Monthly Archives: September 2011

EDL threatens to return to Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The English Defence League are now threatening that unless the government agrees to their demands they will return to Tower Hamlets at the end of October to stage a protest outside the East London Mosque. The word “return” is of course used somewhat loosely. Last time they were penned in by the police across the border in the City of London and didn’t even get into the borough of Tower Hamlets.

In an attempt to present a moderate face, the EDL statement features the usual lying denials that the organisation consists of violent anti-Muslim racists. “We are not in any way opposed to all Muslims,” it assures us, “just Islamic extremism.” Indeed, the EDL piously declares that the reason it proposes to demonstrate against the ELM is because the mosque is supposedly run by dangerous radicals, “not because we wish to provoke or upset ordinary, decent Muslims”.

The same day that these laughable claims were published on the EDL’s main website the following post appeared on the EDL’s Facebook page.

EDL on Islam

And here is a selection of comments posted by EDL supporters in response to this. It consists of the usual vile racist abuse interspersed with the occasional death threat.

EDL Islam Facebook comments

Christian Voice and the power of prayer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christian Voice banner

Christian Voice have announced that that on 1 October they will be holding another public prayer meeting in Newham against the building of a so-called “mega-mosque” by Tablighi Jamaat – a peaceful and non-political movement described by Christian Voice as “a controversial Islamic sect whose followers have been linked to a number of planned and actual terrorist atrocities”.

We are told that “Christian Voice members have been meeting for prayer on the Greenway overlooking the site on the first Saturday of every month without fail since January 2007”.

Back in October that year Christian Voice reported optimistically that “we believe our prayer is having results. It is being felt in the existing mosque, a collection of old industrial buildings, and our prayers for confusion have, we believe, already disrupted the megamosque plans. We have also prayed in support of local councillor Alan Craig, whom the Lord has placed in Newham’s council chamber for just such a time as this.”

Alas, in the 2010 local elections Craig lost his seat on Newham council and earlier this year Tablighi Jamaat won the right to operate their temporary mosque on the Newham site for another two years while they prepare plans for a permanent building. Christian Voice supporters will have to pray a bit harder. Or perhaps it’s just that God isn’t very sympathetic to the prayers of right-wing Christian bigots who whip up hatred against Muslims.

German far right loses out in Berlin state election

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Berlin election posters

Coverage of the Berlin state election has concentrated on the remarkable rise of the Pirate Party, which won 8.5% of the vote and 15 seats in the state parliament. But it also worth taking time to celebrate the disastrous results for parties of the Islamophobic far right, who gained publicity during the election campaign with their provocative political posters but failed to attract the voters.

They didn’t win a single seat in the state parliament and the best any of them did was the 2.2% of the vote gained by the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, a more traditionally neo-Nazi party that did have the advantage of an established organisation and name recognition. Bürgerbewegung pro Deutschland, which is associated with the Austrian Freedom Party, got only 1.2%. And René Stadtkewitz’s Die Freiheit, whose founding conference was attended by Daniel Pipes and whose election campaign enjoyed the public backing of Geert Wilders, got less than 1%.

Pro Deutchland will no doubt take consolation from the fact that their main support lies in Cologne. But given that Stadtkewitz’s own political base was in Berlin, the humiliating wipe-out his party has suffered there surely indicates that it has no political future. A statement on the Freiheit website co-signed by Stadtkewitz tries to remain upbeat, claiming that the disillusioned 40% of the electorate who did not vote can still be won to his party’s Islamophobic, Eurosceptic programme. But Die Freiheit is clearly dead in the water.

As the popularity of Thilo Sarrazin’s notorious book Deutschland schafft sich ab indicates, there is a substantial section of the German people who are receptive to anti-Muslim propaganda. But so far, thankfully, no party of the extreme right in Germany has been able to translate that into significant electoral support.

