Category Archives: UK

Cardiff: taxi drivers plan strike over anti-Muslim rally

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taxi drivers are preparing to strike on Cardiff’s busiest day of the year in protest at an anti-Muslim rally being held in the city centre.

As tens of thousands of people descend on the capital on Saturday to watch Wales take on South Africa at the Millennium Stadium, the Stereophonics play Cardiff City Stadium and Glamorgan take on West Indies A at the Swalec Stadium, some of the city’s 950 hackney drivers will withdraw their services.

Estimates of the numbers of black-and-white cabbies taking part in the strike against the Welsh Defence League’s (WDL) rally range from 80 to 700, but with large amounts of sport and music fans expected Mathab Khan, chairman of the Cardiff Hackney Association, told the Echo he has warned police of the potential for “worrying” disruption. Mr Khan said he believed up to 700 drivers or more could join the strike, expected to run from 10am on Saturday to 10am Sunday.

But Robert Goddard, of Unite Against Fascism, which asked drivers to leave work and join its counter demonstration on Saturday, told the Echo he believed around 80 drivers would take part. “We have been speaking to a number of taxi drivers that would normally work on that day, but won’t be working in support of the protest we are having,” he said. “They are joining us in light of the WDL’s demonstration and also in light of the fact they experience racism.”

Mr Khan said as the Cardiff Hackney Association was a non-political organisation it had opted to take a neutral stance on the strike and had not encouraged or discouraged members to take part. But he confirmed he would not be working on Saturday and would instead be joining the Unite Against Fascism counter demonstration in an individual capacity.

Wales Online, 3 June 2010

East End stands against EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The English Defence League is a violent, bigoted organisation and an embarrassment to our country. They should be condemned everywhere, but will be particularly unwelcome if they come to Tower Hamlets. Most people in the East End live in peace and mutual respect for neighbours, regardless of their faith or skin colour. As residents and workers in the borough, we will not tolerate attempts to divide us or stir up hatred. The real enemies of Tower Hamlets are poverty and inequality, not Islam. At Cable Street in 1936 the people of the East End united to block the way to Mosley’s fascist blackshirts. We stand ready to do the same to the EDL.

Glyn Robbins, Cllr Helal Abbas Leader, Tower Hamlets council, Mowlana Shamsul Hoque and Musaddiq Ahmed Chair and secretary general, Council of Mosques, Tower Hamletsand 24 others

Guardian, 2 June 2010

Contesting white supremacy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

I wish I could believe that the BNP, or even the BNP plus UKIP vote, represented the extent of the “racist vote” in Britain. The reality is that racist ideas, myths, assumptions, stereotypes and “explanations” are widespread and deep rooted in British society. The far right are part of a nexus which includes the racism of the state (in immigration, policing, criminal justice), the media and educational institutions; it’s a racism that has elite, middle and working class variants. One of the weaknesses of the left approach has been to fix on the latter – on working class racism – as if it existed separately from the others. Perhaps that’s why we sometimes sidestep the question of UKIP, whose election campaign relied heavily on anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim messages; its xenophobia is no less noxious than the BNP’s, though it is deemed more respectable, a fact not unrelated to its different – middle class, Tory-voting – constituency.

In particular, the current virulence of anti-Muslim racism cannot be isolated to the far right, which in this case has taken its cue from the middle class and a significant section of what passes for the intelligentsia. “Islamophobia,” writes A. Sivanandan, “in its most sophisticated form, is the province of middle-class opinion formers, erstwhile liberals, defenders of the true liberal faith against the encroachments of illiberal Islam, as defined by them, the ‘liberati’. Anti-Muslim racism is the province of the working class and is no different from past working-class racisms. Except that now it finds its justification in Islamophobia – suitably translated into the vernacular of stereotype and scapegoat by the tabloids, the carriers of racist culture.” Crucially, Islamophobia “is not just a body of ideas in a vacuum. It is connected to the war in Iraq and the war on terror and tied therefore to the state, its laws and executive decisions.”

Mike Marqusee in Red Pepper, June-July 2010

EDL’s hatred shows that Islamophobia needs to be taken seriously

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Guardian’s brave and insightful undercover investigation into the activities of the EDL should finally persuade Westminster politicians to take the issue of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence seriously. Our own research supports the findings of the Guardian investigation, most importantly concerning the extent to which the EDL is fuelled by visceral, violent anti-Muslim hatred.

The video that accompanies the Guardian report should leave no room for doubt that members of the EDL are echoing sentiments about Muslims they have adopted from sections of the mainstream media and the BNP. It is no coincidence that Nick Griffin has been peddling exactly the same hatred towards Muslims for the last decade. Similarly, a cursory examination of the records of Islamophobia Watch over the last five years provides a sense of the extent of Islamophobia in the mainstream media.

Daily Mail commentator Peter Oborne is right to argue that it has become “permissible to fabricate malicious falsehoods and therefore foment hatred against Muslims in a way which would be regarded as immoral and illegal if perpetrated against any other vulnerable section of society”.

Robert Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer at Comment is Free, 1 June 2010

MP condemns EDL plan to ‘hit’ Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Close East London MosqueLabour MP Rushanara Ali has added her support to a campaign to stop a right-wing march in East London.

Members of the English Defence League were caught planning to ‘hit’ Tower Hamlets with a large demonstration this summer. But local politicians have reacted angrily to the proposals and a petition is already circulating to try and stop the march.

