Category Archives: Far right racists

Far Right makes electoral gains in Austria on anti-Muslim platform

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Strache celebratesThe far Right has made a grand return in Austria, emerging from yesterday’s elections as the second biggest parliamentary block, according to preliminary results.

The two parties that campaigned on an anti-immigrant and anti-European Union ticket have captured about 29 per cent of the vote, pushing the country’s traditional conservative party into third place.

Heinz-Christian Strache [pictured] and his Freedom Party, who were accused of xenophobia and waging an anti-Muslim campaign, won 18 per cent – a rise of 7 per cent compared with the last elections. Mr Strache’s former mentor, Jörg Haider, won 11 per cent of the vote with his new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria.

A throaty roar filled the Freedom Party’s election tent in Vienna when the results flashed up on a screen. The crowd – mainly young and middle-aged men drinking beer – punched the air in triumph. They cheered more when Mr Strache announced that his party would only join a government that was led by himself.

Many Viennese were horrified by such a prospect, however. “It is disappointing that so many Austrians agreed to what was basically a xenophobic campaign,” said Adelheid Mayr, 39. “I am ashamed of the results and I hope none of the far Right parties will be allowed to rule the country.”

Mr Strache, 39, the biggest winner of the day, had sought to exploit fear of foreigners and Islam during his campaign. Speaking at his final election rally in Vienna’s working-class district of Favoriten on Friday, he said that people were scared to see women in burkas running around “like female Ninjas”, and added: “Many decent people have come here and they integrated: Poles, Hungarians, Croats and also Serbs. We are all European brothers because we do not want to become Islamised.”

Mr Strache’s rally in Vienna last week was marred by a violent confrontation between hundreds of left-wing opponents and his far Right supporters, some of whom were jackbooted skinheads.

Times, 29 September 2008

Meanwhile, over at the Spectator, Mad Mel offers her insights into the rise of the far Right:

“Their success is due to the enormous feeling among the people of Europe against, on the one hand, the destruction of their powers of self-government and their assimilation into the undemocratic Euro superstate, and on the other the threat to western culture from Islamist conquest…. With no democratic party addressing these concerns and instead demonising legitimate nationalist feeling as ‘racist’, ‘xenophobic’ or ‘Islamophobic’, people are turning to parties which truly are racist, anti-foreigner, anti-Muslim, anti-Jew and sometimes, indeed, neo-Nazi, but which are exploiting this political vacuum….

“The awful thing is that, as the far-right advances and social disorder increases – as it will – muddled liberals and malign leftists will blame these political and social calamities on ‘the far right’. As a result, the steady encroachment of Islamism will proceed apace – and anyone who objects will also be demonised as ‘the far right’. The rise of the neo-Nazis will thus turn the defence of democracy toxic. There is therefore a danger that the only people who will be fighting the Islamic fascists and in defence of the nation against the supranational supremacists will be the fascists.

“If this truly frightful outcome is to be avoided, it is imperative that social democratic politicians in Britain and Europe wake up from their trance and realise just what it is they have to defend, and against whom.”

No trial for Preston BNP man over leaflets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP heroin leaflet

A member of the British National Party in Preston who delivered hundreds of leaflets blaming Muslims for the heroin trade, will not face criminal charges, it has emerged.

Race hate unit officers at Lancashire police have been told by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) there is “insufficient evidence” to prosecute Tony Bamber who distributed the pamphlets. The 53-year-old, who stood in local elections for the BNP in the Tulketh ward in 2006, previously admitted he was involved in distributing the leaflets across Lancashire and at the University of York.

This week, a defiant Mr Bamber insisted he was not surprised the CPS had decided there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute. He said: “This decision is most welcome from our point of view, it legitimises the campaign and shows that our demands are fair and just. We will continue to distribute the leaflets and educate the middle-classes.”

But one of the county’s top police officers has slammed the BNP distributors, saying the leaflets risked creating tensions between racial groups. Lancashire Deputy Chief Constable Mike Cunningham acknowledged the CPS’s advice that no criminal act had been committed, adding:

“While we understand that this advice is based on established case law, we roundly condemn the contents of these leaflets and those distributing them. They can only be described as inflammatory in nature and we are obviously concerned that their distribution in Lancashire could damage community cohesion.”

They were also condemned by the mother of heroin victim Rachel Whitear after a picture of her dead daughter was used on the flyers without permission.

A CPS spokeswoman added: “We advised Lancashire police that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute for inciting racial hatred or to prosecute under the Public Order Act. We advised the police that if they come to us with more evidence, we will look at it.”

Preston Citizen, 25 September 2008

Danish People’s Party MEP: Expel Islam from Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Skik flge eller land flyThe controversial Danish People’s Party member of the European Parliament Mogens Camre spoke at the DPP’s annual meeting Sunday, calling to expel Islam from Europe.

