Yes, it’s Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail.
Mel’s admirers in the BNP aren’t happy either.
Category Archives: Far right racists
Milan mosque ‘to be closed down’
A controversial mosque in the Italian city of Milan is to be shut down, the country’s right-wing government says.
The Jenner mosque attracts about 4,000 Muslims each week, with Friday prayers often spilling out on to the street. Now, after years of complaints from local residents, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has said he will close the mosque by August.
Mr Maroni, who belongs to the anti-immigrant Northern League, has said he will press ahead with plans to close the mosque, and that anybody found praying in the street will be issued with a ticket.
The local Muslim community is being offered the use of a nearby stadium, in which the Beatles once played. However, the council has said it can only be used four times each week and that each person will be charged on entry.
The president of the mosque, Abdel Hamid Shaari, has said he is happy to pay rent but that its members “won’t be treated like nomads”. “We are Milanese and we are not going to accept the solution that’s being offered,” he said.
The Catholic church has come out in support of the Muslim community. The Roman Catholic priest in charge of inter-faith relations in Milan, Monsignor Gianfranco Bottoni, said that only a fascist or populist government would resort to such dictatorial methods as closing a mosque.
Swiss far right forces vote on minaret ban
Far right groups in Switzerland have collected enough signatures to force a nationwide referendum on banning minarets, the distinctive towers of Islamic architecture.
In what is being seen as a sign of growing Islamophobia in Europe, more than 100,000 Swiss citizens signed a petition to halt the construction of minarets. Under Switzerland’s direct democracy rules, that level of support is enough to trigger a referendum. The Swiss interior ministry today confirmed a vote would take place, without setting a date.
The petition was launched by Ulrich Schlüer an MP from the controversial Swiss People’s party, which was accused of racist campaigning last year. In a bid to get immigrants’ families deported if their children had been convicted of violent crime, the party ran an advertising campaign showing three white sheep on a Swiss flag kicking out a black sheep with the caption: “For more security.”
The president of Switzerland, Pascal Couchepin, said the government would recommend that voters rejected the proposed minaret ban.
The organisers of the petition argue that the minarets, which are used on mosques, are a symbol of political and religious claims to power, not just a religious sign. Schlüer said last year: “We’ve got nothing against prayer rooms or mosques for the Muslims. But a minaret is different. It’s got nothing to do with religion; it’s a symbol of political power.”
If Schlüer’s camp wins the referendum, the Swiss parliament must pass a law enshrining a minaret construction ban in the constitution. Opponents say such a ban would violate religious freedom.
The UN expert on racism, Doudou Diene, has said the campaign is evidence of an “ever-increasing trend” toward anti-Islamic actions in Europe.
See also BBC News, 8 July 2008
Nazi BNP to target Stoke for anti-Muslim rally
The fascist British National Party (BNP) plans to ratchet up its hate campaign against Muslims by calling a “national rally” in Stoke-on-Trent on Saturday 9 August.
Nazi leader Nick Griffin visited the city last Sunday to announce the rally. “We are expecting large numbers of people from around the country to converge on the city,” he said. “We shall be touring the estates and visiting much of Stoke-on-Trent.”
Anti-Nazi campaigners have vowed to confront the BNP’s latest plans to target Muslims. “We’ve been warning that the BNP are planning to make a shift like this towards whipping up race hatred on the ground,” said Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism (UAF).
“This is how the BNP plans to lay the groundwork for next year’s mayoral elections in Stoke. They thrive in an atmosphere of racism and bigotry – and now they plan to create that climate in the city. Everyone opposed to the BNP must stand together against this poison.”
Respect mobilises against racist Cologne conference
Respect is aiming to send at least 100 activists to join protests against an anti-Islam conference organised by Europe’s fascists. At the recent anti-fascist march in London, it appealed for activists to come to Cologne.
Thanks to George Bush’s war on terror, Islamophobia is the acceptable face of racism. The fascists and far right across Europe have put attacks on Muslims at the centre of their propaganda.
This September the European far right is set to gather in the German city of Cologne for an anti-Muslim hate-fest. Anti-racists, trade unions, survivors of the Holocaust, Muslim groups and others across Germany are calling on people to come to the city in protest. Respect is organising a large delegation to join this major protest, blockade and counter-conference over the weekend of 20 and 21 September.
Nadir Ahmed, one of the organisers of the delegation, says, “The BNP’s Richard Barnbrook is due to be in Cologne alongside veteran fascists like Jean Marie Le Pen.
“Every far right party wants to get a boost from it. A huge counter protest, on the other hand, will lift Muslims and anti-racists across the continent. The fascists appear to have chosen this date because it is right in the middle of Ramadan, when Muslims are fasting, tend not to travel far, and spend a lot of time with friends and family.
