UK poll: 66 per cent back ban on niqab in public places

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Most people in Britain hold a critical opinion on the veils worn by some Muslim women, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 67 per cent of respondents say that garments that conceal a woman’s face represent an affront to British values, while 25 per cent disagree with this notion. However, 58 per cent of respondents believe the government should not be allowed to tell individuals what they can and cannot wear.

Angus Reid Global Monitor, 27 January 2010

Full poll here.

Unfortunately, the apparently reassuring opposition to state interference didn’t prevent 66% of respondents backing a ban on the niqab in public places, 75% a ban in schools and universities, and 85% a ban at airports.

Parliamentary inquiry condemns veil as ‘un-French’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Islamic full-body veil should be banned from French public offices, hospitals, trains and buses, according to a parliamentary investigation which reported yesterday. In a bad-tempered final session, the committee of inquiry angered many members of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling centre-right party by rejecting their demands for an outright ban on the burka or niqab. After a muddled and heated six-month investigation, the committee decided that such a ban might be declared unconstitutional under French and European law.

Instead, a narrow majority of the 32 members accepted a compromise suggested by Mr Sarkozy and the Prime Minister, François Fillon. They called for a solemn, but unenforceable, parliamentary motion declaring the full-length veil – a marginal but growing phenomenon in France – to be “un-French”. They said that this should be followed soon by a law forbidding people to cover their faces in “official” public spaces, from hospitals to post offices.

The committee’s recommendation split the ruling Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) down the middle. The party’s parliamentary leader, Jean-François Cope, immediately announced that he would push ahead with his own draft law calling for an outright ban. Officially, Socialist MPs boycotted the final meeting of the inquiry, alleging that it had been “polluted” by party politics and hijacked by “faction fighting” within the UMP. Several leading socialist politicians defied the boycott, however, and support an outright ban.

The possibility of a law against the full-length veil was first raised last summer by a Communist MP.

Independent, 16 January 2010

Cf. Raphaël Liogier, “France’s attack on the veil is a huge blunder”, Comment is Free, 26 January 2010

California: Republican party asked to repudiate councilwoman’s anti-Islam posting

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on the California Republican Party to repudiate anti-Islam comments posted on Facebook by a Republican member of the Lancaster, Calif., city council.

CAIR-LA also sent a letter to the councilwoman asking her to meet with members of the American Muslim and interfaith communities to discuss the negative impact of the inflammatory remarks.

In her recent Facebook post, Council Member Sherry Marquez wrote in reference to a murder trial in New York involving a Muslim defendant:

This is what the Muslim religion is all about – the beheadings, honor killings are just the beginning of what is to come in the USA. We are told this is a small majority [sic] of Muslim’s [sic] in America, but it is truly what they are all about… You disrespect/dishonor them or their religion and you should die (they don’t even blink at killing their own wives/daughters, because they are justified by their religion)…

SEE: Council Member Sherry Marquez’s Facebook Posting

CAIR press release, 26 January 2010

‘We’re here because we want our country back’ – more on Stoke EDL protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Stoke

Double-decker buses started arriving at Wetherspoons in Hanley city centre shortly after noon. The passengers shouted “England, England, England” and “EDL, EDL, EDL”. Two were arrested within seconds of them getting off the bus. “I’m English ’til I die, English ’til I die,” was the next song, one of many chanted by the protesters throughout the afternoon.

Although many had travelled from the other side of the country, the Potteries was well represented. Adam Daniels, aged 23, from Tunstall, said: “We want equal opportunities. They seem to get housing before us.” Daniel Lucas, aged 28, from Ball Green, said: “The door should be shut to this country because it is full. We are a minority in our own community.”

Forty-two-year-old John Sanders, an HGV driver who travelled from Bristol, said: “I am here because Islam is taking over the country.” Former Stoke-on-Trent city councillor Jenny Holdcroft, aged 60, from Biddulph, said: “People have to come out and be strong and stand together because if not, we are going to lose this country.”

Several people hurled bottles and other missiles towards police. Some men jumped on the top of a bus stop outside Argos while two youths could be seen showing off with a police helmet on the top of the arcade roof. There was another surge towards the officers when they went to arrest those youths.

