English Defence League in Leicester, October 2010
The Leicester Mercury has a good editorial expressing well-based scepticism about the English Defence League’s assurance to Leicester businesses that its planned protest against “anti-white racism” next Saturday will proceed peacefully.
Antiracists will take to the streets to show their opposition to the racists and fascists of the English Defence League on Saturday 4 February.
The EDL thugs want to stir up racism and division among the city’s diverse community. But people in Leicester have already shown the EDL is not wanted in Leicester – thousands turned out to show their opposition to the EDL and in October 2010.
Now black, white and Asian people are set to show their unity against the EDL again at a ‘Love Leicester, Hate Racism’ demonstration organised by UAF in the city centre on 4 February.
The protest against the EDL will assemble at 11am on Saturday 4 February at the Clock Tower, Leicester City Centre.
The antiracist, antifascist event is supported by CWU Leicestershire branch, Leicestershire County Unison, PCS Leicester and Leicestershire branch, Stoneygate Labour Party, Unite 0168M branch and Leicester District Trades Council.
Please join the protest against the EDL – bring your banners!
Last week, a packed public meeting heard UAF speakers, local trade unionists, community leaders, youth activists and Labour councillors urge unity against the EDL.
Geert Wilders’ populist Freedom Party (PVV) this week helped ensure one of its fiercest international critics got a top European job.
The PVV was so determined to block the appointment of Dutch Labour MP Frans Timmermans as human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe that it inadvertently helped Latvia’s Nils Muiznieks get the post.
A Longview resident said Thursday he is disappointed by the negative reaction from a portion of the Longview community toward a mosque being built on Amy Street.
“Quite frankly it was very disheartening to me to see that type of discussion taking place here in our community,” Vik Verma said during public comment at a Longview City Council meeting.
A controversial retired Army officer who has drawn attention worldwide for speeches against Islam will be the keynote speaker at a prayer breakfast Feb 8 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin was a top Pentagon official in 2004 when he was reprimanded for saying in uniform that Muslims worship idols and not “a real God,” and for depicting the war against Muslim radicals as a Christian struggle against satan.
Since he retired, Boykin has been on the lecture circuit, speaking more candidly about his belief that the practice of Islam shouldn’t be covered by the First Amendment because it’s “a totalitarian way of life,” and that mosques should be banned.
New York’s police commissioner apologized Wednesday for appearing in a documentary movie about terrorism that Muslim groups have criticized as inflammatory, and said his department acted wrongly when it later showed the film to counterterrorism trainees.
A spokesman for Raymond Kelly had previously denied the commissioner had any participation in the making of the “The Third Jihad,” suggesting last year that footage of Kelly was lifted from another source.
But on Wednesday Kelly said he had sat for an interview in 2007 because the filmmaker had “bona fides” in television and with the White House. The movie later was shown on a continuous loop on the sidelines during New York Police Department counterterrorism sessions.
LoonWatch draws our attention to a report (via the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth) of a new study of antisemitism in Germany which reveals that the overwhelming majority of antisemitic crimes there are committed by the far right – not, as Islamophobic propagandists repeatedly assert, by Muslims.
Some wore neckties that resembled U.S. flags. Some were parents or grandparents. One was not yet even a teenager.
They all were united by a mission. And one by one, the speakers took the Hillsborough County School Board to task Tuesday over what they said was the improper teaching of Islam in a high school classroom last year by the leader of the local Council on American-Islamic Relations.
They said the presentation by CAIR’s Hassan Shibly – made to an advanced-placement world history class in November at Steinbrenner High – was a threat to children, to schools, to America.
Protesters are pressuring Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan to shun a prayer breakfast that features a former high-ranking Army officer who has made anti-Muslim remarks.
Leaders of People for the American Way, a left-leaning advocacy group based in Washington, say they have sent hundreds of emails to town officials this week over retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin‘s scheduled appearance at the breakfast Thursday.
Boykin, a former senior Pentagon official, bills himself as a warrior for Jesus Christ. He made headlines nationally for describing Muslims as idol-worshipers and comparing the war on terrorism to the biblical fight between Christians and the devil.
A San Francisco jury has awarded $465,400 to a Muslim of African descent who quit his job as a security guard after a co-worker called him a “goddamn terrorist,” supervisors made racist comments and a top company official endorsed a statement that “Muslims kill people.”
The Superior Court jury found Thursday that Abas Idris’ employer, Andrews International, was responsible for harassment and a hostile work environment that forced Idris to resign, and awarded him $65,400 for lost wages and emotional distress. On Monday, the jury added $400,000 in punitive damages.