A regional politician has been fined €1,500 or 50 days in jail for allegedly calling Thilo Sarrazin, the author of a controversial book criticizing Muslim immigrants, an “ass.”
Helmut Manz, 43, the deputy spokesman of the opposition Left Party in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, was overheard uttering the word at a demonstration outside a convention hall in the city of Dortmund where Sarrazin was speaking. Sarrazin filed a legal complaint when he heard about the insult.
A coalition of more than 50 Muslim, human rights, and faith organizations is urging House leaders to raise concerns about planned hearings this month on the “radicalization” of American Muslims.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, plans to focus his hearing on homegrown terrorism, including the Fort Hood shooting and attempted Times Square bombing, both plots hatched by American-born Muslims.
King has accused U.S. Muslim leaders of failing to cooperate with law enforcement officials and said that 80 percent of American mosques are run by extremists, a figure that Muslim leaders and scholars sharply dispute.
“Singling out a group of Americans for government scrutiny based on their faith is divisive and wrong,” the coalition wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The 51-member coalition includes Amnesty International USA, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, and the Interfaith Alliance, as well as dozens of local and national Muslim groups.
“I don’t believe it warrants an answer,” King said of the letters. “I am too busy preparing for the hearings.”
A few members of Congress, including the House’s two Muslims and former Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., have already denounced King’s plans.
“Girls in Muslim families are raped by their uncles, their cousins, or their fathers.”
While one can certainly question the validity of such a statement, or the wisdom of making it, a Frederiksberg court ruled it does not constitute racism or hate speech, at least not in the case of Lars Hedegaard [pictured, with Geert Wilders].
The court on Monday acquitted Hedegaard, president of the Danish Free Press Society, of charges of racism stemming from statements the historian and journalist made to a blogger in December 2009.
Although the court stated that it found Hedegaard’s comments to be insulting, the acquittal was handed down due to the fact that Hedegaard did not know that his controversial comments would be published.
Hedegaard released a statement following his acquittal. “My detractors – the foes of free speech and the enablers of an Islamic ascendancy in the West – will claim that I was acquitted on a technicality,” the statement read. “That is absolutely true. However, the public prosecutor has been privy to the circumstances surrounding my case for a year – and yet he chose to prosecute me. Obviously in the hope that he could secure a conviction given the Islamophile sentiment among our ruling classes. My acquittal is therefore a major victory for free speech.”
Hedegaard’s Free Press Society believes that free speech is “being threatened, primarily by religious and ideological interests and international pressure groups” and that Islam is the “most dangerous threat at the moment” against free expression.
During the trial, Hedegaard received support both domestically – most famously from the Danish People’s Party’s Jesper Langballe, whose statements in support of Hedegaard earned the MP a 5,000 kroner fine for what another court said constituted racism – and from what Hedegaard called “freedom fighters around the world”.
According to Hedegaard’s statement, his acquittal “will encourage people all over the West and beyond to speak up”.
Copenhagen Post, 1 February 2011
Melanie Phillips will be pleased to hear the news. She denounced the prosecutions of Hedegaard and Langballe as “the Danish witch-hunt against the truth-tellers”.
A court in the Brussels borough of Etterbeek has acquitted a Muslim woman who was taken to court for wearing the niqab, local media reports said today. The magistrate ruled that a fine for wearing the niqab was not in proportion to the offence.
Last year Belgium’s lower house of parliament passed a legislation banning the full veil, or burqa, but because of the current political crisis in the country the bill is yet to go before the Senate for its approval.
It is estimated that only about 30 Muslim women wear the burqa in Belgium which has a population of a about 450,000 Muslims.
See also “We need a law to ban the burqa”, Islam in Europe, 31 January 2011
Update: See “Local ‘burqa ban’ violates human rights (according to Belgian judge)”, Strasbourg Observers, 16 February 2011
Race hate thugs are behind a series of inflammatory attacks with pork on a Mosque and Muslim homes. The thugs have been throwing bacon and pork at several houses in South Shields town centre since the turn of the year. Community leaders today told how they fear the attacks are an attempt to intimidate the town’s Muslim community.
In one attack, a slab of bacon was left outside one of the community’s most popular mosques – the South Tyneside Jam-E-Masjid Bangladeshi Muslim Culture and Welfare Association in Baring Street. Police, who have stepped up patrols in the area and confirmed they have received five reports of pork products being thrown or left outside of properties in the town centre. But today a town centre politician said he believes it could be more widespread as many of the community may feel too scared to report the crimes.
Chief Supt Ian Dawes said officers from South Tyneside Area Command are working closely with the town’s Muslim community in an attempt to trace the racist gang. “We urge anyone who suffers harassment, intimidation or any other racist crime to report it to police as soon as possible so that it can be thoroughly investigated. We take any allegations of racist crimes very seriously.”
Inayat Bunglawala responds to Andrew Gilligan’s claim that “the available evidence simply does not support” the view that Islamophobia is on the increase in the UK.
And you thought this was an hysterical overreaction to the prospect of eating meat from an animal that had received an Islamic blessing before it was slaughtered?
You should check out this report over at WorldNetDaily, which asks: “When you bite into a delicious pizza, succulent sandwich or luscious lamb chops, are you possibly eating food that has been sacrificed to idols?”
Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Washington, has alerted his congregation to the threat of “backdoor Shariah”. In a recent sermon that he posted online, Biltz explained that “Muslims can only eat food that is halal, that has been sacrificed to their idol, Allah … and with Allah’s name prayed over it. You could be eating beef, chicken, etc., offered up to Allah and not even know it…. It could be on your pizza without you knowing it, or at your favorite restaurant. People don’t realize they could be eating meat sacrificed to idols!”
