Category Archives: Far right racists

Wilders claims unstoppable ‘anti-Islam wave’ is sweeping Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Wilders posterIn an interview with Dutch news channel NU.nl, Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders says that his party’s ideas are striking a chord with increasing numbers of people across Europe. Mr Wilders spoke of an unstoppable “anti-Islam” wave. “We are having our own little revolution down here”, he said.

The politician believes that some of the measures he wants to take in collaboration with the ruling coalition will eventually be introduced across Europe. Some critics of the current cabinet’s policies say many of its intended measures are in violation of European legislation. However, Mr Wilders argues that many people in other European countries support these measures as well.

A party similar to the Freedom Party (PVV) has since been created in Germany: Die Freiheit (Freedom), led by Rene Stadtkewitz. And Mr Wilders said there were also possibilities to create such a party in the United Kingdom. It would fill the gap between the allegedly racist British National Party and the conservatives.

“The time that the CDU (German Christian democrats) and the CDA (Dutch Christian democrats) could ignore problems is definitively over. It is not a temporary comet or something like that. The genie is out of the bottle and it will never be put back in again. Never again.” He said the fear for new PVV-like parties would ensure that many of the cabinet’s anti-immigration policies found widespread support across Europe.

RNW, 28 February 2011

Wilders plugs anti-Islam book

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders is writing a book about the history of Islam that argues it is not a religion but an ideology.

The book, which was to be published in the first half of 2011, is now due to appear in the second half of the year, Mr Wilders told news website NU.nl. The initiative for the book, Mr Wilders says, comes from the United States, where it will appear first, to be followed by a Dutch translation. Mr Wilders also revealed he is working on a continuation of his short anti-Islam film Fitna, but he couldn’t yet say when it would be completed.

Regarding the unrest in the Arab world, the far-right politician claims that democracy will not take hold in the Maghreb and the Middle East unless people turn away from Islam. He warned that things could go either way and the future could see regimes that are even worse than those of ousted Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia or that of Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

RNW, 26 February 2011

EDL leadership finally dissociates itself from English Nationalist Alliance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bill Baker with EDL in Brighton
Bill Baker with the EDL at an ENA protest in Brighton, August 2010

The English Defence League has finally broken links with Bill Baker and his organisation. According to an EDL statement released yesterday: “The English Nationalist Alliance, and their leader ‘Bill Baker’, have, in no uncertain terms, been told to take their party politics elsewhere. Bill Baker is not welcome at any EDL event.”

You might wonder why it has taken the EDL so long to get round to this. The ENA and EDL have held a number of anti-Muslim protests together – in London last July, in Brighton in August and in Dagenham earlier this month – without any complaint from the EDL leadership. The sudden announcement that Bill Baker is persona non grata in the EDL would appear to be a panic reaction to a detailed exposé of Baker posted on the Exposing the English Defence League blog – and to Baker’s response, which has been to threaten violence against the authors.

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Dutch broadcaster removes anti-Wilders cartoon after threats to staff

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders as Nazi

The website of a left-leaning public broadcaster has removed a cartoon depicting a plan by the far-right PVV party as a Nazi death camp following serious threats to its staff.

The cartoon, by Adriaan Soeterbroek and posted on the VARA’s Joop.nl site, ridiculed a PVV plan to create “hooligan villages”, likening them to a Nazi concentration camp with PVV leader Geert Wilders showing the inmates into a shower. Millions of people, mostly Jews and Roma gypsies, were killed in Nazi gas chambers masquerading as showers.

The VARA says it removed the cartoon after careful consideration, saying that while freedom of expression is a key right some of its staff felt too threatened to continue working. The broadcaster has reported the incident to the police.

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EDL threatens to break with Jewish division over ‘terrorist’ links – JTF leader blames ‘elements in the EDL who desperately want to be accepted by the leftwing establishment’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Roberta Moore with Jonathan HoffmanThe leadership of the English Defence League has distanced itself from the group’s Jewish Division, because of its partnership with the far-right American group Jewish Task Force.

The head of the EDL’s Jewish division, Roberta Moore [pictured, with Jonathan Hoffman], previously announced that the group was working with the JTF, whose leader Victor Vancier has been imprisoned for terrorism offences.

This week the EDL’s leadership issued a statement saying that if the Jewish Division continued relations with the JTF, they would sever ties with her. It said: “A member of the Jewish Division this week decided to link herself with terrorist organisation JTF. This was the decision and wishes of one single individual within the EDL, and does not mean that the EDL is linked with this movement.

“If they [the Jewish EDL] continue with their plans to forge links with the terrorist JTF, the EDL will have no option but to sever its links with the Jewish division as we cannot support terrorist sympathisers.”

But Ms Moore said she was determined to continue the affiliation. She said the EDL leadership who had released the statement were “complete idiots,” adding: “I have put my foot down; I am the one in contact with the JTF. If some people don’t like it, then screw them. There are lots of Jewish people very upset that the EDL put out that statement – and I haven’t received any personal messages telling me to cut off contact with Victor.”

However, the EDL made it clear that they and Ms Moore were at odds on the matter. A spokesman said: “The EDL never has and never will have any affiliations with the Jewish Task Force. Unfortunately Ms Moore has caused a great deal of trouble and unrest within the EDL because of her gung-ho attitude.”

