Geert Wilders trial on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination will continue in front of the same judges, a special panel at the Amsterdam court said on Monday, rejecting calls for them to be dismissed.
On Friday, Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz called for the judges to be dismissed for refusing to investigate a witness for possible perjury.
Up to 50 officers were policing the protest in Halifax town centre on Saturday afternoon but, as trouble escalated, around 150 more officers had to be quickly brought in.
Roads into Halifax were closed and as chanting protesters roamed the streets police urged businesses to close immediately and lock doors. Terrified shoppers went home while others sought safety behind the locked doors of town centre businesses. Acting Superintendent Martin Lister said later a “minority seemed intent on causing disorder”.
Members of the Far-Right protest group broke away from the Bull Green area where police attempted to contain them. Police on horseback and others with batons drawn prevented breakaway EDL members from leaving the town during confrontations which lasted around six hours. Fourteen men, mostly EDL supporters, were arrested for public order offences.
Police said the EDL protest involved around 150 people and a separate protest by the Muslim Defence League, which centred on People’s Park, attracted around 50. Shoppers and those gathered to watch the afternoon’s FA Cup football left for home as large groups of EDL members and police took over the Bull Green area.
Teacher Beth Harvey, 22, said: “I was having coffee in a cafe when, on police advice, the owners locked the door and brought all the street furniture in from outside. It was nerve-wracking. We were locked in for about half an hour and nobody else was allowed in. I decided to go home as quickly as possible because things were turning ugly. As I walked back to the car they were chanting and shouting and I didn’t know what they might do.”
The BNP has been reported to the Electoral Commission over a campaign leaflet that falsely claims there are more Muslims in the UK than Scots.
A pamphlet was put through letterboxes across Scotland which said the BNP would put an end to mosque-building and warning of a “flood” of Eastern European immigrants about to arrive in Scotland.
Campaign group, Hope Not Hate, has reported the party over its claims. There are an estimated 2.4 million Muslims in Britain and more than five million people in Scotland alone, 89% of whom declared themselves Scottish in the last census.
Aamer Anwar, human rights lawyer, said Muslims could be intimidated by the leaflets and they should call the police if they felt threatened. He said: “This could be considered breach of the peace. It’s racist nonsense which is totally inaccurate and trying to play on people’s fears.”
BNP Scottish organiser Gary Raikes said the leaflets were checked before going out and questioned whether the UK’s Muslim population had been accurately measured.
A leading anti-fascist campaigner has slammed a racist leaflet delivered to homes in Millom. The leaflet refers to the Muslim burka, a veiled dress traditionally worn by women, as a “black crow like tent” and describes the British Government as “treacherous”.
Paul Jenkins, chairman of Unite Against Fascism north west, said: “Whoever is getting this sort of thing out there is completely unacceptable. In the same way in the 1930s Hitler’s Nazis targeted Jews, now far right groups and others are trying to scapegoat Muslims. Muslims are not to blame for the cuts or other problems. Our communities are better united than divided.”
Sergeant Ashley Bennett of Copeland Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “We have been made aware of several leaflets being posted through doors in the Millom area over the last week. They read like they have been written by a person of Islamic faith however upon closer examination they appear to be spoof in nature.
“They have clearly been done on somebody’s word processor as they have not been professionally published and printed. That said we take all forms of racism very seriously and are investigating the matter.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 0845 3300247.
The Hague council on Thursday rejected a Freedom Party proposal to ban the construction of new mosques in the city.
All parties fiercely rejected the proposal which they branded as discriminatory because the Freedom Party is not opposed to the construction of new places of worship of other religions.
Green Left leader Inge Vianen said: “They are guilty of discrimination when they suggest that the council should assist all religious people in finding a suitable place of worship except Muslims.” The Green Left politician added that “the fact that this type of statement is increasingly considered normal, does nothing to change that”.
The local party Islam Democrats said if felt discriminated against and the Hague City Party (HSP) spoke of a “provocation, pure and simple”.
Alderman Marnix Norder (Diversity) called the Freedom Party proposal “completely unacceptable”. The Freedom Party proposal was prompted by a letter from the Mayor and aldermen proposing an expansion of the number of places of worship in The Hague in the coming 10 years.
