Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Opposition grows to EDL’s anti-mosque rally in Dudley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL slogans BirminghamResidents are being urged to stay away from Dudley town centre on Easter Sunday, as far right group the English Defence League is set to descend on the town.

The extremist party claims to be bringing around 3,000 supporters on April 4 to protest against the planned £18million mosque.

Council leader, Cllr Anne Millward, said she was angered that the EDL want to come to the “peaceful town”, as West Midlands Police confirm there will be a “robust police presence” on the day in case of trouble. She added: “They say they are coming to protest against the planned mosque, but we’ve had a mosque in Dudley for over 30 years. So what is the point of them coming? We don’t want them and for them to come on Easter Sunday, one of the most important days in the Christian calendar, I think is an absolute travesty. I just urge people to stay away.”

Cllr Millward has also condemned plans announced by anti-fascist group Unite Against Fascism (UAF) who have confirmed they will be holding a counter-demonstration on the day, with fears that thousands of outsiders could angrily clash in the town centre. Cllr Millward said: “The plans for the anti-fascist group to outnumber the EDL I think is highly irresponsible. This group just need to be completely ignored.”

But UAF officials said they are organising the “largest peace protest to counteract” the EDL, whose protest will just be “thuggery and hatred”. Martin Lynch, Black Country spokesman for Unite Against Fascism (UAF), said:

“We don’t think people who believe in racism and hatred should be allowed to come to Dudley town centre or anywhere else for that matter. At a recent demonstration in Stoke they ran amok smashing property and hurting people. There is no way this is a legitimate protest of any kind. It will just be thuggery and hatred. If this does go ahead we will seek to call the largest peace protest to counteract theirs.”

Meanwhile, Jim Warner, spokesman for Dudley’s Trade Union Council (TUC) said members had passed a resolution supporting UAF’s counterprotest. Mr Warner said: “We are calling on all our local union branches to encourage members to turn out with their union banners for a peaceful protest. We have also put together a unity statement which has been signed by all our trade union branches, community and faith groups supporting this decision and calling for the protest to be abandoned.”

Dudley News, 10 March 2010

Update:  See “English Defence League switch date for Dudley protest”, Birmingham Mail, 14 March 2010

Siddique released after terror conviction quashed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man branded a “wannabe suicide bomber” by prosecutors will not face a retrial on terrorism charges.

Mohammed Atif Siddique, 24, a student from Alva, Clackmannanshire, was found guilty under terrorism laws in 2007. But Appeal Court judges in Edinburgh said on 29 January he had suffered a “miscarriage of justice” on one of the charges and quashed the conviction.

The Crown Office has said it does not wish to seek a fresh prosecution. Siddique has now been released.

His family wept and hugged each other outside the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, after Lord Osborne said judges would quash the main conviction.

In a statement read out by his solicitor Aamer Anwar on the court steps, Siddique said: “I have always maintained my innocence, but they took my liberty, destroyed my family’s reputation and labelled me a terrorist. But I never had any bombs or plans to hurt anyone. In court it was said I was a wannabe suicide bomber, but I have always said I was simply looking for answers on the internet.”

The shopkeeper’s son was jailed for eight years in October 2007 after a four-week trial in Glasgow. He was found guilty of two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000, one under the Terrorism Act 2006 and a breach of the peace.

The most serious charge related to the possession of articles that gave rise to “reasonable suspicion” they were connected to terrorism. His conviction on that allegation resulted in a six-year prison term.

But at his appeal hearing in January Lord Osborne criticised the way the trial judge explained the main Terrorist Act charge to the jury. The judge, sitting with Lords Reed and Clarke in Edinburgh, said the “material misdirection” amounted to “a miscarriage of justice”.

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Stop the EDL in Bolton on 20 March

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The racist hooligans of the English Defence League have rescheduled their plans to descend on Bolton for Saturday 20 March. Unite Against Fascism has called a national counter demonstration for all those who want to defend our multiracial society against the EDL’s thuggery and violence.

North West UAF has launched a Bolton Unity Statement condemning the EDL and calling on people to support and attend the demonstration against the racists in Bolton on 20 March. Signatories include MPs, trade unionists and campaigners such as Bolton MP Ruth Kelly and Manchester MPs John Leech, Tony Lloyd and Gerald Kaufman (click here to read statement).

The EDL had threatened to come to Bolton on 6 March this year. An EDL spokesperson interviewed in the Lancashire Telegraph refused to rule out violence and confirmed that the openly Nazi thugs from Combat 18 were regulars on EDL demos. But this demo was cancelled when the EDL realised its thugs would go on the rampage against a Hindu festival in Bolton planned that day.

Unite Against Fascism believes the EDL should not be allowed to terrorise ethnic minorities in Bolton or anywhere else. Join our demonstration to show these racists and fascists that they are not welcome in the town. Meet 11am on Saturday 20 March at Victoria Square in Bolton.

For more information see the Manchester UAF website

UAF press release, 6 March 2010

‘Charity is linked to Islamic terrorists’ claims Torygraph

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A charity praised by Gordon Brown has paid hundreds of thousands of pounds supposedly raised for “disaster relief” to two organisations allegedly linked to terrorist groups.

