Racists post threatening comments on anti-mosque Facebook group

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Threatening and racist comments have appeared on an anti-mosque Facebook group. “No to the new Mosque in Weston-super-Mare” has been set up in opposition to proposals for a new Muslim centre in Orchard Street.

Last week the Weston & Somerset Mercury revealed the Weston Islamic Education Centre group had applied to covert the former Rock Gardens site into a community centre which would also be used for prayer.

But some of the 440 members have written threatening comments in the internet forum. One post said: “Muslims are never gonna take over this country….well at least weston super mare, I swear on my life if they built this new mosque in weston I will set fire 2 it and thats a f***in promis.” Other comments say that all Muslims are terrorists and one aggressive member threatens to drive a bus into the centre and blow it up if it is given planning permission.

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EDL protest in Manchester

Posted on by Bob Pitt

English Defence League Hold Demonstrations In Manchester

Ten people were injured and 44 people arrested in the English Defence League protest in Manchester city centre. Police imposed a lockdown around Piccadilly Gardens as EDL demonstrators faced off against Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

The two factions stood on opposite sides separated by a police line with officers on horseback and in riot gear. EDL supporters, who oppose “radical Islam” and Sharia law made Nazi salutes and sang patriotic songs, while UAF protesters maintained a non-stop anti-fascist chant. There were several hundred EDL protesters and more than 1,000 from the UAF.

The stand-off continued for about four and a half hours on Saturday afternoon. Shops were closed around the Piccadilly area. Around 4.30pm some UAF protesters began to disperse. Shortly before 5pm police moved the EDL supporters off Piccadilly Gardens and escorted them to bus and train stations.

UAF spokesman Mike Gilligan said: “It was a tremendously successful day for the anti-racist movement. The EDL were run out of town, they were not very powerful, they completely failed. Our protesters reflected the energy, particularly of young people, who showed their disgust at the racists trying to group together in Manchester city centre. It was a vibrant celebration of multi-cultural Manchester.”

Manchester Evening News, 10 October 2009

EDL Manchester

How to improve the Prevent strategy – stop giving taxpayers’ money to Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Quilliam FoundationWriting at Comment is Free, Ed Husain of the Quilliam Foundation takes up the report by the Taxpayers’ Alliance attacking the government’s Prevent strategy.

The report, Ed writes, reveals that “many groups that have received handsome grants of taxpayers’ funds are groups whose leading members include supporters of hardcore Islamist ideologies. Such organisations include the Islamic Society of Britain (with some exceptions), the UK Islamic Mission, the Islamic Foundation, the London Muslim Centre and Da’watul Islam”.

Happily, a solution is to hand: “The government needs to begin working with Muslim partners who will actively contribute towards making British society more cohesive and harmonious – rather than groups that can only promise not to actively sabotage such aims. Quilliam, with the help of Prevent funding, aims to do just this.”

But, according to Ed, the government needs to look beyond Quilliam to find partners with similar politics, “who are unafraid to say that terrorism is driven by an ideology of victimhood and notions of reward in the afterlife”. Ed makes no proposals as to who these partners might be. And that is hardly surprising. There are, after all, few Muslim-led organisations who are prepared to promote the Daily Mail‘s agenda with quite the same fervour as Ed Husain does.

If John Denham and DCLG are really concerned to re-establish the Prevent strategy on a more effective basis – and it appears that they are – then the first step should be to withdraw all state funding from the loathed and despised Quilliam Foundation and redirect it towards organisations that actually have roots in the Muslim communities.

Update:  See also ENGAGE, 10 September 2009

Further update:  Interestingly, in the USA the right-wing magazine Human Events takes a very similar line to Ed Husain, condemning the FBI for allying with Islamist organisations in order to fight terrorism. For US conservatives, as for Ed Husain, their obsessive campaign against Islamism takes precedence over the obligation to defend the nation’s citizens from terrorist attacks.

Zurich gives go-ahead to poster with racist image of Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SVP anti-minaret posterZurich city council said yesterday that a poster showing missile-like minarets on a Swiss flag can be displayed ahead of a national referendum on whether to ban the building of minarets at mosques in Switzerland.

Zurich followed Lucerne and Geneva in arguing that the posters, which also feature a veiled woman with “menacing eyes”, were protected by free speech. Basel and Lausanne have banned them saying they paint a “racist, disrespectful and dangerous image” of Islam.

