The Berlin organisation ReachOut has launched a campaign to rescind the 2003 Law on Neutrality that opened the way for the German states (Länder) to ban the headscarf.
Monthly Archives: April 2011
EDL protester starts jail term for affray
A man accused of launching a “flying kick” at a police officer while at the forefront of trouble at an EDL march in the Black Country was today behind bars.
Thomas Blackwell admitted a charge of affray during the EDL protest in Dudley on July 17 last year and was sentenced to one year in prison. A DVD shown at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday showed Blackwell, aged 25, of Bird Street, Lower Gornal, wearing a white stab vest in the front few rows of protesters at the march as they confronted police.
Judge Michael Challinor told him the DVD showed he had “clearly” been at the forefront of the violence which erupted in Stafford Street on the day. “You attended this demonstration with the intention of causing disorder and violence,” he said. “This is clear from the fact you were wearing protective clothing in the form of a stab vest. In the course of this disorder you tackled a police officer by using a flying kick to his protective shield.”
Judge Challinor said he had considered the fact that Blackwell would lose his job and as a result, his home if sent to prison but added: “This type of violent behaviour so often prevents law-abiding citizens from protesting peacefully.”
Mr Stephen Thomas, prosecuting, told the court Blackwell had been near the front of the group of EDL protesters who had thrown bottles and bits of metal at police, before launching the “flying kick” at a police officer’s riot shield and swearing at him.
The aftermath of a ferocious attack inside a mosque
Hugh Muir speaks to Abdul Wahab of the Redbridge Islamic Centre following the recent attack.
Hit-and-run victim’s family condemn EDL’s use of her photo
The family of a grandmother killed in a hit-and-run have condemned the English Defence League for using her image on placards.
Freda Holt was one of several local faces used by 2,000 EDL protesters during Saturday’s town centre demonstration. The grandmother from Revidge Road, Blackburn, died after being knocked down by speeding unlicensed and uninsured driver Salim Chand last November. Chand, 27, was jailed for nine years. The EDL said it was highlighting “hit-and-runs by Muslims”.
But Freda’s husband Ray Holt, 72, said: “It would have been the very last thing Freda would have wanted. She was all about live and let live. She would have been absolutely horrified. As far as I am concerned he (Salim Chand) was an idiot driver. It’s got nothing to do with him being a Muslim.
“I had no knowledge of it and nobody had approached me to ask. I was in the town centre on Saturday but fortunately left before the protest because I don’t know what I would have done if I’d have seen her picture being used by the EDL.”
On Sunday, the family went to Mass and prayed for Freda and then put flowers on her grave at Pleasington Cemetery to mark what would have been her 71st birthday and Mother’s Day.
Eldest son Richard, 45, said he was shocked when he realised on Monday what had happened.
He said: “As a family all we wanted was justice for our mother regardless of race, colour or creed. The use of my mother’s picture was neither given permission for, or condoned, by us.
“My mother was a devout Catholic and would accept and help anyone, should they require it, which she had done countless times in her life. This is absolutely not what our mother stood for. As a family we do not wish to be linked in any way with EDL or any similar organisation.”
Freda’s daughter Rachel Harling, from Rishton, said she has seen the picture on an EDL website and felt “quite sick”. She said: “It was nothing to do with race or religion. It could have been anyone behind the wheel.”
Paul Houston, the father of 12-year-old Amy Houston, whose image was another of those used by the EDL, has also distanced himself from “extremism”.
Lancashire Telegraph, 6 April 2011
You really do wonder what the EDL leadership have in the place where most people have brains. How could they have failed to anticipate that using photos of road accident victims without permission would cause outrage to the victims’ families and backfire badly on the EDL? It is also difficult to see how this squares with the EDL’s claim that they are against Islam rather than Muslims. Is there perhaps a Qur’anic verse that authorises hit-and-run driving?
Update: Now the story has been taken up by the Daily Mail.
The King of scapegoating
Shaun Harkin documents the bigotry and hypocrisy of Congress’s top witch-hunter.
Former soldier who issued mosque bomb threat jailed
A former soldier who threatened to bomb Glasgow Central Mosque has been jailed for 12 months. Neil MacGregor, 38, also said he would execute Muslims on a daily basis unless every mosque in Scotland was closed down. He was originally placed on probation for three years, but breached the order.
MacGregor, of Crieff, made the threats in an email and a series of telephone calls to Strathclyde Police in 2007. Fiscal depute John Malpass told Perth Sheriff Court: “Because of the nature of the threat, senior officers and anti-terrorist officers were notified. Enquiries were made in relation to the source of the emails. The IP address was identified and traced to the accused’s home address. Police attended the Central Mosque and carried out a search which proved negative.”
MacGregor admitted breaching the probation order by disappearing to London after completing only one third of it. Sheriff Foulis, revoking probation and jailing him for a year, said: “It was a matter which the authorities, not surprisingly, took very seriously and reacted to in the manner described.”
When he initially admitted the offence at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2009, his email was read out which stated:
“I’m a proud racist and National Front member. We as an organisation have decided to deal with the current threat from Muslims in our own British way, like our proud ancestors. Our demands are very small. Close all mosques in Scotland. If our demands aren’t met by next Friday, we’ll kidnap one Muslim and execute him or her on the internet, just like they did to our Ken Bigley.”