Lena Andreassen of the Norwegian Defence League addresses the masses
The failure of far-right Islamophobes in Norway to build a united organisation modelled on the EDL is covered in this month’s issue of Searchlight. And now Exposing the English Defence League has drawn our attention to a demonstration against the “Islamic occupation of Norway” organised in Oslo on 9 April by the EDL’s official sister organisation, headed by one Lena Andreassen. As Andreassen explained to Aftenposten, that specific date was chosen to mark the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, in order to draw a parallel between the occupation of the country by the Nazis and the current supposed invasion by “extreme Islam”.
Alas for Andreassen, her Oslo protest turned out to be a farce. It drew between 10 and 15 participants, one of whom was Darren Lee of the EDL, and was reported in Dagbladet under the mocking headline “Søren, det er jo flere pressefolk her enn oss” (translated by Exposing as “Bugger! There’s more journos here than us!”). An anti-racist counter-demonstration, by contrast, was attended by between 700 and a thousand people.
EDL representative Darren Lee speaking at the Oslo demonstration
Anti-racists demonstrate against the Norwegian Defence League
Infighting wrecks attempts to form Norwegian Defence League
Searchlight, April 2011
By a special correspondent in Oslo
ATTEMPTS TO create a Norwegian version of the English Defence League have run into trouble. Far-right activists clearly thought that what seems to work in England would also succeed in Norway. Instead several factions and aspiring leaders have set up nine different Facebook groups, three with only one member, all claiming to be the true Norwegian Defence League.
The first attempt at doing more than creating a Facebook group came from Åge Strern Sundvor, a long-time loner on the extreme right who has tried to set up several mass movements and churches on the internet, all of which ended up with him and his dog, Garm, as the only members.
After securing the backing of the nazi group Vigrid, Sundvor called for a demonstration in Oslo on 26 February. Anti-racists responded by applying for a demonstration permit and took over the venue of the planned NDL stunt.
Another attempt at forming a Norwegian Defence League came from Ronny Alte from Tensberg, who with some friends created a Facebook group of more than 500 members, including convicted nazis and exiled Russians belonging to the banned Slavic Union.
One of the Russians is Vjoteslav Datsik, who earned his 15 minutes of fame last year when he walked into an Oslo police station and applied for political asylum while waving a handgun. Datsik is in custody awaiting extradition to Russia, where he is wanted by the police after absconding from a mental hospital.
After claiming to have thrown out all the nazis, Alte had difficulty explaining why his group still included Datsik, as well as the convicted nazi bank robber Werner Holm and violent nazi thugs such as Johnny “Light” Olsen”, Morten Andre Serensen and Dariusz Arnesen, all previously connected with the now defunct Norwegian Blood and Honour.
In western Norway, Remi Huseby from Haugesund sounded unconvincing when urging the followers of his NDL to support Israel, bearing in mind his past connection with the rabidly antisemitic Vigrid group. His fellow trade unionists were even less impressed and kicked him out of the Norwegian Transport Union.
Lena Andreassen from Oslo did better. Formerly connected with the circles around the defunct nazi Bootboys group, Andreassen has paid several visits to the EDL in Britain. Alte and Huseby stepped down after Andreassen produced a letter signed by Hel Gower, the personal assistant of the EDL leaders, stating that the EDL had chosen Andreassen’s faction to form a Norwegian sister organisation. The letter also appointed Andreassen’s friend Havar Krane to lead the NDL pending an election.
After this slap in the face, the Sundvor faction closed down its website, urging all its followers to join Stop Islamisation of Norway. Several leading SIAN members have joined Andreassen’s NDL at the same time as giving support to Huseby’s efforts to have his trade union expulsion lifted.
Krane and Andreassen also claim to throw out nazis and run a background check on everyone trying to join their latest Facebook version of the NDL, but this is a lie. The NDL’s “non-racist” alibi, Jon Rosenberg Hagen, a freelance photographer who was adopted from Korea, has been seen hanging out with the Slavic Union. As Hagen is allegedly responsible for security in the NDL, he might have a problem with his credibility.
