EDL threatens to defy ban on Leicester march

The English Defence League (EDL) says it plans to defy a government ban on a planned march by the right-wing group in Leicester. The EDL called the move an infringement of its human rights and said it would march on Saturday.

The ban was imposed after concerns were raised by Leicestershire Police’s chief constable. It prevents any group marching in the city on that date, but does not prohibit static protests, such as those that took place in Bradford in August.

EDL spokesman Guradit Singh called the government decision “a breach of freedom of speech” and “bang out of order”. He said the organisation would march, and added that it was withdrawing its liaisons with Leicestershire Police.

The Home Office said anyone who organises a prohibited march could be jailed for six months or face a £2,500 fine, while anyone found guilty of taking part in such a rally could be fined up to £1,000. It also said the EDL had made similar threats in the past, but had not gone through with them.

BBC News, 4 October 2010

BNP organiser escapes jail

Peter King with Nick GriffinA British National Party organiser has narrowly escaped jail for racially abusing an Asian woman in a supermarket.

Peter King told stunned Sajida Islam “go back to your own country” when he saw her in the aisles of Hartlepool’s Tesco Extra store, in Burn Road. He followed with a tirade of racist abuse.

The incident happened on October 14 last year. King, who the BNP’s own website describes as regional organiser, was arrested again on Christmas Eve. Police were called following a row with his neighbour, 20-year-old student Nicholas Thompson, who he confronted with an ornamental mace for revving his mini-moto bike.

King, 38, was at risk of going to jail after he admitted racially aggravated harassment and possessing an offensive weapon. However, he walked out of court after he was given a suspended prison term.

Hartlepool Mail, 2 October 2010

Deal with Wilders comes under fire in VVD

Prominent members of the conservative VVD party have renewed their criticism of the party’s intended cooperation with the anti-Islam PVV party of Geert Wilders. At a party meeting, senior leaders condemned the populist politician as “repugnant”. Among them were former parliament speaker Frans Weisglas and former cabinet ministers Frits Korthals Altes and Pieter Winsemius.

A majority, however, voiced support for party leader Mark Rutte, who is expected to become the new prime minister of a coalition cabinet with the Christian Democrats (CDA). With the support of the PVV the two parties will have a one-vote majority in parliament. It is not yet clear, however, if two or even more CDA MPs will refuse to support the agreement when the parliamentary party takes a vote next week.

RNW, 2 October 2010

Wilders’ Berlin speech

Here are some extracts from Geert Wilders’ speech in Berlin on 2 October:

Germany’s national identity, its democracy and economic prosperity, is being threatened by the political ideology of Islam. In 1848, Karl Marx began his Communist Manifesto with the famous words: “A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of communism.” Today, another specter is haunting Europe. It is the specter of Islam. This danger, too, is political. Islam is not merely a religion, as many people seem to think: Islam is mainly a political ideology….

The American political scientist Mark Alexander writes that “One of our greatest mistakes is to think of Islam as just another one of the world’s great religions. We shouldn’t. Islam is politics or it is nothing at all, but, of course, it is politics with a spiritual dimension … which will stop at nothing until the West is no more, until the West has … been well and truly Islamized.” …

A dispassionate study of the beginnings of Islamic history reveals clearly that Muhammad’s objective was first to conquer his own people, the Arabs, and to unify them under his rule, and then to conquer and rule the world. That was the original cause; it was obviously political and was backed by military force. “I was ordered to fight all men until they say ‘There is no god but Allah’,” Muhammad said in his final address. He did so in accordance with the Koranic command in sura 8:39: “Fight them until there is no more dissension and the religion is entirely Allah’s.” …

“After Muhammad’s death, based upon his words and deeds, Islam developed Sharia, an elaborate legal system which justified the repressive governance of the world by divine right – including rules for jihad and for the absolute control of believers and non-believers. Sharia is the law of Saudi Arabia and Iran, among other Islamic states…. Under Sharia law people in the conquered territories have no legal rights, not even the right to life and to own property, unless they convert to Islam….

In 1954, in his essay Communism and Islam, Professor Bernard Lewis spoke of “the totalitarianism, of the Islamic political tradition”. Professor Lewis said that “The traditional Islamic division of the world into the House of Islam and the House of War …  has obvious parallels in the Communist view of world affairs…. The aggressive fanaticism of the believer is the same.”

The American political scientist Mark Alexander states that the nature of Islam differs very little – and only in detail rather than style – from despicable and totalitarian political ideologies such as National-Socialism and Communism….

Politicians from almost all establishment [parties] today are facilitating Islamization. They are cheering for every new Islamic school, Islamic bank, Islamic court. They regard Islam as being equal to our own culture. Islam or freedom? It does not really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire establisment elite – universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians – are putting our hard-earned liberties at risk. They talk about equality, but amazingly fail to see how in Islam women have fewer rights than men and infidels have fewer rights than adherents of Islam.

Are we about to repeat the fatal mistake of the Weimar Republic? Are we succumbing to Islam because our commitment to freedom is already dead? No, it will not happen….

Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky argues that after the fall of communism, the West failed to expose those who had collaborated with the Communists by advocating policies of détente, improved relations, relaxation of international tension, peaceful coexistence….

