Yearly Archives: 2013

Syrian refugees complain against Bulgarian MP’s hate speech

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Magdalena TashevaA group of Syrian refugees in Bulgaria have filed a complaint with the country’s Discrimination Protection Committee against Magdalena Tasheva, a lawmaker from the ultranationalist Ataka party, over a series of shockingly xenophobic remarks.

Tasheva, who hosts a show broadcast by Ataka’s own TV channel, Alpha TV, has repeatedly insulted the Syrian refugees on air, calling them “fiends”, “scum”, “mass killers”, “cannibals”, “savages”, “Islamic fundamentalists who have escaped justice” and “terrible, despicable primates”, among others. She has claimed that the refugees “have started stealing and beating people” and would “start raping and chopping heads off.”

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MPs demand banning of EDL march in Bradford

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Bradford8
English Defence League protesting in Bradford in August 2010

Two Bradford MPs today demanded the banning of a march by the far-right English Defence League in Bradford next weekend. The controversial rally planned for Saturday, October 12 has been allowed by police to proceed. But today MPs George Galloway and Gerry Sutcliffe asked West Yorkshire’s Police Commissioner and Chief Constable to reverse the decision.

Mr Galloway said: “The EDL are a scourge who seek to sow division and hatred wherever they go. Time and again, people from ethnic minorities, their places of worship, passers by and even the police have been subject to terrible abuse and even violence from the thugs who come on all their events.”

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A postscript on Anne Marie Waters and Dispatch International

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anne Marie Waters (2)We have already run two pieces on National Secular Society council member and One Law For All spokesperson Anne Marie Waters and her involvement with the notorious “counterjihad” publication Dispatch International (see here and here).

However, it’s also worth noting that Waters’ new role as a contributor to DI has gone down very well elsewhere in the “counterjihad” network. Here is George Igler congratulating Ingrid Carlqvist on her recruitment of such a well-known figure from the secularist movement:

George Igler congratulates DI on recruiting Waters

Carlqvist we have previously introduced – she is co-editor of DI and a firm proponent of the view that western civilisation is being dumbed down as a result of “huge immigration from low IQ countries”. But who is George Igler?

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EDL member ‘planned terror attacks’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Leicester Division bannerA 16-year-old neo-Nazi plotted a Columbine-inspired school massacre using pipe bombs, knives, and a crossbow, the Old Bailey heard today (Weds).

The English Defence League supporter stockpiled homemade bombs, terrorist manuals, and an array of weapons as he planned attacks on his former school and the college where he was studying for his A-Levels.

He kept a notebook of potential targets, including the local mosque, REEL cinema, Loughborough University and council offices, and dubbed plans for an armed assault on his former school as “the new Columbine”, it is said.

Inspired by the violent Nick Cave film Outlaw and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of Batman nemesis the Joker in The Dark Knight, the teen allegedly drew up a list of teachers and pupils he wanted to murder.

He scrawled the mantra “When order fails, violence prevails” in his notebook, which had Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara on the front alongside slogans including “EDL: No Surrender”, “British and Proud”, and Nazi Swastika drawings. The teenager, who is now 17 and cannot be named because of his age, had a Nazi flag above his bed and wrote essays on his hatred of Muslims.

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62% in Quebec oppose firing public servants for wearing religious symbols

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Montreal protest against PQ charter
Demonstration against the ‘Charter of Values’ in Montreal last month

A majority of Quebecers – 62 per cent – oppose firing public servants who insist on wearing religious symbols at work, according to a poll conducted for CTV News.

The Parti Quebecois’ proposed Charter of Quebec Values would ban public employees from wearing prominent religious symbols, such as headscarves and turbans, in the workplace – although it has not said what the consequences of defying the charter would be.

The Ipsos Reid poll found that 38 per cent of Quebecers agreed with, and 62 per cent disagreed, with the statement: “Public servants like teachers, health care workers and others should be fired from their jobs if they insist on wearing religious symbols and clothing at work.”

Across Canada, 72 per cent opposed the statement, while 28 per cent agreed.

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Smashed windows, arson attacks and anti-Muslim threats in Weston-super-Mare

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Troys BBQ WestonSmashed windows, arson attacks and anti-Muslim threats have left town centre businessmen claiming Weston has a “very big racist problem” and that they are being targeted because of their nationality.

Police are investigating a Turkish-run eatery’s claims that someone attempted to blow up its premises after a fire was started near a set of gas canisters, while one convenience store worker was told “I hate Muslims” after putting a Halal poster in a window – which was also smashed.

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Judge asked to bar NYPD monitoring of Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NYPD Muslim surveillanceA federal judge on Tuesday revisited a decades-old court settlement restricting how the New York Police Department conducts surveillance after civil rights lawyers accused the department of breaking those rules by monitoring Muslims.

The dispute centers on the restrictions set by the Handschu decree, which was put in place in response to surveillance used against war protesters in the 1960s and ’70s. The decree was relaxed following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to allow police to more freely monitor political activity in public places.

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Virginia Bay councilman criticized for mosque claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last week, the Virginia Beach City Council voted 9-1 in approval of the city’s first mosque. But that lone “no” vote by Councilman Bill DeSteph has created controversy. He claims building the mosque would be a threat to national security.

The Council’s approval gave local Muslim nonprofit Crescent Community Center the green light to build the mosque at the intersection of Landstown Road and Salem Road. The group says the site will hold up to 225 people in its prayer hall.

DeSteph told media outlets last week he voted in opposition to the plan because he had information linking Crescent Community Center to the Mosque and Islamic Center of Hampton Roads, which he said has ties to the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

WAVY.com obtained a PowerPoint presentation that DeSteph emailed to a constituent with information about members from the Crescent Community Center and the Hampton mosque. The document raises questions about links to the Muslim brotherhood, but the statements are vague and fail to show any documented proof that anyone in the Hampton Roads Muslim community poses any threat.

One constituent wrote back to the councilman, taking issue with his so called proof: “This garbage is nothing more than a Joe McCarthy type attempt to insinuate through … innuendo … the mosque will be a haven for radical Islamists.”

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NSS council member and OLFA spokesperson continues to build links with EDL supporters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anne Marie WatersLast week we reported on the frustration of plans by the “counterjihad” publication Dispatch International to organise meetings in Malmö and Copenhagen at which Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll were to describe their heroic struggle against “England’s Islamization”.

A fall-back plan to have the English Defence League leaders address a small group of sympathisers, with their speeches broadcast by video link, was thwarted when police impounded Lennon’s passport. Attempts to hire premises for larger public rallies had already collapsed after bookings were cancelled when the purpose of the meetings became clear. Management at the Malmö Konferenscenter/Folkets Hus objected that the EDL was an “extreme right organization” and declared “we will have nothing to do with organizations of this type”.

During this same period Dispatch International‘s difficulties intensified when PayPal asked to examine the content of the publication to see if it contravened their rules against the promotion of racism and xenophobia. DI refused to cooperate, no doubt reasoning that such an examination would indeed reveal that it was in breach of the ban on hate speech, with the result that its PayPal account was withdrawn.

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