Category Archives: Far right racists

Arson attack on Islamic centre in Luton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton Islamic CentreAn Islamic centre in Bedfordshire has been gutted by fire in what police believe was an arson attack. No-one was injured in the blaze, which started just after midnight at the centre in Bury Park Road, Luton.

A police spokesman said there was “considerable damage” and the road was likely to remain closed while forensic teams investigated the cause. Insp Martin Peters said: “It appears an accelerant was used and our immediate priorities include who started this fire and why, and making motorists aware.”

BBC News, 5 May 2009

Update:  Never a paper to pass up an opportunity to exacerbate tensions between communities, the Daily Star reports:

“Fears of a race war grew yesterday after right-wing extremists were accused of firebombing a mosque…. The attack will inflame the town gripped by race tension since riot cops broke up a ‘Reclaim The Streets’ rally aimed at police and council inaction over the taunting of the troops.”

The Star goes on to quote rent-a-mouth idiot Anjem Choudary – “there’s no telling how young extremist Muslims will react” – and a supporter of the Facebook group “Ban the Terrorists” who stated: “I think this centre was firebombed because these Muslim extremists tend to hang out nearby.”

CAIR denounces Wilders’ hate speech at Florida synagogue

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders at Florida synagogueThe Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today call on members of the Jewish community to condemn the anti-Islam hate of a speaker who was recently given a standing ovation at a Florida synagogue.

CAIR said the speech by Dutch anti-Islam extremist politician Geert Wilders took place at a “large synagogue in Palm Beach.” In the speech, Wilders went through his usual laundry list of hate-filled views, including his claim that “Islam is not a religion” and “the right to religious freedom should not apply to this totalitarian ideology called Islam,” all to the applause of the audience. Wilders also called for stopping immigration from Muslim countries and urged “voluntary repatriation” to those countries.

“A synagogue should be the last place that Geert Wilders’ Nazi-like propaganda would find a warm reception,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “Members of the Jewish community know all too well what happens when a religious minority is demonized by demagogues. Wilders uses the same scurrilous attacks on Muslims and Islam that the Nazis used against German Jews and Judaism in the 1930s.”

CAIR press release, 28 April 2009

Update:  See “ADL condemns anti-Islam remarks made by Dutch parliamentarian during appearances in S. Florida”, ADL Florida press release, 28 April 2009

Further update:  See “CAIR Commends Fla. Jewish group for condemning hate speech”, CAIR press release, 30 April 2009

For an alternative view, by the inimitable Pamela Geller, see “ADL stabs Israel’s staunchest ally, Geert Wilders, and Jews along with him again“, Atlas Shrugs, 30 April 2009

Thankfully, the ADL are a lot more representative of the US Jewish community than the lunatic Geller.

‘Islamified Labour Party becomes anti-Jewish’, claim fascists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Islamification of Britain which is the direct result of mass Third World immigration has now started to directly affect the Labour Party as well, after a Jewish would-be councillor was told by a senior party official that she was ‘too Jewish and too white’ to stand in a Birmingham ward dominated by Afro-Caribbean and Muslim residents.

“Ms Elaina Cohen was told by Labour’s former Lord Mayor councillor Mahmood Hussain that he could not support her application for an inner-city ward because ‘my Muslim members don’t want you because you are Jewish’….

“The development is the inevitable result of the Islamification of Britain, and the resultant importation of Middle East conflicts to these shores. As increasing numbers of Muslims settle and take over Britain, anti-Jewish events will steadily increase.

“This has been the case in all European countries where Islamic immigration has been high. France in particular has seen dramatically increased anti-Jewish attacks which have all been Islamist in origin.”

BNP news article, 28 April 2009

The article is lifted without acknowledgement from the Daily Mail. The BNP of course omits to quote Mahmood Hussain’s statement: “I would not make those sort of comments. The allegations are not true.”

Given its long history of antisemitism, the spectacle of the BNP presenting itself as a friend of the Jewish community may appear bizarre, but its attempt to win Jewish support on an anti-Muslim programme is part of a general development on the European far right. However, while parties like Vlaams Belang in Belgium have met with some success in applying this tactic, the BNP’s efforts have so far attracted almost no support at all within the Jewish community.

While the BNP remains under the leadership of Nick Griffin, a convicted Holocaust denier and author of the Jewish conspiracy booklet Who Are the Mind-Benders?, this is unlikely to change any time soon.

Update:  Over at Harry’s Place the story is reported under the headline “Jews are unwanted here”, and just in case you missed the parallel they’re drawing between Mahmood Hussain and the Nazis, a German sign from the ’30s is reproduced: Juden sind hier unerwünscht. And this despite Hussain’s denial of the accusation against him and before the Labour Party has investigated the matter. Still, he’s a Muslim isn’t he, so why bother with all that innocent-until-proven-guilty nonsense?

