The ACT government will propose changes to the territory’s Discrimination Act to make religious vilification illegal.
Attorney-General Simon Corbell will introduce a bill in the Legislative Assembly next week in response to the secret campaign by the Concerned Citizens of Canberra against the Gungahlin mosque. The bill will make it unlawful to publicly incite hatred, contempt or ridicule of a person based on their religion.
Campaigners are due to hold two events to protest against a march organised by the English Defence League (EDL).
The far right extremist group was due to hold a demonstration in Walthamstow on Saturday, August 18, but has now postponed it until Saturday, September 1.
Umbrella campaign group We Are Waltham Forest has reacted by opting to hold two demonstrations in Walthamstow town square on both dates.
A spokesman for the group said: “We have to ensure both dates are well covered, so we need people to be understanding and to turn up in large numbers to show the EDL that we don’t want them or their politics in our borough.”
Both its town square demos will begin from 11am.
A former MP candidate has said that she is shocked that no action is being taken against a British National Party leaflet that she believes is “racist”.
Linda Jack, of Furze Close, Luton, said she was disgusted when the leaflet came through the door early last Sunday morning, and branded its literature “nasty” and “offensive”.
Under the title “Racist Muslim Paedophilia”, the content read: “The facts of the matter are that the “Pedostani” gangs could not have got away with their sick and evil crimes for so long had the establishment not turned a blind eye.”
The massed ranks of the NF at their anti-mosque protest in Sunderland
Anti-racists saw off a National Front-organised protest in Sunderland on Saturday. The fascist National Front was protesting at Sunderland council’s recent decision to grant planning permission for the construction of a new mosque in the Millfield area of the city.
Up to 150 people – local Muslims, trade unionists, Greens and socialists – responded despite less than 48 hours’ notice, gathering to counter the anti-Muslim demonstration.
Under the slogan “march of the patriots” the EDL’s sister organisation, the German Defence League, organised a procession and rally in Cologne yesterday.
Sebastian Nobile, leader of the GDL’s Cologne Division, had issued a call to “representatives of all liberal, conservative, patriotic parties and organisations” to join the GDL’s demonstration, appealing to right-wingers to put aside their differences “for the sake of our country and our future”. In the event, according to a report in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, only 50 marchers rallied to the GDL’s cause, while an anti-fascist counter-demonstration drew 150 participants.
A former MP candidate has said that she is shocked that no action is being taken against a British National Party leaflet that she believes is “racist”.
Linda Jack, of Furze Close, Luton, said she was disgusted when the leaflet came through the door early last Sunday morning, and branded its literature “nasty” and “offensive”.
Under the title “Racist Muslim Paedophilia”, the content read: “The facts of the matter are that the “Pedostani” gangs could not have got away with their sick and evil crimes for so long had the establishment not turned a blind eye.”
A Muslim family representing England in the European Chess Championships taking place in Austria allege to have been the victim of Islamophobia, racism and even physical hate crime. 13-year-old Yusuf Bin-Suhayl was attacked and left bleeding by the mother of a fellow English competitor.
The family have had a police escort to their hotel and tournament. Father Sohale Rahman has made numerous complaints to the English Chess Federation who is overseeing the competition but to no avail. Throughout the competition the Rahman family who have three children representing England have been subjected to bullying and hate crime. Mother, Tomasina Contu, was spat on when she asked the father of one English competitor not to bully her son! It is of no coincidence that Tomasina wears a hijab.
The imam and worshipers at a new Tennessee mosque that hosted its first prayers on Friday after fighting for two years to open said they forgive those who have been enemies of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.
“Love your neighbor is a concept in every religion,” Imam Ossama Bahloul told more than 200 men and women in attendance during his sermon in the mosque that replaces one where the congregation worshiped for 30 years.
To those who opposed the mosque, Bahloul said, “We forgive you all and we welcome you to our facility.”
President Obama on Friday voiced strong support for Huma Abedin, saying the top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been “nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear.”
Obama praised Abedin during remarks at a White House iftar dinner to mark the end of the fasting during the Ramadan holiday observed by Muslims. Abedin has been subject to unproven accusations by some House Republicans, including Michelle Bachmann (Minn.), that she is part of a conspiracy by the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate the top reaches of the U.S. government.
MARSEILLE, France — Though it was almost midnight, streets were full of Muslim families taking a stroll after breaking the Ramadan fast with a late dinner. As two police officers drove by a storefront recycled as the Grand Sunna Mosque, they noticed a woman wearing flowing black robes and a full-face veil.
The police officers alighted from their patrol car and challenged the woman about her veil, which has been illegal in France since April 2011. After an angry exchange, police said later, the woman shouted that she would not abide by the anti-veil law, and a youth told police that they had no business patrolling the neighborhood and accosting its predominantly Muslim residents.
The confrontation quickly escalated into a shoving match, with several dozen young bystanders joining in and carloads of police reinforcements speeding up to lend a hand. Before long, it erupted into what was described in the National Assembly in Paris as a riot, during which a female police officer was bitten on the arm and two of her male colleagues were bashed and bruised.
The sudden clash, which took place July 24 in Marseille, was the most serious instance of resistance to the veil ban during its 16 months of enforcement, according to police. Although it subsided almost as quickly as it flared, the outburst focused national attention on simmering resentment over the ban among France’s most militant and tradition-minded Muslims.