Unluckily for him, his Russian nazi friend, Evgenij Dyakonov, has published a picture of himself in a friendly pose with Hagen in a restaurant. Dyakonov also poses as a journalist and has been seen around Oslo with his camera, most recently when he ended up in a brawl with anti-racist protesters outside a nazi tattoo studio.
With SIAN activists joining the NDL and activists from the different NDL factions flowing into SIAN, the stage is set for even more vicious skirmishes, even in SIAN whose leader, Arne Tumyr, is considered too old and soft by some of its younger members.
MP Geert Wilders’ defence asked the district court in Amsterdam on Friday to prosecute Islam expert Bertus Hendriks for perjury. When the court refused this demand, the defence asked for the judges to be replaced.
Bram Moszkowicz, Wilders’ lawyer, wanted an investigation of perjury launched against Hendriks. The lawyer stated that Hendriks made a statement as witness in the case on Friday morning that was in conflict with an earlier commentary that he gave in De Pers newspaper on the now notorious “dinner” on 3 May 2010.
A dinner club met on 3 May last year, of which Hendriks was a member. Fellow Islam expert Hans Jansen was also invited to it. Jansen already appeared on Thursday as a court witness and stated that Judge Tom Schalken tried to convince him at the dinner table that Wilders must be convicted.
Hendriks was the person who invited Jansen to the dinner. “That he was an expert witness in the case seemed interesting to us,” Hendriks said earlier in De Pers. But on Friday, he said in the court that there was no connection whatever with the Wilders case.
Hendriks thereby committed perjury, said Moszkowicz. But the court rejected this request to launch an investigation. The lawyer then asked for the judges to be replaced for alleged bias.
Moszkowicz earlier already requested for new judges twice. He failed once but got his way the second time. It was still unclear on Friday evening whether the new request would be honoured.
Police say they are continuing to investigate an incident in which the alleged burning of a Koran was filmed.
Officers are to pursue “further lines of inquiry” following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service before reaching a decision about charges. South Wales Police said this would “take some time to complete”.
Sion Owens, a BNP candidate for the Welsh assembly election who was accused of being filmed burning the Koran, had a case against him withdrawn on Monday.
Police said in a statement on Friday they were “continuing to investigate the incident” and were “consulting with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) while this work is ongoing”.
“Advice received from the CPS today has identified further lines of inquiry which will be pursued before a decision regarding any charges is reached and these will now take some time to complete,” the statement continued. “We remain grateful for the support of our communities, while the work of investigating these allegations continues.”
Mr Owens, 41, from Bonymaen, Swansea, was charged with a public order offence on Saturday. When he appeared at Swansea Magistrates’ Court, the CPS said it was withdrawing the case against him. It said at the time investigations would continue and that “almost certainly other proceedings will ensue”.
Joanne Shannon, another BNP candidate also arrested in connection with the incident, had already been released on police bail.
“The burka and the niqab should be banned in Britain. They are a barrier to integration, a statement of hostility to the host country. Poor women who have been brainwashed into hiding their faces are victims, not martyrs. The burka is a not a sign of religion, but of subservience.”
Allison Pearson in the Daily Telegraph, 14 April 2011
Still, at least we’re spared references to Muslim women “wearing nose-bags over their faces” or to Pearson’s sense of “burkha rage” against veiled women who are “taking the mickey out of our country and its tolerant ways”, or her more general complaint that Britain has done “too much” to “accommodate its immigrant groups”.
Update: The EDL are impressed by the article: “Allison Pearson seems to have started to understand the nature of the 7th century Islam that has taken hold in our towns and cities”.
Further update: See also ENGAGE, 15 April 2011
Fears are mounting over a march through Weymouth by the right-wing English Defence League protesting at Islamic extremism.
The newly-formed Weymouth branch of the group organised the march following a TV programme that showed Islamic extremists on the streets of the town. They will be undertaking the protest in Weymouth on Saturday, April 30 at 1pm to protest the “entrapment of the youth of Weymouth by extremist Muslims”. A counter march by opponents of the EDL will take place at the same time.