Category Archives: UK

BNP returns to ‘Muslim heroin trade’ propaganda

Posted on by Bob Pitt

South Ribble councillors against BNP
South Ribble Councillors Caleb Tomlinson, Derek Forrest and Cameron Crook with BNP leaflets

Councillors in South Ribble say they are appalled and offended after a political activist personally targeted them to ask for their support for a campaign which allegedly blames Muslims for the heroin trade.

Tony Bamber has written to three councillors in the area and personally delivered a letter and leaflets under the auspices of the ‘Preston Pals’, which he says is in honour of the men of the 7th Battalion the ‘Loyals’.

Mr Bamber is also standing in next month’s Lancashire County Council elections, as a member of the British National Party (BNP) in Burnley, and local Labour councillors are furious that he is trying to spread what they say are ‘racist views’ in Leyland.

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UKIP stands by Rotherham local election candidate with BNP links

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Caven VinesThe UK Independence party’s local election candidate in Rotherham has had close links to the British National party and thinks there are too many Muslims in Britain – but having been alerted to his views and background, the party’s central command refused to condemn his remarks.

Caven Vines, 62, used to work closely with the BNP’s Rotherham organiser, Marlene Guest, in a campaign group called Council Watch. He has never been a BNP member but spent 2004-2006 as an independent councillor for the Rotherham West ward and is well known locally for his rightwing views.

Vines is standing in the Rawmarsh ward in a byelection triggered by the resignation of Labour’s Shaun Wright, who became South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner last year, despite his BNP connections. Wright’s wife, Lisa, is hoping to keep the seat in the family and is standing for Labour.

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Islamophobia? It’s just ‘a figment of liberals’ imaginations’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Well, that’s what Brendan O’Neill argues at the Telegraph. He asserts that there is no sign of any mass outbreak of anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States following the Boston bombing. But then, O’Neill is part of a political tendency – formerly the ultra-left Revolutionary Communist Party but now organised around the right-wing libertarian online magazine spiked, whose adherents have long argued that Islamophobia is a myth.

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Boston bombings: western governments reaping what they sow?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

According to US newspapers, the sole surviving suspect says the west’s invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan were major motivations for doing what he did. And without any outside, foreign assistance, according to US officials quoted in the Washington Post.

This fact will be played down or more likely ignored very largely by the government in Washington.

But it is important because it is a direct admission from the suspect himself that politics and western foreign policy are the driving forces for him rather than Islam, al-Qaeda, foreign connections and all the rest of it currently being pointed at in so many quarters despite the patent lack of meaningful evidence.

Alex Thompson’s View, 24 April 2013

See also “Bomber motivated by religion? Media regurgitates government propaganda”, Loonwatch, 24 April 2013

Update:  See Glenn Greenwald, “The same motive for anti-US ‘terrorism’ is cited over and over”, Guardian, 24 April 2013

BNP election campaign in Lincolnshire centres on Skegness halal abattoir

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP Stop Halal Slaughter in Skegness

The British National Party has organised a number of protests against a halal abattoir in Skegness. It is now trying to exploit the issue in its Lincolnshire County Council election campaign. The BNP boasts that “only candidate Robert Ashton is mentioning the Halal Slaughterhouse in his Full Colour Tri Fold Election Communication”. It is, however, likely to require more than that to rescue the BNP from electoral humiliation.

Baroness Warsi on Islamophobia and Muslim attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Baroness_WarsiThe government is “finally dealing” with Islamophobia in the UK, the minister for faith and communities has said in a personal film made for the BBC.

Baroness Warsi visited the Altrincham Islamic Cultural Centre and heard from trustee Amjad Latif about relations with the local community, and attacks on people and buildings.

The former Conservative Party chairman looked at problems relating to attacks and discrimination against ethnic communities, and recalled her description of the ‘dinner table test’.

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Second EDL supporter sentenced over racist graffiti opposite Woking mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shah Jahan Mosque

A young woman has been given a suspended prison sentence for spray-painting racist graffiti near a mosque and at other properties in the Maybury area of Woking, causing £3,000 of damage.

Georgina Gontar, 20, of Queen Elizabeth Way, Old Woking, pleaded guilty to a breach of an Asbo, four offences of racially aggravated criminal damage and two of causing criminal damage when she appeared at Guildford Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday (April 17).

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St George’s Day declaration by coalition of faith groups and campaigners

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The hijab should be as welcome as “bangers and mash” in England, a coalition of religious groups and campaigners have said, in an appeal for unity to mark St George’s Day.

Groups including the Muslim Council of Britain and inter-faith organisation the Christian Muslim Forum said the saint has been “hijacked” by groups on the “extreme right”, like the British National Party and the English Defence League, seeking to use him as a “symbol of triumphalism and division”.

“We want to promote a new, relaxed and confident, English national identity,” they said in a declaration. “A place where a hijab is as welcome as bangers and mash, and no-one is attacked for their race, religion – or lack thereof – or any other belief.”

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Arson attack on halal butchers in Blackburn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Blackburn halal butchers arson attack

The owner of a halal butchers said people sleeping in the flat upstairs were lucky to survive after suspected arsonists set fire to his shop.

Police were yesterday investigating the cause of a fire at Ummah Halal Butchers in Queen’s Park Road, Blackburn.

Firefighters were called to the scene at 3am yesterday and when they arrived they found smoke coming from the front door and a fire inside. Six people in the flat above the shop, including two children, managed to get out unharmed after a passer-by saw the fire and alerted the fire service.

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