Category Archives: Far right racists

Over half of Dutch say Wilders’ anti-Islamic rhetoric is fine

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A majority of Dutch believe that Geert Wilders, the anti-immigration politician much admired by Norway’s mass murderer, does not need to tone down his inflammatory anti-Islamic comments, a poll on Friday showed.

The Norwegian gunman, Anders Behring Breivik, reproduced anti-Islamic comments that Wilders made to the Dutch parliament and expressed his admiration of the Dutch politician in his 1,500-page manifesto.

Polling firm Maurice de Hond said on Friday that 52 percent of those surveyed thought Wilders did not need to moderate his stance on the supposed “Islamisation of Europe” in the wake of the Norway killings, while 44 percent said Wilders should tone it down.

In the opinion poll published on Friday, 29 percent of those questioned said they supported the Freedom Party’s approach to Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands, more than those who agreed on the issue with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats combined.

Reuters, 29 July 2011

FN member defends Norway attacker

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A member of the Front National has been suspended for defending the work of the Oslo attacker, who killed 76 people on Friday.

Jacques Coutela, who represented the far-right party in local elections in the Yonne earlier this year, wrote a blog post describing Anders Behring Breivik as “an icon” and a “defender of the west”.

The post, which has since been deleted, said: “The reason for the Norway terror attacks: fighting the Muslim invasion, that’s what people don’t want you to know.”

Anti-racism movement MRAP has filed a complaint against Mr Coutela for inciting racial hatred.

However, FN leader Marine Le Pen has accused MRAP of “taking advantage of a terrible event” to target her party. She said: “The Front National of course has nothing to do to the Norwegian slaughter, which is the work of a lone lunatic who must be ruthlessly punished.”

Another Front National member, Laurent Ozon, posted comments on Twitter this weekend linking the attacks to a rise in immigration in Norway.

The Connexion, 27 July 2011

Lutfur Rahman joins calls to Home Secretary to ban EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets has tonight formally called on the Home Secretary to ban a proposed march through London’s East End by the English Defence League.

Lutfur Rahman has written to Theresa May urging police to use their powers to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel on September 3, adding yet more weight to calls for a ban from MPs, councillors, London Assembly figures and church leaders.

“The EDL has a history of provocative marches in areas with large Muslim populations,” he said in a Town Hall statement. “They relish the opportunity to reap division on one of the most diverse communities in Britain and turning residents against one another.”

Mr Rahman claimed efforts to keep the EDL out “have not been helped by a handful of politicians and bloggers stoking the flames, seeking to paint Tower Hamlets as an ‘Islamic republic’ and its mayor as a ‘fundamentalist sympathiser’.”

He is speaking at a rally tomorrow evening at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel, calling for the EDL march to be stopped.

The mayor is joined on the platform by politicians of all parties and church leaders including the new Bishop of Stepney in his first public role since his inauguration last Friday. Anti-fascist campaigners from Norway are also flying to London to speak at the rally.

East End Advertiser, 28 July 2011

Update:  See also “EDL’s online links with Norway killer fuel calls to ban London march”, Guardian, 29 July 2011

FN member defends Norway attacker

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A member of the Front National has been suspended for defending the work of the Oslo attacker, who killed 76 people on Friday.

Jacques Coutela, who represented the far-right party in local elections in the Yonne earlier this year, wrote a blog post describing Anders Behring Breivik as “an icon” and a “defender of the west”.

The post, which has since been deleted, said: “The reason for the Norway terror attacks: fighting the Muslim invasion, that’s what people don’t want you to know.”

Anti-racism movement MRAP has filed a complaint against Mr Coutela for inciting racial hatred.

However, FN leader Marine Le Pen has accused MRAP of “taking advantage of a terrible event” to target her party. She said: “The Front National of course has nothing to do to the Norwegian slaughter, which is the work of a lone lunatic who must be ruthlessly punished.”

Another Front National member, Laurent Ozon, posted comments on Twitter this weekend linking the attacks to a rise in immigration in Norway.

The Connexion, 27 July 2011

Police probe EDL death threat to George Galloway

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daryl Hobson with Stephen LennonA death threat to George Galloway is being investigated by police in London. Mr Galloway asked the Metropolitan Police to investigate after a threat was posted online by a member of the far-right English Defence League (EDL).

He contacted the police at Streatham near his south London home after a senior EDL member Daryl Hobson [pictured, with EDL leader Stephen Lennon], who has boasted of the group’s links with Norwegian killer Anders Breivik, posted a message reading “Kill George Galloway” on his own Facebook page. Mr Hobson, who organises EDL demonstrations, encouraged others to add comments. One claimed he would kill the controversial former MP.

Mr Galloway said: “This is a clear incitement to murder me and I have passed on, through my lawyer, my complaint to the Metropolitan Police. Hobson admits that the crypto-fascist EDL have had extensive links with Breivik so I would be mad not to take this threat seriously. I have, in the past, been attacked at a meeting by EDL thugs. But they will not silence me or anyone else campaigning against their vile, violent, racist methods.”

