France: Mosques in Vandoeuvre and Pontarlier are attacked, while Islamophobic incidents continue to rise

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vandoeuvre mosqueThe Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France has reported that two mosques were attacked last week.

On the night of 28-29 January the Al Ihsan mosque and cultural centre in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy suffered extensive damage – its doors were smashed and the administrative office completely ransacked. (The same mosque was targeted in September 2012, when the building was defaced with Kahanist graffiti.) The following night a mosque in Pontarlier was the victim of a far-right graffiti attack, with a swastika and an “SS” symbol sprayed in white paint on the doors.

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Danny Lockwood threatens Islamophobia Watch, but thankfully only with libel action – he’s not proposing to headbutt us

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Danny Lockwood Islamic RepublicPress publisher Danny Lockwood headbutted man who criticised newspaper

Dewsbury Reporter, 1 February 2014

A publisher and columnist headbutted and punched a man who accused his newspaper of producing “discriminatory” articles.

Liam Ellis began talking to The Press’ Danny Lockwood in the Fox and Hounds pub in Hanging Heaton last April. Moments after Lockwood left, Mr Ellis went outside to apologise for the disagreement. But Lockwood headbutted Mr Ellis and repeatedly hit his upper body, forcing him back into the lobby. Kirklees Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday (Friday) that Mr Ellis needed five stitches under his left eye and his vision was still affected.

Lockwood, who represented himself, tried to claim his actions were in self-defence. The 55-year-old, of Main Street, Elvington, York, said Mr Ellis had become loud and threatening during their conversation, branding him and The Press “racist”. The court heard Lockwood had left one part of the pub to move into the taproom earlier in the evening because a man who had previously threatened to kill him was also there. After speaking to Ellis in the taproom, Lockwood said he left the pub feeling “upset, shaken and shaking”. He said he acted in self-defence as he was “in fear of what [Ellis] was going to do next”.

But District Judge Baldwin rejected Lockwood’s account, saying she believed Mr Ellis was going outside to apologise.

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EDL demonstrator who shouted racist abuse in Farnworth loses appeal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John BanksAn English Defence League demonstrator has lost an appeal against a conviction for shouting racist abuse at a rally in Farnworth last year.

John Banks [pictured] was among the EDL supporters who congregated at Farnworth Park on August 26 last year where there was also a counter demonstration staged by Unite Against Facism. Within seconds of getting off a coach at the park, Banks was arrested for shouting a racist remark.

He was later found guilty of using racist threatening or abusive words or behaviour in a trial at Bolton Magistrates Court on November 26 and yesterday, at Bolton Crown Court, he appealed against the conviction.

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Father jailed over Walsall EDL rally violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

He went out to protest on the streets of the Black Country, his face covered with a mask bearing the cross of St George, before hurling missiles towards police. But today father-of-two and English Defence League supporter Gareth Ballan was starting a 27-month sentence behind bars.

Ballan wore the mask as he joined hundreds of others for the English Defence League rally in Walsall town centre. As scenes turned ugly he was seen to throw two missiles, one a drinks can and the other an unconfirmed object, which may have been a brick, towards a police line. He was later seen standing at the front of a crowd of EDL supporters with his arms raised in the air, chanting and encouraging the crowd by pointing towards the police line.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court, sitting in Birmingham yesterday, he was sentenced to 27 months for violent disorder relating to the events of September 29, 2012.

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Montreal metro death leads to outburst of anti-Muslim hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Naima Rharouity was a 47-year-old mother who lived in Villeray with her two young boys, ages five and seven. “She really took care of her kids,” said her niece Soukaina Rharouity. “They were the centre of her life.” Rharouity lost her life in the most horrific way. Her scarf and hair somehow got caught between the moving steps in a metro escalator, strangling her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Overnight, the incident has gone from tragic accident to an intense internet debate, and media misfire. Several news outlets were reporting that Rharouity had been strangled not by a scarf, but by a hijab.

“The lead of TVA and Journal de Montreal to allege that the woman was wearing a hijab fails on a basic level of journalistic discipline and that’s the level of verification,” said Alan Conter, a Concordia Journalism Law and Ethics Professor. “Obviously there was no verification done.”

“Maybe it was a hijab but why would you insist in telling us?” said Julien Day, a writer for Voir. “For me it’s a no news.” Day says he was shocked by the replies he got on an article he wrote criticizing the media’s coverage. “There were pretty violent reactions like she deserved it and maybe people will learn that you wear your hijab at home and no where else,” he said.

