Open Democracy has a good analysis of the far-right Sweden Democrats by Barzoo Eliassi:
‘Injury to one is injury to all’ – Mayor of Tower Hamlets backs tomorrow’s strike
Lutfur Rahman has an article in the Morning Star urging support for strike action by public sector workers tomorrow.
Via Socialist Unity
Richard Peppiatt exposes Daily Star’s anti-Muslim agenda at Leveson Inquiry
Richard Peppiatt, the Daily Star reporter who resigned in protest at the paper’s methods, notably its boosting of the English Defence League and its incitement of racism and Islamophobia, gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry today.
You can read his witness statement here. It describes a culture at the Star where “a top down pressure to unearth stories which fitted within a certain narrative (immigrants are taking over, Muslims are a threat to security) led to casual and systemic distortions”.
Peppiatt told the inquiry how he made up a story about a non-existent Muslim bomb plot. He said the inspiration for the story was “a line” from a Sunday Telegraph article which suggested that Muslim terrorists might be thinking of disguising themselves as Sikhs and hiding bombs in their turbans. From the Star‘s standpoint, Peppiatt explained, “having a story that lashed out at both Muslims and Sikhs at once was far too good to pass over”.
A calm and well-informed debate about the rise of political Islam is long overdue
Good article by Wadah Khanfar, former director general of al-Jazeera.
Muslim group’s plan for Hainault centre sparks angry exchanges
The Hainault and Chigwell Muslim Association is due to sign a 25-year lease to take over Jacques Hall in New North Road, Hainault.
But more than 100 residents who in January lost a bid made to Redbridge Council to re-open to building as a community centre crammed into Hainault Forest Community Hall in Manford Way, Hainault last week to protest at plans for the future of the building.
As tempers boiled over, Sgt Richard Egan reminded residents he would take action under the Public Order Act over any “racist” comments.
How the Danish People’s Party packages its anti-Muslim racism
The far-right Danish People’s Party, which is notorious for its opposition to minority communities of migrant origin and Muslims in particular, has produced a 3-minute English-language video, “I Am Denmark”, extolling the virtues of the Danish nation. It’s worth looking at, if you can stomach it, because it is a good example of how a section of the far right now frames its politics, by distancing itself from cruder forms of racism and packaging its anti-Muslim bigotry in cultural terms, as the defence of progressive national values against the threat of Islam.
CAIR asks FBI to probe threats posted on Bare Naked Islam website
A Muslim civil rights group on Friday asked the FBI to investigate a series of threatening posts on an anti-Islam website. The threats posted by visitors to the Bare Naked Islam website include a post from one person who urges Christians to “kill every Muslim twice” and mentions that he routinely drives by a specific northern Virginia mosque. Another recommends blowing up mosques.
In making the request, Council for American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the Internet is replete with hateful commentary about Muslims. But he said these comments differ because they routinely contain explicit calls for violence. “The Internet is a cesspool of bigoted speech, but this is something else entirely,” Hooper said.
Australians are being converted to Islam by eating halal meat, claims MP
A WA Liberal MP has claimed Australians are unknowingly being converted to Islam by eating Halal meat. In a speech to Parliament yesterday, backbencher Luke Simpkins said most Australians did not know that most of the meat they ate came from animals killed in accordance with Muslim law.
“By having Australians unwittingly eating Halal food we are all one step down the path towards the conversion, and that is a step we should only make with full knowledge and one that should not be imposed upon us without us knowing,” Mr Simpkins told Parliament. “What is happening is wrong. Too often the minorities in this country are looked after without regard to the majority.”
Cambridge EDL supporter sacked as pub landlord over racist Facebook comments
A pub landlord has been sacked after racist and violent comments were posted on his Facebook page.
Ben Green, 23, ran The Salisbury Arms in Tenison Road, Cambridge, after being given the responsibility by his parents David and Angela. Green has now been sacked and barred from the premises by his parents, who are the licensees of the pub.
The comments on his Facebook page have been condemned by both them and the pub’s brewery, Charles Wells, who described them as “disgusting”.
Comments on the page attributed to Green, who is a member of the EDL, included racist chants and descriptions of how he wants to go out and fight with “dirty Muslims”. One status update describes how Green is planning to have sex with a Pakistani woman and then tell her he is an EDL supporter so that “she’ll hate herself”. One comment states: “Hate everything Islam stands for. Hate all these women in Cambridge in burkas as well.”
Ontario: suspended sentence in niqab assault case
A woman who pleaded guilty to assault after pulling off a Muslim woman’s face veil at a Mississauga, Ont., shopping mall was given a suspended sentence on Friday.
Rosemarie Creswell pleaded guilty to assault after mall security footage showed her pulling off Inas Kadri’s traditional face veil, known as a niqab, at Sheridan Centre in Mississauga in August 2010. Kadri was with her two small children when the attack occurred.