Nun accused of religious harassment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ruth AugustusA nun was convicted of religious harassment after ranting against “terrorist” Muslims in the middle of London’s busy Oxford Street. Sister Ruth Augustus, 66, was fined £200 after she shouted at two women in full robes and veils “you’re probably terrorists, get back to your own country”. City of Westminster Magistrates Court heard how trouble flared when Augustus, a missionary who has worked with prostitutes in the developing world, was handing out prayer leaflets outside Debenhams department store on Easter Tuesday.

WPC Natasha Walker said she heard a ‘commotion’ outside the shop and went to investigate. The officer said: “I heard someone shouting ‘terrorists, terrorists’ more than once. It’s busy on Oxford Street, so she must have been shouting really loud. I turned round and noticed there were a group of people standing outside Debenhams. Sister Augustus was shouting ‘terrorists’ repeatedly and other things about Muslims. I asked her to stop, but she refused. She said ‘I will not stop, I’m a nun’.”

Life Style Extra, 15 December 2006

BNP mosque leaflet full of ‘lies’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Bromley councillor has condemned “out and out lies” in a leaflet from the British National Party attacking plans to “build a mosque” in the borough. Colin Willetts said residents in St Paul’s Cray had been concerned over the literature and feared it could spark divisions in the community. “They are out and out lies,” said Mr Willetts, who represents Cray Valley West ward. “I have had to reassure residents that, if there were an application to build a mosque, obviously I would let them know. The leaflet gives the impression they are going to build something when, in actual fact, there has been no planning application.”

The BNP’s Cray Valley Matters special edition leaflet, containing the headline “Tories set to give go-ahead for mosque in St Paul’s Cray”, was delivered to residents and alleges the council had given permission for a mosque in Sevenoaks Road. The leaflet includes a picture of a building with a golden dome superimposed on its roof above a caption saying “how Cray Valley might look with a mosque”. It also provides “facts you should know about radical Islam”, claiming followers aim to “take over as the dominant religious force in the UK” and blaming Labour and Conservatives for “courting the Muslim vote”.

Bromley Times, 13 December 2006

Fascists attack Jon Cruddas

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jon Cruddas (2)The BNP’s front organisation Civil Liberty launches an attack on Dagenham Labour MP Jon Cruddas:

“Jon Cruddas MP recently spoke at the Islamophobia rally and also at the CRE’s Race Convention, both in London. He called for an amnesty for illegal entrants and bogus asylum-seekers. He has also supported a special house building programme for illegal migrants….

“Incredibly, Mr Cruddas is a candidate for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party once John Prescott steps down. Other candidates include Harriett Harman, former legal officer of Liberty, our sister [sic] ‘human rights’ group, and wife of the Labour party treasurer, Jack Dromey.”

Civl Liberty news report, 14 December 2006

Watch Jon Cruddas’s speech to the 20 November anti-Islamophobia rally here.

Over 100 prisons identified worldwide for illegal detention in ‘War on Terror’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Disappearances in the War on Terror have formed an integral part of the Bush administration’s programme of secret detention.

This latest report by Cageprisoners: Beyond the Law: The War on Terror’s Secret Network of Global Detentions, highlights the wide-reaching extent of those countries that house these detainees, generally at the behest of the US government. The report shows that out of the 120 prisons identified worldwide, 72 have been, or are currently being used by the US to interrogate detainees.

By piecing together statements of released detainees, work of investigative journalists and human rights organisations, we provide the most definitive and up to date list of prisons used in the “War on Terror”.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, wrote, “… Cageprisoners publishes a comprehensive report which reveals the systematic practice of enforced disappearances in a global network of secret places of detention.”

Further the Chair of the British Institute of Human Rights, Geoffrey Bindman, states that in the policies of the War on Terror, “This report is directed at one glaringly disgraceful element in that strategy: the detention without charge or trial and the physical abuse of those suspected of involvement in terrorism.”

Cageprisoners press release, 13 December 2006

Racist BNP foiled over school ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

bnp-islam-posterBritish National Party councillors have been branded a “bunch of racists” after they attempted to ban halal meat from borough schools in Barking & Dagenham. Jeanne Alexander, the borough’s executive councillor for children services, made the outburst as the assembly examined a raft of controversial proposals tabled by the far right party.

