Category Archives: Far right racists

Hit-and-run victim’s family condemn EDL’s use of her photo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Blackburn LennonThe family of a grandmother killed in a hit-and-run have condemned the English Defence League for using her image on placards.

Freda Holt was one of several local faces used by 2,000 EDL protesters during Saturday’s town centre demonstration. The grandmother from Revidge Road, Blackburn, died after being knocked down by speeding unlicensed and uninsured driver Salim Chand last November. Chand, 27, was jailed for nine years. The EDL said it was highlighting “hit-and-runs by Muslims”.

But Freda’s husband Ray Holt, 72, said: “It would have been the very last thing Freda would have wanted. She was all about live and let live. She would have been absolutely horrified. As far as I am concerned he (Salim Chand) was an idiot driver. It’s got nothing to do with him being a Muslim.

“I had no knowledge of it and nobody had approached me to ask. I was in the town centre on Saturday but fortunately left before the protest because I don’t know what I would have done if I’d have seen her picture being used by the EDL.”

On Sunday, the family went to Mass and prayed for Freda and then put flowers on her grave at Pleasington Cemetery to mark what would have been her 71st birthday and Mother’s Day.

Eldest son Richard, 45, said he was shocked when he realised on Monday what had happened.

He said: “As a family all we wanted was justice for our mother regardless of race, colour or creed. The use of my mother’s picture was neither given permission for, or condoned, by us.

“My mother was a devout Catholic and would accept and help anyone, should they require it, which she had done countless times in her life. This is absolutely not what our mother stood for. As a family we do not wish to be linked in any way with EDL or any similar organisation.”

Freda’s daughter Rachel Harling, from Rishton, said she has seen the picture on an EDL website and felt “quite sick”. She said: “It was nothing to do with race or religion. It could have been anyone behind the wheel.”

Paul Houston, the father of 12-year-old Amy Houston, whose image was another of those used by the EDL, has also distanced himself from “extremism”.

Lancashire Telegraph, 6 April 2011

You really do wonder what the EDL leadership have in the place where most people have brains. How could they have failed to anticipate that using photos of road accident victims without permission would cause outrage to the victims’ families and backfire badly on the EDL? It is also difficult to see how this squares with the EDL’s claim that they are against Islam rather than Muslims. Is there perhaps a Qur’anic verse that authorises hit-and-run driving?

Update:  Now the story has been taken up by the Daily Mail.

Former soldier who issued mosque bomb threat jailed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Neil MacGregorA former soldier who threatened to bomb Glasgow Central Mosque has been jailed for 12 months. Neil MacGregor, 38, also said he would execute Muslims on a daily basis unless every mosque in Scotland was closed down. He was originally placed on probation for three years, but breached the order.

MacGregor, of Crieff, made the threats in an email and a series of telephone calls to Strathclyde Police in 2007. Fiscal depute John Malpass told Perth Sheriff Court: “Because of the nature of the threat, senior officers and anti-terrorist officers were notified. Enquiries were made in relation to the source of the emails. The IP address was identified and traced to the accused’s home address. Police attended the Central Mosque and carried out a search which proved negative.”

MacGregor admitted breaching the probation order by disappearing to London after completing only one third of it. Sheriff Foulis, revoking probation and jailing him for a year, said: “It was a matter which the authorities, not surprisingly, took very seriously and reacted to in the manner described.”

When he initially admitted the offence at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2009, his email was read out which stated:

“I’m a proud racist and National Front member. We as an organisation have decided to deal with the current threat from Muslims in our own British way, like our proud ancestors. Our demands are very small. Close all mosques in Scotland. If our demands aren’t met by next Friday, we’ll kidnap one Muslim and execute him or her on the internet, just like they did to our Ken Bigley.”

BBC News, 6 April 2011

EDL tries to disrupt anti-fascist meeting in Brighton …. and fails miserably

Posted on by Bob Pitt

About 30 EDL yobs attacked a Unite Against Fascism meeting at the Friends Meeting House on Tuesday evening, but they failed to even get past the front door.

