Kelvin MacKenzie advocates UK veil ban

ENGAGE has the details. In a short piece for the Daily Mail MacKenzie hailed the French veil ban as a “great success”. He described the report that three veiled women were turned back at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and refused entry into France as “excellent news”. He urged David Cameron to include a proposal for a veil ban in the UK in the 2015 Tory Party manifesto.

Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman accuses Daily Mail of telling porkies

Lutfur Rahman banner

Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman has refuted allegations that the borough has banned pork sausages from being served in schools.

Mayor Rahman responded on his blog to an article in the Daily Mail which claimed the council has banned sausages due to “religious reasons.” The article stated that 85 out of 90 schools in Tower Hamlets do not offer pupils a pork option, a figure which Mayor Rahman attributed to a lack of demand.

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Bournemouth councillor ‘sorry’ for Twitter comments on race

A Bournemouth councillor made a public apology for controversial online comments about the English Defence League.

Conservative Cllr Sue Anderson read out the apology at Tuesday’s full council meeting. The mum of four, who represents Moordown, had said “nobody else except the EDL stick up for the English”. She also tweeted to an account jointly run by a woman of Asian descent: “If you don’t like it here go back to where you came from.”

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Sunday Telegraph resumes witch-hunt of Baroness Warsi

Baroness Warsi extremist business partner

The latest episode in the Sunday Telegraph‘s attempt to frame Sayeeda Warsi is headlined “Baroness Warsi, her extremist business partner and the lunch with the Prime Minister”. You’ll note that, in contrast to last week’s instalment, Abid Hussain is referred to straightforwardly as an extremist without bothering with the quotation marks. Last week his extremism was an allegation, now apparently it’s an established fact.

What additional information, you might ask, has the Sunday Telegraph‘s investigations editor Jason Lewis discovered about Warsi’s business partner over the past seven days that could justify this change? Well, none actually. The main scandalous revelation about Abid Hussain in the latest article is that he has been convicted of assault – nearly a quarter of a century ago, when he was a teenager. The conviction is of course long spent. This really is scraping the barrel.

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Why try to take baby from EDL member but not from ‘terrorists’?

Stella Evans posing with gunThe question is posed by Ted Jeory in the Sunday Express. The English Defence League member in question is one Toni Macleod, who claims she has now in fact left the EDL, though reportedly this is only because she’s joined the overtly neo-Nazi breakaway group the Infidels.

Thirty-five weeks pregnant, Macleod has been told by Durham County Council social services that she would pose a “risk of significant harm” to her baby and they want to put the child up for adoption. According Jeory, this is because they “fear the child would become radicalised with EDL views”.

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Racists vandalise Muslim graves in Leeds cemetery

The grave of one of the London bombers has been vandalised along with others in a cemetery in Leeds. The plot holding the remains of Hasib Hussain at Cottingley Cemetery was damaged and had racist graffiti scrawled on it.

A number of graves in the Muslim section were damaged, prompting increased police patrols. Headstones were pulled over and offensive expressions scratched on to the stonework.

BBC News, 15 June 2012

Muslim graves in Cottingley Cemetery have been targeted by racists before, in April 2007.

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Leyton: Mosque hits back at ‘extremism’ claims

Masjid-al-Tawhid (2)

The management of a mosque under investigation for alleged links to extremists has spoken out for the first time, denying what it says are malicious accusations.

The Charity Commission launched an inquiry last week into claims that the Madrasah Al-Tawhid mosque in Leyton High Road allowed “individuals with potential links to terrorist organisations” to promote their views.

But the Active Change Foundation (ACF), a charity which specialises in tackling extremism in Waltham Forest, told the Guardian yesterday it strongly believed that the claims were untrue and motivated by former members who were bitter following a power struggle.

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Two arrested after EDL attack on Newcastle anti-Jubilee protestors

Two men have been arrested after EDL members clashed with anti-jubilee protestors in a city centre flare-up.

Police launched an investigation after trouble broke out on Monday June 4 during a protest at the Monument, in Newcastle city centre, when firecrackers went off among a crowd of people. A teenage protestor suffered a slight injury and received hospital treatment before being discharged.

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