Category Archives: Far right racists

Telford: police concede demands for EDL march ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

West Mercia Police this morning made a recommendation to Telford & Wrekin Council to make an application to the Home Secretary Theresa May to ban the EDL march that is planned for Saturday. The march could be banned under Section 13 of the Public Order Act 1986. A decision – which would prevent any marches taking place – is expected later today.

Speaking about the latest developments, Assistant Chief Constable Simon Chesterman, from West Mercia Police, said: “Although a ban may now be imposed, we would ask people to remember that this ban does not prevent an assembly taking place on Saturday in Wellington.

“With that being the case, West Mercia Police continue to plan for a major operation at the weekend and we would like to reassure local people that a significant police presence will be on duty all day. We will have the resources available to deal with every likely eventuality.”

Council leader Kuldip Sahota said: “We have now begun the formal legal process to apply to the Home Secretary for a ban on all marches in the borough of Telford and Wrekin. This includes the planned English Defence League march and any counter demonstrations.

“The Council’s position has always been that we do not want the EDL march to take place in our borough and I said that publicly at the Full Meeting of Council on July 28. We have now received new advice from West Mercia Police and are writing to the Home Secretary formally requesting all marches be banned and that West Mercia Police are provided with the necessary additional resources in order to keep the peace.

“We believe the march could pose a threat to public safety, given the riots elsewhere in England and are calling on the Home Secretary to use her powers to ban the march. We have also been working extremely closely with the local community in Wellington and Telford at large and the vast majority do not want this march to go ahead.”

Shropshire Live, 11 March 2011

No doubt reports like this and this helped to convince West Mercia Police to change their position on the EDL march.

If the EDL do go ahead with a static protest, the police should be urged to use their powers under Section 14 of the Public Order Act to contain and restrict it, as was done in Dewsbury recently.

The anti-EDL unity demonstration will also be restricted to a static assembly if Theresa May agrees to impose a ban, but that seems a small price to pay if the EDL can be prevented from holding an intimidatory march through Wellington.

Telford: council calls for ban on EDL march, police claim there are ‘insufficient grounds’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

English Defence League ProtestTelford & Wrekin Council has called for the planned English Defence League march in Wellington on Saturday to be cancelled.

Council leader Kuldip Sahota said: “The overwhelming voice from the community in Telford – and in particular in Wellington – is that people do not want this march in our town. The council believes the march should not go ahead. We are in an environment now where there has been widespread violence elsewhere and we simply feel they should cancel the march.

“We do understand and appreciate the very difficult position that the police are in but as community leaders we have a duty to listen to our residents and protect their properties and businesses. It is therefore our belief that the march should be cancelled.”

Assistant Chief Constable Simon Chesterman, of West Mercia Police, said:

“The police overall strategic intention is ‘To work with Telford & Wrekin Council, other agencies, protest organisers and communities to ensure public safety including the safety of those people attending any protest and the football match’. The police have a duty to protect life and property and facilitate peaceful protest.

“Legal powers to seek a banning order are set out in the Public Order Act and any application for a ban would have to be within the confines of the legislation. There are insufficient grounds upon which to seek a banning order at this time.”

A number of business in Wellington are set to close at lunchtime on Saturday before the start of the march. Several have also taken the decision to board up their shop fronts. Frozen food retailer Iceland said their Wellington store would stop selling alcohol on Friday until after the march.

Shropshire Live, 10 August 2011

West Mercia Police have stated that they will impose restrictions on the EDL march under Section 12 of the Public Order Act. But Section 13 allows for the police to apply for a complete ban if “the powers under section 12 will not be sufficient to prevent the holding of public processions … resulting in serious public disorder”.

Presumably the police are arguing that there is no threat of serious public disorder. Yet the fact that shops are boarding up their windows and closing down in advance of the EDL march is surely a good indication that it does pose such a threat.

According to Nick Lowles of Searchlight, the police are even unwilling to apply for a ban on the EDL march in Tower Hamlets on 3 September.

Germany’s far right campaigns with xenophobic election posters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Berlin election posters

Germany’s extreme right-wing Nationalist Democratic Party (NPD) is using xenophobic election posters in its campaign for the Sept. 18 Berlin state elections.

One of the election posters that went up over the weekend has the words, “Have a nice journey to your home country”, with cartoon drawings of a woman with a headscarf, a man with a turban and a black man. A similar poster were used in earlier campaigns.

Another poster, portraying NPD Chairman Udo Voigt sitting on a motorcycle with the text “Give gas”, was reminiscent of the Nazi gas chambers and triggered outrage from many politicians.

An Internet site was also published in preparation for the far-right political party’s campaign. A video on its homepage shows a woman with a headscarf and the Turkish flag with the words: “We Germans have become foreigners in our own neighborhoods. How much more will we tolerate?”

Meanwhile, another political group named “Bürgerbewegung Pro Deutschland” is using center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) member and former member of the executive board of the Deutsche Bundesbank Thilo Sarrazin’s racist comments about Muslim immigrants living in Germany in its posters.

Today’s Zaman, 8 August 2011

Update:  Berliner Morgenpost reports that the Berlin District Court has issued a ruling prohibiting Pro Deutschland from using Sarrazin’s name on their poster.

Muslim Canadian Congress joins Jewish Defence League to fight Islamic prayers in Toronto schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Toronto Stop Islamic Infiltration placardSome Muslim parents fear a handful of Toronto imams are turning their children into young radicals during Friday prayer services at some public schools.

