Following the publication in Dispatch International of Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard’s interview with Stephen Lennon, CBN News has published an adulatory report on the former English Defence League leader, based on an interview apparently conducted shortly before his departure from the organisation. In the accompanying video, Lennon is hailed by right-wing televangelist Pat Robertson as a hero who is “fighting to save Britain’s future”.
Yearly Archives: 2013
PQ government prepared to fall over beefed-up secularism charter
MONTREAL — The minority Parti Quebecois tabled a toughened secularism charter Thursday and warned that it’s prepared to go to the polls if the bill is rejected. The PQ considers the bill a confidence motion and didn’t make any compromises to appease opposition parties whose support would be needed to pass it.
“If the Liberal Party objects, this is the kind of vote that involves the confidence of the government,” house leader Stephane Bedard told the legislature. He said the secularism charter is at the heart of the government’s program.
The PQ bill would bar all public service workers from wearing conspicuous religious symbols on the job. The ban would also apply to municipalities and universities, which had a “right of withdrawal” under earlier drafts of the charter.
Bernard Drainville, the minister in charge of the secularism charter, told a news conference the bill “marks a significant milestone in our history.” He has said the charter is a logical outworking of increased separation of church and state that began in the 1960s after 200 years of church control over Quebec society.
Municipal deputy urges Moscow ban on hijab
Municipal deputy of the Yakimanka District Dmitry Zakharov is going to address Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin with a request to ban wearing hijab in city. The author of the initiative answers the questions.
“I believe it is not right for any religious formation to demand special attitude. In fact, hijab is outer manifestation of such demand. It’s no good, I think we need to ban wearing it in public places: in the streets, in state and educational establishments,” Zakharov said in his interview published by the Metro daily.
EDL member fined for drunken abuse during protest against grooming gangs … in Thatcham
A man was arrested at a Thatcham rally for the English Defence League, Newbury magistrates heard.
The trouble flared during the demonstration on October 5 this year, the court was told. In the dock on Thursday, October 24, was 38-year-old Brian Barnes [pictured], who had travelled from his home in Rectory Road, Hook in Hampshire, for the event.
Helen Waite, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was taking part in an EDL demonstration and was crossing Station Road in Thatcham.” She added that he was heard to shout abuse and swear at someone and that “there were three children nearby.”
Opposing demonstrations over plans for Muslim education centre in Shotton Colliery
A former pit village in east Durham will be the scene of opposing demonstrations over plans for a Muslim education centre at the weekend.
County Durham Unites Against Racism said it will hold a peaceful counter-demonstration in Shotton Colliery, near Peterlee, to protest against the English Defence League (EDL) and North East Infidels (NEI) demonstration on Saturday (November 9).
It is the second time the EDL and NEI have demonstrated in the village over plans to open a Muslim education centre. In December last year about 200 EDL supporters converged on Shotton Colliery to protest plans by local businessman, Kaiser Choudry’s to turn a former The Melrose Arms pub into a Muslim education centre.
Dispatch International editors visit UK for a chat with Lennon
Dispatch International co-editors Lars Hedegaard and Ingrid Carlqvist in London with ex-EDL leader Stephen Lennon
Following the humiliating failure of their recent efforts to organise a Scandinavian speaking tour for the English Defence League leadership, Lars Hedegaard and Ingrid Carlqvist, co-editors of the notorious “counterjihad” publication Dispatch International, have travelled to the UK to talk to Stephen Lennon. The results of their discussions with the former head of the EDL can be found here and here.
Volusia School Board meeting cancelled after threats
A Volusia County School Board meeting where protesters planned to raise objections to the way a high school history textbook portrays Islam was canceled before it started Tuesday after the U.S. Department of Justice passed along information that raised “substantial safety concerns” among school officials.
The announcement came as about 75 demonstrators gathered outside the School Board office, engaging at times in heated debates about how public school textbooks should deal with religion.
That debate will now be left to another yet-to-be-determined day when the School Board will meet with additional security measures in place, according to a statement released late Tuesday by district spokeswoman Nancy Wait. Longtime board observers could not remember another time when a meeting was canceled over security issues.
‘Homeland’ has a Muslim problem
Every Muslim on “Homeland” is a credible threat – and it’s beginning to look a lot like Bush-era paranoia, argues Daniel D’Addario.
Russia’s march toward ruin
The Russian March, a yearly demonstration of Russian nationalist groups, was held Monday in Moscow and in 100 other cities across the country. Never before has this march been held amid so much xenophobia and intolerance in Russian society. Never before have members of the ruling elite, including members of the State Duma and the Kremlin, so publicly and openly made anti-migrant and xenophobic statements. Not surprisingly, 40 percent of Russians now say they support holding the Russian March, according to a recent poll by the Levada Center.
Islamophobia has surged in Quebec since Charter proposed
Islamophobia has surged in Quebec since the introduction of the proposed Charter of Quebec Values, the Muslim Council of Montreal warned Tuesday, with an alarming rise in attacks, specifically against Muslim women.
Muslims made 117 complaints of verbal or physical abuse to a local anti-Islamophobia group between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, compared to a total of 25 complaints (or 3.5 complaints per month on average) in the nine-month period of January to September 2013.
This spike coincides with the kick-off of the debate on the Parti Québécois government’s proposed charter of values, which proposes to prevent public servants from wearing “ostentatious” religious symbols, including the hijab and niqab.
“Premier Marois’s introduction of the charter of values has unleashed an alarming number of xenophobic and Islamaphobic attacks,” the council’s president, Salam Elmenyawi, told a press conference.