Category Archives: Far right racists

BNP is inciting religious hatred on Facebook

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Solihull Unite Against Fascism press release, 24 March 2008

BNP is inciting religious hatred on Facebook group – “Say no the Solihull Mosque”.

The BNP has used Facebook to help organise its campaign against the planning application by Solihull Muslim Community Association. The BNP facebook group “Say no to Solihull Mosque” claims to have 1600 members. It has generated over 1000 posts in under two weeks.

The Facebook group is being organised from Stoke on Trent, the administrator is based in Keele and the You Tube video is credited to Stoke BNP. The BNP administrator is openly using it as a recruitment tool, Alex E says “if you are fed up with mosques being built get involved in the BNP”.

The Group wall postings are inviting racist and islamophobic comment without the BNP organisers uttering a word. Examples of racist comments on the BNP Facebook site:

At 5:29am on 23rd March 2008
U avan a laugh???? Even if they did build a dirty mosque mans would just throw pigs guts at it!!!

At 10:35pm on March 18th, 2008
I have just heard the good news CONGRATULATIONS but the fight is not over. These bastards will not go away and until we kick them all out and send them back to their own countries we will have to continue fighting this war. But every time a muslim blows himself up or abuses a white person or tries to take over a neighbourhood we gain more supporters. Time is actually on our side and all of Europe is itching to kick these useless perverts out of Europe . I do not know one person who wants muslims in Europe and I know a lot of people around Europe . If Hitelr hadnt gone and messed things up for nationalism we would never have let them in. Well the tables are turning and these guys are toast.

At 12:43am on March 12th, 2008
fuck the pakis! this is our country! :@:@

These comments from the site are arguably an incitement to religious and racial hatred under the Public Order Act 1986. The BNP is responsible for publishing these comments if not directly speaking them. It is also in breach of the terms of use of Facebook. Facebook terms of use state that users agree not to upload, post or share content that the site deems “harmful, threatening, unlawful … inflammatory … hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable”.

A Solihull Unite Against Fascism spokesman said: “The BNP’s campaign against the so-called islamification of Solihull is clearly racist and is intended to direct hate against a particular section of the community. It is in clear breach of the Facebook terms of use and the site owners should take urgent action to close it down.”

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Dutch protest against Islam film

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-Wilders demoAt least 1,000 people have taken part in a demonstration in Amsterdam against the planned release of a film expected to be highly critical of Islam.

Protesters objected to the planned internet release of the film by Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders. Mr Wilders says the 15-minute film deals with Islamic ideology which he describes as “the enemy of freedom”.

Some protesters in central Amsterdam carried signs that said “Stop the witch hunt against Muslims”.

“We can no longer remain silent. There is a climate of hate and fear in the Netherlands,” said Rene Danen, a spokesman from anti-racism organisation Nederland Bekent Kleur (The Netherlands Shows its Colours), which organised the protest.

BBC News, 22 March 2008

See also Canadian Press, 22 March 2008

And “Web host suspends site planned for anti-Koran film”, Reuters, 22 March 2008

In the UK the fascists rally to the defence of their co-thinker Wilders: BNP news article, 23 March 2008

Plans for Muslim centre withdrawn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP Islam Out of BritainControversial plans for a Muslim community centre in Solihull have been withdrawn amid calls for greater acceptance towards minority groups.

Solihull Muslim Community Association (SMCA) applied for planning permission to establish the centre, complete with prayer hall, in Dog Kennel Lane, Shirley, with 50 parking spaces. Now the group – which has been searching for a home in the borough for 25 years – has announced that it has withdrawn the plans for “technical reasons”.

Fears were rife that racial tension could erupt in Solihull following a leaflet campaign by the BNP against plans for the centre which also included a wudu for washing before prayer. The leaflet, posted to homes near the proposed site, claimed there was an “Islamification” of Solihull and said the centre would lead to “conflict” and “discontent”.

A mother-of-three, who lives near the proposed centre and had objected to it, said she had mixed feelings about news of the application being withdrawn.

“I objected to the centre because of where it was on a busy road and I was concerned about overspill parking and I know other people objected on the same grounds,” said the woman, who did not wish to be named. “However, on the other hand I’m disappointed it’s been withdrawn and just hope it isn’t because of people with narrow minded views like the BNP. I felt sickened when their leaflet came through my door. I would hate the BNP to think it had won.”

Birmingham Mail, 18 March 2008

Meanwhile the fascists are crowing that “Solihull BNP has won a famous victory on behalf of local people”.

BNP news article, 18 March 2008

Wilders’ anti-Islam akin to anti-semitism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Entertainment entrepreneur Harry de Winter has taken out a page-wide advert on the front page of Monday’s Volkskrant newspaper accusing MP Geert Wilders of racism.

“If Wilders said the same about Jews and the Old Testament as he does about Muslims (and the Koran) he would have been long picked up and sentenced for anti-semitism,” the advert reads. The advert is signed by the foundation “Another Jewish voice”, which De Winter helped found.

In an interview with the paper, De Winter says that Wilders’ approach to Islam is like the build-up of anti-Jewish sentiment before World War II. “I see no difference between a skull-cap (worn by Jewish men) and a headscarf,” De Winter said. “I hope we get support from across the Jewish community because they should recognise this like no-one else.”

