‘No Sharia’ demonstrators riot in Luton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton riotNine people have been arrested after hundreds of anti-Islamist protesters clashed with police yesterday. The streets of Luton descended into violence after demonstrators, many hiding their faces behind balaclavas, brandished England flags and chanted at officers.

A group called March for England was said to have organised the rally as a peaceful protest against Muslim extremists. They were joined by a local group United People of Luton.

The mob, which included teenagers and women, held banners with slogans such as “No Sharia Law in the UK” and “Respect our Troops”. Some protesters wore masks with the horned face of Sayful Islam, a hardline Muslim activist in Luton who took part in an anti-war rally in March, which disrupted a homecoming parade for troops.

But chaos broke out when a crowd of around 500 ran away from police who had been escorting the protest along its route, and ran down side streets towards the town centre. Officers on horseback and police dogs were deployed, and policemen drew batons to defend themselves.

Groups of young men in balaclavas and England shirts chanted outside the city centre and one balacava-clad protester held a Rottweiler on a chain, while others clashed with police in riot gear. One Asian man was hit across the face with a banner and left with a bloody nose.

Police said during the disturbance three car windscreens were smashed and a window at a take away restaurant in Chapel Street had been broken. Last night Luton town centre was calm as police maintained a presence on the streets.

A spokesman for United People of Luton, Wayne King, said many people in Luton were concerned and annoyed that the Muslim community in the town had not taken steps to deal with Sayful Islam’s “hate-filled preachings”. The 24-year-old, who wore a T-shirt with the words “No surrender to Al-Qaeda” on it, said:

“We decided enough was enough after the soldiers got heckled as they marched through the town centre by the Muslim extremists. Our community has been racially attacked for the last 10 years. A mosque in the town got set on fire a few weeks ago and it made national news but churches in Luton are regularly being set fire to.”

Daily Mail, 25 May 2009

For the background, see Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 25 May 2009

For an eyewitness account, see Three Counties Unity, 25 May 2009

Also http://www.reconciliationtalk.com/

Meanwhile, over at his Lionheart blog, Paul Ray endorses the rioting. In reply to a comment objecting to “headlines of masked men and violence”, Ray demands:

“What are you doing about the Islamification of Great Britain? Islam has taken over Luton, and the police and council have done nothing but sit back and allow it to happen. This is the culmination of the past 25-30 years. The people of Luton have now arisen to reclaim their community!!! How do you expect them to do it? …

“No one thinks that removing the militant wing of Islam from our land is going to be easy, and if the government will not do it then the people will, and they will quite obviously be wearing balaclavas to do that, because the government will come down on them for defending their community…. So decide where you stand and who you stand with.”

No doubt Luton Council will bear this in mind next time Ray applies for permission to hold a demonstration in the town.

Update:  Read Unite Against Fascism statement on the Luton riot here.

Further update:  Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion points out that the photograph in the Mail report, captioned “Catalyst: Anti-war Islamists protested during an Army march in Luton earlier this year – partly sparking yesterday’s response”, is not of the notorious Al Muhajiroun protest but of a different event entirely.

Turkey urges police action on BNP flyers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Turkish government has demanded the withdrawal of election leaflets distributed in Scotland by the British National party, claiming they are intended to incite racial and religious hatred. Flyers promoting the BNP’s European election campaign suggest that millions of Turkish Muslims would flood into Britain if the country were to be granted full EU membership.

One BNP leaflet being handed out on the streets of Glasgow said taxpayers’ money “shouldn’t be wasted on expanding Europe so that millions of Muslims in Turkey can join the invasion of foreign job snatchers”. Another urges voters to “oppose the dangerous drive backed by the other main parties to give 80m low-wage Muslim Turks the right to swamp Britain”.

Officials at the Turkish embassy in London have complained to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and have suggested the matter be referred to the police because the leaflets potentially breach race relations legislation.

“It is obvious that these are racist and highly inflammatory statements which insult both Turkey and the Turkish nation as a whole and put hundreds of thousands of Turks and Turkish Cypriots who live and have been born in Britain at risk of racist abuse and attacks,” said Orhan Tung, a spokesman for the embassy.

