Family barred from burying their dead stepfather on a Saturday … because he isn’t a Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thus the headline to an piece in today’s Daily Mail. Yes, it’s yet another “Muslims are being given preferential treatment” story. And, unsurprisingly, it has been taken up in a news article posted on the BNP’s website.

The Daily Mail article in fact reveals the spurious basis of its own scaremongering headline:

“Sheffield City Council offers the ‘extended service’ to Jews and Muslims because their faith and traditions require the dead to be buried as soon as possible. But as Jews cannot bury their dead on the Sabbath – from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday – it means that effectively only Muslims can use the service. Other local authorities are also understood to offer weekend burials only to Jews and Muslims.”

The story is adapted from an original article in the Sheffield Star, which contains the following passage:

“Abdool Gooljar, president of the Sheffield branch of the Society of Islam, said the council should try to meet the needs of every resident of the city. ‘The last thing we want to do is cause more upset at the time of bereavement, and I would urge a re-think so everybody has the right to bury their dead when they want,’ he said. ‘I, firstly as a Muslim and secondly as a citizen, do not want preferential treatment. We are living in a multi-faith, multi-cultural society and we should endeavour to meet the needs of every citizen in this city’.”

The Daily Mail version leaves out the final sentence with its reference to a multi-faith, multicultural society, while the BNP article removes the quotation from Abdool Gooljar in its entirety.

Fascists routed in Cologne

Posted on by Bob Pitt

 

By Walter Held

IT HAD been planned as a central meeting of leading proto-fascists, rightwing populists and neo-nazis. A grand “European Anti-Islamic Congress” was scheduled to be held today Saturday 20th September in the huge German city of Koeln – Cologne – on the banks of the river Rhine.

Invitations had gone out to the Italian Liga Nord, the French Front National, the Austrian FPOe and the BZOe, the British National Party the Belgian Vlams Belang and others. Theme of the weekend “congress” at which the organisers confidently expected 1500 participants was a campaign against the “advance of Islam in Europe”.

The organisers belong to a political grouping called Pro Koeln. This rag tag and bobtail splinter group with a couple of dozen members picked up just under 5 pc of the votes for Koeln’s city election and have a fraction of five councillors in the city parliament. These have a small basis amongst backward elements in the pubs and on the housing estates and have set up a campaign to fight against the building of a central mosque for the city’s Moslem population.

In fact most of the organisers are ex-members or secret members of extreme rightwing groupings like the Republikaner, the German League for Folk and Homeland and the NPD but they hide behind the new respectable organisation “Pro Koeln”. As a front orginsation the right are keen to set up similar groups in other German cities. The Congress this weekend was to be a signal of their presence and their growth.

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Czech far right party stages protest against Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Narodni StranaSupporters of the Czech far right National Party will stage a protest against Islamism outside the Brno mosque on Wednesday, the party has informed on its website.

The Libertas Independent Agency associating Brno Muslims and friends of Muslim nations has expressed its protest against the planned event in a statement CTK has obtained.

“We are naturally monitoring the situation and collecting all important information concerning it,” south Moravian police spokeswoman Jan Sipkova told CTK Monday.

The demonstration is to be a reaction to the death of Czech ambassador to Pakistan Ivo Zdarek who died on Saturday in the ruins of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad that became the target of a terrorist attack, along with another 52 people.

Shortly after Zdarek’s death, the Brno Muslims expressed condolence to his family. In the past, they always distanced themselves from Islamist terrorist attacks.

The Brno mosque which is the oldest Muslim house of worship in the Czech Republic marked ten years of its existence this summer. At the ceremony Muslims distributed one thousand roses among Brno residents as an expression of friendship and thanks for good co-existence.

The Brno Muslims condemned the attacks on New York on September 11, 2001. In the past, they considerably helped Czech diplomats in the salvation of public Czech Television (CT) reporter Michal Kubal and his colleagues after they were kidnapped in war-torn Iraq.

