Category Archives: Far right racists

Sacked! EDL’s link man removed from post

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christopher Knowles, once linked to the EDL’s founding father Alan Ayling (aka Alan Lake) has been sacked from his post with Leeds city council’s children’s service department.

Knowles was one of the original rising stars in the British “anti-Jihadist” scene and travelled and spoke at a number of gatherings representing the British arm of the movement, including a rally in support of Dutch MP Geert Wilders in Berlin in 2010 before also appearing at the EDL’s disastrous rally in Amsterdam a few months later and in the company of future British Freedom Party chief Paul Weston.

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Honour-based violence in Swansea

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The parents of a 17-year-old girl, jailed for attacking her because she was going out with a black man, have been called “disgraceful” by a judge.

David Champion, 50, from Swansea, and his wife Frances, hit daughter Jane for “bringing shame” on the family. The father also abused her boyfriend Alfonce Ncube with racist language before grabbing and kicking him.

Champion was jailed for 12 months at Swansea Crown Court, and his wife to nine months. Both admitted assault.

The father also admitted a charge of racially aggravated assault against Mr Ncube. Frances Champion admitted using threatening, abusive or offensive words or behaviour to cause racially aggravated fear or provocation of violence towards Mr Ncube.

BBC News, 6 August 2012

A reminder that “honour-based violence” is not a phenomenon restricted to communities of recent migrant origin. The Daily Mail has covered this story – but, oddly enough, doesn’t regard the religious beliefs of the convicted parents as at all relevant to the case. Another of those “what if they were Muslim?” moments.

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Police say five people arrested for public order offences during EDL demonstration in Keighley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Keighley Banner
The English Defence League protesting in Keighley on Saturday

Five people were arrested during a demonstration by the far-right English Defence League (EDL) against alleged sexual grooming, police said today.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said the arrests were all for “public order offences” and came either during or after the extremist group held its protest in Church Green, Keighley, on Saturday. Those arrested have now been released on bail pending further inquiries.

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French Muslims protest in Gennevilliers against Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D4ZQ9O3JvOQ

Press TV reports from a demonstration in Gennevilliers against the sacking (since withdrawn) of four Muslims workers at a summer camp run by the local authority. They were dismissed on the grounds that their fasting for Ramadan supposedly made them unfit to carry out their duties and they represented a threat to the safety of the young people they were supervising.

Gennevilliers has a Communist mayor, Jacques Bourgoin, who initially supported the sackings, and his position was strongly supported by the far-right Front National who stated: “Those who oppose this wise decision are making a mockery of the principles of safety and secularism.”

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Sweden ‘counter-jihad’ rally outnumbered by anti-racists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lennon, Spencer and Geller in Stockholm
Standing for ‘freedom and truth’ in Stockholm – one British thug and two American nutters

A Stockholm rally by European and U.S. far-right groups seeking to create a global “counter-jihad” movement attracted fewer than 200 people on Saturday who were outnumbered by anti-racist protesters. Police said the rival demonstration was kept apart from the far-right rally and drew a few hundred people, a small number of whom were detained.

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English Defence League protesters confront police in Keighley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in Keighley

Protesters gathered in Keighley for a demonstration by far-right campaign group the English Defence League (EDL) this afternoon. About 100 members of the organisation arrived at Church Green off North Street and were shouting and chanting.

Dozens of police officers were at the scene. Mounted police were positioned at one side of the green and officers positioned at other points in the town centre.

Members of the EDL were trying to surge through police barriers, and someone let off a firework. Demonstrators jostled officers, and more police, including mounted officers, attended the site to keep the action contained within Church Green.

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Who is behind the Islamophobic graffiti in Limoges?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Limoges restaurant graffiti
Kebab restaurant graffiti in Palais-sur-Vienne

La Montagne reports that following the desecration of a mosque on Saturday night, other places in the Limoges area in west-central France were also subjected to “explicitly Islamophobic graffiti”.

The same Odal runes that were sprayed on the doors of the mosque also appeared on the Boulevard Schuman bridge. But here they were accompanied by Celtic crosses, the word “Oi” and the initials “NRF”.

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Anti-mosque flyer ‘unlikely’ to be in breach of discrimination laws

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The ACT Human Rights Commissioner has found a flyer opposing a mosque development in Canberra’s north is unlikely to have breached the Discrimination Act.

The flyer was distributed by a group calling itself the Concerned Citizens of Canberra. It outlined a number of worries about a proposal for the mosque in Gungahlin including the social impact. The flyer raised doubts whether the mosque’s proponents would be good neighbours in the community.

ACT Multicultural Affairs Minister Joy Burch declared the Government supported the mosque and referred the flyer to ACT Human Rights Commissioner Helen Watchirs.

In a decision handed down today, Dr Watchirs found the flyer was concerned with religious issues rather than race and it was also unclear whether it breached vilification provisions. Dr Watchirs said a complainant might have more success in the federal jurisdiction where there was a lower threshold to establish racial hatred.

ABC News, 2 August 2012

See also “Mosque flyer ‘offensive’ but not racist: Commissioner”,Canberra Times, 2 August 2012

Bristol: police seek ‘missile throwers’ from EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol wanted picPolice are looking for seven men, believed to have been responsible for throwing missiles on the day of the English Defence League march.

On Saturday, July 14, the English Defence League marched in the city centre and counter-protesters held demonstrations.

The event was mostly peaceful, but Avon and Somerset police ended up responding to a number of incidents and 16 people were arrested for offences including going equipped to cause damage and assaulting a police officer.

An investigation was also launched to identify other offences committed and those responsible.

Detectives investigating the throwing of missiles have identified seven men who might have important information which could help with their enquiries.

Bristol Post, 2 August 2012

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French mosque defaced with Nazi graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Limoges mosque Nazi graffitiOn Sunday morning the residents of Rue Émile Zola and worshippers at the great mosque of Limoges had the unpleasant surprise of discovering “Odal” (or “Othalan”) runes crudely painted on one of the doors of the building, whose minaret is currently under construction.

This is a serious provocation against the community, in the middle of the month of Ramadan. Mosque officials have filed a complaint and the graffiti have been reported to the police.

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