A booklet to accompany the new CD by popular “farmers rock” band Normaal has been destroyed by its German printers because it features a swastika, Nos television reports.
The public showing of swastikas is banned in Germany, apart from for scholarly reasons.
The printer did not check the digital version of the cover and it was only noticed after a couple of thousand were printed, Maarten Steinkamp, director of Normaal’s record label CNR told the Nos.
Anti-EDL campaigners outside Waltham Forest Town Hall yesterday
Police have told the Guardian they have no intelligence to suggest that a controversial march by the far right English Defence League (EDL) this weekend will be violent or disrupt the community.
The extremist group, which describes itself as a movement against Islamic extremism but which critics say is racist, is set to protest in Walthamstow this Saturday (September 1) despite widespread opposition from residents.
A meeting of councillors, community leaders and police was held on Tuesday evening (August 28) to discuss the possibility of banning the march, but the Met has declined to apply to the government for such a move and the protest is still due to go ahead.
Canberra’s Muslim community has described planning approval for the territory’s second mosque as a “victory of goodwill”.
The ACT Planning and Land Authority yesterday approved Canberra Muslim Community Inc’s application to build a 500-capacity mosque on The Valley Avenue in Gungahlin.
In their assessment, ACT planners found surrounding roads could cope with traffic generated by the mosque and that the proposed 43 on-site parking spaces were sufficient. Planners also said several objections to the mosque on religious and cultural grounds were found to be “irrelevant” and “unsubstantiated”.
Thousands of people were set to take the streets to stop the racist English Defence League (EDL) in Waltham Forest, east London, this Saturday.
Determination to oppose the EDL has united people in the area – and left the racists running scared. The EDL had originally planned to march there on 18 August but postponed it.
Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, spoke to Socialist Worker. “The EDL moved the date because it is not confident marching through Waltham Forest,” he said.
The We Are Waltham Forest campaign, which was set up to stop the EDL, has widespread support. Trade unions, community groups, churches, local Labour councillors and local MP Stella Creasy pledged support for the counter demo.
The mainstream political rhetoric concerning Islam in Norway has undoubtedly changed for the better in the past year. The number of ordinary citizens willing to contest Islamophobic discourse publicly has risen. But popular attitudes often remain stubbornly unchanged. A 2012 survey indicates that Norwegians hold more negative attitudes towards Muslims than towards any other minority group, except the Roma. Such negative attitudes are more prevalent among Norwegians who profess adherence to rightwing political parties. It hardly seems coincidental that the one witness in the Breivik trial who received death threats on the day was Muslim. It is now little more than two weeks since a provincial leader of the Progress party in Norway declared on a party blog that he “hated Muslims”. The response was full and unconditional support from fellow provincial party colleagues, and only the mildest of rebukes from the party’s national leadership.
Following the 22/7 trial, it will no longer be possible for Norwegian extreme rightwing Islamophobes to deny that Breivik was in fact inspired and motivated by their ideals, fabrications and distortions. Nor will it be possible for the Progress party, Norway’s third most popular party, to deny that its political rhetoric on Islam and Muslims in Norway was part of the ideological formation of Breivik, who was one of their dedicated party members for about 10 years until 2006. After a national trauma, the verdict presents us with the opportunity to finally face and confront the hatred in our midst with the honesty, seriousness and commitment it requires of us all.
Sindre Bangstad at Comment is Free, 28 August 2012
An immigration officer sacked over alleged links to Islamic terrorism has attacked the Home Office for not allowing him to defend himself against the unspecified allegations.
The Arabic interpreter, who helped Special Branch interview terror suspects, had his security clearance removed in 2005, a month after returning from a year-long sabbatical in his native Yemen.
He was suspended on full pay for five years then sacked after the Home Office deemed him a risk to national security.
The 44-year-old father of three claims it was only because of his race and the fact that he is a Muslim that he was suspected of associating with terrorists, and is suing the Home Office for discrimination and unfair dismissal.
ATHENS — Thousands of immigrants in Greece have taken to the streets to protest anti-Muslim sentiments and racist attacks against foreigners in a country plagued by a huge debt crisis.
“This is a first action against the racist pogroms of the police which encourage the neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn to come out in neighborhoods and murder and attack people,” Tasos Anastasiou of the “Expel Racism” movement told Euronews.
Protestors were left stuck when their truck became wedged under a bridge.
The British National Party (BNP) returned to Pallion at the weekend to continue their demonstration against the use of halal meat at St Luke’s Subway store.
But as their “truth truck” made its way under a bridge in the Sheepfolds area of the city, it became stuck. Police had to cordon off the street while it was unwedged by releasing air out of all four tyres so it could be moved.
Hundreds turned out Saturday at Landreth Park in a show of solidarity with area Muslims after their mosque was destroyed in a suspected arson fire on Aug. 6. Neighbors-Joplin Mosque Rally, as it was called, was organized by Ozark Christian College student Ashley Carter.
Forty-two religious and secular organizations united on Thursday in condemning conservative lawmakers’ allegations that Muslim-American individuals connected to the U.S. government may be trying to spread the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
They directed their criticisms at Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.) and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), who recently wrote to various government agencies and asked them to investigate the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. In their letters, the lawmakers targeted top State Department official Huma Abedin and several advisers to the Department of Homeland Security.