Muslim Aid, which has been given at least £830,000 of public money, diverted substantial sums to Islamist organisations, possibly in contravention of its charitable status. It has received grants from the Department for International Development, the EU and London councils.

The charity, based at the hardline East London mosque, has close links to the Islamic Forum of Europe, a fundamentalist group accused by a Labour minister of infiltrating his party.

Muslim Aid raised more than £24 million last year. It says its charitable objectives, which it is legally required to follow, are “to relieve … all those who are in need … as a result of natural disasters” and “to relieve those who are refugees fleeing from war.”

Andrew Gilligan (who else?) in the Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2010

See also ENGAGE, who point out that Muslim Aid would appear to have good grounds for taking legal action against the Telegraph over this piece of libellous nonsense.

More anti-IFE witch-hunting from Gilligan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

This latest piece, in the Sunday Telegraph, is a particularly garbled contribution to Gilligan’s ongoing campaign against the Islamic Forum Europe, ranging from an “exposé” of Muslims 4 Ken’s support for Ken Livingstone in the 2008 London mayoral election – this is supposed to be news? – to a repetition of insinuations that the IFE was responsible for dodgy signatures in the referendum over an elected mayor for Tower Hamlets.

Ken’s succinct response to Gilligan gets it exactly right: “You are a liar who is stirring up racism.”

Update:  For responses to Gilligan on the IFE blog Between the Lines, see here, here and here.

Anti-racists confront fascist’s supporters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF Wilders demo

Anti-fascist demonstrators blockaded the road outside Parliament yesterday in an attempt to prevent a march in support of far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

The Freedom Party leader, who attempted to enter the country last February but was detained on landing at Heathrow airport, was in Parliament yesterday at the invitation of UK Independence Party leader Lord Pearson and cross-bencher Baroness Cox to show his anti-Islamic film Fitna at the House of Lords.

Police arrested several protesters from a group who gathered in Millbank in a bid to stop the far-right English Defence League marching past Parliament in support of Mr Wilders.

Eyewitnesses claimed that police had used illegal headlock techniques to break the human chain of protesters in the road, including on a disabled member of the crowd. One young woman who was dragged away complained of high blood pressure as officers continued to lock her arms over her head – despite being horizontal on the ground.

Originally, Unite Against Fascism had announced an emergency assembly of activists opposite Parliament to protest against the EDL march. But a large group of anti-racists spontaneously took to the road and began marching towards the EDL, chanting: “These streets are our streets.” With police “kettling” their progress, a stand-off ensued with at least 150 anti-fascists blockading the road for three hours.

Morning Star, 6 February 2010

See also Socialist Worker, 5 March 2010

MCB brings experts and parliamentarians together to discuss Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MCB meeting

The Muslim Council of Britain hosted a special closed-meeting to discuss the growing spate of attacks in all its forms against British Muslims on March 3rd at the House of Commons.

The event entitled “Tackling Islamophobia: Reducing Street Violence Against British Muslims” brought together distinguished Parliamentarians, academics, journalists, police, public servants, and community representatives who all endorsed calls for the establishment of an All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Islamophobia with a view to holding a parliamentary inquiry on Islamophobia in the UK.

The meeting took contributions from experts and responses from parliamentarians and was concluded with a Q&A session with the audience who comprised of individuals from over 80 organisations.

MCB news release, 5 February 2010

UAF calls for protest against EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Emergency protest against the EDL in London this Friday

Assemble 11am, Friday 5 March
Houses of Parliament, London

The English Defence League (EDL) will be marching in London on Friday 5 March in support of the far right Dutch MP Geert Wilders who is visiting the House of Lords to whip up hatred against Muslims.

The EDL pretends to be a ‘peaceful’ group opposed to ‘Muslim extremism’. In reality it is nothing of the sort. It is a gang of racist thugs and hooligans with links to the Nazi BNP.

EDL thugs spread fear and terror when they rampaged through Luton and Stoke recently. They smashed cars, attacked shops, chanted “BNP! BNP!” and assaulted Asians. When some locals tried to stop them they were called ‘race traitors’ and attacked.

The EDL should not be allowed to march through London. Join the Unite Against Fascism protest to show these racists and fascists that they are not welcome here. Meet Friday 5 March at 11am outside the Houses of Parliament.

UAF news release, 3 March 2010

ENGAGE replies to Gilligan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AndrewGilligan“If you thought documentaries couldn’t sink lower than the hatchet job by John Ware for BBC Panorama, ‘Who speaks for British Muslims?’, in 2005, the Dispatches programme aired last night is proof to the contrary.

“Using spurious evidence, half-truths  and a ragbag of ‘community leaders’ – none of whom merit a byline demonstrating their ‘leadership’ credentials – Gilligan outdoes even Ware in proving that documentary-makers with an animus against ‘Islamism’ have nothing but conjecture and pure prejudice on their side. ”

ENGAGE, 2 March 2010

See Islamic Forum Europe statement, 1 March 2010

Update:  See also “Watch out: democratic Muslims about” by Inayat Bunglawala at Comment is Free, 3 March 2010