Andy Newman poses the question.
Thug jailed for attack on Asian taxi driver he blamed for Lee Rigby murder
A golfer who carried out a racially aggravated attack on an Asian taxi driver after wrongly linking him to the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby was jailed for seven months.
Drunk Kevin Dunne, 57, was on a golfing holiday with friends when the attack on Shabir Ahmed happened after the driver dropped them at Newport’s five-star Celtic Manor Resort around 12.15am on May 26.
Newport Crown Court heard Dunne said: “You know what happened last week in London? It was one of your brothers who done it. Where are you from?”
Mr Ahmed ignored the comment and asked for his £12 fare but Dunne gave him a handful of change and a 20 pence tip, saying: “That’s all you’re having. **** off out of here, you ******* Paki.”
Dunne then head butted him and punched him twice in the face, which loosened a tooth.
Security stepped up over Black Country mosque bombs
Security has been stepped up at mosques following the discovery of a second bomb in the Black Country within three weeks, it emerged today.
Investigations into the suspected nail bomb at Kanz-ul-Iman Muslim Welfare Association Central Jamia Mosque in Tipton on Friday and one found at the Aisha Mosque in Caldmore are running side by side, police said. And although they are not yet formally linking them, it has not been ruled out.
Swedish Defence League’s anti-Muslim protest flops
Yesterday the EDL’s sister organisation, the Swedish Defence League, held a protest in Göteborg under the slogan “Stop Muslim immigration”. SDL chairman Kamil Ryba explained that “Islam’s disregard for human life is so evil that it is our duty to protect and fight against this evil”.
Although it was billed as a national demonstration, Göteborgs-Posten reports that only about a dozen people turned up for the event. The SDL’s own photo of the event confirms the derisory turnout.
EDL supporters call for attacks on Islamic centre
The English Defence League have been responding to news that a disused pub in Preston may be re-opened as an Islamic education centre.
Weekly summary 8-14 July
Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 8-14 July 2013
Resisting the Islamification of Iceland
Loonwatch draws our attention to a controversy in Iceland over a proposal to build a mosque in the capital city of Reykjavík. A former mayor of Reykjavík, Ólafur F. Magnússon, has been expressing his outrage over the city council’s decision to grant planning permission.
“Muslims are spreading around the world and we have to keep them at bay,” Magnússon declared last week on a radio talk show. He added: “Islam is a religion that has a strategy of eliminating other religions and spreading all over the world. The experience of Scandinavia shows that Muslims don’t integrate into society. This has become a huge problem, for example in Malmö.”
He also attacked the left over its attitude Islam: “It is quite amazing that a lot of local feminists should be so in favour of Muslims in Iceland. It is built into the faith that women are oppressed.”
Australia: Local councils to implement Sharia law?
On 14 September Australians will vote in a referendum on whether local government should be formally recognised in the federal constitution. In the Sunday Mail Terry Sweetman reports that some opponents of the proposed constitutional amendment are claiming that a “yes” vote will end in Sharia law.
“By Local Government areas being recognised, Sharia law can then be demanded in the local area, based on the percentage of Muslim people in that local area,” they declare. Apparently this is “exactly how the Muslims petitioned Sharia law to be recognised in the United Kingdom”.
Cameron considers ‘Class B’ extremism plan to restrict Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir
The Prime Minister is to launch a fresh bid to place new legal curbs on radical Islamist outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir, to quell concerns the group sees British campuses as a fertile recruiting ground.
Laws designed to restrict the activities of the Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir are being drafted but David Cameron’s aim to outlaw the group entirely has been dismissed because no proof exists that the group has any involvement in terror activities.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has thousands of members in Britain. Tony Blair also attempted a ban in the aftermath of the 2005 London bombings, but was warned by police and security advisors that driving the group underground could backfire with no proof of violent activities. The Tories pledged to ban the group in their election manifesto, saying the advocated “the violent overthrow of our society”.
Cameron is now considering creating a “Class B” of hardline groups, which would restrict their activities, short of an outright ban, the Times reported. The job of devising such a system will go to the anti-terrorism taskforce set up after the brutal killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in an alleged Islamist-motivated attack in Woolwich. One possibility is that Hizb ut-Tahrir would be banned from holding meetings in public buildings such as universities, the Independent claimed.
Inquiry into anti-Muslim discrimination at Gare du Nord backs trade union’s claims
Earlier this year the French national railway SNCF and its baggage-handling subsidiary Itirémia were denounced by the SUD trade union, after black and African employees at the Gare du Nord station were excluded from contact with Israeli president Shimon Peres and his entourage, on the grounds that “they might be Muslim”.
The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports that an official inquiry into this scandal by the health and safety body CHSCT has concluded not only that SUD’s allegations were accurate but also that these discriminatory practices continue, and are not restricted to the SNCF.
“In light of the evidence gathered during the inquiry … we can say there are strong grounds for believing that discrimination of a racial and religious character was carried out by management”, the inquiry’s report states. It adds: “We find that contrary to statements by management these practices are not isolated and have become common.” The report also questions whether it was only local management that was involved in the Gare du Nord case.
The report states: “It is regrettable to see the amalgam that management made with regard to people of the Muslim faith, by treating them as potential terrorists and therefore a danger to society.”