Security will be tight on Monday as a controversial leader of a far-right British Freedom Party (BFP) talks to supporters in Toronto about his tough stand against immigration and spread of radical Islam. Toronto Police officers will be on hand as Paul Weston is expected to draw a large crowd at the Toronto Zionist Centre, on Marlee Ave.
Category Archives: UK
Atheist crank condemns Muslim ‘brainwashing’
Under the headline “Muslims more successful at enforcing their religion from generation to generation”, the National Secular Society offers its take on the recently published study of Religious nurture in Muslim families carried out by the School of Social Sciences and Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK at Cardiff University.
The BBC report pointed out that the authors of the study “said research suggested religion helps minority communities”. They were quoted as stating that “for minority ethnic populations, religion can be an important resource in bolstering a sense of cultural distinctiveness” and that it “can have an especially important role for minority communities in keeping together the bonds between families from the same ethnic background”.
So, not a study whose conclusions would find favour with the National Secular Society, you might think. The response of the NSS, however, is to ignore the Cardiff researchers’ positive assessment of the impact of Islam on Muslim communities and dogmatically reassert their own uniformly negative view of the role of faith in society.
Developer answers Sunderland mosque protestors
The construction firm behind plans for a controversial mosque has defended its proposals after a backlash from neighbours.
As reported in the Echo, hundreds of protesters have filed official objections against plans to convert a disused vehicle depot in St Mark’s Road, Millfield, into a mosque. More than 600 letters of objection – and a petition bearing 1,462 signatures – have been sent to planners at Sunderland Council, urging councillors to refuse planning permission for the project. Protesters fear they will be plagued by traffic, parking and noise problems if the development goes ahead.
Now Anthony Watt of AM Watt Design, based in Alpine Way, Sunderland, has written to planners addressing some of the concerns. “There are 45 families within this mosque,” he said. “Giving a population of approximately 250 people. The majority live and work within walking distance of the site. Three or four may work outside the area. The main prayer day is Friday, and a maximum of 130 people might attend prayer.”
Right-wing Christian bigot resumes campaign against Newham ‘mega-mosque’
Fresh proposals for a permanent mosque risk turning part of West Ham into an “Islamic ghetto”, say opponents.
A public exhibition was held by Tablighi Jamaat in Stratford in a bid to gather support for the Riverine Centre in Canning Road – dubbed a “mega-mosque”. The plan includes a 9,500 capacity mosque with 40m high minarets, library, visitors centre, and a 300-space car park for worshippers.
Southport man jailed over racist Facebook comments
A dad-of-two was jailed for posting racist remarks on the internet. Anthony Buck wrote anti-Muslim comments on social networking site Facebook. He was sentenced to a total of four months after breaching a suspended sentence for a previous crime.
Sefton Magistrates Court heard Buck, 40, of Sussex Road, Southport, wrote the comments between May 1 and July 19 last year. They were discovered during a police investigation into racist graffiti on a public footbridge.
FOSIS are a good example of Muslims engaging with society
Assed Baig defends the record of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.
Huffington Post, 16 February 2012
See also Reyhana Patel, “University Islamic Societies are not ‘hotbeds’ for radicalisation”, Huffington Post, 14 February 2012
Demagogues lose ground in their bid to smear Muslim students
Amandla Thomas-Johnson of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies argues that the recent Home Affairs Committee’s report on the Roots of Violent Radicalisation debunks claims by the Centre for Social Cohesion/Henry Jackson Society and others that the UK’s universities are breeding grounds for extremism among Muslim students.
‘Mosque-busters’ leaflet delivered by EDL activist in Purley
The man attempting to stir up fears over plans to build a mosque in Purley is a far-right activist and avid supporter of the woman accused of racially abusing people on a tram.
English Defence League member Frank Day proudly claims to have put leaflets through the doors of 600 homes in the area.
His “Does Croydon need a mosque here?” leaflet contains information about a proposal to build an Islamic centre at 5 Russell Hill Place.
It urges residents to fight the application in the belief it will cause traffic issues. But despite his apparent concerns over parking issues in Purley, Mr Day lives six miles away on the New Addington estate – and freely admits he would object to a mosque being built anywhere.
Carlisle EDL members jailed for racist attack
Eleven members of a drunken racist mob who terrorised two cafe workers in Carlisle are today behind bars. The senior judge at Carlisle Crown Court, Paul Batty QC, imposed sentences totalling nearly 15 years for their threatening racist behaviour which he described as “feral” and “disgraceful”.
One of the longest jail terms – 18 months – was imposed on 33-year-old former soldier Andrew Ryan, who played a leading role in the abuse.
The group targeted the Manhattan Cafe, on Botchergate, at the end a drinking session last May when they celebrated Ryan’s release from jail for another racist offence. He had served a 70-day term for burning a copy of the Koran holy book, stolen from Carlisle Library, in the city centre.
Ray Honeyford – is he still Boris Johnson’s hero?
Today’s Daily Telegraph has an editorial endorsing the views of the late Ray Honeyford, the former Bradford head teacher whose racist statements were widely condemned in the 1980s.
According to the Telegraph, Honeyford merely “believed that multiculturalism was doing a disservice to children from immigrant backgrounds, who were denied the benefits of full integration with the society into which they would grow up”. The editorial denounces the “vilification of Mr Honeyford”, which supposedly “played into the hands of extremists seeking to foment discord, such as Abu Qatada”. It claims that the lesson to be drawn from the controversy is that “shutting down debate about cultural assimilation is short-sighted and dangerous”.
These arguments are no doubt familiar to Telegraph readers. Back in 2006 one of the paper’s columnists wrote an article that took a similar line on Honeyford and multiculturalism. In an attack on the then Labour home secretary the columnist wrote:
… here is how John Reid could prove that he was really tough. Here is the bravest thing he could possibly say. He should say that the real problem in our society, and the reason we have so many disaffected and alienated Muslim youths, is that for a generation he and people like him supported the disastrous multicultural agenda. The reason that 40 per cent of British Muslims would like some form of Sharia law in this country is that the Left has traditionally deprecated British institutions and even the teaching of English. A truly brave John Reid would now publicly grovel to Ray Honeyford, the Bradford head who called for teaching in English and who was vilified and persecuted by the Left.