The Muslim-baiting US radio host Republicans can’t resist
The host of a radio show that has become a regular stop for Republican presidential candidates is calling for restrictions on Muslim immigration to the U.S.
Bryan Fischer, who is the American Family Association’s Director of Issues Analysis, also called Islam a “toxic cancer” on his show today. This is not new rhetoric for Fischer, but what makes it interesting is that several potential GOP candidates have recently accepted invitiations to be on his show. That includes Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Haley Barbour, and Newt Gingrich.
“We really need to restrict immigration from Islamic countries,” Fischer said today.
Here, via Right Wing Watch, are his latest comments:
We allow unrestricted Muslim immigration into the United States, we are welcoming to our shores, welcoming to our borders, men who are determined to destroy us. They’ve said it themselves, it’s in their own writings, it’s in their own words; they’re out to eliminate and destroy western civilization. It’s just absolute folly to invite that kind of toxic cancer into our culture, but that’s what we’re doing every single day.
Justin Elliott at Salon, 6 April 2011
Herman Cain accuses Keith Ellison of putting Sharia law over American law
Potential presidential contender Herman Cain told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham that he wouldn’t allow Muslims to serve in his administration and that, because Rep. Keith Ellison took his oath of office on the Qur’an instead of the Bible, he supports Sharia law above the Constitution. Cain, a Republican, said that American law is based on the Bible.
“I want people in my administration that are committed to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States,” said Cain. “I don’t want any inkling of anybody in my administration who would put Sharia law over American law. I have not found a Muslim that has said that they will denounce Sharia law, you know, in order to support the Constitution of the United States.”
Cain, who was the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and former chair of the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City, formed an exploratory committee for the Republican nomination in 2012.
Ingraham asked Cain, “So Keith Ellison you think would be more in favor of Sharia law than the Declaration of Independence?” Cain said, “Didn’t he take his oath on the Qur’an instead of the Bible? Am I wrong in that?” “I think you are correct in that,” she said. (To be precise, it was a copy of the Qur’an owned by Thomas Jefferson.)
Cain continued, “This is my point. If you take an oath on the Qur’an, that means you support Sharia law. I support American law. Our laws were derived from principles that are biblically based. Maybe not said in the same words that are in the Bible, but our laws are derived from principles based upon the Bible. This is why I’m not going to back down or pander to anyone who wants to call me xenophobic or a bigot simply because I said no. I don’t want anybody in my administration that I’m going to have to be looking over my shoulder to figure out if they are going to try to do something against the principles that I believe in which are also the principles that the majority, the overwhelming majority of the American people believe.”
EDL tries to disrupt anti-fascist meeting in Brighton …. and fails miserably
About 30 EDL yobs attacked a Unite Against Fascism meeting at the Friends Meeting House on Tuesday evening, but they failed to even get past the front door.
The meeting was titled In Defence of Multiculturalism in the wake of Cameron’s disgraceful remarks a couple of months ago. Among the speakers were Martin Smith of the UAF Steering Committee and Chris Whitwell of Friends Families and Travellers.
Some good points were made – chiefly that Cameron made the remarks in a desperate attempt to divide communities and divert attention from his government’s slash and burn policies. Questions were asked about Cameron’s right to pronounce that “multiculturalism had failed” given his own monocultural upbringing (unless one includes the drinking culture of the Bullingdon Club!).
I spoke from the Stop the Cuts Coalition, and it was a positive move that the links were made by UAF between the crisis and the rise of far right politics.
The EDL thugs were seen off and the police arrived shortly after. Incredibly, their verdict was that we had provoked the trouble! Another bizarre interpretation of events by, arguably, Britain’s oddest police force.
We finished our meeting, so denying the EDL any claim to have broken it up, and then we left together.
People’s Republic of Hove, 6 April 2011
Via Socialist Unity
Update: See also “Violence at Brighton anti-fascist meeting”, The Argus, 7 April 2011
Boycott, protests set stage for French Islam debate
France’s ruling conservatives are pressing ahead with a public debate on Islam and secularism on Tuesday despite criticism that it is an excuse to pander to far-right voters ahead of a general election next year.
Sarkozy’s UMP party said in December that it would host a public forum to address fears about Islam’s role in French society, following controversy over Muslim street prayers, halal-only restaurants and full-face Islamic veils.
But a hail of criticism from religious leaders and some party members has forced the UMP to downsize the event and fight off accusations that a focus on Islam will provide cover for the airing of anti-Muslim prejudices among the French.
“They can’t cancel it now,” said Jean-Francois Doridot, an analyst at the Ipsos polling agency. “It’s a sort of trap that is closing around the UMP, and they are trying to get themselves out of it one way or another.”
Amid sharp criticism from religious leaders, party officials have bickered over the need to hold a debate at all, France’s largest Muslim group has announced a boycott, and Prime Minister Francois Fillon declined his invitation to attend.
The guest list for Tuesday’s debate has yet to be confirmed, but Interior Minister Claude Gueant – who came under fire recently for saying the French “no longer felt at home” – will attend, as will party spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.
Advocacy groups have promised to picket the event. “This is not a debate, it’s a trial,” said Nedjma Boutlelis, the head of an advocacy group that held a street protest against the debate on Saturday. “I don’t see the point of holding a debate simply to charm the far-right.”
See also Financial Times, 4 April 2011