Naperville Islamic Center’s mosque plan clears first hurdle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Islamic Center of Naperville cleared the first of several hurdles Wednesday in its quest to build a mosque on the city’s far southwest side. Members of the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously agreed to recommend to the city council that the 14 acre lot at 9931 S. 248th Avenue in Will County be rezoned residential and that its plot of subdivision be approved.

There is a four-bedroom home on the property which the current owners, HOPE United Church of Christ, has used for office space. The rest of the site is farmland. Church officials have stressed that the Islamic Center wants to utilize the property in the same manner as HOPE United.

Those recommendations clear the way for the city council to consider annexation of the site as soon as Dec. 20. The Islamic Center, which has a contract on the property, is seeking annexation to gain access to the city’s water and sewer services in preparation for a mosque members hope to build within five to 10 years.

Several neighbors and residents attempted to speak both in favor and against the proposed annexation but acting Chairwoman Patty Gustin cut them off, in an attempt to keep the meeting focused, and told them they need to direct their concerns to the city council when the issue is on the council agenda.

Daily Herald, 3 November 2011

Posted in USA

EDL supporter pleads guilty to racial abuse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A drunken “Oompa Loompa” has been given a community order and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work after he admitted racially abusing two Asian teenagers. Robert Nottage, aged 21, pleaded guilty to abusing the teens while on a daytime drinking session in Northampton town centre on August 28, while dressed as an Oompa Loompa.

Northampton Magistrates’ Court heard Nottage was part of a group of friends also in fancy dress, including one who was dressed as a Golly. Prosecuting, Julie Costello said Nottage, from Rugby, was on an annual Bank Holiday drinking session in Northampton when he began hurling racial abuse in Abington Street, at 5.10pm, while children and families were around.

The court heard Nottage shouted racial abuse at two Asian teens, challenging them to fight him, and also shouting English Defence League (EDL) slogans. Nottage claimed he made the remarks after someone threatened a friend dressed as a Golly. He had earlier pleaded guilty to making racial threats.

Northampton Chronicle, 2 November 2011

Far-right extremism is much more than a political irritant

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Following on from his appearance before the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee yesterday, Matthew Goodwin has a piece at Comment is Free in which he emphasises the central point that he made to the MPs:

The simply reality of post-9/11 politics is that we have focused almost exclusively on tackling only one form of extremism. In the aftermath of New York and the attacks in Bali, Madrid and London, the emphasis on tackling al-Qaida marked a logical response to the priorities of national security. Today, however, the landscape has changed. We need to adopt a more holistic approach to challenging extremism and sharpen our understanding of its different branches. Most importantly, we need to overhaul the traditional view of the far right that claims this movement is nothing more than a minor political irritant.

Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, also gave evidence to the Home Affairs Committee. He told them that the English Defence League’s main purpose was to be “provocative” and that, even though police had sought to liaise with the group, this had “absolutely no effect in terms of ameliorating their behaviour”.

In contrast to the views of DCS Adrian Tudway, the National Co-ordinator for Domestic Extremism at Scotland Yard, or the reluctance of the Metropolitan Police to stop the EDL’s proposed march though Tower Hamlets, Norman Bettison has taken the threat posed by the EDL seriously. After consulting with the local community he did not hesitate to apply for a ban on the EDL marching in Bradford last year, under Section 13 of the Public Order Act, and when they turned up in Dewsbury in June for a static demonstration he used his powers under Section 14 to prevent them entering the town centre and instructed them to hold their rally in the station car park instead.

EDL threatens violence against MAC

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anjem Choudary and his pathetic little gang of provocateurs are planning another publicity-generating stunt to mark Remembrance Day. As usual the Daily Mail is playing along with Choudary and providing Muslims Against Crusades with the sort of coverage that suggests to its readers that this tiny group actually represents some significant forces within the Muslim community – who of course regard Choudary with complete contempt.

Equally predictably, the Mail‘s report has been seized on by the English Defence League in order to whip its supporters up into an anti-Muslim frenzy. Nothing new in that you might think, except that the EDL is now openly and officially advocating violence:

EDL threatens MAC

Continue reading →

Nashville church agrees to host Lou Ann Zelenik’s anti-sharia conference … but Geller withdraws

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cornerstone ChurchFormer congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik said Monday she has found a place to hold a freedom conference after getting turned down by 20 hotels.

Cornerstone Church in the Madison community on Nashville’s northeast side agreed to hold the event, “The Constitution or Sharia Conference.” The event will be held at 10 a.m. Nov. 11. “There was no room in the inn for freedom, but pastor Maury Davis of Cornerstone Church opened his doors for free speech,” said Zelenik, who lost the 2010 Republican primary to U.S. Rep. Diane Black of Gallatin.

