Terry Jones burns Qur’an again, gets citation for violating fire ordinances

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dove World Outreach Center pastor Terry Jones on Saturday burned copies of the Quran and an image depicting Muhammad in front of his church to protest the imprisonment in Iran of a Christian clergyman.

Moments later, Gainesville Fire Rescue issued the church a citation for violating the city’s fire ordinances.

Saturday’s act of protest took place in spite of published reports that the Pentagon had urged Jones to reconsider, expressing concern that American soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere could be put at greater risk because of the act.

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Unease grows in Sarkozy party over rightward lurch

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nicolas Sarkozy, France's President and UMP party candidate for the 2012 French presidential election arrives at a campaign rally in MontpellierUnease is growing in French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party a week before a presidential election over his lurch to the right in pursuit of supporters of anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen.

Some mainstream conservatives have voiced public dismay at his embrace of the campaign themes, language and even some proposals of Le Pen’s National Front. In private conversations, doubts are widespread about the morality and effectiveness of the strategy.

In the last week, Sarkozy has repeatedly declared that there are too many foreigners in France and vowed to reduce legal immigration. Echoing a Le Pen proposal, he has called for police to be given greater license to shoot fleeing crime suspects. He has accused his Socialist rival Francois Hollande of being backed by Islamists and said Le Pen’s voters are respectable and her party compatible with the French Republic.

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Alan Lake and Roberta Moore have a difference of opinion over killing their political opponents

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alan Lake and Roberta MooreRichard Bartholomew points out that the 4 Freedoms Community website run by former English Defence League financier and ideologist Alan Ayling (“Alan Lake”) has updated its Code of Conduct.

Under the heading “Unlawful Killing” this now includes the following: “You must not endorse or encourage people to perform criminal executions. However, you can endorse enforcement of execution by the state (capital punishment) after application of due judicial process.”

The latter qualification is to cover Ayling himself, who has in the past advocated the execution of political opponents like Rowan Williams, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Still, as long Ayling states that their killing should take place after “application of due judicial process” nobody could reasonably object to that, could they? Well, Ayling’s employers, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, evidently did. At the end of last year they suspended him from his job after his identity was revealed.

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Muslim Voices reports on London mayoral hustings

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ken Boris hustings

Mayoral candidates Boris Johnson and Ken Livingston participated in a hustings in front of the Muslim community on Friday ahead of next Thursday’s election. Both candidates were asked to cover issues ranging from Islamophobia to social deprivation within the Muslim community.

Muslim Voices was present at the hustings which was attended by representatives from Muslim organisations and activists. The event was chaired by Channel 4 news reporter Fatima Manji who allowed plenty of opportunities for both candidates to pitch their policy to the voters.

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Posted in UK

Muslim voters reject Tories

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Degrees of SeparationThe Conservative peer and party financier Lord Ashcroft has published a study titled Degrees of Separation: Ethnic minority voters and the Conservative Party. It can be consulted here, and has some interesting statistics concerning the attitudes of British Muslims towards the Tory Party.

In the last general election 37% of Muslim respondents voted Labour and only 12% Conservative. 35% said they would never under any circumstances vote for the Tories, whereas only 7% said they would never vote Labour.

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Britain’s far right to focus on anti-Islamic policy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL England Will Never be a Muslim StateThe head of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, will be named deputy leader of the British Freedom party this week after proposing that the group adopt virulent anti-Islamic policies as its central strategy.

Confirmation that Robinson is to be offered a political platform within the BFP is contained in internal documents revealing that he has forwarded a number of “potential policy suggestions” that suggest the party will widen its attacks on Muslims.

The document suggests the BFP with Robinson would “focus on non-Islamic population, not white/black population”, a move that critics describe as an attempt to antagonise relations between Muslims and other Britons. Other proposed areas of campaigning for the party, which will contest several seats in this week’s local elections, include calls for regulation of all mosques and religious schools and the banning of the burqa and niqab.

The unveiling of Robinson as deputy leader of the British Freedom Party will take place in Luton ahead of an EDL demo in the town, during which supporters will be banned from its centre by police, following previous disturbances.

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Racial hatred crimes on the increase in North East

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hidden race hate crimes involving “home-grown neo-nazis” are on the increase in the North East, according to a leading academic.

Researchers said they have discovered a “growing attitude of intolerance and violence” in the region and expressed fears over the growing scale of the problem.

The warning comes as a 29-year-old was arrested a week ago over allegations he threatened an Oslo-style bomb attack on Muslims in South Shields. Just days earlier, anti-terror police arrested two men over the posting of alleged racist postings online.

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BFP organiser claims party is ‘centre right’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Tweed BFPLynn News has published an update on the controversy over the proposed conversion of a disused King’s Lynn pub into an Islamic community centre.

They interview Stephen Tweed of the British Freedom Party who has been organising a campaign against the development. Tweed claims that his objections to the mosque are concerned only with noise and parking. He states that he is not a racist and that his party is “centre right”.

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In Norway, Muslim leaders say Breivik trial should focus on gunman’s anti-Islamic ideology

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim leaders in Norway say they are concerned that the anti-Islamic ideology of Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right fanatic now on trial for killing 77 people, is being overshadowed by questions about his mental state.

The self-described anti-Muslim militant shocked Norway on July 22 with a bombing and shooting rampage targeting the government headquarters and the Labor Party’s annual youth camp. Since he has admitted to the attacks, the key issue for the trial is to determine whether Breivik is sane enough to be held criminally responsible.

“I’m not a psychiatrist, but what is important is what he has done. That should be the focus, not how crazy he is,” said Mehtab Afsar, head of the Islamic Council in Norway, an umbrella organization of Muslim groups in the country. “He wants to get rid of Muslims and Islam from Europe. That is his main message. So I don’t see the point of using so much energy on is he normal, is he insane?” Afsar told The Associated Press.

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