Following on from the One Community advert in Saturday’s Guardian, Lutfur Rahman, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, explains why he supports the call for a ban on the EDL marching through East London on 3 September.
Sign the petition calling on the Home Secretary to ban this march at www.towerhamlets.gov.uk.
As the local elections take place in Norway next month, politicians are said to lead their campaigns in a peaceful fashion after what happened in Utøya Island and at Oslo City Centre last month. However, some go that extra mile and cause further controversy.
Former Chairman of the Progress Party (FrP) Carl I. Hagen, who is running for Oslo Mayor, has continued his series of contentious remarks, saying most terrorists are Muslims, reports NRK.
Releasing his Party’s manifesto in 2005, he was quoted byAftenposten as criticising the foreigners in Norway, branding them as “perpetrators”. Already in 2004 he was censured for his controversial views of Islam, after he alleged that its extreme faction planned to Islamify the world.
Standing by what he said at the time, Mr Hagen tells Aftenpostentoday: “We had seen regular reports about suicide bombers down to 10-years old in the Middle East. What I said was when holding my speech was just a correct description.”
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was first to respond to Hagen’s recent comments, calling them “grotesque”, particularly when the country is still in mourning about Anders Behring Breivik’s twin massacres on July 22.
“The Progress Party has a tendency to talk about Muslims as large groups, giving them the features and characteristics because they are Muslims. Carl I. Hagen is repeating his message. He says that not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost that all terrorists are Muslims. I think it is a grotesque statement. It was then, and is especially today after what we have experienced in Norway.”
According to the Minister of Children, Equality, and Social Inclusion, Audun Lysbakken: “The Progress Party has talked about Islam and Muslims in a way that creates the impression they are a team with specific values and attitudes that do not fit in Norway. It has a responsibility for the attitudes expressed against Muslims in the hours when many thought that Muslims were behind the terror attacks.”
A major charity that tackles racism in schools has been forced to expand its work to combat the growing influence of the English Defence League (EDL), its chief executive has warned.
The EDL, which has organised a series of protests which have turned violent, has become a “significant street force”, according to Ged Grebby from Show Racism the Red Card.
“The rise of Islamophobia combined with organisations like the EDL show we have a real problem in society,” Mr Grebby said. “There’s no doubt some young white people do feel disenfranchised. The EDL has given us a kick up the backside. It has been a focus for young people in particular.”
Show Racism the Red Card, which delivers workshops to schools to tackle racist attitudes, has made a series of films to tackle anti-Muslim sentiments. It now also speaks to children about homophobia and prejudice against asylum-seekers.
The expansion of its work follows a report released by the charity last month, which found that racism is still a “very real issue” in English schools. More than eight out of 10 teachers questioned said they had witnessed racist jokes, name-calling and stereotyping by pupils; 31 per cent said they had witnessed racist attitudes among fellow teachers.
Mr Grebby said teachers needed better training to combat racism, especially anti-Muslim abuse. “On traditional racism teachers are quite confident,” he said. “But when it comes to Islamophobia they are terrified. They worry if it’s an issue they don’t know a lot about, it could make things worse if they tackle it.”
Kevin Carroll addresses the rather thin ranks of the UK’s ‘biggest street movement’
The EDL protest in Telford yesterday passed off relatively peacefully. During the rally itself there were only around half a dozen arrests for offences including possession of offensive weapons, and later three people were arrested for assaulting police officers. Police estimates put the attendance at 300-350 but other accounts suggest that the real figure was much lower.
The Home Secretary Theresa May has this morning banned tomorrow’s planned marches in Wellington in a move that has been welcomed by Telford & Wrekin Council.
The Council had written to the Home Secretary Theresa May requesting the EDL march be banned following a recommendation by West Mercia Police. This request was made under Section 13 of the Public Order Act 1986.
The decision means that all marches including a planned counter Unity march will be banned from taking place in Telford and Wrekin. It is however expected that the English Defence League will still carry out a static demonstration in Wellington tomorrow, which West Mercia Police has decided will take place in Church Street.
Councillor Shaun Davies, cabinet member for Community Cohesion, said: “We welcome the fact that the Home Secretary has approved our request for the marches to be banned. However, there will still be a significant multi-agency operation in Wellington tomorrow in anticipation of a static protest. Telford & Wrekin Council and West Mercia Police have worked very closely over the past few weeks to develop a comprehensive plan for before, during and after the event.
“People can be reassured that both organisations have the resources available and the experience to deal with any incidents on the day. We have also worked very closely with local residents and the business community in Wellington and we would like to thank them for their support. Telford & Wrekin Council has always said that it does not want this to take place in the borough.”
Chief Inspector Keith Gee of West Mercia Police said: “Even though the Home Secretary has given her consent it does not prevent any static assemblies taking place, which are still lawful provided they remain peaceful, and we have no legal powers to prevent them. We shall do everything possible to ensure that any assembly on Saturday remains peaceful and poses the least amount of disruption possible for those not involved in the assembly.”
Shropshire Live, 12 August 2011
See also Independent, 12 August 2011
The usual objection from anti-fascists to bans on EDL marches is that the police escort them from their assembly point to the place where they are holding their static protest, so the EDL get to have a march anyway. I admit to unfamiliarity with the topography of Telford, and have had to resort to google maps, but it appears that the EDL coaches will park in Ten Tree Croft car park and then the demonstrators will cross over into Church Street where they will hold their rally (in the park, presumably). If so, it won’t be much of a march. And they will be kept north of the railway line, outside the town centre.