“Islam cannot be integrated. Islam will dominate Europe. And Islam is incompatible with our values. Therefore Islam will be thrown out of Europe. This little land is ours, we forged it ourselves. And we will govern it ourselves and decide ourselves who will live in it and how they will behave. And we will fight until Denmark is again free,” said Camre, to loud applause.

Last year a similar statement by DPP member Merethe Egeberg Holm caused a commotion, when she said “Out with all Muslims in Europe and in with Jews instead!” That was her last speech as after last year’s meeting, she was expelled from the party.

Camre met with harsh criticism for his statement. Kamal Qureshi (Socialist People’s Party) compared the DPP politicians to Danish Nazi head Jonni Hansen. He also hit out at his colleagues in parliament, whom he thinks are keeping too quiet. Both the reigning party and the opposition should distance themselves from the statements.

Islam in Europe, 25 September 2008

Family barred from burying their dead stepfather on a Saturday … because he isn’t a Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thus the headline to an piece in today’s Daily Mail. Yes, it’s yet another “Muslims are being given preferential treatment” story. And, unsurprisingly, it has been taken up in a news article posted on the BNP’s website.

The Daily Mail article in fact reveals the spurious basis of its own scaremongering headline:

“Sheffield City Council offers the ‘extended service’ to Jews and Muslims because their faith and traditions require the dead to be buried as soon as possible. But as Jews cannot bury their dead on the Sabbath – from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday – it means that effectively only Muslims can use the service. Other local authorities are also understood to offer weekend burials only to Jews and Muslims.”

The story is adapted from an original article in the Sheffield Star, which contains the following passage:

“Abdool Gooljar, president of the Sheffield branch of the Society of Islam, said the council should try to meet the needs of every resident of the city. ‘The last thing we want to do is cause more upset at the time of bereavement, and I would urge a re-think so everybody has the right to bury their dead when they want,’ he said. ‘I, firstly as a Muslim and secondly as a citizen, do not want preferential treatment. We are living in a multi-faith, multi-cultural society and we should endeavour to meet the needs of every citizen in this city’.”

The Daily Mail version leaves out the final sentence with its reference to a multi-faith, multicultural society, while the BNP article removes the quotation from Abdool Gooljar in its entirety.

Fascists routed in Cologne

Posted on by Bob Pitt

 

By Walter Held

IT HAD been planned as a central meeting of leading proto-fascists, rightwing populists and neo-nazis. A grand “European Anti-Islamic Congress” was scheduled to be held today Saturday 20th September in the huge German city of Koeln – Cologne – on the banks of the river Rhine.

Invitations had gone out to the Italian Liga Nord, the French Front National, the Austrian FPOe and the BZOe, the British National Party the Belgian Vlams Belang and others. Theme of the weekend “congress” at which the organisers confidently expected 1500 participants was a campaign against the “advance of Islam in Europe”.

The organisers belong to a political grouping called Pro Koeln. This rag tag and bobtail splinter group with a couple of dozen members picked up just under 5 pc of the votes for Koeln’s city election and have a fraction of five councillors in the city parliament. These have a small basis amongst backward elements in the pubs and on the housing estates and have set up a campaign to fight against the building of a central mosque for the city’s Moslem population.

In fact most of the organisers are ex-members or secret members of extreme rightwing groupings like the Republikaner, the German League for Folk and Homeland and the NPD but they hide behind the new respectable organisation “Pro Koeln”. As a front orginsation the right are keen to set up similar groups in other German cities. The Congress this weekend was to be a signal of their presence and their growth.

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Czech far right party stages protest against Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Narodni StranaSupporters of the Czech far right National Party will stage a protest against Islamism outside the Brno mosque on Wednesday, the party has informed on its website.

The Libertas Independent Agency associating Brno Muslims and friends of Muslim nations has expressed its protest against the planned event in a statement CTK has obtained.

“We are naturally monitoring the situation and collecting all important information concerning it,” south Moravian police spokeswoman Jan Sipkova told CTK Monday.

The demonstration is to be a reaction to the death of Czech ambassador to Pakistan Ivo Zdarek who died on Saturday in the ruins of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad that became the target of a terrorist attack, along with another 52 people.

Shortly after Zdarek’s death, the Brno Muslims expressed condolence to his family. In the past, they always distanced themselves from Islamist terrorist attacks.

The Brno mosque which is the oldest Muslim house of worship in the Czech Republic marked ten years of its existence this summer. At the ceremony Muslims distributed one thousand roses among Brno residents as an expression of friendship and thanks for good co-existence.

