Yearly Archives: 2014

Judge orders NYPD to begin turning over Muslim spying documents

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A federal judge has ordered New York City to begin a process to hand over investigative documents from the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslims as part of a long-running lawsuit.

In an order issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles Haight, Jr. said there was a “manifest” need for further legal discovery, which could bolster the plaintiffs’ claim that the NYPD has engaged in discriminatory surveillance of Muslims. “The Muslim community is concerned about the attentions being paid to it by the NYPD. That concern is natural and reasonable,” Haight found.

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Dansk Folkeparti leaders divided over whether to restrict Muslim immigration or ban it completely

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marie Krarup DFSenior members of Dansk Folkeparti espoused the opinion that there are enough Muslims in Denmark and border controls should be established to stop more from entering the country.

DF’s defence spokesperson Marie Krarup [pictured] said that the time has come to completely halt Muslim immigration. “We should limit the size of the Muslim minority in Denmark,” Krarup wrote in a blog for Berlingske newspaper.

Anders Vistisen, number two on DF’s list of candidates for the European Parliament, agreed that the number of Muslims in Denmark should be limited. DF’s citizenship spokesperson, Christian Langballe, couldn’t see how a total ban against Muslims could be put into place. “It is impractical to call a complete halt, but I think that Muslim immigration must be limited,” he told Berlingske.

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Maajid Nawaz, free speech and the hypocrisy of Quilliam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Maajid Nawaz and friends

Last week the Camden New Journal published a report on the campaign to persuade the Liberal Democrats to remove Quilliam’s Maajid Nawaz as their parliamentary candidate for the Hampstead & Kilburn constituency. I sent a letter to the CNJ in response, which was not published, so I reproduce it here:

I was amused to read the indignant complaint by Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz that he had been “censored and silenced” because many people in the Muslim community objected to his tweeting of an offensive cartoon (‘Jesus and Mo’ tweet Nawaz: ‘Calm down’, January 23).

Nawaz’s presentation of himself as a defender of free speech certainly conflicts with my own experience. It’s only a few years since I received a threatening letter from lawyers representing Quilliam, the organisation of which Nawaz is co-founder and chairman, demanding that I cease criticising it and remove all articles from the Islamophobia Watch website that Quilliam found objectionable.

The letter asserted that my criticisms of Nawaz and his colleagues “bear the natural and ordinary meaning that The Quilliam Foundation are hypocrites”. All I can say is – I rest my case.

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Murfreesboro Islamic Center is potential source of ‘locally generated terrorist attacks’, opponents claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Plaintiffs suing the county for approving the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case because of terrorism concerns, according to a file sent Wednesday night.

“Periodic warnings from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of locally generated terrorist attacks compel a review by this Court to resolve due process issues raising conflicts between The Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), and the public right to open government affirmed by state Open Meetings Act,” states a lawsuit from plaintiffs’ attorneys Tom Smith of Franklin and Joe Brandon Jr. of Murfreesboro.

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Harlow man charged over mosque bomb threat

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 52-year-old man has been remanded in custody after he allegedly threatened to bomb a mosque.

Nigel Flanaghan has been accused of telling the police that there was an explosive device in a Harlow place of worship on January 8. Mr Flanaghan is also accused of causing religious aggravated fear or provocation of violence through words or behaviour, motivated towards Muslims.

After a court appearance in Chelmsford Magistrates’ on Tuesday the defendant of Wharley Hook in Harlow, just outside North Weald, has been remanded in custody.He will appear in court next week.

This is Local London, 30 January 2014

Anti-Quilliam protest at Plymouth University

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-Quilliam protest in PlymouthA protest against a speaker specialising in Islamism and counter-extremism has taken place at Plymouth University tonight. Around 30 people gathered to show their anger at Sheikh Dr Usama Husan giving a lecture at the uni. It comes after he failed to condemn an image from the online cartoon “Jesus and Mo” showing Jesus and Mohammed saying “hey” and “how ya doin” to each other.