The meeting was titled In Defence of Multiculturalism in the wake of Cameron’s disgraceful remarks a couple of months ago.  Among the speakers were Martin Smith of the UAF Steering Committee and Chris Whitwell of Friends Families and Travellers.

Some good points were made – chiefly that Cameron made the remarks in a desperate attempt to divide communities and divert attention from his government’s slash and burn policies. Questions were asked about Cameron’s right to pronounce that “multiculturalism had failed” given his own monocultural upbringing (unless one includes the drinking culture of the Bullingdon Club!).

I spoke from the Stop the Cuts Coalition, and it was a positive move that the links were made by UAF between the crisis and the rise of far right politics.

The EDL thugs were seen off and the police arrived shortly after.  Incredibly, their verdict was that we had provoked the trouble!  Another bizarre interpretation of events by, arguably, Britain’s oddest police force.

We finished our meeting, so denying the EDL any claim to have broken it up, and then we left together.

People’s Republic of Hove, 6 April 2011

Via Socialist Unity

Update:  See also “Violence at Brighton anti-fascist meeting”, The Argus, 7 April 2011

EDL member charged with arson attack on Stoke mosque was in army

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man charged after a fire at a Stoke-on-Trent mosque was a serving soldier in the Army at the time of the attack. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Simon Beech served with 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment and was discharged from the Army in February.

Mr Beech, of Hartshill Road, Stoke-on-Trent, has been charged with arson with intent to endanger life. Gareth Foster, also of Hartshill Road, has been charged with the same offence. Both men have been granted conditional bail and have been due to appear at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 10 June.

An MoD spokesman said Mr Beech was in “the early stages of his Army career”.

BBC News, 4 April 2011

Dutch Catholic schools ‘can ban headscarves’ court rules

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Imane MahssanCatholic schools are allowed to forbid Islamic pupils to wear headscarves. Such an item of clothing is in conflict with the Christian principles of the institution, which are protected by freedom of education, a district court in Haarlem ruled yesterday.

Don Bosco College, a Catholic secondary school in Volendam, forbade a 15 year old pupil, Imane Mahssan, to wear a headscarf. The girl then took the school to court, but has now lost the case.

According to the judges, the headscarf ban fits into the Catholic character of the school, whereby different expressions of faith are not allowed. The judge considers that the headscarf ban does not restrict freedom of expression and that the school is not discriminating on the basis of religion.

Don Bosco College introduced the headscarf ban last September, a few months after Imane had made a request to wear one. Because the girl received no response to her request for months, she started to wear the headscarf.

Don Bosco College said the school may not have indicated any headscarf policy in response to Imane’s request, but it was already in the school rules that pupils must respect the Catholic basis of the school. This was of importance in the ruling by the Haarlem court.

Earlier, the girl’s case was in fact upheld by the Equal Treatment Commission (CGB). This advisory court only makes non-binding rulings, though the courts usually do adopt the CGB conclusions.

NIS News Bulletin, 5 April 2011

See also RNW which reports: “Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam Freedom Party, has been quick to congratulate the school on the verdict. On Twitter he wrote: ‘A just ruling! I hope many Christian schools will follow this example’.”

Why EDL’s Guramit Singh should be excommunicated

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sikhs Against EDL 3Pickled Politics has picked up on the ultimatum issued by the Sikh community to Guramit Singh of the English Defence League, warning that they will call for his excommunication unless he renounces the EDL. Jai writes:

“As confirmed by the extensive list of signatories involved, this action is endorsed by the British Sikh population, including numerous influential Sikh temples & organisations across the United Kingdom, particularly in London and Birmingham. This includes the two largest Sikh temples outside India….

“In complete violation of core Sikh tenets, Guramit Singh has been heavily involved in the EDL’s persecution of ordinary Muslims en masse whilst explicitly representing himself as a Sikh and claiming to be acting in the name of Sikhism, including deliberately modifying & grossly distorting sacred verses by the Sikh Gurus in order to ‘inspire’ EDL members present during his foul-mouthed public speeches demonising Muslims, Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.

“Guramit Singh’s excommunication would therefore be entirely in line with historical precedents during the time of the Sikh Gurus along with the temporal authority permanently bequeathed to the Khalsa by the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh.”

