Extradition law debate in Commons next Monday

ENGAGE draws our attention to the welcome news that the Backbench Business Committee has now reversed its earlier decision and scheduled a full debate with a vote on the current extradition laws, to be held in the main chamber of the House of Commons on Monday 5 December.

The shocking case of Babar Ahmad has received some media attention, and it is thanks to the campaign organised by his supporters that next week’s parliamentary debate is taking place. But Babar Ahmad is not the only London Muslim to have fallen foul of the Extradition Act 2003. A less publicised case, which hopefully will feature in the House of Commons debate, is that of Talha Ahsan, who also faces the prospect of extradition to the United States.

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BNP leader applauds rejection of Blackpool mosque planning application, boasts that he advised mosque opponents on their campaign

BNP Islam Out of BritainYesterday the Blackpool Gazette reported that there had been “relief and delight” when the council’s planning committee rejected an application by the Noor-A-Madina Mosque.

As is usual in such cases, formal objections had centred on supposed parking problems, and opponents claimed that their campaign against the mosque had “nothing to do with race or religion”. But there was evidence to suggest otherwise. It was also clear that the English Defence League was involved in whipping up fear and hatred over the issue (see here and here).

The British National Party MEP for North West England, Nick Griffin, has now posted a statement on his website hailing the planning committee’s decision as “a victory for the people”. The statement claims:

Nick Griffin MEP was contacted earlier by a number of concerned residents following a meeting of over 100 people opposed to the mosque. Responding to their appeal for assistance Nick advised: “I believe that it is imperative that the building of new mosques is halted in order to prevent Britain being further colonised by Islamists. It is in the power of the residents of South Shore to stop this one by lobbying Blackpool Council to refuse this planning application.”

In a letter to residents in October, Nick’s Constituency Office explained to the public how to voice their opposition. His office urged people to contact the council and present their concerns, “It is highly likely that the Council will approve the mosque’s planning application unless the opposition campaign is of sufficient strength to ensure that they have no choice but to listen to the will of local residents. It is important, therefore, that as many people as possible make their objections known to Blackpool Council. Anyone can send in their views about a current planning application via Blackpool Council’s on-line planning application pages.”

See also Griffin’s earlier report “New mosque will change the face of Blackpool”.

Update:  See “‘It can be done’ – Local opposition blocks Blackpool mosque”, BNP news report, 1 December 2011

Update 2:  The EDL are also claiming credit for the planning committee’s decision:

EDL LGBT Blackpool mosque

BFP links up with Australian far-right racists

British FreedomHaving formalised its alliance with the English Defence League, the British Freedom Party is now keen to reinforce its international links. The BFP has posted an extended interview with Andrew J. Philips, chairman of the Australian Protectionist Party, who claims that the APP is a “sensible, moderate but uncompromising nationalist party”. It is in fact a far-right group specialising in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim propaganda.

The APP’s politics can be judged by the fact that their website has reproduced material by the British National Party and featured a video of a speech by South African white supremacist Arthur Kemp, author of March of the Titans: a History of the White Race, at a time when Kemp was a leading figure in the BNP (“Another one of Arthur Kemp’s excellent speeches…not to be missed”).

You can understand why the BFP and APP might enjoy a warm relationship, because the two organisations certainly have a lot in common. The BFP’s new chairman Paul Weston has written an article entitled “The ethnic cleansing of the English”, which warns that due to “mass immigration” the “indigenous race” will be reduced to “ethnic minority status in their homeland within twenty years”.

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Richard Peppiatt exposes Daily Star’s anti-Muslim agenda at Leveson Inquiry

Airports facing turban warfare Daily StarRichard Peppiatt, the Daily Star reporter who resigned in protest at the paper’s methods, notably its boosting of the English Defence League and its incitement of racism and Islamophobia, gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry today.

You can read his witness statement here. It describes a culture at the Star where “a top down pressure to unearth stories which fitted within a certain narrative (immigrants are taking over, Muslims are a threat to security) led to casual and systemic distortions”.

