Sofia police step up security near mosque after man mistaken for refugee seriously assaulted

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police in Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia have stepped up security in streets nearby the landmark Banya Bashi mosque after a group of men in their 20s seriously assaulted a man they apparently mistook for a refugee and attempted to batter their way into a building housing refugees.

The victim of the assault, a Bulgarian of Turkish extraction identified in media reports as named Georgi “Metin” Dimitrov (28), remained in hospital on November 10 2013 in serious conditions, in a coma with severe head injuries.

Two men, aged 28 and 29, have been arrested in connection with the assault on “Metin” Dimitrov. Both are said to be from Sofia. Media reports said that about five to six men had been involved in the attack. According to the Interior Ministry, three further suspects are being sought.

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Anne Marie Waters and Dispatch International – one more time

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anne Marie Waters open letter to Miliband

The appalling Anne Marie Waters, who is a member of the National Secular Society council and spokesperson for the anti-sharia campaign One Law For All, has featured on Islamophobia Watch a number of times. (So many times, in fact, that even I’m getting bored with the subject – which is why it’s taken me a while to get round to writing this piece.)

In addition to whipping up fear and hatred of Islam through the NSS and OLFA, Waters also hoped to acquire a parliamentary platform for her views, via the Labour Party. Unfortunately for Waters, the latter ambition proved irreconcilable with her other activities. Her attempt earlier this year to win selection as the Labour candidate for the Brighton Pavilion constituency was defeated, thanks not least to Andy Newman’s admirable work (see here and here) in exposing her Islamophobic views.

Last month Waters resigned from the Labour Party, announcing her decision in an open letter to Ed Miliband that was published in the “counterjihad” newspaper Dispatch International, to which she is now a regular contributor. The reasons Waters gave for leaving the party were that she was opposed to Labour’s support for multiculturalism, to Ken Livingstone’s selection as Labour candidate in the 2012 London mayoral election, and to Labour’s “introduction of insidious hate speech laws”.

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Exeter: 800 against planned EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Momentum is gathering against a far right wing organisation’s plans to hold a march in Exeter.

The English Defence League (EDL) plans take to the city’s streets on Saturday, November 16. However a group opposing the bid, Exeter Together, has signed up more than 800 people and organisations to condemn it.

Spokeswoman Hannah Packham said they would be holding an inclusive family-friendly Celebration of Diversity – to celebrate the city’s rich cultural heritage. “Our event is being held away from the EDL march, and will be an opportunity for Exeter to come together to celebrate the multi-cultural, multi-race, multi-faith diversity of the city,” she said.

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Young Muslim women leave Prague nursing school over hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two Muslim girls left a nursing secondary school in Prague as they were not permitted to wear their hijabs, being the first to have ended their studies for this reason in the Czech Republic, Czech Television (CT) said Friday. CT said the case would probably end up with the ombudsman’s office and lawyers were considering filing an anti-discrimination lawsuit.

The principal of the Prague school Ivanka Kohoutova said the school had made no mistake. She said since the law did not define the wearing of hijab, schools could create their own rules. However, human rights organisations are of the view that this is discrimination and intervention in personality rights, CT said.

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Le Pen to visit Wilders Wednesday, hold joint press conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders and Le PenThe leader of France’s nationalist Front National is meeting Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch anti-Islam party PVV, on Tuesday and the two will hold a joint press conference about their plans for the European elections.

The aim of Marine le Pen and Wilders is to create a strong anti-EU block within the European parliament. Wilders has spoken several times of his efforts to form a pan-European grouping.

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Pavlo Lapshyn – not such a lone wolf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pavlo Lapshyn nail bomb
Remains of the nail bomb that Pavlo Lapshyn planted outside the Kanz-ul-Iman Central Jamia Mosque in Tipton

Pavlo Lapshyn had been in Britain for just five days when he murdered grandfather of 23 Mohammed Saleem by stabbing him in the back as he made his way home after Friday prayers. The 25 year-old white supremacist had moved to Birmingham where he had been awarded a placement to further his engineering studies.

Following his trial counter terrorism officers said that he had acted as a “lone wolf”. But detectives found literature and images related to PoU [the neo-Nazi paramilitary group, Patriot of Ukraine] and fascist Dynamo Kiev supporters on Lapshyn’s Russian Facebook page and on a pen computer drive when they raided the home he shared with a fellow student in Small Heath, Birmingham.

Investigations by counter terrorism officers found that Lapshyn was not a member of any of these groups and that no one else was involved in the murder of Mr Saleem, aged 82, or the bombs that were set off at three Midland mosques.

But Lapshyn was influenced by the ideologies of right wing extremists in Ukraine. Neo-Nazi literature and racist chants popular with Dynamo Kiev fans were among the disturbing set of literature found at his home in Small Heath, Birmingham.

Detectives also found a folder marked “White World” on Lapshyn’s computer which included a violent video game called “Ethnic Cleansing” featuring ‘soldiers’ from the PoU. Another audio file entitled “You Must Murder” contained more racist rants by East European extremists calling for a violent race war.

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Muslim text protest sows hostility

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Orlando Sentinel has a good editorial condemning the Volusia County school textbook campaign. It argues:

“This concocted controversy calls to mind another appeal to antipathy toward Muslims – the ongoing effort in the Florida Legislature to ‘protect’ state courts from the non-existent threat of Islamic Shariah law.”

See also “Christian history taught before Islam in state curriculum”, Daytona Beach News-Journal, 9 November 2013