However, headliner Pamela Geller, who runs the Atlas Shrugs anti-Islam blog, has bowed out because the event is no longer at a secular venue. “While I have nothing against speaking in a church per se, I refuse to have my message driven from the public square,” she wrote in an email.

Geller and Zelenik referred to Hutton Hotel’s decision last week to cancel booking for the event in Nashville, citing safety concerns.

Continue reading →

French satirical magazine to publish ‘Sharia Hebdo’ issue in protest at Ennahda’s election victory

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Charlie Hebdo Charia en LibyeFrench satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has named the Prophet Muhammad as “editor-in-chief” for its next issue to mark the electoral victory of Islamist party Ennahda in Tunisia.

It will be renamed Sharia Hebdo, the weekly said in a statement on Monday. The publication’s editor-in-chief and cartoonist Charb said they were not trying to be especially provocative.

Ennahda won the most seats in Tunisia’s October elections and is now trying to form a coalition caretaker government. “To fittingly celebrate the victory of the Islamist Ennahda party in Tunisia… Charlie Hebdo has asked Muhammad to be the special editor-in-chief of its next issue”, the magazine said in a statement. “The prophet of Islam didn’t have to be asked twice and we thank him for it,” the statement said.

The cover of the next issue, which comes out on Wednesday, shows Muhammad saying “100 lashes if you are not dying of laughter”. It will also include an editorial piece by the Prophet entitled Halal Aperitif and a women’s supplement called Madam Sharia.

Continue reading →

Islam is not a religion but a totalitarian theocracy, Republican candidate tells CAIR

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Republican candidate for Hillsborough Clerk of Circuit Court on Monday fired off a letter saying Islam is “not a religion” but a theocracy that is “totalitarian and littered with human rights violations.”

Scott D. Barrish, a 35-year-old private security officer who previously ran unsuccessfully for the Hillsborough School Board, sent the letter to the Council of American-Islamic Relations. He signed it as a member of the Hillsborough County Republican Party’s executive committee. “Your efforts in espousing Islam in America and Florida will not succeed,” Barrish wrote. “This is us vs. you. In the great words of the late President Ronald Reagan, ‘I win, you lose!'”

Barrish said in an interview that he sent the e-mail letter because the group had engaged in what he called publicity stunts. CAIR, for instance, thanked Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio for declining to speak at the upcoming Florida tea party convention because it featured a presentation by an “anti-Islam extremist.”

Continue reading →

Republican politicians won’t be speaking at Florida Tea Party convention

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Representatives from the offices of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Gov. Rick Scott report that neither will be attending the Florida Tea Party Convention scheduled for this weekend, despite their inclusion on the event’s agenda.

Both are included as speakers on the current convention agenda, along with a slew of right-wing activists and speakers.

Alex Burgos, Rubio’s communications director, tells The Florida Independent that the senator will not be attending the convention in Daytona Beach. Scott’s scheduling office also says that “at this time” the event is not on the governor’s “official schedule”. “Things could change,” a representative says.

The event will feature speakers such as former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, anti-Islam blogger Pam Geller and G. Edward Griffin. Griffin is an anti-Federal Reserve, anti-United Nations and anti-communist conspiracy theorist who describes himself as a “life member” of the John Birch Society – a historically infamous anti-communist group.

Geller is best known for her blog Atlas Shrugs, which has been described by The New York Times as a “site that attacks Islam with a rhetoric venomous enough that PayPal at one point branded it a hate site.” The attendance of Geller, and other anti-Islam activists, caught the attention of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL).

Continue reading →

Texas gun instructor faces loss of licence over anti-Muslim ad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Crockett KellerOn a YouTube clip that has gone viral, brash Texas handgun instructor Crockett Keller defiantly tells Muslims and non-Christian Arabs he won’t teach them how to handle a firearm. State officials see the ad as possible discrimination, and may revoke Keller’s instructor license.

Tens of thousands of YouTube viewers have watched the $175 ad for Keller’s business in the small community of Mason, which has won him a handful of admirers but that embarrassed locals say misrepresents their community. Muslim groups dismissed the 65-year-old as a bigot.

Continue reading →

Posted in USA

Wichita mosque damaged by fire had received anti-Islam messages

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wichita mosque fire

A Muslim mosque in west Wichita that was heavily damaged by fire early Monday had received anti-Islam letters in recent months. Somebody also had begun turning on its outside water faucet overnight to hike its water bill, its leader said.

Abdelkarim Jibril, president of the Islamic Association of Mid Kansas at 3406 W. Taft, said the letters put down Islam, called the prophet Muhammad a pig, and enclosed drawings that mocked him. The mosque received about eight of the letters starting four to six months ago, but they had stopped about a month ago, he said.

Continue reading →