Lines of police stopped the mob walking down Percy Street and into the city centre. Thugs tried to tip over a yellow police van, brought in from Warwickshire, and one hooligan jumped on the bonnet and repeatedly kicked the windscreen until it smashed.

Paul Walker, spokesman for EDL Stoke-on-Trent, said he was upset by the trouble. He said: “EDL members have been antagonised by the police. We are not racist, not bigots, not Nazis, we are shocked how we have been portrayed.”

The Sentinel, 25 October 2010

See also Lancaster Unity, which reports:

“EDL say they support British laws and that they’re not racist or connected to the BNP, but after the EDL demo in Stoke on 23 Jan 2010, EDL supporters ‘dispersed’ into side-streets to break windows and attack cars owned by Stoke residents. EDL co-founder and convicted knife criminal Jeff Marsh filmed the police ID-ing him by name (0:02 ‘Jeff Marsh, turn round and go back’) and then filmed EDL supporters chanting ‘BNP, BNP, BNP’ (0:26). Police then chased the EDL into a nearby park where EDL accused police officers of being ‘Paki loving bastards’ (0:35), ‘Fucking cunts’, and one officer of being a ‘wanker’ and ‘Fucking paki lover’.”

Far-right Swedish millionaire gives €5m to German anti-Islam party

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pro NRWSwedish far-right businessman Patrik Brinkmann has announced he will pour €5 million into the coffers of Pro NRW, an anti-Islam populist party based in Cologne. In a report to air Sunday night on Germany‘s public broadcaster WDR, Brinkmann says he fears Germany is becoming “too foreign” and that Sharia law will be introduced in the country.

“However, there are no, or very few, politicians who take this seriously,” Brinkmann said. “That’s why I believe that a new right wing (in Germany) can not only succeed, but in five or ten years be as large as the FPÖ in Austria or the SVP in Switzerland,” he added, referring to Austria’sFreedom Party and the Swiss People‘s Party, two far-right groups which have enjoyed a certain amount of electoral success.

The millionaire, who reportedly already has ties to Germany’s extreme-right NPD and DVU parties, will finance a building for Pro NRW to be used as an anti-Islam centre.

The Local, 23 January 2010

Stoke cab companies were forced to suspend service due to EDL threats

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taxi firms suspended services in Stoke-on-Trent following police warnings and threats from right-wing extremists. Most of the city’s largest private hire companies stopped running between 11pm on Saturday and 4am yesterday to protect drivers and passengers. It followed advice from Staffordshire Police in the wake of violence which erupted at the English Defence League (EDL) rally, in Hanley, on Saturday afternoon. And it has emerged some taxi firms also received phone calls from individuals threatening to target Asian and Muslim drivers.

Basharat Hussein, who runs Auto Cab Private Hire, in Normacot, said his firm was among those targeted. The 41-year-old manager said: “We were having threatening calls over the phone and were scared for the safety of our drivers and our customers. They were threatening to target our drivers because many of them are Asian or Muslim. We had also been getting advice from the police before the demonstration and therefore decided not to go out.”

Mohammed Mushtaq, aged 36, manager of Tunstall-based City Centre Private Hire, said he took the decision to suspend services following a call from the police. He said: “One of the sergeants at Tunstall rang and warned us that if we did go out, it would be at our own risk. The police said anyone working in and around Cobridge was particularly at risk. We carried on until about 10pm, but, after the police warning, we decided it was not worth the risk. The drivers were too scared to carry on, so we stopped all services between 11pm and 4am.”

The Sentinel, 25 January 2010

Graffiti attack on Stoke mosque ahead of EDL protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A mosque in Stoke-on-Trent was sprayed with graffiti referring to an upcoming English Defence League rally. Mosque administrators discovered the daubed message at 0630 GMT on Saturday and had removed it within two hours. Staffordshire Police said a criminal damage investigation was under way into the incident in the Normacot area.

BBC News, 25 January 2010

According to one report, the mosque was “daubed with EDL and ISLAM SCUM as well as some cars”.

