FBI: New York police violate Muslims’ rights

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The New York City Police Department’s surveillance of Muslims violates their rights and produces no intelligence of any value, the FBI has found.

Under Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI not only trampled on Americans’ rights but often failed to focus effectively on real threats such as spies and terrorists. That was because Hoover did not distinguish between criminal conduct and constitutionally guaranteed expression of free speech.

New laws and rigid oversight and guidelines put an end to these practices. But FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and other top FBI officials have been shocked to find that since 9/11, the New York City Police Department has been engaging in practices reminiscent of FBI abuses under Hoover.

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The Swedish allies of Geller, Spencer and the EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Isak Nygren and friends
Isak Nygren in Aarhus with EDL leaders Kevin Carroll and Stephen Lennon

As Pamela Geller never ceases to remind readers of her Atlas Shrugs blog, this Saturday a demonstration carrying the grandiose title of the “First Worldwide Counter-Jihad Action” will be held in Stockholm. A joint initiative by Geller and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch together with the anti-Muslim thugs of the English Defence League, the demonstration has attracted support from a number of associated organisations, including the Swedish Defence League (who “chose an English name to show our support and gratitude to the EDL”).

The leading figure in the SDL, who has acted as the group’s spokesman, represented it at the EDL’s Aarhus protest in March, and according to the Swedish anti-fascist magazine Expo has been directly involved in organising the Stockholm demonstration, is an individual named Isak Nygren. Although still only a young man, Nygren has already acquired some political notoriety in Sweden.

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Sunderland: police guard planning meeting as new mosque is approved to outrage of protestors

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A mosque will be built on the site of a transport depot after controversial plans were approved last night. Police were on hand to ensure the planning meeting at the 
civic centre went ahead peacefully, amid fears of protests as tensions ran high over the Millfield proposals.

Since they were announced last year, the plans to convert the transport depot in St Mark’s Road into an Islamic place of worship have attracted 671 letters of objection and a 1,462-signature-strong petition about potential parking and noise problems.

However, applicant Coneil Bashir moved to ease concerns about feared 4am minaret prayer calls and a sudden influx of worshippers to the Sunderland site.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the development, he told councillors and objectors at the meeting: “There will be no public call to prayer. It will be one person and it will be done internally, not outside. The site will serve only those in the Sunderland and Millfield areas and it will not host weddings.”

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Waltham Forest public meeting pledges to defy the racist EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We are Waltham Forest public meeting

Waltham Forest has sent a message of defiance to the racist English Defence League (EDL), which plans to march in the east London borough next month.

Over 120 people packed into a We Are Waltham Forest public meeting on Tuesday evening. They pledged to build the biggest possible counter demonstration and to prevent the EDL from taking to the streets.

Speakers included local MP Stella Creasy, Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism, and author Owen Jones. They talked about how the EDL targets areas with Muslim populations and uses its demos to spread hatred and fear.

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Kieren Trent ordered to carry out community service and pay damages for harassing councillor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kieren Trent No Mosque

The former leader of the city’s BNP was ordered to carry out community service after he was found guilty of disturbing public order outside a former councillor’s house.

Kieren Trent was ordered to carry out 18 hours community service after harassing Mike Galloway, when he and fellow BNP members protested outside the former Councillor’s home in Wolverton.

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French government rejects US criticism of veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Paris on Tuesday brushed off a US State Department report that criticised France for banning Muslim women from wearing full veils.

“Our conception of secularism is a common heritage of all French people, which implies rules that encourage social harmony in the public space and in public schools,” said a foreign ministry spokesman.

In its 2011 International Religious Freedom Report, the State Department complains about a “rising number of European countries, including Belgium and France, whose laws restricting dress adversely affected Muslims and others”.

The French spokesman noted that France and its neighbours were seeking to define “more structured European Union policies to defend freedom of religion in the world”.

Expatica, 1 August 2012

See also “US report criticises French Islamic veil ban”, France 24, 1 August 2012

Sunday Express apologises to school for Islamic fanatics claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spies in Schools to Hunt FanaticsThe Sunday Express has apologised and paid damages to a London school it falsely claimed taught an extreme form of Islam.

Northern & Shell’s Sunday title published a front-page story on 12 June 2011, headlined “Spies in schools to hunt fanatics”, in which it wrongly stated that the King Fahad Academy in Acton, west London, taught extreme Islam. The article, which was also published on the paper’s website, falsely suggested that the academy school had been infiltrated by Islamic fanatics.

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French council sacks summer camp workers for observing Ramadan fast

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jacques BourgoinFrance’s main Muslim body yesterday angrily condemned a town council’s decision to sack four summer camp workers for fasting during Ramadan as “arbitrary and discriminatory.”

The four workers, who had been employed temporarily by the town of Gennevilliers in the Paris suburbs to help run a sports camp in southwestern France, were dismissed on July 20, the first day of Ramadan, after being told they were endangering children’s safety by not eating or drinking between dawn and dusk.

They are now planning to contest their dismissal through France’s labour courts and the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) said Tuesday it was considering suing Gennevilliers council for discrimination.

In a statement, the Communist mayor of Gennevilliers [Jacques Bourgoin, pictured] defended the decision to suspend the employees on health and safety grounds after an official who visited the camp noticed that they were not eating or drinking at lunchtime.

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Olympics: International Judo Federation lifts ban on Saudi competitor wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim ShaherkaniA female Saudi fighter will take part in the Olympic judo competition after being allowed to wear an Islamic headscarf, or hijab, of a specific design.

Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani is one of only two Saudi women to travel to London after the International Olympic Committee lobbied the conservative Islamic kingdom to end its refusal to send women to the Games.

But she had said she would only compete if she was allowed to wear the hijab, and judo officials refused, saying it would be dangerous.

A Saudi National Olympic Committee spokeswoman said the committee, the IOC and the International Judo Federation had now agreed on an acceptable form for the headscarf.

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