Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Unite Against Fascism bids to counter proposed EDL march in Leicester

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Leicester October 2010
‘Not extreme right wing’ – EDL demonstration in Leicester, October 2010

Leicester Unite Against Fascism has applied to stage a counter protest to a proposed march by the English Defence League. The group wants to stage a march and rally at the same time as the EDL on Saturday, February 4.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and senior police officers are now considering their response to the two applications, both of which could draw hundreds, possibly thousands, of people to the city centre.

The last time the EDL held a national protest in Leicester, on October 9, 2010, it turned violent. Protesters in a cordoned area reserved for the EDL pelted police with bottles, bricks, coins and smoke bombs. Several hundred also broke through police lines and were involved in scuffles with local youths.

A spokesman for Leicester UAF said the group was recruiting local musicians to perform on stage at the conclusion of the march, adding: “We want people to be able to show they are not scared to come to their city centre on that day. We are looking to create a peaceful and safe way for people to demonstrate their opposition to the EDL.”

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Newt Gingrich: I’d support a Muslim running for president only if they’d commit to ‘give up sharia’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newt Gingrich told a South Carolina town hall audience on Tuesday that he would be open to seeing a Muslim-American run for president, as long as the candidate denounced Sharia law and didn’t seek to impose his or her views on others.

At a town hall meeting in West Columbia, S.C., a man asked Gingrich if he would ever “support a Muslim-American running for president.”

“Would you endorse…a Muslim-American, [who] could possibly be running for president, given that we had a woman running for president in Hillary Clinton, and we had a Jewish-American, in Joe Lieberman, running for vice president?” he asked.

“A truly modern person who happened to worship Allah would not be a threat,” Gingrich replied. “A person who belonged to any kind of belief in Sharia, any kind of effort to impose that on the rest of us, would be a mortal threat.”

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A biblical bully who just needs to shut up

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David Caton 2“David Caton is a plague of boils on the community’s spiritual life. Enough.”

Daniel Ruth takes on the leader (and only known activist) of the Florida Family Association over his recent attempt to witch-hunt teacher Kelly Miliziano for inviting Hassan Shibly of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to address her pupils.

Tampa Bay Times, 15 January 2012

EDL provokes confrontation outside East London Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police have arrested 15 people after violence between far-right activists and local youths outside a mosque in east London.

Witnesses said the clash near the East London Mosque in Whitechapel erupted after supporters of the English Defence League chanted anti-Muslim slogans. Scotland Yard said one man was injured and taken to hospital with “non life-threatening injuries”.

“The incident involved several hundred people,” a police spokesman said. “Bottles and other items were thrown.” He said all those arrested were later released. “The bulk of them were local kids,” he added.

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EDL mobilises 100 supporters for Barking protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Barking January 2012The English Defence League was forced to drag in supporters from as far away as Coventry, Norwich and Weymouth to shore up a miserable turnout in the east London borough of Barking and Dagenham on Saturday 14 January.

Only around 100 EDL supporters turned up for what was billed as a regional mobilisation in Barking – although the racists and fascists had obviously mobilised from much further afield.

In contrast, around 80 people, overwhelmingly from the local area, came to an emergency counter-protest called by UAF at just two days’ notice. The antiracist and antifascist protestors included black, white and Asian people.

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Labour MP condemns Lib Dems’ Islamophobic council candidate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A North East Liberal Democrat council candidate has been accused of Islamophobia over comments posted on his Facebook site.

Dave Stones, who is standing for election to Redcar and Cleveland Council, reportedly suggested on the website that a pork restaurant and a topless bar should be built next to a mosque.

He has apologised for any offence caused, but Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop accused him of holding “clearly expressed Islamophobic views”. The Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP raised the issue with Commons leader Sir George Young.

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Pamela Geller ‘loves’ Marines who urinate on Taliban corpses

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pamela Geller, who has been referred to as the “queen of the Muslim bashers,” is not doing anything to shed that title.

Geller, the executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), said she’s enamored with the Marines seen in a recent video that allegedly shows them urinating on corpses of Taliban soldiers.

“I love these Marines,” she wrote on her blog, Atlas Shrugs. “Perhaps this is the infidel interpretation of the Islamic ritual of washing and preparing the body for burial.”

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