Dr Hasan is a senior researcher in Islamic Studies at Quilliam was speaking at the Jill Craigie cinema tonight on the topic of Islam and democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring. The University cites Dr Hasan as a trained imam and a scientist with a PhD, MA and MSc from the Universities of Cambridge and London, and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Around 30 people from the university’s Plymouth Islamic Society protested at the event as he had not condemned the actions of Quilliam co-founder Maajid Nawaz, a Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn who retweeted the controversial image. They gathered peacefully in the lobby area of the Roland Levinsky building ahead of Dr Hasan’s arrival. A few “boos” were heard as he entered the lectured theatre.

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Asian Christian ‘stabbed as revenge for Lee Rigby’, then ignored by police

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Asian teenager beaten and stabbed by a gang of youths in a racist attack claims he has been ignored by police.

Sonoo Yaqoob said he was assaulted by more than 15 people in Glasgow’s Queen’s Park on June 24, 2013 while he was walking with two friends. His assailants abused, assaulted and stabbed him before running when they heard police sirens, Mr Yaqoob said.

He told a media conference on Wednesday that his attackers told him he was targeted as revenge for the murder of soldier Lee Rigby. He was racially abused throughout the assault, he said.

Mr Yaqoob said police took him to hospital for treatment but then left and made no attempt to contact him. Mr Yaqoob and his father attended their local police station to find out what enquiries police were making. However, seven months later, he alleges that police have failed to act sufficiently on the crime.

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‘Let them go to Saudi … we are not a dumping ground’ – Kevin Carroll condemns decision to accept Syrian refugees

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Grudgingly, belatedly and on the eve of a Commons debate over a Labour motion that would very likely have resulted in defeat had they opposed it, the Tory-led coalition government announced yesterday that Britain would temporarily resettle up to 500 refugees from Syria.

The government has still not signed up to the United Nations programme that has seen Germany take in 10,000 refugees, and the tiny number it has agreed to accept must be seen in the context of the millions who have fled the civil war in Syria. The select few who are to be admitted to the UK will be only “the most vulnerable”, namely children, the elderly, the disabled and victims of torture and sexual violence.

You might think that nobody with a shred of civilised feeling would object to giving refuge to these desperate people. And you’d be correct. Vocal opposition this token humanitarian gesture has mainly been restricted to the scum of the far right. Here, for example, we reproduce a series of tweets and retweets by former English Defence League co-leader Kevin Carroll angrily denouncing the government’s decision.

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Islamophobes’ legal bid to stop planned mosque in Cambridge because it could be ‘front for terrorism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A protest group has been criticised for a legal application to stop a £17.5 million mosque being built in Cambridge, in which they claimed it could be “a front for terrorism”.

Stephen Gash, of Stop Islamisation Of Europe (SIOE), and Sareeta Webra, founder of Sikhs Against Sharia (SAS), made an application for a Cambridge County Court injunction to prevent the mosque in Mill Road being built. The application calls for a “court injunction to be served against the Muslim Academic Trust for construction of a mega-mosque”.

The campaigners claim the planning consultation was not conducted “lawfully”. And the application adds: “It is well documented that many so-called Muslim charities are fronts for Islamic terrorism and that several of those cited are based in the United Kingdom.”

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New Jersey: Police officer who posted racist Facebook threat against Obama will keep job

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Coon Trapper Facebook page

PLEASANTVILLE — A village police officer who was suspended after he apparently posted a vulgar, racist post about President Barack Obama on his Facebook page last month will keep his job after he accepted a litany of disciplinary measures Monday night.

The Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution that allows Police Chief Richard Love to impose on Officer Peter Burns a 60-day suspension without pay or benefits; forfeiture of 25 vacation days; a psychological evaluation; a training program focused on diversity and sensitivity; and a two-year “last chance” agreement, in effect a probationary period.

“Officer Burns has provided an apology to the community at large and to Pleasantville residents, as well as to the chief and his colleagues in the police department,” Mayor Peter Scherer said.

The post, posted on Dec. 11 on a Facebook profile Burns operated under the name “Coon Trapper,” contained a racial slur, using the “N word” to describe Obama and calling him “un-American.” “The fact that he (Obama) is still alive bewilders me,” Burns wrote in the diatribe. “Go die in a shallow grave you Muslim commie … ”

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Posted in USA