Category Archives: UK

Bristol: council rejects calls for ban on EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol protest against EDL march

Councillors will not be calling on the Home Secretary to ban the English Defence League from marching through Bristol.

Campaigners gathered at the Council House last night to protest at the far-right group being allowed to stage the event in the city on July 14. About 20 people rallied outside the College Green building ahead of the meeting of the council’s cabinet.

They held placards and banners bearing the words “defend our multicultural city of Bristol” and “No to racism, EDL is not welcome here”. Some chanted slogans against the EDL, which describes itself as an anti-Islamist organisation.

Paulette North, one of the organisers of the rally, was armed with a megaphone during the protest, shouting: “We should be saying the EDL are not welcome here and if they do come they should be concentrated in the open area behind Temple Meads, do whatever they want there and then go home. That’s what Tower Hamlets and Milton Keynes did and that is what we are asking this council to do – but they have done very little and really need to do more.”

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Nazi found guilty of harassing councillor in mosque protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kieren TrentThe leader of a racist BNP protest has been found guilty of disturbing public order outside a former councillor’s house.

Kieren Trent pleaded not guilty to four counts of public disorder when he appeared at Milton Keynes Magistrates’ Court for his part in causing former Councillor Mike Galloway “undue distress and alarm” as he and a group of others protested outside Mr Galloway’s home in Wolverton. [See here and here.]

Mr Galloway, former cabinet member for planning at the council, was at his Wolverton home on Sunday, April 24 2011, when the gang arrived with racist banners and a megaphone.

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Photographer accused of assaulting Muslim woman and calling her a terrorist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cinnamon Heathcote-DruryA portrait photographer to the stars shoved a pregnant Muslim woman to the floor and called her a terrorist during a row in Tesco, a court heard yesterday.

Cinnamon Heathcote-Drury also branded the hijab-wearing woman’s family suicide bombers, it was alleged.

The 41-year-old, who has 11 portraits hanging in the National Portrait Gallery including exhibits of London mayor Boris Johnson and Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman, denies racially-aggravated assault.

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Posted in UK

Man who ripped off Muslim woman’s veil spared jail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ian Brazier (2)A man who ripped off a Muslim woman’s veil in a shopping centre because he thought she was “just another illegal immigrant” has been spared jail.

Ian Brazier, from Shirley, Solihull, was given a six-week sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete a diversity awareness course by magistrates in the town. The 26-year-old had admitted racially aggravated assault at an early hearing.

The court heard that he tore Farhana Chughtai’s niqab from her face and threw it on the floor in Solihull’s Touchwood complex on March 3 as she shopped with family.

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Employment tribunal finds ‘no evidence of wrongdoing or misconduct’ by Muslim airline pilot … but says British Airways were entitled to sack him

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim airline pilot sacked after he was linked to two suspected terrorists has lost his case against British Airways.

Samir Jamaluddin, a senior first officer who flew Boeing 747 jets, was arrested by counter terror police in 2007 before he was dropped by the airline three years later. He launched a claim for racial discrimination and unfair dismissal but this was rejected by an employment tribunal which found in favour of BA.

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Posted in UK

The ‘Olympic terror plot’ that wasn’t

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jamaal UddinLast week the right-wing press made a big splash over the arrest of two Muslims who had been reported to the police for “acting suspiciously” while sailing a dinghy on the River Lea at Waltham Abbey in Hertfordshire, near to the Olympic canoeing venue.

While articles in the Guardian and the Evening Standard were quite measured, the Daily Telegraph reported this under the shock-horror headline “London 2012: Two Muslim converts arrested over Olympic terror plot”.

The Daily Mail did at least refer to the plot in inverted commas (“Muslim converts who ‘plotted to attack Olympic canoeing venue’ arrested after police see them acting suspiciously in a dinghy”), but as you can see, the Telegraph didn’t even bother with that formality. In any case, the two individuals had been arrested on suspicion and had not been charged with an offence. So, in the absence of actual evidence, talk of any kind of plot was premature to say the least.

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Bristol EDL man claims to have received death threats over city march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The leader of the Bristol branch of the English Defence League (EDL) has claimed he is getting death threats over plans to march in the city.

Micky Bayliss said he had received “numerous threats” and had also had a concrete slab thrown through his car windscreen while out campaigning. “I’ve also been actively tearing down various stickers and posters put onto my car,” he said.

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Petition calls for EDL march in Bristol to be banned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A petition with more than 2000 signatures calling for a ban on the English Defence League’s march next weekend, will be handed in to Bristol City Council tomorrow.

It includes names from trade unionists and faith groups across the city, asking to prevent the march taking place on the 14th of July .

Similar EDL marches in Telford and Luton have been banned. There will also be a lobby outside of the Council House, College Green at 5.30pm before the Cabinet meeting.

ITV West, 3 July 2012

Update:  See also “Campaigners lobby for Bristol EDL march to be called off”, Bristol Post, 4 July 2012

Observer publishes partial correction to its inaccurate report of Rowan Williams’ views on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE draws our attention to a short notice that appeared in Sunday’s Observer:

Our coverage last week of Faith in the Public Square, a forthcoming book by the archbishop of Canterbury (News), contained this quote, supplied to us by the publishers: “To suggest that the Muslim owes an overriding loyalty to the international Muslim community (the Umma) is extremely worrying. Muslims must make clear that their loyalty is straightforward modern political loyalty to the nation state.” This is a representation of a view that the archbishop does not hold. It was drawn from a lecture he gave in October 2004 in which he went on to deconstruct the argument, maintaining that religious loyalty and political loyalty should not be seen as being in direct competition.

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