The British National Party will become more militant in physically defending British troops against Islamic militant abuse and against mosque-building programs, party leader Nick Griffin has announced.
Speaking to a 120-strong audience attending a black tie dinner to launch the party’s 2010 conference in the East Midlands, Mr Griffin said that in future, the party would start acting as well as talking about protecting Britain.
The faithful at three Moroccan mosques in Amsterdam are keeping guard over them at night. They are doing so because the houses of worship recently received threatening leaflets.
According to a spokesman, mosques across the country also received such leaflets. He couldn’t say if they were being guarded too. The leaflets contained statements such as “Wilders will deliver us from you”, according to the spokesman. He called these threats and similar recent incidents “very worrying”.
It is now more common for mosques to be the target of graffiti, threats or violence. An Islamic prayer house in Dordrecht was recently shot at. Earlier this year unknown persons attempted to set fire to a mosque in Groningen.
The National Police Agency (KLPD) recorded five such incidents in the first half of 2010. There were 16 last year and 32 in 2008. According to the spokesman for UMMAO [Organisation of Moroccan Mosques in Greater Amsterdam], mosques often do not report such events.
The series of recent incidents was the reason why the Association of Dutch Moroccans (SMN) and the Council of Moroccan Mosques in the Netherlands (RMMN) called for increased surveillance of mosques.
Via Islam in Europe
Yesterday’s meeting of Stoke-on-Trent City Council debated a motion from the British National Party condemning halal slaughter. The BNP motion called for “a change in the law to minimise or prevent any further animal cruelty as a result of this barbaric method of slaughter” and for “an immediate ban on the use of all halal meat products in our schools”. It was heavily defeated.
Pits n Pots reports.
Representatives from Peterborough’s Sikh community came out in opposition to the English Defence League (EDL) at a city mosque.
Representatives from the two Gurdwaras in Peterborough met with Muslims from local mosques at the Faizan e Madina Mosque in Gladstone Street last night. Their purpose was to show their support to the city’s Muslim community and to distance themselves from EDL leader Gurmeet Singh, who is also a Sikh.
A statement signed by representatives from Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara Sahib and Gurdwara Baba Budha Sahib Ji said:
“On behalf of the Peterborough Sikhs we vehemently oppose the views of the EDL and any of its members. In Peterborough, Sikhs have worked hard to build relationships with other religious communities and have expressed our concern that this demonstration could upset the balance of the wider community.”
Jewish and Muslim communities in the north-west are readying themselves for a new campaign against the BNP if its leader Nick Griffin stands in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.
The BNP leader hinted last Friday through the Twitter website that he might contest the seat. This came in the wake of the High Court upholding the decision to strip former Immigration Minister Phil Woolas of his seat, for lying about a rival in last May’s general election campaign.
This week Manchester Jewish Representative Council president Lucille Cohen said there had been discussions with the Board of Deputies about running an anti-BNP campaign, similar to that in Barking where Mr Griffin stood against Margaret Hodge in May. Sue Gillett, North West Conservative Party director during the election, said there was speculation that Mr Griffin would be challenged by Conservative parliamentary spokesman Kashif Ali.
Mr Ali said Muslim groups in Oldham would rally against the BNP. “I met the Jewish council just before the May elections and we discussed all of this. We stood together then because we’ve all got a common interest against the BNP. There is concern because Griffin stood in Oldham West and Royton in 2001, so he has some knowledge of Oldham.”
Griffin gained a record BNP general election result in 2001, coming third on a wave of popularity fuelled by the Oldham riots. But Mike Luft, of Oldham United Against Racism, said the BNP has since been in serious decline.
A plan to turn a disused pub into a mosque has raised some complaints in Buckinghamshire.
The Plough in Manor Road, Bletchley, could be turned into a mosque if Milton Keynes Council approves the proposal. Some residents around the building have written letters of objection saying there would not be enough parking to accommodate worshippers.
‘Welsh’ Defence League protest in Wrexham, November 2009
A man was abusive and threatening to two British Muslims outside Wrexham’s new mosque and threatened to burn it down. David Jared Evans, 36, sent texts to people suggesting a visit to the mosque in the former Miner’s Institute and a demonstration and said flame throwers made “good legal weapons”.
Evans received a suspended sentence after he admitted using threatening, abusive and insulting language and behaviour towards Abdulla Anwar which was racially and religiously aggravated. He had a similar previous conviction in 2006 after he abused a black woman.
The judge said Mr Anwar and a colleague had approached Evans outside the mosque and offered him help. “For that, they were subjected to a torrent of disgraceful abuse,” the judge said. The comments were religiously and racially aggravated, persistent and escalated to threats of violence.
A prison sentence was inevitable but the judge took into account Evans had already served the equivalent of a six month sentence on remand. He had pleaded guilty and rather than sending him back into custody for what could only be a matter of weeks he believed it would be better to tackle his “intransigent attitudes”.
Evans, of High Street, Rhos, received a 36 week prison sentence, suspended for a year. He must carry out 200 hours unpaid work and attend an offending behaviour programme run by the probation service specifically to address his racially motivated behaviour.
Evans was also made subject of a two month 7pm-7am curfew at weekends and Judge Parry told him to pay £500 towards prosecution costs and £150 compensation to Mr Anwar. A restraining order was made which bans him from going to the mosque or approaching Mr Anwar.
The report refers to text messages found on Evans’s mobile phone in which he asked one contact if he was “up for a visit to the mosque tonight” and suggested the use of a flame thrower. An earlier report indicated that the text messages were sent to English Defence League supporters.
A year ago the EDL held a protest in Wrexham at the site of the proposed new mosque in the name of its sister organisation the Welsh Defence League, though most of the participants were reportedly of English origin.
“Andrew Gilligan is one of the most lucid journalists out there and therefore he understands incredibly well the threat of Islamic supremacism to free societies.”
Now, who do you think wrote this? Could it be Melanie Phillips? Or perhaps Pamela Geller? No, it’s the English Defence League, whose Wiltshire Division have reproduced Gilligan’s recent attack on ENGAGE on their website.
But then, this is not the first time that Gilligan has proved an inspiration to the far-right boot-boys of the EDL. It was his TV documentary witch-hunting the Islamic Forum Europe, “Britain’s Islamic Republic”, that prompted the EDL to demand that the East London Mosque should be closed down and threaten to stage an intimidatory demonstration in Tower Hamlets.
ENGAGE draws our attention to “Who’s Afraid of the EDL?“, a documentary broadcast on BBC Asian Network. The debate between EDL leader Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) and Mohammad Ayoubof from the Muslim youth magazine The Revival.
Jesper Langballe, church spokesperson for the Danish People’s Party (DF), was on Friday convicted of making defamatory statements about Muslims. Langballe pleaded guilty to the charge of defamation under the anti-racism section of the penal code.
In January, Langballe wrote a letter to Berlingske Tidende newspaper in which he commented on claims made by the chairman of the Free Press Society, Lars Hedegaard, that Muslim fathers rape their daughters.
In his letter, Langballe supported Hedegaard’s views, saying that Hedegaard should not have written that “Muslim fathers rape their daughters, when the truth seems to be that they only kill them (the so-called honour killings) – and turn a blind eye when uncles rape them.”