“Well, for me and many Muslims going to Cologne to stop this Nuremberg rally for Islamophobia definitely comes under the category of essential travel and an obligation to act justly. I hope many brothers and sisters, Muslim and non-Muslim, join us.”
For details phone Nadir on 07951 058864.
BNP leader Nick Griffin pays respect to killed activist
British National Party leader Nick Griffin visited North Staffordshire yesterday to pay his respects to the partner of activist Keith Brown. His visit marked one year since Mr Brown was killed by a neighbour.
And after commiserating with Julia Barker, he spent time with local party officials planning a national BNP rally scheduled for Stoke-on-Trent next month. Mr Griffin also thanked them for turning the city into “the jewel in the crown of the BNP”.
Mr Barker, of Uttoxeter Road, in Normacot, was stabbed to death on July 6 last year, by his Muslim neighbour Habib Khan, following a long-running dispute. Khan was convicted of manslaughter by reason of lack of intent and is still awaiting sentence.
Mr Griffin said: “Despite the manslaughter verdict we still regard Keith’s death as murder and we need to highlight how the police and criminal justice system fails to properly investigate such racially-motivated crime. We are expecting large numbers of people from around the country to converge on the city for the rally on August 9 when we shall be touring the estates and visiting large parts of Stoke-on-Trent.”
It is quite clear that racism – and anti-Muslim racism in particular – is absolutely central to the BNP’s political appeal across the country. Consequently, anti-racism has to be equally central to the anti-fascist movement.
Yet there are still those who try to avoid recognising this self-evident fact. A discussion article by Nick Lowles in the June 2008 issue of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, for example, argues that: “A cursory look at where the BNP is gaining support shows that race is not necessarily the dominant issue that it was in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford. There are very small non-white communities in Stoke-on-Trent, Barnsley and Nuneaton and Bedworth.”
How does this in any way demonstrate that racism is not still the defining factor in the rise of the BNP in those towns? It’s well known that le Pen’s Front National won support in areas where a high proportion of the inhabitants were of North African origin – Marseilles notably – but also in areas where the white “indigenous” French population was in a large majority. In both areas the FN campaigned on the basis of racism, winning votes by inciting hatred and fear of migrants.
Similarly in the UK, just because there is a small proportion of non-white people in a particular area it doesn’t mean that racism ceases to be central to the BNP’s appeal there. Indeed, in such areas racism can sometimes become a more effective mobilising ideology for the far right than it is in multi-ethnic towns and cities, because the white majority, having little direct experience of social interaction with members of minority non-white communities, are more susceptible to racist stereotypes and can be convinced that their culture and identity are under threat from an influx of “aliens”. Five years ago the BNP managed to get a councillor elected in Broxbourne on the basis of a scaremongering campaign about the town “filling up” with asylum seekers, when in reality there wasn’t a single asylum seeker living in Broxbourne.
Stoke-on-Trent may well contain “very small non-white communities” (at the time of the 2001 census, 95% of the population was white and only 5% non-white, while even the most ethnically mixed ward – Hanley – had a 76% white population). However, as is detailed in Peter Oborne and James Jones’ excellent new pamphlet (pdf) Muslims Under Siege, this hasn’t prevented the BNP from acquiring its base of political support and nine councillors …
“… in large part by fighting a vicious anti-Muslim campaign. Stoke has one of the lowest employment rates in the country since the pottery industry collapsed. The BNP have sought to link this decline to Muslim immigration. Their leaflets have shown a montage of pottery kilns, smiling white housewives and a church tower, with the caption, ‘HANLEY 70 YEARS AGO’. A second montage alongside showed silhouettes of mosques and a photograph of women in veils (taken in Birmingham) – one giving a V-sign – with the caption, ‘Is this what you want for our city centre?’
“Other campaigns have focused on planning issues over mosques – a flash point elsewhere too. The BNP accuse the Labour council of cutting special deals with Muslim groups in exchange for support. The BNP protested that the Labour majority council was renting a plot of land to Muslim developers for just £1 a year, amid suggestions that it could be sold to them for £72,000. The BNP even made an offer of £100,000 on the land. The mayor of Stoke, Mark Meredith, told us that these peppercorn rent deals are done with all community groups, and that in this case a plot of land that has been lying idle for decades will be put to good use and regenerate the area….
“The determination to scapegoat Muslims has meant they even champion animal rights, targeting halal food as inhumane in a campaign that BNP Councillor Michael Coleman admitted to us was not their natural territory.
“The BNP told us on our recent visit that they are about to launch a new nationwide anti-Muslim campaign from Stoke. The launch pad for this new era of hostility will be the sentencing of Habib Khan, who was charged with murdering his neighbour, Keith Brown, a BNP activist. Brown is to be promoted as the first ‘BNP martyr’.”
