A planned protest against Halal slaughter in Skegness will now be organised by the Skegness division of the English Defence League.
The protest, on July 27, was originally planned by the East Anglian Patriots, the group who protested against the planned mosque in Lincoln on June 8. Around 200 people gathered in City Square on the day, with protestors campaigning against the “Islamification” of Britain.
When I was a kid back in the 1950s our family regularly took our summer holidays in the North Wales resort of Llandudno, and over half a century later I still have pleasant memories of playing on the beach there. So imagine my shock at the revelation that this picturesque seaside town is about to succumb to the apparently inexorable process of Islamification that is sweeping the UK. Is nowhere safe from the Muslim hordes?
The One Law for All co-director and would-be Labour parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion will be pleased to hear that her views on Islam have proved a source of inspiration to the EDL.
About 130 people have marched through Ipswich town centre in a show of “unity” against the English Defence League (EDL). Unite Against Fascism (UAF) said it held the march after members of the EDL protested outside a recent meeting in Ipswich, shouting “racist comments”. About 25 EDL members held a counter march in Ipswich on Sunday, saying UAF supported “Muslim extremists”. There were some heated exchanges but the marches were without any violence.
A sinister new group of right-wing extremists is trying to revive Oswald Mosley’s notorious British Union of Fascists party. Calling themselves the 21st Century Blackshirts, members look up to former Smethwick MP and sympathiser Mosley as their spiritual leader.
A UKIP councillor who admitted sharing offensive material about Muslims on Facebook will not face charges, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.
West Mercia Police said Eric Kitson, 59, was questioned but not arrested over “concerns raised by the public”. In May a computer was seized and a property in Stourport searched for evidence. The CPS said there was “insufficient evidence” to charge the former Worcestershire county councillor.
A broad coalition of Ipswich people including members of all major trade unions, the Labour party and many other community groups will be marching on Sunday in support of the town’s tradition of multiculturalism. The march is organised by Ipswich Unite Against Fascism (UAF).
David Ellesmere, leader of Ipswich Borough Council, said: “Ipswich has a long and proud history of being a diverse town where people of all communities get on. Extremists who seek to create divisions amongst Ipswich people do not speak for us. They are not Ipswich and we will not let them divide us.” Miles Hubbard Unite regional officer said: “By marching we are showing that there is no place for the politics of hatred in Ipswich.”
The march will gather at Giles Circus in Queen Street, Ipswich at 11am. For more information, contact Unite Ipswich on 01473 250321.
“Simon Blackaby thinks that you can’t have a debate about nationalism without inviting the leader of a violent and reactionary gang of racist thugs. We disagree.”
Tessa Frost and Orlando Lazar-Gillard challenge the thinking behind the proposal to invite English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon to speak at the Oxford Union.
An academy is to host a public meeting to counter an anti-Islam demonstration in Croydon later this month. Oasis Academy Shirley Park in Ashburton will hold a roundtable event on Thursday July 11 for locals to publicly reject the protest by the English Volunteer Force (EVF).
The EVF, an English Defence League splinter group, is to stage a rally at the UK Border Agency’s Lunar House headquarters on July 27. The group says it is protesting “Islamic, African and east European immigrants,” who it claims “suck and bleed our country dry”. Oasis’s meeting, which will be held at its the primary academy building in Long Lane, will invite community groups and local residents to respond to the EVF and celebrate the diversity of Croydon. The meeting, hosted by Oasis founder Steve Chalke, will run from 7pm to 11pm.
The Committee against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) says there has been a steady rise in anti-Muslim acts in France in recent years. The CCIF said in its annual report on Wednesday that the number of anti-Muslim acts jumped to 469 cases in 2012 from 298 in 2011, and 188 in 2010.
The report also denounced France’s civil service as “one of the principal vectors of Islamophobia” as it said bureaucrats often over-interpreted official secularist policies to incorrectly reject to serve Muslim women who wear Islamic headscarves.
According to the law, civil servants and girls who attend state schools are banned from wearing headscarves, but adults using a public service are not. However, some French officials refuse to conduct a civil wedding or issue documents if the woman concerned covers her hair, the report said.
The CCIF report added that anti-Muslim acts have increasingly targeted people, especially women, adding that assaults against mosques had approximately doubled in 2012 compared with the year before.