“More than 80 percent of all acid attacks are committed against women. Men are the common denominator – not Islam.”
Dr Faheem Younus answers ignorant attempts to depict acid attacks as “Muslim problem” inspired by Islam.
Yearly Archives: 2012
Stoke-on-Trent BNP leader Michael Coleman in court over ‘racist’ blogs
Stoke-on-Trent’s BNP leader posted racist articles on a website including claims the city was being “flooded with Muslims and blacks”, a court heard.
Former city councillor Michael Coleman has gone on trial at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court accused of racially-aggravated harassment. The 46-year-old was reported to police after two blogs he wrote in response to last summer’s London riots appeared online.
In them, he said the riots were a perfect example of “the difference in personality, perceptions and values of people of the darker races and ourselves”. And he accused Stoke-on-Trent City Council of “flooding this city with Muslims and blacks, a complete population replacement programme. Darkies in, whites out.”
Fears over revival of mega-mosque plan
This is the headline to a piece in today’s Evening Standard reporting on the proposed Tablighi Jamaat markaz in Newham in East London.
The EDL’s ‘fascist end-goal’
Unsurprisingly, the far right were very pleased to hear yesterday that David Cameron had succumbed to right-wing pressure and removed Sayeeda Warsi from her post as Tory party co-chairman. The subsequent news that Warsi had been appointed Faith and Communities minister was less well received.
We have already drawn attention to the English Defence League’s response to Warsi’s appointment (see above). However, it’s also worth checking out the comments that followed this official post on the EDL’s Facebook page.
EDL gang in court over Leeds pub attack
A gang of English Defence League supporters caused terror when they attacked a pub as an anti-racism rock concert was being staged.
Nine members of the gang were handed community sentences yesterday (Sept 3) after a court heard how windows and doors were smashed as bricks and bottles were hurled at Joseph’s Well in Leeds city centre.
Leeds Crown Court heard the gang members turned up at the venue and tried to get into to the Rock Against Racism event.
Violence erupted when one member of the gang, Mark Johnson, 31, tried to push past door staff but was resisted and suffered an injury. A man who was at the event with his son was hit in the mouth with a missile thrown by a gang member and had a tooth knocked out.
Andrew Stranex, prosecuting, said members of the group were chanting “EDL” in reference to the far right group. Others were heard to say: “We are not racist, we just hate Muslims.”
Right-wing press continues to demonise Iran
Yesterday’s Daily Mail carried a report which began:
Not everyone at the Paralympics has been bowled over by the presence of Kate Middleton.
The Duchess of Cambridge was embarrassingly snubbed by an Iranian athlete who refused to shake her hand after she presented him with his discus silver medal on Sunday for “cultural reasons”.
The royal was warmly received on the podium by Team GB’s gold medal winner Aled Davies and Chinese bronze medallist Lezheng Wang – but when it was Mehrdad Karam Zadeh’s turn to step up, the 40-year-old failed to offer a hand to the Duchess, clutching them close to his chest.
The snub threatened to overshadow a glittering night for Paralympics GB, which enjoyed its most successful day of the Games so far with seven gold medals.
Baroness Warsi out in Cameron reshuffle
Baroness Warsi has been removed from her role as Conservative Party co-chairman in David Cameron’s first major reshuffle of the coalition Government.
Lady Warsi had appealed to the Prime Minister to allow her to carry on in the post but she was widely expected to be moved on.
Her deputy, Michael Fallon, Housing Minister Grant Shapps and Employment Minister Chris Grayling are seen as strong candidates to take over.
The peer used her official ToryChairman Twitter account this morning to confirm she was “signing off”, saying it had been “a privilege and an honour to serve my party as co-chairman”.
French actor’s anti-Muslim tweets
Véronique Genest, star of the long-running French television police series Julie Lescaut, has come under attack over a series of Islamophobic comments on Twitter, in which she claimed that Islam is a threat to democracy and aims to impose sharia law on France, declared her admiration for the racist journalist Éric Zemmour and described it as a “historical fact” that Muslims are allies of the Nazis.
See Oumma.com, Huffington Post and CcIF.
Councillor promotes far-right myth about York mosque dominating skyline
The decision to approve a new mosque in York without debate by councillors has come under fire.
Independent Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters has written to City of York Council planning chief Mike Slater and Hull Road councillors to express his dismay that a “significant change” to York’s historic skyline had been allowed “without the open, democratic scrutiny of a planning committee meeting”. He said many local residents had told him they felt let down that such a change had been agreed behind closed doors.
Muslim superhero joining Green Lantern lineup
When DC Comics decided to blow up its fabled universe and create a brave, diverse future, Geoff Johns drew from the past for a new character: his own background as an Arab-American.
The company’s chief creative officer and writer of the re-launched “Green Lantern” series dreamed up Simon Baz, DC’s most prominent Arab-American superhero and the first to wear a Green Lantern ring. The character and creator share Lebanese ancestry and hail from the Detroit area, which boasts one of the largest and oldest Arab communities in the United States.