Adam Serwer has the details.
Harry’s Place and its allies inspire far-right violence again
The York newspaper The Press reported yesterday that the “Islamia Village” event that was due to be held near the city at Thorpe Underwood Estate over the bank holiday weekend had been called off at the last minute after the estate’s Trustees cancelled the booking.
This decision followed an extended campaign against Islamia Village, based on the claim that it would be hosting extremist preachers. The Islamophobic blog Harry’s Place, which had initiated the campaign, immediately posted a piece yesterday afternoon claiming victory for itself and its supporters.
The obvious question that arises is – why was Islamia Village called off so late in the day? After all, Harry’s Place took up the issue well over a month ago, back on 13 July, when it crossposted a piece from the Islamic Far-Right in Britain blog condemning the event. What changed over the past few days?
Racist jailed for threatening Asian family with knife told them ‘I’m EDL’
Two men who subjected a “decent and hardworking” Asian family to a torrent of abuse have been sent to jail and banned from their shop.
Stefan Davis and Kelvin Barratt were locked up for ten months and told not to go within 200 metres of the family’s newsagents in Bulwell for five years. Judge Michael Stokes QC, who sentenced them, asked one of their solicitors: “Why should anyone put up with such behaviour?”
The men began their harassment at 7 o’clock one Monday morning as the family unloaded stock outside their newsagent’s in Bulwell. Barratt, 25, of Courtleet Way, on the Crabtree Farm Estate in Bulwell, pulled a knife as he delivered an onslaught of foul remarks and words. He asked one “what religion are you?” and she replied “what does that matter?” He replied: “Because I’m EDL (English Defence League)”.
Breivik verdict: mass murderer declared sane and sentenced to 21 years
Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian far-right extremist, has been sentenced to at least 21 years in prison after a court declared he was sane throughout his murderous rampage last year that killed 77 people.
The Oslo district court declared its verdict that the 33-year-old was not psychotic while carrying out the twin attacks, including the shooting of dozens of teenagers attending a political camp.
The court’s decision will have delighted Breivik, who had hoped to avoid what he called the “humiliation” of being dismissed as a madman. The mass killer had desperately hoped the court would find him criminally culpable for the killings, claiming they were “cruel and necessary” to protect Norway from becoming overrun by Muslims.
Death threat to rector of Lyon mosque
Kamel Kabtane has been threatened with death. The rector of the Great Mosque in Lyon announced on Thursday 23 August, that he had today received a letter containing death threats.
“This four-page handwritten letter with the words ‘personal’ and ‘confidential’ was sent to me at the mosque”, Kamel Kabtane told AFP, adding that he had already received another threatening letter from the same person at his home the day before.
In this letter, the author wrote in red: “A bomb will go ‘boom’ and it is not a pig’s head that you will find outside your mosque but your own…. Sod off quickly to Dubai and die there if you don’t want to die here.”
NYPD surveillance will only hurt anti-terrorism efforts, say Muslims
Controversial program risks alienating Muslims and hasn’t generated a single lead, but NYPD steadfastly defends it. Chitrangada Choudhury reports.
Egypt’s ‘crucifixion’ hoax becomes an instant internet myth
Jonathan Kay debunks the absurd story – promoted by Daniel Pipes’ and David Horowitz’s colleague Raymond Ibrahim on the Algemeiner website, and subsequently taken up by WorldNetDailyand others – that the Muslim Brotherhood nailed Christians to crosses and left them to die in front of the Egyptian presidential place. He asks:
Why do so many people believe this made up story? For the same reason that people believe all urban legends – because they play to some deeply held narrative that resides in our deepest fears. In this case, the narrative is that the Arab Spring is part of an orchestrated Islamist plot to destroy Western civilization (beginning with Israel). Believers in this narrative (who are especially numerous in America’s right-wing Evangelical circles) are so hungry for news items that purport to offer confirmation that they ignore the credibility of the messengers. If they had checked out the credibility of WorldNetDaily, for instance, they would have found that the site’s past “scoops” have included the claim that drinking soy milk makes you gay, and that Barack Obama himself is gay (presumably from aforesaid soy milk).
Two new mosques get go ahead
The BBC reports that two new mosques, in Cambridge and York, have been given planning permission. Both had been subjected to hostile campaigns aimed at forcing the local council to block the plans.
A leaflet was circulated in Cambridge last year denouncing the so-called “megamosque” and claiming that it was intended to “send a message of physical and numerical dominance”. This was followed by an English Defence League demonstration that ended in violence when EDL supporters attacked an Islamic book stall and threw Qur’ans at the Muslims running it.
The York proposal resulted in an EDL-supported petition and a Facebook page entitled “Say ‘NO’ to the York mosque” (which attracted 1,426 likes). The building design had to be revised after police objected that it lacked sufficient security measures to defend the mosque against attacks by racists.
So it is good to see two local councils taking a stand against the bigots.
Poll: GOP really dislikes Muslims
Anyone wondering why Rep. Michele Bachmann would launch a witch hunt against Muslims or why the Republican Party would add a plank to its platform opposing Shariah law need look no further than a new poll conducted by the Arab American Institute.
The poll, released today, asked Americans for their views on various religious groups, as well as on Arabs and Arab-Americans. It also asked respondents how confident they would be that a Muslim or Arab-American holding a position of influence in government could do their job without letting “ethnic loyalty … influence their decision-making.”
The results are split sharply along partisan lines. Overall, Republican voters hold strongly negative views of Muslims, with 57 percent saying they view them unfavorably and just 26 saying they view them favorably – more than double. The numbers are similar for Arabs, whom Republican respondents view negatively by a slightly smaller margin of 26 percent, 53 to 27 percent. When asked about “Muslim Americans” and “Arab Americans,” the numbers improved slightly, with a 12 and 15 percent net unfavorable rating, respectively.
Molotov cocktail thrown at Libourne Mosque
Another act of vandalism against a mosque. One day after Eid ul-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan for Muslims, the mosque in Libourne (Aquitaine) was targeted on Monday night. An individual threw a Molotov cocktail at the front of the brand new place of worship, which opened in 2011.
Fortunately, the damage is not serious. Only a few traces on the wall show the start of a fire that was quickly extinguished. The Lilbourne mosque is, in fact, situated right in front of the town’s fire station. Firefighters intervened very quickly after one of them saw a person throw a Molotov cocktail and flee the scene by car.