Still, not to worry, it will all be sorted in a few years anyway, as Biltz has predicted the second coming of Christ for 2015.
The crusade against the “ever growing threat” of Sharia law has marched on into South Carolina. Following the lead of places like Oklahoma, Rep. Wendy Nanney and Sen. Mike Fair introduced a legislative initiative aimed at preventing “a court or other enforcement authority” from enforcing foreign law. The two conservative sponsors of the bill hope to “preempt violations of a person’s constitutional rights” that result from the application of foreign law. Foreign law of course is the new dog whistle for Sharia law.
The far-right English Defence League is due to stage the biggest demonstration in its 18-month history this weekend amid growing fears of widespread disorder.
Thousands of EDL activists from across England will descend on Luton, the Bedfordshire town where the organisation started, for the protest on Saturday.
The EDL has staged more than 30 protests in towns and cities across the UK since it was formed in March 2009, many of which have been marred by Islamophobia, racism and violence.
On Saturday, between 25 and 30 coaches packed with EDL supporters are expected to travel to Luton, including a number of activists from far-right groups in France, the Netherlands and Germany.
“This event is creating more fear than anything else, especially among the elderly who have seen the pictures of what has happened at these events in the past,” said Luton councillor Mahmood Hussain.
“Everyone is very much concerned about what could happen because you only have to look at the record of this group to see what we face.”
Bedfordshire police are planning the biggest operation in Luton’s history with around 2,000 officers expected to be on duty, with several hundred more on standby.
Anti-racism campaigners are holding a counter demonstration in Luton on Saturday in separate part of the town. Unite Against Fascism, which is organising the event, says it expects supporters to travel from across the country.
Community leaders and politicians have been working with different community groups in Luton since the EDL announced it was going to stage the protest under the catchline “Back to where it all began”.
“We had a very emotional meeting last week where the young people were very concerned with some of the awful things that were written on the internet by EDL people,” said Hussain. “But we are trying to tell them not to be provoked because that is just what these people want.”
The EDL was formed in Luton after a small number of protesters from an extremist Muslim group held up placards at the homecoming of the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment reading “Butchers of Basra” and “Anglian soldiers go to hell”.
At a subsequent protest in the town scores of EDL supporters attacked Asian businesses, smashing cars and threatening passersby. The group has branches across the country and its leadership insists it is not violent or racist and is opposed only to what it describes as radical or militant Islam.
However, many of its demonstrations have descended into violence and racist chanting. Some supporters are known far-right activists and football hooligans.
Details of the Unite Against Fascism demonstration can be found here.
UAF are holding a meeting in London on Tuesday 1 February under the title “Islamophobia, division and the far-right: How do we shape the fightback?”, details of which can be found here.
Leaders of some of the largest Sikh and Hindu organisations as well as Sikh Students in this country have signed a “Joint Statement” condemning the English Defence League including any Sikh youth who support the EDL.
The statement is also signed by two Members of Parliament from Asian background as well as a number of councillors, including Councillor Lakhbir Singh, former Mayor of Luton, who himself had suffered a vicious attack by a racist youth last year after some protests in Luton.
Other signatories include Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Southall, the largest Sikh temple outside India, together with many other Sikh and Hindu temples in Southall, west London. Its also been signed by a major Sikh temple in Barking, east London, a hotspot for the British National Party, as well as by the British Sikh Council (UK), an umbrella organisation for a number of Sikh temples in this country.
The Sikh Student Societies include some of the most famous colleges in London, like the London School of Economics, University College London and Imperial College as well as the University of Hertfordshire.
The statement is also signed by the Indian Workers Association (GB), Sikhs In England, an influential Sikh organisation, and Unite Against Fascism.
The statement reads, “We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the rise in fascism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism and racism. The English Defence League has organised events across the country, stirring up hatred, Islamophobia and racism – running riot in some cases and provoking violent attacks on Muslim, black and Asian communities and on Mosques and Mandirs (Hindu temples)”.
It further highlights, “They are using the old tactics of ‘divide and rule’ and are trying to divide the Asians by isolating the Muslim community. Furthermore, some misguided Sikh youth are letting themselves to be used by the EDL while a Sikh man has disgracefully joined the BNP. These people are helping to spread mistrust within our communities and we whole heartedly condemn their actions”.
And adds that, “At a time of economic crisis with mass unemployment and impending deep public spending cuts – if the racists are allowed to make any further gains then we all would suffer from grave consequences. Thus we urge all Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews and people of other faiths to come together to strongly condemn the actions of these racist organizations and unite to turn back this tide of hatred”.
Balwinder Singh Rana, spokesperson for UAF, also added, “The EDL pretend that they are not racist but they are no different than the old NF and the BNP. Now is the time for Sikhs and Hindus to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Muslim brethren and tell the EDL that their sinister aims of ‘divide and rule’ will not work. Otherwise it’s the Muslims today and it will be all us tomorrow”.
Varinder Singh, youth representative for the Turban Campaign, said, “It is of great concern that our youth are being recruited into the fascist and Islamophobic ideology which the English Defence League promotes. We as a community must face this threat to our youth head on by staying true to the core teachings of the Sikh Gurus, which emphasise the importance of pluralism and brotherhood amongst mankind.”
So far the EDL has held more than thirty marches and demonstrations up and down the country, often ending in violence. Now they are to return to Luton on Saturday, 5th February, which they regard their hometown as that’s where they began about 18 months ago.
See also UAF news report, 29 January 2011