Quilliam arranges speaking tour for former EDL leader – in schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Duchess's High School AlnwickThe violent ex-leader of the far right English Defence League is set to give talks on tolerance to schoolchildren. Tommy Robinson – a convicted thug, fraudster and football hooligan – is due to begin his tour within days. But the decision to let him into the classroom has sparked fury with the public.

One parent at a school on Robinson’s visit list said: “Given this man’s appalling record for thuggery and his history of inciting racial tension, it beggars belief that he is being ushered into classrooms. I am disgusted. What on Earth has he got to say that’s worth our children hearing? He should just crawl under a rock and keep quiet.”

Robinson, 30, quit the EDL in October, saying he was unable to control some extreme members. He said he had suffered death threats ever since.

He has now joined Islamic think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, which says it aims to tackle extremism. A spokesman said the talks would also be attended by other former members of the EDL. The spokesman added the visits were a continuation of Robinson’s “journey away” from the EDL.

One of the first places he will visit is the Duchess Community High School in Alnwick, Northumberland. Louis Spence, head of RE, defended allowing the dad of three to talk to sixth form and GCSE pupils.

He said: “By inviting visitors as diverse as Tommy Robinson, students are given the opportunity to rise to the challenges they will face as adults. There is a moral courage in thinking through difficult issues, standing up for what you believe in, whilst still showing respect and humanity.”

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Parti Québécois government minister says ‘charter of values’ can spearhead general attack on multiculturalism in Canada

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jean-Francois Lisée with Pauline MaroisA commission delving into the debate over the Quebec proposed charter of secularism can serve as an inspiration for an English Canada growing increasingly fed up with multiculturalism, the Parti Québécois government says.

It has been more than four months since Quebec began debating the need to further separate church and state and to enact a public-sector ban on religious symbols, but parliamentary hearings that start on Tuesday – the final step before the bill can be voted into law – could be the spark that sets a secular wildfire burning across the country.

That, at the very least, is the word from International Relations Minister Jean-François Lisée [pictured, with Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois], as nearly 300 Quebec citizens and organizations from across the spectrum prepare to dive back into the contentious debate over religious accommodation.

Lisée, who is the PQ’s interlocutor for Quebec anglophones and those outside Quebec, writes in a New York Times opinion piece that while the initiative is opposed by the federal government, anglophones, universities, hospitals, municipalities and others, it has the potential to push Quebec to the vanguard of a secular trail being blazed in Europe and around the globe.

“In a very real sense, the debate over Quebec’s charter may be the last stand of Canada’s multiculturalist experiment. Whatever the immediate outcome, it may be only a matter of time until Canadian multiculturalism finds itself buried alongside its European siblings,” he writes.

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Terrorism heightens Islamophobia in Russia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

"Русский марш - 2013" в Москве
Nationalist demonstration in Moscow in November 2013

A spate of terrorist attacks in southern Russia related to jihadist and anti-Russian insurgencies in the North Caucasus have not only led to heightened security measures, they have also contributed to a rising Islamophobic sentiment amongst many ethnic Russians.

This trend has been epitomized by the release on YouTube of a video purporting to show Russian football fans burning a Koran and forcing an apparently-beaten man of Central Asian appearance to repeat “I renounce Allah.” According to the video, the Russians were fans of Moscow’s CSKA soccer club, whose followers have previously been linked with ultra-nationalist chants and violence.

While the police are investigating the case – which could lead to charges of extremism or spreading religious hatred, punishable by up to 5 years in prison – this is symptomatic of a general problem. These inter-communal tensions have already exploded into large-scale conflicts, in Kondopoga in 2006, Moscow’s Manezh Square in 2010 and the capital’s Biryulevo neighborhood in 2013.

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Quebecers campaign against Charter of Values

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Support Another campaign day

A Montreal-based group is calling on all Canadians to join them on January 12th and 13th to protest against the Quebec government’s proposed Charter of Values for the province, urging Canadians to join them by wearing a hijab, turban, kippa or crucifix for a day.

“We invite all Canadians to walk in the footsteps of a visible minority for a day, to show their support for our Canadian and Quebec rights and freedoms and protest against this discriminatory charter,” Sama Al-Obaidy, Support Another spokesperson, told OnIslam.net.

“As the hearings about the charter are scheduled to begin next week in the National Assembly, we will be speaking as one voice against Bill 60 and demonstrating what the true values of Quebec and Canada are – those of multiculturalism, understanding, respect and social harmony,” she added.

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Times discovers non-existent ‘rise in Muslim birthrate’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Times Muslim birthrate headlineToday The Times has a report by its investigations editor Dominic Kennedy titled “Rise in Muslim birthrate as families ‘feel British’”. The article has been copied and pasted by the Telegraph (“Almost a tenth of babies and toddlers in England and Wales are Muslim, census figures show”) and by the Mail (“One in ten babies in England is a Muslim: Those practising the religion ‘could soon outnumber actively worshipping Christians'”).

Based on an analysis of the 2011 census figures, the report reveals that over 9% of children aged 0-4 are Muslim, whereas Muslims of all ages make up less than 5% of the population. Yes, it’s yet another of those Islamification of Britain articles.

