A race row today broke out in Newcastle’s West End after a pig’s head was hung on the gates of a planned Islamic school and cultural centre. The Chronicle was anonymously sent the gruesome photographs, too graphic to publish, after the severed head was skewered on to the railings yesterday.
Category Archives: UK
Jews against EDL launch unity voice
The first joint initiative to combat Jewish support for the English Defence League within the community has been launched.
The “Not in our name – Jews against the EDL” campaign is backed by more than a dozen organisations, including the Board of Deputies, Community Security Trust, the Israeli Embassy, and Jews for Justice for Palestinians. More than 500 people have already pledged their support.
The initiative of the Union of Jewish Students, the campaign is a response to the creation of a “Jewish division” by the extreme right-wing anti-Islamic-fundamentalist group earlier this year, and the EDL’s pro-Israel protest outside the Israeli Embassy last month, which was supported by American rabbi Nachum Shifren.
The “Not in our name” group’s founding pledge states: “The Jewish community has always been at the forefront of anti-fascism. From Cable Street to defeating the BNP at the ballot box, we have been unafraid to speak out against those who seek to spread fear and hatred in our communities.
“Now our community faces a new threat. The EDL claims to be our allies in the fight against extremism. In reality, they are violent racists with BNP members and Nazi sympathisers among their ranks. It is time for the Jewish community to come together as one to expose the EDL as the racist thugs they are.”
UJS campaigns director Carly McKenzie said: “We felt this was a prime opportunity to bring the whole community together with one loud voice.”
Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, which is backing the initiative, said: “It’s terribly important for different sections of the community, as well as individuals, to stand up and say categorically, ‘not in our name’. It’s unbelievable that such an organisation can appropriate Jewish support.”
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “At the HET we educate about the dangers of racism and discrimination and it is vital that we stand up against groups such as the EDL who preach hatred and division in our communities.”
‘Halal meat is being served in schools, hospitals and pubs – even though vets say Islamic slaughter is cruel ‘
“A few hours before dawn, and even through the inky blackness it is clear this is no ordinary warehouse. Outside the building, gusts of wind send hay and straw flying, and the air is thick with the acrid sent of manure. Despite the darkness, I can see blood trickling down the gutters and a group of men clutching knives. Every so often, the eerie scene is punctured by the sound of lambs bleating.”
The Daily Mail resumes its anti-halal campaign.
Leo McKinstry warns against ‘the rapid Islamification of our public culture’
The fabric of our civilisation is now at risk from militant Islam which aims to destroy our way of life. Yet instead of showing resolve in the face of this challenge, the political establishment vacillates between collusion and denial.
We are told that the Muslim zealots are a only tiny minority while we are also given constant assurances that there is no cause for concern in the rapid Islamification of our public culture….
But this is the hallmark of Britain’s relationship with Islam, where fear is dressed up as tolerance. Our political leaders constantly prattle about equality, yet they allow Sharia courts to flourish in our midst, with all its nasty oppression of women.
They pretend that the burqa is a welcome form of Muslim self-expression, though they would not dream of allowing British youths to go around public spaces permanently wearing black balaclavas. They do nothing to combat Muslim extremism on university campuses or in so-called faith schools and allow laws on human rights to be cynically exploited by those who only have contempt for humanity.
In this climate of denial, a number of myths are sedulously promoted to quell justified public anxieties about Islam. One is the emphasis on the majority of Muslim moderates who have nothing to do with extremism. But in recent years, this majority has been distinguished only by its silence….
We are dealing with a dangerous, aggressive ideology, not some minor fringe problem. “Islam will dominate the world” read one of the placards at last week’s [demonstration]. Unless we wake up, this will become a terrifying reality.
Daily Express, 8 November 2010
Update: See also ENGAGE, 8 November 2010
Surbiton man faces charges over anti-Islam demo fight
Three men accused of fighting with Muslims have been temporarily banned from attending marches organised by far-right group the English Defence League (EDL) as part of their bail conditions. The trio appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on November 3 to jointly face charges of affray and threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour.
The allegations followed a protest march organised by the EDL, which opposes the spread of Islam and Sharia law. All three men were at the demonstration, which began outside the Israeli Embassy in Kensington on October 24, before marching to Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, the court heard.
