EDL clashes with police in Aylesbury

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Violence broke out between anti-Islamist protesters from the English Defence League and riot police at a May Day march in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. Demonstrators hurled coins, glass bottles, plastic flag sticks and cans at officers after the event. Around 200 protesters burst through police lines and scuffled with officers armed with riot shields, batons and dogs. Onlookers said there were no apparent serious injuries.

Around 1,000 members of the far-right group had marched to the town’s Market Square, chanting and waving flags. One onlooker said: “As the protesters came to leave the square members of the EDL thought they weren’t been allowed out quickly enough and some began pushing and shoving. Soon missiles were been thrown and riot police had to be called in to calm the situation down.”

Local Area Commander Superintendent Richard List, of Thames Valley Police, strongly condemned the violence. He said: “It is disappointing that the EDL has not continued to protest in a peaceful manner.”

Daily Telegraph, 1 May 2010

See also Socialist Worker, 1 May 2010

Video reports here and  here.

Veil ban is part of campaign to stigmatise French Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims in France say the government’s plan to fine women for wearing the Islamic veil is one in a string of political ploys that stigmatise them and pander to anti-Islamic prejudice.

Extracts from the law leaked on Friday propose to fine women 150 euros (200 dollars) for wearing a full-face veil in public, while anyone who forces a woman to wear one would face a year in jail and fine of 15,000 euros.

Some say giving police the power to fine Muslim women in the street is part of a worrying trend, after the government’s “national identity debate” and its targeting last week of a man accused of polygamy and radicalism.

Amid the polygamy controversy, bullets were fired at a mosque in Istres, southern France, and a halal butcher in Marseille. A French Muslim group, CFCM, said this signalled “a rise of racism and Islamophobia.”

“It’s getting tougher and tougher. It’s as if people have had something against us for a long time and now that the politicians are saying it, they are letting it all out,” said Mamadou Alpha Diallo, 73, outside a Paris mosque.

Muslims in France “have the impression that Islam is on trial,” added Dounia Bouzar, an anthropologist and high-profile commentator on Muslim affairs.

AFP, 30 April 2010

Anger at Belgian face veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims, academics and human rights groups have hit out at a looming public ban in Belgium on the full face veil, following a decision in the country’s parliament to make the wearing of the article of clothing illegal.

“I think they’re trying to wind us up,” Souad Barlabi, a young woman wearing a simple veil, said outside the Grand Mosque in Brussels, the Belgian capital, around the time of Friday prayers. “We feel under attack,” she said.

Amnesty International, a human rights group, said the measures must be reviewed by the upper house of parliament as they raise concerns about whether Belgium is in breach of international rights laws.

“A complete ban on the covering of the face would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who wear  the burqa or the niqab,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s expert on discrimination in Europe. “The Belgian move to ban full face veils, the first in Europe, sets a dangerous precedent.”

In Le Soir, a French newspaper, Michael Privot, an Islamic scholar, said Belgium “now joins Iran and Saudi Arabia in that exclusive but unenviable rare club of countries to impose a dress code in the public domain”.

Al Jazeera, 30 April 2010

Ed Balls jeered by BNP supporters for rejecting veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ed Balls at Morley hustingsSchools Secretary Ed Balls received a frosty reception from voters as he went head to head with the British National Party in a soapbox debate in West Yorkshire today.

Mr Balls, who has a notional majority in the seat of Morley and Outwood, was jeered and booed by some members of the public in Morley town centre as he answered questions.

Four other candidates – Chris Beverley for the BNP, Anthony Calvert for the Conservatives, James Monaghan for the Liberal Democrats, and David Daniel for the UK Independence Party – joined Mr Balls as they mounted soapboxes to address voters directly. A microphone was passed round the crowd during the 40-minute event, organised by The Independent newspaper, and questions were asked on issues including schools, the economy, jobs and immigration.

A question posed from a male member of the crowd regarding Belgium’s decision to ban the burka led to one of the biggest responses from the audience. He asked the candidates: “They’re doing this (banning the burka) in the interest of women’s rights, social inclusion, anti-terrorism and security. What I want to know is which of the parties are going to have the gumption to take an issue like that and really address it?”

Mr Balls answered: “We have people here who are Christian and Muslim and Jewish, and I think British values of tolerance and fair play and mutual respect mean that you don’t say to people that because of their particular religion, or the colour of their skin that they are second class.”