One of the experts whose response to this news Kennedy quotes is David Coleman. He describes the figures as “startling”, although it is difficult to believe that a man who holds the position of Professor of Demography at the University of Oxford was genuinely surprised by the statistics. Kennedy doesn’t bother to tell his readers that Coleman is also co-founder of the right-wing campaign group Migration Watch and has a record of feeding the anti-immigrant hysteria of the right-wing press.

Even Coleman, however, is unable to deny the fact that birthrate among the UK’s Muslim community is falling – the precise opposite of the false claim made in the headline to Kennedy’s report.

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Redbridge Muslim school targeted by far right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain First 'no more mosques'Under the headline “‘Pandemonium’ takes over meeting about Muslim Apex Primary School expansion”. the Ilford Recorder reports that Mohammed Asif, chairman of the Federation of Redbridge Muslim Organisations, is concerned about the way Apex Primary School is being treated, following a council planning meeting which refused to allow discussion of a retrospective application for an additional 64 places at the school.

Mohammed Asif also referred to what the report describes “as a load of Islamophobic comments on a website”. Which one is not specified, but it seems a fair bet that the reference is to the website of Britain First, a far-right group that originated in a split from the British National Party and is led by former BNP councillor Paul Golding. Although only a small group, Britain First has ambitions to contest the European parliamentary elections in May, and has been attempting to win a wider base of support by targeting the Muslim community.

Britain First’s report on Apex Primary School’s planning application provoked comments from its supporters such as: “If you want a muslim school, go to a country that has already been ruined by muslims, don’t bring their prehistoric ways to Britain”, “Get retro permission to kick all out and they can be taught the hatred in a diff country”, “Pack the whole lot off back to Pakistan. YOU KNOW THEY MEAN TO TAKE OVER DON’T YOU”, and so on.

Another victory for Islamic Center of Murfreesboro

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Rutherford County Board of Zoning Appeals last night approved a cemetery on the Veals Road property of the Murfreesboro Islamic Center.

Mosque leadership appeared before the board in December seeking permission to bury their dead on the land. But on a three-to-two vote board members postponed making a decision. Some members expressed concerns about traffic congestion at the site and about possible environmental impacts.

The Daily News Journal reports that, after hearing a presentation by a Mosque attorney highlighting on soil depths and traffic studies, the board approved the cemetery by a narrow 3 to 2 vote.

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Racist bullying: Far-right agenda on immigration ‘being taken into classrooms’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ChildLine logoThe number of children seeking help for racist bullying increased sharply last year, as campaigners warn that the heated public debate about immigration is souring race relations in the classroom.

More than 1,400 children and young people contacted ChildLine for counselling about racist bullying in 2013, up 69 per cent on the previous 12 months. Islamophobia is a particular issue in schools, according to the charity, with young Muslims reporting that they are being called “terrorists” and “bombers” by classmates.

Children who have poor English or a strong accent are often called “freshies” – an abusive term that highlights their struggle to fit in.

The rise in children needing help for xenophobic bullying coincides with rising political hostility to immigration – especially in the lead-up to this month’s lifting of restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians entering the UK. In 2011, just 802 children approached the charity seeking help for racist bullying.

Sue Minto, head of ChildLine, said: “There’s so much more of a focus in the news at the moment about immigrants… it’s a real discussion topic and children aren’t immune to the conversations that happen around them. Some children are being told, even if they’re UK born, to pack your bags and go back where you belong. It is very worrying, it’s a big increase. This past year, it really seems to be something children and young people are suffering with.”

Overall, the number of children needing support for bullying of any kind was up 8 per cent between 2012 and 2013, according to ChildLine.

The charity’s report found that the majority of the racist bullying affecting children was happening at school and many of those calling ChildLine for counselling say teachers ignore the situation or make it worse with clumsy interventions.

James Kingett, of the charity Show Racism The Red Card (SRTRC) which seeks to combat racism, said: “We work with around 50,000 young people every year and issues around Islamophobia have been very prevalent over the past 12 to 18 months. That idea that all Muslims are terrorists or bombers is a particular problem. We’re getting that from kids with no Muslim classmates through to those in diverse schools with many Muslims.”

Mr Kingett added: “We are doing work on the impact of far-right groups such as the English Defence League on children’s attitudes. Often children are picking up language at home and from parents and taking that to be fact. The rhetoric at the moment around immigration is incredibly pervasive. The prominence of the immigration debate may have had a knock-on effect, filtering down in classrooms.”

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Man charged with race attack at proposed Muslim centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man has been charged with racially-aggravated criminal damage on a former pub earmarked to become a Muslim education centre in County Durham. Graham French, 28, from Shotton Colliery, will face the allegation before magistrates on Wednesday, January 22. Police refused to give any further details.

Permission has been given to Kaiser Choudry, who runs the Albert Guest House in the village, to turn the derelict Melrose Arms into an education centre. The decision has sparked demonstrations, the latest held at the start of last month.

Sunderland Echo, 8 January 2014

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