Dutch News reports that during a debate in parliament yesterday the Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer walked out of the chamber after Wilders said that the Labour Party had spent 30 years bringing “Islamic voting fodder” into the country. Volkskrant says that Roemer later challenged prime minister Mark Rutte, whose government relies on support from Wilders’ PVV, to dissociate himself from the comment. Rutter replied that it was a “very inappropriate term”.
Via Islam in Europe
A well-travelled British human rights activist and former Guantanamo Bay detainee said he was barred from boarding a direct flight from London to Toronto Friday because of concerns the aircraft could be diverted to the U.S.
Moazzam Begg was supposed to speak at a Saturday conference on Islamophobia organized by the Canadian lawyer for Omar Khadr, 24, the Toronto-born Guantanamo prisoner who was convicted last fall of war crimes.
Begg said airline agents told him they had been in touch with Canada’s High Commission in London and the issue was one of security. “They said to me the reason why they would not board me and take me to Canada is because, in the unlikely event they were rerouted to America, there could be a security concern,” Begg said in a telephone interview with the Toronto Star.
Khadr’s lawyer, Dennis Edney, said a Canadian foreign affairs official informed him that Begg was denied entry due to a “U.S. policy”.
The racist thugs of the English Defence League teamed up with their Nazi pals in the British National Party to attack an anti-racist meeting in Barking on Thursday night.
They smashed the windows of Crown House on Linton Road, where the meeting was taking place. A woman NHS worker who was attending the meeting was injured in the attack. She had to receive hospital treatment.
The meeting went ahead despite the EDL’s attempts to storm it. It had been called by local councillors and trade unionists together with UAF to defend multiculturalism in Barking & Dagenham.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8GhYRhyu2nM
See also “Bulgarian nationalists assault Muslims in front of mosque”, Novinite, 20 May 2011
Update: See “3 indictments over nationalists-Muslim clashes in Sofia”, Novinite, 21 May 2011
A judge has ruled that construction of a new mosque in Rutherford County does not harm the residents who sued the county to stop it. The judge did allow plaintiffs to pursue claims the county violated an open meetings law in approving the site plan for the mosque.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Joe Brandon Jr. had argued that the mosque violated his clients’ constitutional rights, claiming that the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro’s members were compelled by their religion to subdue non-Muslims.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, Chancellor Robert Corlew dismissed most of the complaints raised by the 17 plaintiffs, except for claims that the county violated the state Open Meetings Act by not providing proper notice for the meeting at which the mosque site plan was approved. The court has not set a date to hear the open meetings complaint.
“Our families and children have gone through a lot,” said the mosque’s spiritual leader, Imam Ossama M. Bahloul. “I think we can all agree that we should concentrate on common goals, and we’ve tried to be friends with everyone, even with those opposed to the project. It’s obvious this Muslim community did not harm anyone.”
Design plans for the mosque are being finalized, and building permits are being sought, Islamic Center spokesman Saleh Sbenaty said.
See also “Mosque foes dealt setback”, Daily News Journal, 20 May 2011
And “Fighting mosques in the name of freedom”, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2011
It’s a blunt campaign message – a video shows three attractive young women in miniskirts skipping with a rope in the Spanish city of Igualada, to the accompaniment of a traditional Catalan folk song.
Suddenly, the image changes to “Igualada 2015” and shows three women dressed in burkas skipping to the rhythm of an Arab song.
Plataforma per Catalunya is a far-right party created nine years ago by former supporters of General Francisco Franco in the north-eastern industrial province of Catalonia, and running in Sunday’s regional elections in Spain. Last year the party gained almost 3 per cent of the vote in the regional elections and now expects to increase its local vote five-fold, going from 17 to more than 100 council members across Catalonia and possibly winning control of some cities.
Plataforma per Catalunya is riding a growing wave of anti-immigration sentiment, where many blame foreigners – 12 per cent of the Spanish population – for rising crime and a lack of jobs, in a country with 20 per cent official unemployment.