Councillors were asked to consider banning halal meat from schools, Islamic headdress from public buildings and flying the union flag throughout the year. But the 12 BNP councillors elected to the council earlier this year did not have enough political weight to push through any of the proposals last week. All of their 12 motions were either defeated or amended beyond recognition by the Labour party.

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‘Muslim Ellison should not sit in Congress’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Keith EllisonAnd you thought Dennis Prager was a raving bigot. His attack on US Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison comes over as quite mild and restrained in comparison with this piece by one Roy Porter:

“Enough evidence exists for Congress to question Ellison’s qualifications to be a member of Congress as well as his commitment to the Constitution in view of his apparent determination to embrace the Quran and an Islamic philosophy directly contrary to the principles of the Constitution. But common sense alone dictates that in the midst of a war with Islamic terrorists we should not place someone in a position of great power who shares their doctrine. In 1943, we would never have allowed a member of Congress to take their oath on ‘Mein Kampf’, or someone in the 1950s to swear allegiance to the ‘Communist Manifesto’. Congress has the authority and should act to prohibit Ellison from taking the congressional oath today!”

World Net Daily, 13 December 2006

Nazis back SPCK over Qur’an

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The fascists have caught up with the news that the SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) has decided to remove the Qur’an from sale in its bookshops:

“This is only logical, as I have been inside Islamic bookshops which have sprung up like toadstools in Britain’s inner cities, and not once have I seen a Bible on display. Islam has a clear agenda – to proselytize and conquer…. The move is good news both for the vast majority of Britons who still claim to be Christian and the secular Britons who fear the growing Islamification of our islands.”

BNP news article, 12 December 2006

Muslims fear being used as scapegoats in Australian election

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic leaders believe the Federal Government will use the community as scapegoats in next year’s federal election campaign. Their fears are heightened by the Government’s failure to release the report of Prime Minister John Howard’s hand-picked Muslim advisory group examining how to tackle extremism, terrorism and other issues facing the Muslim community.

Muslim Reference Group member Yasser Soliman said the Government was holding back the group’s report while sending critical messages to the wider community, and “some people can read between the lines”.

Mr Soliman, the past president of the Islamic Council of Victoria, said he was baffled at the delay. “It is commonly said, and not only by Muslims, that the reason is, they want to position the Muslim community as refusing to integrate and not contributing to the nation, and this report might challenge a few of those perceptions,” he said.

Another reference group member, Yasmin Khan from Queensland, questioned whether the Government-appointed group had been a “charade”. “You wonder whether it highlights everything the (Muslim) community has been saying about the group, that we were the PM’s hand-picked Muslims, chosen as a rubber stamp.”

Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Aly said Muslims were certain they would have a major, though involuntary, role in the 2007 election. “Not only do Muslims have a suspicion that they will be pawns in the next election campaign, they now almost assume they will be. To them, it’s just a statement of fact.”

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Anti-Nazis humiliate the BNP in Dagenham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF demoAn attempt by the fascist British National Party (BNP) to hold a racist rally in Dagenham, east London, ended in its humiliation last Saturday.

Despite extensive leafleting in the borough, the Nazis only managed to attract around 70 people to their rally – and they were surrounded by over 400 anti-fascist protesters chanting slogans and jeering at them.

The anti-Nazi counter demonstration, called by Unite Against Fascism, drew a large, vibrant and diverse crowd of local residents, trade unionists, students and anti-racist activists. East London trade unions were particularly visible on the Unite demonstration, with banners from local branches of the GMB, T&G, RMT, PCS, NUT and Unison unions.

Richard Barnbrook, the leader of the BNP’s 12-strong council group in Barking & Dagenham, struggled to make himself heard to the small crowd gathered in a car park near Dagenham civic centre. His words were drowned out by the chorus of anger and derision from anti-fascists. The BNP supporters eventually filed away, visibly downcast and uncomfortable.

Socialist Worker, 16 December 2006

See also Unite Against Fascism news report, 12 December 2006

‘Speaking on our own terms’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Muslim women are fast becoming the battleground on which the future of Islam and Muslims in the UK and beyond is being fought. At his much-anticipated speech on the future of multiculturalism last Friday, Tony Blair recommended that the Equal Opportunities Commission open an official investigation into the kind of access women are given in Britain’s mosques. This of course was said in the same breath as he reiterated his support for Jack Straw’s now stale remarks on the face veil and announced sanctimoniously that face veils ought to be removed in jobs where to face-to-face communication is required.”

Q-News editor Fareena Alam at Comment is Free, 13 December 2006