The posters, which urge a ban on the building of minarets, are part of a campaign by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party.

Zurich city council said it disapproved of the posters – which also feature a veiled woman with what could be seen as menacing eyes – because they portrayed Islam as “threatening, negative and dangerous”. But officials said the posters had to be accepted as part of political free speech in the run-up to the November 29 vote.

The Swiss Federal Commission Against Racism said yesterday it viewed the billboards as an attack on all Muslims in Switzerland. “This is a further step toward a dangerous polarization of the political debate,” the commission said.

The posters argue that the construction of new minarets should be banned because they are a symbol of Islamic political conquest rather than religious freedom. So far, there are four minarets in Switzerland.

Daily Mail, 9 October 2009

Robert Spencer: teaming up with Euro-supremacists again

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spencer in BerlinRobert Spencer of Jihad Watch was dead chuffed that he was recently invited to speak at a rally in Berlin organised by an outfit called Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa, which Spencer described as “the most important German human rights organization, seeking to preserve European values, freedom and democracy”.

LoonWatch examines the actual ideology of the BPE. They note “an emerging trend amongst some right-wing and fascist groups proclaiming their unconditional support for the state of Israel. What is likely is that many of these organizations, whose roots are steeped deep in a history of anti-Semitism are recreating themselves; dropping a now unpopular prejudice (anti-Semitism) for one more in vogue – anti-Muslim Islamophobia. Gone are the days when what they claimed to champion were the ‘Christian values and traditions of Europe’; now they have added ‘Christian-Jewish’ values to their slogans.”

Grayling accused of double standards on ‘extremism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Race Hate Row EruptsThe Tories were blasted yesterday for “perpetuating dangerous myths about the law” and “scapegoating the Muslim community” in a shallow attempt to grab votes.

Addressing the Conservative conference in Manchester, shadow home secretary Chris Grayling outlined his proposals for law and order.

In particular he dredged up the perennial spectre of Islamic extremism, pledging to outlaw groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, which he accused of “actively inciting hate and violence.”

“Under this government the extremists have been free to protest on our streets and incite violence and hatred in the most blatant ways,” he said. He also pledged a crackdown on immigration, saying there would be “no open door to Britain.”

At no point, however, did he refer to far-right extremist groups such as the BNP and the English Defence League, which has staged anti-Muslim marches in cities across the country in recent months.

This omission was condemned by anti-racist campaign group Unite Against Fascism, which accused Mr Grayling of further demonising the Muslim community while ignoring the fascist threat.

A spokesman for UAF said: “There has been a rise in racist attacks, particularly on the Asian and Muslim population. There is a direct link between this increase and the atmosphere of fear and hatred whipped up against the Muslim community in the popular press.

“When Christopher Grayling goes on about extremist beliefs, the only time he mentions Muslims seems to be to further demonise them.

“Why not mention the extreme right-wing groups, who we have seen recently involved in bomb plots amongst other things? Why not address the issue of the EDL which has held marches and incited hate and violence?

“The issue of racism doesn’t seem to have been addressed. I hope this isn’t a signal that the Tories are not going to take this issue seriously.”

Morning Star, 8 October 2009

See also “Tory lies about Hizb ut-Tahrir are populist attempts to boost poll ratings”, Hizb ut-Tahrir press release, 7 October 2009

Man sentenced over Swedish mosque arson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Östersunds-Posten reports that a 21-year-old man who caused a fire in a Muslim prayer room in Strömsund in August last year has been sentenced to eight months in prison for arson.

The Court of Appeal increased the punishment imposed earlier by Östersund’s District Court, where the sentence was probation for theft and vandalism.

The man was out with some friends in Strömsund, and when they passed a block of flats in the residential Tingvalla area he took them into a room in the basement that was used as a prayer room by Muslims.

The man stole some books and later that night returned to the prayer room. This time, he set fire to a curtain and the fire quickly spread through the premises.

The Appeal Court found the man guilty of arson. The prayer room would have been completely burnt out if outsiders had not intervened, and residents in the building could have been at risk if the fire had continued unchecked.

Under normal circumstances, the man would have been given a two-years prison sentence for arson, but the court reduced the sentence to eight months, and taking into account that the man was 19 when the crime was committed and that he had also completed community service in accordance with the District Court ruling.