Islam is the Communism of today. But, because of our failure to come clean with Communism, we are unable to deal with it, trapped as we are in the old Communist habit of deceit and double-speak that used to haunt the countries in the East and that now haunts all of us. Because of this failure, the same leftist people who turned a blind eye to Communism then, turn a blind eye to Islam today. They are using exactly the same arguments in favor of détente, improved relations, and appeasement as before….

We must realize that Islam expands in two ways. Since it is not a religion, conversion is only a marginal phenomenon. Historically, Islam expanded either by military conquest or by using the weapon of hijra, immigration. Muhammad conquered Medina through immigration. Hijra is also what we are experiencing today. The Islamization of Europe continues all the time. But the West has no strategy for dealing with the Islamic ideology, because our elites say that we must adapt to them rather than the other way round….

My friends, when Ronald Reagan came to a divided Berlin 23 years ago he uttered the historic words “Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall”. President Reagan was not an appeaser, but a man who spoke the truth because he loved freedom. Today, we, too, must tear down a wall. It is not a wall of concrete, but of denial and ignorance about the real nature of Islam.

Wilders to address right-wing rally in Berlin today

Dutch politician Geert Wilders, known for his antagonism towards Islam, is to speak at an event in Berlin Saturday organised by a new right-wing party.

Die Freiheit (Freedom) party was founded in September by Rene Stadkewitz, another Islam-critic and a former member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU).

In Berlin early Saturday, police erected barricades aroundthe Hotel Berlin where the event is due to take place, with left-wing groups – under the banner of “Send Geert Wilders Home” – having announced a counter demonstration.

The event comes as fears grow in German mainstream political parties of the emergence of a new anti-immigration, anti-Islam right wing movement.

DPA, 2 Otober 2010

Dutch Christian Democrats vote in favour of Wilders-backed coalition

A majority of Dutch Christian Democrats have voted in support of forming a coalition government backed in parliament by Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV). At a party conference, 68 percent voted in favour of cooperation with the PVV, 32 percent against. A record 4,500 members attended the gathering.

The Christian Democrats intend to form a minority coalition with the right-wing VVD with parliamentary support by the PVV.

A number of prominent Christian Democrats spoke out against any form of cooperation with the PVV. They include two former prime ministers, past and present cabinet ministers and two current MPs. They argued that the PVV discriminates people for their religion and skin colour whereas the CDA aims to bring people together.

A definitive vote on the coalition agreement will be taken next week by the CDA parliamentary party. Under the constitution, MPs are free to vote without any constraints. It is not yet clear how two MPs who voted against the coalition agreement at the party conference will vote when the vote is taken by the parliamentary party.

RNW, 2 October 2010

See also Reuters, 2 October 2010

Wilders delivers anti-Islam speech in Berlin

In a speech in Berlin Saturday, Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders said Germany needed a political party that could defend against what he called the dangers of Islam. His visit sparked angry protests.

Populist Dutch politician Geert Wilders, known for his strident anti-Islam and anti-immigration views, has held a speech in a Berlin hotel amid protests outside the venue.

“Germany too needs a political movement that defends the national identity of the country. Germany’s political identity, its economic success, is threatened by Islam,” Wilders told an audience of some 500 people at a hotel in Berlin’s Tiergarten district. “Islam is a dangerous political ideology for everyone,” Wilders, who is facing prosecution in the Netherlands for incitement to hatred, said.

The 47-year-old was invited to Berlin by a party founded in September by Rene Stadtkewitz, a former member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) who is also a critic of Islam.

The event sparked protests in front of the hotel. Police said some 80 left-wing demonstrators holding up banners reading “Berlin Against Nazis – it’s our Right to Stop Them” and “Send Geert Wilders home” rallied in front of the hotel.

Deutsche Welle, 2 October 2010

Berlin anti-Wilders protest3

Netherlands: coalition deal with Wilders hinges on CDA conference vote

The formation of a Dutch coalition government hinges on a Christian Democrat congress on Saturday after party legislators failed to resolve divisions over relying on support from the anti-Islam Freedom Party.

The legislators said on Thursday they were unable at a 15-hour meeting overnight to endorse a deal under which the Christian Democrats and Liberal Party would form a minority government with backing in parliament from the Freedom Party.

They said they had agreed to leave the issue to Saturday’s conference of all party members before making a final decision on forming the proposed coalition, whose main task will be to implement austerity measures.

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What does Wilders get from the coalition deal? A ban on the veil and a crackdown on immigration

Netherlands coalition deal announced2

The Netherlands will ban the burqa, anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders said Thursday following the announcement of a pact to form a minority coalition government backed by his party.

“There will also be a burqa ban,” Wilders told journalists in The Hague, announcing measures agreed on by three parties negotiating to form a new government.

The measures, which seek to cut government spending by 18 billion euros by 2015, should also halve the number of immigrants who enter the Netherlands, the politician said.

“A new wind will blow in the Netherlands,” Wilders said, standing alongside presumed prime minister in waiting Mark Rutte, who leads the pro-business VVD party, and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) leader Maxime Verhagen – the two parties set to be in government.

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