CST and BoD reject EDL’s ‘Jewish division’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL We Support IsraelThe English Defence League, the extreme right-wing anti-Islamic-fundamentalism group, has launched a “Jewish division”, encouraging members of the community to “lead the counter-Jihad fight in England”.

It has signed up hundreds of followers on Facebook since the launch last week. Supporters include an ex-Community Security Trust volunteer who claims “a lot of Jewish guys want to get stuck in”.

One follower wrote on Facebook “we are all Shayetet 13”, in support of the IDF naval special forces unit involved in the Gaza flotilla incident.

But Jewish community organisations responded to the initiative with shock, saying the EDL intimidated Muslim communities and claiming its support for Israel was “empty and duplicitous”.

The former CST member, Mark Israel, claimed Jews should back the EDL as an alternative to existing community groups. He said: “I’ve been involved with groups like CST and the 62 Group for 40 years. At first I thought the EDL was an off-shoot of the BNP but I have been investigating them. They are very pro-active, unlike the Board of Deputies. They are our allies. We have a common cause. These guys want to have dialogue with the Jewish community.

“I know a lot of Jewish guys who want to get stuck in and want to support a physical presence. It is not your typical thing people want to be associated with, but in this day and age we need something like this. Is the CST enough?”

The EDL mission statement says the new division is for “Jewish supporters of the EDL, and supporters of Jewish people everywhere. We are non-racist/fascist and anyone is welcome if they want to live under English values and fully integrate into our way of life”.

Last September the EDL brandished the Israeli flag at a demonstration and called on supporters to launch a counter-protest against a pro-Hizbollah march in Trafalgar Square.

Mark Gardner, CST communications director, said: “The EDL intimidate entire Muslim communities, causing tension and fear. Jews ought to remember that we have long experience of being on the receiving end of this kind of bigotry.”

Jon Benjamin, Board of Deputies chief executive, said: “The EDL’s supposed ‘support’ for Israel is empty and duplicitous. It is built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely. Sadly, we know only too well what hatred for hatred’s sake can cause. The overwhelming majority will not be drawn in by this transparent attempt to manipulate a tense political conflict.”

Jewish Chronicle, 3 June 2010

Ballot to ban Sharia law in Oklahoma

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDMOND — State lawmakers say it’s a pre-emptive strike against Sharia law, needed to prevent here what has happened in the United Kingdom. An Islamic leader says it’s another example of a rising tide of anti-Islamic bigotry in America.

State Question 755, which likely will be on the ballot in November, would make in-state courts rely on federal and state laws when deciding cases and forbid courts from using international law or Sharia law when making rulings.

The proposal would amend Article 7, Section 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution, and stems from House Joint Resolution 1056, dubbed the “Save Our State” amendment, passed during the just-finished legislative session.

State Rep. Lewis Moore, R-Edmond, a co-author of HJR 1056, said he wanted to express his support very early for the legislation, which is needed because of the “onslaught” coming Oklahoma’s way. “I don’t think we should accept or encourage Sharia law in any way, shape or form,” Moore said.

State Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, primary author of HJR 1056, said Oklahoma is the first state to pass such legislation and he hopes other states will follow. Duncan said Sharia law is entrenched in the United Kingdom. “It is a cancer upon the survivability of the UK,” Duncan said. “SQ 755 will constitute a pre-emptive strike against Sharia law coming to Oklahoma.”

State Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore, a co-author of HJR 1056, said American courts are being more frequently challenged that international law should trump U.S. law. “Sharia law coming to the U.S. is a scary concept,” Sykes said. “Hopefully the passage of this constitutional amendment will prevent it in Oklahoma.”

Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said he has been working on Muslim civil rights issues for several decades and anti-Islam rhetoric is approaching “Nazi-like” levels. “This is just the flip side of the anti-Semitic coin,” Hooper said.

Edmond Sun, 4 June 2010

EDL to hit Lincoln this summer?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A right-wing group, which claims to protest against militant Islam, is planning a Lincoln demonstration this summer, The Linc can reveal.

The English Defence League (EDL) wants to protest against plans to build a mosque in Boultham Park Road. The mosque was originally rejected by City of Lincoln Council on the grounds that it would cause traffic problems, but an appeal against the decision has been launched.

A spokesman for the EDL’s Lincoln Division says: “We will be protesting against the building of the mosque in Lincoln and using it as a platform to say no to all mosques in England. You may say that this is against all Muslims [by] saying no more mosques, but it’s not.

“The reason we don’t want mosques in our country is because many of them are funded by an..extremist group, Tablighi Jamaat, which means that they will have a say in what is taught in these mosques.”

They also insist that the EDL isn’t racist because “there is [sic] muslim members within the EDL…Do you think they would be supporting us if they felt we was [sic] racist or islamaphobic?”.

One member of Lincoln EDL’s Facebook group, writing under the name “Jem England Cook”, said: “Great that all the houses will be worth 50% less around Boultham if these rag heads get their way. Wasn’t it an old chapel they was [sic] turning into a paedo palace? Sums up this fucked up country when they are taking over our religious places. Keep them out of Lincoln full stop.”