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SDL member posted Facebook call for arson attack on Edinburgh Central Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SDL AberdeenA man has been warned he could face jail for posting a Facebook comment about burning down a mosque in the wake of Lee Rigby’s murder. Derek Phin, 46, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to posting the threatening and abusive remark on the social network last June.

British soldier Lee Rigby was off duty in southeast London when he was attacked and killed on May 22 last year. Radical groups then tried to exploit the soldier’s murder resulting in attacks and protests against the UK’s Muslim community.

Phin, of Aberdeen, admitted posting on Facebook that Edinburgh Central Mosque should be burnt down on July 2 during a counter demo. The mosque was due to be packed at the time for a meeting organised by pressure group Unite Against Fascism in response to extreme right wing protests.

Fiscal depute David Bernard told the court that police had been tipped off to Phin’s comment which he put online on June 30. He said: “On July 13 police received information that a comment of a racially motivated nature and thought to incite racial hatred had been posted on Facebook social network site on a page pertaining to the Scottish Defence League.

“One of the comments had been from a user account in the name of Derek Phin and had been posted on June 30, 2013 as part of a conversation about a Unite Against Fascism campaign to be held at an Edinburgh mosque on July 2. The comment attributed to Phin read ‘burn the mosque down when the meeting is ongoing’.”

Police confronted Phin at his home in Aberdeen on September 4. He was taken to a police station where he admitted making the comment and stated he was a member of the Scottish Defence League. He was then cautioned and charged.

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Judge orders NYPD to begin turning over Muslim spying documents

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A federal judge has ordered New York City to begin a process to hand over investigative documents from the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslims as part of a long-running lawsuit.

In an order issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles Haight, Jr. said there was a “manifest” need for further legal discovery, which could bolster the plaintiffs’ claim that the NYPD has engaged in discriminatory surveillance of Muslims. “The Muslim community is concerned about the attentions being paid to it by the NYPD. That concern is natural and reasonable,” Haight found.

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Dansk Folkeparti leaders divided over whether to restrict Muslim immigration or ban it completely

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marie Krarup DFSenior members of Dansk Folkeparti espoused the opinion that there are enough Muslims in Denmark and border controls should be established to stop more from entering the country.

DF’s defence spokesperson Marie Krarup [pictured] said that the time has come to completely halt Muslim immigration. “We should limit the size of the Muslim minority in Denmark,” Krarup wrote in a blog for Berlingske newspaper.

Anders Vistisen, number two on DF’s list of candidates for the European Parliament, agreed that the number of Muslims in Denmark should be limited. DF’s citizenship spokesperson, Christian Langballe, couldn’t see how a total ban against Muslims could be put into place. “It is impractical to call a complete halt, but I think that Muslim immigration must be limited,” he told Berlingske.

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Maajid Nawaz, free speech and the hypocrisy of Quilliam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Maajid Nawaz and friends

Last week the Camden New Journal published a report on the campaign to persuade the Liberal Democrats to remove Quilliam’s Maajid Nawaz as their parliamentary candidate for the Hampstead & Kilburn constituency. I sent a letter to the CNJ in response, which was not published, so I reproduce it here:

I was amused to read the indignant complaint by Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz that he had been “censored and silenced” because many people in the Muslim community objected to his tweeting of an offensive cartoon (‘Jesus and Mo’ tweet Nawaz: ‘Calm down’, January 23).

Nawaz’s presentation of himself as a defender of free speech certainly conflicts with my own experience. It’s only a few years since I received a threatening letter from lawyers representing Quilliam, the organisation of which Nawaz is co-founder and chairman, demanding that I cease criticising it and remove all articles from the Islamophobia Watch website that Quilliam found objectionable.

The letter asserted that my criticisms of Nawaz and his colleagues “bear the natural and ordinary meaning that The Quilliam Foundation are hypocrites”. All I can say is – I rest my case.

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Murfreesboro Islamic Center is potential source of ‘locally generated terrorist attacks’, opponents claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Plaintiffs suing the county for approving the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case because of terrorism concerns, according to a file sent Wednesday night.

“Periodic warnings from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of locally generated terrorist attacks compel a review by this Court to resolve due process issues raising conflicts between The Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), and the public right to open government affirmed by state Open Meetings Act,” states a lawsuit from plaintiffs’ attorneys Tom Smith of Franklin and Joe Brandon Jr. of Murfreesboro.

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