Here, via Tell Mama, are the Met’s figures for Islamophobic crime in London. Overall, such offences for the twelve months to August 2013 showed a 92% increase compared with the previous year. This is presumably accounted for mainly by the spike in incidents that followed the murder of Lee Rigby in May.
EDL campaigns against Islamification of Truro
Members of a controversial Islam protest group have confirmed they are attracting support from Cornish people who do not want to see the county “ruined by mosques”.
Posters, stickers and graffiti in support of the English Defence League (EDL), a group dedicated to the eradication of extreme Islamic beliefs, have recently sprung up on the back of road signs in Truro, St Agnes, Scorrier, Towan Cross, Carnon Downs and Lanner.
A representative from EDL Cornwall Division refused to comment about the stickers but told the West Briton: “Indeed we do have representatives for the Cornwall area. I’m afraid Islam is starting to creep its way into our beautiful county.
Selfridges attacked for ‘free lunch apology’ to EDL leader
Selfridges was facing a backlash today for giving a free lunch to English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson after a shop assistant refused to serve his friend.
Robinson – a convicted criminal who leads anti-Islam protests that often end in violence – was with a friend who wanted to buy jeans at the Oxford Street store on Monday. The assistant, Robinson claimed, asked the shopper if he was with the EDL leader, and then said: “F*** off, I am not serving you”.
Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – challenged the staff member, and said he assumed the worker was a Muslim “because he had Mo on his name tag”.
The EDL chief filmed part of the exchange on a mobile and put it online. In the footage, he says: “You won’t serve my friend because he’s friends with me … and I’m in the EDL.” The assistant replies: “You can put me on the camera all you want mate, but I’m not serving you,” and walks off.
Selfridges apologised to Robinson and treated him and his friend to a meal at its Hix restaurant, champagne and caviar bar. It suspended the worker but today confirmed the suspension had been lifted, and said the staff member had “an unblemished record for seven years”.
The British niqab ‘debate’ unveils society’s latent racism
Simon Woolley analyses the current media obsession with the Muslim veil.
Norway: PM demands Progress apology for ‘sneak-Islam’
Outgoing Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has challenged Siv Jensen, leader of the anti-immigration Progress Party, to publicly apologise for using the term “sneak-islamization”.
“If the deputy chairperson is able to regret it in English, I assume that the party leader Siv Jensen can regret it in Norwegian,” Stoltenberg said on Tuesday after the Progress Party briefed international press on its policies.
Ketil Solvik-Olsen, the party’s deputy leader, yesterday told a meeting with foreign journalists that Jensen’s claim that Norway faced the threat of “sneak-islamization” had been unfortunate. But Jensen on Tuesday evening stood by her provocative past statements.
“I’m not going to apologize for that and I and the Progress Party will continue to fight the emergence of such radical forces and the ideas they advocate,” she wrote in an email to VG newspaper.
A ‘feminist’ attack on Muslim women, courtesy of the Daily Mail
Today’s Daily Mail – a newspaper which of course has a long history of inciting bigotry against minority communities of recent migrant origin – carries yet another contribution to the niqab “debate”.
We’ve already heard Melanie Phillips’ views on this “sinister and intimidating black-out”, as she puts it, and now we have an article headlined “Why are my fellow feminists shamefully silent over the tyranny of the veil, asks JULIE BINDEL”.
5 lies about Muslims Fox News told you
Mariam Elba provides a list.
Hijab-wearing woman subjected to anti-Muslim abuse on Montreal bus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPlJ9zyqvTI
A video that appears to show a man and a Muslim woman arguing on a Montreal city bus is the latest indication of racial tensions boiling over in Quebec.
The exclusive video was obtained by Huffington Post Quebec and is said to have happened on the afternoon of Aug. 28 on the 69 Gouin bus. In it, the man tells the woman, who is wearing a hijab, to go back to her country. The person who filmed it said the altercation lasted between five and 10 minutes, until the man got off the bus.
Similar expressions of anti-Muslim sentiment took place in other parts of Quebec around the same time.
Judge orders lawyer to remove headscarf
A Berlin judge has banned a Muslim lawyer from wearing a headscarf in his courtroom stating she should show religious neutrality.
The lawyer, who has not been named, was told by a judge three times that she was not allowed to wear a headscarf in court, Berlin newspaper the Morgenpost reported on Tuesday. After the first two times, she replaced her scarf with a tight-fitting hairnet, and the third time she wore a scarf tied behind her head.
Reasoning behind the request was that lawyers should present themselves as “an organ of the legal system”. State sector workers are also supposed to show religious neutrality but criticis argue the lawyer is not a state worker so should not have to show religious neutrality.
If he asks her again, she has said she will place a complaint at the Berlin constitutional court, according to the paper.
Councillor fears Birmingham veils debate may trigger ‘Islamophobia’
A senior Birmingham councillor has spoken of his fears that debate over Muslim face veils could spark a rise in Islamophobia.
Coun Waseem Zaffer, chairman of Birmingham City Council’s social cohesion board, pictured, spoke after Home Office minister Jeremy Browne called for a national debate on whether the state should step in to stop young women having the niqab imposed upon them.