Ms Ali told the Advertiser: “Over the years many groups have come to the East End trying to foster hatred and division. The English Defence League is now attempting to join this dishonourable list. I condemn the EDL, and all attempts to divide this community and stir up hatred. Racism, Islamophobia, and bigotry have no place in modern Britain, and if the EDL insist on coming to Tower Hamlets they will find East Enders ready to stand up and reject this latest attempt to divide us.”

East London Advertiser, 1 June 2010

See also “Politicians attack right-wing group plan to ‘hit’ London’s East End”, East London Advertiser, 1 June 2010

‘Is Labour handing Tower Hamlets back to the Islamists?’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Andrew Gilligan poses the question. He’s outraged at the report that “Labour’s candidate for the directly-elected mayoralty of Tower Hamlets will be selected by the entire local membership”. Doesn’t the Labour hierarchy realise that supporters of the Islamic Forum of Europe are members of the party in Tower Hamlets? Are they really going to be allowed to vote on who their mayoral candidate will be? It is clearly intolerable that IFE supporters should be allowed to exercise their democratic rights in this way.

EDL cancels protest against Walsall mosque … because Muslims are against it too

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Manchester5The controversial English Defence League have called off a planned demonstration against a proposed mosque in Walsall after learning that the biggest single group opposed to the scheme are Muslims. George Makin reports.

The anti-Islamic EDL had announced they would hold a demonstration on June 19 against a scheme to build a new place of worship in Vicarage Close which had previously been denied planning permission by the Walsall council.

Proposers of the development have announced their intention to appeal the decision.

The EDL’s proposed demonstration led to a joint statement by the leaders of all three party leaders on Walsall council, fearful of a repeat of violent clashes which have occurred at other EDL events, that the rightwing group was not wanted in the town.

During negotiations with police EDL organiser were surprised to learn the original planning application had been opposed by many Muslims in Walsall who claim there are enough mosques in the borough already.

The EDL are now planning for a demonstration in Dudley on June 19 and for another in Alum Rock in Birmingham at a later date.

The Stirrer, 27 May 2010

The mosque the EDL were intending to protest against is the one the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association is hoping to build, planning permission for which was denied by Walsall Council last December. The Ahmadis have appealed to the Planning Inspectorate and a decision is expected in the summer.

The Muslims who campaigned for the council to reject the Ahmadis’ application did indeed do so on the formal grounds that there are “enough places of worship in the area”, along with complaints about potential traffic congestion. However, as Inayat Bunglawala pointed out at the time, the real reason was obviously orthodox Muslim hostility to the Ahmadis, who are regarded as a heretical sect.

I have to say, the paranoid thought did cross my mind that the EDL might be able to find one or two Muslim opponents of the mosque whose hatred of the Ahmadis might lead them to ignore the EDL’s racist ideology and support the protest. But that was giving too much credit to the intelligence of the EDL. They are, after all, a gang of mindless Islamophobic bigots who can’t tell an Ahmadi from a Sunni, or a Sunni from a Shia.

Baroness Neville-Jones – pawn of Islamism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pauline Neville-Jones on Islam Channel

Guess who Pauline Neville-Jones, the new security minister, chose for her first post-election interview? The BBC? The Telegraph? The Guardian? No: bizarrely, it was the Islam Channel, the Islamist-linked satellite broadcaster whose chief executive, Mohammed Ali Harrath, is the subject of an Interpol “red notice” for terrorist offences. Only eighteen months ago, Neville-Jones was demanding that Harrath be sacked.

The Islam Channel also has a programme presented by a senior officer of Hizb ut Tahrir, the group the Tories wanted to ban. Talk about outreach, Pauline! No wonder the presenter told her they were “honoured to be the recipients of your generosity.”

Andrew Gilligan is shocked that Neville-Jones should discuss government security policy affecting Muslims on the Islam Channel – which is watched by 57% of British Muslims.

See also “BBC 5 Live – Unfair to Islam”, Radio Today, 25 May 2010

Racist march due on day of music and rugby in Cardiff

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WDL SwanseaSaturday 5th June is gearing up to be a busy day in Cardiff, with Wales hosting South Africa at the Millennium Stadium and the Stereophonics preparing to rock the Cardiff City Stadium.

Resources are bound to be stretched and many fans will be arriving by train to the city centre, and could be greeted by a march by the Welsh & English Defence League (WDL/EDL).

The group is due to be marching at lunchtime in the city centre and massing outside Cardiff Central Station. A rival march has been setup by campaign group Unite Against Fascism and will be marching through the city centre at the same time in opposition to the protest.

Unite Against Fascism are arranging a rival march and are calling on Cardiff City fans to support them. A leaflet from the group states: “Cardiff City fans have been linked with the WDL/EDL. Bluesbirds vs the Nazis has been set up to show that the majority of CCFC fans are opposed to racism and facism.”

Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of PCS union, said: “The WDL/EDL hold their demos to intimidate and divide us. As a Cardiff City fan, I call on everyone to unite and protest against the WDL/EDL’s attempts to whip up racism.”

The Unite Against Facism protesters are due to meet at 11 AM at Roald Dahl Plas on Saturday 5th June 2010 and march through Butetown and the city centre, finishing at City Hall with a rally at 1 PM.

Wales Online, 25 May 2010