Lincoln anti-racist campaigners want support to counter East Anglian Patriots

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lincoln anti-racist demonstrator (2)Anti-racist campaigners want to swell their ranks with a ‘rally against racism’ in the lead-up to a protest march in Lincoln next week.

Lincoln Against Racism and Fascism will hold the meeting to build support for its March Against Racism to oppose a rally by the East Anglian Patriots (EAP) group three days later.

Lincolnshire Police confirmed in November last year that the ESP, which demonstrated against the building of a mosque in Boultham Park Road in June, were planning to return this month. The previous demonstrations attracted hundreds of people to the city.

Spokesperson for the anti-racist group, Nick Parker, said: “This meeting will highlight our group’s continued opposition to far-right groups like the East Anglian Patriots and the racism that they try to spread in our city when their supporters shout disgusting slogans like ‘burn the mosque’.

“We will use this opportunity to give ordinary local people the chance to hear what we have to say and we appeal to everyone to join us in taking to the streets next weekend to peacefully demonstrate that we will stand up for our community when the far-right tries to divide us.”

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EDL supporter Darren Clifft jailed over Ku Klux Klan video

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Darren Clifft in KKK outfitA racist who admitted posting a video online showing someone in a Ku Klux Klan costume hanging a life-size golliwog doll was this afternoon jailed for one year.

Christopher Philips, from Wolverhampton, who used a series of pseudonyms and even impersonated mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik had pleaded guilty to posting three videos online, which were filmed at a music concert and intended to stir up racial hatred. The court was previously told the event had been organised by an extreme right wing group in West Wales in March.

Philips – who was formerly known as EDL supporter – was arrested later that month following an investigation by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. The 23-year-old also faced a second charge of using words or behaviour intending to incite racial hatred, but it was left to lie on file after he pleaded not guilty.

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Sweden Democrats slammed for ‘Muslim rape’ comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Linus Bylund with Jimmie ÅkessonA top Sweden Democrat defending a racism-accused colleague has claimed the Koran states that “rape is a Muslim form of punishment”. The prime minister quickly joined a choir of critics and said it illustrated the minority party’s us-versus-them rhetoric.

The latest controversy stemming from statements by top brass of the far-right nationalist party started with a Facebook post by Michael Hess, vice chair of the Sweden Democrats in Karlskrona in southern Sweden, in which he wrote that “rape is deeply rooted in Islamic culture”.

When asked about Hess’ comments, Linus Bylund, press secretary for party leader Jimme Åkesson, said the statement couldn’t be construed as racist because it was factual. “It says in the Koran that rape can be used against women who have been unfaithful. It’s a Muslim form of punishment,” Bylund told the Blekinge Läns Tidning (BLT) newspaper.

When pressed by BLT about which passage in the Koran condoned rape as a form of punishment, Bylund said he did not know. “I’m not sure exactly. I don’t know exactly what’s stated in the Koran, but it’s been shown that that’s the case.”

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Fine and suspended prison sentence for Cassandra Belin

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philippe Bataille at press conferenceA French court has convicted a woman for insulting police who ticketed her for wearing a face-covering Muslim veil, banned by French law. The confrontation between Cassandra Belin, her husband and police triggered riots in the Paris suburb of Trappes last year.

Her lawyer, Philippe Bataille, says Belin was fined 150 euros and given a one-month suspended sentence Wednesday. The lawyer also argued that the veil law is unconstitutional, and asked for it to be sent to the Constitutional Court. The lower Paris court Wednesday threw out that request.

Police sporadically ticket women who wear the veil, banned since 2011. The riots in Trappes reflected tensions between police upholding France’s strict policies of secularism and those who accuse authorities of discriminating against France’s No. 2 religion.

Associated Press, 8 January 2014

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Bridgewater loses bid to delay court order on mosque proposal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A federal judge has denied Bridgewater’s request to delay a court order directing township officials to reconsider plans for a proposed mosque without applying an ordinance that Muslims said was used to undermine their project.

