence in court.

Independent, 19 September 2013

EDL campaigns against Islamification of Truro

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Members of a controversial Islam protest group have confirmed they are attracting support from Cornish people who do not want to see the county “ruined by mosques”.

Posters, stickers and graffiti in support of the English Defence League (EDL), a group dedicated to the eradication of extreme Islamic beliefs, have recently sprung up on the back of road signs in Truro, St Agnes, Scorrier, Towan Cross, Carnon Downs and Lanner.

A representative from EDL Cornwall Division refused to comment about the stickers but told the West Briton: “Indeed we do have representatives for the Cornwall area. I’m afraid Islam is starting to creep its way into our beautiful county.

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