Category Archives: UK

MEND / Unite Against Fascism roundtable event

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Diane Abbott MP, Muslim community groups and NGO’s come together to tackle Islamophobia

Tackling Islamophobia: Roundtable panel discussion in Parliament

3-5pm Thursday 20 November 2014
Committee Room 16
House of Commons

Unite Against Fascism and MEND (Muslim Engagement & Development) have called a roundtable event in Parliament as part of November’s Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM). The event is an opportunity to address some of the pressing issues facing the Muslim community with a diverse panel that will take up matters including government policy regarding the Muslim community, the rise in Islamophobic hate crimes, policing and the Muslim community and the impact of the media portrayals of Islam and Muslims.

Islamophobia has been rising at an alarming rate over recent years. In London alone, from April 2013 to March 2014, we have seen a rise of 69% in Islamophobic crimes with the Met Police observing an eightfold increase in anti-Muslim attacks in the two weeks following Lee Rigby’s murder. During the last twelve months, the Metropolitan Police have recorded 573 Islamophobic crimes in London. Given that 43% of all hate crimes go unreported (Crime Survey for England and Wales), the actual number of Islamophobic crimes is undoubtedly much higher. Unlike most incidents of hate crime, which overwhelmingly involve male perpetrators and victims, Teeside University have found that the majority of the victims of Islamophobic attacks are female.

The round table will focus on key demands to the Government, policy makers, and parliamentarians to deal more effectively with Islamophobia, including statutory responses and responsibilities, measures to improve policing and better legislation to protect faith-based communities.

Continue reading →

‘UK foreign policy to blame for sense of hatred, alienation of young Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The main threat to UK home security is presented by young alienated Muslims who are under constant surveillance and harassment by the government, but not those citizens who went to Syria or Iraq and came back, political commentator Chris Bambery told RT.

RT: MI5 is worried that extremists are plotting to kill a police officer on the streets of the UK. Is there really a way to prevent such an attack?

Chris Bambery: MI5, MI6 are among the most sophisticated security services in the world, working hand-in-hand with the CIA, the NSA and other American security agencies and they have a track record of stopping this. Britons spend millions of pounds on this and on surveillance. We are one of the most surveyed states in the world, the highest number of CCTV cameras in any country in the world. Yes, it can be stopped.

The question here is that for over a decade under the supported “war on terror” we have seen legislation being passed which simply makes things which were previously illegal, illegal again. It is if you murder someone anywhere in the world, it is murder. You don’t need extra legislation to make that murder again. What we have discovered is not that we just rushed through this legislation but sneaked inside it clauses which allow for instant surveillance on social media, telephone calls, and erosion of liberty.

And the police officers have said this has been going on, this is the price that has to be paid. Well, this has been going on for over a decade, and regards the so-called “war on terror,” and prior to that in terms of what was happening in Northern Ireland and the struggle against the republicans. So we have seen an erosion of civil liberties in this country.

The current scare is about supposed jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq to wage war on our streets. May I just ask this? These people went to Syria, they were under surveillance from MI5, MI6 since the moment they left their home and they are under surveillance from the Turkish secret intelligence at the moment they arrived in Turkey and travelled through it, British intelligence knows who they are, they are not just going to come up to Heathrow Airport and be welcomed back into the country. If they are guilty of war crimes, in they are guilty of murders, there are already laws to apply, and we don’t need new laws. What the threat here is, if there is any threat, is from alienated young Muslims in this country. Tony Blair was warned of this back in 2003 when he took us into the invasion of Iraq, that the domestic terrorism would be the blowback as a consequence of that. Therefore, you have to turn and see that it is the British policy which is to blame.

Continue reading →

Zakir Naik thinks the earth is flat
(it says here)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A measure of the irrationality and hysteria of Islamophobes is their readiness to accept even the most ludicrous anti-Muslim story as genuine, when just a moment’s intelligent thought would lead to the conclusion that it is obvious nonsense.

As long as it fits with their own mindless prejudices, right-wing extremists happily post and repost transparently false Islamophobic propaganda on social media without the slightest attempt to check whether it has any basis in fact.

Here, for example, is a recent post from the popular far-right Facebook page, the New Daily Patriot.

New Daily Patriot posts Zakir Naik hoax

Predictably, this provoked the usual outburst of abuse and threats, not just against Dr Naik but against the entire Muslim community, ranging from “fuck off to your flat planet then cause you lot are fucking not human and how long do you fuckers think we are going to put up with your bullshit”, to “shoot the cunts” and “can’t we just kill them all”.

Continue reading →

Vandals scrawl swear word on Portsmouth mosque wall

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vandals daubed offensive graffiti on a mosque in the city. People have reacted with shock and upset after a vulgar term was written in thin purple letters on a white wall on the outside of the Jami Mosque in Southsea.

The Victoria Road North place of worship was previously vandalised in 2010 when someone painted a large red poppy on a wall outside. More recently members of the English Defence League have protested outside the mosque.

The latest act of vandalism comes just weeks after the exterior of the mosque had been refurbished.

Continue reading →

Rochdale’s Muslim community say they face ‘unprecedented and unacceptable’ racism after town’s grooming scandal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Members of the Muslim community say they are facing ‘unprecedented and unacceptable’ racism in Rochdale – and are calling on all parts of society to take a stand against Islamophobia.

A group of local leaders have come together to speak out about the rise in violence and discrimination they say Asian people have been subjected to following the town’s grooming scandal.

They say the ‘excessive’ focus on the ethnicity and religion of non-white sex offenders has led to the ‘stigmatisation’ of their community – meaning that Islamophobia is now an ‘acceptable norm’.

