Monthly Archives: August 2014

Yasmin Qureshi backs call for boycott of HSBC

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yasmin Qureshi LabourA Bolton MP has backed calls to boycott a bank which closed the account of an Islamic aid charity.

Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East, said she will also speak to ministers in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about the Ummah Welfare Trust, which was cut off by HSBC after it said providing services for the charity was ‘outside its risk appetite’.

The organisation, based in St Helen’s Road, has provided medical supplies, support and aid to communities in Gaza, which has been the centre of intense fighting between Israel and militant group Hamas.

Ms Qureshi said it was unacceptable that HSBC should not give more explanation about the decision – and as a customer she will consider changing her bank.

She said: “When I met with representatives from the Ummah Trust they told me it was a complete surprise when they received the letter from HSBC. Because HSBC is in 18 countries across the world and it’s a global bank it’s the best bank to use, and there’s never been any problem.

“It seems it has deliberately picked on the trust because it is doing a lot of work in Gaza at the moment. A similar situation happened in 2008 when again the trust was working in Gaza, during the last time there was a big almighty onslaught from Israel.

“HSBC has given no reason, no explanation, no nothing. I support the boycott, and I think I’m going to have to reconsider my own situation as a customer at HSBC.”

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Hundreds of police officers to be drafted in for English Defence League demo in Batley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hundreds of police officers from West Yorkshire and beyond will be drafted into Batley on Saturday (Aug 9) for a rally by the right-wing English Defence League. Traders have been told that up to 700 police officers will be put on standby to help prevent trouble.

The Yorkshire EDL Batley Division has called a national demonstration in protest at what they say is the growing influence of Islam and English people “treated as second class citizens.” As many as 600 EDL supporters from across the country could converge on Batley.

A counter demonstration, organised by Kirklees Unite Against Fascism and Huddersfield TUC, will also be held. The Celebration of Unity event is described as a “peaceful, anti-racist” gathering with music and speeches.

The EDL previously held big demonstrations in Dewsbury, in 2011 and 2012. In June 2012 around 500 EDL supporters met up in Dewsbury town centre. Afterwards it was estimated that policing and lost trade had cost the economy up to £500,000.

Batley councillors, politicians, Muslim leaders and the Bishop of Pontefract the Rt Rev Tony Robinson have all signed a Batley Unity Statement opposing the EDL rally.

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Kahanist graffiti on Marseille mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marseille mosque JDL graffiti

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports that graffiti has been sprayed on the wall of the Muslim Centre of Marseille by the extremist Jewish Defence League. The slogans, which read “Israel will live” and “JDL is watching”, are accompanied by a Star of David.

The CCIF points out that for several years it has called for Muslim places of worship to be protected as well as Jewish places of worship. When he was minister of the interior, Manuel Valls stated that this was under consideration. But nothing has been done since.

See also “‘Israël vivra’, ‘LDJ veille’ et une étoile de David tagués sur une mosquée de Marseille”, Des Dômes Et Des Minarets, 1 August 2014

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Åkesson: ‘Islamism is the Nazism of our time’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jimmie Åkesson (3)Swedish party leaders traditionally hold summer speeches on their home turf during the holiday season and Saturday was the turn of the Sweden Democrats’ Jimmie Åkesson.

A crowd of a few hundred people had gathered in Åkesson’s home town of Sölvesborg in Sweden’s far south to hear the 35-year-old launch the party’s push towards the general election in September.

Following a sweeping review of the current global conflict zones, Åkesson shifted focus to Islam. “Islamism is the Nazism and Communism of our time,” he said, prompting the most generous applause of the afternoon.

Furthermore Åkesson said that he demanded that all aid to organizations and associations related to “Islamism” should be stopped, and directed his ire to the handful of Swedish citizens reported to be fighting in Iraq and Syria. “You guys can stay there. Sweden is no longer your home, this country built on Christian principles.”

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Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 28 July‑3 August

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 28 July-3 August 2014

Britain First continues campaign of harassment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain First at Crayford mosque August 2014
Britain First chairman Paul Golding and his gang at the Crayford mosque on Friday

A week ago the far-right anti-Muslim group Britain First suffered a major blow when its founder and financier Jim Dowson resigned from the organisation, in part because of his opposition to the notorious “mosque invasions” led by Britain First chairman Paul Golding.

Dowson said that while it was necessary to oppose extremists he objected to “decent Muslims” being intimidated in this way. In a video statement responding to Dowson’s departure, a shaken Golding announced that Britain First had suspended its mosque invasion campaign and would be moving on to other forms of street protest.

It turns out that not much has changed. While actual “invasions” have been renounced, at least temporarily, Britain First is still intent on targeting ordinary Muslims, whose faith it holds to be a threat to the British, Christian way of life.

