ENGAGE takes on Ruth Dudley Edwards. As they point out, some of her language – notably when she talks about people being “absolutely fed up with creeping Islamification of many parts of their towns and cities” – is barely distinguishable from that of the BNP.
Race hate vandals strike near Birkenhead mosque
Hate crime vandals spray-painted racial slurs over homes near Birkenhead’s mosque. The area surrounding the Borough Road mosque was targeted at the weekend with offensive graffiti such as “Islam = Murder” and “Britain for the British.”
The graffiti – painted onto walls in Sycamore Road and Mounsey Road, Birkenhead – has sparked outrage among local residents. One householder contacted the Globe via email to express disgust at the attack. The resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said:
“It is completely out of order, how can some bigoted people come in and think they can get away with this? They clearly don’t know much about the area because I am a white European, as are a lot of my neighbours. Of course, there are some ethnic minorities also living here but why should they have to put up with this sort of thing? I sincerely hope the culprits are caught and dealt with accordingly.”
Police say that following house-to-house inquiries, two males, aged 17 and 20, were arrested on suspicion of a public order offence. The men have been released on police bail pending further inquiries and the outcome of forensic results.
A spokesman said: “Merseyside Police do not tolerate any form of racist beheviour and would urge anyone who has any information on hate crime to contact us.” You can call police on 0151 709 6010 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Cash-strapped BNP ‘turns to racist hardcore’
The BNP was last night accused of turning to “a hardcore group of neo-Nazis and racists” to stand as candidates in next month’s local elections.
The anti-BNP campaign group Hope not Hate said it had compiled a dossier of extremist postings of candidates standing on 5 May, either in council elections or those to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Among the postings the group collected from Facebook pages were:
* One BNP candidate in the North of England who posted on his Facebook page a mock advert for the gas Zyklon B – used in the Nazi extermination chambers of the Second World War – captioned, “Try Zyklon B. It’s a gas!”
* One candidate urges his followers to “Stamp out diseases today. Spray pakis and poofs with hydrochloric acid”.
* An activist in Wales, who has a photograph of his endorsement by BNP leader Nick Griffin on his Facebook page. Underneath it reads: “My grandfather was killed in Auschwitz. Apparently he got pissed and fell out of the watchtower!”
The candidate also posted, “Just popped round to see my Muslim neighbour’s new baby. She asked me if I wanted to wind it but that seemed a bit extreme so I gave it a dead leg instead.”
* A woman, describing herself as a “a big supporter of the BNP leader Nick Griffin”, responded to a protest by Muslims Against The Crusades by saying: “They should all be burned.”
‘BNP postings’ on facebook
* “7/7 – keep trying ya raghead bastards. This is our country our England our rules. Time2 packup and get the fuck out of dodge.”
* “Fly your flag! no excuses. We stock them. £5 to piss off your Muslim neigbours off big style. What a fucking bargain.”
* “Going to the polling station was aday out for the lazy African population as they don’t work.”
* “Unless we stand up and are counted then it’s bye bye England.”
The political background to True Finns’ electoral success
The success of the anti-immigration, euroskeptic True Finns in Sunday’s elections may have proved a shock to Finland’s political elite, but the signs were already there.
Populist right-wing parties across Europe have benefited from a growing resentment towards the European Union, Islam and immigration, meaning Timo Soini’s True Finns are far from being alone.
See also BBC News, 18 April 2011
EDL supporter jailed for burning Qur’an in Carlisle city centre
A Carlisle man who set fire to the Koran in an act of “theatrical bigotry” has been jailed. Andrew Ryan, 32, shouted abuse about Muslims as he set the book alight in the city centre in January. Yesterday he was sent to prison for 70 days by district judge Gerald Chalk.
Ryan, of Summerhill, off London Road, Carlisle, claims to be a member of the English Defence League. He arrived at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court flanked by flag-waving supporters. Carrying the St George’s Cross, they were shouting “We love you England” and a variety of other nationalistic chants. Some followed Ryan into the building and when his sentence was passed they stormed out, shouting abuse as they left the courtroom.
Unveiling the truth about the niqab
The Open Society Foundation’s At Home in Europe Project has published a new study, Unveiling the Truth: Why 32 Women Wear the Full-Face Veil in France. Naima Bouteldja, who conducted the interviews with French niqab-wearing Muslim women, has a piece at Comment is Free.
Scotland and the veil
When a gang of youths launched a terrifying attack on a young Scottish Muslim family in broad daylight, the victims were left in no doubt about why they were targeted: the veil. Glasgow-born Samina Ansari and her loved ones were assaulted because she was wearing a traditional Islamic hijab, which covers the hair, but not the face.