“I think the leaflets are a clear breach of both the Race Relations Act and the Racial and Religious [Hatred] Act, which makes it an offence to distribute written material with the intent to stir up religious or racial hatred. We believe that the relevant British authorities such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission should consider taking legal action against the party in question.”

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Five injured in Athens mosque attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Athens mosque arson

Unknown assailants tried to burn down a makeshift mosque in Athens on Saturday, injuring five Bangladeshi migrants who suffered burns and respiratory problems in the attack, police said.

The attackers broke the windows of a basement flat used as a mosque early on Saturday morning and threw gasoline inside before lighting it, a police source said. Four Bangladeshi men suffered respiratory problems and a fifth was burned, police said. All were initially taken to hospital but later discharged.

The incident followed clashes in Athens between Muslim immigrants and Greek police during protests sparked by allegations that a police officer tore up and stamped on a Koran during an identity check earlier in the week.

Nearly 1,000 Muslims rallied in the citys central Omonia square on Friday in a demonstration organised by leftist, immigrant and anti-racism groups.

Violence broke out at the end of the demonstration as around 100 protesters threw projectiles at police, who tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas.

Over seventy cars and five shops were vandalised and the police arrested 46 people. Seven protestors and seven police were injured in the clashes.

A larger demonstration on Thursday involving some 1,500 Muslim immigrants also degenerated into violence with police using tear gas to disperse protesters who threw dustbins and stones.

The incident that sparked the protests occurred on Wednesday when police stopped four Syrian immigrants to check their papers. One officer allegedly tore up a Koran and stamped on it. Police have opened an investigation.

Another protest march will be held in Athens on Saturday afternoon.

Athens has no licensed mosques and thousands of Muslims immigrants residing in the city are forced to use rented flats and warehouses for their prayers.

Dawn, 24 May 2009

See also “Athens Muslim group attacked in wake of violent protests”, Deutsche Welle, 23 May 2009

Archbishop of Vienna takes stand against Austrian far right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FPO posterA Church leader has added his voice to criticism of the campaign tactics of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party.

The Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, spoke out in a sermon on Thursday, warning politicians against exploiting Christian symbols.

He did not name the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe), but it is using the slogan “The West in Christian hands” in its European election campaign. The FPOe’s leader held up a cross at a rally against a Muslim centre recently.

In his Ascension Day sermon, Cardinal Schoenborn said the Cross “must not be misused as a fighting symbol against other religions”. He said the Cross was “a sign of love, which does not answer violence with violence, or hate with hate, but conquers hatred and hostility through devotion and forgiveness”.

BBC News, 22 May 2009

Is this the end of Christianity in England?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“One way or another, the lights seem to be going out for Christianity in England. If the secularists do not destroy the church there, the Islamists are happy to have a go at it. Just last week it was announced that the BBC has appointed a Muslim to be ‘the Head of Religion and Ethics’. This is simply the latest in a long list of Islamist initiatives which may well turn England into a Muslim nation. As Melanie Philips documented in her important book, Londonistan, the Islamisation of England is steadily rolling on.”

Christian Today, 22 May 2009

BNP threatens Basildon Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP Islam Out of BritainA Muslim leader has urged people not to vote for the BNP in next month’s council and European elections and claimed the Islamic community in Basildon has already been threatened by the far right group.

Brother Sarfraz Sarwar, leader of the Basildon Islamic Centre, says members of the British National Party have been deliberately dishing out their pro-election leaflets near to the Vange Community Centre where Muslims hold their Friday prayers.

He also said one member of the local Muslim community was “verbally abused” by the BNP. Brother Sarwar said: “One of our brothers was coming out of prayers when he saw the BNP handing out leaflets. He screwed it up and threw it away and that’s when they began hurling racist abuse at him.”

Brother Sarwar says the man was threatened with comments such as “We are going to get you” and “your time has come!” He said: “There were four men trying to intimidate him in the street. They were definitely from the BNP. They deliberately targeted us near to our prayer centre.

“I am urging people not to vote for the BNP just because they are fed up with the other parties. A lot of people in our community are worried the BNP could win lots of seats because of the current political climate. They are scared.”