U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp on Monday rejected the township’s motion to stay his Sept. 30 order while officials appeal. In his latest ruling, Shipp said Bridgewater “has not sufficiently established that it has a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal.”

The township is now planning to seek a stay of Shipp’s original order from a higher court, said Marc Haefner, an attorney representing the municipality.

That order instructed the Bridgewater Planning Board to resume consideration of the mosque proposed by the alFalah Center without the use of that controversial ordinance. Public hearings on the proposal are scheduled to begin Jan. 21.

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EDL outnumbered by counter-demonstrators in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Bristol anti-mosque protestCentral Bristol witnessed ugly scenes this evening as right wing protesters opposed to plans to open a mosque in Stokes Croft were confronted by counter-demonstrators.

About 30 supporters of the English Defence League turned out on College Green to stage what had been advertised as a “peaceful” protest against the former Jesters comedy club in Cheltenham Road being turned into a mosque. Bristol Unite Against Fascism held a counter-demonstration, attended by about 80 people, which led to a 40-minute stand-off near the entrance to Bristol Cathedral.

The two groups shouted slogans and abuse at each other, separated by a cordon of about 24 police officers in high-visibility jackets. At one stage there was a minor scuffle but a police inspector later said he knew of no arrests. The anti-Fascists shouted: “Nazi scum! Off our streets!” The right wingers responded: “UAF! Off our streets!”

EDL members began to disperse after about half-an-hour. They had gathered at a pub near the Arnolfini arts centre before being escorted to City Hall for the protest.

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Flowers cover swastikas after mosque attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stockholm mosque flowers

Last Thursday morning, members of the Stockholm Muslim congregation arrived at the mosque on Södermalm to find the doors were covered in Nazi graffiti. By Monday morning, however, a much more positive display had taken their place: bouquets of pink and white flowers were taped over the black swastikas, and a note of solidarity was tied to the door. “For every hate crime there is a flower,” the sign read. “An attack on you is an attack on Sweden! We stand together!”

Flowers were also placed outside the mosque in Fittja, which had its windows smashed and pig feet tossed in back in November, as well as a Hagsätra church which had also been vandalized with swastikas last Friday.

“I thought society was moving the wrong direction. But now my view changed 180 degrees,” Omar Mustafa, chairman of the Swedish Islamic Association, told The Local. “Members of the congregation arrived for the morning prayer at 7am and called me saying there were flowers on the mosque. They sent me a picture and I felt strength and encouragement in a whole new way.”

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Demonstration against desecration of mosque in Mayotte

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Mayotte protest against mosque desecration

Le Figaro reported that on 1 January worshippers at a mosque in Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, found that a pig’s head had been left outside the building the previous night. Mayotte 1ière adds that a large demonstration was held to protest at the desecration of the mosque.

Update:  Three people will appear in court on 26 February charged with incitement to religious hatred. Two of them are reportedly members of the French army and a third is the wife of one of the accused. They have admitted the offence and claim that they only did it for a bet while drunk on New Year’s Eve.

EDL faces counter-protest in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol UAF anti-EDL demonstration

In response to news that council officers have granted a planning application to convert a disused former comedy club (which has been lying empty for the past two years) into an Islamic centre comprising a mosque, community facilities, a café and a flat, the Bristol division of the English Defence League will be holding a demonstration tomorrow evening to protest against what they term a “hate preaching centre”. It will take place outside City Hall, where a meeting is being held at which those who expressed their objections to the development without descending into anti-Muslim bigotry and racism (i.e. very few EDL supporters) will have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with representatives of the Muslim community.

Unite Against Fascism are organising a counter-demonstration under the slogan “No EDL racists in Bristol”.

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EDL protest in Sleaford is cancelled

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Organisers of a planned protest by members of the English Defence League have called it off.

Lincolnshire Police had been contacted by the English Defence League, expressing a wish to hold a local protest in Station Road, Sleaford this Saturday, January 11, but the organisers have now got back in touch to say it is cancelled.

Although not specified by the EDL, the protest was due to be close to the site of a planned prayer hall on Station Road by the local Sleaford Muslim Association.

Sleaford Standard, 6 January 2014

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