Anti-Islamic group moves to stop mosque in Ballarat, Victoria

Restore Australia logoAn anti-Islamic group is mobilising against Ballarat’s first mosque. Restore Australia, which describes Islam on its website as a “aggressive totalitarian political ideology”, plans to letterbox people in Ballarat to “mobilise people to write to the council” to oppose the building of a mosque at 116 Elsworth Street East in Ballarat.

The Islamic Society of Ballarat has purchased the property and been granted a planning permit by the City of Ballarat. The planning permit required amendments to the original plan submitted by the Islamic Society, including changes to car parking to improve disability access and lighting.

Restore Australia chief executive officer Mike Holt said supporters of the group in Ballarat were being organised to protest the building of the mosque. He said Islam was incompatible with the Australian way of life. “Islam wants to bring in sharia law. It doesn’t matter (which branch of Islam) because they all believe in the same Islam, the same prophet Muhammad and the same God Allah,” Mr Holt said.

“A mosque is the thin end of the wedge to Islamise our society. They build a mosque and then more Muslims move in. We’re opposing the mosque on the grounds of a lack of parking, traffic congestion, pollution, and that property prices in the area will come down because of its presence.”

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CPS is ignoring racist motivation in murder and manslaughter cases, says damning report

Investigated or IgnoredPolice and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have “filtered out” allegations of racism from dozens of murder and manslaughter cases that have come before the courts in the last 10 years, a damning report has found.

Since 2000, judges have had a duty to hand down harsher sentences for any offence that can be shown to have been racially or religiously aggravated. But researchers from the think-tank the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) analysed 93 deaths with a known or suspected racial element since the new law came into effect, and found that in more than half of cases, evidence of the defendant’s motivation was stripped out during the investigation or prosecution process.

The report concludes that the criminal justice system still does not have a clear enough understanding of how racism is a contributory factor to serious crime and suggests it is too often being disregarded. “It [racism] has to be at its most overt and brutal – and uncontaminated by any other external factor – to be accepted by the criminal justice system,” the report concludes.

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Posted in UK

Far-right groupuscule engages in stupid provocation in Whitechapel

Britain First Christian patrol leafletBritain First have been crowing over their latest idiotic stunt, namely the organisation of a so-called Christian Patrol in East London. (EDL News and Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion have the details.)

This involved handing out leaflets in Whitechapel on Friday evening asking passers-by to report any sightings of the so-called Muslim Patrols. In a video of the stunt, Britain First chairman Paul Golding explains that two of his members are openly smoking cigarettes and drinking cans of Stella near the East London Mosque in an attempt to “draw the Muslim Patrols out”. Given that these “patrols” involved no more than a handful of individuals and the ringleaders are now in prison, that was always going to be unlikely. The actions of Britain First amounted to nothing more than a crude provocation in an area with a large Muslim population.

Golding is currently on bail following an incident in which he and his friends harassed Anjem Choudary, and one of his bail conditions is that he should not enter the Greater London area, so you might like to ask the Metropolitan Police if they have any plans to arrest him.

Update:  See “Extremist patrols unwelcome in Tower Hamlets”, East London Mosque press release, 3 February 2014

Swiss Islamophobes use ‘mass immigration’ referendum to push anti-Muslim line

Egerkingen Committee anti-Muslim posterOn 9 February the Swiss electorate will vote in a referendum on a proposal to reintroduce immigration quotas. The initiative, “against mass immigration”, by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party has been gaining ground, with an opinion poll last month finding 43% support for the proposal, up 6% since December. Le Temps has reported that other right-wing forces backing the initiative have seized the opportunity to promote their own rabidly Islamophobic agenda.

The Egerkingen Committee, which co-ordinated the successful campaign for a “yes” vote in the 2009 referendum over a proposed ban on minarets, is using the current anti-immigration campaign to denounce the threat of “creeping Islamisation”, warning against a “massive increase in the Muslim population” that would alter the “essence of Switzerland”. It has produced a poster that recycles the image of a woman wearing a full veil previously used in the anti-minaret campaign and predicts that there will soon be a million Muslims in Switzerland.

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France: Mosques in Vandoeuvre and Pontarlier are attacked, while Islamophobic incidents continue to rise

Vandoeuvre mosqueThe Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France has reported that two mosques were attacked last week.

On the night of 28-29 January the Al Ihsan mosque and cultural centre in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy suffered extensive damage – its doors were smashed and the administrative office completely ransacked. (The same mosque was targeted in September 2012, when the building was defaced with Kahanist graffiti.) The following night a mosque in Pontarlier was the victim of a far-right graffiti attack, with a swastika and an “SS” symbol sprayed in white paint on the doors.

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Danny Lockwood threatens Islamophobia Watch, but thankfully only with libel action – he’s not proposing to headbutt us

Danny Lockwood Islamic RepublicPress publisher Danny Lockwood headbutted man who criticised newspaper

Dewsbury Reporter, 1 February 2014

A publisher and columnist headbutted and punched a man who accused his newspaper of producing “discriminatory” articles.

