“A commander, aided by lieutenants and foot soldiers.” That is how the hierarchy of an English Defence League demonstration was described to a court.
Judge Norman Wright heard how a day of random protests in Lancashire on July 2 last year turned violent.
A Reformist priest from a tiny Bernese village is under investigation by church leaders after it emerged that she helped run a fanatical anti-Islamic website.
The Council of Reformist Churches for Bern, Solothurn and Jura has criticised the priest, and declared her activities on website ‘Politically Incorrect’ to be “incompatible” with her position as a priest due to the “Islam-baiting” that takes place on it, newspaper Tages Anzeiger reported.
BNP leader Michael Coleman has been sent to Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court charged with racially aggravated harassment.
The former councillor, aged 45, of Caverswall Road, Weston Coyney, elected crown court trial at an earlier hearing at North Staffordshire Magistrates’ Court.
He is charged that between August 8, 2011 and March 8, 2012, he intended to cause racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by displaying writing, a sign or other visible representation which was threatening, abusive or insulting.
The defendant will appear at the crown court on June 15 for a plea and case management hearing and was granted unconditional bail.
The Dutch press reports that Fioritti College in Lisse has suspended a teacher named Anand Soekhoe and will not be renewing his contract, after he posted anti-Muslim comments on Twitter.
News of the World tried to smear Tom Watson with an untrue story that he was having an affair with a devout Muslim woman, the campaigning MP has claimed.
Journalist Mazher Mahmood, the so-called “fake sheikh” who dressed up as an Arab prince to pursue stories, had Mr Watson placed under surveillance by a private detective for a week. Mr Mahmood was the News of the World‘s star reporter, although far from royalty, he was actually the son of an ordinary couple from Small Heath, Birmingham.
FIFA’s medical advisers say new designs are needed because headscarves worn by Muslim women players could lead to head and neck injuries. Michel D’Hooghe, chairman of FIFA’s medical committee, says samples received from two designers “represented a danger” to players’ health.
Soccer’s rules-making panel has said it intends to approve headscarves following a campaign by FIFA executive committee member Prince Ali of Jordan. However, the panel asked for more medical advice before it meets on July 2.
D’Hooghe says his group of doctors tested the scarves and believed they could lead to head and neck injuries, plus overheating. Modified designs are expected to arrive at FIFA “in the coming days,” the Belgian doctor said.
A review by the state Attorney General into the New York Police Department’s secret surveillance operation targeting Muslim businesses and mosques in New Jersey found the NYPD did nothing wrong.
The three-month probe, ordered by Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa, concluded there was no evidence to show the NYPD’s activities in the state violated New Jersey’s civil or criminal laws.
A Muslim group has reignited the battle for an Islamic community centre in Purley by appealing against the council’s decision to refuse it.
In March the Advertiser reported how the plan was defeated by Tory councillors who said the centre, for 5 Russell Hill Place, would be “detrimental” to residents living above and for motorists who use the car park the site faces onto. However, this week we surveyed residents in the flats above the site, with the result suggesting the majority of them support it.
Purley Islamic Community Centre (PICC) has lodged an appeal which could end with a £10,000 bill. A council ruling is expected within the next 10 weeks.
PICC spokesman Usman Sadiq said: “We are determined to establish a centre within Purley and after careful consideration have decided to appeal the council’s decision. I am certain the centre will benefit the whole community and aims to provide a number of services targeted for local Muslim families but will be available to all.”
The Scottish Defence League has won an appeal to hold a rally in the capital. The group previously had a request to march through Edinburgh rejected by the City of Edinburgh Council. At Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday it was granted permission to gather on Regent Road on Saturday.
Anti-fascism group Unite Against Fascism Edinburgh have said the city’s residents will be “rightly outraged” by the decision. Luke Henderson from the group said: “This is not about freedom of speech; this is about vile racists bringing a message of hate into Edinburgh. They want to divide communities and spread fear and violence. Edinburgh is one city of many cultures and in this town there is overwhelming opposition to racism and organised racists and fascists.”
Increasing anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. has shown enormous growth in the past two years, leading the Southern Poverty Law Center to mention three notorious Islamophobes on their list of “30 new activists heading up the radical right.”
The SPLC finds that “[a]n anti-Muslim movement, almost entirely ginned up by political opportunists and hard-line Islamophobes, has grown enormously since taking off in 2010, when reported anti-Muslim hate crimes went up by 50%.”