Vandals struck at a Preston community centre and daubed the walls with racist graffiti. The Hamaara Centre, at the rear of Castleton Road, Deepdale, Preston, was broken into and windows and furniture were smashed by the offenders.
EDL supporter faces prison sentence over attack on neighbours
A man has admitted threatening to kill his neighbours and forcing his way into their Thornhill Lees home. Daniel Smith, 39, was told that he should expect a long jail term when he returns to Leeds Crown Court for sentencing on June 22.
On Wednesday, Smith admitted 10 offences linked to events in Victoria Road on August 26, 2011. They included burglary, common assault, affray, four counts of making threats to kill and two counts of possessing a knife.
He denied aggravated burglary and possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon – charges which he had faced at an earlier trial where a jury could not reach a verdict.
A re-trial had been ordered and was expected to start at the court on Wednesday morning. But when Smith entered guilty pleas to the majority of charges, the prosecution decided a second trial was not in the public interest.
Prosecutor Christopher Tehrani said the complainants in the case had been spoken to and agreed with that course of action.
Judge Guy Kearl QC told Smith: “This is going to result in a long sentence of imprisonment. I do, however, think it will be helpful to me if I can have the assistance and benefit of a pre-sentence report upon you.” He said it would be in Smith’s interest to co-operate with the probation service while they prepared the report.
Smith was remanded into custody until his sentencing.
Dewsbury Reporter, 27 May 2012
See also Hope Not Hate, 28 May 2012
Pat Condell acquires another admirer
Pat Condell, the National Secular Society’s favourite comedian (he has been repeatedly nominated for their Secularist of the Year award, although he has yet to win it) has long had a fan base among the Islamophobic right in the United States. He has recently acquired a new admirer. It’s none other than Bonni Benstock-Intall of the hate site Bare Naked Islam, which achieved notoriety last year for its promotion of violence against Muslims and attacks on mosques. Over the past year or so Bare Naked Islam has repeatedly posted Condell’s videos and hailed him as a fellow anti-Muslim bigot.
The hijab has liberated me from society’s expectations of women
Nadiya Takolia defends the hijab.
Or, as CiF Watch would have it: “iEngage’s Nadiya Takolia demonstrates again how proponents of, or at least apologists for, the most reactionary movements within Islam continue, under the veneer of human rights, to attempt to avoid being held responsible for an adherence to reactionary, racist, and violent political agendas.”
MPs want curbs on ‘unacceptable’ religious slaughter
The government is facing renewed calls to curb the slaughtering of animals that have not first been rendered unconscious – a debate that pits religious sensitivities against the convictions of animal welfare campaigners.
Senior Conservative backbencher Greg Knight has told MPs that the practice of slaughtering cattle, lambs and chickens in this way is “rife”.
EDL not racist, fraudster reveals
“The British media and political leaders mainly from the left call the British street movement the English Defence League (EDL) racists. But having been invited by the EDL to meet its members and talk with its leader Tommy Robinson for the Asian Tribune, I found out they were not!”
The Asian Tribune website publishes Glen Jenvey‘s latest fraud. He’s discovered that the EDL has “a whole unseen membership which was Asian and Black who don’t attend demo’s due to death threats from radical Muslims living in the same communities as they live in”.
You can understand why Jenvey is an admirer of the EDL. They have so much in common.
Update: See “Glen Jenvey describes meeting EDL members”, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 27 May 2012
Prince Ali rejects FIFA medical committee’s stand on headscarves
Evidence from FIFA’s medical experts on why the ban on Muslim women footballers wearing the Islamic headscarf or hijab should remain in place was deeply flawed and had no foundation, the campaign’s principal supporter said on Friday.
Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, whose presentation to soccer’s law-making body IFAB six weeks ago saw the approval of the headscarf pending health and safety checks, said he was “shocked and disturbed” by the evidence presented on Thursday. “If it is true, I would accept it, but I believe it was without foundation,” he told reporters.
Redditch unites against EDL
Redditch residents put on a show of unity and defiance as a march through the town from the EDL passed off peacefully.
More than 100 officers were drafted in from across the West Mercia force area as well as Warwickshire, West Midlands and British Transport Police to help control the event and tensions were high throughout the day as a large counter demonstration, made up of residents from all sections of Redditch’s community and members of United Against Facism, attempted to get near to the main EDL rally.
Between 100 and 150 members of the EDL from across the region turned out for Saturday’s rally which saw speeches made from the bandstand although police officially estimate the figure at about 40. The event lasted for about half an hour during which members of the group urged people to “wake up to the facts” about Islam and made a number of anti-islamic statements and chants.
SDL outnumbered by counter-protest in Edinburgh
Rival marches by a far-right group and anti-fascists have passed off without major incident. The Scottish Defence League (SDL) and Unite Against Fascism held separate marches towards St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh where they also held their own rallies.
Lothian and Borders Police said around 80 people were at the SDL event while around 300 attended the counter-protest. The force said it organised an extensive police operation for the events and that no one was arrested.
Luke Henderson, of Unite Against Fascism, said: “It was fantastic: the streets of Edinburgh belonged to the anti-racists today. We really represented the diversity that makes Edinburgh the multicultural and vibrant city that it is today.”
Press Association, 26 May 2012
See also BBC News, 26 May 2012
Governor signs Kansas anti-sharia bill
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a law aimed at keeping the state’s courts or government agencies from basing decisions on Islamic or other foreign legal codes, and a national Muslim group’s spokesman said Friday that a court challenge is likely.