Monthly Archives: January 2014

EDL outnumbered by counter-demonstrators in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Bristol anti-mosque protestCentral Bristol witnessed ugly scenes this evening as right wing protesters opposed to plans to open a mosque in Stokes Croft were confronted by counter-demonstrators.

About 30 supporters of the English Defence League turned out on College Green to stage what had been advertised as a “peaceful” protest against the former Jesters comedy club in Cheltenham Road being turned into a mosque. Bristol Unite Against Fascism held a counter-demonstration, attended by about 80 people, which led to a 40-minute stand-off near the entrance to Bristol Cathedral.

The two groups shouted slogans and abuse at each other, separated by a cordon of about 24 police officers in high-visibility jackets. At one stage there was a minor scuffle but a police inspector later said he knew of no arrests. The anti-Fascists shouted: “Nazi scum! Off our streets!” The right wingers responded: “UAF! Off our streets!”

EDL members began to disperse after about half-an-hour. They had gathered at a pub near the Arnolfini arts centre before being escorted to City Hall for the protest.

Continue reading →

Flowers cover swastikas after mosque attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stockholm mosque flowers

Last Thursday morning, members of the Stockholm Muslim congregation arrived at the mosque on Södermalm to find the doors were covered in Nazi graffiti. By Monday morning, however, a much more positive display had taken their place: bouquets of pink and white flowers were taped over the black swastikas, and a note of solidarity was tied to the door. “For every hate crime there is a flower,” the sign read. “An attack on you is an attack on Sweden! We stand together!”

Flowers were also placed outside the mosque in Fittja, which had its windows smashed and pig feet tossed in back in November, as well as a Hagsätra church which had also been vandalized with swastikas last Friday.

“I thought society was moving the wrong direction. But now my view changed 180 degrees,” Omar Mustafa, chairman of the Swedish Islamic Association, told The Local. “Members of the congregation arrived for the morning prayer at 7am and called me saying there were flowers on the mosque. They sent me a picture and I felt strength and encouragement in a whole new way.”

Continue reading →

Demonstration against desecration of mosque in Mayotte

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mayotte protest against mosque desecration

Le Figaro reported that on 1 January worshippers at a mosque in Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, found that a pig’s head had been left outside the building the previous night. Mayotte 1ière adds that a large demonstration was held to protest at the desecration of the mosque.

Update:  Three people will appear in court on 26 February charged with incitement to religious hatred. Two of them are reportedly members of the French army and a third is the wife of one of the accused. They have admitted the offence and claim that they only did it for a bet while drunk on New Year’s Eve.

EDL faces counter-protest in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol UAF anti-EDL demonstration

In response to news that council officers have granted a planning application to convert a disused former comedy club (which has been lying empty for the past two years) into an Islamic centre comprising a mosque, community facilities, a café and a flat, the Bristol division of the English Defence League will be holding a demonstration tomorrow evening to protest against what they term a “hate preaching centre”. It will take place outside City Hall, where a meeting is being held at which those who expressed their objections to the development without descending into anti-Muslim bigotry and racism (i.e. very few EDL supporters) will have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with representatives of the Muslim community.

Unite Against Fascism are organising a counter-demonstration under the slogan “No EDL racists in Bristol”.

Continue reading →

EDL protest in Sleaford is cancelled

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Organisers of a planned protest by members of the English Defence League have called it off.

Lincolnshire Police had been contacted by the English Defence League, expressing a wish to hold a local protest in Station Road, Sleaford this Saturday, January 11, but the organisers have now got back in touch to say it is cancelled.

Although not specified by the EDL, the protest was due to be close to the site of a planned prayer hall on Station Road by the local Sleaford Muslim Association.

Sleaford Standard, 6 January 2014

Continue reading →

EDL opposes Anjem Choudary … by shouting abuse at Regent’s Park Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anjem Choudary had announced that on Saturday afternoon, as a follow-up to their recent anti-alcohol protest in Brick Lane, his tiny group of extremists (now operating under the name of The Shariah Project) would be holding a Rally Against Gambling on the Edgware Road. Shortly before the event was due to start, however, Choudary issued a press release stating that the demonstration had been called off “due to severe weather conditions” – i.e. it was raining. Evidently the resources of The Shariah Project don’t extend to providing its supporters with waterproof clothing.

This is, of course, what we have come to expect from Choudary. Time and again he pulls the same stunt. The March for Shari’ah in London in 2009, a demonstration in Wootton Bassett in 2010 against the invasion of Afghanistan, a rally outside the White House the same year to advocate sharia law in the US, a protest against the royal wedding in 2011, a supposed conference at the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in 2012 – in every case Choudary announced some provocative action and then, having wrung the maximum amount of publicity out of the resulting controversy, he released a last-minute statement that the event has been “postponed”. The surprising feature of the Brick Lane anti-alcohol protest was that it even took place at all.

Despite the no-show from Choudary at Edgware Road, the English Defence League and its far-right allies – reportedly including March for England, the Casuals and the South East Alliance – went ahead with a counter-protest. One of the participating groups, Britain First, which originates in a split from the British National Party, declared that Choudary had bottled out of holding his demonstration “in the face of a threatened major turnout from patriots of Britain First”. Judging by their own photograph, the “major turnout” consisted of around two dozen people.

Continue reading →

Stoke EDL member stole chocolate bar from Marks and Spencers – before racially abusing and assaulting security guards

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anthony ForresterAlcoholic Anthony Forrester attacked two supermarket security guards – after they asked him to pay for a bar of chocolate he had stolen and eaten.

The 44-year-old was in the Marks and Spencer store, in Hanley, on October 17 when he picked up a 69p bar of chocolate and ate it without paying. North Staffordshire Magistrates Court heard yesterday how store security guards Ian Creed and Bekezela Ndlovu followed Forrester to Iceland, in Charles Street, to ask him to pay for the food.

Prosecuting, Giles Rowden said: “Mr Forrester picked up a bar of chocolate and ate it and threw the wrapper away. He was approached by the security guards and told them he would pay for it, but he then left the store. The security guards saw the defendant in the Iceland store where he became abusive.”

The court heard that he racially abused and swore at Mr Ndlovu claimed he was a member of the English Defence League.

Mr Rowden added: “He was using abusive language towards Mr Ndlovu, who was just trying to do his job. The other security guard was then punched in the head and bit on the hand. Forrester was then arrested, but on the way to custody he damaged a Perspex cage belonging to Staffordshire Police.”

Forrester, of St Luke’s Court, in Hanley, pleaded guilty to five charges which included theft, assault by beating, criminal damage and using racially abusive and offensive language.

Continue reading →

Tulsa police arrest Stuart Manning, suspected of assaulting woman; suspect charged with hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stuart ManningA Tulsa man is facing a hate crime charge after an incident in December in which he allegedly yelled profanities at and assaulted a woman. Stuart Manning told police he had “a drinking relapse and did not remember the incident” for which he’s charged with assault and battery, malicious injury to property and malicious intimidation, or a hate crime, according to his arrest report.

Police say a bank security guard witnessed Manning strike the victim in the Bill and Ruth’s parking lot near Pine and North Lewis Dec. 13. The guard took down Manning’s tag number and when contacted by police identified Manning through a photo lineup.

Police contacted the Lebanese victim, who said a large white male became upset because she parked too close to his car. According to the police report, Manning said, “Hey f—ing b—- Muslim, why did you get so close to my car?”

Continue reading →