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ENGAGE complains to the Daily Mail about Amanda Platell article

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dear Sir,

Amanda Platell in her column, ‘Equality? You must be joking!‘, (Daily Mail 21st May 2009) makes some shockingly inaccurate remarks.

She claims, ‘In March this year, a large group of Muslims in Luton protested in the town with deeply offensive posters vilifying our returning troops, calling them rapists and murderers.’

The group of Muslims involved in the protest numbered no more than 20, something patently obvious from television footage from the day. In a town where Muslim residents number in excess of 25,000, how could 20 possibly be said to constitute ‘a large group of Muslims’?

Ms Platell also writes of Christian festivals being routinely cancelled at Easter and Christmas each year while no similar treatment of Muslim festivals would be conceivable. Stories of the ‘banning of Christmas’ have regularly been shown to be fabrications; the work of imaginative journalists keen to foment mischief between communities.

It is falsehoods such as these that bolster the likes of the far right BNP.

Yours sincerely,
Inayat Bunglawala
Advisor on Research and Policy
ENGAGE

How MI5 blackmails British Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MI5 logo

Five Muslim community workers have accused MI5 of waging a campaign of blackmail and harassment in an attempt to recruit them as informants.

The men claim they were given a choice of working for the Security Service or face detention and harassment in the UK and overseas.

They have made official complaints to the police, to the body which oversees the work of the Security Service and to their local MP Frank Dobson. Now they have decided to speak publicly about their experiences in the hope that publicity will stop similar tactics being used in the future.

Independent, 21 May 2009

See also MPACUK press release, 22 May 2009

Update:  See the Independent, 22 May 2009

Dorval Mosque vandalized a third time

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dorval mosque graffitiA small mosque in a quiet, residential neighbourhood in Dorval has fallen victim to a third graffiti vandalism attack in the space of 11 months, with no suspects retained after the first two incidents. “”This person is not a graffiti artist. This person is trying to give a message,” said Dorval Mosque’s president Mehmet Deger, alluding to the nature of the scrawls left each time on one of the mosque’s walls.

In this instance, the words “Koran 8,12” appear in blue on the wall facing the parking lot. As in the past two writings left in June 2008 and this last February, respectively, the reference is to a verse in the Muslim holy book that could be taken to mean it encourages the murder of infidels or non-believers. “We still would like to talk to these people,” said Deger, repeating his call for the perpetrators to come forward. “I don’t know whether they are a group of people,” he added. “But they are giving a message. And it looks like they are a bit brain-washed.”

The writing appears to be lower on the surface of the wall than in the two previous cases, which leads Deger to believe a child, or children, were used. “If they educate children this way, it’s no good,” he said.

The wall in question is adorned with a single video camera, but, covered as it was with spider webs, Deger said it is unlikely to do much good. “There is a moment there (on the tape) but you cannot see clearly,” he said.

The incident must have happened overnight between May 17 and 18, Deger said, since he was there at the mosque until 11:30 p.m. on the 17th, and only discovered the graffiti on the morning of the 18th.

A police report was made, but an investigation may not go too far, according to Station 5 community relations officer Liliana Belluci. “I know a police officer was there and he gave (the mosque) some security tips,” she explained. When informed the camera’s footage is unclear though, she said it could be difficult to pursue the investigation.

In April, following media reports of the winter vandalism incident, a national Muslim advocacy group condemned the attack and demanded Montreal police pursue it vigorously.

Reached today over telephone, the Canada Council on American-Islamic Relations’ executive president seemed unaware of the latest attack. “If it has been vandalized again, I can tell you our statement still stands,” said Ihsaan Gardee. “We would call again for the authorities to investigate this as a matter of urgency.”

Meanwhile, the mosque is scheduled to receive a visit by federal Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, who is currently on a trip to the Middle East. “Our office initially heard about the vandalism acts in the paper and then followed up with the mosque and they informed us of the situation,” explained Kenney’s press secretary Julie Carmichael.

The visit is scheduled for May 29.

Courrier de Portneuf, 20 May 2009