Bomb disposal experts have been called to a mosque after the discovery of a suspicious item by a member of the public.
A police spokesman confirmed the suspicious item was reported to officers at 10.45pm on Saturday after it was found by a member of the public. Army experts ordered the evacuation of nearly 40 homes near the Rutter Street mosque in Walsall, West Midlands Police said.
The leader of Croydon Council has called for a planned rally by right-wing extremists to be banned.
The English Volunteer Force (EVF) plans to protest outside the headquarters of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), in Wellesley Road, on July 27. The EVF, which claims to fight “the Islamification of Great Britain”, has said “all patriots are welcome” and has admitted it is likely to spark counter-protests from anti-fascists.
The move has angered many, with council leader Mike Fisher calling for the rally to be banned, stating: “We do not need this additional tension in Croydon.”
Originally it was reported members of the EVF were planning a march from Lunar House to the Croydon Mosque in London Road, Thornton Heath, but the group’s leader Jason Lock said the idea had been dropped in favour of a demonstration.
Over at Exposing the English Defence League, Julie Blackadder draws our attention to a recent post at Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs blog, headlined “UK teen brutally beaten by 15 Muslims”.
A week ago Geller reproduced a report from the Dewsbury newspaper The Press, detailing an alleged attack by a group of youth of Asian heritage on a 14-year-old white boy, Joseph Haigh, in the West Yorkshire village of Thornhill, which was said to have taken place “on Friday night”. She told her readers: “The police did not classify this savage attack as ‘racially’ (Islamically) motivated, but the police arrested an 85-year-old woman after she yelled ‘go back to your own country’ outside Gillingham mosque in the wake of the Woolwich beheading.”
From which we can only conclude that Geller believes that yelling “go back to your own country” at Muslims is acceptable behaviour and that her co-thinkers in the UK should be free to shout such racist abuse without fear of arrest.
The man who posted a message on Facebook urging people to “burn the mosque” to “put Grimsby on the map big time” has urged people to think twice before using social networking sites. Steven Ballard apologised for the offensive remark he left on the forum which resulted in him ending up in court.
A man seen by hundreds of people doing a Nazi salute during a three-hour stand-off at Colchester war memorial has been jailed for two months.
Kevin Reed attended an English Defence League demonstration at the Cowdray Crescent memorial on June 1, when about 60 members were met by anti-fascist demonstrators. The protestors were opposed to the group’s plans to lay a wreath to mark the death of soldier Drummer Lee Rigby, who was killed in Woolwich three weeks ago. Unemployed Reed responded to anti-EDL chants, using the offensive salute and racist language outside the Castle pub.
A Merseyside footballer who allegedly encouraged people to riot and “bomb and gas every mosque in England” following the terrorist beheading of Drummer Lee Rigby has been charged by police. Witton Albion striker Shaun Tuck is to face magistrates in Liverpool next month accused of an offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.
Tuck, 26, of of Mollington Avenue, Norris Green, is alleged to have used his Twitter account to rage: “All the mosque’s in England now should be bombed or gassed out!!!… Or stormed by 50 lads machetes, swords the lot. An make a statement. Am raging in me loft here yno… Got the balaclava out, dusted down an ready for the meet. I’d be going through there door mate an taking there kids head off an killing whoever was in site!!”
Home Secretary Theresa May is considering banning two US bloggers from entering the UK to speak at an English Defence League rally. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are due to join an EDL march in Woolwich, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed. The pair are prominent “anti-Islamisation” campaigners in the US.
Home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz claims their presence will fuel hatred and is calling for them to be denied visas. Mr Vaz said: “I am alarmed that the EDL is planning this type of march in Woolwich. It is clear that the location, motivation and attendees at this march will incite hatred. Adding incendiary speakers such as Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer just fuels the fire.
“Before we have to pay the costs for the extra policing required for this demonstration, the Home Secretary should consider using her discretion to ban these two speakers from entering the country. A ban should be enforced properly and physically stop people entering our borders.”
The Home Office said it did not routinely comment on individual cases but the home secretary was aware of Mr Vaz’s letter and would be responding in due course. Mrs May has the power to exclude non-British citizens from the UK if she considers their presence to be “not conducive to the public good” but she must act in a “reasonable, proportionate and consistent” way.
The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France condemns the media coverage of the recent horrific attack on a Muslim woman in Argenteuil.
City councillors have voted in favour of calling on police to ban future marches through Hull by groups such as the English Defence League. A march along Spring Bank by EDL activists earlier this month triggered ugly scenes and ten arrests. It was the first time the extreme right-wing group had staged a march in the city.
Former Humberside Police Authority chairman Councillor Colin Inglis, who proposed the motion, said he had no intention of criticising the police over their handling of the march. He said: “I think the police would dearly love to stop things like this but before they do, they need some comfort there is not going to be criticism from people like us. This is about putting down a marker for the police from us as politicians in Hull, saying we will support them doing this in a robust manner.”
Cllr Inglis said a video of the march filmed by the Mail clearly showed that many involved were not even from Hull. The Hull Daily Mail did a great service in recording that event. “Just looking at that video, you might have thought they were a bunch of football hooligans. If they had been, and this had happened inside the KC Stadium, the police would have no doubt dealt with them and banned from the stadium for life. However, this was on a public highway and the police allowed them to do it.”
Harlow Strong organiser Leo Hartley plans to press ahead with Sunday’s (June 23) march – despite mounting opposition from community groups who fear the event will attract right-wing extremists.
The rally, which was originally set up under the banner of the controversial Woolwich Strong movement, is described as a “peaceful t-shirt charity march” by Mr Hartley.
But critics, including the Harlow branch of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and local trade unionists, fear the event is a front for far-right political group the English Defence League and have urged organisers to call it off.