Germany applies anti-Nazi laws in crackdown on peaceful Salafi groups

Posted on by Bob Pitt

German authorities hardened a crackdown on Islamic groups yesterday, raiding homes and schools that reportedly belong to adherents of fundamentalist Salafi Islam. German officials said the preemptive raids, conducted under German anti-Nazi laws of association, were aimed at uncovering unconstitutional or separatist acts and not part of an international terror hunt.

The raids targeted the Islamic Cultural Center of Bremen, on the North Sea, along with a group calling itself Invitation to Paradise in two small northwest German cities. Invitation to Paradise’s leader has called for sharia, or Islamic law, to prevail one day but has specifically opposed using violence to impose it.

While some experts say police overreacted in conducting the raids, German officials have come under great pressure from local media and citizen groups to respond to some Muslim organizations that appear to resist joining mainstream German society.

“These groups are a problem for integration, even maybe for radicalization, though not necessarily for violent jihad. They are very orthodox and like to be separate but are not preaching but usually condemning violence,” says Alexander Ritzmann, a former Berlin member of parliament now with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels. “The problem is that some jihadis in Germany from before identified themselves as Salafi.”

Christian Science Monitor, 15 December 2010

See also New York Times, 14 December 2011

Man charged with assault after Portsmouth mosque protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man has been charged with assaulting a police officer during a demonstration outside a Portsmouth mosque. The protest was held at the Jami Mosque on 13 November in response to the burning of poppies by Muslims Against Crusades in London on Armistice Day.

Blaise Robert Silvester, 20, of Stubbington Avenue, is also accused of affray. He was bailed to appear before Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court on 29 December.

BBC News, 16 December 2010

Foreign policy, not Luton, is the problem

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Al-Abdaly grew up in Sweden. The Daily Express reports that there was ‘a shift in his personality after he left Sweden in 2001 at the age of 19 to study sports therapy in Luton’. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that the date – 2001 when the US invaded Afghanistan – might be more important than moving to Luton.”

Ken Olende in Socialist Worker, 14 December 2010

Cincinnati: FBI investigating mosque threat

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The FBI is investigating a threatening e-mail sent to a Clifton mosque that was the target of a pipe bomb attack almost five years ago.

The e-mail was sent Saturday from an anonymous Yahoo account to the Islamic Association of Cincinnati, which oversees the mosque. “You should know that you are not wanted in Cincinnati,” the e-mail states. “We don’t want you here. Mohammad is a joke. Go back to your desert. Beware. We may just declare jihad on you.”

Officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that although the e-mail does not contain a direct threat, it is a concern because of the previous attack on the mosque and because of growing animosity toward Muslims in the decade since the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

The previous attack on the mosque occurred on the evening of Dec. 20, 2005, when two pipe bombs detonated near the entrance to the mosque. The blasts damaged the wooden door and blew out windows, but no one was hurt.

At least two other threats have been made against the mosque in the years since the bombing. One was a threatening phone call and the other involved a car full of men who yelled that they were “going to bomb this place.”

Cincinnati.com, 14 December 2010

The New Anti-Capitalist Party and Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ilham_Moussaid“The majority of the left in France believe that the hijab is an assault on women’s rights. This position quickly moves into the prejudice that Muslim women in France are more oppressed than non-Muslim women, that the experience of women in, say, Saudi Arabia is merely an extreme case of an oppression which is inherent in Islam.

“Muslim and Arab men are then presented as the major source of women’s oppression and contrasted with the progressive white values of Republican France. So opposition to religious practices on the basis of progressive values can easily turn into a thinly disguised form of racism – and often does.”

In an interview with Socialist Alternative, John Mullen of France’s Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste explains the resignation from the NPA of 12 activists, including former NPA candidate Ilham Moussaïd.

Asked what he intends to do about ‘extreme Islamism’, Cameron says it’s necessary to ‘deradicalise our universities’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cameron at PMQPrime Minister David Cameron admitted on Wednesday that Britain had not done enough to counter domestic Islamic extremism and vowed to do more, after it emerged that a Swedish suicide bomber studied here.

“I think if we’re frank on both sides of the House (of Commons), we have not done enough to deal with the promotion of extremist Islamism in our own country,” he told MPs.

News that a suicide bomber who attacked a busy shopping street in Stockholm on Saturday had studied and lived in Luton has raised fresh soul-searching about how to combat radicalism, five years after four home-grown bombers attacked the London transport system in 2005, killing 52 people.

“Whether it’s making sure that imams coming over to this country can speak English properly, whether it’s making sure we deradicalise our universities, I think we do have to take a range of further steps and I’m going to be working hard to make sure that we do this,” Cameron said.

AFP, 15 December 2010

Drunken yob who threatened to ‘burn down’ mosque avoids jail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John WalshA drunken yob who threatened to burn down a mosque has escaped jail “by a whisker”.

John Walsh, 25, shouted abuse at a member of the mosque on Liverpool Road in Eccles before kicking at the door. Walsh – a plant vehicle operator from Boardman Street, Eccles – then turned on a nearby shop manager. He was given a community penalty and warned he would face prison if he committed a similar offence in the next two years.

Walsh admitted two counts of racially aggravated public disorder when he appeared at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

The court heard how a member of the mosque had been locking up after prayers when he heard Walsh shouting from across the street. Patrick Buckley, prosecuting, said Walsh had shouted words to the effect that he was going to “burn down” the mosque.

Walsh then kicked and pushed at the locked door before going into a nearby shop and racially abusing the manager. He returned to the shop later and began shouting football songs, but a police officer was inside and he was arrested.

Judge Bernard Lever, sentencing, gave Walsh a two-year community order with six months’ supervision. He ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and placed him under a curfew.

Manchester Evening News, 14 December 2010