Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Far Right extremists flee anti-mosque rally in Germany

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cologne protestersA weekend gathering in Cologne of far-right European extremists ended in farce when the main rally was cancelled as the organisers fled for their own safety.

Politicians invited to the protest included Filip Dewinter, head of the Belgian Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, Andreas Mölzer, an MEP from the Austrian Freedom Party, and Mario Borghezio, an MEP in the Italian Northern League. Two members of the British National Party were also in town, including Richard Barnbrook, its sole member of the London Assembly.

A press conference to launch the pan-European movement against “Islamification” descended into chaos when its secret location – on board a Rhine river cruiser – was leaked. Left-wing activists arrived en masse to disrupt the event and were so successful that only two Pro-Cologners made it on board before the captain cast off in panic and headed for open water.

The group had then planned to tour the site of the mosque but this was stopped by the police on the ground that a busload of right-wing extremists cruising through a predominantly Muslim area might not be conducive to law and order.

So the only chance that Pro-Cologne had to make an impact was at its main rally on Saturday afternoon in the Heumarkt square. The organisers hoped for about 1,500 people. They had not reckoned on 40,000 screaming anti-fascists trying to break into the square to remonstrate with them.

With leading delegates stuck at the airport and the Heumarkt besieged, the rally was called off after only 45 minutes. The organisers began dismantling their microphones and stage, hoping that the security cordon would hold as police battled against the more violent protesters who were throwing paintbombs and snatching batons.

Although some of them were spirited away, many were penned in for several hours, unable even to get a beer as the bar owners in the square refused to serve them. Finally the BNP representatives got out, scuttling out the back of some of the buildings lining the Heumarkt, their attempts to present a united European front against Islamification in tatters.

“This was a victory for the democratic forces in this city,” Fritz Schramma, the Christian Democrat mayor, said.

Times, 22 September 2008

Salma Yaqoob – totalitarian

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Sunday Telegraph presents the first part of a “Top 100 left wingers” list compiled by Iain Dale and Brian Brivati. Salma Yaqoob is at no.97. “Though many would say she does not deserve to be on a list of lefties at all,” Dale and Brivati comment, “being more at home with totalitarianism than democracy.” But what would they know? They can’t even get Salma’s name right.

Who is behind Relentless, Obsession and The Third Jihad?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Obsession (2)“The venom created by the films ‘Relentless’, and ‘Obsession: Radical Islam’s War With the West’ has been slowly working its way into the hearts and minds of people across the country for a couple of years. Now the same group that brought us these atrocities is coming out with another film ‘The Third Jihad’. These films are only part of what Bob Crane has called a Tsunami of Islamophobia that seems to be rushing in ever higher waves towards the Muslim community in America….

“I know from personal experience over many years of being involved with interfaith dialogue that the views that this film promotes are not the views of all Jewish people, but I also know that those who have been responsible for making this film and for promoting it widely have been primarily Jewish. It truly saddens me that members of a community who should know better and who have experienced a holocaust that resulted at least partially from widespread stereotyping and demonization of Jewish people. I believe that this marginal group within the Jewish community is so blinded by their need to defend the State of Israel at any cost that they do not see the cost of their propaganda to another community.

“They are a marginal group, but they are making a lot of noise. In fact, they are making so much noise that they are drowning out the voices of those in the mainstream Jewish community who have worked so hard with mainstream Muslims and Christians to build bridges of dialogue and work towards peace and justice in this world.”

Sheila Musaji in The American Muslim, 20 September 2008

Are they really ‘Preventing Extremism’?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma addressing rally“The recent convictions of three young Muslim men on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions highlight the ongoing and real threat of terrorism. In video messages explaining their motivations the culprits make a clear and explicit linkage between their intentions and the impact of Western foreign policy in Muslim lands.

“Yet despite it coming from their own mouths that it is anger over foreign policy driving their hate, the government continues to deny it as the primary factor. Instead it blames a ‘dangerous Islamist ideology’ for creating ‘a hatred of the Western way of life’ as if such ideology is free-standing and exists in some kind of vacuum.

“In this discourse all Islamic political or social activists who are critical of the government, from whatever political hue, get lumped together with the sinister description of ‘Islamists’….

“By denying the legitimacy of democratic opposition to government foreign policy from Muslims, and by promoting and recognising only those Muslims who toe the line, government policy is serving to strengthen the hands of the genuine extremists; those who say that our engagement in the democratic process is pointless or wrong….

“The government now increasingly tars all Islamic organisations and individuals that openly oppose Western oppressive polices in the Middle East with the ‘extremist’ brush. Hence their recent attacks on the mainstream Islam Expo event in London….

“The danger of this approach is that it serves to squeeze the democratic space for dissent within the Muslim community. If Muslims organisations are reluctant to provide the space for sensitive discussions for fear of extremist’s accusations, where are these young people to go? Where will their views and concerns get an airing? The answer is obvious. They will be expressed in private and secret, with the genuine extremists keen to be provide listening ears and simplistic solutions.”

Salma Yaqoob in The Respect Paper, September 2008

German anti-Islam rally cancelled after clashes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ProtestorsGerman police cancelled an anti-Islamic congress planned for Saturday in Cologne after leftist opponents of the rally clashed with its right-wing backers.

The group Pro-Cologne called the rally to oppose a decision by local authorities in Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

It invited like-minded nationalist groups from around Europe to join the “Stop Islam” rally to fight what it called the “Islamisation and immigration invasion” of Germany and Europe.

