A former soldier wrote anti-Islamic comments on his Facebook page he started supporting the English Defence League (EDL).
Kenneth Holden, 30, was arrested after police were alerted to two updates he posted on his personal page on the social network site, abusing Muslims.
Holden, of Winskell Road, South Shields, pleaded guilty to two counts of sending an offensive message by a public communication network at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
A Hampshire grandmother has today been handed a lifetime ASBO for a “racist” and “frightening” poison pen campaign.
Margaret Walker, 73, from Walnut Drive, Hill Head, has been ordered by magistrates to stop sending “foul” and “abusive” letters. She has also been ordered to sign every piece of post she sends and supply a return address.
The order came after Walker carried out a five-year campaign of hate – sending around 500 racist letters all around the country.
An overwhelming majority of Republican voters in the United States regard the west and Islam as being embroiled in “a fundamental conflict which only one side can win”, according to new YouGov polling seen exclusively by the Guardian.
As the UN general assembly was convening in New York, with an agenda including the ongoing conflict in Syria, the Iranian nuclear question and the Arab uprisings, the pollsters asked both American and British voters about their attitudes to the Muslim world.
Opinion was reasonably evenly split on both sides of the Atlantic, and indeed somewhat more tolerant in the United States. Overall, Americans rejected the view of a fundamental clash of cultures that can only have one winner – only 39% adopted this view, against 47% who believe that “it is possible for the west and Muslims to coexist in peace”. In Britain, by contrast, the respective figures were 43% and 41%, suggesting that British opinion towards Islam is somewhat more hostile overall.
Walsall Labour Party is giving its full support to a peaceful demonstration celebrating community strength and tolerance being held in Gallery Square on Saturday at 11am.
The “We are Walsall” rally is being held to counter the racism of the English Defence League who are bussing in people from across the country to incite hatred of the town’s Muslim community.
Earlier this week the English Defence League’s political wing, the British Freedom party, announced the appointment of their new South West regional organiser. She’s an EDL activist from Bristol named Chelsea Anne White.
White’s explanation of her decision to join British Freedom features the usual anti-Muslim rhetoric – “mosques, we don’t want them and we don’t want burka-clad women on our beaches…. We don’t want animals sent for halal slaughter”.
Fiachra Gibbons reponds to Marine Le Pen’s proposal to ban the kippah along with the hijab.
El País reports that the Ibn Al-Abbar Islamic centre at Onda in eastern Spain has been the victim of an arson attack. The chairman of the centre’s committee, Milud Guettaf, said that it was only because the attack was on a part of the building where there are no carpets that the fire did not spread throughout the centre.
Guettaf added that worshippers had been subjected to racist abuse by an individual as they left the mosque the previous evening. He also referred to the role of the far-right group España 2000, which has a councillor in Onda, in whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment. In November last year España 2000 organised a demonstration in the town, protesting against the mosque and the “Islamist invasion”.
Expose draws our attention to a link to a YouTube video that was posted on the official EDL Facebook page this morning. It features a brutal attack by Russian skinheads on an anti-racism festival at Miass in August 2010. The link has since been removed without explanation.
The soundtrack to the video is “Kick the Reds In” by the neo-Nazi band Whitelaw, which you may recall was also used by the EDL’s Essex Division to advertise an anti-mosque protest in Chelmsford last month.
Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders gathered in New York to protest advertisements that claim “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad” smattered across 10 city subways stations Monday and to debut a counter-ad that is due up in the same stations at the end of the week, according to the interfaith group.
Jaun Cole explains why the liberal US comedian and TV host has embraced Islamophobia.