Category Archives: Right wing

Right-wing press continues to demonise Iran

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yesterday’s Daily Mail carried a report which began:

Not everyone at the Paralympics has been bowled over by the presence of Kate Middleton.

The Duchess of Cambridge was embarrassingly snubbed by an Iranian athlete who refused to shake her hand after she presented him with his discus silver medal on Sunday for “cultural reasons”.

The royal was warmly received on the podium by Team GB’s gold medal winner Aled Davies and Chinese bronze medallist Lezheng Wang – but when it was Mehrdad Karam Zadeh’s turn to step up, the 40-year-old failed to offer a hand to the Duchess, clutching them close to his chest.

The snub threatened to overshadow a glittering night for Paralympics GB, which enjoyed its most successful day of the Games so far with seven gold medals.

Continue reading →

Baroness Warsi out in Cameron reshuffle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sayeeda Warsi tweet

Baroness Warsi has been removed from her role as Conservative Party co-chairman in David Cameron’s first major reshuffle of the coalition Government.

Lady Warsi had appealed to the Prime Minister to allow her to carry on in the post but she was widely expected to be moved on.

Her deputy, Michael Fallon, Housing Minister Grant Shapps and Employment Minister Chris Grayling are seen as strong candidates to take over.

The peer used her official ToryChairman Twitter account this morning to confirm she was “signing off”, saying it had been “a privilege and an honour to serve my party as co-chairman”.

Press Association, 4 September 2012

Continue reading →

French actor’s anti-Muslim tweets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Véronique Genest tweet

Véronique Genest, star of the long-running French television police series Julie Lescaut, has come under attack over a series of Islamophobic comments on Twitter, in which she claimed that Islam is a threat to democracy and aims to impose sharia law on France, declared her admiration for the racist journalist Éric Zemmour and described it as a “historical fact” that Muslims are allies of the Nazis.

See Oumma.com, Huffington Post and CcIF.

Councillor promotes far-right myth about York mosque dominating skyline

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The decision to approve a new mosque in York without debate by councillors has come under fire.

Independent Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters has written to City of York Council planning chief Mike Slater and Hull Road councillors to express his dismay that a “significant change” to York’s historic skyline had been allowed “without the open, democratic scrutiny of a planning committee meeting”. He said many local residents had told him they felt let down that such a change had been agreed behind closed doors.

Continue reading →

Mosque opponents file federal motion to stop Islamic Center of Murfreesboro

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Opponents of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro filed a motion in federal court Monday claiming that U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell accepted “false allegations” in affirming that the controversial mosque can continue its opening process.

Attorney Joe Brandon, who has represented mosque opponents in the past, said he was vexed that federal courts intervened in a local case.

Brandon said the only way to properly conclude the dispute is to provide the public with adequate notice about the mosque, making mosque advocates restart the approval process.

The motion also questioned whether Islam qualified as a legitimate religion.

Brandon requested a hearing for the injunction sought.

The Tennessean, 30 July 2012

German ministry’s racist campaign pushes Muslim associations to react

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vermisst 2 posters

A poster campaign by the German Interior Ministry against some young Muslims who the ministry claim might be Islamist radicals or terrorists due to their behavioral disorder has met with strong criticism from four Islamic organizations, which have frozen their cooperation with the ministry’s “Security Partnership Initiative.”

On Tuesday, the four participating Muslim associations – the Turkish-Islamic Union (DITIB), the Association of Islamic Cultural Centres (VIKZ), the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) and the Islamic Community of Bosniaks in Germany (IGBD) – said in a joint statement that the recent campaign could create new areas of conflict and therefore miss the real target.

The posters read “Missing” in large font above a portrait of a young man or woman, in the style of a missing person poster. Beneath the headline it reads: “This is our son Ahmad. We miss him, because we don’t recognize him anymore. He is withdrawing more and more, becoming more radical every day. We are afraid of losing him altogether – to religious fanatics and terrorist groups. If you think like me, get into contact with the counseling centers of radicalization.”

Continue reading →

Two anti-Sheepshead Bay mosque protestors boycott schoolbag giveaway

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sheepshead Bay mosque backpack giveaway

Two Sheepshead Bay residents still fighting the hopeless battle to stop the construction of a Voorhies Avenue mosque protested a school supply giveaway in front of the still-under-construction house of worship on Saturday – but were easily drowned out by the dozens of parents and children looking for free backpacks, notebooks, and pencils.

Continue reading →

Lars Vilks defends decision to join Geller’s hate fest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lars VilksSwedish artist Lars Vilks has defended his decision to speak at an anti-Islamic conference in New York on September 11th, claiming he would also accept an invitation from the Ku Klux Klan.

Vilks, the Swedish artist who enraged Muslim groups with his depictions of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, agreed earlier this month to speak at a conference organized by the anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of Nations (SION).

Last week, however, an art gallery in northern Sweden booted him from a planned group exhibition because of his decision to accept the SION invitation. Several of the other participating artists pulled out in solidarity with Vilks, stirring up a debate in Sweden this week about artistic freedom and Islamophobia. The art exhibition, which was due to open on September 30th, has since been cancelled.

In a lengthy interview published in the Aftonbladet newspaper on Thursday, Vilks defended his decision to speak at the SION event. “If the Ku Klux Klan had invited me, I would have gone,” he told the paper.

The Local, 31 August 2012

French writer Richard Millet says Anders Breivik gave Norway ‘what it deserved’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A French essayist, who claims to have read mass-murderer Anders Breivik’s 1,500 page manifesto, has said he believes Norway “got what it deserved.”

Richard Millet, a respected figure in French literature and journalism, made his claims in new 17-page attack on multiculturalism, entitled “The Literary Elegy of Anders Breivik”, described by French newspaper L’Express as a “vindictive text.”

Continue reading →