Portsmouth: Far right stages Muslim academy protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Portsmouth protestDemonstrators today staged a protest march against a Muslim school opening in Portsmouth.

Scores of people from the English Defence League, South East Alliance, March for England, English Volunteer Force and the Croydon Casuals walked along Fratton Road.

The English Defence League organised the march, saying it wanted to show disapproval of the Madani Academy, in Buckland, which is expected to open later this year. The Madani Academy would be the first Muslim school to open in the city. It will teach the national curriculum to five to 16-year olds, which will be tailored to Islamic values and teachings.

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Exploding breast implants scare story is resurrected

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Under the headline “Breast implants suicide bomb threat: Heathrow on high alert over ‘credible’ intelligence”, the Mirror reports on a supposed al-Qaeda terror plot.

The Mail for its part goes with the headline “Women suicide bombers hide explosives in their BREAST IMPLANTS as terror experts fear al-Qaida will target flights out of Heathrow”, while the Express has “Airports on high alert over women armed with bombs in their BREAST IMPLANTS”.

As Richard Bartholomew points out, this marks the latest incarnation of a story that first appeared back in 2009 and appears to have just as little substance now as it did then.

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Oklahoma anti-Shariah amendment struck down

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A federal judge has struck down Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment that would have prohibited judges in the state from considering Shariah law.

The amendment was approved by about 70 percent of Oklahoma voters on November 2, 2010, but the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations sued to block the amendment, arguing it violated separation of church and state and discriminated against Muslims.

A U.S. District Court judge agreed and issued a temporary injunction against the amendment. That decision was upheld in 2011 by a federal appeals court that returned the case to the judge, who made the final ruling Thursday (Aug. 15).

“It is our hope that, in finding this anti-Islam law unconstitutional, lawmakers in other states will think twice before proposing anti-Muslim laws of their own,” said Gadeir Abbas, a CAIR staff attorney and counsel for the plaintiffs.

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Cambridge man who threatened to torch a mosque banned from city’s Islamic centres

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David CampA man has been issued an Asbo banning him from going near a number of Islamic premises in Cambridge after he threatened to burn down a mosque.

David Camp, 35, of Thorpe Way, off Ditton Lane, Cambridge, was made subject of an anti-social behaviour order at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court yesterday after he was convicted of several racially aggravated offences..

Camp had previously admitted to posting a large number of offensive anti-Islamic messages on Twitter between April 1 and June 5. He had also admitted to three further public order offences following a drunken outburst in Mill Road on June 30 during which he shouted abuse at members of the public. During that incident Camp threatened to burn down a mosque, he continued to shout abuse at the officers who then arrived and arrested him.

He was sentenced to a 12-month supervision order with alcohol treatment requirement on July 12.

Following an application by police, a two year criminal Asbo was granted, banning Camp from entering parts of Mawson Road, Tenison Road, Devonshire Road, Mill Road or Whitechapel Road, in London. He is also banned from entering St Paul’s Road or Darwin Drive in their entirety, or from going within 50 metres of Omar Farouk Mosque in Kirkwood Road.

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United East End echoes calls for planned EDL march in Tower Hamlets to be banned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF Tower Hamlets demo adPressure on the police and Home Office to ban a planned march by far right group the English Defence League is mounting after fresh calls for it to be stopped.

Members of community and faith group coalition United East End have signed a letter circulated by Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman calling on home secretary Theresa May to step in and ban the march.

The EDL announced in May that it plans to march through Tower Hamlets on September 7 as part of a series of scheduled protests in cities across the UK. Representatives from United East End have now signed a letter circulated around the borough calling for the protest to be banned.

Glyn Robbins, who is chair of the group, said: “The EDL stands for bigotry. They are not welcome here. Our unity and diversity is our strength – and the people of the East End will not allow the EDL to divide us.”

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EDL plans South Shields protest march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The right-wing English Defence League (EDL) is planning a protest gathering at the heart of the Muslim community in South Tyneside.

Up to 500 members of the organisation have been invited to the proposed demonstration in Ocean Road, South Shields, on Saturday, August 31. The meeting is said to be a reaction to an ongoing court case involving three former South Tyneside College students accused of raping two 14-year-old girls.

Today, a Muslim community leader expressed his alarm at the plan, and he is calling on the authorities to make sure it does not go ahead.

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Kingston Mosque attacker back in jail over knife attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David MorrisA racist thug jailed for attacking Kingston Mosque is back in prison months after being released – this time for brutally stabbing a man during a wake. David Morris knifed construction worker Edminas Samulionis at Hart’s Boatyard in Surbiton on December 13, 2012.

In what police described as a “deeply disturbing” act, Morris – who had played no part in the fight up to that point – was captured on CCTV leaving the Portsmouth Road pub and walking to his van in the car park.

He returned with a 7in blade and stabbed Lithuanian-born Mr Samulionis repeatedly, before leaving in his van at speed. The victim suffered a punctured lung and has still not fully recovered from the attack. It is understood he has since returned to his home country.

On Friday at Kingston Crown Court, Morris, 22, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm. He had originally been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

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‘Not in Mulberry’: Opposition in Florida to Terry Jones’ latest Qur’an burning stunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A small group of Mulberry residents are organizing protests against a planned burning of nearly 3,000 Qurans at a home near Mulberry planned for Sept. 11.

Terry Jones, a Florida pastor known for sparking protests in Afghanistan after previously burning one Muslim holy book, said he plans to burn a book for every person killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The group, whose name says it all, has one message for the world: Not in Mulberry. “The bottom line is we don’t want people to think of ­Mulberry as a racist, hateful town,” said the group’s organizer, Suzanne Carter-Moore. “We are peace-loving and accepting and love each other.”

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Australian parliamentary candidate says Islam is a ‘religion from hell’ and building mosques is ‘high treason’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sherrilyn ChurchA candidate for the Prime Minister’s seat of Griffith has put outlawing the Islamic faith front and centre of her election campaign, branding it a “religion from hell” and claiming that building mosques in Australia is “high treason”.

Sherrilyn Church of the Rise Up Australia Party says her top policy priority in the election is to ban the building of mosques in the electorate, south of Brisbane.

Ms Church – a small-time citrus farmer from Crows Nest on the Darling Downs – said her primary concern for the electorate was “the Islamisation of the city by councils giving permission for mosques to be erected”.

“Basically, I see Islam not primarily a religion but a system of law because to the Islamic mind the existence of a mosque in an area means they believe that Sharia law applies and the Islamic flag must fly – now that is high treason in a sovereign nation,” she said.

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EDL planning march against Islamic school in Portsmouth

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A March through Portsmouth has been prompted by the proposed opening of a Muslim school. The English Defence League (EDL) will be marching from Fratton to the Madani Academy, in Buckland, to show their disapproval of such a school being built in Portsmouth. The Muslim-only school is expected to open later this year.

Mickey Bayliss, the EDL’s regional organiser for the South West said that the school will cause Muslim children to be segregated from the community.

The 46-year-old said: “We have decided to hold a protest because of the new school opening in Portsmouth. We do not agree with having a school just for Muslims. The parents have chosen to bring their children to England or have them brought up here and they shouldn’t be left segregated to a one-faith school. We will have Sikhs and black people at the protest so we are not about being racist.”

The EDL will not be the only group protesting on Saturday. The Unite Against Fascism group will also be holding a march in the city centre from midday.

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