Yearly Archives: 2012

Anti-mosque flyer ‘unlikely’ to be in breach of discrimination laws

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The ACT Human Rights Commissioner has found a flyer opposing a mosque development in Canberra’s north is unlikely to have breached the Discrimination Act.

The flyer was distributed by a group calling itself the Concerned Citizens of Canberra. It outlined a number of worries about a proposal for the mosque in Gungahlin including the social impact. The flyer raised doubts whether the mosque’s proponents would be good neighbours in the community.

ACT Multicultural Affairs Minister Joy Burch declared the Government supported the mosque and referred the flyer to ACT Human Rights Commissioner Helen Watchirs.

In a decision handed down today, Dr Watchirs found the flyer was concerned with religious issues rather than race and it was also unclear whether it breached vilification provisions. Dr Watchirs said a complainant might have more success in the federal jurisdiction where there was a lower threshold to establish racial hatred.

ABC News, 2 August 2012

See also “Mosque flyer ‘offensive’ but not racist: Commissioner”,Canberra Times, 2 August 2012

Bristol: police seek ‘missile throwers’ from EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol wanted picPolice are looking for seven men, believed to have been responsible for throwing missiles on the day of the English Defence League march.

On Saturday, July 14, the English Defence League marched in the city centre and counter-protesters held demonstrations.

The event was mostly peaceful, but Avon and Somerset police ended up responding to a number of incidents and 16 people were arrested for offences including going equipped to cause damage and assaulting a police officer.

An investigation was also launched to identify other offences committed and those responsible.

Detectives investigating the throwing of missiles have identified seven men who might have important information which could help with their enquiries.

Bristol Post, 2 August 2012

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Pigs’ heads and blood left at French mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Montauban mosque

Muslims attending morning prayers Wednesday were confronted by two pigs’ heads in the entrance to their mosque in a French town where an Islamist gunman killed two paratroopers in March.

The incident in Montauban was described as a “racist provocation” by a watchdog which monitors anti-Islamic actions in France and as an “odious and blasphemous act” by the Montauban mayor, Brigitte Bareges.

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French mosque defaced with Nazi graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Limoges mosque Nazi graffitiOn Sunday morning the residents of Rue Émile Zola and worshippers at the great mosque of Limoges had the unpleasant surprise of discovering “Odal” (or “Othalan”) runes crudely painted on one of the doors of the building, whose minaret is currently under construction.

This is a serious provocation against the community, in the middle of the month of Ramadan. Mosque officials have filed a complaint and the graffiti have been reported to the police.

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FBI: New York police violate Muslims’ rights

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The New York City Police Department’s surveillance of Muslims violates their rights and produces no intelligence of any value, the FBI has found.

Under Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI not only trampled on Americans’ rights but often failed to focus effectively on real threats such as spies and terrorists. That was because Hoover did not distinguish between criminal conduct and constitutionally guaranteed expression of free speech.

New laws and rigid oversight and guidelines put an end to these practices. But FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and other top FBI officials have been shocked to find that since 9/11, the New York City Police Department has been engaging in practices reminiscent of FBI abuses under Hoover.

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The Swedish allies of Geller, Spencer and the EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Isak Nygren and friends
Isak Nygren in Aarhus with EDL leaders Kevin Carroll and Stephen Lennon

As Pamela Geller never ceases to remind readers of her Atlas Shrugs blog, this Saturday a demonstration carrying the grandiose title of the “First Worldwide Counter-Jihad Action” will be held in Stockholm. A joint initiative by Geller and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch together with the anti-Muslim thugs of the English Defence League, the demonstration has attracted support from a number of associated organisations, including the Swedish Defence League (who “chose an English name to show our support and gratitude to the EDL”).

The leading figure in the SDL, who has acted as the group’s spokesman, represented it at the EDL’s Aarhus protest in March, and according to the Swedish anti-fascist magazine Expo has been directly involved in organising the Stockholm demonstration, is an individual named Isak Nygren. Although still only a young man, Nygren has already acquired some political notoriety in Sweden.

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Sunderland: police guard planning meeting as new mosque is approved to outrage of protestors

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A mosque will be built on the site of a transport depot after controversial plans were approved last night. Police were on hand to ensure the planning meeting at the 
civic centre went ahead peacefully, amid fears of protests as tensions ran high over the Millfield proposals.

Since they were announced last year, the plans to convert the transport depot in St Mark’s Road into an Islamic place of worship have attracted 671 letters of objection and a 1,462-signature-strong petition about potential parking and noise problems.

However, applicant Coneil Bashir moved to ease concerns about feared 4am minaret prayer calls and a sudden influx of worshippers to the Sunderland site.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the development, he told councillors and objectors at the meeting: “There will be no public call to prayer. It will be one person and it will be done internally, not outside. The site will serve only those in the Sunderland and Millfield areas and it will not host weddings.”

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Waltham Forest public meeting pledges to defy the racist EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We are Waltham Forest public meeting

Waltham Forest has sent a message of defiance to the racist English Defence League (EDL), which plans to march in the east London borough next month.

Over 120 people packed into a We Are Waltham Forest public meeting on Tuesday evening. They pledged to build the biggest possible counter demonstration and to prevent the EDL from taking to the streets.

Speakers included local MP Stella Creasy, Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism, and author Owen Jones. They talked about how the EDL targets areas with Muslim populations and uses its demos to spread hatred and fear.

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Kieren Trent ordered to carry out community service and pay damages for harassing councillor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kieren Trent No Mosque

The former leader of the city’s BNP was ordered to carry out community service after he was found guilty of disturbing public order outside a former councillor’s house.

Kieren Trent was ordered to carry out 18 hours community service after harassing Mike Galloway, when he and fellow BNP members protested outside the former Councillor’s home in Wolverton.

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French government rejects US criticism of veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Paris on Tuesday brushed off a US State Department report that criticised France for banning Muslim women from wearing full veils.

“Our conception of secularism is a common heritage of all French people, which implies rules that encourage social harmony in the public space and in public schools,” said a foreign ministry spokesman.

In its 2011 International Religious Freedom Report, the State Department complains about a “rising number of European countries, including Belgium and France, whose laws restricting dress adversely affected Muslims and others”.

The French spokesman noted that France and its neighbours were seeking to define “more structured European Union policies to defend freedom of religion in the world”.

Expatica, 1 August 2012

See also “US report criticises French Islamic veil ban”, France 24, 1 August 2012