Haroon Siddiqui exposes the role of Canadian Hindu Advocacy in the alliance of right-wing groups demanding an end to Muslim Friday prayers at a Toronto school (see here and here).
Category Archives: Far right racists
EDL members admit spraying racist words on mosque
Two men have admitted daubing racist graffiti on a mosque and two Asian-run business premises. Anthony Donald Smith, 24, and 32-year-old Steven James Vasey yesterday both pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit racially aggravated criminal damage, between November 1 and 17, last year.
It relates, specifically, to spray painting offensive messages on the Nasir mosque, in Brougham Place, Hartlepool, as well as at the Milko store, in Potto Street, and at the Albert Guest House, in Front Street, both in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, all said to have taken place on November 11.
Smith, of Neptune Way, Easington Colliery, and Vasey, of Prior’s Grange, High Pittington, near Durham, entered their pleas at a short hearing at Durham Crown Court, yesterday.
Barristers Shaun Dryden, for Vasey, and Stephen Constantine, for Smith, requested reports be prepared by the Probation Service before the men are sentenced. Judge John Evans agreed and adjourned the hearing for sentence on a day to be agreed in the week of October 3.
Bailing the two men, he warned them: “The fact I’m adjourning mustn’t be taken by either of you as any indication as to the way you are sentenced. That will up to the judge who sentences you in October.”
They will be sentenced alongside a third defendant, co-accused Charlotte Christina Davies. The 19-year-old single mother, of Irving Path, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, is facing the same charge. She appeared in the court on Friday, August 19, when the hearing was told that she intends to plead guilty.
Davies was said to have sent text messages suggesting pork scratchings should be thrown at the mosque, or a pig’s head could be left there, with “Merry Christmas” daubed above the door, on the day before the start of the Muslim festival of Eid. Jane Waugh, for Davies, told that hearing she would be pleading guilty on the basis that whatever she suggested was not carried out by any of the others.
Her case was adjourned, and probation reports were requested for her next hearing, when she will appear with Vasey and Smith, in the week of October 3.
Four charged over EDL attack on Plymouth kebab shop
Four people are to appear at court next month on charges relating to an alleged attack on a Kurdish family in their takeaway shop.
The four were arrested on the afternoon of July 31 after police were called to the Istanbul Kebab shop in Exeter Street.
The four, who were said to have previously been at the nearby Wild Coyote pub – which has since been renamed the East End Bar – returned to answer their bail yesterday when they were charged.
Hayley Well, aged 27, from Shell Close, Leigham has been charged with racially aggravated common assault by beating.
Kelly Watterson, aged 28, from St Peters Road in Manadon, is charged with racially aggravated affray and racially aggravated common assault by beating.
Michael Rafferty, aged 33, from Queen Street, Devonport has been charged with obstructing or resisting a constable in the execution of his duty.
Ricky Burley, aged 43, from High Street, Stonehouse has been charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour and obstructing or resisting a constable in the execution of his duty.
All four have been released on bail to reappear at Plymouth Magistrates Court on September 7.
Until their appearance, they have been given conditions which include not going within 100 metres of the Istanbul Kebab Takeaway in Exeter Street.
EDL march through Tower Hamlets banned by Theresa May
The home secretary has agreed to a police request to ban the far-right English Defence League from staging a march through one of the UK’s biggest Muslim communities in east London.
Theresa May said she would outlaw any marches in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs – whether by the EDL or any other groups – for the next 30 days, having “balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected”. She added: “I know that the Metropolitan police are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and properties are protected.”
Police sought the ban after the EDL – which has seen widespread public disorder at earlier rallies – planned to march on 3 September through Tower Hamlets, which has a significant Muslim community, many of Bangladeshi origin.
In a statement the force said it made the request following information that prompted fears that the march could cause “serious public disorder, violence and damage”. It added: “Tactically we believe this is the best option to prevent this.”
Chief Superintendent Julia Pendry warned EDL supporters to stay away. “We have made this decision [to seek the ban] based on specific intelligence and information, and our message is clear: we do not want people coming into the areas to attend these events.”
The march had been vehemently opposed by community leaders, among them the two local MPs and the borough’s mayor, as well as a series of Muslim and Jewish groups.
Lutfur Rahman in talks with police as EDL threaten to defy Tower Hamlets march ban
Tower Hamlets’ police chief is in the middle of two days of talks with community leaders over whether the Met should apply to the Home Office to ban the planned English Defence League march in Whitechapel on September 3.
It follows threats by Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman that he will take the Met Police to the High Court if they do not make the application.
