Category Archives: Right wing

Revealed: The secretive Q Society’s battle against Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Getting ThroughThey are a group of “concerned citizens”, but are very hesitant to say who they really are. If you want to go to one of their meetings, you have to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Their only address is a PO Box in suburban Melbourne. They won’t say exactly where their money comes from and say they never will.

And they are very opposed to Islam in Australia.

The secretive organisation known as the Q Society has this week been linked to a noisy campaign to stop the construction of a mosque in Bendigo, Victoria.

Over the past few weeks, some of the town’s businesses and residents have awoken to find black balloons tied up outside their premises as a way of protesting the proposed place of worship.

The $3 million development was approved last week at a raucous council meeting. There were reports indicating the Q Society was a “key force” behind the Bendigo campaign (the organisation says it only held a public meeting and was “not a protest organisation”).

The Q Society – named because the group was founded at a 2010 meeting in the upper class Melbourne suburb of Kew – claims to have members across the country. Its mission is about “educating” people about Islam, spokesman Andrew Horwood said, rather than leading the protests.

They describe themselves as “Islam-critical”, are avowed opponents of sharia law and have published a book Getting Through: How To Talk To Non Muslims About The Disturbing Nature of Islam and produced YouTube videos including “How to stop mosques”.

It has few public faces except for its president, Debbie Robinson, and Mr Horwood. “We’re purely educational,” he told news.com.au.

Keysar Trad, from the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said the group spreads “disturbing, baseless Islamophobia”. “I think most Australians would normally treat them as a joke but because there’s not enough information out there, not enough good information … about Islam, some people unfortunately subscribe to their message.”

The group is affiliated with an global organisation known as Stop The Islamisation of Nations (SION) – which, as the name suggests, is vehemently anti-Islamic.

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Obama’s Supreme Court nominee wants to introduce Sharia law into the US – and the Washington Times has the photo to prove it

Posted on by Bob Pitt

From Media Matters:

The Washington Times printed a doctored photo of Elena Kagan wearing a turban to accompany a column by Frank Gaffney making the absurd charge that Elena Kagan is “enabling efforts to insinuate” Shariah law in the United States. The Washington Times‘ print edition gave no indication that the photo had been doctored (while online, the photo bore a caption stating “Illustration: Kagan and Shariah.”)

Kagan turban

Rainbow balloons torn down at Bendigo shop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jimmy Possum rainbow balloonsMembers of the local Muslim community, a Bendigo business and a city councillor are among those to have received supposed threats from anti-Islamic protesters in recent days.

Jimmy Possum’s Margot Spalding believes rainbow balloons, which were hung on her shop-front in support of diversity, were torn down by mosque protesters on Monday. She said it seemed like a concerted effort because four concrete beams bolted to the wall had been pulled out.

“In 18 months these flags haven’t once been targeted by vandals and the timing of this doesn’t seem like a coincidence,” Ms Spalding said. “It’s disappointing that people feel the need to be disrespectful. These things make you feel pretty threatened.”

And Ms Spalding says she isn’t the only one to be targeted – with many of her Muslim friends feeling the brunt of the protests.

“I know some Muslims living in Bendigo who feel fearful in town at the moment,” she said. “They feel like they can’t speak out from fear of reprisal in their own country and also what’s going on locally. And when there is a whole group in town that don’t like you, who are saying hateful, insidious things about you, you can understand why.”

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Anti-Islamic and right wing groups driving Bendigo anti-mosque push

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Restore Australia Facebook page

Bendigo has become a rallying point for a loosely affiliated network of right-wing and anti-Islamic groups providing cash and support for the fight to block the city’s first mosque.

The Bendigo campaign, which included the spread of black balloons, is just the latest in a string of challenges to the development of Islamic schools and prayer centres across Australia that have been linked to a handful of political groups and individuals.

Former Queensland One Nation candidate Mike Holt, the chief executive of non-profit organisations Restore Australia and Islam4Infidels, says his groups raised the money to hire a Sydney-based lawyer to fight the mosque proposal. “They use the mosques as a centre for jihad. These things are not like the tea and coffee churches,” Mr Holt said.

Another lobby group, the anti-Islamic Q Society, held a meeting in Bendigo on May 11 to talk to locals about how the mosque would affect their community and how to fight it.

