Category Archives: UK

‘East End Gay Pride’ march organiser resigns after EDL past is revealed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

East End Gay PrideOne of the organisers of East London Gay Pride resigned today after it was revealed that he had been involved with the English Defence League. Raymond Berry helped found the far-right group and remains involved in groups including Stop the Islamification of Europe, it was claimed.

According to gay Muslim group Imaan, Mr Berry, a transport worker, fell out with officials at the Rail and Maritime Trades Union (RMT) last September over his political affiliations. Imaan said it had seen correspondence in which Mr Berry declared he had helped found the EDL but was no longer involved with the group because of a dispute over leadership. But Mr Berry allegedly said that he continued to hold firm beliefs against Sharia law and the “Islamification of Britain” and was involved in other anti-Muslim groups.

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EDL demonstrator launched ‘flying kick’ at Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Leicester October 2010
EDL protestors in Leicester, October 2010

Three men were sentenced yesterday for their part in the public disorder which accompanied the English Defence League protest in Leicester.

Two of the men, who denied having any official political affiliation with the EDL, were among a group hurling missiles at the international arts centre Fabrika, in Humberstone Gate.

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Prejudice against Muslims is general across Europe, report finds

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Via Islam in Europe here is the section on anti-Muslim prejudice from the new Friedrich Ebert Foundation publication, Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination: A European Report (summary of the study here).

Anti-Muslim Attitudes

After statistical testing, three statements were used to produce the anti-Muslim attitudes mean scale (Table 7, items 18 to 20). These cover the general impression that there are too many Muslims in the country, the charge that Muslims make too many demands, and broad-brush criticism of Islam as a religion of intolerance. Four further statements were surveyed in a random half of the sample. These cover a positive attitude that sees Muslims as an enrichment and the idea that there are great cultural differences between the majority society and Muslims, especially concerning attitudes towards women. We also surveyed the idea that Muslims generally support and condone terrorism.

In most of the countries a majority believe Islam to be a religion of intolerance, with agreement just below 50 percent only in Great Britain and the Netherlands. In almost all the countries more than half of respondents said that Muslims make too many demands; Portugal was the only exception with about one third. The statement that there are too many Muslims in the country is affirmed by just over one quarter in Portugal and by about one third in France. In Germany, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands more than 40 percent of respondents complain that there are too many Muslims in their country, in Hungary about 60 percent.

Interviewees were also asked to respond to four further statements covering perceived cultural differences and supposed affinity of Muslims toward terrorism (Table 7, items 22 to 25). Despite correlating closely with anti-Muslim attitudes these items represent separate constructs and were therefore excluded from the scale measure.

FES1

The figures for those who say that Muslim culture is compatible with their own range from 17 percent in Poland and 19 percent in Germany to about half the population in Portugal and France. A majority of more than 70 percent of European respondents find that Muslim attitudes towards women are incompatible with their own values. Overall in the surveyed countries about one third think that Muslims treat Islamist terrorists as heroes, although somewhat fewer believe that terrorism finds moral support in the Muslim community (ranging from under 20 percent in Germany and the Netherlands to nearly 30 percent in Hungary).

The scale created from the first three statements clearly illustrates the extent of anti-Muslim attitudes in the studied countries (Figure 5). It is conspicuous that Europeans are largely united in their rejection of Muslims and Islam. The significantly most widespread anti-Muslim attitudes are found in Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland, closely followed by France, Great Britain and the Netherlands. The extent of anti-Muslim attitudes is least in Portugal. In absolute terms, however, the eight countries differ little in their levels of prejudice towards Muslims.

FES2

Update:  See comments by ENGAGE, 16 March 2011

Stephen Lennon whips up EDL thugs by publicising baseless rumour of Muslim attack on priest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon arrestedExposing the English Defence League reports on EDL leader Stephen Lennon’s latest attempt to damage community relations in Luton. He posted the following report on the EDL’s Facebook page yesterday:

“Last night in Luton a priest was battered coming out of Saturday mass, the word is it was Muslim youth! We are still waiting for this to be confirmed but EDL will be on standby for this sat as if it’s true thousands of Luton lads will be on the streets! THIS WILL BE THE FINAL STRAW!”