Christopher Long, 38, from Kent Way, Surbiton, was accused of kicking, overturning a table and fighting with an Asian man. Bryan Kelso, 28, who told the court he was homeless, was accused of grabbing a banner belonging to a counter-demonstrator and smashing it. Brian Bristow, 37, who is also homeless, has been staying on friends’ floors, having been evicted from his council house, the court heard.
All three were granted bail by District Judge Elizabeth Roscoe on the condition they did not attend any marches, demonstrations or counter-demonstrations organised by the English Defence League. A prosecution request to bar the men from entering Westminster or going back to Speakers’ Corner as part of their bail conditions was rejected by the judge.
Mr Kelso and Mr Bristow were ordered to report to their nearest police station, which the court was told was Doncaster. All three will reappear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on December 15 for their next hearing.
Express says Shias are ‘Islamic fanatics’
Islamic fanatics are mutilating themselves at a British mosque in a bloody ceremony carried out only yards from a busy high street.
Shia Muslims use a five-bladed chain called a Zanjeer to whip their own backs and make cuts in their foreheads with razor blades in homage to their faith. Bare-chested men were left bleeding heavily during the ritual known as Matam – self-flagellation – which a witness described as being “like a scene from a horror film”.
The Sunday Express found that up to 800 men performed the bloody ceremony in secret at the Imamia Mosque in Forest Gate, east London, last year.
Does Mr Justice Cooke think Islam is a religion of hate?
Sentencing Roshonara Choudhry after her conviction for the attempted murder of Stephen Timms MP, Mr Justice Cooke told her: “You said you wanted to die because you wanted to be a martyr and that it was Islamic teaching that to fight and die for your religion is the highest honour. You said that you thought you had fulfilled your obligation and your Islamic duties to stand up for the people of Iraq and to punish someone who wanted to make war with them.”
Cooke observed of Timms: “I understand that he brings to bear his own faith, which upholds very different values to those which appear to have driven this defendant. Those values are those upon which the common law of this country was founded and include respect and love for one’s neighbour, for the foreigner in the land, and for those who consider themselves enemies, all as part of one’s love of God. These values were the basis of our system of law and justice and I trust that they will remain so as well as motivating those, like Mr Timms, who hold public office.”
If Cooke was saying that Timms’ interpretation of his faith led him to do good, whereas Choudhry’s interpretation of hers led her to an act of attempted murder, that would be fair enough (allowing for the fact that a judge is hardly likely to view a vote for the Iraq war as an act of evil). All faiths are open to conflicting interpretations. But Cooke’s words could also be taken as arguing that Christianity is a religion of love and peace whereas Islam is a religion that inspires violence. Trying to be charitable, I initially concluded that his statements were ambiguous.
However, Tom Leonard draws our attention to the fact that Mr Justice Cooke is a prominent figure in the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, a right-wing evangelical organisation with a record of promoting anti-Muslim bigotry.
For example, the LCF joined with other fundamentalist Christian groups in whipping up hysteria over the plan to build a so-called “mega-mosque” in Newham. The LCF website published a letter to MPs and peers by Christian Concern For Our Nation headed “Terrorist links for Olympics mosque?”, and in the aftermath of the attempted 2007 car bombings in London and Glasgow the LCF reproduced a press release by Alan Craig of the Christian People’s Alliance accusing Tablighi Jamaat of inspiring the attacks.
In 2008 the LCF’s then public policy director Andrea Minichiello Williams hosted a conference called Understanding Islam, where the featured speaker was one Sam Solomon, who told his audience: “The Christian faith, it is all about love…. What is Islam based on? It’s based on this one word: Hate.” Solomon added: “The closer you get in Islam to the Koran and to the Islamic sources the more radical you become and the more hateful a personality you develop.” Solomon claimed that Muslims “are brainwashed, they are indoctrinated in accepting that we are the enemies and we must be liquidated and eradicated”. (See video here here from 2:30.)
This certainly sheds some light on the thinking behind Cooke’s comments, doesn’t it? That a man with close links to Christian fundamentalism should have been allowed to preside over such a sensitive case as Choudhry’s is unbelievable, and it is even more unacceptable that he should use the trial as a platform to promote his own religious views.
Exuberant demo says no to racism, fascism and Islamophobia
Around 5,000 black, white and Asian people marched through central London today in a lively and spirited demonstration against racism, fascism and Islamophobia.