On Friday, Golding and his gang turned up outside the North West Kent Muslim Association mosque in Crayford. This is the same mosque they barged into last month, harassing the imam and threatening to remove the “sexist” signs outside the building that indicated separate entrances for women and men. This time they didn’t try to enter the mosque but knocked on the door and harangued the people who answered, while handing out copies of Britain First’s Islam and Women pamphlet to worshippers and passers-by. (“Most folk know that Islam exists”, the pamphlet begins, “but have no clue as to its true horror.”)

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Bolton: NWI anti-mosque protest meets counter-demonstration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NWI protest Bolton August 2014Hundreds of protestors closed off Blackburn Road for more than an hour over protests about the extension of a mosque in Astley Bridge.

The demonstration, organised by far-right organisation the North West Infidels, sparked a second protest by the Bolton Trades Union Council, Bolton Against Racism and members of the local community which was policed by hundreds of officers.

The NWI drafted in supporters from across the UK to object to the extension of the Taiyabah Islamic Centre on disused land off Canning Street. Planning permission was granted in July to create 19 new classrooms as part of the new mosque, which will have a dome and minaret tower.

During the protest bottles, a firework and eggs were thrown at officers, who had been brought in from across the North West to police the protest. Two people were arrested, including one woman who hit an officer in the face.

The opposing protestors were “penned in” on either side of Blackburn Road. They hurled insults at each other, waved banners and chanted outside Wynsors World of Shoes in Blackburn Road.

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Mirror stokes up Islamophobia with bogus anti-Muslim story

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Boycott star city racist shithole Facebook page

Last week the arrival of Eid provided the pretext for yet another round of anti-Muslim scaremongering. According to a rumour that quickly spread across the internet, the Vue cinema in Birmingham’s Star City entertainment complex was only allowing Muslims who were celebrating Eid to enter the venue and had turned away non-Muslims.

This transparently ludicrous story would appear to have been kicked off by a comment posted on the Birmingham Mail Facebook page by one Emma Noakes, who accused Birmingham City Council of colluding with Vue in implementing a discriminatory admission policy:

Emma Noakes Facebook comment

You’ll note that Ms Noakes’ accusation wasn’t based on her own experience of being turned away from the cinema but on a second-hand and probably garbled account by a friend. As for her suggestion that the local authority was co-operating with Star City in banning non-Muslims from the venue, this was clearly nonsense.

Nevertheless, it was enough to provoke a predictable spate of outraged comments denouncing the supposed ban as further proof of an Islamic takeover of Britain and the subjugation of the indigenous people. A Facebook page was set up to rally opposition to the discrimination against non-Muslims, under the title “Boycott star city – racist shithole”. The accusation of racism was particularly ironic, given that the page is clearly a far-right initiative, as the photos below demonstrate.

Unsurprisingly, Birmingham City Council denied any involvement, telling those who inquired about the issue: “This has nothing to do with the council and is simply not true.” The Birmingham Mail, a newspaper not averse to engaging in a bit of anti-Muslim scaremongering itself, also dismissed the rumour as baseless, stating: “We have fully investigated these allegations and can find no foundation for them.”

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Rowan Williams says Islam makes positive contribution to society, ‘secularist’ groups disagree

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rowan_WilliamsIslam is restoring traditional British values such as shared responsibility and duty, a former archbishop has said.

Rowan Williams said that Muslims had brought back “open, honest and difficult public discussion” in one of their “greatest gifts” to Britain.

He used a speech yesterday to criticise sections of the press for portraying Muslims as “un-British” and complained of “illiteracy” about religion among figures in government.

Secularist groups accused Dr Williams of “foolishness”, but his remarks were welcomed by British Muslim organisations.

Keith Porteous Wood, the executive director of the National Secular Society, said: “I’m still smiling about the comments he made about Sharia law a few years ago. You’d think he’d have learnt his lesson.”

In 2008, when still Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Williams provoked controversy by stating that the application of some aspects of Islamic law in British courts was “unavoidable”. He also drew both praise and criticism after telling a literary festival in 2012 that the hijab gave some Muslim women strength.

Yesterday, Dr Williams, who stood down as the head of the Church of England to become master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 2012, told the Living Islam Festival in Lincolnshire that Christianity and Islam were shifting British values back towards the community.

He said that Britain was an “argumentative democracy” where “we are not just individual voters ticking boxes but individuals and communities engaging in open, honest and difficult public discussion. One of the greatest gifts of the Muslim community to the UK has been that they have brought that back to the people.”

Asked if he meant that Islam was rejuvenating British values, Dr Williams said: “Yes. I’m thinking of the way in which, for example, in Birmingham we have seen a local parish and a mosque combining together to provide family services and youth activities, both acting out of a very strong sense that this is what communities ought to do. ”

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