Chief Insp Paul Rickett is due at the Town Hall today (Thursday) for a meeting of the Community Contingency Planning and Tension monitoring group. It follows a meeting yesterday with the Independent Police Advisory group held at his Bethnal Green office.
“The EDL tell us if they’re banned they’ll implement a series of unannounced, sporadic demonstrations,” he told the Advertiser. “A ban could mean an EDL demo in the East End that would be a massive challenge to the police – I don’t know if I have the resources to cope.”
The EDL applied weeks ago under the law to demonstrate and is currently negotiating the route and how the march will be managed. “We can request the Home Office for a ban only if they refuse our conditions,” Mr Rickett warned. “The EDL say they’ll submit application after application to stage a march if we seek a ban – there could be a sustained challenge.”
But he warned a Home Office ban on an EDL march would be an “own goal” which would also stop United East End coalition’s counter march against the EDL planned for the same day.
The mayor of Tower Hamlets has been negotiating with Scotland Yard this week after he publicly warned the Metropolitan Commissioner on Friday that he will go to court unless an application is made by Monday.
Mr Rahman said: “I will instruct lawyers to go to the High Court and seek injunctive relief if the police fail to act. We will not let the EDL or any other bunch of extremists divide our community.” He challenged Home Secretary Theresa May to use her powers to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel on grounds of public safety.
But no decision had been made by yesterday (Wednesday) by Scotland Yard’s Public Order Office on a ban – despite a 25,000-name petition to stop the EDL handed in last week. The Town Hall yesterday said: “We are still negotiating with the police and our own lawyers.”
Tower Hamlets: Met applies to prohibit EDL march
The campaign to have a march planned by the English Defence League through one of London’s most ethnically-diverse boroughs banned looks to have been successful. The Metropolitan Police has announced that it is “in the process of applying to the Home Secretary for authority to prohibit a march in five London boroughs for a period of thirty days.” It will be effective from 2 September.
More details of the application are promised later, including the names of the boroughs affected, one of which is undoubtedly Tower Hamlets. The application, which is highly unlikely to be turned down, applies to all marches in the boroughs concerned, including a planned counter-march against the EDL.
Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman has applauded the decision of acting Met commissioner Tim Godwin, thanked the “thousands of people” who supported the campaign and asked those who had planned “to march in support of our cause to stand down.” He added, “You have helped us achieve our aim and we no longer need a mass show of support.” Tower Hamlets borough police commander Paul Rickett is understood to be fully in support of the measure, although as an East London Advertiser report indicates, the possibility remains of rallies or static demonstrations taking place.
The EDL’s eagerness to parade in Tower Hamlets arises from a false belief that the borough is seething with Muslim extremists plotting to infiltrate political institutions and destroy English cultural traditions. This is, of course, a ludicrous distortion of reality based on a fantasy version of the East End and its history. Sadly, it is hardly contradicted by selective, exaggerated and simplistic reporting by some journalists. The area has even been described as an “Islamic Republic“, when it is plainly no such thing.
These are sensationalist simplifications of an extremely complex picture. They may generate marketable media product, but by neglecting such crucial factors as the wider story of Bangladeshi Londoners’ long-running community struggles, the role of competing groups within the Tower Hamlets Labour Party and the intricacies of local Muslims’ social and political activism they obscure far more than they claim to reveal. They also do more harm than good to a part of the capital that has many social problems and where maintaining what are generally good community relations can require considerable subtlety and skill.
Dave Hill’s London Blog, 25 August 2011
The prospect of a static assembly by the EDL does indeed remain. However, the police have the power under Section 14 of the Public Order Act to “give directions imposing on the persons organising or taking part in the assembly such conditions as to the place at which the assembly may be (or continue to be) held, its maximum duration, or the maximum number of persons who may constitute it”.
West Yorkshire Police used Section 14 in Dewsbury in June, when they refused to allow the EDL to hold its static protest in the town centre and instead penned them in the station car park, well away from the Muslim community they had come to intimidate. The acting Met police commissioner should be urged to do the same, by banning the EDL from holding their protest anywhere near the centre of Tower Hamlets and instructing them to hold it, say, in a fenced-off area of Victoria Park.
If the EDL were allowed to hold a static protest near the centre of Tower Hamlets they would no doubt be escorted by the police to the area where the protest was to be held, so they would effectively get to have a march anyway, with the consequent threat of public disorder that led to their march being banned in the first place.
