Yearly Archives: 2014

UKIP election candidate probed over ‘disgusting’ homophobic and anti-Islamic Twitter messages

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Harry Perry UKIPUKIP is investigating after the Manchester Evening News uncovered ‘disgusting’ anti-Islamic and homophobic messages posted online by one of its election candidates.

Harry Perry, who is standing for the party in Offerton, Stockport, has published a torrent of extremist views on his Twitter account in recent months. He also sent a Facebook message to a Liberal Democrat candidate calling homosexuality ‘evil’.

Mr Perry, who is retired and lives in Hazel Grove, last stood for the party in the same seat in 2012, when he got 349 votes.

On his Twitter account, @harryperry15, he calls for Pakistan to be ‘nuked’, dubs David Cameron a ‘gay-loving nutcase’, Muslims ‘devil’s kids’ and homosexuality an ‘abomination before god’. Last June he also described multiculturalism as ‘evil’, earlier tweeting at the EDL leader Tommy Robinson to ask why he didn’t have a political party he could join.

He welcomed Godfrey Bloom’s controversial remarks on ‘bongo-bongo land’, replying ‘well said’ – and tweeted that Asian areas of the north west were now ‘third world countries’ thanks to immigration.

The revelations came as an embarrassment to his party as it launched its north west European election campaign in Manchester on Thursday.

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Dublin: Vandals tape bacon to posters of candidate with Turkish background

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Memet Uludag poster defaced with baconPeople Before Profit have condemned as “outrageous” the vandalism of a party member’s posters in north Dublin.

Memet Uludag — who is originally from Turkey, but has been living in Ireland since 1998 and is now a citizen — is running for a Fingal County Council seat in the Castleknock Ward in this month’s local elections. He says that as he passed through Blanchardstown Main Street yesterday, he spotted “strange objects” attached to two of his posters. On closer inspection, he discovered that large, raw pieces of bacon had been stuck on to them with Sellotape.

“This was a clearly racially motivated vandalism,” Uludag said. “I called one of my campaign members and we took pictures. We also reported the incident to the local Garda station. The vandals obviously wanted to make a very explicit and clear racist point. Obviously presuming I am a Muslim, they clearly chose the bacon as a symbol of anti-Muslim hate.”

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‘No such thing as a benign Muslim’ says UKIP candidate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kevin O'DohertyA UKIP candidate has sparked controversy by posting an offensive comment on Facebook, saying ‘there is no such thing as a benign Muslim’.

Kevin O’Doherty posted the remarks on the social media website in relation to a story he shared about a Birmingham school at the centre of allegations of a takeover plot by Islamic hardliners. He is standing as a UKIP candidate in the Central St Leonards ward in the Hastings Borough Council elections on May 22.

The post, dated April 21, said: “There is no such thing as a benign Muslim, only a latent adherent of Koranic dogma.” It has since been removed from the internet.

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Texts read out to Edinburgh Central Mosque bacon attack jury

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A series of text messages were read out to a jury at the trial of two people accused of throwing bacon into the Central Mosque. Detective Sergeant Raymond Gray said the messages were from a Blackberry mobile phone found in the possession of 28-year-old Chelsea Lambie, from Paisley.

One message sent from the phone at 2.58am on January 31 last year read “Going to invade a mosque, because we go where we want”, the court heard. After receiving a text asking “What you do last night?”, the jury was told that a reply was sent from the phone reading: “Went to the mosque in Edinburgh and wrapped bacon round the door handles and opened the door and threw it in ha ha ha.”

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Football fans fined for tearing pages out of Qur’an at match

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Julie Phillips and Gemma ParkinTwo football fans – one a council worker who used to work with disabled children – have been fined after being convicted of tearing up pages of the Koran during a Birmingham City match.

Middlesbrough FC supporters Julie Phillips, 50, and Gemma Parkin, 18, admitted tearing up a book, but told magistrates they did not know it was the holy book of Islam. It happened as Blues drew 2-2 with Boro at St Andrew’s last December. The pair were both found guilty of committing a religiously aggravated public order offence.