The Brno Muslims condemned the attacks on New York on September 11, 2001. In the past, they considerably helped Czech diplomats in the salvation of public Czech Television (CT) reporter Michal Kubal and his colleagues after they were kidnapped in war-torn Iraq.

Prague Daily Monitor, 22 September 2008

Far Right extremists flee anti-mosque rally in Germany

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cologne protestersA weekend gathering in Cologne of far-right European extremists ended in farce when the main rally was cancelled as the organisers fled for their own safety.

Politicians invited to the protest included Filip Dewinter, head of the Belgian Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, Andreas Mölzer, an MEP from the Austrian Freedom Party, and Mario Borghezio, an MEP in the Italian Northern League. Two members of the British National Party were also in town, including Richard Barnbrook, its sole member of the London Assembly.

A press conference to launch the pan-European movement against “Islamification” descended into chaos when its secret location – on board a Rhine river cruiser – was leaked. Left-wing activists arrived en masse to disrupt the event and were so successful that only two Pro-Cologners made it on board before the captain cast off in panic and headed for open water.

The group had then planned to tour the site of the mosque but this was stopped by the police on the ground that a busload of right-wing extremists cruising through a predominantly Muslim area might not be conducive to law and order.

So the only chance that Pro-Cologne had to make an impact was at its main rally on Saturday afternoon in the Heumarkt square. The organisers hoped for about 1,500 people. They had not reckoned on 40,000 screaming anti-fascists trying to break into the square to remonstrate with them.

With leading delegates stuck at the airport and the Heumarkt besieged, the rally was called off after only 45 minutes. The organisers began dismantling their microphones and stage, hoping that the security cordon would hold as police battled against the more violent protesters who were throwing paintbombs and snatching batons.

Although some of them were spirited away, many were penned in for several hours, unable even to get a beer as the bar owners in the square refused to serve them. Finally the BNP representatives got out, scuttling out the back of some of the buildings lining the Heumarkt, their attempts to present a united European front against Islamification in tatters.

“This was a victory for the democratic forces in this city,” Fritz Schramma, the Christian Democrat mayor, said.

Times, 22 September 2008

German anti-Islam rally cancelled after clashes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ProtestorsGerman police cancelled an anti-Islamic congress planned for Saturday in Cologne after leftist opponents of the rally clashed with its right-wing backers.

The group Pro-Cologne called the rally to oppose a decision by local authorities in Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

It invited like-minded nationalist groups from around Europe to join the “Stop Islam” rally to fight what it called the “Islamisation and immigration invasion” of Germany and Europe.

“The rally has been cancelled,” a police spokesman said. Many protesters cheered the announcement. A spokesman for Pro-Cologne said they were surprised by the cancellation and would hold a news conference later on Saturday.

Police said 40,000 people protested against the rally. It had been expected to attract 1,500 people but only dozens made it.

Some of the protesters carried placards reading “Nazis out of Cologne” and “Temples, synagogues, churches and mosques – everything’s okay”. “We’re here to show racism the red card,” said Cologne mayor Fritz Schramma. “Racists and extremists aren’t welcome.”

Reuters, 20 September 2008

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NAMP calls for BNP councillor to be prosecuted over anti-Muslim leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police are facing a race row after allegedly failing to properly investigate “Islamophobic” leaflets. Muslim officers have accused the Lancashire force of failing to make arrests over a hate crime and now plan to take the issue to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The flyers, from six months ago, said: “Muslims are exclusively responsible for the heroin trade.” The leaflets, printed by BNP councillor Brian Norton Parker, appeared in Pendle and Burnley and demand an “apology” and “compensation” from Muslims.

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Muslim police anger over leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim police leaders are demanding to know why no action has been taken over a leaflet which blames Muslims for the heroin trade. The leaflet, distributed to hundreds of households in parts of Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire, says people should “heap condemnation” on Muslims.

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough proof it was meant to stir up racial or religious hatred. The National Association of Muslim Police said the CPS advice was flawed.

The leaflet says Muslims are “almost exclusively responsible” for the manufacture, transport and sale of heroin, 95% of which it says comes from the Afghanistan and Pakistan region. It says the process of “naming and shaming” Muslims will have a “positive effect” on bringing about the abolition of the heroin trade.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the contents of the leaflet were “racist” but has advised police that no criminal act had been committed. The National Association of Muslim Police said the CPS advice gave a green light to those behind the leaflet to continue distributing them.

BBC News, 19 September 2008

Update:  See also the Muslim News which quotes editor Ahmed Versi as stating, quite rightly: “It just shows that incitement to religious hatred legislation is inadequate and the BNP members use the loophole to target Muslims. If the leaflets were targeted at other ethnic communities like the Jews and Black people then the perpetrators would have been charged for incitement.”