Labour NEC sub-committee rejects Ken Livingstone proposal to readmit Lutfur Rahman to party

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lutfur_RahmanLabour’s NEC has rejected Ken Livingstone’s request for Lutfur Rahman to get back into the Labour party.

The NEC’s organisation sub-committee was setting the process for selecting a Labour mayoral candidate in Tower Hamlets. He or she is now expected to be chosen in April, to give them time to build up a head of steam against Lutfur, who was sacked as Labour candidate in the 2010 mayoral election for his close links to an Islamic fundamentalist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe, which believes in turning Europe into a sharia state. Lutfur is also backed by a group of powerful local businessmen.

Labour MP, Tom Harris, congratulated Labour’s NEC in a tweet: “Well done Labour’s NEC for rejecting Ken Livingstone’s request for Islamist Lutfur Rahman to get back into our party.”

Politics UK, 16 January 2013

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The constitutionality of the Belgian burqa ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jelle Flo and Jogchum Vrielink examine last month’s ruling by Belgium’s Constitutional Court that the 2011 ban on the face veil does not violate human rights. the conclude:

“Fundamental rights ultimately exist to protect minorities, unpopular minorities in particular, against the tyranny of the majority. A boundary is crossed when rights of individuals are simply sacrificed to majority sentiments; a boundary which should be protected by institutions such as the Court. In other matters, the Constitutional Court has not hesitated to fulfil this role. In the case of the burqa ban, however, these boundaries seem to have evaporated, making for the constitutional equivalent of a Schengen area.”

Open Democracy, 14 January 2013

Via ENGAGE

Three admit roles in Walsall EDL protest disorder

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Walsall protest (4)
English Defence League thugs confront police at Walsall protest[

Three men have admitted their roles in trouble which broke out during an English Defence League protest in a busy Black Country town centre. Angry scenes unfolded in Leicester Street, Walsall, in September as the EDL held a protest and disorder erupted as supporters left a pub.

Kyle Kirkbride, of Rugeley, and Peter Jelley, of Shrewsbury, both admitted threatening behaviour, while John Sharpe, of Leamore, Bloxwich, admitted racially aggravated harassment at Walsall Magistrates Court yesterday.

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Wilders to visit Australia in February

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dutch anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders will visit Australia next month.

The right-wing MP was due to visit in October but was forced to postpone because the federal government took its time deciding whether to approve his visa.

Tour organisers Q Society – a group concerned about the so-called “Islamisation of Australia” – have now announced Mr Wilders will speak in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney in February.

“The Australian experiment of multiculturalism is failing in relation to Islam, just as it has failed everywhere else,” the group says on the event website. Australians are being misled to believe Islam is ‘just another religion’ – when it is in fact much more.”

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has condemned Mr Wilders’ extremist views but ultimately decided not to use his ministerial discretion to block his visa.

AAP, 16 January 2013

Geller defends Carroll’s ‘fukin savages’ comment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Carroll with Geller“Joining the co-founder of the EDL in prison, Kevin Carroll has been arrested for a Facebook comment. This is part of the war on freedom and its champions.

“Kevin Carroll and Tommy Robinson are on the SION President’s Council and are true fighters for freedom. They oppose the oppression, subjugation and racism of Islamic supremacism. But the savages have succeeded in imposing the sharia – hence their arrests.

“Apparently Kevin Carroll used the word I made famous in our AFDI ads, ‘savage’. And got arrested. The savages didn’t like it. The [sic] is blasphemy enforcement by dhimmi law enforcment. But their instructions came from on high. Shocking. If the Brits don’t fight back, it’s over for them.”

Pamela Geller offers her thoughts on the arrest of English Defence League co-leader Kevin Carroll on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

Atlas Shrugs, 15 January 2013

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Muslim sex ring accused of grooming ‘troubled’ underage girls

Posted on by Bob Pitt

This was the headline to the London Evening Standard‘s report of the Oxford “grooming” case today.

In the online version it has since been changed to “Sex gang accused of grooming ‘troubled’ underage girls”, and the opening sentence now refers to “Asian” rather than “Muslim” men.

This hasn’t prevented 700,000 printed copies of the paper being distributed to Londoners with a headline that attributes the alleged crime to the assumed religious beliefs of the accused.

Update:  See also “Anti-Muslim bias in sex grooming stories resurface”, ENGAGE, 16 January 2013

Update 2:  Read ENGAGE’s letter to the Press Complaints Commission here.

Far-right activists plan new street protest movement

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain First 'no more mosques'

The setbacks suffered by the English Defence League – shrinking numbers attending its demonstrations, its leader in prison, its deputy leader arrested for incitement to racial hatred – are seen by others on the far right as an opportunity to build a new organisation under their own control to replace the EDL.

EDL News draws our attention to a far-right unity meeting that took place in Dartford at the weekend, evidently on the initiative of the group Britain First, the aim of which was to “lay plans for a unified, well organised new street protest movement”.

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Seven jailed for violence after EDL demonstration in Cleckheaton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Cleckheaton March 2012
The EDL demonstration in Cleckheaton that preceded the racist attacks

Seven men have been locked up for causing trouble in Dewsbury and Heckmondwike after an English Defence League (EDL)demonstration in Cleckheaton.

The group, who were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court this morning, are all from Bradford. They attended the far-right group’s demonstration on March 17 last year.

Some went on to Heckmondwike and were involved in smashing a window at the Co-operative Travel in Northgate. All seven then went to the Principal pub in Dewsbury where Robert Collington, 27, hurled racist abuse at a passing motorist and his passenger.

Stephen Woodhead, 33, then spat on the passenger and Kevin Docherty, 39, threw his drink at the car as it drove away. Later, members of the group chased an Asian man along Corporation Street, Dewsbury, and beat him when he fell to the ground.

They were stopped by police as they made their way towards Savile Town.

All pleaded guilty at earlier hearings.

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And the winner is … Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“America’s Middle East policy has been enthusiastically endorsed. Not at the UN or Arab League, however, but by the powerbrokers of Hollywood. At the Golden Globes, there were gongs for a heroically bearded CIA spook saving hostages and American face in Iran (the film Argo); a heroically struggling agent tracking down Bin Laden (Zero Dark Thirty) and heroically flawed CIA operatives protecting America from mindless, perpetual terror (TV series Homeland).”

Rachel Shabi in the Guardian, 15 January 2013