Category Archives: UK

The JC and the ‘jihadist’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

JC Pears headlineLast week’s Jewish Chronicle – the same issue that included Geoffrey Alderman’s column applauding the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni at the hands of al-Qaeda – also featured a front-page splash by its political editor Martin Bright, who reported that:

“An organisation which hosted an associate of 7/7 ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan in the House of Commons has been bankrolled by one of the UK’s most prominent Jewish philanthropists, the JC can reveal.”

The charity referred to was Forward Thinking, which aims to encourage greater understanding between Muslim communities and wider society, promote peace in the Middle East and facilitate dialogue between the religious and secular worlds. And the Jewish philanthopical organisation was the Pears Foundation. The “jihadist” who spoke at the reception in parliament was Tafazal Mohammad, the head of an organisation called Muslim Youth Skills which advises clients such as the Metropolitan Police on how to engage with young Muslims.

The purpose of Bright’s report was clearly to warn off sections of the Jewish community who might be inclined to associate with organisations that take a more balanced view of the Palestinian resistance than the JC does. As Bright explained: “Forward Thinking was founded by William Sieghart, who has called for a reassessment of the West’s ‘distorted image of Hamas’.” (The reference is to an article published in the Times in December 2008.) Yet despite this the Pears Foundation had – shock, horror – given £23,000 to Forward Thinking between 2008 and 2010.

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EDL supporters in armed forces under investigation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Freedom Parade For Soldiers Returning From Afghanistan
Supporting British troops … by endangering their lives

Defence chiefs are investigating a claim that soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment have been photographed showing their support for a far-right anti-Islam group.

Several pictures are under investigation. One shows soldiers from regiment – which recruits in Cumbria – posing next to the flag of the English Defence League (EDL) at a homecoming parade for the regiment in Blackburn last year. Eight soldiers are seen standing next to the flag, bearing the words: “EDL supports Duke of Lancaster Regiment.” Another more controversial picture shows a uniformed solider, allegedly in Helmand Province, his face hidden by a black scarf as he brandishes a pistol and stands in front of before the EDL flag.

The pictures – which have not yet been confirmed to be genuine – could help radicalise some Muslims, and inflame divisions between Islam and the West.

Kevin Caroll, 41, who is joint EDL leader, said the organisation was opposed to racism, but the Cumbrian branch is currently publishing an on-line video crammed with anti-Islamic slogans. The first of these shows a medieval crusader in battle armour, under the slogan: “Jihad works both ways.” Another slogan tells viewers: “Let the crusade begin.”

News & Star, 17 May 2011

See also Lancashire Telegraph, 17 May 2011

The photographs were first published in the Sunday Times, captioned “Soldiers flaunt support for anti-Muslim league”. Contributors to Exposing… have suggested that the photos were supplied to the paper by the EDL itself as a publicity stunt. The fact that this is likely to further endanger the lives of British soldiers serving in Afghanistan was evidently of no concern to the “patriots” of the EDL.

EDL flash protest in Hull results in violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In Hull, a group of EDL supporters staged a brief demonstration in the centre of town and then gathered outside the mosque in Pearson Park. The same mosque was targeted by the EDL and members of the fascist British National Party in December.

People from the mosque were joined by antifascists at extremely short notice to defend the religious building. One antifascist protestor says:

About 25 of the EDL rabble came out of a side street and marched past shouting racist abuse and making threats. The police allowed the EDL to spout their abuse but stopped the mosque supporters from approaching them.

The EDL then disappeared. More people turned up including students from the university. By now we had around about 80 people defending the Mosque. The EDL never came back.

However, this comes after we heard the mosque was attacked during the week and had some of its windows broken.

Unite Against Fascism, 15 May 2011

See also the Hull Daily Mail, which reports: “Two arrests were made during the course of the day. The first arrest was made in the Pearson Park area of the city at about 2pm. The second was in Spring Bank, when a man in his 30s was detained after an attack on a car full of Asian men.”

Man found guilty of threatening behaviour during punch-up between EDL supporters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man from Bolton was given a curfew order by magistrates after he threw a punch while attending an English Defence League rally in Blackburn.

A court was told how a man was being escorted out by stewards for heckling one the speakers when he was punched by a number of fellow supporters.

David Monks, aged 34, of Haydock Street, Bolton, pleaded guilty to using threatening behaviour before Blackburn magistrates and was made subject to an electronically monitored curfew between 8pm and 6am for 91 days.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, said CCTV of the incident showed Monks throwing a punch but it did not show whether it connected. “The other man was in fact punched unconscious but not necessarily by this defendant,” said Miss Allan.

Mr Michael Blacklidge, defending, said: “The irony is that this happened between EDL supporters who fell out amongst themselves.”

Bolton News, 16 May 2011

See also “Five in court after Blackburn EDL rally”, Lancashire Telegraph, 16 May 2011

‘Pope plot’ men not involved in terrorism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim plot to kill popeThe government’s terror laws watchdog says six men arrested during Pope Benedict’s UK visit last September were never involved in a plot.