The group, a coalition of local leaders under the name of Rochdale Muslim Community, say they now want to work with people in the town to eradicate the hatred.

Continue reading →

Former EDL leader fined for public order offences

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon addresses EDL protest 7.9.13The founder and former leader of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson has been fined £200 by magistrates over public order offences.

He appeared at Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court under his real name of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon on Monday.

Yaxley-Lennon, of Luton, was convicted of incitement and behaviour leading to breakdown of order relating to a march in London on 7 September 2013. He was also ordered to pay a £20 victim surcharge and £80 court costs.

Continue reading →

‘Trojan Horse’ witch-hunt not over, says Wilshaw

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Birmingham Mail jihadist plotA council’s failure to respond to a damning report on the Trojan Horse scandal has been labelled “astonishing” by the head of Ofsted.

Sir Michael Wilshaw called for “greater urgency” from Birmingham City Council and the Department for Education (DfE). He also warned the scandal – in which Muslim groups were accused of trying to take control of a number of Birmingham schools – may not be over.

The DfE said any action would “unfortunately take a while”.

Speaking to the House of Commons public accounts committee, Sir Michael said: “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the Trojan Horse issues. That’s why I’ve been clear that Birmingham’s got to step up to the plate and monitor what’s happening in their schools… much more effectively.

“There needs to be a greater sense of urgency. It is astonishing the local authority has not produced an action plan… after 13 or 14 drafts. These are very, very serious issues.”

Ofsted will conduct further inspections of academies in January.

Four separate investigations were conducted into the allegations, which were sparked by the so-called “Trojan Horse” letter – now widely believed to be a hoax. The letter, which was sent to the council, referred to an alleged plot by hardline Muslims to seize control of a number of school governing boards in the city.

Continue reading →

Four jailed for throwing pig’s head into mosque two days after Lee Rigby murder

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Warner Crabtree Ashton and White
Clockwise from top left: Andrew Warner, Travis Crabtree, Thomas Ashton and Steven White

Four men were jailed for throwing a pig’s head into a mosque just two days after the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.

The friends dumped a carrier bag containing the severed pork head in the car park of Blackpool Central Mosque in Lancashire, in front of shocked women and children.

Preston Crown Court was told the pals had organised the crime as a prank, knowing it would be seen as an insult in a Muslim place of worship.

Thomas Ashton, 21, Andrew Warner, 31, Travis Crabtree, 25, and Steven White, 28, all from Blackpool or Lytham-St-Annes, were locked up today for a total of just over three years.

They admitted religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress in May, last year, in the aftermath of the bloody murder of Fusilier Mr Rigby in Woolwich, London.

An imam, a leader of the mosque, had pleaded for clemency for the men, asking for them not to be jailed, but Judge Graham Knowles QC said only jail was appropriate.

Clare Thomas, prosecuting, said a volunteer discovered the pig’s head in a carrier bag outside the mosque, after receiving a Facebook message that an unpleasant package had been sent there.

Continue reading →

Posted in UK

Glasgow: Scottish Defence League march banned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SDL Glasgow February 2012(2)A march by a far-right group has been banned after police said it would have incited violence.

The Scottish Defence League planned to demonstrate in Glasgow on Saturday against what they claim is the cover up of child-grooming gangs operating in Scotland.

But senior officers objected to the march taking place on the grounds that it “may incite or provoke reaction from the local Muslim community”.

Yesterday, Glasgow City Council’s public procession committee agreed and stopped the parade taking place. Councillor Jim Coleman said: “The march has been refused because of the clear risk to the public and to the peaceful life of the community.”

Police Scotland voiced their concerns after monitoring exchanges between SDL members on social media.

Continue reading →

Quarter of Charity Commission inquiries target Muslim groups

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Claystone Muslim charities reportMore than a quarter of the statutory investigations that have been launched by the Charity Commission since April 2012 and remain open have targeted Muslim organisations, an analysis by the Guardian can reveal – drawing criticism from Islamic groups that they are being unfairly singled out.

Responses to freedom of information requests show that more than 20 of the 76 live investigations focus on Muslim charities associated with running mosques, providing humanitarian relief and, in a number of high-profile cases, aid efforts in Syria.

Full statutory inquiries – the commission’s most serious kind of formal investigation – have begun into five British charities operating in Syria, including al-Fatiha Global, which the beheaded hostage Alan Henning was working with when he was kidnapped. The others are Children in Deen, Aid Convoy, Human Aid and Syria Aid. All five inquiries remain open.

Adam Belaon, research director for the thinktank Claystone, which focuses on Muslim issues, said: “[The commission] has labelled 55 charities with the issue code ‘extremism and radicalisation’ without their knowledge, in the period 5 December 2012 to 8 May 2014. These charities were/are being monitored as a potential concern for matters relating to extremism and radicalisation.

“There are no written criteria for applying or removing this label and thus it lends itself to non-evidence based targeting of particular groups. We don’t know the criteria used to apply these extremist tags by the commission. It’s all very subjective for a quasi-judicial body.”

In a report released on Monday, Belaon says charities often appear to be seen as “guilty by association”. Some charities, he said, had been questioned at length about their links with certain Islamic preachers.

Claystone said it had particular concerns over comments made by the commission chair, Sir William Shawcross, who in his first interview in the post said Islamic extremism was a “deadly” problem for charities.

In the past Shawcross has been a critic of Islam. In 2012, as a director at the conservative Henry Jackson Society, he claimed: “Europe and Islam is one of the greatest, most terrifying problems of our future. I think all European countries have vastly, very quickly growing Islamic populations.”

Continue reading →