EDL supporters reacted as Lennon must have known they would. Some sample comments:

“fooking wankers. Lets batter then fucking scum. EDL till I die !!”

“If this is true the correct response should be violent retaliation….all this peaceful, non aggressive approach needs to go out the window..these bastards need a good hiding”

“Dirty bastards should be shot”

“These people need to be put down like the dogs they are ns”

“May God forgive them cos we fucking wont. Hang em ns.”

“time for action….. they must pay the price and I want to lick their blood off my face”

“TIME TO START WIPING OUT THIS PLAUGE BEFORE OUR COUNTRY IS OVER RUN BY DIRTY DRESS WEARING SCUM FUCKS. OUR WOMEN KIDS AND NOW OUR FAITH WILL NOT BE SAFE TILL ALL OF THESE FUCKERS ARE ALL WIPED OUT NS”

Observing “I’m prepared to bet my house to this story being completely untrue”, Darcy Jones of Exposing the EDL adds: “An identical post was made on Stephen’s personal FACEBOOK profile last night evoking similar reactions. Some deeply offensive racism and threats of arson were thrown in for good measure…. Both these posts have been forwarded to Bedfordshire police as we fear this fabricated incitement is genuinely dangerous to Stephen’s community.”

And this afternoon we find the following message from Lennon posted on the EDL’s Facebook page:

EDL rumour retracted

Convicted EDL racist finds someone to defend his ‘right to free speech’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last week, a man was hauled up before Doncaster Crown Court for using “offensive” language. As punishment, he was banned from attending or helping to organise any demonstration, meeting or gathering held by his political organisation or even visiting its website for 10 years. In addition, he was banned from travelling by train anywhere in the UK and from entering a mosque, meeting room, school or cultural centre….

So for unemployed 38-year-old Shane Overton, the UK has effectively become an open prison for the next 10 years, one in which he can no longer play any role in the (perfectly legal) activities he was previously engaged in with his political organisation, the English Defence League (EDL)….

On his way home following an EDL demo in Newcastle, he came across an Asian family at Doncaster rail station. Taking “exception to them speaking in Urdu”, he “used racist abuse and told them to ‘get out of our country'”. Overton certainly deserves to be challenged and chastised for his disgusting language and contemptible treatment of the family.

But while he reportedly scared the family’s children, there is no suggestion he used violence in the attack. He didn’t throw punches at these individuals; only words. If we hope to live in an open and free society, feeling free to say what we think – even if it causes offence to some – is of primary importance….

Of course, the fact we’re talking about “fascist” EDL members – as many leftie organisations will tell you – seems to mean that they shouldn’t be granted the democratic freedoms of right-thinking, middle-class liberals steeped in New Labour’s multiculturalist agenda. The members of this largely white working-class group are regarded as relics from a bygone era, Neanderthals needing to be re-educated or kept isolated from the rest of society, by force of law if necessary.

Despite the severe, illiberal punishment inflicted upon him by the courts, Shane Overton’s case has hardly registered as a blip on the radar of the national press. Perhaps if Overton had been a member of Unite Against Fascism, Hope Not Hate, or another such group there would have been outcry from people defending his civil liberties and trying to get his case noticed.

But there has been no outcry. Because left-leaning groups disagree with what Overton said, then not a word is spoken in his defence. Working-class “thugs”, it seems, don’t deserve a right to free speech. Indeed the “anti-Fascist” publication Searchlight has (ironically) shown just what an authoritarian bent it has, by claiming that it will snitch to the state if it sees him breach his ASBO: “Searchlight will be watching closely to make sure Overton stays away from future EDL events.”