EDL demonstration in Stoke ends in violent clashes with police

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDLdemonstration

The Pits n Pots blog reports on yesterday’s English Defence League protest in Stoke-on-Trent:

To begin with, the demonstration was noisy from the off but largely peaceful, there were people of all ages in attendance. As the time wore on though, the influence of alcohol seemed more apparent and large sections of the protesters began to get bolder. There was a prolonged episode of pushing against the police line as protesters tried to surge forward and get towards the U.A.F counter demonstration that was taking place just 150 meters down the road. A few youths managed to slip past police lines but were swiftly dealt with.

The demonstration began to turn ugly with protesters attacking the police with bottles, coins, placards and wood torn from nearby hoardings. Riot gear was then deployed to a police force who had started the day off wearing their traditional helmets, as part of the Police’s co-ordinated attempt to put protesters at ease.

The situation began to reach fever pitch when a youth clambered up onto of a police riot van much to the delight of his fellow protesters. Not to be outdone, two more youths then clambered up onto the concrete veranda outside Argos and ran along it wearing a captured Police helmet, both youths were arrested.

The E.D.L’s plan for a peaceful demonstration seemed to evaporate before their eyes as hooligans and extremists seemed to orchestrate proceedings. At one point the EDL supporters were even heckling their own invited speakers, chanting “who are ya?” at the Sikh speaker whose presence had been widely publicised on the E.D.L website and Forums.

Although the police operation was very much one of Cat and Mouse with groups of protesters trying to slip past police lines and outflank them, we saw the police deal with situations quickly and effectively every time. As the demonstrators began to head towards their buses and make for home, there were clearly some frustrated youth, they began to turn their anger towards us by verbally abusing us and trying to grab our equipment.

Wandering over to the U.A.F demonstration, the police had space of 10 meters or more between them and the protesters, even though trouble was anticipated from the UAF, they resembled a student peace protest and were well behaved. The Police tonight revealed to us that there had been no U.A.F associated arrests at all. Their demonstration consisted of a totally peaceful gathering with speakers chanting slogans through a microphone and the crowd willingly echoed the chants “Nazi Scum off our Streets” and “We’re Black , we’re white, together we are dynamite” echoed outside the town hall.

As they headed off, one wonders what must have been concluded by anyone who saw the demonstration. It’s hard to see how such a display could win the E.D.L much support in Stoke. Speculation was rife on the street that they had been infiltrated by far right extremists, and football hooligans. Whatever the truth is, the E.D.L’s public image took a very public battering today in Hanley.

See also A Very Public Public Sociologist, 23 January 2010

Update:  See “Three charged after English Defence League protest”, BBC News 24 January 2010

Further update:  See “Six protesters charged after clashes at English Defence League demonstration”, Daily Mail, 25 January 2010

EDL website

 

Express witch-hunts Dawatul Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A hardline Islamic sect that supports hate cleric Yufuf [sic] al-Qaradawi is planning to build a giant madrassa school and Muslim centre a few minutes from Britain’s new Olympic stadium.

The nationwide Dawatul Islam group, which has links with the militant Islamist Jamaat e Islami movement in Bangladesh, has lodged the proposals for an 11-storey, boys-only boarding school and Muslim community centre in east London with the local council. It will cost £27million and involves the demolition of an historic Victorian schoolhouse it bought for £377,000 in 1998. The £1million-a-year charity was awarded £32,000 of Government “Preventing Violent Extremism” cash last year, despite the controversial views of its vice-president, Hasan Mueenuddin.

He has described Britain’s ban on Egyptian cleric Dr al-Qaradawi, who defends suicide bombers, as “deplorable”. He called Dr al-Qaradawi “one of the most progressive thinking Muslim scholars of the 21st century”.

Sunday Express, 24 January 2010

Banning the burqa is simply not British

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“‘As I was once strolling through the inner city, I suddenly happened upon an apparition in a long caftan with black hair locks. Is this a Jew? was my first thought … but the longer I stared … the more my first question was transformed into a new conception: is this a German?’

“That is the passage from Mein Kampf in which Adolf Hitler describes how, walking as a student through the less salubrious streets of Vienna, he had suddenly understood the true threat that the Jews presented to the Germanic way of life. I hadn’t read those words since I was a student, but somehow they returned to my mind last week, prompted by the UK Independence party’s announcement that it would campaign to ‘ban the burqa’.”

Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times, 24 January 2010