EDL returns to Shotton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Shotton

The Deeside division of the English Defence League have announced another demonstration against plans by the Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society for a mosque in Shotton, Flintshire. Have these ignorant bigots no sense of shame?

You may recall that the EDL staged a demonstration in January against proposals to convert the disused Shotton Lane Social Club into an Islamic cultural centre. The protest was poorly attended, with a mere 100 people participating, most of them from outside north Wales.

But the EDL’s efforts weren’t entirely wasted. Just over a week later the social club was burned to the ground in what was not unreasonably suspected to be an arson attack, and the building has since been demolished.

But evidently that isn’t good enough for the EDL. Last week Mohammed Munchab Ali, chairman of the Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society, was reported as saying that plans to establish a centre with a mosque in Flintshire remain in place despite the destruction of Shotton Lane Social Club.

So the EDL will be returning to Shotton on 21 May. Or as the EDL Deeside Demonstration Facebook page puts it: “Round 2, Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society get ready for EDL but this time BIGGER & BETTER than before.”

Of course, with the building that would have housed the Islamic centre now reduced to charred rubble, the EDL are deprived of a concrete object on which to unleash their hate. Still, they can no doubt hope that their next public demonstration of Islamophobic hysteria in Shotton will inspire some sort of violent attack on the Muslim community of north Wales.

Update:  The Facebook page “EDL Deeside Demonstration” has now been amended to “(UNOFFICIAL AT THE MOMENT) EDL Deeside Demonstration”.

Could the EDL leadership have concluded that a protest against an Islamic centre that has already been the object of an arson attack might be seen by the public as just a tad tasteless? More likely they have taken fright at the prospect of the North West Infidels muscling in on the event.

NWI Chester

It was reportedly the NWI’s activists (along with their co-thinkers in the North East Infidels) who clashed with supporters of the EDL leadership at the Blackburn demonstration on Saturday, and their presence at the Shotton protest would very likely lead to another punch-up.

Further update:  See “English Defence League supporters plan second Deeside demonstration”, Flintshire Chronicle, 7 April 2011

Police march EDL racists out of Halifax

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in HalifaxFar-right demonstrators were marched out of Halifax by police after racist abuse was shouted at town-centre traders.

Scores of officers and dog handlers were deployed to Wards End and Horton Street on Saturday at around 5pm to deal with a mob of English Defence League (EDL) supporters on their way back from a rally in Blackburn. Protestors from factions in Halifax, Hull, Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Leeds gathered at The Courtyard pub on Wards End, hanging an EDL flag outside.

A worker at the nearby Chicken Grill House takeaway said three men had shouted racist abuse and staff at some shops were so worried they closed up. Assistants at Hot 4 U takeaway on Wards End said a fight started in the street and eight men had tried to get into their shop but police had marched them away.

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‘Son of Fitna’ loses Wilders votes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Support for Geert Wilders’ far right Freedom Party has dropped by an equivalent of two seats in parliament, according to an opinion poll by Maurice de Hond’s peil.nl. The poll comes after Mr Wilders announced he would be making a sequel to his controversial anti-Islam film Fitna.

The two notional seats have shifted to the largest party on the right, Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD. Freedom Party voters appear to be less enthusiastic about Fitna than they are about Mr Wilders other political ideas and proposals, say the pollsters. The percentage of Freedom Party voters who say they would vote for the party again has dropped to 79 percent, the lowest level in the polls since 2006.

Mr Wilders would win 24 seats in the 150-seat parliament if an election were held now, according to the poll. In fact this is the number of seats his party now actually holds – in the polls his popularity had risen since the last election. Senior coalition partner the VVD would gain two seats, three more than it currently holds.

On 1 April Mr Wilders announced he would be making Fitna II in 2012, about “the barbaric life of the sick mind of Muhammad”. Sixty-five percent of Freedom Party voters said they approved of the proposed Fitna sequel. However, the move only had the backing of 22 percent of those surveyed in total. Fifty-eight percent thought the new film would harm the Netherlands’ position internationally.

RNW, 3 April 2011