France’s burqa ban: women are ‘effectively under house arrest’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An informed article by Angelique Chrisafis on how the veil ban is playing out in France. So far no judge has handed out a fine, and the law will be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights as soon as a fine is imposed. Meanwhile, the ban has led to a rise in physical asaults on women wearing the niqab.

Guardian, 20 September 2011

EDL supporter jailed over ‘vile’ abuse of imam at Barnsley Muslim Community Centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Barnsley DivisionAn English Defence League supporter who chanted “Muslim bombers off our streets” has been jailed for eight months.

Daniel Parker, 39, was with a group who, according to a judge aimed “vile and disgusting” abuse at a religious leader. The group had been on an EDL march in April when they began throwing stones outside Barnsley Muslim Community Centre. The imam came out to find EDL supporters shouting abuse including “Why don’t you go back to your country?”

Prosecutor Louise Gallagher told Sheffield Crown Court that the imam heard a loud bang on the window as he was about to lead prayers and then went outdoors, where he “found the language abusive and racist”.

When arrested, Parker, of Prince Arthur Street, Barnsley, told police he was shouting “because he was drunk and an idiot”. He admitted an unusual offence of religiously aggravated harassment. His barrister Tina Dempster said he was the only one of the group arrested and, if he had not admitted chanting, would probably not have been charged.

Judge Roger Keen said Parker was of previous good character. But he added: “You and others ought to understand that that sort of behaviour will not be tolerated and people like you will go to prison.”

Yorkshire Post, 17 September 2011

To quote from the Facebook page of Yorkshire EDL Barnsley Division: “Our arguement is not against normal muslim people but extremists preaching hate on our streets/harbouring terrorists and encouraging the formation of an islamic state within our shores. Despite constant bad press claiming we are racist this is completely inaccurate….”

Racist slogans found on Muslim graves in French military cemetery

Posted on by Bob Pitt

About 30 Muslim graves have been desecrated in Carcassone, south-west France. A legal inquiry has been launched to find the perpetrators and punish them.

The caretaker of the military cemetery of Saint-Michel de la ville discovered racist and Nazi slogans daubed on the gravestones when he closed up on Saturday.

The graves belonged to Muslims killed fighting for France during World War I and were immediately repainted and restored.

The graffiti were “really racist” and “particularly disgusting”, according to Carcassonne prosecutor Antoine Leroy, who has opened an inquiry into the incident.

RFI, 18 September 2011

See also Ouest France, 18 September 2011

Vandals attack Bournville College building after mistaking it for a mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ET080911GOLD-4.jpgA controversial new Birmingham college has been targeted by vandals after rumours swept the area that a golden-clad part of the building was in fact a mosque.

The principal of Bournville College which has had a £66 million revamp today angrily spoke out against the “myth” and said he was baffled as to how it had come about. Norman Cave said the gold-clad wing, on the corner of Longbridge Lane and Bristol Road South, in Longbridge, was a conference centre.

He said: “I have heard that there are people within the local community spreading the rumour around that this is in fact a mosque, categorically it never has been a mosque. It has gone through planning and planning clearly identifies it as a conference centre. It doesn’t even look like a mosque so how people are jumping to this conclusion I don’t really know.”

Mr Cave confirmed a window had been broken in the centre. He added the centre was important to the commercial future of the college, which opened this month as part of a £1 billion regeneration of the area. “It’s there to generate an income for the college and also provide a facility for the community as a whole,” he said.

A website run by the Kings Norton parish team referred to the “myth” of the Longbridge mosque. It links to a Facebook post which urges local people to quell the false report.

It said: “Since the rumour appeared, the building has been vandalised on several occasions. Panels have been ripped off and windows have been smashed. This is unlikely to be a coincidence. It is not a mosque. It is a business centre, as the Longbridge development’s publicity clearly shows. If you live locally and are able to combat the rumour with the truth, please do so. Share, recommend or tweet this post. Talk to your neighbours and friends. You may help to prevent thousands of pounds’ worth of mindless damage.”

Birmingham Mail, 16 September 2011