Prime minister Mark Rutte on Friday condemned Geert Wilders, leader of the coalition’s PVV alliance partner, for describing mosques as “palaces of hate”.
Wilders used the term in an interview with the Telegraaf newspaper shortly after the Norwegian shootings. Rutte told a news conference that Wilders’ comment was “terrible” and went too far. It was an extremely inappropriate remark, the PM said.
The PVV leader was mentioned 30 times in the manifesto left behind by gunman Anders Breivik. In the interview, Wilders said the left is out to demonise him by trying to connect him to shootings.
Rutte told reporters it is wrong to try to connect Wilders to the shootings. And while calling for the debate to be carried out with respect, he said he had no intention of limiting anyone’s right to say what they want. “Every bird sings its own tune,” Rutte said.
Considering that Wilders made this disgraceful comment nearly two weeks ago, and that Rutte has been under pressure ever since to condemn it, you can only say – about time too.
A minister at Ely Cathedral has voiced his concerns over people’s attitude towards Muslims.
Alan Hargrave, Canon Missioner at the cathedral, is urging people of all religions to be more open-minded when it comes to Muslims wanting to build a small mosque in the city. Speaking in this month’s Ely Cathedral Newsletter, Canon Hargrave says people should be willing for Ely to be a multi-faith society.
His views come just weeks after the English Defence League (EDL) threatened to stage a protest in the city to fight plans to build the Muslim prayer centre.
Canon Hargrave said: “The reports about a possible EDL march in Ely are deeply disturbing. Muslims, along with Christians and Jews, have always been one of the great Abrahamic faiths, who share much in common. Over the centuries, for the most part, the three faiths have lived together relatively peacefully.
“If we oppose their building a place of worship, they will not go away and we will merely build the sort of tensions, fears and hatred that have fuelled the extremism we have witnessed in recent years – among Christians as well as Muslims. Freedom of worship is something we enjoy in our democracy – indeed it is central to it and something we ought to defend at all costs.”
Members of the Ely Muslims group announced they wanted to build a “miniature mosque” in Ely in February. The management committee of the Paradise Centre had told them they would lease them part of its land, along New Barns Road, if they gained planning permission to build the prayer centre.
The group currently has around 50 members who gather inside the Paradise Centre on Fridays.
‘A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles’, a Chinese saying goes. ‘Wilders is not responsible for what Breivik did but words count for something and politicians should be aware of it.’
This was my reaction when I was asked whether Geert Wilders was in any way responsible for the attack in Oslo in which 7 people were killed and the massacre on Utoya where 69 young social democrats lost their lives, slaughtered by a man whose writings show he was inspired by right wing anti-Islam ideology. We must ask how this could have happened so we can do our utmost to make sure it never happens again….
What does it do to people who increasingly are born in this country when it is drummed into them that their efforts to help build a society counts for nothing because their faith is a totalitarian ideology which is completely alien to Western society? And what about those who are starting to believe that this is true and that this ideology is bent on destroying our society? …
My call to moderate our tone is not meant to avoid debate but to engage in it openly and with mutual respect.
Dutch Labour party leader Job Cohen writes in Volkskrant.
Translation by Dutch News.
Two campaign workers for the xenophobic Pro Deutschland party threatened and harassed a Lebanese man in the district of Steglitz on Wednesday, then attacked a plain-clothes policeman who tried to intervene.
The campaign workers, aged 42 and 50, were hanging campaign posters showing a mosque with a red line through it and a slogan urging people to support the ideas of Thilo Sarrazin, the former central banker and Berlin finance minister who has notoriously claimed Muslim immigrants are making Germany dumber.
A 32-year-old Lebanese man remonstrated with them over the message and their motives. The 42-year-old campaign worker then grabbed a hammer and threatened to “beat to death” the Lebanese man, police say.
A plain-clothes policeman who saw the confrontation from his car called for backup and then intervened, whereupon the 50-year-old attacked him with pepperspray.
Members of the English Defence League (EDL) have claimed that they patrolled the streets of Cambridge to prevent “rioting”. They say they “cleared” Mill Road of up to 100 people – but traders say the group was unwelcome and there was no sign of any violent disorder erupting.
About a dozen members of the Cambridge division of the EDL marched down the road on Tuesday night chanting: “These are our streets; you are not going to wreck them” and “EDL, EDL”.
A member of the EDL, who did not wish to be named, said: “We cleared 100 people from Mill Road without any violence. We don’t want rioters on our streets and we went to Mill Road to stop them. We chanted and patrolled the road and moved on one group of about 50 and another about the same number. We have the right to protect the community. We were there from about 9.30pm to 11.30pm to stop any rioters.”
Foudil Rerizani, owner of Algerian restaurant Al Casbah in Mill Road, was confronted by the group. He said: “There was a group of about 10 or so people who were very loud and aggressive shouting ‘EDL, EDL’. They looked at me and said ‘You are open tonight, you won’t be tomorrow’. They weren’t stopping anyone from rioting. There was no-one on the street who was rioting. It’s total rubbish.”