Patrick Hayes at Spiked, 14 March 2011

Over at the EDL’s Facebook page its members have warmly welcomed Spiked’s support.

Out East calls for boycott of ‘East End Gay Pride’ march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Homophobic sticker Tower Hamlets2Next month’s East End Gay Pride should be cancelled because it will cause “community tension”, it has been claimed. Some local gay campaigners say the march, in east London, will cause tensions between gay people and Muslims.

The march, to be held on April 2nd, has been organised by six friends as a response to anti-gay stickers plastered around the East End. But opponents say it is an “emotional reaction” which “risks antagonising and scapegoating” Muslims.

They have also accused organisers of having “close links” to the English Defence League because some have Facebook friends who appear to be involved in the far-right group.

Although the parade has been backed by local police and Tower Hamlets council, some local campaigners are calling for it to be cancelled.

An open letter signed by Out East chair Thierry Schaffauser and Terry Stewart of the Hackney Community Engagement Board claims that the Pride march may “divide our communities” or be used “to oppress other marginalised groups”.

Out East organises Hackney Pride and the letter has also been signed by Denis Fernando of Unite Against Fascism and the Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils.

It says: “We believe that the most appropriate response to the stickers is to liaise with Muslim communities and others to create bridges and communicate with each other.

“We want both homophobia and Islamophobia addressed as a collective problem and not feed one against the other, we do not recognise these as distinct categories.

“We will refuse any attempt to divide our communities or take the risk that an LGBTQ event is used to oppress other marginalised groups, in particular LGBTQ Muslims who will be the most affected by this rising antagonism.”

In response, the organisers of East End Gay Pride said in a statement: “This is wholly a non-political demonstration and purely a high visibility demonstration of the East End gay community. This is not an anti-Muslim march. This is not an anti-anything march. We have stated this over and over again, here and on our website. We simply want to say: ‘Hang on. You’re wrong. The East End is NOT a gay-free zone’.”

East End Pride has also received support from the organisers of Pride London. In an opinion for PinkNews.co.uk today, chair Paul Birrell wrote: “The organisers of the event should be applauded for this fun and timely reminder of the East End’s LGBT community, not showered with abuse for simply wanting to show, well, a bit of Pride.

“The idea that being out and proud is somehow an assault on someone else’s views is used time and again by hostile governments to ban Pride.

“That some within London’s own LGBT community should use this argument – in what looks suspiciously like a case of sour grapes at not having thought of the idea first – is a source of shame.”

Pink News, 14 March 2011

For some useful background from the Latte Labour blog on the organisers of “East End Gay Pride”, see here and here.

EDL threatens Dagenham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in DagenhamUp to 130 supporters of the anti-Muslim English Defence League (EDL) descended on Green Lane in Dagenham on Saturday. They came from as far as Southend and Kent to protest against a disused butchers being converted into a Muslim centre.

Under police supervision the EDL met at a local pub from 10am onwards before assembling at nearby Chadwell Heath train station at around 12.30 to lay flowers for one of their supporters who was killed by a train after a previous protest in the area.

The EDL then noisily marched to Green Lane only to find they were penned in behind metal barriers and not able to protest outside the butchers shop as they had intended. Behind the barriers the EDL chanted anti-Muslim slogans such as “Allah is a Paedo” and “Burn a poppy – burn a Mosque” as self-appointed EDL leader and co-founder Kevin Carrol threatened to “Bring the whole country to Dagenham” if the council did not reverse its decision on plans for the butchers shop.

In contrast, around 40 Unite Against Fascism supporters had been on Green Lane from early morning leafleting with a petition and talking to local people. One UAF campaigner told me – “Yes, there is some support for the anti-Muslim racism of the EDL, but the majority of those we have spoken to feel intimidated and disgusted by it. They don’t want their (EDL) race hate here, or that of the BNP.”