Officers from Streatham Police office visited Mr Galloway’s home yesterday and have arranged to interview him today. A Met spokesman confirmed that officers were investigating the internet threat.

The Herald, 28 July 2011

Update:  The EDL have issued a statement. Daryl Hobson is not and never was a senior member of the EDL, Stephen Lennon hasn’t a clue who he is, and he’s now been expelled.

Blame multiculturalism, mass immigration and Islamisation for Norway terrorist attacks, says Sweden Democrat politician

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sweden Democrat Erik Hellsborn has written on his blog that the twin attacks in Norway are the fault of “mass immigration” and “Islamisation”, denying that he feels any shame for sharing the same views as the perpetrator.

“If there hadn’t been any Islamisation or mass immigration then there wouldn’t have been anything to trigger Behring Breivik to do what he did,” wrote Hellsborn, who represents the party in Varberg in western Sweden.

“The ultimate responsibility is with the perpetrator, but if you are to discuss the underlying reasons which motivated him then it was caused by multiculturalism,” Hellsborn explained to the local Hallands Nyheter daily.

Hellsborn furthermore writes that he feels no shame or guilt that he and Anders Behring Breivik share the same nationalist ideology. Those who should feel guilt are those he calls “cosmopolitans” and argues that “in a Norwegian Norway this tragedy would never have happened”.

The political agenda detailed in Anders Behring Breivik’s “manifesto” bears striking similarity to the ideology professed by the Sweden Democrats and when asked if the the party should shoulder some responsibility, Hellsborn replied:

“No, Breivik is a product of the multicultural society. If Europe had not become multicultural then the shootings would not have happened.”

The Local, 26 July 2011

Dutch debate Wilders’ responsibility for Norway terrorist attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders extremistDiscussion has started in the Netherlands about the influence Geert Wilders had on the Norwegian bomber Anders Beyring Breivik, since he praises the Dutch anti-Islam politician 30 times in his manifesto. Whether it’s fear of polarisation or political correctness, Dutch political parties seem to be inclined to protect Wilders.

Democrat MP Boris van der Ham called it an “idiotic reflex” to link Wilders with the massacre, while Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer said it was unwise to point the finger at Wilders. “If a murderer quotes me tomorrow does that make me responsible too?” he asked.

Historian Dirk-Jan van Baar has an answer to that: “I would say Wilders is not legally guilty. But as a politician he must be perfectly aware that there is such a thing as political responsibility. And he would undoubtedly have pointed that out if the killer had been a Muslim.”

Freedom Party leader Wilders can hardly be said to have kept a low profile in recent years when it comes to, say, hate-preaching imams and their effect on Muslim terrorists. He has also had harsh words to say about the Norwegian Labour Party, which was the target of the attacks. In a speech he gave in Rome in March this year, Wilders accused left-wing multiculturalists of cheering at every new sharia court or mosque. He claimed Europe would fall if it was stupid enough to believe that all cultures were equally valid and there was no reason to fight for its own culture.

On 1 May – Labour Day – he sent a tweet directed at Dutch Labour Party leader Job Cohen: “Congratulations, Job, on the 65th anniversary of the Arab Party. You gave the Netherlands mass immigration and imported countless no-hopers and criminals.”

On Tuesday Geert Wilders announced that he was “repulsed” by Breivik and that the violent actions of a psychopath were “a slap in the face for the worldwide anti-Islam movement”. Job Cohen welcomed Wilders’ statement but also had a comment:

“Wilders has now distanced himself, but I think it’s good to realise that your words do have an effect – and that goes for all politicians including Wilders. They can influence people and play a role in all kinds of ways. There is no way Wilders can be held responsible for this in any sense, but he [Breivik] uses the same rhetoric as Wilders does.”

Wilders rejects all attempts to link his ideology and that of Breivik. He claims the left is trying to make political capital out of the tragedy. However, speaking in parliament, he has himself linked remarks by his political opponents with potential terrorist attacks.

Green Left MP Tofik Dibi has now requested a parliamentary debate with Prime Minister Mark Rutte about xenophobia in the Netherlands. He believes the Freedom Party is largely responsible for channelling resentments in the Netherlands and he wants to discuss the similarities between Breivik’s ideas and attitudes which are prevalent in the Netherlands, for instance in Freedom Party circles.

RNW, 27 July 2011

‘Counter-jihadism’ and terrorist violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the wake of the attacks, Fjordman, Geller, and other prominent counter-jihadists have condemned Breivik’s actions and argued that they have never condoned violence. However, their dystopian fantasy world – in which the white Christian martyrs of Eurabia are constantly subjected to rape and murder at the hands of bloodthirsty Muslims – clearly provided what former CIA officer Marc Sageman has described in The New York Times as “the infrastructure from which Breivik emerged”.

Øyvind Strømmen analyses Anders Breivik’s roots in the “counter-jihad” movement.

Foreign Affairs, 27 July 2011