Peppiatt told the inquiry how he made up a story about a non-existent Muslim bomb plot. He said the inspiration for the story was “a line” from a Sunday Telegraph article which suggested that Muslim terrorists might be thinking of disguising themselves as Sikhs and hiding bombs in their turbans. From the Star‘s standpoint, Peppiatt explained, “having a story that lashed out at both Muslims and Sikhs at once was far too good to pass over”.

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How the Danish People’s Party packages its anti-Muslim racism

DPP video

The far-right Danish People’s Party, which is notorious for its opposition to minority communities of migrant origin and Muslims in particular, has produced a 3-minute English-language video, “I Am Denmark”, extolling the virtues of the Danish nation. It’s worth looking at, if you can stomach it, because it is a good example of how a section of the far right now frames its politics, by distancing itself from cruder forms of racism and packaging its anti-Muslim bigotry in cultural terms, as the defence of progressive national values against the threat of Islam.

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CAIR asks FBI to probe threats posted on Bare Naked Islam website

Bare Naked Islam

A Muslim civil rights group on Friday asked the FBI to investigate a series of threatening posts on an anti-Islam website. The threats posted by visitors to the Bare Naked Islam website include a post from one person who urges Christians to “kill every Muslim twice” and mentions that he routinely drives by a specific northern Virginia mosque. Another recommends blowing up mosques.

In making the request, Council for American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the Internet is replete with hateful commentary about Muslims. But he said these comments differ because they routinely contain explicit calls for violence. “The Internet is a cesspool of bigoted speech, but this is something else entirely,” Hooper said.

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Australians are being converted to Islam by eating halal meat, claims MP

Official PotraitA WA Liberal MP has claimed Australians are unknowingly being converted to Islam by eating Halal meat. In a speech to Parliament yesterday, backbencher Luke Simpkins said most Australians did not know that most of the meat they ate came from animals killed in accordance with Muslim law.

“By having Australians unwittingly eating Halal food we are all one step down the path towards the conversion, and that is a step we should only make with full knowledge and one that should not be imposed upon us without us knowing,” Mr Simpkins told Parliament. “What is happening is wrong. Too often the minorities in this country are looked after without regard to the majority.”

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English Defence League prepares to storm local elections

That’s the headline to a report in the Independent on the EDL’s pact with the British Freedom Party. Matthew Goodwin, author of The New British Fascism, is quoted as saying that the EDL/BFP lash-up has “clear potential” because there is widespread opposition to immigration. Well, we’ll see. Generally I adhere to the view that nobody ever went broke underestimating the consciousness of the masses, but I can’t see voters rallying in any large numbers to a political party they’ve never heard of, which is backed by a street movement consisting of a mob of violent hooligans.

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‘We need to proclaim that we respect Islam’ says FPÖ leader

BELGIUM-CITIES AGAINST ISLAMISATIONYes, really. That’s what Heinz-Christian Strache states in an interview with RT. His objection, apparently, is only to “radical Islamist trends”. Can’t see this going down too well with the international “counterjihad” movement. Hasn’t Strache grasped that Islam is a “religion of war”?

In fact, Strache goes on to say he’s in favour of a ban on minarets and the niqab, along with the wearing of headscarves by state employees. He also claims that European nations will “disappear politically and demographically” unless they recognise the urgent need for “the preservation of European folk culture”. No prizes for guessing where Strache might think the political and demographic threat comes from.

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English Defence League forms alliance with far-right British Freedom Party

Yesterday the English Defence League held its “Way Forward” meeting in Birmingham. It had been widely predicted beforehand that Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) would announce he was standing down from the EDL leadership in order to pursue electoral politics as a member of the far-right British Freedom Party. According to this report, things didn’t quite work out like that. Lennon declared that he did not consider himself to be the leader of the EDL (contrary to numerous statements he has made in the past) but stopped short of offering his formal resignation. And he stated only that he “may elect to join British Freedom” some time next year. However, the EDL did agree to endorse the BFP and “will utilise their divisional structure to support British Freedom”.

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