Voters more likely to back an anti-Muslim party than reject it – poll

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Bob Pitt

More people would support a political party that pledged to stop all immigration or promised to reduce the number of Muslims than one that encouraged multiculturalism, a survey conducted in the wake of the Olympics reveals.

Despite London 2012 being heralded as a celebration of a diverse society, the research suggests much of the electorate remains open to views traditionally associated with far-right groups.

The survey, conducted by YouGov with 1,750 respondents, found that 41% of people would be more likely to vote for a party that promised to stop all immigration, compared with 28% who said they would be less likely to support a group that promoted such policies.

In addition, 37% admitted that they would be more likely to support a political party that promised to reduce the number of Muslims in Britain and the presence of Islam in society, compared with 23% who said it would make them less likely.

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Toronto: mosque protest goes to the dogs

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Bob Pitt

A much anticipated dog walk protest outside an east-Toronto mosque Friday turned out to be a hopelessly neutered event.

Around 20 demonstrators turned up outside the Salahuddin Islamic Centre for the Walk Your Dog in Front of a Mosque protest. It was organized in response to a Jewish man who was arrested at a recent Islamic demonstration following an altercation in which his dog was kicked by a demonstrator.

Around 20 humans and three dogs – two retrievers and a pomeranian – turned up for the two and a half hour event and converged at the entrance of the mosque, located on Kennedy Rd. south of Eglinton Ave. E.

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Arson attack on mosque in Condé-sur-l’Escaut

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Bob Pitt

There has been a new attack on a place of worship. According to the CFCM (French Council of the Muslim Faith) the mosque at Condé-sur-l’Escaut in northern France was the victim of an arson attack on the night of Thursday-Friday 14 September.

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EDL members fined over racist chants

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Bob Pitt

A group of men linked to the English Defence League have been fined for chanting racially motivated abuse after attending a football match. The six, from south-west Durham, were found guilty of shouting highly inflammatory chants at Middlesbrough railway station.

Yesterday, more than 50 members of the far-right organisation gathered outside Teesside Magistrates’ Court to show their support, and anger flared when court officials would only allow five of them in the public gallery. There was a heavy police presence in the town after supporters met in a nearby pub before going to the court.

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‘Love Muslim neighbors’ billboard coming to Murfreesboro

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Bob Pitt

A new message encouraging local residents to “Love Your Muslim Neighbors” is slated to go up on a South Church Street billboard by the end of the month.

The message is being placed on a billboard at 1015 S. Church St. by a self-described Washington, D.C.-based Christian advocacy and education organization called Sojourners, according to the group’s communications director, Tim King.

King said the organization decided on Murfreesboro as a location after several residents living within a 100-mile radius of the city took notice of the group’s message on a billboard in Joplin, Mo., and began calling for one to be placed here.

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On ‘child brides’ and irrelevant imams

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Bob Pitt

Yusuf Smith has posted a thoughtful and well-argued article at Indigo Jo Blogs replying to the recent Murdoch-press-inspired moral panic about underage marriage in the UK Muslim community and offering some critical comments on Hasnet Lais’s article in the Independent on the weaknesses of Muslim leadership at mosque level.

Racists vandalise Virginia mosque

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Bob Pitt

WHSV reports that the Islamic Center of the Shenandoah Valley at Harrisonburg, Virginia, was vandalised on Thursday night.

The report states: “We cannot show the vandalism in its entirety because the images were very vulgar. It appeared to be male genitalia and was spray painted as well as racial slurs against blacks, and vulgar references to Iraqis.”

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Multiculturalism ‘past its sell-by date’ claims Cantle

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Bob Pitt

The Daily Telegraph reports that Ted Cantle, author of a notorious 2001 report into riots in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley, will deliver a speech at a National Secular Society conference next week in which he argues that the idea of multiculturalism in Britain is now “well past its sell-by date”.

Cantle calls for a halt to all state funding for projects and services aimed at or run by religious groups or individual ethnic communities. He asserts that such projects are turning Britain into a divided society and amount to a form of state-sponsored segregation.

Appearing along with Cantle at the NSS conference will be Richard (“Islam is the greatest man-made force for evil in the world today”) Dawkins, the Islamophobic drunk Nick Cohen, and Maryam (“terrorism is justified and encouraged in Islam”) Namazie. So he’ll be in good company.

Google says anti-Islam film isn’t against Muslims

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Bob Pitt

Google said on Friday that it would not comply with a White House request to reconsider the anti-Islam video that has set off violent protests in the Arab world in light of its rules banning hate speechon YouTube, which it owns.

Google said it had already determined that the video did not violate its terms of service regarding hate speech. In this case, the video stays up because it is against the Islam religion but not Muslim people.

New York Times, 14 September 2012

So, according to Google, a film entitled “The Innocence of Muslims” isn’t, in fact, directed against Muslims.