Yearly Archives: 2012

Marine Le Pen calls for ban on Muslim and Jewish headwear

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marine Le Pen and fatherFrench far-right leader Marine Le Pen called Friday for a ban on wearing Muslim veils and Jewish skullcaps in public, adding to religious tensions sparked by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

In an interview with the Le Monde newspaper, Le Pen called for religious headwear to be banned “in stores, on public transport and on the streets”.

Asked if the ban should apply to the Jewish skullcap, known as the kippah or yarmulke, as well as Muslim headwear, she said: “It is obvious that if the veil is banned, the kippah is banned in public as well.”

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Waltham Forest Guardian and council launch joint campaign to ban English Defence League march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Waltham Forest Guardian EDL campaign

Today your Guardian teams up with Waltham Forest Council to stop the English Defence League (EDL) peddling its hatred and prejudice in our borough for the second time in two months.

Our joint campaign “Waltham Forest – United. Strong. Together.” calls on the government to step in and ban the EDL from going ahead with its planned march through Walthamstow on October 27.

The move follows hot on the heels of the EDL’s last parade through the town on September 1, when its route was blocked by opponents who outnumbered the marchers by 10 to one.

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Woman’s racist rant at neighbours sees court impose two-year restraining order

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A woman with a history of racist behaviour has been ordered to stay away from her Lebanese neighbours.

North Devon Magistrates’ Court heard Angela Janet French, 58, of 14 Barlow Road in Barnstaple, unleashed an hour-long torrent of drunken racist abuse in her back garden less than a week after being warned by magistrates to leave her neighbours alone.

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Posted in UK

Dutch foreign ministry puts pressure on Australian government to grant visa for Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders thinkingThe Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacted the Australian authorities over the visa application by Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders.

It is unclear why the visa has not yet been granted. The anti-Islam politician applied for a visa three weeks ago in order to give a series of lectures next month. The employees who would accompany him have already received their visas and the group which invited Wilders to Australia has accused the government of stalling over his application.

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British Columbia: man charged over mosque threat expected to plead not guilty

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A commissionaire who allegedly posted comments online suggesting the Masjid Al-Iman Mosque on Quadra Street be blasted with a rocket launcher appeared in Victoria provincial court on Wednesday.

Daniel Kevin Speed is charged with causing fear of injury or damage. His defence lawyer, Bill Heflin, said Speed was expected to plead not guilty at his next court appearance on Oct. 3.

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Melbourne anti-Islamophobia protest cancelled

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A key organiser of an Islamic rally to be held in Melbourne on Sunday has cancelled the protest amid fears of a backlash and police concerns it will be overrun by violent activists.

Swaybah Javed, who had helped invite supporters through social networking to a rally outside the city’s State Library, said she’d been forced to scrap the event.

“I am calling off the protest as I do not want more violence on the streets, as Islam does not promote violence,” the university graduate said today. “It is a shameful day for Australia when Islamophobia has boiled over to the point where it is impossible to carry out a peaceful protest.”

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French Muslim teenager jailed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A French Muslim teenager who was arrested for wearing a full Islamic veil has been sent to prison for two months after being convicted of biting a policewoman.

Louise-Marie Suisse, 18, was stopped by two police officers near a mosque in the centre of Marseille in late July. She was wearing a full-face veil, in breach of a ban introduced last year, and refused to cooperate with the police when asked to produce identity papers, her trial was told.

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Civil rights group condemn anti-Muslim New York subway ads

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pamela Geller AdMuslim civil rights groups and community organisations have condemned a series of anti-Islamic advertisements that will be appearing in New York’s subway stations next week.

The ads had initially been rejected by the city’s Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) but were later allowed after a legal appeal ruled them to be expressions of freedom of speech. One ad reads: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”

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Procter & Gamble sued for religious discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

XLC ServicesTwo Cincinnati-based companies are facing a lawsuit over the termination of a former Muslim worker. The lawsuit, filed in an North Carolina court Monday, claims a woman named Safa Elhassan was fired from Procter & Gamble facilities after facing discrimination in the workplace.

Elhassan worked for P&G through XLC Services, a Cincinnati-based company that provides manufacturing services and warehouse management to other companies, at P&G facilities in Guilford County, N.C.

The lawsuit charges P&G and XLC with religious harassment, religious discrimination, failing to accommodate after religious discrimination in the workplace, national origin discrimination, sexual discrimination, two counts of retaliation, negligence, unfair and deceptive trade practices, assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

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