It happened last year, when Ansari, her husband and their baby were driving along a main road. The gang, armed with bricks and chains and accompanied by a snarling dog, surrounded the car, shouting “get the Paki bastards” and “go back to your own country”, before attempting to smash the car windows.
Samina locked the doors while her husband frantically dialled 999, fearing for the safety of the baby in the back seat. One man brought the chain down on to the windscreen, while another tried to smash in through the passenger window. Luckily, the young Muslim mother was able to speed off when the men moved away from the front of the car.
“It was racist,” she said. “But it was also Islamophobic. It only lasted a minute-and-a-half, but the trauma lingered for months. I felt too scared to go out walking with my baby in a pram. It was horrible.”
The trauma of the attack pushed Samina into launching a campaign to educate the Scottish public about the veil and Muslim women’s decision to wear it. She accepts she faces an uphill struggle. Across Europe, hostility is growing against this most visible sign of Islamic faith, with many seeing it as provocative and political, or a sign of male oppression and the subservience of women.
Samina Ansari and the charity she works for, Amina Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, have made a documentary, Hijab – The Light Behind the Veil, to promote their reasons for wearing the hijab and describing the prejudice they face for donning a veil on a day-to-day basis.
At the launch of the film, politicians, police officers and community leaders gathered to watch it in the hope of gaining a greater understanding of Muslim women’s faith. The film will be distributed to public bodies to help teach state officials about the veil in the words of Islamic women.
Unfortunately, presumably in the interest of “balance”, the report finds it necessary to quote mad Maryam Namazie of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran on the veil:
“Is wearing it a choice for women, given you have an Islamic movement gaining political power and making it compulsory wherever they can? … I think the full-face-covering niqab should be banned. We also need to stand up to Islamism’s demands to restrict rights for citizens in society.”
NLCM welcomes ‘See You in Court’ documentary
In a penetrating BBC TV documentary See You In Court (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b010hkr1/See_You_in_Court_Episode_3/)
the trustees of Finsbury Park Mosque, previously North London Central Mosque, were shown successfully defending the good name of the mosque against a false allegation of distributing extremist literature in a report by the influential right wing think-tank Policy Exchange. Had the allegation been true it would have been especially damaging to the mosque because of the mosque’s unhappy history before the present trustees brought to an end the extremist influence of Abu Hamza and his supporters in February 2005.Although eventually the mosque trustees were unable to conclude a libel claim against Policy Exchange in court because of a legal technicality the mosque nevertheless secured a published clarification from Policy Exchange which went a long way to retracting the false allegation. As the documentary revealed this was a significant climb-down by Policy Exchange that would not have been achieved without the determined efforts of the trustees and the expert guidance of libel lawyers. For the BBC documentary the case was an example of a local mosque being prepared to challenge the weight of a leading think-tank and to restore its good name.
Wilders inciting hatred trial: no new judges says legal panel
Geert Wilders trial on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination will continue in front of the same judges, a special panel at the Amsterdam court said on Monday, rejecting calls for them to be dismissed.
On Friday, Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz called for the judges to be dismissed for refusing to investigate a witness for possible perjury.
Extra police called in as EDL’s Halifax protest turns ugly
Up to 50 officers were policing the protest in Halifax town centre on Saturday afternoon but, as trouble escalated, around 150 more officers had to be quickly brought in.
Roads into Halifax were closed and as chanting protesters roamed the streets police urged businesses to close immediately and lock doors. Terrified shoppers went home while others sought safety behind the locked doors of town centre businesses. Acting Superintendent Martin Lister said later a “minority seemed intent on causing disorder”.
Members of the Far-Right protest group broke away from the Bull Green area where police attempted to contain them. Police on horseback and others with batons drawn prevented breakaway EDL members from leaving the town during confrontations which lasted around six hours. Fourteen men, mostly EDL supporters, were arrested for public order offences.
Police said the EDL protest involved around 150 people and a separate protest by the Muslim Defence League, which centred on People’s Park, attracted around 50. Shoppers and those gathered to watch the afternoon’s FA Cup football left for home as large groups of EDL members and police took over the Bull Green area.
Teacher Beth Harvey, 22, said: “I was having coffee in a cafe when, on police advice, the owners locked the door and brought all the street furniture in from outside. It was nerve-wracking. We were locked in for about half an hour and nobody else was allowed in. I decided to go home as quickly as possible because things were turning ugly. As I walked back to the car they were chanting and shouting and I didn’t know what they might do.”