“Who are these imams and what are their qualifications,” asked Sohail Raza, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress. “I am extremely concerned about what they are teaching our kids.” Raza was among 300 people who demonstrated outside the Toronto District School Board, on Yonge St., on Monday night.

Continue reading →

Thugs who attacked Muslims and kicked over Qur’ans following EDL pro-Israel rally get two-week curfew

Posted on by Bob Pitt
Bryan Kelso with Kevin Carroll

Bryan Kelso with Kevin Carroll

English Defence League (EDL) members who kicked over Korans and traded punches with Muslims in Speakers’ Corner have been sentenced to a fortnight’s curfew.

Three men admitted public order offences at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday, August 3. Full-time carer Christopher Long, who lived in Kent Way, Surbiton, at the time of his arrest, held his head in his hands as prosecutor Eleanor Mawrey described the fight on October 24 last year.

Long, Brian Bristow and Bryan Kelso had attended a rally outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington, which ended in a confrontation between EDL members and anti-fascist campaigners in Hyde Park.

Continue reading →

Telford: unity march against racist EDL, Saturday 13 August

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Antiracists, trade unionists, football fans and people from across Telford’s diverse community will march agaisnt the racist English Defence League in the town on Saturday 13 August.

The EDL, an organisation of racist and fascist thugs, is coming to Telford as part of a “summer of hate”, aimed at stirring up racism against Muslims.

People from across Telford’s diverse community are determined to show their unity and make their opposition to the EDL clear. The anti-EDL unity demo – called by the local UAF branch and the trades council – assembles at Nailers Row car park at 1.15pm on Saturday 13 August for a rally before the march moves off at 2.15pm.

An inspiring public meeting of more than 200 people in the Wellington area on Monday showed the strength of feeling against the EDL.

Trade unionists, pensioners, people from different faith groups and others came together to discuss building the demo against the EDL. Representatives from the PCS, CWU, Unison and Unite unions were present, along with a number of football fans and the chair of AFC Telford United.

Then around 50 local taxi drivers turned up at the meeting. The drivers, many of them Asian, said they were discussing the possibilty of going on strike on the day of the demo. ‘The Edl is not welcome here’ said one.

They were soon joined by around 100 local young people from Wellington, lifting the atmosphere as everyone was buoyed up by a feeling of unity and determination against the EDL.

Organisers hope the size, breadth and feeling of solidarity at the meeting will translate into a great unity demo against the EDL on Saturday 13 August.

UAF news report, 7 August 2011

Another setback in the struggle against the Islamisation of Australia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ban the burqa idiotFollowing on from the Australian Defence League’s flop in Sydney last weekend, another “ban the burqa” protest was held yesterday in Brisbane.

Organised by the Australian Patriots Defence Movement, an organisation that claims affiliation to the EDL and was launched following the broadcast of the TV documentary The Great Divide, the demonstration managed to attract 20 supporters, who were heavily outnumbered by counter-protestors.

See “Anti-racist rally confronts bigots”, Direct Action, 6 August 2011

And “Anti-racists confront far right rally”, Green Left Weekly, 6 August 2011

Update:  Apparently undeterred by the minimal support for Saturday’s protest, the APDM intend to hold a further “ban the burqa” demonstration in Brisbane on 27 August.

BNP sacks Nazi-saluting member … and smears Muslim community

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sun BNP Hitler saluteNazi thug Chris Hurst was booted out of the BNP yesterday after The Sun told how he gave Hitler salutes at a fascist rally. But incredibly, the far-right party tried to play down his shameful behaviour by spouting more racist bile.

Spokesman Simon Darby said: “He has been silly but he has not been caught dealing drugs or prostituting with underage girls, like some in the Islamic community.”

Sun, 5 August 2011

Roberta Moore says journalists like Andrew Gilligan ‘deserve our respect’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Andrew-GilliganWe’ve been a bit remiss in not covering recent developments in the English Defence League.

Just to bring you up to speed, if you haven’t been following this, the EDL leadership have broken links with their millionaire financial backer Alan Lake following an Observer exposé of Lake that quoted his notorious article proposing the future execution of pro-Islamic “appeasers” like David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Jewish division of the EDL have since come out in support of Lake – and of the EDL’s Combined Ex-Forces (CxF) group who have also been expelled following an attack on a Plymouth kebab shop.

While scrolling through the discussion forum on Lake’s 4 Freedoms website in search of further information on these splits, one thing that caught my eye was an exchange earlier this week between a Paul Collings and one “Morrigan Emaleth” – a pseudonym used by former EDL Jewish division leader Roberta Moore.

Objecting to the way journalists have been pursuing Lake, Collingswrites: “when you think of the news storys they could report on, like the erosion of our freedoms, the deaths of child suicide bombers, the creation of muslim enclaves around europe. These are things they should, but are to scared to report on, so they instead chase their own tails. The media gives us with nothing but half truths and lies to read. All we,re left with is a choise of which lie to believe. Its hard to call them journalists.”

To which Emaleth/Moore replies: “Paul, There must be a very sinister reason why they are not reporting this. On the other hand I take my hat off to Andrew Gilligham and co. They report it. They deserve our respect.”

In view of the considerable assistance given by Andrew Gilligan to the cause of furthering far-right anti-Muslim hatred, you might have thought Moore would at least make the effort to spell his name correctly. It’s also a bit unfair not to mention the other journalists who are worthy of the “respect” of this vile Islamophobic bigot and her co-thinkers. Surely Martin Bright deserves a name-check too?