“Is it mere coincidence that Cage has had bank accounts closed down, its staff targeted, and pressure heaped on its funders by the Charity Commission all the space of a few months since Begg’s arrest? If this is a concerted effort to silence Cage, who is behind it and why?”
Alex Delmar-Morgan and Peter Oborne challenge the persecution of Cage.
Britain First leader Paul Golding harassing imam at the NWK Mosque in Crayford
Under a headline proclaiming “Britain First Kent battalion activists invade Crayford mosque”, the fascist group Britain First is boasting that its paramilitary-clothed activists have engaged in yet another act of religious harassment, in this instance at North West Kent Muslim Association’s mosque in Crayford High Street.
The purpose of the ‘invasion’, according to Britain First, was to “to inform the Imams that they have exactly 7 days to remove sexist, segregationalist signs from outside their building, or we will”. The reference is to signs indicating the entrance to the women’s section of the mosque. Like most mosques, Orthodox Jewish synagogues and Sikh gurdwaras, the North West Kent Muslim Association conducts acts of worship on the basis of gender separation.
Needless to say, Britain First doesn’t have a problem with gender separation when Jews or Sikhs engage in it. But when Muslims follow this religious practice, Britain First leader Paul Golding thinks he’s entitled to subject them to threats.
This isn’t the first time that Golding has targeted the Crayford mosque. In March last year, accusing the North West Kent Muslim Association of “Islamic bigotry against women”, he launched a campaign together with fellow fascist Paul Pitt/Prodromou under the banner of the now moribund far-right unity group, the English National Resistance. Although a proposed demonstration outside the mosque was called off, Golding announced that Britain First would be continuing the campaign by other means.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned against becoming “too hysterical” over Islamic radicalisation in Britain as he spoke of his concerns about developing a “culture of fear” towards Muslims.
The Most Rev Justin Welby said there was a problem with radicalisation of Muslims in Britain and an “issue” with young men travelling to Syria and returning to the UK “highly radicalised”.
But, speaking in an interview on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, the Archbishop said the proportion of Muslims in Britain who are radicalised remained “extraordinarily small”.
He said there was a danger of a “national culture of fear” over the issue. “Clearly there is an issue with people going to Syria and coming back highly radicalised. There is a problem with radicalisation,” he said.
“But the proportion of Muslims who are radicalised is extraordinarily small and I’m just edgy about developing a national culture of fear because I don’t think that gets us anywhere and I think we’re in danger of slipping into a very fearful culture in which we see everyone against us and us against everyone and we’re constantly trying to defend ourselves.”
England’s Chief Inspector of Schools is today accused of abandoning “objectivity and independence” in his handling of the Trojan Horse scandal and of “tarring” a generation of Muslim children with “the brush of extremism”.
In a coordinated attack city leaders, officials and businessmen in Birmingham said Sir Michael Wilshaw’s “ill-advised and ill-informed” approach to “isolated” problems in the city had damaged community relations and led to a teacher recruitment crisis. They suggest the Chief Inspector is attempting to deflect attention from Ofsted’s failure to identify problems in schools they previously judged “outstanding”.
“While we have no intention of belittling the serious issues at play, Sir Michael has crossed the line from [giving] independent advice on the schools system to a full-on attack on the city of Birmingham,” said Jerry Blackett, chief executive of Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. “The Chief Inspector of Schools should be motivated by overall improvement for the children of the city. His tirades appear to be motivated either by politics or self-publicity, or both.”
He went on to accuse the Ofsted head of deliberately trying to damage Birmingham. “Sir Michael forgets that these public and high profile attacks go way beyond supporting the city in improving schools performance, safeguarding or governance. He entirely ignores the numerous success stories and positive examples from the area to focus on the negative experiences of a minority.”
Until now, senior figures in Birmingham have remained diplomatic in their comments about Ofsted’s Trojan Horse investigation, despite private misgivings about its remit, method of inspection, and findings.
Last week, however, Sir Michael used an appearance before MPs to lay the blame for problems found in five Birmingham schools squarely at the door of the city council. Now senior local government officials and politicians have accused Sir Michael of deliberately misrepresenting problems with governance in a small number of schools by associating them with a wider threat of Islamic extremism.
A teenager has been arrested after allegedly posting a racist threat against a mosque on Facebook.
Leon Richmond, aged 18, from Smithills, is alleged to have made an “offensive” comment about the proposed new mosque in Blackburn Road, Astley Bridge, on a Facebook page. He has been bailed by police, who have warned that more arrests will follow.
The proposed mosque, which was given approval by Bolton Council members earlier this month, will be built on a plot of land off Canning Street.
Det Insp Charlotte Cadden, from Bolton North Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of making racial threats to cause criminal damage. This is the first of a number of arrests we will be making.
“People seem to think they can make racially offensive comments online with impunity but they can’t because it’s offensive and people are rightly concerned. If you have put something like that online I would advise you to remove it. We have captured some of the comments already and we are prioritising the most serious ones. The arrest made by police is a warning to people.
“All people have a right to a lawful protest if they are unhappy about something but this has far overstepped the mark and turned into racial verbal abuse and threats to damage that have caused a lot concern and upset in all communities. The comments are offensive to lots of people.”
The mosque plans, submitted by Taiyabah Islamic Centre, include a dome, minaret tower and 19 classrooms. They have prompted protests by objectors [see here and here] in the lead-up to the planning meeting on July 3. Protestors shouted abuse at councillors as the proposals were approved.