“We didn’t have much money so I did this video to create an impact, but I never imagined the huge reaction it would provoke,” Roberto Hernando, the party’s number two candidate and director of the video, told The Scotsman yesterday. “We keep getting e-mails and letters from people across Spain begging us to expand nationally. With this crisis we shouldn’t allow more immigrants into the country, especially Muslims who want to impose their culture upon others.”
The South Florida Imams accused of terrorism were arrested right in front of their mosques, disrupting the neighborhoods around them. Monday night, one of those neighborhoods saw more commotion.
Mosque protester Mark Dubynsky says standing outside the Flagler Mosque in West Miami-Dade with a sign demanding the mosque be razed to the ground was about self-expression. “This is not about hate, this is about not keeping a shrine that promotes hate in the neighborhood,” he told CBS4’s Natalia Zea.
Mosque worshipper Samad Nassirya feels differently. “That’s a threat, he’s threatening us,” he told Zea.
Dubynsky drove from Palm Beach to the mosque to make a statement, after the mosque’s imam Hafiz Khan was arrested and charged with funneling money to terrorists. “I think if your leader, your church, your mosque is supporting terrorism then I think that building, that mosque needs to be torn down,” said Dubynsky.
Nassirya called police Monday evening, saying Dybynsky and his sign were scaring fellow Muslims away from their evening prayer service. “People come here five times to pray and now all the women and children are scared to come here and we’re gonna lose all our people,” he said.
Nassirya is especially upset, because he doesn’t believe the allegations against his imam. “It’s ridiculous. He’s a saintly man, he’s a saintly man.”
Cf. “Does the arrest of an imam and his sons reinforce stereotypes of Muslims?”, South Florida Sun Sentinel, 17 May 2011
Le Progrès reports that the walls of the El-Hijra mosque in Champagnole were covered with swastikas and slogans such as “Death to Arabs” and “France for the French” on Saturday night. In thirty of existence the mosque had never had to face this kind of aggression or experienced any particular problems in connection with its activities. The association that manages the mosque and the mayor have both filed complaints.
Via Islam in Europe
Police are alerting people to steer clear of Deeside this weekend as controversial right-wing group the English Defence League (EDL) stages a second protest against “militant Islam”. A march is to be held in Shotton from noon on Saturday, organised by EDL Deeside division member Graeme England.
He said: “We will be meeting at Shotton train station and will march from there to the site of the old Shotton Lane Social Club, where there will be some speeches. It will be an unofficial demo as the EDL leaders won’t be there, but we are expecting hundreds of members. It will be larger than last time we protested.”
About 100 EDL supporters marched through Shotton in January to voice their opposition to Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society’s plan to open an Islamic cultural centre at the derelict site of the town’s former social club, which was torched a couple of weeks later.
Mr England said: “We will also have the North West Infidels with us on the march. They are similar to the EDL in that we are fighting for the same cause – both our groups are against militant Islam. Our primary aim is to protest against a proposed mosque for Shotton. Burning the club down was a sign the community does not want it here.”
Last week’s Jewish Chronicle – the same issue that included Geoffrey Alderman’s column applauding the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni at the hands of al-Qaeda – also featured a front-page splash by its political editor Martin Bright, who reported that:
“An organisation which hosted an associate of 7/7 ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan in the House of Commons has been bankrolled by one of the UK’s most prominent Jewish philanthropists, the JC can reveal.”
The charity referred to was Forward Thinking, which aims to encourage greater understanding between Muslim communities and wider society, promote peace in the Middle East and facilitate dialogue between the religious and secular worlds. And the Jewish philanthopical organisation was the Pears Foundation. The “jihadist” who spoke at the reception in parliament was Tafazal Mohammad, the head of an organisation called Muslim Youth Skills which advises clients such as the Metropolitan Police on how to engage with young Muslims.
The purpose of Bright’s report was clearly to warn off sections of the Jewish community who might be inclined to associate with organisations that take a more balanced view of the Palestinian resistance than the JC does. As Bright explained: “Forward Thinking was founded by William Sieghart, who has called for a reassessment of the West’s ‘distorted image of Hamas’.” (The reference is to an article published in the Times in December 2008.) Yet despite this the Pears Foundation had – shock, horror – given £23,000 to Forward Thinking between 2008 and 2010.