Netherlands: Labour Party’s rise may block Wilders’ bid for power

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Job_CohenRising support for the Dutch opposition Labor Party is putting it in a dead heat with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian Democrats and may block an anti-Islam party’s bid for power in June elections.

Labor candidate Job Cohen, the former mayor of Amsterdam, was officially named party leader at a congress today in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His surprise candidacy sent the Labor Party, which favors lifting taxes on the highest earners, from third place to the top of opinion polls. Labor’s rise coincides with the slump to fourth place of Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, which wants to ban headscarves and new mosques.

Cohen, whose popularity rose after he helped keep the peace following the killing in Amsterdam of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004, contrasts with Wilders, who is being prosecuted for comments in his 2008 film “Fitna” in which he calls on Muslims to rip out “hate-preaching” verses from the Koran.

“I want to live in a land where civilization is not an old-fashioned word,” Cohen told the party congress today, “where ambulance staff can work without being harassed, where the elderly can walk the streets safely to visit their children, where nobody is called names; not Jews, not gays, not Muslims.”

Cohen, 62, a former law professor and rector at Maastricht University, rules out any coalition with Wilders. “The Netherlands has always been a country of minorities and we have succeeded in living together in a decent way,” Cohen, said when presenting his election program on April 7. “Newcomers and inhabitants who, despite differences in religion, culture and tradition, choose a joint future.”

Bloomberg, 25 April 2010

Auburn man sentenced in attack of Muslim woman, baby

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Eric GarnerSEATTLE — An Auburn man found guilty of threatening a local Muslim woman and her baby for their race and religion is headed to prison.

A judge sentenced Eric Lee Garner to 17 months in prison on Friday, handing down the maximum sentence allowed for an incident that took place at the Seattle Indian Health Board in July 2009.

Investigators said 24-year-old Gardner, wielding a knife, made derogatory comments to a young mother and her 6-month-old baby, and threatened to cut them.

Garner told the woman, “You Muslim people scare people when you wear that clothing,” and “When I see a black woman, it makes me want to throw up,” according to the statement of probable cause.

The alarmed mother said she asked him what was wrong, to which he responded, “I’m talking to you (expletive), Muslim people,” the statement said.

When the woman said, “What I wear does not make me a bad person,” Garner told her, “You scare people,” and cursed at her, the woman told detectives.

The woman tried to move away from the aggressive man, but he followed her. He then pulled out a sheath knife with an 8- to 10-inch blade, held it in front of her face and said, “I’m going to cut you and your baby with this knife,” the statement said.

Garner slammed the knife on the counter, struggling to get it out of the sheath, detectives said. A staff member of the health clinic reached over and took the knife away from the man.

“I just heard a big slam on the counter and I looked over and it was a knife,” said employee Alissa Stewart. “My first instinct was to grab it and get it out of reach.” Garner then lunged over the counter, grabbed the knife out of Stewart’s hand and fled, investigators said.

Another clinic employee who had dealt with the boisterous man earlier in the day identified him as Garner.

Police found Garner walking in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood the following night. They said Garner, who was carrying a knife, admitted he had “pulled a knife on a Muslim woman earlier in the day because he was ‘doing his part to defend America,'” according to the statement.

In March Gardner pleaded guilty to charges of malicious harassment and second-degree assault. He has a long criminal history with prior convictions for assault and felony harassment.

KOMO News, 23 April 2010

Palin condemns cancellation of invitation to Franklin Graham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sarah Palin offers her thoughts on the US Army’s decision towithdraw its invitation to right-wing evangelist Franklin Graham for the National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon because of his bigoted statements about Islam:

My, have things changed. I was honored to have Rev. Franklin Graham speak at my Governor’s Prayer Breakfasts. His good work in Alaska’s Native villages and his charitable efforts all over the world stem from his servant’s heart. In my years of knowing him, I’ve never found his tempered and biblically-based comments to be offensive – in fact his words have been encouraging and full of real hope.

It’s truly a sad day when such a fine patriotic man, whose son is serving on his fourth deployment in Afghanistan to protect our freedom of speech and religion, is dis-invited from speaking at the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer service. His comments in 2001 were aimed at those who are so radical that they would kill innocent people and subjugate women in the name of religion.

Are we really so hyper-politically correct that we can’t abide a Christian minister who expresses his views on matters of faith? What a shame. Yes, things have changed.

Via Ben Smith at Politico, 23 April 2010

See also Daily Kos, 23 April 2010

Half of US Protestant ministers agree with Franklin Graham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

This week, the Pentagon dumped Franklin Graham from a May 6 National Day of Prayer event for insulting Muslims. Graham has called Islam a dangerous and evil religion.

Many of Graham’s fellow preachers agree.

That’s according to a new poll from Nashville-based LifeWay Research. The poll, conducted by Zogby, surveyed polled 1,000 Protestant ministers in early March. They were read a negative statement from Graham about Islam, followed by statement from former President George W. Bush saying Islam is a religion of peace and charity.

Forty-seven percent agreed with Graham. Twelve percent agreed with both. About a quarter of pastors agreed with Bush alone.

