Mosque objectors’ shock at SDL march

SDL Glasgow February 2012(2)A horrified Dumfries couple yesterday slammed an anti-Islamic group which is using a story about them to promote a protest march.

Raymond and Eleanor Ingram opposed a neighbouring mosque’s planning application to transform a store into overnight accommodation. The Annan Road residents launched a petition against the move because they are fed up with people attending the mosque parking in their drive.

But they were “stunned” to find that their objections to the Dumfries Islamic Society plan were being used by the Scottish Defence League to rally support for a march in Dumfries on Saturday, May 18. The SDL copied a Standard story about the couple’s protest to its Facebook page.

Mr Ingram, 71, said: “We didn’t know who they were and we had no idea we were on this page until our neighbour told us to go online and look at it. We have absolutely nothing to do with this march and we don’t want to be associated to it. We want to make that clear to everyone.”

Continue reading

Edinburgh: headscarves torn off two Muslim women

Hijab headscarves were torn off two Muslim women during one of a spate of racist attacks in Edinburgh by children as young as eight, police said yesterday.

The women, in their early 20s, are said to have been “traumatised” by the incident which happened last week, in which two children hurled racial abuse at them before ripping off the hijabs. The culprits are believed to be aged eight and 14.

Continue reading

It’s time to face up to the problem of sexual abuse in the white community

Every day across Britain, it seems, there’s a new and horrific revelation of sexual abuse: last week we had the guilty plea of veteran TV presenter Stuart Hall, who confessed to 14 cases of indecent assault against 13 girls, the youngest only nine years old.

Days earlier the possible scale of child abuse in north Wales children’s homes was revealed. We now know there were 140 allegations of historical abuse between 1963 and 1992. A total of 84 suspected offenders have been named, and it’s claimed the abuse took place across 18 children’s homes.

But after the shock has subsided and we have time to reflect on these revolting crimes, the main question in most reasonable people’s minds must surely be: what is it about white people that makes them do this?

Joseph Harker on the double standards over sexual abuse.

Guardian, 6 May 2013

Dumfries rallies against SDL

A rally is being staged in Dumfries to protest at a planned anti-Muslim demonstration by a far right group. The Scottish Defence League’s visit on May 18 is set to be countered by a march through the town staged by Dumfries TUC.

Secretary John Dennis said: “The Scottish Defence League (SDL) have a Facebook page called ‘Casuals United’, which is monitored by Unite Against Fascism. They alerted us to the fact the SDL have got four different places where they’re having anti-Muslim demonstrations. One of them’s in Dumfries.”

Mr Dennis says that the SDL visit was prompted by a planning application made on behalf of Dumfries Islamic Society for a mosque on Annan Road to allow visiting imams to stay overnight. He believes that the SDL will assemble for a static protest.

Continue reading

Four arrests at EDL Leeds demo

EDL Leeds protest May 2013

Four arrests were made at a Far Right demonstration in Leeds.

A huge police operation involving over 100 officers swung into action on Saturday (May 4) as the English Defence league marched through Leeds’ Lingfield estate – at the invitation of residents angered after the go ahead was given to plans to turn a derelict pub into a Muslim-run community centre.

A counter demonstration by Unite Against Fascism, which attracted around 120 people, was kept apart from the EDL by dozens more officers.

Continue reading

ENGAGE submission to OSCE on anti-Muslim hate crime

ENGAGE OSCE submission 2013ENGAGE have just published their submission to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe on anti-Muslim hate crime in the UK, as a contribution to the OSCE’s preparation of its Hate Crime Report 2012.

This is a thoroughly researched document which sheds a disturbing light on the widespread occurrence of anti-Muslim acts in Britain. It is certainly a much more substantial piece of work than anything produced by the government-backed TELL MAMA, despite the large-scale state subsidies the latter receives.

Continue reading