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Police called to hate event at Minnesota school after ‘mob’ harasses Muslim woman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Usama DakdokThe Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today called on the Bagley Independent School District #162 to rescind approval of tonight’s speech by Islamophobe Usama Dakdok following harassment of a Muslim woman by a “mob” at his earlier speaking event at the same school on Sunday.

CAIR-MN also called on local and state law enforcement authorities to consider bias charges against the harassers based on that state’s “assaults motivated by bias” statute.

Dakdok, who claims that American Muslims “will kill your children” and that “we are in war with Islam,” was invited to speak at Bagley High School by local Islamophobe Tammy Godwin. On June 22, during the second part of his three-day hate series, audience members said Dakdok incited the audience and endangered a Muslim woman attendee’s safety and security.

The audience members said the Muslim woman, who wears a religious headscarf, was part of a peaceful protest outside the hate event. She, along with others, entered the auditorium after the silent protest finished to listen to the speech. Their “Love Thy Neighbor” signs were lowered and not facing anyone inside. As the Muslim woman was quietly walking down the aisle looking for a seat, Dakdok stopped his presentation and singled her out. He asked her to leave, allegedly yelling, “Sister, I will give you one last chance to leave or I will throw you out myself!”

One attendee described an angry mob of Dakdok supporters who then began harassing the Muslim woman: “People were yelling at the Muslim woman, ‘Get out’ and ‘You weren’t invited.’ Men were getting to their feet and moving towards her to lay hands on her.”

The audience member announced he was calling the police out of concern for the Muslim woman’s safety. Godwin allegedly tried to interfere with the police call by attempting to intimidate the Good Samaritan by telling him, “Don’t you dare [call the police]. This will be on your soul.”

Three officers responded to the call, including the Bagley police chief, a Bagley police officer and a Sheriff’s Deputy. The Muslim woman was allowed to stay and an officer stayed at the event until it ended. One member of the angry mob, seemingly upset with Muslim presence, later approached the officer and asked: “Can I borrow your gun?”

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UK ‘mosque-buster’ advising Bendigo residents opposed to Islamic centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gavin Boby addresses Bendigo anti-mosque campaignA UK adviser to opponents of a proposed mosque in Bendigo is known as a “mosque-buster” who boasts of his record of using planning laws to block mosque applications.

Gavin Boby, a British planning lawyer and director of the Law and Freedom Foundation, met Bendigo anti-mosque activists while attending an anti-Islam conference in Melbourne in March this year.

The activists, who are also behind the Stop the Mosque in Bendigo page on Facebook, said Boby provided them with “individual advice” in their campaign against the Islamic worship centre, plans for which were last week approved by the Bendigo city council.

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Georgia congressional candidate says Islam ‘does not deserve First Amendment protection’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jody Hice (2)Jody Hice, a Baptist minister and talk-radio host, is running for Congress in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District as a stern defender of the First Amendment and religious freedom. But that freedom does not apply to those of the Muslim faith.

“Although Islam has a religious component, it is much more than a simple religious ideology,” Hice wrote in his 2012 book. “It is a complete geo-political structure and, as such, does not deserve First Amendment protection.”

Hice believes that the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the United States, with the intent to impose Sharia law on all of us.

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Q Society spreading anti-mosque message in Bendigo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Q SocietyThe anti-Islam group that brought controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders to Australia has emerged as a key force behind protests against the building of a mosque in Bendigo.

The goldfields city has faced a surge of anti-Islamic sentiment following last week’s approval of its first mosque. An anonymous group tied black balloons to the house of a local councillor who supported the successful planning application – meant as a warning linking domestic violence with Islam.

A Facebook group called “Stop the Mosque in Bendigo” has grown to nearly 8000 “likes” and carries material targeting councillors who supported the mosque as “traitors”.

It has now emerged that the Q Society, which describes itself as “Australia’s leading Islam-critical movement”, organised a meeting in Bendigo on May 11 to advise residents how to stop the mosque. The two-hour meeting was led by Q Society president Debbie Robinson and the group’s head of media and public relations Andrew Horwood. Gavin Boby, from Britain’s Law and Freedom Foundation, also spoke at the meeting via video link.

The event, which was attended by about 100 people, was advertised with pamphlets describing Islam as “totalitarian ideology” which brings violence, misogyny, homophobia and economic stagnation wherever it spreads.

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