Category Archives: Far right racists

Melbourne: far-Right white supremacists planning anti-Islam march on state Parliament

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police are monitoring a group linked to far-Right white supremacists who are planning an anti-Islam march on state Parliament. The march, scheduled for next month, threatens to further damage Melbourne’s reputation, already battered by attacks on Indian students.

A group linked to far-Right white supremacists has set up a Facebook page promoting a mass rally against immigrants and Islam. There are fears it might descend into a Cronulla-style riot.

“Listen Aussies, it’s time to harden up, close the gate, look after our own and keep our country as our country,” the Facebook page says.

Premier John Brumby slammed the rally, and said the matter had been referred to police. “Racism is unacceptable in Victoria and will not be tolerated,” he said. “It is highly distressing when people seek to abuse their right to freedom of speech.”

The president of the Islamic Friendship Association, Keysar Trad, condemned the rally. “It’s their democratic right to rally against anything they like, but it gives a very bad image of Australia to our neighbours, and doesn’t do much for internal cohesion,” he said.

“The organisers should realise the majority of Australians do not share their view and can see the benefits and contributions Muslims have made to Australia. My message to the community is that Australians will not buy into this type of action. We’ve moved on from Cronulla, and they need to realise that.”

The Facebook group has gathered about 40 members and has received support from interstate.

Some posting messages have criticised the event. “Cronulla comes to Melbourne. Another sad day for Australian history,” one message says.

Continue reading →

Did US militia group target Muslims?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hutaree militia 2

Nine members of a Lenawee County-based militia group were planning to “levy war” against the United States and “oppose by force” the nation’s government, according to an indictment unsealed this morning in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

Seven of the defendants of the “Hutaree” militia appeared briefly this morning in U.S. District Court in Detroit and were ordered held without bond until Wednesday, when bond hearings will be held. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet said he wants all the defendants held pending trial.

The five-count indictment alleges that between August 2008 and the present, the defendants were trying to use bombs and other weapons to oppose the U.S. government. They had plans to kill a local law enforcement official and, once officers from across the country came to the funeral, to attack the funeral procession, the indictment alleges. The Adrian-based group has said it is training in modern combat techniques for a prophesized battle with the anti-Christ.

Although there had been reports the Hutaree may have targeted Muslims, there is no mention in the indictment of any threats against them. The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement Sunday asking federal law enforcement officials to release more information about possible threats against Muslims.

“Given the recent sharp spike CAIR offices nationwide have observed in anti-Islam rhetoric, it would not be surprising that an extremist group would seek to turn that bigoted rhetoric into violent actions,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR national executive director in Washington.

Detroit News, 29 March 2010

Protester jailed for race attack in Luton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton riotA 19-year-old man has been jailed for 16 months after he was found guilty of racially aggravated assault during a protest in Bedfordshire. Kier McElroy hit an Asian man with a banner in a shop doorway in Chapel Street, Luton, on 24 May last year.

Jurors at Luton Crown Court found McElroy guilty of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm on student Venkateswara Muppalla. He had earlier admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm. However, he denied he was racist.

He also pleaded guilty to a second charge of affray, which resulted from his actions that day when he said he was drunk.

The assaulted Asian man was cornered by a group of people marching in protest over an earlier demonstration by a group of Muslims at a parade by the Royal Anglian Regiment in Luton.

BBC News, 26 March 2010

The protest was organised by United People of Luton, the direct precursor of the English Defence League. Although the supposed subject of the demonstration was Muslim extremism, this didn’t prevent McElroy from randomly targeting a Hindu.

International right-wingers gather for EU-wide minaret ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

This Saturday, politicians representing right-wing conservative parties from across Europe will descend on the Horst Palace to discuss the dangers of Islam. Delegates from the Belgian nationalists Vlaams Belang will be there as will politicians from Geert Wilders’s Dutch Party for Freedom and the Front National of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Others from Sweden, Austria and Eastern Europe are also on the invite list.

The hosts are a relatively new group of German right-wing conservatives called Pro-NRW (an abbreviation of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia) and the goal of the conference is clear: to follow in Switzerland’s footsteps and ban minarets across Europe. And they want to use a provision of the European Union’s new Lisbon Treaty to do it.