At the same time, from across the road, I could hear the EDL chanting “Scum, scum, scum” and pointing in the direction of the UAF campaigners. By the end of the respective protests the atmosphere was very tense with the local bus boarded by the UAF being boarded by the police and the EDL given a police escort back to Chadwell Heath train station.

Demotix, 12 March 2011

See also “Accused extremists face court over affray”, Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 11 March 2011

King hearings provide platform for witch-hunt of CAIR

Posted on by Bob Pitt

At Thursday’s contentious Congressional hearing on radicalization in the American Islamic community, one Muslim advocacy group became a repeated target for damning accusations from Republicans: the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

Representative Peter T. King of New York, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, led off the critics, calling CAIR “discredited” and congratulating the Federal Bureau of Investigation for cutting off high-level cooperation with the group. Representative Frank R. Wolf of Virginia accused CAIR of “an attempt to stifle debate and obstruct cooperation with law enforcement.” Representative Chip Cravaack of Minnesota went further, telling a witness, Leroy D. Baca, the Los Angeles County sheriff, “Basically, you’re dealing with a terrorist organization.”

Sheriff Baca, the only law enforcement official invited to testify, said he worked regularly with the CAIR chapter in his area and pushed back. “I have not experienced anything that suggests that CAIR supports terrorism,” he said. He suggested that such accusations should not be cast about recklessly in the absence of solid evidence.

For the casual observer, it may have been a puzzling set of comments. But it is an old argument for CAIR, an aggressive civil rights organization that has long been pilloried by conservatives as the American Civil Liberties Union with a Muslim spin. A representative of the group was not invited to testify at the hearing on Thursday but submitted 30 pages of written testimony – including a list of dozens of CAIR statements dating back to 1997 condemning terrorist attacks around the world, among them attacks in the United States and Israel.

“We are the answer to violent extremism,” said Nihad Awad, a Palestinian-American who is the executive director of CAIR, noting the group’s longstanding campaign against religious violence, called “Not in the Name of Islam.”

New York Times, 11 March 2011

Quilliam supporters demand more taxpayers’ money to keep Maajid Nawaz in sharp suits

Posted on by Bob Pitt

When the news that the Quilliam Foundation was about to lose most of its state funding broke last December, some of us felt this was the best Christmas present we could have wished for. But ENGAGE reports that Quilliam does have its admirers, and they have been trying to persuade the government to lavish more public money on this disruptive and divisive gang of witch-hunters. Who are these deluded individuals? Denis MacShane, Robert Halfon, Nick Cohen and Martin Bright, since you ask. Says it all, really.

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Failure to prosecute Guramit Singh smacks of double standards, Sikhs say

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sikhs Against EDL

Members of the British Sikh community say they are disappointed that Guramit Singh, one of the self-styled leaders of the English Defence League (EDL), will now not face charges on suspicion of causing religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress.

His arrest related to the speech that he made at the EDL protest in Peterborough. The video of his speech is freely available on the internet.

The police decision not to proceed further with his case comes only days after the uproar in the media when Emadur Choudhury, an Islamist extremist, was fined only £50 after burning poppies during Remembrance Day last year.

Balwinder Singh Rana from Sikhs Against the EDL said, “This smacks of ‘double standards’. While the media was right to protest against the lenient treatment given to Choudhury for causing an offence to the memory of the fallen soldiers, I think now they should show the same vigour in demanding that Singh should not be allowed to get away for insulting a whole community.

“Guramit Singh, by fronting the EDL, has only brought shame and embarrassment to the Sikh community, but most of the community is united in condemning his actions.”

Varinder Singh, organiser of the Sikhs Against the EDL, said, “At the Luton demonstration against the EDL there was a very strong message sent from the Sikh community that he (Guramit Singh) is an embarrassment. I feel immensely proud seeing the Sikh community unite against the EDL and hold individuals such as Guramit accountable for their actions.”

Asian Image, 11 March 2011

See also Turban Campaign, 10 March 2011