And this, according to Searchlight‘s leading theoretician, is a town where “race is not necessarily the dominant issue” in the rise of the BNP!
What explains this peculiar blind spot on the part of Nick Lowles? Some of us might point to Searchlight‘s traditional reluctance to mount an ideological and cultural challenge to racism within the white majority community. Plus, of course, the Zionist politics of Searchlight‘s leadership makes them resistant to campaigning against anti-Muslim bigotry in co-operation with the representative organisations of the community who are the victims of that bigotry.
Neo-Nazi who threatened ‘racial war’ against Muslims found guilty
Neo-Nazi Martyn Gilleard has been found guilty of making bombs for a far-right terrorist campaign, after having previously admitted downloading thousands of images of child sexual abuse.
Police initially searched Gilleard’s flat in Goole, East Yorkshire, in connection with child pornography offences. But once inside the 31-year-old’s home, they discovered not just evidence of a paedophile, but the equipment of a potential terrorist as well.
Officers found machetes, swords, bullets, gunpowder and racist literature. Most sinister of all were four home-made nail bombs stashed under his bed.
He wrote of starting a “racial war” and murdering Muslims, but Martyn Gilleard boasted that he was no “barstool nationalist”. In a notebook recovered by police, Gilleard wrote that the “time has come to stop the talk and start to act”. And a jury has decided he truly did want to put his white supremacist views into action.
Gilleard, a forklift truck driver from Goole, East Yorkshire, admitted to police and the court that he had held racist views. At the time of his arrest he was a paid-up member of the National Front, the White Nationalist Party and the British People’s Party – all opposed to multiculturalism.
His computer password was Martyn1488 – the 14, according to prosecutor Andrew Edis QC, being a reference to the far-right’s “14 words” slogan, “We must secure the existence of our race and the future for white children.” The 88, Mr Edis added, represented the eighth letter of the alphabet – an abbreviation for “Heil Hitler”.
But Gilleard was not simply a passive crank, the court was told. In a notebook recovered by police, Gilleard wrote that the “time has come to stop the talk and start to act”.
“Unless we the British right stop talking of racial war and take steps to make it happen, we will never get back that which has been stolen from us,” he added. “I am so sick and tired of hearing nationalists talk of killing Muslims, of blowing up mosques, of fighting back, only to see these acts of resistance fail to appear.”
Nazis attack German Muslims
Two young neo-Nazis wielding baseball bats attacked a group of Muslims on their way to a mosque in the eastern German state of Thuringia, police said Sunday. A 23-year-old required medical treatment for injuries to his arm after the attack on Saturday evening in Nordhausen, some 250 kilometres southwest of Berlin. The assailants fled after hurling verbal abuse at their victims from Morocco, Russia and Pakistan, a police spokesman said.
Attacks on foreigners are not uncommon in the eastern part of Germany, where unemployment is high and right-wing groups have an easy time recruiting new members. In a case that made international headlines last year, a mob of Germans chased a group of Indians through the eastern town of Muegeln and tried to kick down the door of the restaurant where they sought sanctuary.
Racism rears its ugly head in Cornwall
A disused chapel in a sparsely populated hamlet far from the summer tourist crowds has emerged as a crucial testing ground of Cornwall’s reputation as an easy-going haven for those looking to escape the pressures of urban life – whatever their race. For amid green rolling hills just a few miles outside the cathedral city of Truro, the slate-roofed Bible Christian church at Quenchwell, near Carnon Downs, is under sustained assault from racists opposed to a planned community centre for the county’s Asians.
The third attack in recent weeks was discovered in the early hours of Thursday morning. Obscene graffiti defaming Islam and espousing the cause of Cornish nationalism was splattered across the walls of the chapel. In earlier incidents a pig’s head was nailed to the door and “KKK” – Ku Klux Klan – was painted in red gloss on an outside wall. The most recent grafitti included BNP slogans.
For Tipo Choudhury, a local restaurateur who bought the chapel and has become the reluctant voice of the Asian communities here, the events have come as a terrible shock. The British-born father of three has been raising his family in nearby Penzance since the mid-1980s. “In 22 years I have had no uncomfortable moments, until now. When you suddenly get called a ‘Paki bastard’ here in Cornwall it makes you jump. This sort of thing just does not happen here,” he said. In addition to the attacks on the chapel, he was also racially abused by a passing motorcyclist while standing outside the building. “Racism is showing its ugly head. It shows prejudice is alive and kicking,” he added.
Nazis recommend Harry’s Place
Yes, when it comes to hysterical articles about the supposed threat posed by shariah law, the white supremacist forum Stormfront evidently finds much to admire at the self-styled voice of the “decent left”. Given the readiness of the increasingly unbalanced David T to label political activists from the Muslim communities as fascists, it’s interesting to see how much common ground he and his friends at HP have with actual fascists.