“I don’t think that minarets are part of our heritage,” conference attendee Filip Dewinter, floor leader for Vlaams Belang in the Flemish parliament, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “They are symbols of radical Islam. The question is whether Islam is a religion like Protestantism and Catholicism and for me it is not. It is a political system, it is a way of life and it is one that is not compatible with ours.”

Pro-NRW and the other right-wing parties were galvanized when Swiss voters last November passed a ban on the construction of new minarets in the country. Since then, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which launched the referendum, have become the darlings of the European right. Indeed, the SVP has loaned their controversial campaign poster, which depicts missile-like minarets jutting out of a Swiss flag behind an ominous, niqab-wearing Muslim woman, to Pro-NRW for its campaign in Germany. And anti-minaret movements on the Swiss model have sprung up around Europe.

Dewinter has recently taken a closer look at whether a provision in the new Lisbon Treaty allowing for citizens’ initiatives could be used to push through a Europe-wide ban on the construction of minarets. On Saturday, delegates at the Anti-Minaret Conference will discuss whether to begin collecting the 1 million signatures such a path would require.

Spiegel, 26 March 2010

Rally in Warsaw to protest mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Warsaw mosque protest posterDozens of people rallied on Saturday in Warsaw to protest plans by the country’s Muslim community to build a second mosque in the city.

Poland’s Muslim population, though growing, is still tiny and such protests are unusual. The event offered evidence that anxieties gripping the rest of Europe are now also taking root in this former communist country, as well.

The emotional rally drew a small group of counter-protesters. Police formed a barrier between the two sides, which had gathered at the mosque’s construction site in an outlying Warsaw neighbourhood.

Continue reading →

White supremacist who firebombed mosque is sentenced

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center Columbia arsonNASHVILLE — One of three people who pleaded guilty to the firebombing of a Columbia mosque in 2008 was sentenced to just more than 15 years in prison.

Eric Ian Baker, 34, pleaded guilty in September to charges of destruction of religious property and using a fire to commit a felony.

According to a federal indictment and testimony, Baker tagged the Islamic Center of Columbia with swastikas and the words “White Power” while co-defendants Jonathan Stone, 20, and Michael Golden, 24, torched it with Molotov cocktails. Baker then helped spread the fire and stole a stereo system.

In federal court in Nashville on Thursday, Baker’s attorney Ray McGowan argued unsuccessfully that his client had been unfairly characterized as the leader of a loosely organized white supremacist group and an organizer of the firebombing scheme.

Co-defendant Stone testified at the hearing that Baker had given him a swastika tattoo on his chest. He also said that after they were in jail Baker instructed him to write in a letter to Stone’s brother that the brother should “recruit new members so that when we get out we will have an army.”

Judge Robert Echols gave Baker a shorter sentence than the one recommended by guidelines. He offered several reasons for this, including the fact that Baker had avoided any serious trouble with the law for the 10 years before the mosque burning.

Daoud Abudiab, president of the Islamic Center of Columbia, said he would have expected a longer sentence, given that Baker was thought to be the group’s leader.

Stone and Golden both pleaded guilty to the same charges as Baker. Golden was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Stone has not yet been sentenced.

Columbia Daily Herald, 26 March 2010

Islamophobia is a threat to democracy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The following letter appears in today’s Guardian:

We are concerned by the rise of Islamophobia, the negative coverage of Muslims in the media, the violent street mobilisations of extreme rightwing organisations like the English Defence League, and the rising electoral support for the British National party (The battle for Barking, Weekend, 13 March). Following Channel 4’s recent inflammatory documentary, Britain’s Islamic Republic, which saw concentrated attacks on the East London Mosque, the English Defence League marched through central London with placards including the demand “Close the East London Mosque now”.

The East End of London is not new to having its communities attacked by fascists and the media. The 1930s saw the Battle of Cable Street when Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts attempted to march into the Jewish community in the area. We cannot allow this terrible history to repeat itself. Further, the documentary, and articles since, have attacked the participation in politics by the Muslim community. We cannot stand by and watch this continue without remark or action.

