English Defence League leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) has appeared on Michael Coren’s Canadian TV show, discussing the recent attack on him in Luton by what he claims was a gang of local Muslims. Richard Bartholomew examines some of the contradictions in Lennon’s account of events.
Category Archives: UK
EDL ‘Angels’ to face trial over attack on kebab shop
Two women who have denied a religiously-motivated assault on a Kurdish woman at a city centre takeaway will face trial later this year.
Hayley Wells, aged 27, and Kelly Watterson, aged 29, both appeared at Plymouth Crown Court on the joint charge of religiously aggravated common assault on Sawda Kurdo at the Istanbul Kebab shop in Exeter Street on August 31 last year.
More halal hysteria from the Mail
ENGAGE takes up the latest exercise in anti-halal propaganda in the Daily Mail.
See also “Daily Mail whips up ‘no halal at Westminster’ non-controversy”, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 3 January 2012
Another Islamophobic rant from Abhijit Pandya
Over at the Mail’s Right Minds blog there is yet another raving anti-Muslim post from former UKIP candidate Abhijit Pandya. David Cameron is denounced for “failing to act” on his notorious Munich conference speech last year denouncing multiculturalism. This has supposedly resulted in a failure to resist forced marriages, honour killings and, in particular, sharia courts.
BFP agrees with Spiked on defence of ‘freedom’
As its contribution to the end-of-the-year lists genre, Spiked has published a piece by Patrick Hayes entitled “The worst 10 assaults on freedom”, which has now been reproduced in its entirety by the EDL-linked British Freedom Party.
The BFP’s support is hardly surprising, given that Number 7 on Hayes’ list of “assaults on freedom” is the use of Crasbos against far-right thugs:
“In March, English Defence League (EDL) member Shane Overton received a Criminal ASBO banning him from attending or helping to organise any demonstration, meeting or gathering held by the EDL, and even from visiting its website for 10 years. Later in 2011, police tried to slap an ASBO on EDL leader Stephen Lennon that would have prevented him from having any involvement with his own organisation.”
It’s worth recalling that Overton, while passing through Doncaster railway station on his way back from an EDL demonstration, racially abused a Muslim family as they were waiting for a train, terrifying their children.
Mail and Torygraph defend sacked workers
And that must be a first. However, the two workers in question are Malory Nye, who claims that he was dismissed from his post as principal of an independent college in Dundee “because its hierarchy viewed his race and religion as a threat to its Muslim values”, and his wife Isabel Campbell-Nye, who says she was dismissed as head of the college’s English language centre “because she brought in too many students who were not Muslims or Arabs”.
JDL and far-right parties find common ground
“Right-wing movements previously associated with anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi ideologies are increasingly opting for a surprising tactic to garner legitimacy within mainstream politics: Forging alliances with extremist Jewish organisations under the banner of fighting ‘Islamisation’.”
Nour Samaha of Al Jazeera examines links between the Jewish Defense League and far-right organisations in Europe and North America.
Drunk woman smashed window at mosque
A drunken woman smashed a window at a South Tyneside mosque.
Police were called to Baring Street in South Shields after Sarah Riley was seen on CCTV running amok at 5.30am. Officers told the 22-year-old to go home, but later found a window smashed at the Baithul Mamur Jame Masjid Mosque. When arrested, she said she couldn’t remember what had happened.
JC readers round on Bright
The article by Martin Bright in last week’s Jewish Chronicle denouncing prominent figures in the Jewish community for failing to boycott London Citizens over its links with the East London Mosque has provoked a welcome backlash from the paper’s readers.
EDL member who threw concrete at police at anti-Islam protest fails to appear in court for sentencing
A 28-year-old man caught on camera hurling lumps of concrete at the police during an English Defence League demonstration in Bradford city centre was ordered to appear at Court today or be arrested.
Michael Currie failed to attend Bradford Crown Court yesterday to be sentenced for an affray on Saturday, August 28, last year. Currie sent a doctor’s note saying he was unwell because of anxiety and unfit for work for a fortnight. His barrister, Thomas Gilbart, said he was encouraged by his solicitor to attend but said he was unable to.