Category Archives: Far right racists

Disintegrating BNP tries to revive fortunes with ‘Koran Fried Chicken’ protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP KFC protest2The BNP reports that it held a demonstration in Wakefield on Saturday against halal chicken being sold at KFC restaurants.

The protest was attended by “members and officials from across Yorkshire”, we’re told – which, judging from the photographs accompanying the article, amounted to no more than seven people.

The BNP might also like to reconsider posting this picture from the protest, which appears to be encouraging motorists to drive through one of the BNP demonstrators. Excellent advice, it must be said.

Arson attack on mosque in eastern France

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A mosque in eastern France was damaged after unknown attackers set fire to the building using a burning rubbish bin early Thursday, France 3 television reported.

The head of the mosque in Montbeliard, located about 170 kilometres south of Strasbourg, near the German border, discovered the fire when he arrived to open the building for morning prayers, the report said. One wall was badly damaged. The attack on the mosque is the second in a month, according to France 3.

A group calling itself Les Echappees Belles (The Lucky Escapes) claimed responsibility for the incident in tracts left near the mosque. The group – believed to be a group of women loosely influenced by right-wing extremists, according to France 3 – had claimed responsibility for setting fire to the mosque’s van in October.

Police were investigating the incident.

Muslim groups say the number of attacks on Muslims and Muslim institutions is on the increase. The Collective Against Islamophobia in France recorded 188 Islamophobic acts in 2010, mostly against institutions such as mosques.

DPA, 10 November 2011

See also La Pèche, 11 November 2011 and Le Pays, 14 November 2011

Swiss mosque site desecrated with pig’s heads and blood

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims in Switzerland are responding with shock and outrage after a pig carcass and severed swine heads were discovered buried at the site of a proposed mosque.

Police in the town of Grenchen uncovered the pigs Friday after they received an anonymous message claiming that someone had buried the body parts and spilled 120 liters of blood from the animals in an effort to desecrate the ground to halt the construction of the mosque.

The unsigned flier, written in German, says “This operation was done (conducted) to protest against the growing expansion of Islam in Switzerland,” and says that a similar desecration in Spain earlier halted another mosque construction project.

Continue reading →

Police arrest EDL members to ‘avert planned attack’ in London

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL supporters arrestedPolice arrested 179 members of the English Defence League after reports of repeated threats to attack Occupy protesters camped outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Armistice Day.

Scotland Yard said they believed a breach of the peace was about to take place after they got intelligence that the EDL were planning the Armistice Day attack. The law states officers can arrest if they believe the breach of the peace to be “imminent.”

A member of the tented community outside the cathedral expressed gratitude to the police for preventing any violence. “It is fantastic if they are using their resources to try and stop people getting on to this site,” said Bryn Phillips, a member of the Occupy LSX community. “If this has prevented violence then I am pleased.”

Continue reading →

Muslim graves vandalised at disputed Jerusalem site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mamilla cemetery graffitiRacist slogans were sprayed over gravestones in an old Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, site of a dispute between Palestinians and supporters of a museum being built alongside, police said on Thursday.

An AFP photographer, who arrived at the cemetery in the city centre, said he saw graffiti on 15 tombs reading “price tag” and “death to the Arabs.”

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that “the slogans were painted several weeks ago” and had not yet been erased by municipal authorities.

Hardline Jewish settlers have adopted what they call a “price tag” policy – a euphemism for revenge attacks against Palestinians and their property following Israeli government measures against settlements.

Continue reading →

EDL member gets off racial harassment charge

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in HalifaxThe trial of a man accused of racially aggravated harassment at an EDL protest in Halifax was thrown out after magistrates ruled there was not enough evidence.

Dennis Farrell, of High Lees Road, Halifax, was charged with the offence after the English Defence League rally in Halifax on April 2. Farrell pleaded not guilty. Prosecutor Andy Dinning told the court he had been involved in filming the demonstration and had used offensive language.

Police said Farrell was seen in the Courtyard pub holding the camera. A voice could be heard shouting abuse, and DC Facey said no one else could be seen on CCTV standing near the microphone. But his solicitor, Richard Brown, argued there was no case to answer and there was no proof it was Farrell.

Halifax Courier, 8 November 2011

You’ll note that Farrell did not dispute that racial abuse was shouted – only that he was the EDL supporter who shouted it.

EDL supporter returning from Tower Hamlets protest threatened rail worker

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man was arrested at a train station for threatening to hit a rail worker. Lee Anthony Dunn, of Sydney Gardens, South Shields, was travelling on the King’s Cross to Sunderland train on September 3, passing Hartlepool, when he was asked to move by a train manager who wanted to get past. Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court heard that the 27-year-old asbestos fitter – who was with a gang from the far-right movement the English Defence League – refused to budge.

Prosecuting, Paul Power said: “The train manager asked the defendant to move so he could pass again, and he swore at the worker. This made the train manager nervous, because of the defendant’s size and because he was an English Defence League supporter.

“He ordered the train manager to zig-zag through him and his friends, and he warned the worker that he would hit him if he asked again. The train manager retreated behind two security officers who happened to be on the train, and police were informed. The defendant continued to square up to other people on the train, and the bar had to be closed.”

Dunn admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour. He was fined £300 and told to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Shields Gazette, 8 November 2011

Far right on rise in Europe, says report

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The far right is on the rise across Europe as a new generation of young, web-based supporters embrace hardline nationalist and anti-immigrant groups, a study has revealed ahead of a meeting of politicians and academics in Brussels to examine the phenomenon.

Research by the British thinktank Demos for the first time examines attitudes among supporters of the far right online. Using advertisements on Facebook group pages, they persuaded more than 10,000 followers of 14 parties and street organisations in 11 countries to fill in detailed questionnaires.

The study reveals a continent-wide spread of hardline nationalist sentiment among the young, mainly men. Deeply cynical about their own governments and the EU, their generalised fear about the future is focused on cultural identity, with immigration – particularly a perceived spread of Islamic influence – a concern.

“We’re at a crossroads in European history,” said Emine Bozkurt, a Dutch MEP who heads the anti-racism lobby at the European parliament. “In five years’ time we will either see an increase in the forces of hatred and division in society, including ultra-nationalism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and antisemitism, or we will be able to fight this horrific tendency.”

Guardian, 7 November 2011

Download the Demos report here.