In the runup to the general election, all parts of the population should be actively encouraged to exercise their votes. That is democracy. We welcome the work of organisations who work to this end. We call for solidarity and support for those organisations that work to encourage political participation from all sections of society, including Muslims, and condemn those who seek to undermine it.

Ken Livingstone
Bonnie Greer
Dr Abdul Bari Secretary general, Muslim Council of Britain
Brendan Barber General secretary, TUC
Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC
Dr. Edie Friedman Executive director, Jewish Council for Racial Equality
Diane Abbott MP
Neil Jameson Executive director, London Citizens
Jagtar Singh Sikh Secretariat
Tony Woodley Joint general secretary, Unite the Union
Bruce Kent
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
Professor Eric Hobsbawm
Louise Christian Christian Khan solicitors
Billy Hayes General secretary, Communication Workers Union
Rabbi Lee Wax
Anas Altikriti Spokesperson, British Muslim Initiative
Caroline Lucas MEP
Professor Avi Shlaim
Lord Nazir Ahmed
Kate Hudson Chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Andrew Stunell MP
Ismail Patel Co-ordinator, YouElect
Claude Moraes MEP
Rev. Alan Green Chair, Tower Hamlets Interfaith forum
George Galloway MP
Musleh Faradhi Central president, Islamic Forum Europe
Jean Lambert MEP
Salma Yaqoob Leader, Respect party
Jenny Jones AM
Steve Hart Regional secretary, Unite London Region
Andrew Murray Chair, Stop the War
Bell Ribeiro-Addy NUS black students officer
Sabby Dhalu Joint secretary, Unite Against Fascism

Update:   Response from EDL here.

Polish group uses Swiss poster to protest new mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Europe for the Future poster

A Polish group calling itself “Europe for the Future” has refashioned a Swiss poster against minarets to demand a halt in the construction of a new mosque in the capital of mainly Catholic Poland.

In the posters, seen in several parts of Warsaw Wednesday, the Swiss flag is replaced with a Polish one and wording that translates into “stop the mosque of the radicals”.

Switzerland voted in a referendum in November to ban the construction of new minarets, a move that drew criticisms worldwide including charges of Islamophobia.

The Polish poster called for a demonstration on Saturday at the site of the mosque and cultural centre under construction near the centre of Warsaw, and described as “radical” the Muslim League of Poland building it.

Continue reading →

How Sarkozy boosted the Front National

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The debate over national identity engineered by Sarkozy’s UMP has seen Islamophobia reach a new pitch – at one point the party spokesperson compared the burka to a ‘Mickey Mouse mask’.

“Yet however shrill the scapegoating of Muslims, it has done nothing to obscure the government’s impotence in the face of serious social and economic problems. Moreover, the realisation that Sarkozy is not an enforcer but a rather insecure figure in thrall to wealth and celebrity, has strengthened the claims of Le Pen to be the real authority figure in French politics.

“Le Pen has therefore been able to pick up support from those disenchanted by Sarkozy, his credentials as an authoritarian alternative bolstered by the government’s legitimisation of the racism that dominated the FN campaign. At a time of economic crisis, with Islamophobia on the rise across Europe, the government has had to learn, like all its predecessors, that the far-right is strengthened, not isolated, when mainstream politicians pander to racism.”

Jim Wolfreys at Comment is Free, 24 March 2010

Muslim woman sues local leader of Wilders’ party

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman from Almere is suing local Freedom Party leader Raymond de Roon for discrimination and inciting hatred.

One of the Freedom Party’s stated aims in Almere is a ban on headscarves in the council house and other publicly-funded institutions.

Ayse Bayrak-de Jager said: “I became a Muslim and I chose to wear a headscarf. My headscarf is part of my identity and I’m not taking it off. I only take my clothes off for one man and that’s my husband.”

Even though the Freedom Party is the largest party in Almere, it is by no means certain that the council will introduce a headscarf ban. Mr De Roon abandoned council talks last week when none of the other political parties was prepared to support his party on this issue.

Radio Netherlands, 22 March 2010