A new insight into the EDL’s support base?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Roots of ExtremismLast week Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) launched a new study by Matthew Goodwin, a Nottingham University academic specialising in the far right, entitled The Roots of Extremism: The English Defence League and the Counter-Jihad Challenge.

Claiming to debunk the assumptions usually made about the EDL attracting disproportionate support from the economically disadvantaged and the unemployed, Goodwin’s paper produced headlines such as “Managers and skilled workers make up bulk of far right supporters” (Daily Telegraph) and “English Defence League supporters are mostly full-time workers, survey finds” (Huffington Post).

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San Francisco leaders denounce anti-Islam bus ads

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AFDI anti-Islam adsSan Francisco leaders have denounced a series of what they call anti-Islamic advertisements that began appearing on 10 city buses on Monday, calling them racist and offensive.

At least one of the ads contains a quote attributed to the militant Islamic group Hamas that reads: “Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah.”

Mayor Ed Lee, District Attorney George Gascon and other elected officials joined Arab and Muslim community leaders to publicly condemn the ads on Monday. “These offensive ads serve no purpose than to denigrate our city’s Arab and Muslim communities,” Gascon said.

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EDL protester in court for racist outburst

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A protester who made racist remarks to a police officer and spat at another during last month’s EDL and anti-fascist protests in Cambridge pleaded guilty yesterday.

Roy May, 56, of Elmfield Road, Cambridge, urinated outside a house in Emmanuel Street on February 23 when street closures for the protest were taking place. Pc Singh confronted May about what he was doing and received a torrent of racial abuse, city magistrates were told.

Delia Matthews, prosecuting, said: “He was swearing and his words were slurred because he was drunk.” May then spat at police officers, catching Pc Helen Greenfield on the cheek.

May will appear in court again on March 18 for sentencing.

Cambridge News, 12 March 2013

NYPD Muslim surveillance report details ‘collateral damage’ of program

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A coalition of Muslim groups delivered a new report on the NYPD’s surveillance program to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s doorstep on Monday, hoping to put pressure on the department a day before its annual budget hearing.

The report, based on interviews with 57 Muslims in New York, details the life of a religious community under police suspicion. It was prepared by the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) project.

“They have repeatedly said that as long as you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,” said Diala Shamas, a fellow at CLEAR who co-authored the report, called “Mapping Muslims.” To the contrary, she said, the study “shows that there are many disturbing impacts and consequences of the irresponsible, costly, harmful, completely ineffective surveillance program.”

Huffington Post, 11 March 2013

See also AALDEF press release, 11 March 2013

Geller: CPAC has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and is ‘enforcing the Sharia’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pamela Geller has discovered the reason for her exclusion from the forthcoming Conservative Political Action Conference – CPAC has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

She claims that the conference organisers have always taken a negative attitude towards her “because of the influence of what can only be described as Muslim Brotherhood facilitators or operatives like Suhail Khan and Grover Norquist”. This is of course the same conspiracy theory that got Frank Gaffney banned from CPAC two years ago.

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Dorset: Tory councillor who told equalities officer ‘all Muslims are terrorists’ breached code of conduct

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Sherborne councillor, who was accused of describing “all Muslims as terrorists” during an equality and diversity training session, has been found guilty of breaching the code of conduct.

Former mayor Marjorie Snowden, a town and district councillor, was sanctioned by West Dorset District Council’s standards committee on Wednesday, when the panel unanimously decided she had failed to show a former council officer respect during the training session.

Investigating officer Roger Greene presented a report which recommended she had breached the code of conduct relating to lack of respect after two complaints were made.

Sue Bickle, a community development team leader and lead officer for equalities at the district council at the time, and Molly Rennie, a district councillor for Dorchester, filed the complaints relating to an equalities and diversity training session held at West Dorset District Council on June 28, 2012.

Western Gazette, 8 March 2013

Will Sherborne Conservatives be taking disciplinary action against Snowden? Don’t bet on it. Her fellow Tory councillor, deputy mayor Dominic Elliott, told the standards committee “I feel Mrs Snowden’s questions were acceptable in any debate or discussion”.

UKIP battles to contain extreme elements

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In today’s Guardian Robert Booth and Rajeev Syal report that that the UK Independence Party and its leader Nigel Farage, who have been boosted by their candidate’s second place in the Eastleigh by-election and are now installed in their new upmarket headquarters in Mayfair, have set themselves the task of reining in the extremists who are drawn to UKIP.

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Dorset: Tory councillor who told equalities officer ‘all Muslims are terrorists’ breached code of conduct

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marjorie SnowdenA Sherborne councillor, who was accused of describing “all Muslims as terrorists” during an equality and diversity training session, has been found guilty of breaching the code of conduct.

Former mayor Marjorie Snowden, a town and district councillor, was sanctioned by West Dorset District Council’s standards committee on Wednesday, when the panel unanimously decided she had failed to show a former council officer respect during the training session.

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Former EDL organiser jailed over firearms offence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Paul DuffyEDL News and Hope Not Hate draw attention to a report in the Sunderland Echo that Paul Duffy, a former regional organiser for the English Defence League, has been jailed for five years after pleading guilty to possessing a prohibited firearm, live rounds of ammunition, a prohibited weapon and drugs.

Duffy was found in possession of a Webley 8mm pistol and two rounds of ammunition when police raided his house in December following a tip-off. He claimed he was looking after them as payment for a drug debt.

Duffy was the EDL’s North-East organiser before he left to join the even more extreme breakaway group, the Infidels (who the EDL once denounced as Nazis but now hail as “great patriots“). He was one of five members of that group who were arrested by the North-East Counter Terrorism Unit in April last year on suspicion of posting race-hate material online. However, after consultation with the CPS it was decided not to press charges.