“This means a majority of Protestant pastors chose statements that agree with Franklin Graham’s statement,” said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research.

The Tennessean, 23 April 2010

Aylesbury Council accused of obstructing anti-racist carnival

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The committee organising a call for a peaceful celebration of Aylesbury’s diverse community on May 1st to challenge the ideas of the EDL condemned Aylesbury District Council’s lack of support for the event.

The planned carnival against racism, a music event with speakers from across Aylesbury’s diverse community, had received backing from Aylesbury’s town mayor, the Bishop of Buckingham, the Rabbi of South Bucks Jewish Community, the Racial Equality Council plus PCS, CWU, NUT and UNISON union branches. Organisers have been trying to negotiate a venue in Aylesbury town centre but have been denied council permission.

Julie Simmons of Love Music Hate Racism who has been booking rap artists, bands and DJs to play for free said: “We first approached the council nearly two weeks ago and it has been like getting blood out of a stone in terms of what we needed to do to hold our event – we have organised an event in this time and yet have hardly heard anything in response, though the council has not held back in telling everyone to stay at home.

“We found we had to ask exactly the right question to get an idea as to the process we had to follow. Absolutely nothing was volunteered. Today the Safety Advisory Group made it clear they would not be happy with our plans for a modest event, demanding a level of organisation more suggestive of Glastonbury. It was clear they don’t want the event to go ahead. Meanwhile a gang of known racist thugs can waltz into town and hold their event in Market Square without any objection.”

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Qaradawi stands up for women’s rights

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi and MandelaQatar-based Islamic scholar Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday slammed the practice of denying women access to mosques by Muslims of South Africa as well as of the Indian subcontinent and said that he was surprised that women were not allowed to attend any of his lectures in Johannesburg during his recent visit there.

In his Friday sermon, Sheikh Qaradawi said that during his visit to South Africa, he was surprised by the “unreasonable practice” of not allowing women from entering mosques as well as by the ban to videotape his lectures in Johannesburg.

“It was my first visit to South Africa and I was impressed with its Muslim community’s commitment to Islamic rules as well as its unity, but it was the ban on women’s entry into mosques which drew my attention. I told the (community members) that this was un-Islamic and they should stop it,” he told a congregation in a mosque at Khalifa South.

“I know they did that because they follow the Abu Hanifa school of thought but they should know that time has changed. If Abu Hanifa himself were with us today, he would have changed his mind. It is unreasonable that women could now go to universities, markets and travel, but are not allowed to enter a mosque in some countries.”

Gulf Times, 23 April 2010

‘Our England Today’ protests against KFC in Preston

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Up to 20 members of Our England Today waved placards and St George’s Cross flags at KFC in Deepdale Shopping Park, Preston, on Friday. The restaurant is one of around 80 outlets across the country taking part in a trial following requests to provide halal food in parts of the UK.

Officers from Lancashire Police attended and several of the group’s members were kicked off by retail park security staff for drinking cans of lager. They handed out leaflets, put them on car windscreens and tried to dissuade customers going into KFC.

The group, mainly young men, some with children, said the protest was not an English Defence League (EDL) demonstration. However it was advertised on an EDL social networking website page and a statement on their website said: “We would like to encourage ‘flash demos’ at these restaurants”.

A Unite Against Fascism spokesman said: “This was a very small turnout, quite a pathetic demonstration, attempting to fuel hate and racism.”

Lancashire Evening Post, 24 April 2010

See also here, here and here.

As for Our England Today, they claim to be “the latest group of activists, that will be activley fighting to take back our country” and “welcome BNP members and friends, we are all in the same fight, God Save Our Country”.

French poll: 33% back complete ban on veil, and further 31% favour restrictions

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France veilTwo-thirds of French people want a law limiting the use of face-covering Islamic veils such as the niqab and the burqa, with only a minority backing the government’s plan for a complete ban, a poll showed Saturday.

The TNS Sofres/Logica poll, which was carried out on Thursday and Friday, showed that 33 percent of French people want a complete ban, while a further 31 percent want a more narrow law applying only to certain public spaces.

The results of the survey of 950 people were roughly the same for men and women. Support for some kind of legal restriction on the full veil cut across age groups, professions and political affiliation, though it was stronger among right-wing voters – more than 80 percent of them favoured a law.

Reuters, 24 April 2010

opposing Islam central tenet of Dutch Freedom Party

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The last Dutch party to present its election manifesto, the anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) headed by Geert Wilders, has said it will focus on “more security and less immigration”. The manifesto was published on Friday in The Hague, ahead of the national elections on 9 June.

The right-wing populist party leader repeated his party’s well-known slogans. Mr Wilders wants to achieve “more security” by recruiting an additional 10,000 policemen. “Less immigration” should be realised by imposing an annual quota of 1,000 on asylum seekers, and a ban on immigration from Muslim countries. Non-Dutch residents who commit a crime should be extradited, in the PVV’s view. Earlier proposals, such as a headscarf tax and a ban on burqas and the Qur’an are repeated in the manifesto.

Radio Netherlands, 23 April 2010