Category Archives: UK

EDL supporters jailed for vicious attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dale OakleyFour Yorkshire EDL supporters were jailed this week for a vicious attack on two Asian teenagers.

Leeds Crown Court heard how the four yobs, Dale Oakley, Jordan Williams and Melvin Watts all of Dewsbury, and Josh Foster of Tadcaster attacked the two teenagers in revenge as Foster and Williams, had been beaten up by an Asian group at an earlier date. However, neither of the victims was involved in the initial attack on Foster and Williams.

Williams struck one of the teenagers with a stick while Watts, slashed one of them in the face with a knife he had brought from home.

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BBC refuses to screen play about Islamic threat to freedom of speech

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Well, that’s the headline to an article in the Daily Telegraph. The play is the theatre-dance piece Can We Talk About This?, currently being performed at the National Theatre, which reportedly treats Ray Honeyford as a legitimate critic of multiculturalism and Geert Wilders as a hero of free speech.

If the BBC had indeed refused to screen a play which promoted racists and Islamophobes like Honeyford and Wilders, they would certainly have a point. But there is no evidence to suggest that the play was even being considered for broadcast.

The Telegraph report quotes a spokesperson for BBC director-general Mark Thompson as stating: “We are currently working with the National on various ideas. There are currently no plans to broadcast Can We Talk About This?, but this is not due to the play’s content or themes.”

Still, no point letting the facts get in the way of another scaremongering headline about “how Islam is curtailing freedom of speech”, as the Telegraph puts it, is there?

Update:  Predictably, over at Jihad Watch Robert Spencer denounces “more dhimmitude from the BBC”.

Mail changes inaccurate headline about Muslims and honour violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tabloid Watch examines the Daily Mail‘s shock-horror headline “More than two thirds of young British Muslims believe ‘honour’ violence is acceptable, survey reveals”, which misreported the findings of a ComRes opinion poll.

This headline was subsequently replaced with “‘Honour’ violence is acceptable, say one in five young British Asians”. However, as Tabloid Watch points out and as we noted at the time, even that figure is based on a one-sided interpretation of the poll.

Tabloid Watch also observes that the Mail‘s change of headline “came too late, however, to stop their original headline being repeated on countless anti-Islam forums and blogs”.

Furthermore: “The day after MailOnline wrongly claimed ‘two thirds of young British Muslims believe ‘honour’ violence is acceptable’ it won Newspaper Website of the Year at the Press Awards.”

Islamic bookstore sparks controversy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

TORONTO — Shamim Ahmad has run his Islamic bookstore for 20 years in the popular East York neighbourhood of Little India. A green and white sign advertises Islamic books and souvenirs.

This quiet store is the site of a Canada-wide uproar because it sold a copy of “A gift for the Muslim couple.” The book was written by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, an Islamic scholar from the late 19th century who passed away in 1943.

“I didn’t read the book, I only bought because of the title,” Ahmad said. “It’s a hundred-year-old book and I don’t know what was inside.”

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Kingston Mosque attack accused admits lying to police

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A bricklayer who denies taking part in an attack on Kingston Mosque is “no angel” and lied to police during his interview, a court has heard.

Martin Pottle, 23, a former Orleans Park School pupil from Feltham told the court he originally lied to police as he was hungover and scared of being remanded in custody as he was on bail in connection with another offence.

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Racists convicted of attack on Muslim taxi driver

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muhammed HussainA taxi driver today told how he feared for his life after a group of passengers launched a racist attack on him before threatening to “take him down a side street and kill him”.

During the terrifying incident, father-of-five Muhammed Hussain, from Holme Slack, Preston, was spat at, punched in the face, grabbed around the neck and called racist names. His attackers even threatened to cut off his beard.

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Baroness Cox claims Sun misrepresented her views on sharia law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Baroness Cox with David HorowitzRichard Bartholomew draws our attention to the interesting news that the Sun and Daily Mail have withdrawn their reports of Baroness Cox’s speech at the Christian Broadcasting Council symposium at the House of Lords earlier this week, in which she warned of the threat from sharia law in the UK.

An email from Cox replying to a complaint about her reported statements on sharia has been posted on Expose. It reads: “Thank you for your email of yesterday, raising your concern over the words printed in the Sun newspaper (21 March) which were attributed to me. I emphasise that I did not make the remark and the Sun has apologised to me personally and I hope will publish a correction.”

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EDL leader announces formation of new political party in May, aims to emulate Wilders and Le Pen

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Bradford3The leader of a British anti-Islamist group said on Friday his populist protest movement, which critics say represents a new far right in Britain, would form a political party in May. Stephen Lennon, head of the English Defence League (EDL), said the three-year-old grassroots group wanted to move on from holding street demonstrations to contesting elections.

“The British political anti-Islamist party will be launched in May at our Luton demonstration,” Lennon told Reuters, saying the new body would be called the Freedom Party. At the Luton demonstration, the whole country will hear an anti-Islamist political party that gives everyone an option in a non-racist way – the opposite to the British National Party.”

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Two Saudi women students verbally and racially abused in Norwich for wearing veils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police are investigating after two Saudi Arabian students were racially and verbally abused in Norwich for covering their faces with a veil. The married women from Bowthorpe, who are learning English at the Flying Classrooms language school in Tombland, said they are now too scared to walk in the city.

The school’s director of studies Roni Snell said she was “appalled” at the incident which happened close to Debenham’s in the city centre last month. She said: “I’m appalled and embarrassed. We have a lot of Saudi people come to study with us. The government funds their study, and a lot of students live with our 250 host families. It’s terrible for a minority of people to abuse these ladies. Norwich’s economy benefits greatly from having these students here and we should treat them as guests.”

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More on Baroness Cox and the threat of sharia law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CBC House of Lords Symposium

It turns out that the meeting at the House of Lords on Monday where Baroness Cox made her hysterical claims about the threat of sharia law was the annual symposium of the Christian Broadcasting Council, of which Cox is vice-president. It was titled “Islamist Resurgence: Shari’a and freedom” and Cox was billed as speaking “on matters arising out of her Private Members Bill on Gender Equality and Shari’a”.

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