Cllr Guy Harkin, for Crompton Ward, praised the police for taking action against people suspected of using racist abuse.
Cllr Harkin said: “The people who use racist abuse don’t realise that there is an electronic audit trail of what they are up to and that what they are saying is against the law. Some people had legitimate concerns about the planning application but other people were hiding behind that when the agenda was really Islamaphobia and racism.
“People who have legitimate planning objections will be listened to but at the end of the day, some people were using that as a smokescreen for out-and-out racism. I’m glad the police are getting a grip of it. At the end of the day people break the law and police deal with it.”
He said one of his colleagues has been at the brunt of some of the abuse and said it was “appalling and unacceptable”.
More than 60 teachers in Newham have signed an open letter to Michael Gove, saying the Trojan Horse affair has increased Islamophobia in the borough.
The letter, written by award-winning poet Michael Rosen and author Alan Gibbons, was also signed by Alex Kenny, secretary of the east London branch of the National Union of Teachers. It accuses the Education Secretary and the press of using the story to fuel racism in schools and ignoring allegations of the Trojan Horse dossier being a fake.
Robert Ferguson, of Newham Sixth Form College, said the affair had been conducted in a way that equated Muslims in education with extremism and terror. He said: “This is having an impact especially in Newham and other parts of east London. I have been approached by colleagues really concerned, but also determined to take a stand.”
Berwick Chamber of Trade’s chairman has led calls for a ban on future protest marches through the town by far-right groups.
John Haswell was speaking after the Ban the Burka demonstration by the Scottish Defence League and North East Infidels on Saturday. “They shouldn’t be allowed back,” he said. “It doesn’t do our reputation any good at all. We’re a seaside tourist town and this is the last sort of thing we want our visitors to see.” A survey he carried out before the event found 155 shops and businesses did not want the protest march coming through town.
Several businesses including Pier Red on Castlegate and The Leaping Salmon on Golden Square stayed closed, sacrificing profits to avoid the risk of potential trouble. Terri Conway, duty manager at The Leaping Salmon, said: “It was just the chance of something happening – we closed last year when the SDL came to march, and we would close again if they came next year. Obviously being closed on a Saturday, when the weather was eventually so nice, hit us very hard.”
Around 40 right-wing protesters marched down Castlegate, along Walkergate to The Parade and back via Cowport to the railway station. A 100-strong counter-demonstration organised by Berwick Trades Union Council [pictured] took place on Marygate at the same time.
Phil Thompson, secretary of Berwick TUC, said: “It is vital that we continue to organise, to unite, to make sure they are not allowed to spread their racist and Islamophobic hatred and violence in our community.”
One 39-year-old man, from within the SDL march, was arrested for disorderly conduct and summonsed to appear at court.
Reports and comments on Muslims by the media and politicians bear the hallmarks of the portrayal of Jews in Nazi Germany, an MP has said.
Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi said very similar words to those included in information and literature put out by the Nazis were being used against Muslims in Britain at the moment. She added 99.9% of coverage in newspapers and on television is anti-Muslim, with “complete lies” published on front pages and made-up stories giving people the wrong impression of Islam and its followers.
The Bolton South East MP also told a debate that a lot of people in some parts of the country have “never come across a Muslim person or a black person or an Asian person” and so their views about a particular religion, group or culture will “come from what they read in the paper”.
Ms Qureshi, herself a Muslim, spoke out during a debate on the Srebrenica massacre, in which some 8,000 Muslim men were killed in Bosnia in 1995. Addressing what could be done to prevent anything similar happening again, she told the Westminster Hall debate that a recent survey showed 33% of people in the UK think that Muslims are “not really right for this country” and the religion “is not appropriate, they don’t belong here”.
Ms Qureshi said: “Now, I feel very offended. I wasn’t born in England but I was brought up here, this is my country. (There’s) three million Muslims out there and I know (because of) the actions of a few, everyone is getting slated with it.
“And there’s a lot of people in this country, in parts of the country, they’ve never come across a Muslim person or a black person or an Asian person, and any information they have about a particular religion or group or a culture or a community will come from what they read in the paper.”
Ms Qureshi said this led to people forming their view of a person on images and information rather than from people they have met.
A foreign office minister warned today of the need to fight Islamophobia, describing it as a “new form of hate crime”. Baroness Warsi said she had personally championed the campaign to combat anti-Muslim hatred.
“It is important we fight this new form of hate crime,” she told the Lords at question time. “But we have been here before. There have been moments in our history when we haven’t been entirely comfortable with a faith community, when we have questioned the loyalty of faith communities whether that’s been the Jewish community or the Catholic community.
“But it’s been our trust in our institutions and our values that has got us through it and we will get through it again.”
Police are hunting for two racists thugs who smashed windows and screamed abuse at people in the mosque in Warrington town centre.
Officers from Cheshire Police were called at 11.30pm on Monday, to reports two men were shouting racist slurs and vandalising the mosque on Arpley Street. Residents were inside the address at the time of the attack, although there were no injuries, according to police.
Sgt Rob Horton, of Warrington Town Centre NPU, said, “Cheshire Police treat racially motivated crimes very seriously. Enquiries are still ongoing and we would like to speak to anybody who may have witnessed or can provide any further information with regards to this incident.”
At this stage police say it as an isolated incident, but have increased the number of officers patrolling the area.