Transport authority files appeal in fight against ‘Leaving Islam?’ ad for Detroit buses

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SIOA ad

Florida Pastor Terry Jones isn’t the only controversial character fighting for the First Amendment right to bring a controversial anti-Islam message to Metro Detroit.

New York activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer last month won a temporary injunction against the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, which initially denied their application for bus ads that seemed to characterized Islam as a violent religion and encouraged Muslims to leave the faith.

The ruling effectively required SMART to run the ads on buses it operates in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties, but Crain’s Detroit reports SMART filed an appeal Monday in an attempt to overturn the injunction.

MLive.com, 26 April 2011

Geller is not happy. She sees the legal challenge as evidence that SMART “seeks to impose Sharia laws on Dearborn buses”.

March for England meets counter-protest in Brighton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brighton demonstration against MfE

The “patriotic” group March for England faced a counter-demonstration from local anti-fascists when they held their fourth St George’s Day march in Brighton yesterday. One report suggests that the march attracted 100 participants, mainly from outside the town. As the picture below shows, the MfE organisers’ assurances that the march was a non-political “family event” from which English Defence League supporters would be banned proved baseless. The familiar EDL chants of “English till I die” and “No surrender to the Taliban” were heard, and one counter-demonstrator concluded that “the ‘respectable’ veneer of March for England was well and truly stripped away. This was without question an EDL march”.

Update:  See “Nationalist march will return to Brighton”, Argus, 26 April 2011

Brighton MfE 2011

Photos by David Nash at Demotix.

Australian Christian leader condemned as anti-gay and anti-Muslim bigot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jim Wallace tweet

A former Special Air Services commander turned conservative Christian commentator has conceded that a tweet he made attacking homosexuals and Muslims was ill-timed on Anzac Day.

Jim Wallace, the head of the Australian Christian Lobby and a one-time SAS commander, used Twitter on Monday to say: “Just hope that as we remember servicemen and women today we remember the Australia they fought for – wasn’t gay marriage and Islamic!”

Followers of Mr Wallace soon attacked him. SeandBlogonaut said Mr Wallace was “despicable”. “Using ANZAC Day to push your anti-gay, anti-muslim agenda – you are truly a despicable individual,” he tweeted. Others declared him a “bigot”, “homophobe in disgrace” and an “A-grade douchebag”.

Mr Wallace later issued a statement where he said he made the comments after he had been sitting with his 96-year-old father, a World War II veteran. “My ill timed tweet was a comment on the nature of the Australia he had fought for, and the need to honour that in the way we preserve it into the future,” he said in a statement on Monday.

AAP, 25 April 2011

St George’s Day open-air drink ban in Manchester due to fears of drunken violence by BNP and EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

People were banned from drinking outside some city centre pubs on Saturday – over fears of violence by far-right groups celebrating St George’s Day.

As part of a one-day police operation, pubs were told not to allow people to use outdoor seating in parts of the city centre where violence had broken out in previous years amongst BNP and EDL members. Pubs and bars in the Shambles area and on Deansgate told customers they were only allowed to drink indoors on St George’s Day.

But some customers said the action was unfair – as outdoor seating areas lay empty on a scorching spring afternoon.

A police spokesman said officers took the decision to ban outdoor drinking in the Shambles and Deansgate areas after alcohol related-violence occurred when supporters of far-right groups gathered there on St George’s Day in previous years.

He said: “Drinking outside in various areas was banned because members of the BNP and EDL had used them to congregate, leading to drink-fuelled violence. This was a one-day operation specifically for St George’s Day in one part of the city centre.”

Manchester Evening News, 25 April 2011

Threats and intimidation are ‘standard Tower Hamlets Islam’ says Alan Craig

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Letter from Alan Craig in the Sunday Times, 24 April 2011

Both the Tower Hamlets police borough commander and the Quilliam Foundation, the anti-extremist think tank, are wrong to minimise the threats to the Whitechapel pharmacy assistant as just the work of a “small minority” of “Talibanesque thugs” (“Tower Hamlets Taliban order women to cover up“, News, last week). The issue is much more serious than that.

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EDL thug may be allowed to take up place at University of Birmingham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An English Defence League thug jailed for his part in a soccer riot could still be allowed to take up a place at a Midland university.

A-level student Joel Titus, 18, was caught on CCTV throwing objects and brawling with rival hooligans. His defence team asked an Old Bailey judge not to jail the EDL ringleader after he pleaded guilty to affray, as he had secured a place at the University of Birmingham. But Titus, who has a string of previous convictions including battery of a journalist, possession of a knife, and making threats to police, was sentenced to nine months.

Yet the teenager has NOT been banned from taking up his place at the University of Birmingham upon his release.

