Monthly Archives: May 2011

Amir Khan: ‘They took the p*** because I’m a Muslim’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Boxing star Amir Khan has hit out at US customs for keeping him in a holding room for more than two hours.

Amir flew out to Los Angeles on Saturday to start training for his next fight. But the Bolton boxer was not happy at being held in a holding room and being asked about his relatives. He tweeted:

“They took the £!@%*£ because I’m a Muslim. Kept me in some holding room for over 2hours asking y my uncles with me. They where so arrogant and unprofessional. Didn’t know how to talk to pple, well I’m out now an it can’t get any worse.”

Asian Image, 23 May 2011

Ataka prepares second protest at Sofia mosque but mayor unlikely to impose ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sofia mosque attack victim
Victim of last Friday’s attack on worshippers at the Banya Bashi mosque

Bulgaria’s far-right and nationalist party Ataka is getting ready to stage a new protest rally during the Friday prayer at the Sofia Mosque Banya Bashi.

According to unconfirmed reports, Ataka, whose activists shocked Bulgaria by assaulting praying Muslims in the Sofia mosque last Friday during a rally protesting against the loudspeakers of the mosque, are getting ready for a new rally just a week later.

The Ataka party has not confirmed the reports. However, there are indications that the Sofia Municipality and Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova, a representative of the ruling party GERB, who can technically ban the provocative rally, will adopt a hands-off policy.

The reason for that is that by banning the rally of the nationalist party Ataka, which is the only ally, though an informal one, of the ruling center-right party GERB, the Sofia Municipality might lead Ataka leader Volen Siderov to withdraw support from the minority government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

GERB has 117 MPs out of 240, and Ataka’s 21 MPs provide it with a comfortable majority, after the rightist Blue Coalition with its 14 MPs declared itself to be in opposition. One of the reason Borisov did not make a formal coalition with Ataka, in addition to his widely proclaim desire not to be dependent on coalition partners, is the protest of the European People’s Party, of which GERB is a member.

Siderov has threatened Borisov he will stop backing the government unless the authorities took measures to investigate what he claims to be a “nest of radical Islamism” in the Sofia mosque.

Borisov himself and his party GERB initially denounced the actions of their ally; however, Borisov subsequently sought to downplay Friday’s incident, saying that the nationalist party Ataka and the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) are both going down the same road by seeking to pump up their electoral support through incidents with propaganda effect.

Bulgaria must consider outlawing the far-right and nationalist party Ataka over its recent attack on praying Muslims in Sofia, according to Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberals in European Parliament.

Novinite, 24 May 2011

See also “European Parliament Liberals’ leader: Bulgaria must ban far-right party”, Novinite, 24 May 2011

Ataka used to be part of the far-right Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (ITS) group in the European Parliament, until the withdrawal of the Greater Romania Party in 2007 reduced the ITS to below the 20 MEPs required to qualify as an official group. Ataka’s allies in the ITS included the Front National, the FPÖ, Vlaams Belang and Alessandra Mussolini’s Alternativa Sociale.

Update:  See “Bulgaria’s far right on the defensive, vows to counter ‘Islamist aggression'”, Novinite, 24 May 2011

This states that Ataka have denied reports that they are planning another protest at the Banya Bashi mosque.

Mail gives more free publicity to irrelevant nutter

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Daily Mail continues its campaign to boost the profile of Anjem Choudary’s tiny group of supporters and provide ammunition for far-right racists like the EDL. The latest report is headlined: “The Bin Laden backlash: Angry Muslims demonstrate outside Downing Street as Obama visits Britain.”

The original version of the report began: “Today a handful of protesters from Muslims Against Crusades demonstrated outside 10 Downing Street in London during Barack Obama’s visit.”

But that obviously wasn’t good enough for the Mail‘s editor. The amended version now begins: “Muslim activists descended on Downing Street today in protest at Barack Obama’s state visit to London.”

And the report has been beefed up with a collection of photos that have been carefully cropped to avoid revealing how few MAC supporters actually participated in the Downing Street protest.

(For another recent example of the right-wing press’s irresponsible coverage of Choudary and MAC, see ENGAGE.)

Update:  The Mail‘s report has been reproduced on mad Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs blog. This the sort of vile anti-Muslim propaganda that the UK media’s promotion of Anjem Choudary is assisting.

Muslims replacing Jews as Europe’s scapegoat, says Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tariq RamadanMuslims in Europe have replaced the continent’s Jews of yesteryear as the largest target of discrimination and prejudice, according to a prominent Swiss academic and Islamic expert.

“There are new alliances in Europe against the Muslim presence, and people who were against Judaism are now against the Muslim presence in Europe,” Tariq Ramadan, an Oxford professor and grandson of Hasan al-Banna, the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, said Friday at a seminar at Istanbul Bilgi University.

“[These discriminatory European attitudes] are not only about Islamism; they are about a power struggle. It is not integrated into people’s minds that Islam is also a Western religion,” Ramadan said, criticizing the attitudes of some Europeans he described as “Islamophobic”.

