Angela Merkel has said Islam has become a part of Germany and is urging her fellow citizens to show tolerance for Muslims.
Mona Eltahawy arrested for defacing Geller’s anti-Muslim poster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ABfcjn_npb8
Mona Eltahawy, the prominent Egyptian-American writer and activist, has been arrested in New York, after spraying paint over a controversial poster on the subway that has been condemned for equating Muslims with “savages”.
The posters which have been put up in the city by the anti-Muslim American Freedom Defense Initiative, led by Pam Geller, were approved by a US court, which ruled that they were “political” statements and protected by the first amendment, which guarantees free speech.
Attacks on Muslim American houses of worship on the rise
Paris: police arrest four Muslim women
Four Muslim women sightseeing in Paris were arrested by police forces on Saturday for wearing headscarves.
The scene, which was filmed by journalists from Le Parisien, a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, took place at the Trocadéro, a square that stands across the river from the Eiffel Tower. The four women, including one wearing a headscarf, were checked for IDs before being escorted out of the square by dozens of police officers.
EDL supporter in court over anti-Muslim Facebook rants
A former soldier wrote anti-Islamic comments on his Facebook page he started supporting the English Defence League (EDL).
Kenneth Holden, 30, was arrested after police were alerted to two updates he posted on his personal page on the social network site, abusing Muslims.
Holden, of Winskell Road, South Shields, pleaded guilty to two counts of sending an offensive message by a public communication network at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Racist grandmother Margaret Walker gets lifetime Asbo for offensive letters
A Hampshire grandmother has today been handed a lifetime ASBO for a “racist” and “frightening” poison pen campaign.
Margaret Walker, 73, from Walnut Drive, Hill Head, has been ordered by magistrates to stop sending “foul” and “abusive” letters. She has also been ordered to sign every piece of post she sends and supply a return address.
The order came after Walker carried out a five-year campaign of hate – sending around 500 racist letters all around the country.
Yougov poll finds even more hostility towards Islam in UK than in US
An overwhelming majority of Republican voters in the United States regard the west and Islam as being embroiled in “a fundamental conflict which only one side can win”, according to new YouGov polling seen exclusively by the Guardian.
As the UN general assembly was convening in New York, with an agenda including the ongoing conflict in Syria, the Iranian nuclear question and the Arab uprisings, the pollsters asked both American and British voters about their attitudes to the Muslim world.
Opinion was reasonably evenly split on both sides of the Atlantic, and indeed somewhat more tolerant in the United States. Overall, Americans rejected the view of a fundamental clash of cultures that can only have one winner – only 39% adopted this view, against 47% who believe that “it is possible for the west and Muslims to coexist in peace”. In Britain, by contrast, the respective figures were 43% and 41%, suggesting that British opinion towards Islam is somewhat more hostile overall.
Walsall Labour Party backs rally against EDL
Walsall Labour Party is giving its full support to a peaceful demonstration celebrating community strength and tolerance being held in Gallery Square on Saturday at 11am.
The “We are Walsall” rally is being held to counter the racism of the English Defence League who are bussing in people from across the country to incite hatred of the town’s Muslim community.
British Freedom party appoints racist as South West regional organiser
Earlier this week the English Defence League’s political wing, the British Freedom party, announced the appointment of their new South West regional organiser. She’s an EDL activist from Bristol named Chelsea Anne White.
White’s explanation of her decision to join British Freedom features the usual anti-Muslim rhetoric – “mosques, we don’t want them and we don’t want burka-clad women on our beaches…. We don’t want animals sent for halal slaughter”.
Marine Le Pen and secular fundamentalism
Fiachra Gibbons reponds to Marine Le Pen’s proposal to ban the kippah along with the hijab.