EDL: Theresa May considers banning US bloggers from UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spencer Carroll Geller & Lennon

Home Secretary Theresa May is considering banning two US bloggers from entering the UK to speak at an English Defence League rally. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are due to join an EDL march in Woolwich, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed. The pair are prominent “anti-Islamisation” campaigners in the US.

Home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz claims their presence will fuel hatred and is calling for them to be denied visas. Mr Vaz said: “I am alarmed that the EDL is planning this type of march in Woolwich. It is clear that the location, motivation and attendees at this march will incite hatred. Adding incendiary speakers such as Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer just fuels the fire.

“Before we have to pay the costs for the extra policing required for this demonstration, the Home Secretary should consider using her discretion to ban these two speakers from entering the country. A ban should be enforced properly and physically stop people entering our borders.”

The Home Office said it did not routinely comment on individual cases but the home secretary was aware of Mr Vaz’s letter and would be responding in due course. Mrs May has the power to exclude non-British citizens from the UK if she considers their presence to be “not conducive to the public good” but she must act in a “reasonable, proportionate and consistent” way.

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Hull council to seek EDL march ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

City councillors have voted in favour of calling on police to ban future marches through Hull by groups such as the English Defence League. A march along Spring Bank by EDL activists earlier this month triggered ugly scenes and ten arrests. It was the first time the extreme right-wing group had staged a march in the city.

Former Humberside Police Authority chairman Councillor Colin Inglis, who proposed the motion, said he had no intention of criticising the police over their handling of the march. He said: “I think the police would dearly love to stop things like this but before they do, they need some comfort there is not going to be criticism from people like us. This is about putting down a marker for the police from us as politicians in Hull, saying we will support them doing this in a robust manner.”

Cllr Inglis said a video of the march filmed by the Mail clearly showed that many involved were not even from Hull. The Hull Daily Mail did a great service in recording that event. “Just looking at that video, you might have thought they were a bunch of football hooligans. If they had been, and this had happened inside the KC Stadium, the police would have no doubt dealt with them and banned from the stadium for life. However, this was on a public highway and the police allowed them to do it.”

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Harlow Strong to march as planned despite mounting concerns over ‘far-right links’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Harlow Strong organiser Leo Hartley plans to press ahead with Sunday’s (June 23) march – despite mounting opposition from community groups who fear the event will attract right-wing extremists.

The rally, which was originally set up under the banner of the controversial Woolwich Strong movement, is described as a “peaceful t-shirt charity march” by Mr Hartley.

But critics, including the Harlow branch of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and local trade unionists, fear the event is a front for far-right political group the English Defence League and have urged organisers to call it off.

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Florida professor’s terrorism class: Muslims taught to hate ‘from the cradle’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jonathan Matusitz and friends
Jonathan Matusitz (second from right) and friends at The Awakening conference in Florida in April

A Florida professor who teaches a class on terrorism is facing a formal complaint after he claimed that Muslims are taught to hate “from the cradle.”

In a letter to the University of Central Florida, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) calls for the school to review terrorism courses taught by Professor Jonathan Matusitz, which the group says “includes inaccurate information, anti-Muslim bigotry and hostility in the form of hate speech toward Islam and Muslims.”

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Union leader to address worshippers at mosques

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A union leader will today address worshippers at two mosques to take a message of support to the Muslim community and condemn recent attacks by extremists. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey will visit two mosques in East London and meet Muslim community leaders.

He said: “Unite condemns the recent attacks on Muslim men and women by far right extremists and racists and offers the hand of friendship. Unite believes that every person in our community should live without fear and intimidation. Trade union values of fairness, justice and respect are what guide us and why we refuse to let our communities be divided by people pushing an agenda of hate and discrimination.”

The visit is the latest in a series of events aimed at easing tensions following the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby closer to the Royal Artillery barracks in south-east London in May.

Asian Image, 21 June 2013

See also “‘No place for EDL on our streets’ – McCluskey in solidarity visit to mosques”, Union-News, 21 June 2013

Southend landlady defends decision to let EDL meet in her pub

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL at Borough HotelA seafront pub landlady has defended her decision to let members of the far-right English Defence League meet in her pub. Nicola Tiney, who runs the Borough Hotel, in Marine Parade, Southend, spoke out in the face of a social networking website campaign, urging drinkers to shun the pub.

Police were out in force at the weekend in Southend in response to reports the group’s Essex branch was planning to meet in the town. It later emerged members spent Saturday afternoon in the pub, prompting the setting up of a “Boycott the Borough Hotel” page on Facebook.  The reggae band Goldmaster Allstars have cancelled their July 6 gig, saying they “feel they can no longer be associated” with it.

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EDL supporter banned from every mosque in Wales and England over arson attempt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John ParkinA former soldier has been banned from every mosque in Wales and England after attempting to attack his local mosque following the murder of drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich.

The life-long ban was made as part of a CRASBO imposed on John Parkin, who drank 15 pints after he heard about the murder in London – then decided to try and burn down his local mosque. Parkin stuffed tissue into a bottle of beer and attempted to light it at the mosque in Rhyl.

Today he was jailed for 18 months and given an indefinite criminal anti-social behaviour order (CRASBO) was made under which he must not enter the mosque at River Street in Rhyl. It also bans him from entering the curtilage of any mosque in England and Wales.

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Shrewsbury Muslim prayer centre plans approved

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Members of Shropshire Council’s planning committee voted in favour of proposals to change the use of the former register office at Column Lodge in Preston Street.

The building was sold by Shropshire Council to the Shropshire Bangladeshi Welfare Society in a £215,000 deal. The group wants to turn the site into a prayer centre and community room.

But the scheme has strongly divided opinion with Shropshire Council receiving more than 500 letters about the application prior to the latest petition, with 227 in support and 278 against. It has also led to the English Defence League protesting in the town outside the planned prayer centre.

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