“People like the head of France’s far-right National Front Party, Marine Le Pen, and Dutch politician Geert Wilders are imposing the politics of fear against Islam and this is very dangerous,” the academic said. He added that what lies beneath the growing anti-Islamism in Europe is the changing demographics of the continent’s Muslim population.

“The more Muslims become European, the more Islam becomes a problem for Europeans,” Ramadan said.

Hürriyet Daily News, 22 May 2011

Court rules that Wilders trial will continue

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Amsterdam district court has rejected a call by Geert Wilders’ legal team that the inciting hatred and discrimination case against him be dropped.

Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz said at the beginning of this month that his client would not get a fair trial and urged the court to abandon the case.

Moszkowicz’ argument centres on a senior court official who was influential in ensuring Wilders was taken to court even though the public prosecution department was unwilling to pursue the case.

But the court said on Monday it did not accept Moszkowicz’ claim that the anti-Islam party leader would not get a fair trial and said claims Tom Schalken had tried to influence a key witness during a dinner party were implausible.

Schalken was no longer involved in the case, and although he should have acted with greater caution to ensure no signs of partiality, he had not gone too far, the court said.

Dutch News, 23 May 2011

See also AFP, 23 May 2011

Organiser of EDL mosque protest: ‘we are not racist, we are not right winged and we are not hooligans’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Shotton protest May 2011More than 100 members of the English Defence League marched through Shotton on Saturday to protest against attempts to convert a former social club into an Islamic cultural centre. Shotton Lane Social Club, which was destroyed by a suspicious fire in February, had been earmarked as a potential site for a new multi-cultural centre by Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society.

The march was organised by EDL Deeside division member Graeme England to oppose what the group describes as “militant Islam”. Protestors met outside The Clwyd pub and marched to the site of the former social club, where speeches were made.

The group, which refers to itself as a “human rights organisation”, first marched through Shotton in protest against the planned cultural centre in January – just weeks before the social club site was torched in a suspected arson attack. No one has ever been caught in relation to the incident.

On Saturday an anti-EDL event was also held at Connah’s Quay Civic Hall, organised by the Deeside Trades Council.

Flintshire Chronicle, 23 May 2011

See also “Hain slates nationalist march against Muslim culture centre bid site as ‘poison'”, Wales Online, 22 May 2011

Expose draws our attention to a post on the Flintshire Chronicle discussion forum by Graeme England, the organiser of the EDL protest, who insists that “we are not racist, we are not right winged and we are not hooligans”.

England then goes on to assert that “Islam hates the western world and our way of life, Sharia law is already starting to infect our society, its happening because nobody will stand up and say NO!!! there are streets in our country where no non muslim would dare to walk…. i have spoken to many muslims in the country and they all say the same ‘ITS NOT YOUR COUNTRY ANYMORE… ITS OURS!’.” But then, don’t you see, “Islam isnt a race its a religion”. So how can inciting hatred against Muslims be racist?

As for not being “right winged”, the EDL’s leaders are former BNP members while their PA backs the British First Party, an openly neo-Nazi organisation. And Graeme England himself was happy to announce that the Shotton demonstration was supported by the North West Infidels, a group who make no attempt to conceal their links with organised fascism.

And to describe the EDL as mere “hooligans” errs on the side of mildness. The EDL Casuals United blog followed up the latest march in Shotton by celebrating the arson attack on the social club that was to serve as the premises of the new mosque.

In short, the EDL is a far-right racist organisation that doesn’t just engage in hooliganism but openly promotes violence. This only serves to reinforce the view that there is indeed a two-tier legal system in this country – because, if a Muslim group behaved in the way the EDL does, it would have been banned long ago.

Berlusconi accuses opposition of wanting to turn Milan into an Islamic city

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Berlusconi 3Less than a week ahead of a run-off vote in a bitterly contested mayoral race in Milan, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday accused the opposition centre-left of wanting to turn the northern Italian city “Islamic”, overrun by Roma and foreigners.

“Milan … cannot become, at the eve of the Expo 2015, an Islamic city, a city of gypsies, full of Roma camps and besieged by foreigners to whom (the left) wants to give voting rights,” Berlusconi said. The premier’s remarks were contained in a message posted on the online site of his People of Freedom (PDL) party.

Berlusconi appealed to voters to choose Milan’s outgoing Mayor Letizia Moratti instead of the centre-left’s candidate Giuliano Pisapia – who the premier has branded an leftist extremist – in run-offs scheduled for May 28-29.

Appearing confident of victory, earlier this month Berlusconi had said that Italy’s local elections were a test of his government’s popularity two years before its mandate is due to end. However, last week in a surprise first-round result in Milan, Pisapia a former Communist forced Moratti into a run-off after capturing some 48 per cent of the vote compared to her 42 per cent.

Milan has been a stronghold for the centre-right for almost two-decades and the city is currently governed by a coalition between the PDL and the federalist and anti-immigration Northern League – a party which is also Berlusconi’s junior partner in the national government.