David Anderson QC said police acted appropriately and the arrests were partly prompted by mistaken identity.

The six Westminster street cleaners were seized amid fears they wanted to attack the Pope mobile. The men were released without charge amid reports that a canteen joke had been misunderstood.

Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officers launched “Operation Grid” and arrested the six men on 17 September last year on suspicion of plotting to harm the Pope during a visit which began the day before. Questioned at high security Paddington Green police station, they were released without charge, having been held for between 33 and 42 hours.

The men, aged between 26 and 44, were all North African Muslims and worked for Veolia Environmental Services – which cleans streets in Westminster.

Mr Anderson, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said in this report he had met two of the men, spoken with lawyers and had also questioned detectives from Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command.

“There is no reason to believe, with the benefit of hindsight, that any of the arrested men was involved in a plot to kill the Pope, or indeed that any such plot existed,” he said in his report.

“The powers of arrest, search, seizure under the Terrorism Act 2000 (TA 2000) were, however, in all the circumstances of Operation Grid, lawfully and appropriately used.

“There will be future temptations to use the TA 2000 powers in relation to individuals as to whom the necessary reasonable suspicions do not exist, particularly in the context of international high-profile events such as the London Olympics.

“Constant vigilance is required to ensure that the legal boundaries of those powers are respected, as they were in this case.”

BBC News, 15 May 2011

David Anderson supports the decision to arrest the men despite noting that it was “barely credible that persons who were within a couple of days of executing an attack on the life of the Pope would have spoken openly of their intentions within the possible hearing of others”.

He does however criticise the fact that some of the arrested men were denied the right to inform a named person of their detention – a right which serves “to differentiate the practices of a civilised society from the unexplained ‘disappearances’ characteristic of a police state”.

It has been reported that at least one of the men is considering legal action against the police for false imprisonment.

The men have been deprived of the opportunity to challenge the disgraceful coverage of their arrests in the Daily Express because Richard Desmond has withdrawn all his titles from the Press Complaints Commission.

Does the BBC have a problem with Muslims?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Does Britain have a problem with Muslims

Yesterday’s The Big Questions on BBC TV was devoted to the issue “Does Britain have a problem with Muslims?” The very title illustrates how Islamophobic discourse has entered the mainstream. Can anyone imagine the BBC broadcasting a programme that addressed the question “Does Britain have a problem with Jews?” or “Does Britain have a problem with Blacks?”

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EDL hooligan who abused Muslims is convicted of racially aggravated harassment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daniel OdlingA Gainsborough man charged with racially aggravated behaviour was found guilty following a two-day trial.

Daniel Odling denied committing racially aggravated harassment against a group of Muslims in Lincoln in July last year where an off-duty police officer was assaulted.

The 26-year-old father from High Street, Blyton near Gainsborough, was on trial with a 17-year-old man from Market Rasen who cannot be named for legal reasons. Both were accused of religiously aggravated behaviour at the Grandstand on Carholme Road, Lincoln, where 30 to 40 Muslims gathered to discuss the building of a mosque, on the evening of 9th July 2010.

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Sindy interviews Geller

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pamela Geller UndeadThe Independent on Sunday carries a lengthy interview by Robert Chalmers with Pamela Geller (“American patriot or extremist firebrand?”). You might think this is a bit excessive for a woman who, as Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is quoted as saying, “has a very long record of absolute lunacy, mixed with bigotry and racism”.

Nor is the interview the hatchet job you might have hoped for. Chalmers does conclude the piece with a warning that Geller is acting “a magnifying glass capturing, focusing and intensifying the blinding prejudices of her compatriots … and directing them towards a pile of kindling”. But the main thrust of the interview is to present Geller as a personally charming right-wing eccentric.

Get tough on immigrants – Will Hutton’s answer to the rise of the far right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Will Hutton has a piece in today’s Observer headed “While the European left dithers, the right marches menacingly on”. He warns against the threat posed by the rise of xenophobic far-right parties in Europe and states correctly that “what is unifying all Europe’s populist right is outright hostility to Muslims”.

But he argues that the left has lost ground not least because it has failed to adapt to anti-immigrant views among the voters. Referring to discussions at the Progressive Governance conference in Oslo last week, Hutton writes:

“Denial is the default position, because the left does not want to believe its own people could descend to hating immigrants with the ferocity of the populist right. To make concessions is to legitimise attitudes that should only stay on the margins. The Spanish socialists spoke for the consensus, saying that the left must make the case that immigration is a force for good – it makes Europe richer. Others, such as the Danish and Dutch social democrats, were more street-wise, wanting to bend to the popular mood. After all, immigration does create economic losers. The left cannot allow purism to come before realism.”

Hutton’s view is that the left must “accept that immigration offends basic attitudes to fairness. Once any host population starts to believe that new immigrants can get benefits without paying anything into the collective pot they feel cheated. Immigrants need to be offered ways of earning their citizenship to ease their path on arrival.”

Which, couched in the language of liberalism, is basically a recommendation that the left should try to undermine the far right by getting tough on immigrants.