Liam Ellis began talking to The Press’ Danny Lockwood in the Fox and Hounds pub in Hanging Heaton last April. Moments after Lockwood left, Mr Ellis went outside to apologise for the disagreement. But Lockwood headbutted Mr Ellis and repeatedly hit his upper body, forcing him back into the lobby. Kirklees Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday (Friday) that Mr Ellis needed five stitches under his left eye and his vision was still affected.

Lockwood, who represented himself, tried to claim his actions were in self-defence. The 55-year-old, of Main Street, Elvington, York, said Mr Ellis had become loud and threatening during their conversation, branding him and The Press “racist”. The court heard Lockwood had left one part of the pub to move into the taproom earlier in the evening because a man who had previously threatened to kill him was also there. After speaking to Ellis in the taproom, Lockwood said he left the pub feeling “upset, shaken and shaking”. He said he acted in self-defence as he was “in fear of what [Ellis] was going to do next”.

But District Judge Baldwin rejected Lockwood’s account, saying she believed Mr Ellis was going outside to apologise.

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EDL demonstrator who shouted racist abuse in Farnworth loses appeal

John BanksAn English Defence League demonstrator has lost an appeal against a conviction for shouting racist abuse at a rally in Farnworth last year.

John Banks [pictured] was among the EDL supporters who congregated at Farnworth Park on August 26 last year where there was also a counter demonstration staged by Unite Against Facism. Within seconds of getting off a coach at the park, Banks was arrested for shouting a racist remark.

He was later found guilty of using racist threatening or abusive words or behaviour in a trial at Bolton Magistrates Court on November 26 and yesterday, at Bolton Crown Court, he appealed against the conviction.

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Father jailed over Walsall EDL rally violence

He went out to protest on the streets of the Black Country, his face covered with a mask bearing the cross of St George, before hurling missiles towards police. But today father-of-two and English Defence League supporter Gareth Ballan was starting a 27-month sentence behind bars.

Ballan wore the mask as he joined hundreds of others for the English Defence League rally in Walsall town centre. As scenes turned ugly he was seen to throw two missiles, one a drinks can and the other an unconfirmed object, which may have been a brick, towards a police line. He was later seen standing at the front of a crowd of EDL supporters with his arms raised in the air, chanting and encouraging the crowd by pointing towards the police line.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court, sitting in Birmingham yesterday, he was sentenced to 27 months for violent disorder relating to the events of September 29, 2012.

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Montreal metro death leads to outburst of anti-Muslim hatred

Naima Rharouity was a 47-year-old mother who lived in Villeray with her two young boys, ages five and seven. “She really took care of her kids,” said her niece Soukaina Rharouity. “They were the centre of her life.” Rharouity lost her life in the most horrific way. Her scarf and hair somehow got caught between the moving steps in a metro escalator, strangling her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Overnight, the incident has gone from tragic accident to an intense internet debate, and media misfire. Several news outlets were reporting that Rharouity had been strangled not by a scarf, but by a hijab.

“The lead of TVA and Journal de Montreal to allege that the woman was wearing a hijab fails on a basic level of journalistic discipline and that’s the level of verification,” said Alan Conter, a Concordia Journalism Law and Ethics Professor. “Obviously there was no verification done.”

“Maybe it was a hijab but why would you insist in telling us?” said Julien Day, a writer for Voir. “For me it’s a no news.” Day says he was shocked by the replies he got on an article he wrote criticizing the media’s coverage. “There were pretty violent reactions like she deserved it and maybe people will learn that you wear your hijab at home and no where else,” he said.

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SDL member posted Facebook call for arson attack on Edinburgh Central Mosque

SDL AberdeenA man has been warned he could face jail for posting a Facebook comment about burning down a mosque in the wake of Lee Rigby’s murder. Derek Phin, 46, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to posting the threatening and abusive remark on the social network last June.

British soldier Lee Rigby was off duty in southeast London when he was attacked and killed on May 22 last year. Radical groups then tried to exploit the soldier’s murder resulting in attacks and protests against the UK’s Muslim community.

Phin, of Aberdeen, admitted posting on Facebook that Edinburgh Central Mosque should be burnt down on July 2 during a counter demo. The mosque was due to be packed at the time for a meeting organised by pressure group Unite Against Fascism in response to extreme right wing protests.

Fiscal depute David Bernard told the court that police had been tipped off to Phin’s comment which he put online on June 30. He said: “On July 13 police received information that a comment of a racially motivated nature and thought to incite racial hatred had been posted on Facebook social network site on a page pertaining to the Scottish Defence League.

“One of the comments had been from a user account in the name of Derek Phin and had been posted on June 30, 2013 as part of a conversation about a Unite Against Fascism campaign to be held at an Edinburgh mosque on July 2. The comment attributed to Phin read ‘burn the mosque down when the meeting is ongoing’.”

Police confronted Phin at his home in Aberdeen on September 4. He was taken to a police station where he admitted making the comment and stated he was a member of the Scottish Defence League. He was then cautioned and charged.

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