Moratti, a former national education minister from the PDL, says she opposes the construction of a mosque in Milan as requested by the city’s mostly migrant Muslim community. A mosque in Italy’s financial capital would “create a centre of attraction for Islamic groups from all over Italy who then would not be controllable,” Moratti said.

But Pisapia has criticised Moratti’s stance, saying that the city should cater for its Muslim community whose members are currently forced to pray in “informal” venues such as schools and garages.

DPA, 23 May 2011

UAF to hold anti-racist vigil in Blackpool

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An anti-fascist protest group has announced it will stage a rally in Blackpool on the same day as controversial far-right group the English Defence League.

Unite Against Facism (UAF) expects between 100 and 200 local members to attend the event which will take place as EDL members from across the country descend on the town on Saturday May 28 for a national protest.

Paul Jenkins, North West organiser for the UAF, said their demonstration will be nothing more than a peaceful “anti-racist vigil”. He said: “We want to show unity in the community is the best way forward.”

UAF will hold their protest at the public headland close to the Central Pier while the EDL demonstration is on the headline at South Pier. The timings of the UAF protest are still under discussion.

EDL members, who say they are protesting against the police handling of the inquiry into missing Blackpool teenager Charlene Downes, are due to gather near Britannia Place at 10am before setting off for a short march along the Promenade to the public headland where a demonstration will be held from 12.45pm to 2pm.

Charlene, 13, disappeared in 2003 and two Asian men were charged with her murder and disposing of the body. They were later acquitted.

Blackpool Gazette, 23 May 2011

Meanwhile, Exposing the English Defence League draws our attention to a post on the EDL’s Casuals United blog which denounced anyone planning to oppose the EDL in Blackpool as defenders of paedophiles and threatened them with physical violence. Yes, that’s the same Casuals United who have been celebrating the arson attack on a building in North Wales that was due to be converted into an Islamic centre.

Statement by the Enough Coalition Against Islamophobia 21 May 2011

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Confronting Anti-Muslim Hatred in Britain and Across Europe

The following statement was drawn up by the Enough Coalition Committee at a conference held on 21 May 2011 at the London Muslim Centre, attended by over 400 participants, and titled Confronting Anti-Muslim Hatred in Britain and Across Europe.

Official prejudice against Muslims is turning into state persecution in country after country across Europe.

In France we see the outrage of Muslim women arrested in the street for what they wear.

In Switzerland, minarets have been prohibited; elsewhere Halal food is banned from schools and immigration from ‘Muslim countries’ is openly discouraged.

In Germany there has been no official condemnation of an Islamophobic murder.

In Britain, Muslims face almost daily defamation in the media as well as threats and attacks on mosques. The police and authorities too often collude in this victimization.

Politicians across the spectrum are joining in the chorus of demonization. Unsurprisingly, statistics show an increase in physical attacks on Muslims almost everywhere.

Islamophobia is often dressed up as cultural critique, but it is a form of racism. It is used by the establishment to blame Muslims for the effects of government policies.

The foreign policy of the Western powers is creating anger across the Muslim world and beyond. It is making the world a more volatile and dangerous place. The vast majority of Muslims in Europe are integrated but, discrimination in housing, jobs and education creates barriers to this process.

None of this is the fault of the Muslim communities. On the contrary, Muslim are both discriminated against and scapegoated.

The Enough Coalition brings together organisations and individuals to actively challenge Islamophobia, and this conference is a step towards European co-ordination.

We believe that it is time for Muslims and non-Muslims alike across Europe to take a clear stand against this spreading menace.

We need to share information, research and analysis to expose the development of Islamophobia as a virulent form of modern racism; we must work to insure the proper recording and reporting of Islamophobic incidents and we must co-ordinate campaigns, actions and mobilisations to directly challenge anti Muslim racism.

We say enough. We will not be silenced. And we ask you to join us.

Enough Coalition Against Islamophobia 21 May 2011

info@enoughcoalition.org.uk

Walid Shoebat was paid $5000 from public purse to tell security conference that Islam is inherently violent

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A speaker at a Homeland Security conference in Rapid City whose remarks about Muslims sparked controversy earlier this month was paid $5,000 plus expenses for his appearance.

The Rapid City Journal originally requested the fee amount immediately after the May 11 event, but Alexa White, assistant coordinator of Rapid City-Pennington County Emergency Management, denied the request. The Journal subsequently filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act with White, who released the fee information May 19.

The speaker, Walid Shoebat, is an author and professional speaker who says he is a former terrorist in the Palestine Liberation Organization. Now converted to Christianity, Shoebat says that terrorism is inherent in Islam.

His appearance at a state-sponsored conference attended by law enforcement was criticized by local Muslims and by national organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Shoebat spoke at the 2011 South Dakota Homeland Security Conference in Rapid City on May 11. He also spoke at the South Dakota Homeland Security Conference the previous year.

Rapid City Journal, 21 May 2011

Update:  See “CAIR asks Napolitano to probe use of Islamophobic trainers”, CAIR press release 23 May 2011

Further update:  See Justin Elliott, “Dubious Muslim-bashing ‘expert’ hired to train cops”, Salon, 24 May 2011