Category Archives: Far right racists

Pavlo Lapshyn to serve 40 years for anti-Muslim murder and mosque bomb attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pavlo Lapshyn nail bomb
Remains of the nail bomb that Pavlo Lapshyn planted outside the Kanz-ul-Iman Central Jamia Mosque in Tipton

A white supremacist terrorist who admitted murdering a Muslim pensioner and plotting three explosives devices at mosques in the West Midlands has sentenced to life in jail.

Pavlo Lapshyn, 25, admitted to stabbing grandfather Mohammed Saleem as he returned home from evening prayers in Small Heath, Birmingham on 29 April. He also pleaded guilty to planting three explosive devices near mosques in Walsall, Wolverhampton and Tipton.

Lapshyn from the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk, was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison at the Old Bailey. As well as murder, he was also sentenced to 12 years for offences under the Explosives Substances Act and 12 years for offences under the Terrorism Act, all to run concurrently.

The prosecution pushed for Lapshyn to receive a whole-life tariff, meaning he would never be able to apply for parole.

Continue reading →

Daily Beast provides anti-Muslim ammunition for former EDL leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nico Hines 'Muslims Patrols' article

We have already noted the Times‘ misleading report of the assault on US student Francesco Hounye, which tried to link the attack to earlier incidents involving the so-called Muslim patrol, in the absence of any evidence whatsoever to indicate such a connection.

Taking its cue from the Times, and ratcheting up the Islamophobic content a few more notches, the Daily Beast also covered the story, under the headline “American student slashed in London, police eye ‘Muslims patrols'”.

Continue reading →

EDL member admits possessing parts which could be used to make an explosive device

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Loughborough neo-Nazi accused of planning a “new Columbine” massacre has admitted possessing parts which could be used to make for improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The 17-year-old EDL supporter, who is said have planned terrorist attacks on Loughborough University, the local cinema, and council offices, was caught with canisters of carbon dioxide.

He had initially denied the charge but changed his plea half way through the trial. The teenager, who cannot be named, has already pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.

He denies possessing an article for a purpose connected with terrorism and possessing a document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Continue reading →

How Quilliam joined former EDL leader in spreading false rumour about cheap ‘Muslim only’ football tickets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The harassment and abuse of Muslim spectators at a West Ham United football match last Saturday, during which they were subjected to shouts of “fucking Pakis, go home” and “E, E, EDL”, has been widely reported.

Fuel was subsequently thrown on the fire of anti-Muslim bigotry by claims that the men were at the ground because the club had offered tickets at a specially reduced price for Muslims. As Steve Rose has written in an article posted on the Tell Mama website:

Social media soon became a hotbed of conspiracy theories about West Ham trying to ‘Islamify’ their support by offering heavily discounted tickets to Muslims.  There was genuine anger from many over this ‘two-tier’ ticketing.

However, this is untrue. West Ham sells discounted tickets for British soldiers and periodically offers ‘kids for a quid’ specials. There was no special ‘Muslim’ discount. Such anger might be indicative of an underlying Islamophobia in some supporters.

These tickets are routinely offered to local community groups and are available to all. Not everyone who purchased these £5 tickets was Muslim. It was merely a reflection of that community (for example, some were Eastern European and non-Muslim Asian). There was no conspiracy. West Ham was simply making football more affordable.

Continue reading →

Le Pen launches plan to unite the far right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marine Le Pen (8)Europe’s far-right parties are set to contest next year’s European elections on a common manifesto, according to French National Front leader Marine Le Pen.

At a press conference in the Strasbourg Parliament on Wednesday (23 October), Le Pen, flanked by Franz Obermayr of the Austrian anti-immigration Freedom party, told reporters that she was hopeful of persuading nationalist candidates from across the EU to run on the ticket of the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF).

Continue reading →

Bradford Council refuses to back bid to ban English Defence League

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Bradford8
English Defence League demonstration in Bradford in 2010

Bradford Council last night refused to support the banning of the English Defence League (EDL).

Councillor Alyas Karmani (Respect, Little Horton) called for the proscription of the “racist and fascist organisation” who came to Bradford to protest earlier this month.

But Council leader David Green (Lab) said: “I think proscription at this stage is a step too far.” He also slammed the EDL as “racist thugs”.

Continue reading →

Lawyer wants Wilders’ inciting hatred case reconsidered

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lawyer Gerard Sprong is to ask the High Court to reconsider the 2011 case against Geert Wilders for inciting hatred.

Sprong was instrumental in getting the original case heard and was disappointed when Wilders was found not guilty.

Spong told TV programme Pauw & Witteman on Monday evening he has now asked the procurator general to take recourse in the interest of law, a special procedure in which the High Court in hindsight decides if a lower court has explained the law clearly and properly.

Continue reading →

Terror alert issued over far-right ‘lone wolves’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pavlo Lapshyn nail bomb
Remains of the nail bomb that Pavlo Lapshyn planted outside the Kanz-ul-Iman Central Jamia Mosque in Tipton

The terrorist threat from extreme right-wing “lone wolves” is on the increase and growing in potency, one of the Government’s most senior security officials warned yesterday.

Individual terrorists driven by hatred of immigrants and Muslims are assessed as being more skilled in making and using explosives, firearms and poisons while also being harder to track than Islamist terrorist cells.

Police and intelligence services stepped up monitoring of the far-right threat after Anders Breivik’s massacre in Norway in 2011 and have reviewed measures again this year after the murder of an elderly Muslim man and bomb attacks on mosques in the West Midlands.

Pavlo Lapshyn, 25, had been in Britain for only five days before he murdered Mohammed Saleem, 82, in Birmingham in April and embarked on his bombing campaign. He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey yesterday and will be sentenced on Friday.

Lapshyn’s ability to act alone and the speed at which he began his self-styled mission “to increase racial conflict” after arriving in Birmingham on a work placement has alarmed police and security agencies.

“The extreme right-wing terrorist threat is a threat of lone actors – but lone actor threats are often more challenging because groups often have weaknesses, whereas determined lone actors rarely do,” Charles Farr, director-general of the Office for Security and Counter-terrorism, said. “They are lone actors but often more proficient than actors who we may see at the other end of the terrorist spectrum.”

Continue reading →

Muslims harassed as they pray at Upton Park

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims praying at Upton ParkThis is the “disturbing” moment when West Ham fans turned on their own Muslim supporters as they prayed just before half-time at Saturday’s match against Manchester City.

The small group of Muslim supporters were kneeling eastwards and bowing their heads in the concourse of the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand at Upton Park, east London, when they were spotted by fellow fans.

They were conducting their Mahgrib prayers at about 6pm – the fourth of devout Muslims’ five prayers a day. It was about 10 minutes before half-time and the concourse was relatively quiet.

The supporters, who are understood not to have made any complaint, had been invited to the club as part of a highly commended initiative to forge closer links with local community groups. As such the sight of fans praying would have been unusual. They were met first by disbelief, then swearing and finally by increasingly loud chants of “Irons”, the club’s nickname, apparently intended to drown out the prayers.

Continue reading →