Further update:  See also “Selective outrage over bigotry” by Sunny Hundal at Pickled Politics, 1 May 2009

Lichfield Cathedral rejects BNP’s latest attempt to hijack Christianity

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP What Would Jesus Do election posterA row has broken out after the British National Party tried to use Lichfield Cathedral as the backdrop for an advertising campaign.

The Archdeacon of Lichfield, the Ven Chris Liley, has hit out at the BNP after an activist turned up in Cathedral Close on Tuesday afternoon with a large advertising van displaying a pro-BNP poster.

The move comes as the debate over plans by the Muslim community to build a mosque in the city rages on with more than 5,000 people voicing objections to the plan on a Facebook site. The BNP activist was challenged by the Archdeacon who “required him” to stop taking photographs and to remove the van from cathedral precincts.

The cathedral authorities have revealed they will now be writing to the BNP to “demand” it does not publish any promotional or marketing material which uses the cathedral as a backdrop or implies any endorsement of the BNP’s views or policies by the cathedral.

The BNP defended its actions claiming it is “voicing the opinion of the people of Lichfield”. BNP spokesman Simon Darby told local website The Lichfield Blog:

“We sent our truth truck along because a lot of people in Lichfield are very upset by the planned mosque. If this was a Labour or Islamic poster would the cathedral have taken the same action? The Archdeacon should spend more time defending the Christian faith because it needs it.”

In recent weeks the BNP has been targeting Christian voters and last month unveiled an advertising poster headed: What would Jesus Do – Vote BNP. Chris Liley added: “The BNP are wrong to suggest Jesus would vote for the BNP. His parable of the Good Samaritan was a clear example about the value we should place on people from other communities.”

Birmingham Mail, 23 April 2009

See also Chris Liley’s post at Comment is Free, 23 April 2009

I’m going to quit Scotland because people have been nasty to me, says bomb-threat racist facing jail term

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA racist who threatened to bomb Scotland’s biggest mosque last night whined he would quit the country – because people had been “nasty” to him.

Neil MacGregor had also threatened to behead one Muslim a week until every mosque was shut down. The thug faces jail after admitting a racist breach of the peace. But yesterday, he tried to defend his behaviour by claiming he’d been freaked out after viewing a film of a hostage being beheaded. And he claimed he was a reformed character who had turned to religion.

MacGregor bleated: “When all this is over, I will be leaving Scotland. I have had enough of it and the people. I have had nothing but nastiness here.”

Last night, a leading Muslim dismissed his self-pitying squeals as a cynical attempt to obtain a soft sentence. Osama Saeed, chief executive of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said:

“If he is insincerely trying to mitigate any punishment, I hope it is not successful. If he had been a Muslim looking at videos of people dying in Iraq and threatened, as a result, to blow up a church or behead Christians, there would have been an absolute storm about this and such an individual would be looking at a really hefty sentence.”

In one threatening email to police – which led to his conviction – MacGregor, 36, wrote: “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. We see this is very easy – even you guys can handle that. 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.”

But yesterday, the vile racist bleated he felt like the victim following his arrest for the threatening calls and emails regarding Glasgow Central Mosque.

He claimed he became “enraged and emotionally upset” in February 2007 after viewing a video clip of a British hostage being beheaded in Iraq – and made his anti-Muslim threats.

MacGregor claimed to the Record that Osama Saeed had asked to meet him upon the completion of any sentence “to help combat Islamophobia”. But Osama said last night: “His claim is simply not true, though if he is sincere in wanting to tackle Islamophobia after his punishment we would work with him in the same way we would anyone else.”

He added: “It’s all too easy to dismiss MacGregor as a fantasist and lunatic – many of the Muslims convicted of terror offences could be similarly described.”

Daily Record, 22 April 2009

Wilders announces ‘Son of Fitna’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders extremistPopulist broadsheet De Telegraaf reports that Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders is going to produce a sequel to his anti-Islam film Fitna.

Wilders said his new film, which will be finished by 2010, is intended to show the Western world how far Islamisation has progressed. “It is not going to be a copy ofFitna,” said the Freedom Party leader who warns that the film would be “no less controversial than the first film”.

The first film was mainly an indictment of the Qur’an, but “I now want to show people the consequences of mass immigration from Islamic countries, for which we have opened the door here.”

The MP also said professionals from the US will assist him in the production of the film. “I have received offers from people from New York and Hollywood, people who in the past have made films that were screened in the Netherlands.”

However, De Telegraaf writes that Wilders refused to name any names, and has yet to find sponsors to finance his latest production. He will travel to Florida next week to raise funds and talk about his film.

Expatica, 16 April 2009

Meanwhile, over David Horowitz’s Front Page Magazine we find an enthusiastic defence of Wilders:

“To label Wilders a racist, a xenophobe or a fascist is false. Instead, he should be seen as a democrat who seeks to protect modern democratic societies against the realistic threat of a stealth Islamic revolution, evolving from mass immigration, step by step introduction of Sharia law, and restriction of freedom of speech.”