Phillips told the court she only found out it was the Koran when she was questioned by police after stewards spotted what was happening. “I was mortified,” she said. “Very ashamed and disgusted in myself. It was just a book of some sort, I can’t remember if the cover was on. It was just white paper.” She said pages of the book were passed around to be ripped up for confetti.

The court heard Phillips, a Middlesbrough Council employee, worked with the elderly but used to have a role with disabled children. She also arranges travel for other football fans.

Parkin said she took the Koran into St Andrew’s after she was handed it at Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market. She claimed not to have looked at the book, saying she had no idea it was the Koran. She said her friend Mark Stephenson, earlier convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offence, took the book from her bag. “He took it off me and it was ripped and turned into confetti,” she said. “Everyone else was ripping it up so I just ripped it.” But magistrates described her account as “unbelievable”.

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Merseyside mosque bomb plotter Ian Forman jailed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ian Forman NaziA Nazi sympathiser who plotted to blow up mosques and Islamic centres has been jailed for 10 years.

Ian Forman, 42, developed a homemade bomb and researched religious venues in Merseyside, Kingston Crown Court heard.

Forman, of Shavington Avenue, Oxton, Birkenhead, was detained after work colleagues found him researching chemicals and explosives on the web. The explosive was discovered during a police raid, along with a replica Nazi uniform and bomb plans.

Officers said seized computers showed evidence of internet research into a number of mosques in Merseyside, including Penny Lane Mosque, Liverpool and Wirral Cultural Centre, Birkenhead. The court also heard Forman had video clips of himself experimenting with explosives and a homemade anti-Islam video.

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UKIP condemns candidate James Elgar’s ‘deplorable’ tweets about Muslims and women

Posted on by Bob Pitt

James Elgar tweets

Ukip is distancing itself from a teenage council candidate who has been reported over offensive tweets.

James Elgar’s Twitter feed included a post with the hashtag #ThingsAsianBoysDo saying they “groom and rape underage white girls, stab and rob innocent old white people, bomb innocent white people”.

Another said no women were in the final of Celebrity Big Brother because they were “all in the kitchen where they belong”.

On the day of the Boston bombings in April last year, a tweet read: “So there are Muslims cheering and celebrating the Boston Bombings today…really, really sums them up. #scum”.

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Macy’s customer falsely charged with theft forced to remove hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Juweria KhalidJuweria Khalid said she was a frequent Macy’s shopper, never missed their popular one day sales and this past October was no different, but little did she know how that day would change her life.

Khalid said after she already purchased a bracelet from the jewelry department, she spotted some earrings she also liked. Since she was already headed to the children’s department to shop for her two-year-old and 10-month-old, Khalid decided to pay for all of her items together on the 7th floor.

With her arms were full of bags from previous purchases, Khalid said she placed the earrings in her purse, fully intending she insists, to pay for her items. That’s when she was stopped by Macy’s loss prevention guards.

“I took out the jewelry and said to them I’m not stealing it. I’m going to buy it on the 7th floor. They never listened to me,” said Khalid.

Khalid was taken to the now infamous detention area of Macy’s, which she described to us as nothing short of a jail with bars. The Muslim woman, who wears a hijab, a Muslim head scarf, was forced to remove it. “They kept me locked there for hours. They never allowed me to take calls. My husband kept on calling like nine times,” explained Khalid.

Despite insisting she would pay for her items, which her attorney said added up to less than $100, Khalid said she was forced to pay a $500 fine with her Macy’s credit card. The NYPD was called, then Khalid charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

Khalid has now been vindicated, a judge dismissed her case for insufficient evidence. But it appears the damage has already been done. Khalid was eight weeks pregnant at the time of the ordeal. She lost her baby just days after. Khalid and her doctors believe because of the stress she suffered.

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