The Linc, 4 June 2010

Electoral gains predicted for far-right Sweden Democrats

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jimmie Akesson2From his party’s office in the basement of a Stockholm parking garage, Jimmie Akesson is running for Parliament, preaching sharp cuts in immigration and calling Islam the greatest threat to Swedish society.

That message until now has gained little traction in Sweden, but polls are predicting gains for Akesson’s far-right Sweden Democrats that could give them a king-maker role in national elections this year if neither mainstream bloc wins an outright majority. It’s an unnerving scenario for Swedes and their self-image of being more tolerant of outsiders than the rest of Europe.

Opinion polls show the Sweden Democrats could get 4 to 6 percent of votes in the September election, enough to win 15-20 seats in the 349-member Riksdag and potentially throw Swedish politics into disarray. But by law a party needs at least 4 percent to get into the legislature, and the Sweden Democrats could well fall short. Also, paradoxically, their poll numbers are up at a time when another survey show the number of Swedes worried about excessive immigration is declining.

All the same, the mainstream parties which hitherto simply ignored the far right are being forced to say where they stand. The center-left says it won’t govern with the Sweden Democrats under any circumstances. The incumbent center-right hasn’t put it quite that strongly, but sounds very reluctant to line up with the far right.

Akesson, the clerkish 31-year-old leading the Sweden Democrat charge, insists voters are more disenchanted with liberal immigration laws than they admit out loud. “In Sweden, if you voice criticism against the immigration policy, you are viewed as a racist or xenophobe,” Akesson said.

Associated Press, 5 June 2010

Muslim graves vandalised in Scunthorpe cemetery

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scunthorpe cemetery attackMuslim leaders have expressed their outrage and sadness after 11 graves in a North Lincolnshire cemetery were vandalised. The attack was the second in 21 months on Muslim graves in the Brumby Cemetery in Scunthorpe’s Cemetery Road.

The Deputy Mayor of North Lincolnshire, Councillor Mashook Ali, said: “We prayed this would never happen again – but it has.” Mr Ali said he felt the graves had been deliberately targeted as there are three sections of the cemetery designated for Muslims. “We want those responsible brought to justice,” he said. “The latest attacks have shocked the local Muslim community to the core. We shall be pressing for extra security measures on the site.”

Mr Ali said the community rented areas of the Brumby Cemetery as burial ground under a 99-year-old lease agreement with North Lincolnshire Council and more than 100 Muslims were buried there.

In August 2008, police were called in after 24 headstones, some of them on children’s graves, were attacked in two separate areas of the cemetery. No arrests were ever made.

Scunthorpe Telegraph, 3 June 2010

Posted in UK

Ballot to ban Sharia law in Oklahoma

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDMOND — State lawmakers say it’s a pre-emptive strike against Sharia law, needed to prevent here what has happened in the United Kingdom. An Islamic leader says it’s another example of a rising tide of anti-Islamic bigotry in America.

State Question 755, which likely will be on the ballot in November, would make in-state courts rely on federal and state laws when deciding cases and forbid courts from using international law or Sharia law when making rulings.

The proposal would amend Article 7, Section 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution, and stems from House Joint Resolution 1056, dubbed the “Save Our State” amendment, passed during the just-finished legislative session.

State Rep. Lewis Moore, R-Edmond, a co-author of HJR 1056, said he wanted to express his support very early for the legislation, which is needed because of the “onslaught” coming Oklahoma’s way. “I don’t think we should accept or encourage Sharia law in any way, shape or form,” Moore said.

State Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, primary author of HJR 1056, said Oklahoma is the first state to pass such legislation and he hopes other states will follow. Duncan said Sharia law is entrenched in the United Kingdom. “It is a cancer upon the survivability of the UK,” Duncan said. “SQ 755 will constitute a pre-emptive strike against Sharia law coming to Oklahoma.”

State Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore, a co-author of HJR 1056, said American courts are being more frequently challenged that international law should trump U.S. law. “Sharia law coming to the U.S. is a scary concept,” Sykes said. “Hopefully the passage of this constitutional amendment will prevent it in Oklahoma.”

Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said he has been working on Muslim civil rights issues for several decades and anti-Islam rhetoric is approaching “Nazi-like” levels. “This is just the flip side of the anti-Semitic coin,” Hooper said.

Edmond Sun, 4 June 2010

The £3m CCTV cameras that spy on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

When the cameras appeared above the rooftops in the Birmingham suburbs, some people realised they were mostly automatic number plate reading (ANPR) cameras, used to track drivers’ movements. Protesters sprayed the camera posts with messages such as “1984 Big Brother” and “You are now entering a police state.”

Those suspicious enough to ask what the cameras were for were given the impression they were part of a Home Office initiative to tackle vehicle crime on the Stratford Road corridor, an arterial route into the city.