Some members of the audience clapped and cheered in support of Mr Balls while others booed and held aloft BNP posters.

Yorkshire Post, 30 April 2010

See also BBC News, 30 April 2010

Labour leads in Netherlands, support for Wilders’ party drops

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Labour Party (PvdA) is the most popular political organization in the Netherlands, according to a poll by Maurice de Hond. A prospective tally of seats shows that the PvdA would secure 33 seats in next month’s election to the Second Chamber.

The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is in second place with 30 seats, followed by the governing Christian-Democratic Appeal (CDA) with 27, the far-right Party for Freedom (PvdV) with 18 seats, and the Democrats 66 (D66) with 12. Support is lower for the Green Left (GL), the Socialist Party (SP), the Christian Union (CU), the Reformed Political Party (SGP), and the Party for the Animals (PvdD).

In June 2009, the PvdV – which has gained notoriety due to the stance on immigration of its leader, Geert Wilders – won four of the 25 Dutch seats in the European Parliament.

Angus Reid Global Monitor, 29 April 2010

Another anti-racist festival is banned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A planned music festival in Queens Park has been banned by town hall chiefs amid fears over safety.

Bolton Love Music Hate Racism was organising the all-day music event for May 31 and had been working with Bolton Council since last November. They had already secured funding, including £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.

The group, an offshoot of the national Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) group, has been in talks with top acts including The Bluetones and Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip about headlining the event.

But now town hall chiefs have put stop to it, leaving organisers “gutted”.

Bolton News, 29 April 2010

See also here

Respect stands for fairness in an unequal Britain, says Salma Yaqoob

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma_for_MP

“At a time when waves of Islamophobic hatred are sweeping across Europe and lapping at out shores, the Muslim community is going to need as many advocates and defenders in the Parliament. With its support, I can be one of those. But the prize is not just about Muslims having a voice, but having a voice for all those who feel they have been abandoned, regardless of their background.”

Salma Yaqoob in the Muslim News, 30 April 2010

Belgian parliament votes to ban wearing of veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Belgian lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill to ban wearing the full Islamic face veil in public, a move that could make Belgium the first European country to make the practice a criminal offence.

The draft law, cast as a security measure by proponents, was overwhelmingly backed by 136 lawmakers. Just two abstained.

The bill, which would ban all clothing that covers or partially covers the face, could become law in the coming months as the upper house, or Senate, is not expected to block it.

However, the collapse of Belgium’s coalition government last week and the prospect of an imminent election could cause a delay because parliament would have to be dissolved.

Belgium’s French-speaking liberals, who proposed the veil law, argued that an inability to identify people who have hidden their faces presents a security risk and that the veil was a “walking prison” for women.

The bill’s chief promoter, Daniel Bacquelaine, said local mayors could suspend the ban during festivities such as Carnival when people traditionally wear costumes, including masks.

Reuters, 29 April 2010

See also BBC News, 29 April 2010

Virginia driver denies license plate had coded racist message

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racist truck

Douglas Story, a Chantilly dump truck driver for the Virginia Department of Transportation, says he wanted to grab people’s attention when he paid $224.90 to have a mural of the burning World Trade Center detailed onto the tailgate of his Ford F-150 along with a sticker that reads: “Everything I ever needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11.”

But he got more than he bargained for when a photo of his pickup went viral on the Web last week. Motorists and Muslim groups complained that his Virginia vanity license plate – 14CV88 – was really code for neo-Nazi, white supremacist sentiments. The state Department of Motor Vehicles voted last week to recall Story’s plates and force him to buy new ones.

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Pauline Hanson won’t sell her house to a Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pauline_HansonFormer One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has issued a warning to any Muslims or overseas Asians that may be looking to purchase her home: don’t even bother.

The controversial Ms Hanson, famed for her anti-immigration policies and mistrust of multiculturalism, made the statements in an interview with the Seven Network’s Sunrise this morning. The 55-year-old gave the program a tour of her multi-million dollar home at Coleyville, southwest of Brisbane, which she is currently trying to sell and spoke candidly about her plans for the future.

But while her property is on the market, Ms Hanson made it clear not everyone was welcome to make an offer. “I have no intentions of selling my home to a Muslim,” she told Sunrise. “I don’t believe they are compatible with our way of life, our culture and I think we are going to have problems in this country further down the track.”

The Australian, 28 April 2010

See also “Pauline Hanson’s Muslim ban ‘illegal”, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 April 2010