Yearly Archives: 2014

SDL members to lay wreath for Lee Rigby

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Edinburgh anti-SDL protestMembers of the far-right Scottish Defence League are planning a wreath-laying ceremony in memory of murdered soldier Lee Rigby in the centre of Edinburgh tomorrow.

Up to 100 SDL activists are expected to take part in the lunchtime event outside the Scottish Government building in Regent Road, marking the first anniversary of the brutal killing near the Royal Artillery Barracks in London. Two men are serving life sentences for hacking Drummer Rigby to death.

But campaign group Unite Against Fascism has accused the SDL of using Lee Rigby’s murder to promote a message of hate and spread racism. And it is organising a counter-demonstration in nearby Waterloo Place. from 12.30pm.

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‘Trojan Horse’ takeover plot by Muslims rubbish says Trust

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Park View School

The Trust which runs a Birmingham school at the centre of allegations of a “Trojan Horse” takeover plot by hardline Muslims has issued a statement rubbishing the claims.

The Park View Educational Trust, which runs three schools in Birmingham, said the political storm surrounding the alleged plot had created a “heightened climate” for false allegations to be repeated.

In its nine-page statement, the Trust claimed the “Trojan Horse” document outlining the allegations had created a backdrop “for the settling of political scores” that have nothing to do with its schools and students.

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Anglican vicar condemns ‘invasion of halal meat’, says Christians oppose ‘the creeping Islamisation of our country’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Reverend Canon Eric WoodsSteve Rose draws our attention to this comment piece (see below) by Canon Eric Woods, the Vicar of Sherborne, which was published in yesterday’s Western Gazette.

It isn’t the first time that Woods has promoted halal hysteria. As he mentions, he wrote an article about “the invasion of halal meat” for the same paper last year.

The two articles contain the same ignorant nonsense about halal abattoirs slaughtering animals while they are fully conscious – as we have previously pointed out, 88% of halal meat produced in the UK is from animals that have been stunned before being killed and the slaughter of sheep without pre-stunning has been illegal in New Zealand since 2010.

More disturbingly, both articles also feature the paranoid fantasy about “creeping Islamisation” that you would expect to find in a comment posted by some drunken thug on an English Defence League Facebook page, rather than in an article written by someone holding a responsible position in the Church of England.

Sherborne Abbey is part of the Diocese of Salisbury. The Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Reverend Nicholas Holtam, can be contacted here.

Update:  See “Bishop refuses to take action over vicar’s ‘creeping Islamisation’ article, says he ‘would not wish to discourage’ such views”, Islamophobia Watch, 19 May 2014

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UKIP embroiled in new row over Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John Kearney with drinkUkip has become embroiled in yet another Islamophobia row after it emerged that one of its candidates has urged Catholics that they “must be ready to die” for their faith which is “the only countermeasure” to the “world domination” of Islam.

The candidate John Kearney is standing in Basingstoke. In a blog dedicated to his Catholic beliefs, he accused Muslims of having “contempt for human life” and said last year: “The real threat now comes from militant Islam who persecute the Church and martyr Christians in a way that reminds us of the early Church.”

In addition, in August last year he wrote: “Today we have the rise of Islam and a contempt for human life among a large number of people of that faith. They seek world domination and are more evangelical in their cause than Christians have been in the past 40 years.

“A new word has arisen in Brainwashed Britain – ‘Islamaphobia’. This is called an unnatural fear of Islam. I do not know about unnatural but I would say that anyone who does not fear Islam is a fool. No, Islam is a religion and the Catholic Church with the Lord on her side is the only countermeasure. But Catholics must know their Faith and they must be ready to die for it.”

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National newspaper is prejudiced and skewing halal debate, says MP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sun Halal Secret of Pizza ExpressMP Yasmin Qureshi has accused national newspapers of prejudice in the debate over the ethics of halal and kosher meat. The MP for Bolton South East spoke in parliament over the practice of slaughtering meat in line with Islamic law.