Dutch News, 17 March 2008

For Wilders’ recent speech to the Dutch parliament (“The Koran is above all a book of war – a call to butcher non-Muslims”), see PVV website.

Ramadan wants Muslims to ignore far-right Dutch film on Koran

Posted on by Bob Pitt

As the premiere of the long-awaited Koran film by far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders nears, it’s not uncommon to hear Muslims call for some way to censor what they expect to be a blistering condemnation of their faith. But not all see the film – now expected to be broadcast by the end of this month – as an opportunity to revive the polarisation of the Prophet Mohammad cartoons clash in 2006, when freedom of expression and respect for faith were presented as implacable opposites.

Tariq Ramadan, one of Europe’s most prominent Muslim intellectuals, has never shied from confronting the critics of his faith. But his approach to the Wilders film aims to avoid a repeat of the cartoons controversy. At a recent conference in Sweden, he told Reuters that people could not be prevented from publishing material like the Wilders film and the Danish newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that triggered protests across the Muslim world. Ramadan went on: “My advice (to Muslims) is take an intellectual critical distance towards this. Say ‘we don’t like it’ but go ahead and just ignore it.”

Reuters blogs, 17 March 2008

White lies

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ruqayyah Collector“Last Orders promoted many racist myths unchallenged. The BNP was the party favoured by most of those who mentioned voting in the programme, unchallenged by the narrator, who failed to point out it wants an all-white Britain and has a history of leading members with convictions for inciting racial hatred and violence.

“Instead, we see myths about Asians and Muslims presented as fact, the culmination of which is a young BNP supporter in front of a union flag with a swastika saying: ‘If I saw a young Paki getting kicked and knocked over, I would not blink an eyelid, I hate them so much.’

“This was not debate, but allowing a space where such attacks go unchallenged on mainstream television. The prophesising of a war coming to Bradford would have been chilling for any Asian person watching. In my experience, debunking the myths displayed here is the first step to challenging and eradicating the racism and violence that it breeds….

“There is in reality a growing climate of hostility which blames Muslims for ‘changing the complexion’ of Britain, in much the same way that the migrant Jewish community was attacked at the start of the last century. The isolation resulting from racism is what underlies the issues, which the White season fleetingly dabbles with. It singles out Bradford, where racism in housing and poverty and economic disadvantage has created barriers…. the BBC must do more to challenge racist myths, especially as they tend to gain currency, which is exploited by the far right in the runup to elections.”

Ruqayyah Collector responds to the BBC’s “White season“.

Comment is Free, 13 March 2008

BNP campaign raises race-hate fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fears are rife that racial tension could erupt in Solihull following a campaign by the BNP against plans for a Muslim community centre. For 25 years Solihull Muslim Community Association (SMCA) has been searching for a home in the borough to no avail. Now the group has applied for planning permission to establish a cultural centre, which includes a prayer hall, in Dog Kennel Lane, Shirley, with 50 parking spaces. However, the plans, which also include a wudu room for washing before prayer, have resulted in the Far Right BNP posting leaflets in the area claiming there is an “Islamification” of Solihull.

Birmingham Mail, 11 March 2008

Bishop abused and threatened over support for Muslim call to prayer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Bishop of Oxford was sent a death threat calling for his beheading after backing a plan to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. The Rt Rev John Pritchard today told a meeting discussing the issue he had received a bundle of “extraordinary mail” containing a number of threats.

The Bishop gave his backing, in principle, for the call to prayer to be broadcast from the Oxford Central Mosque, in Manzil Way, East Oxford, in interviews with the Oxford Mail and local radio in January.

Speaking at a public meeting organised by the Anglo Asian Association in East Oxford at Oxford Community School, he said: “After the interview, I received extraordinary mail. One said, on a piece of A4, ‘resign’ six times in large font. One called on me to be beheaded and one said ‘I wish I was closer so I could spit on you’. The dark underbelly of British society was coming out.”

Oxford Mail, 9 March 2008

Update:  See also “Bishop’s death threats over mosque plan”, Daily Telegraph, 11 March 2008

Rachel Whitear’s parents condemn BNP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The parents of heroin victim Rachel Whitear have condemned the British National Party for using a picture of her corpse in a campaign blaming Muslims for the drugs trade. Police are investigating whether the party can be prosecuted for inciting hatred in what 21-year-old Rachel’s mother and stepfather call an “insulting and offensive” leaflet.

After her death in 2000 they authorised the release of a harrowing photograph of her corpse slumped on the floor with a syringe in her hand for anti-drugs campaigns in schools. But they were disgusted to find that it features in BNP leaflets under the headline: “The heroin trade, a crime against humanity – time for Muslims to apologise.”

“I was truly horrified when I saw what they’d done with it,” said Rachel’s mother, Pauline Holcroft, 58 at her home in Ledbury, Herefordshire. “Even if one of the main political parties had asked us if they could use it in a campaign I think we would have to say No. For the BNP to use it without even seeking our permission is an insult to my daughter’s memory.”

Daily Mail, 10 March 2008