Titus had acted as a youth organiser for the EDL and even appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight to defend the violent anti-Islamic group.

He was cautioned for battery after punching a journalist at a demonstration against the “Islamification of Europe” in December 2009. Last summer Titus took part in the soccer riot between Brentford and Leyton Orient supporters in central London. He was captured on CCTV hurling objects at rivals and fighting over a wooden pole with another thug.

While on bail for the football brawl he was also convicted for threatening behaviour for snarling “f*** off” at a police officer who tried to break up a fight. He is due to be sentenced for that offence at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in May.

Sunday Mercury, 24 April 2011

‘Imams in the House of Lords’ – Sunday Telegraph report provokes outpouring of anti-Muslim hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Sunday Telegraph reports: “David Cameron is considering plans to create a ‘multi-faith’ House of Lords where Muslim imams could sit alongside Anglican and Catholic bishops.”

And you can predict the response of Torygraph readers. Some examples:

“If his little Jihad against Gadaffi succeeds and Libya becomes an Islamic state there will be no doubting cammoron is a closet muslim.”

“That’s a good idea, clear the sack-cloth for ritualistic beheading of infidels.”

“I WILL NOT accept Islam!”

“Muslims in the House of Lords. May as well scrap the constitution, the revolution settlement of 1688, and 2000 years of Christian heritage in these British Isles. Oh…my mistake..that has already been done.”

“Islam is already being forced on the British pubic – unknown to them most food is now halal meaning it has been ritually prayed over and in the case of meats ritually killed as well and we are deliberately not told about it or given a choice to buy or not to buy – no labels.”

“I gather that to make matters worse there is a tax paid on all halal killed meat that goes to…………..goodness knows where, it is an islamic tax, and could end up supporting terrorism, even buying weapons to use against our troops. It really is time for our useless government to wake up and smell the coffee!”

“Yes, the Muslims charge a fee for certifying that the meat is truly halal; and then use the money to finance the jihad. It is essentially a modern-day form of jizya, a tax paid by conquered infidels to their Muslim rulers.”

“Islam is incompatible with British values and considered by many of us not be a religion at all but a violent cult movement with a clear agenda to take over any country they are living in.”

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Terry Jones jailed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A controversial Florida pastor was jailed on Friday after a Michigan court determined that his planned demonstration outside a mosque was likely to provoke violence and he refused to pay a $1 bond.

Terry Jones, 59, was sent to the county jail in Detroit after he declined to meet the terms of a ruling by District Judge Mark Somers in an apparent protest.

Somers had ordered Jones and a supporter, Wayne Sapp, to each pay $1 under the terms of an order that would have also barred them from the Islamic Center of America mosque and nearby public property for three years.

A six-person jury heard over five hours of testimony and argument before concluding that the planned protest by Jones was “likely to breech the peace.”

Jones, who represented himself and wore a faded leather jacket and jeans, sat stone-faced and said little after the jury read out its verdict. When Somers asked if he was prepared to meet the terms of the $1 bond, Jones said, “No.”

“I strongly voice my disagreement with the ruling,” said Sapp, 42, when asked by Somers if he had any comment on the ruling. “The peace bond is to prohibit free speech.” Sapp was also ordered to jail.

Jones had asked for a permit to protest outside the Islamic Center of America on Good Friday, a time when both the mosque and four nearby churches were expected to be crowded with worshipers.

Dearborn police had denied Jones’s request and asked him to protest instead in a “free speech zone” in front of one of the city buildings. But Jones, who represented himself in court on Friday, argued that violated his free speech rights.

Reuters, 22 April 2011

Carlisle United steward quits over support for EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Carlisle EDLA Carlisle United employee has resigned following reports that Brunton Park stewards were among supporters of the man jailed for burning a copy of the Koran. United spokesman Andy Hall yesterday confirmed that a steward has now left the club.

Andrew Ryan, 32, of Summerhill, London Road, Carlisle, was sentenced to 70 days in prison for intentional religious/racial harassment on Monday. He arrived at the city magistrates’ court flanked by men waving the St George’s Cross and shouting nationalist chants.

The English Defence League Carlisle Division (EDL) had put out a call for members to support Ryan. The News & Star received reports that some of the men were stewards at Brunton Park and the club launched an investigation into their identity.

Mr Hall said: “We received the News & Star‘s photographs and are very thankful for it being brought to our attention. We looked at them with our safety staff who identified [one of the men] as a steward at Carlisle United.

“We contacted him, and he said he understood this could be misconstrued. He said that he would like to keep supporting the EDL. He said he would like to step down.

“The club will not tolerate any form of racist behaviour and, in conjunction with the FA and Football League ‘Kick it Out’ campaign, we are working strenuously to ensure that this issue does not arise at the ground.”

News & Star, 23 April 2011