The issue hit the headlines last week after The Sun newspaper reported how restaurant Pizza Express serves halal chicken without stating it on its menu. In the House of Commons Ms Qureshi slammed the publication for “skewing the debate” without fully informing people about studies which show Islamic slaughter – via a deep incision to a vein in the neck – is less painful to animals than stunning them first.

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Race row erupts after Brent UKIP candidate slates Muslims in ranting email

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Heino VockrodtA UKIP candidate in Brent has been drawn into a race row after he lambasted Muslims in a ranting email to planning chiefs.

Heino Vockrodt, who is standing for the Dudden Hill seat on May 22, accused Muslims of grooming sex slaves, compared a Willesden road to war torn Helmand Province and claimed Islam was an ideology not a religion. The 52-year-old financial and commercial consultant also claimed Islam was against ‘everything modern Britain stands for’ during his correspondence.

In the email, seen by the Times, Mr Vockrodt also labelled town hall bosses as “Yes-Sayers, Appeasement Chamberlains and look-The-Other-Way cowards” for allegedly turning a blind eye on developments of an Afghan centre in Willesden in fear of being called racists. According to Mr Vockrodt the centre had ignored planning rules to carry out developments on its building despite being turned down twice by the council.

He said: “…just like in all the other cases where Muslims are grooming to sex slaves under the eyes of the authorities, the council does NOTHING for political correctness (not that there is any).” He continued: “All the old owners of the neighbouring shops have been squeezes out by Muslims. The entire parade –once lovely owner/occupier shops –resembles Helmand province now. Time to call MI5 & MI6 for sure.”

He added: “Islam is a mono-cultural, totalitarian ideology. It is NOT a religion. It is against multi-culturalism and only promotes its own culture. It is against everything modern Britain stands for.”

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Washington DC: Geller is back with another anti-Islam Metro ad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AFDI Islamic Jew hatred ad

In 2012, anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative funded ads throughout the Metro system with a quote from the Quran next to a photo of the burning Twin Towers. Ads that cost Metro $35,000 over a failed effort to block them.

Now she’s back with another awful ad, this one claiming that “Islamic jew-hatred” is “in the Quran” as a response to an ad about “Israel’s occupation” from the American Muslims for Palestine. From Geller’s blog:

The DC Metro transit authority made multiple demands for the substantiation of every claim in our ads before they would accept the ad, and I, of course, happily provided that substantiation. The libelous American Muslims for Palestine antisemitic ad (below) did not have to provide substantiation. The MTA had no problem with their antisemitism. And you cannot provide evidence of a smear and a bigoted lie. But it is proof of the AMP’s hate.

Our ads are in response to the vicious Jew-hating ads that American Muslims for Palestine unleashed on Washington, DC Metro buses last month. And might I add, had we not sued and won in NYC and DC for violating our First Amendment rights when they tried to refuse our previous ads, our ads might never have gone up.

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Draw Muhammad Day: collectively punishing Muslim Americans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“In the wake of the self-censorship controversy surrounding South Park‘s portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad, artists intent on defending freedom of speech have responded by organizing an event they call Draw Muhammad Day, to take place on May 20. The goal, according to the website hosting the endeavor, is to defend free speech by showing Muslims that artists ‘don’t back down’ when threatened.

“But the fact is that millions of Muslim-Americans – many of whom have known about South Park caricatures of Muhammad for years – behaved exactly the way free speech advocates wanted them to: by remaining silent or expressing their feelings peacefully. The handful of thugs at a New York-based site called Revolution Muslim – who, by the way, are unwelcome in every New York mosque for their extremist rantings – were the only exceptions. And now these Muslim-Americans are being subject to mass insult as thanks for their respect of South Park‘s free speech rights….

“Imagine for a moment if an African-American blogger complained about an unfair stereotype in a cartoon in the same crass manner as the Revolution Islam folks. Would free speech advocates respond by hosting a contest to draw as many vile stereotypes of blacks as they could? I can’t imagine that anyone would even propose such an idea. So why, then, are millions of Muslim-Americans who said nothing about South Park in the past decade being subject to this mass insult? To prove a point? What point would that be?”

Shahed Amanullah at the Huffington Post, 13 May 2010