Victor Vancier spent five years in prison from 1987 for 18 bomb attacks against Soviet targets in the US to protest against the treatment of Soviet Jews.

He posted on the JTF forum: “There are elements in the EDL who desperately want to be accepted by the leftwing establishment and the media. These elements have no principles or courage. Roberta Moore and the Jewish Division represent courageous and noble elements. If the EDL is not willing to work with JTF, then they are rejecting all rightwing Jews, evangelical Christians and others who believe in the right of the Jewish people to the entire land of Israel.”

Jewish Chronicle, 25 February 2011

So, the EDL leadership announced a week ago that the organisation “will have no option but to sever its links with the Jewish division” if the latter continues its connection with the JTF – and Roberta Moore says “screw them”. Well, has the EDL severed its links with its Jewish division, or even with Moore as an individual? No sign of it so far.

See also Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 19 February 2011

And Exposing the English Defence League, 17 February 2011

Update:  The EDL leadership has issued a further statement in which they directly address Roberta Moore: “we don’t approve of your discussions with the JTF. We hope that this was just an error in judgement”. Well, that’s cracking down hard on Moore, isn’t it? Clearly we can rely on the EDL leadership to take a firm stand against any of their members who are found to have links with terrorists.

EDL Deeside division’s Facebook page slammed as ‘racist’ and ‘plain stupid’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Shotton protest 2A Facebook group has been set up for the “Deeside division” of the far-right English Defence League.

The online group – which has about 120 members – was created in the aftermath of last month’s EDL protest in Shotton town centre over a proposal to turn the former social club into an Islamic culture centre. On the homepage the site administrator – the person who set up the group – says the EDL Deeside Division’s mission is to “stop the Islamification of Great Britain”.

But it has been slammed by the North Wales Race Equality Network. A spokesman for the group said: “There are about 200 Muslims out of a population of 149,000 in Flintshire, or about 0.13%, and just 3% in Great Britain. This group is really pursuing something that is a red herring, because the notion Great Britain, let alone Deeside, is to become a Muslim country is just plain stupid.”

The page states: “We are the Deeside division of the English Defence League. Why English Defence league and not Cymru Defence league? Well to be honest we chose this because of the success of the EDL protest in Shotton. Also there is a large amount of English people that live in Deeside. Nothing taken away from the Cymru Defence League, we are all brothers fighting the same cause. We are not racist, Islam is a religion not a race!”

The launch of the group has also angered Unite Against Fascism national officer Martin Smith, who said the contents of similar EDL pages usually showed racist comments. He added: “Where the EDL tries to claim it is not a racist organisation on groups such as these, you only have to look on the pages to see they are full of racist-type material.”

Plans for the Muslim centre provoked strong protests and about 100 members of the EDL marched through the streets of Shotton to voice their opposition. The BNP also co-ordinated a leaflet campaign against the proposals.

The social club, which has been closed since August, was destroyed by arsonists earlier this month, and a police investigation is ongoing. Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society (FMCS), the group behind the plans, says it will look for an alternative venue.

Flintshire Chronicle, 24 February 2011

Cf. BNP news report, 23 February 2011

ENA and EDL to hold more anti-mosque demos in Dagenham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in Green Lane2Far-right groups are forging ahead with a ­campaign of street protests in an attempt to stop a mosque and community ­centre opening in Dagenham.

The English Nationalist Alliance (ENA) has pledged to stage demonstrations every three weeks to prevent the opening of the facility in Green Lane, given the go-ahead despite 1,300 objections last month. The ENA announced its next protest will take place with the English Defence League on March 5, as it emerged the only way to overturn the planning ­decision would be to call for a judicial review.

Organisations would have until the end of next week to apply for the High Court review, given the strict, six-week legal deadline. A review could also incur considerable legal costs and protesters would have to demonstrate the planning decision made by councillors on January 17 had either been unlawful, irrational or biased.

ENA spokesman Bill Baker said: “Many of us are Dagenham residents, or have roots in Dagenham, and feel that this whole situation is going to create disharmony in the community if this centre is allowed to continue. On March 5 the ENA has again ­organised a demonstration in Green Lane and this is being backed by the EDL. We will keep returning to Green Lane every three weeks.”

Barking & Dagenham Post, 23 February 2011

Details of the previous ENA/EDL demo in Dagenham here.

More on Bill Baker here.

Update:  The EDL leadership has suddenly decided to break their links with Baker and the ENA. Consequently, the EDL London Region has announced that they will not be joining the 5 March protest (though they “wish the ena/bnp all the best with what they want to do”) and will hold their own demonstration a week later, with EDL leaders Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll as featured speakers.

Dutch minister forced to withdraw criticism of Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Junior farm minister Henk Bleker on Thursday backtracked on stinging criticism he made of the anti-Islam PVV at a campaign meeting on Wednesday night.

At the meeting, the minister reportedly said he wanted nothing to do with the PVV, which has an alliance with the ruling minority CDA and VVD government.

Bleker, a CDA politican, said on Thursday he should have made it clear it is only some of the PVV’s standpoints which he objects to.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Bleker was quoted as saying the PVV’s call for a ban on Muslim headscarves make him feel sick and that party leader Geert Wilders’ suggestion that anti-social families be placed in special “scum villages” was against all forms of decency.

According to Nos television, Bleker has also apologised personally to Wilders at the behest of CDA leader Maxime Verhagen.

Dutch News, 24 February 2011