Yearly Archives: 2012

Scottish Defence League flops in Dundee

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SDL Dundee demo (2)

The humiliation of the English Defence League in Walthamstow has attracted most of the attention, but another flop for “counterjihad movement” took place in Dundee on Saturday, where the EDL’s sister organisation the Scottish Defence League staged a protest, primarily against a so-called “mega mosque” on the Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education campus, construction of which is due to start this month, providing 70 jobs for local people.

The SDL has a very low level of support in Scotland itself, and as Dundee trades council secretary Mike Arnott noted in a report for the Morning Star: “To enhance its minuscule numbers at demonstrations in Scotland the SDL also invites its unsavoury allies from the north of England along – the EDL and the North East and North West Infidels, whose reputations for thuggery are well known.”

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Illinois: grave defaced with anti-Islamic writing for second time this month

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Evergreen Cemetery grave was defaced with anti-Islamic writing sometime during the night on Aug. 28-29, said Evergreen Park Police Lt. Peter Donovan.

The grave site, which also features a bench and obelisk, was vandalized with black marker scribblings in a manner almost identical to what was discovered and cleaned up two weeks ago, Donovan said. Unlike the prior incident, however, a video camera was trained on the scene.

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Posted in USA

EDL humiliated as Walthamstow takes to the streets to stop them

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Walthamstow anti-EDL demonstration

The racists and fascists of the English Defence League (EDL) were comprehensively routed on Saturday. Thousands of anti-fascists blocked their march route and stopped their rally in Walthamstow, east London.

The EDL only managed to mobilise 200, mostly hardcore Nazis. The anti-fascist demonstration, in contrast, brought some 4,000 people together representing all the diversity of one of London’s most proudly multiracial areas.

“It’s been a brilliant day – we completely trashed them,” said Siobhan, a Waltham Forest resident. “We had a really united campaign that reached out to the whole community. We wanted to stop the EDL and that’s what we did.”

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Mosque opponents file federal motion to stop Islamic Center of Murfreesboro

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Opponents of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro filed a motion in federal court Monday claiming that U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell accepted “false allegations” in affirming that the controversial mosque can continue its opening process.

Attorney Joe Brandon, who has represented mosque opponents in the past, said he was vexed that federal courts intervened in a local case.

Brandon said the only way to properly conclude the dispute is to provide the public with adequate notice about the mosque, making mosque advocates restart the approval process.

The motion also questioned whether Islam qualified as a legitimate religion.

Brandon requested a hearing for the injunction sought.

The Tennessean, 30 July 2012

German ministry’s racist campaign pushes Muslim associations to react

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vermisst 2 posters

A poster campaign by the German Interior Ministry against some young Muslims who the ministry claim might be Islamist radicals or terrorists due to their behavioral disorder has met with strong criticism from four Islamic organizations, which have frozen their cooperation with the ministry’s “Security Partnership Initiative.”

On Tuesday, the four participating Muslim associations – the Turkish-Islamic Union (DITIB), the Association of Islamic Cultural Centres (VIKZ), the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) and the Islamic Community of Bosniaks in Germany (IGBD) – said in a joint statement that the recent campaign could create new areas of conflict and therefore miss the real target.

The posters read “Missing” in large font above a portrait of a young man or woman, in the style of a missing person poster. Beneath the headline it reads: “This is our son Ahmad. We miss him, because we don’t recognize him anymore. He is withdrawing more and more, becoming more radical every day. We are afraid of losing him altogether – to religious fanatics and terrorist groups. If you think like me, get into contact with the counseling centers of radicalization.”

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Two anti-Sheepshead Bay mosque protestors boycott schoolbag giveaway

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sheepshead Bay mosque backpack giveaway

Two Sheepshead Bay residents still fighting the hopeless battle to stop the construction of a Voorhies Avenue mosque protested a school supply giveaway in front of the still-under-construction house of worship on Saturday – but were easily drowned out by the dozens of parents and children looking for free backpacks, notebooks, and pencils.

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Walthamstow gets ready to protest against EDL thugs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We Are Waltham Forest flyerWith just a day to go before the racist English Defence League (EDL) tries to march in Waltham Forest, east London, anti-fascist activists in the local community are having a final push to build opposition.

“I don’t like it that a group of racists will be marching here tomorrow – no one needs or wants them,” Osman, a local market trader, told Socialist Worker. “But it has been really good to see people coming together to oppose them. Hopefully the EDL will be stopped.”

Mosques in Waltham Forest have been promoting the counter demonstration. The borough’s council of mosques has released a statement encouraging people join the We Are Waltham Forest demonstration.

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CAIR calls for investigation of fire at Minneapolis mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today called on state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate a suspicious fire outside a mosque in South Minneapolis.

On Tuesday, August 21, a car owned by a Somali Muslim parked outside the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center was set on fire. Mosque leaders say that video surveillance shows that the arsonist spent an hour throwing burning material in the direction of the mosque before setting the car on fire.

“In light of recent hate incidents nationwide, we urge law enforcement officials to review the surveillance video and determine whether the mosque was the intended target of the arson,” said CAIR-MN Executive Director Lori Saroya.

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