Brian D. McLaren calls on evangelical Christians to renounce anti-Muslim bigotry.
Australian senator links violence to multiculturalism
South Australian Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has linked violent scenes between Muslim protesters and police in Sydney to multiculturalism, just days ahead of a major speech by businessman and migrant Frank Lowy.
Mr Lowy is to deliver the inaugural Australian Multicultural Society lecture on the benefits of a multicultural society at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday.
“The naive cling to the romantic idealisation of the generations of migrants who have successfully settled in Australia, thinking things will continue just as they have in the past,” Senator Bernardi said in a post on his website on Monday.
“They proclaim multiculturalism as a triumph of tolerance when in fact it undermines the cultural values and cohesiveness that brings a nation together.”
Far-right ideas: Britain’s generation gap
Research shows that anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim policies are much less likely to appeal to young people, Matthew Goodwin reports.
German interior minister: I’ll fight attempt to show anti-Islam film
An anti-Islam far-right group wants to stage a Berlin screening of the provocative anti-Islamic film that sparked violent protests across the Muslim world, a report said.
“For us, it’s a question of art and freedom of expression,” Manfred Rouhs, head of the small Pro Deutschland group told Der Spiegel magazine.
Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said he would use every legal means at his disposal to stop them. “Such groups and organisations only want to provoke Germany’s Muslims,” he said, accusing them of recklessly pouring oil on the fire.
Voters more likely to back an anti-Muslim party than reject it – poll
More people would support a political party that pledged to stop all immigration or promised to reduce the number of Muslims than one that encouraged multiculturalism, a survey conducted in the wake of the Olympics reveals.
Despite London 2012 being heralded as a celebration of a diverse society, the research suggests much of the electorate remains open to views traditionally associated with far-right groups.
The survey, conducted by YouGov with 1,750 respondents, found that 41% of people would be more likely to vote for a party that promised to stop all immigration, compared with 28% who said they would be less likely to support a group that promoted such policies.
In addition, 37% admitted that they would be more likely to support a political party that promised to reduce the number of Muslims in Britain and the presence of Islam in society, compared with 23% who said it would make them less likely.
Toronto: mosque protest goes to the dogs
A much anticipated dog walk protest outside an east-Toronto mosque Friday turned out to be a hopelessly neutered event.
Around 20 demonstrators turned up outside the Salahuddin Islamic Centre for the Walk Your Dog in Front of a Mosque protest. It was organized in response to a Jewish man who was arrested at a recent Islamic demonstration following an altercation in which his dog was kicked by a demonstrator.
Around 20 humans and three dogs – two retrievers and a pomeranian – turned up for the two and a half hour event and converged at the entrance of the mosque, located on Kennedy Rd. south of Eglinton Ave. E.
Arson attack on mosque in Condé-sur-l’Escaut
There has been a new attack on a place of worship. According to the CFCM (French Council of the Muslim Faith) the mosque at Condé-sur-l’Escaut in northern France was the victim of an arson attack on the night of Thursday-Friday 14 September.
EDL members fined over racist chants
A group of men linked to the English Defence League have been fined for chanting racially motivated abuse after attending a football match. The six, from south-west Durham, were found guilty of shouting highly inflammatory chants at Middlesbrough railway station.
Yesterday, more than 50 members of the far-right organisation gathered outside Teesside Magistrates’ Court to show their support, and anger flared when court officials would only allow five of them in the public gallery. There was a heavy police presence in the town after supporters met in a nearby pub before going to the court.
‘Love Muslim neighbors’ billboard coming to Murfreesboro
A new message encouraging local residents to “Love Your Muslim Neighbors” is slated to go up on a South Church Street billboard by the end of the month.
The message is being placed on a billboard at 1015 S. Church St. by a self-described Washington, D.C.-based Christian advocacy and education organization called Sojourners, according to the group’s communications director, Tim King.
King said the organization decided on Murfreesboro as a location after several residents living within a 100-mile radius of the city took notice of the group’s message on a billboard in Joplin, Mo., and began calling for one to be placed here.
On ‘child brides’ and irrelevant imams
Yusuf Smith has posted a thoughtful and well-argued article at Indigo Jo Blogs replying to the recent Murdoch-press-inspired moral panic about underage marriage in the UK Muslim community and offering some critical comments on Hasnet Lais’s article in the Independent on the weaknesses of Muslim leadership at mosque level.