Austria: Strache to demonstrate against mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache has vowed to take part in protests against the planned extension of a mosque, warning it will spread “religious indoctrination”.

Strache said yesterday (Weds) he would participate in a demonstration against the extension of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Vienna-Brigittenau, adding: “This (Islamic) Centre (on Dammstraße) is inappropriate in such a densely-populated area. The centre will have programmes of religious indoctrination.”

Hannelore Schuster, a spokeswoman for Citizens’ Initiative, which is organising the anti-mosque demonstration, said: “We do not oppose Islam but are against further construction (to extend this centre). I cannot forbid anyone to be at our side. It is appropriate for other parties to consider the issue.”

Social Democrat (SPÖ) district chief Hannes Derfler said: “It is typical of the FPÖ to condemn all members of a religious group.” The Greens’ David Ellensohn added: “Strache is again trying to get radical right-wingers involved and offending Brigittenau’s residents.”

City officials have already authorised the construction.

Strache, who participated in an anti-mosque demonstration last September, has regularly claimed that Muslims want to create a parallel society in Austria. The FPÖ leader is expected to give priority to that issue and the alleged dangers posed by immigrants in general during the run-up to the Vienna election to be held next year 2010.

Austria Times, 16 April 2009

Racist escapes terror charge after threat to behead and bomb Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Neil MacGregorThe Crown Office has been accused of double standards by Scotland’s biggest Islamic group for not bringing terrorism charges against a man who threatened to blow up a mosque and behead Muslims.

The Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) has written to Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini querying the decision to prosecute Neil MacGregor for a breach of the peace, not terrorism offences.

MacGregor, 35, has admitted threatening to blow up Scotland’s biggest mosque and to behead one Muslim a week until every mosque was shut down. He will be sentenced at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Friday.

“There has been criticism for the lack of exposure this case has got, but this stems from how the case was originally handled,” SIF chief executive Osama Saeed said. “Had he been a Muslim, we suspect that counter-terror police would have been involved from the outset, and it would have been processed in a completely different manner.”

Mr Saeed drew a parallel with the case of Mohammed Atif Siddique, a student from Alva, Clackmannanshire, who was jailed for eight years for internet-related terrorist crimes.

“No-one seems to have looked into the internet habits that radicalised MacGregor to take copycat revenge for (British hostage] Ken Bigley’s assassination in Iraq,” he said. “We can be sure if he had been Muslim and had been inspired to replicate it, the result would have been quite different.”

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‘St George banned but it’s OK for Muslims to abuse our troops’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Paul RayPatriotic Brits blasted a council yesterday for barring a St George’s Day parade – after letting Muslim fanatics abuse our soldiers.

Anyone wanting to stage an event in Luton, Beds, has to seek permission from the council’s Safety Advisory Group. But while fanatical Muslims were given the green light to gather and scream insults when the Royal Anglian Regiment returned from Iraq last month, an application for a St George’s Day celebration this month was turned down.

Approval has also been granted for events to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed and the death of his grandson.

Daily Star, 15 April 2009

Of course, the Daily Star omits to mention that the individual who applied to organise the St George’s Day parade was Paul Ray, author of the far-right Lionheart blog, who is currently on bail facing a charge of incitement to racial hatred. See here and here.

See also Tabloid Watch which comments:

“What is so disconcerting about all this is the way the Star is fuelling the delusional hate-filled rantings of people like Paul Ray with stories like this. The story is clearly supporting his agenda in the way it frames this story. It pushes a false claim about St George being banned despite a weekend long event dedicated to him and sets up a ‘them and us’ clash against Muslims. The Star sides with Ray, Ray sides with the BNP. So where does that leave the Star?”

Update:  The Star has now amended its headline to remove the reference to St George being “banned”.

Facebook campaign against proposed mosque in Lichfield

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lichfield mosque threat

A leading Muslim businessman says he is “frightened” by the response a plan to build a mosque in an historic city has received. It has emerged that a group is using a social networking site which has been set up in protest at plans by Lichfield’s growing Muslim community to build a mosque in the city.

Curry entrepreneur Abdul Salam, who has lived in the city for 25 years and owns the Eastern Eye restaurant, unveiled the plan last week and as yet no planning application has been submitted to Lichfield District Council. But already more than 1,600 people have posted objections on Facebook.

Mr Salam claimed that one objection stated that if the mosque was built it would be burned down. He said: “Comments like burn up the mosque which have been left on Facebook show that we have a tremendous problem in Lichfield which we didn’t think we had. We have been left concerned and a bit frightened. We are looking to live together in peace.”

Another objector said: “There is no way we will have a mosque overshadow our beautiful cathedral city.” A third objector recorded: “I’ve been all over this world, came back to Lichfield – it’s one of the last unspoilt bastions of Englishness.”

Birmingham Post, 8 April 2009

See also “MP warns against plan for traditional mosque in Lichfield”, The Lichfield Blog, 1 April 2009

Update:  See “Lichfield Cathedral in BNP advert row”, Birmingham Mail, 23 April 2009