Update: See “Full speed ahead for anti-EDL demo: Sat 3 Sept, Tower Hamlets”, UAF news report 25 August 2011
Police chief’s futile bid to keep out EDL
The top cop in West Yorkshire has been denied powers to restrict a far-right group’s protests in Calderdale. Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police Sir Norman Bettison has told the Courier he wrote to the Home Office after the English Defence League’s demonstration in Bradford last August, suggesting measures to minimise their impact on communities in his area. But the Home Office turned him down.
“I have no power to stop them coming,” said Sir Norman, who was asked if he would consider stopping the group from protesting because of the massive cost to the force. “After the EDL’s protest in Bradford nearly a year ago I wrote to the Home Office suggesting that they could put in controls,” he said.
His proposals including limiting the number of protesters who could come. He questioned why an area that did not want the group to visit should have to put up with the disruption to the community, businesses and expense to the police and local authority. But the response he received from the Home Office was that there was no likelihood of any restrictions.
Calderdale Council estimates the EDL’s last protest in Halifax, on July 9, cost taxpayers more than £140,000 – at least £1 for every adult in the district.
London can’t afford to let the EDL march
Well, that’s the title given to a letter from a number of Labour Party luminaries published in today’s Guardian, which calls for a ban on the planned English Defence League march through Tower Hamlets on 3 September.
This really is a stupid and entirely counterproductive letter. It completely omits any reference to the political objective of the EDL march – namely to intimidate the Muslim community of East London – and opposes the march purely because of the cost of policing it. It seems to have escaped the attention of the signatories that there is no legal basis for imposing a ban on those grounds.
Scottish Defence League to hold static protest in Edinburgh after march banned
Anti-racism groups are mobilising a major counter-protest after the right-wing Scottish Defence League vowed to go ahead with a demonstration in Scotland’s capital despite it being banned by the city council.
Councillors threw out the group’s application last week, claiming they were worried about risking disorder and violent confrontations, despite police saying they had “no objections” to the march.
The SDL, an off-shoot of the anti-Islam English Defence League, is already promoting the planned protest on 10 September. Details of the route and location of any rally are being kept under wraps, after an SDL meeting in a Royal Mile pub in February 2010 was ambushed by dozens of anti-racism protesters, leading to scuffles in the street.
But the SDL has received messages of support from across the UK after announcing some form of demonstration in Edinburgh would go ahead regardless. One post stated: “The march is banned. We are having a static demonstration. And most likely the police will have to march us if they want rid of us.”
The SDL spent weeks negotiating with police and council officials over its planned demo, which was due to leave from Regent Road, near the American consulate, and include a rally at the Wellington Statue at the east end of Princes Street.
Councillors said the threat of a “significant risk” of disorder outweighed concerns about flouting principles of freedom of speech by banning the march. The protest had attracted more than 1,000 complaints from politicians, anti-racism groups, community organisations and trade union leaders, who were concerned the group would trigger racial unrest. SDL representatives told the council the group had distanced itself from more hard-line members and the EDL, but left councillors unconvinced.
Luke Wright is spokesman for the Unite Against Fascism group, which is organising a public meeting in the city tomorrow to rally support for a counter-demo. He said:
“We’ve applied to the council for a counter-demonstration on 10 September after we spotted quite a bit of online activity about the SDL going ahead with a demo despite the council’s decision last week. Despite enormous public opposition including a wave of complaints to the council, and despite political opposition it seems that the SDL still do not understand Edinburgh does not want their violent racism.”
Update here
German anti-racists mobilise against Islamophobia
The self-appointed “crusaders for a Western Christian Civilization” of the racist party “Pro Deutschland” (Pro Germany) intend to stage an “Anti-Islamist Congress” on 27 and 28 August 2011, in Berlin. Civil society protests have already prevented a similar racist congress from being held twice before in Cologne.
The Berlin branch of “Pro Köln” (Pro Cologne) is being used as a platform by former members of the “National Party of Germany” (NPD), the “German People’s Union” (DVU) and the “Republicans”. Out of all places they have chosen Berlin to rally support for a racist campaign intended to stir up hatred against migrants. They are hoping to repeat the election successes of other European right-wing populist parties in the Berlin state elections on 18 September 2011.
Another right-wing populist party called “Die Freiheit” (Freedom) is pursuing the same strategy. They have invited the racists Geert Wilders of “Partij voor de Vrijheid”/Party for Freedom (PVV), from the Netherlands; Oskar Frysinger of “Schweizerische Volkspartei”/Swiss People’s Party (SVP); and Robert Spencer of JihadWatch, USA to speak at their election rally on 03 September 2011, in Berlin.
Zusammen Handeln! (“Act As One! – Against Racist Agitation and Social Marginalization”) calls for protests against these events.