The march, called by UAF and Love Music Hate Racism, was supported by the TUC and the Muslim Council of Britain. But it was the presence of large number of young people, school and university students that gave the demo its exuberant character.
Marchers showed their opposition to the fascist British National Party and the racist thugs of the English Defence League – which particularly targets Muslims.
The demonstrators chanted: “Whose streets? Our streets” and “EDL, go to hell – take your Nazi mates as well” as the march wound out of the West End and down Whitehall to Westminster.
Along with the chanting, many danced along behind carnival floats, with music from artists supporting LMHR.
At Westminster, the protesters heard from a range of speakers, including George Galloway, Hugh Lanning, deputy general secretary of the PCS civil service union and poet Zita Holbourne of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts.
UAF officer and LMHR national coordinator Martin Smith told the crowd that it was important for antiracists and antifascists to mobilise against the EDL, criticising those who argued that we should “stay away or hide behind doors”. He said:
If you give an inch to fascists they will come for more – we must not give an inch. We have to stand together, united.
He urged everyone to join a national mobilisation against the EDL in Luton in February.
There was more music, featuring artists including radical rapper Lowkey and up-and-coming young band Flow Dem, who caught the mood with their song Racial Ting: “It’s not a racial ting, it’s a white black mixed race Asian ting!”
Speaking after the demo, UAF joint secretary Weyman Bennett said:
Thousands of people turned out on a very lively demo to show they reject racism, fascism and Islamophobia. Now we need to build on that success, building bigger local groups and setting up new ones around the country.
We will also be mobilising for a national counter-demonstration against the EDL in Luton on 5 February 2011.
‘Radicalisation via YouTube’? Jonathan Githens-Mazer examines Roshonara Choudhry’s turn to violent extremism
First, we can definitively put to rest Tony Blair’s claims that foreign policy isn’t linked to terrorism at home. We can’t say that Blair’s analysis caused Timms to be stabbed, but we can say that this wishful thinking has been proven inaccurate.
Second, the transcripts elucidate the dangers of internalised political-religious outlooks. It is quite telling that Choudhry said that she only prayed at home, and talked to no one about what she was thinking or planning. For groups that I work with in my research into this area, this is the No 1 danger sign – being political but not participating in politics; not attending large scale gatherings of Muslims with groups that may (or may not) be Islamically inspired in character, but withdrawing from all forms of political engagement.
This contradicts many of the claims of those who brand organisations like the MCB and mosques such as East London and North London Central Mosque as dangerous. It is exactly these entities which have been proven to help to channel anger about foreign policy away from this internalised, isolating and potentially dangerous way of thinking about issues into heated, heartfelt, and challenging but ultimately constructive wider political debates. If you cut off these constructive release valves, these problems will only get worse.
This was exactly the kind of thinking that sat at the heart of Prevent thinking and the Home Office Channel project when they were first conceived. At the start, Prevent wasn’t about surreptitious traffic cameras in Muslim neighbourhoods. The precursors to Prevent, in activities such as the Muslim Contact Unit, were about empowering, through shared agendas and partnership, Muslim communities to address and tackle exactly these kinds of isolated individuals.
Woolas loses court case, judges order election re-run
Two High Court judges have ordered a re-run of this year’s General Election campaign in the Greater Manchester constituency of ex-immigration minster Phil Woolas.
Mr Woolas won the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat by 103 votes over Liberal Democrat rival Elwyn Watkins. But he has been found guilty of knowingly making false statements about Mr Watkins in campaign literature. Mr Watkins said this could have swayed the result.
A specially-convened election court – the first of its kind for 99 years – was set up in Saddleworth in September to hear the charges against Mr Woolas. It heard that Mr Woolas stirred up racial tensions in his campaign leaflets by suggesting Mr Watkins had pandered to Muslim militants, and had refused to condemn death threats he said he had received from such groups.
Declaring the May poll result void, Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams said Mr Woolas was guilty of illegal practices under election law. They said he knew both claims to be untrue, and had sought personal advantage by making them.
See also Daily Telegraph, 5 November 2010
Update: See MPACUK, press release, 5 November 2010
Further update: And see Inayat Bunglawala, “Phil Woolas: a lesson in irresponsible behaviour”, Comment is Free, 5 November 2010