“The rally has been cancelled,” a police spokesman said. Many protesters cheered the announcement. A spokesman for Pro-Cologne said they were surprised by the cancellation and would hold a news conference later on Saturday.

Police said 40,000 people protested against the rally. It had been expected to attract 1,500 people but only dozens made it.

Some of the protesters carried placards reading “Nazis out of Cologne” and “Temples, synagogues, churches and mosques – everything’s okay”. “We’re here to show racism the red card,” said Cologne mayor Fritz Schramma. “Racists and extremists aren’t welcome.”

Reuters, 20 September 2008

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NAMP calls for BNP councillor to be prosecuted over anti-Muslim leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police are facing a race row after allegedly failing to properly investigate “Islamophobic” leaflets. Muslim officers have accused the Lancashire force of failing to make arrests over a hate crime and now plan to take the issue to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The flyers, from six months ago, said: “Muslims are exclusively responsible for the heroin trade.” The leaflets, printed by BNP councillor Brian Norton Parker, appeared in Pendle and Burnley and demand an “apology” and “compensation” from Muslims.

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Nebraska company fires Muslims over Ramadan prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Grand Island meatpacking plant fired at least 86 workers Friday after they walked off the job amid a dispute over prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, company officials said. But a Muslim leader and one of the fired workers said 150 Muslims lost their jobs.

JBS Swift & Co. spokeswoman Tamara Smid confirmed 86 firings late Friday, saying the employees were terminated earlier that day for repeatedly leaving work without authorization. She would not give any other details, including whether anyone else had been fired.

Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said 80 workers were thrown out after an altercation late Thursday. He says when they tried to return for their shift Friday, they were fired, along with 70 others.

Associated Press, 19 September 2009

Posted in USA

Muslim police anger over leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim police leaders are demanding to know why no action has been taken over a leaflet which blames Muslims for the heroin trade. The leaflet, distributed to hundreds of households in parts of Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire, says people should “heap condemnation” on Muslims.

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough proof it was meant to stir up racial or religious hatred. The National Association of Muslim Police said the CPS advice was flawed.

The leaflet says Muslims are “almost exclusively responsible” for the manufacture, transport and sale of heroin, 95% of which it says comes from the Afghanistan and Pakistan region. It says the process of “naming and shaming” Muslims will have a “positive effect” on bringing about the abolition of the heroin trade.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the contents of the leaflet were “racist” but has advised police that no criminal act had been committed. The National Association of Muslim Police said the CPS advice gave a green light to those behind the leaflet to continue distributing them.

BBC News, 19 September 2008

Update:  See also the Muslim News which quotes editor Ahmed Versi as stating, quite rightly: “It just shows that incitement to religious hatred legislation is inadequate and the BNP members use the loophole to target Muslims. If the leaflets were targeted at other ethnic communities like the Jews and Black people then the perpetrators would have been charged for incitement.”

US congressman proposes anti-Sharia law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tom-TancredoAmid disturbing revelations that the verdicts of Islamic Sharia courts are now legally binding in civil cases in the United Kingdom, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) moved quickly today to introduce legislation designed to protect the United States from a similar fate.

According to recent news reports, a new network of Sharia courts in a half-dozen major cities in the U.K. have been empowered under British law to adjudicate a wide variety of legal cases ranging from divorces and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

“This is a case where truth is truly stranger than fiction,” said Tancredo. “Today the British people are learning a hard lesson about the consequences of massive, unrestricted immigration.”

“When you have an immigration policy that allows for the importation of millions of radical Muslims, you are also importing their radical ideology – an ideology that is fundamentally hostile to the foundations of western democracy – such as gender equality, pluralism, and individual liberty,” said Tancredo. “The best way to safeguard America against the importation of the destructive effects of this poisonous ideology is to prevent its purveyors from coming here in the first place.”

Tancredo’s bill, dubbed the “Jihad Prevention Act,” would bar the entry of foreign nationals who advocate Sharia law. In addition, the legislation would make the advocacy of Sharia law by radical Muslims already in the United States a deportable offense.

Tom Tancredo press release, 18 September 2008

‘We are losing Europe to Islam’ – US political commentator says far right is the answer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Diana WestSo claims US columnist Diana West. But don’t give up hope, all is not lost:

“Of the parties dedicated to resisting Islamization that I examined in Europe last summer, the most promising range from the sizeable Vlaams Belang in Belgium to the tiny Sweden Democrats, and include the Lega Nord in Italy, the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders in Holland, the Danish People’s Party, the Swiss People’s Party and the Austrian Freedom Party.

“Such parties are unknown here, or ignored. Worse, they are shunned. Why? I believe it’s because their respective political opponents – the leftist media and governing establishments that are increasingly dependent on Islamic support, by the way – have successfully slandered these parties as ‘extremists’, ‘racists’, ‘fascists’ and ‘Nazis’.

“Is advocating freedom of speech ‘extreme’ or ‘fascist’? Is opposing Islam’s law, which knows no race, ‘racist’? Is supporting Israel (which these parties do far more than other European parties) ‘Nazi’? The outrageously empty epithets of the Islamo-socialist left seem calculated to stop thought cold and trigger a massive rejection reflex. In this way, resistance becomes anathema, and Islamic law, unchecked, spreads across Europe.”

TownHall.com, 18 September 2008

Vlaams Belang, to take just one example of the far-right parties that West endorses, is the successor organisation to the Vlaams Blok which formally disbanded in 2004 after being successfully prosecuted for “incitement to hate and discrimination”. It can trace its origins back to Nazi collaborators in the Second World War who assisted the occupation forces in sending thousands of Belgian Jews to their deaths.