For the vast majority of people on the bustling streets of Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, two of the city’s predominantly Muslim areas, the cameras were inconspicuous, melting into pavements filled with fruit stalls and fabric shops.

But an investigation by the Guardian has established that the surveillance cameras are the first of a kind in the UK. While they may be used for ordinary crime fighting, they were put up to monitor extremists that the police and MI5 know to be living among the city’s Muslim population.

The cameras appeared at 81 sites without consultation, after being requested by West Midlands police counterterrorism unit more than two years ago. They include around 150 ANPR cameras, 40 of which have been classified as “covert”, and are thought to be concealed in walls and trees by the side of the road.

Guardian, 5 June 2010

See also Guardian, 4 June 2010

Stop Islamophobia conference tomorrow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stop Islamophobia

Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community

Conference, Saturday 5 June 9am to 1:30pm

Camden Centre London WC1H 9JE

Speakers include:

Daud Abdullah Muslim Council of Britain  • Mohammed AliIslam Channel  • Anas Al-Tikriti British Muslim Initiative  • Tre Azam ex of The Apprentice  • Moazzam Begg former Guantanamo Bay prisoner  • Lindsey German convenor Stop the War Coalition  • Muhammad Habibur-Rahman vice-president Islamic Forum of Europe  • Kate Hudson CND  • Imran Khansolicitor  • Dr Robert Lambert former head of Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit  • Seumas Milne journalist  • Peter Oborne journalist  • Salma Yaqoob Respect Party

Update

Because of the attacks on the aid flotilla to Gaza, there is now an emergency protest demonstration being held in London on 5th June. Stop the War and BMI are fully involved in organising this protest, given the outrage at the deaths of at least ten on the flotilla and the continued imprisonment of hundreds more.

We have therefore decided to continue with the conference until lunchtime, but then to curtail it and ask delegates to join the demonstration in the afternoon.

This means that conference registration will begin at 9.00 for a 9.30 start, the conference will continue until 1pm with a final session which talks about Islamophobia, the war on terror and how they are linked. We will then adjourn to Downing St to join the march to the Israeli embassy.

French writer predicts civil war between Christians and Muslim ‘barbarians’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France has been thwarted in its destiny of greatness by the English and is now doomed to collapse into civil war between Christians and Muslim “barbarians”. You might think that such a prophecy – articulated by one of the country’s top thinkers – would banish its author to the lunatic fringe. Yet Eric Zemmour is earning fame and fortune charting his country’s decline, with his latest gloomy book Mélancolie Française flying off the shelves.

The thesis that lands Zemmour in the hottest water is his belief that France sealed its fate when it abandoned its tradition of assimilating immigrants, and embraced the concept of ethnic diversity. “French culture is not Muhammad,” he says. “It is François, it is Christian.” The result is a new “barbarism”, with the emergence of Muslim ghettos that have broken away from society, he argues in his book. To back his thesis, he quotes Charles de Gaulle as saying that mixing Muslims and French Christians is “like blending oil and vinegar”.

While Zemmour is deemed beyond the pale by much of the Establishment, he enjoys public backing. Two months ago, supporters demonstrated outside Le Figaro, the most conservative newspaper, after Étienne Mougeotte, the Editor, tried to sack him as a staff columnist. His offence had been to claim on television that the majority of French drug dealers were of Arab or African origin. Mougeotte backed down and Zemmour kept his job.

Times, 4 June 2010

Cardiff: taxi drivers plan strike over anti-Muslim rally

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taxi drivers are preparing to strike on Cardiff’s busiest day of the year in protest at an anti-Muslim rally being held in the city centre.

As tens of thousands of people descend on the capital on Saturday to watch Wales take on South Africa at the Millennium Stadium, the Stereophonics play Cardiff City Stadium and Glamorgan take on West Indies A at the Swalec Stadium, some of the city’s 950 hackney drivers will withdraw their services.

Estimates of the numbers of black-and-white cabbies taking part in the strike against the Welsh Defence League’s (WDL) rally range from 80 to 700, but with large amounts of sport and music fans expected Mathab Khan, chairman of the Cardiff Hackney Association, told the Echo he has warned police of the potential for “worrying” disruption. Mr Khan said he believed up to 700 drivers or more could join the strike, expected to run from 10am on Saturday to 10am Sunday.

But Robert Goddard, of Unite Against Fascism, which asked drivers to leave work and join its counter demonstration on Saturday, told the Echo he believed around 80 drivers would take part. “We have been speaking to a number of taxi drivers that would normally work on that day, but won’t be working in support of the protest we are having,” he said. “They are joining us in light of the WDL’s demonstration and also in light of the fact they experience racism.”

Mr Khan said as the Cardiff Hackney Association was a non-political organisation it had opted to take a neutral stance on the strike and had not encouraged or discouraged members to take part. But he confirmed he would not be working on Saturday and would instead be joining the Unite Against Fascism counter demonstration in an individual capacity.

Wales Online, 3 June 2010