Prague Daily Monitor, 22 September 2008

Far Right extremists flee anti-mosque rally in Germany

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cologne protestersA weekend gathering in Cologne of far-right European extremists ended in farce when the main rally was cancelled as the organisers fled for their own safety.

Politicians invited to the protest included Filip Dewinter, head of the Belgian Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, Andreas Mölzer, an MEP from the Austrian Freedom Party, and Mario Borghezio, an MEP in the Italian Northern League. Two members of the British National Party were also in town, including Richard Barnbrook, its sole member of the London Assembly.

A press conference to launch the pan-European movement against “Islamification” descended into chaos when its secret location – on board a Rhine river cruiser – was leaked. Left-wing activists arrived en masse to disrupt the event and were so successful that only two Pro-Cologners made it on board before the captain cast off in panic and headed for open water.

The group had then planned to tour the site of the mosque but this was stopped by the police on the ground that a busload of right-wing extremists cruising through a predominantly Muslim area might not be conducive to law and order.

So the only chance that Pro-Cologne had to make an impact was at its main rally on Saturday afternoon in the Heumarkt square. The organisers hoped for about 1,500 people. They had not reckoned on 40,000 screaming anti-fascists trying to break into the square to remonstrate with them.

With leading delegates stuck at the airport and the Heumarkt besieged, the rally was called off after only 45 minutes. The organisers began dismantling their microphones and stage, hoping that the security cordon would hold as police battled against the more violent protesters who were throwing paintbombs and snatching batons.

Although some of them were spirited away, many were penned in for several hours, unable even to get a beer as the bar owners in the square refused to serve them. Finally the BNP representatives got out, scuttling out the back of some of the buildings lining the Heumarkt, their attempts to present a united European front against Islamification in tatters.

“This was a victory for the democratic forces in this city,” Fritz Schramma, the Christian Democrat mayor, said.

Times, 22 September 2008

Salma Yaqoob – totalitarian

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Sunday Telegraph presents the first part of a “Top 100 left wingers” list compiled by Iain Dale and Brian Brivati. Salma Yaqoob is at no.97. “Though many would say she does not deserve to be on a list of lefties at all,” Dale and Brivati comment, “being more at home with totalitarianism than democracy.” But what would they know? They can’t even get Salma’s name right.

Who is behind Relentless, Obsession and The Third Jihad?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Obsession (2)“The venom created by the films ‘Relentless’, and ‘Obsession: Radical Islam’s War With the West’ has been slowly working its way into the hearts and minds of people across the country for a couple of years. Now the same group that brought us these atrocities is coming out with another film ‘The Third Jihad’. These films are only part of what Bob Crane has called a Tsunami of Islamophobia that seems to be rushing in ever higher waves towards the Muslim community in America….

“I know from personal experience over many years of being involved with interfaith dialogue that the views that this film promotes are not the views of all Jewish people, but I also know that those who have been responsible for making this film and for promoting it widely have been primarily Jewish. It truly saddens me that members of a community who should know better and who have experienced a holocaust that resulted at least partially from widespread stereotyping and demonization of Jewish people. I believe that this marginal group within the Jewish community is so blinded by their need to defend the State of Israel at any cost that they do not see the cost of their propaganda to another community.

“They are a marginal group, but they are making a lot of noise. In fact, they are making so much noise that they are drowning out the voices of those in the mainstream Jewish community who have worked so hard with mainstream Muslims and Christians to build bridges of dialogue and work towards peace and justice in this world.”

Sheila Musaji in The American Muslim, 20 September 2008

Are they really ‘Preventing Extremism’?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma addressing rally“The recent convictions of three young Muslim men on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions highlight the ongoing and real threat of terrorism. In video messages explaining their motivations the culprits make a clear and explicit linkage between their intentions and the impact of Western foreign policy in Muslim lands.

“Yet despite it coming from their own mouths that it is anger over foreign policy driving their hate, the government continues to deny it as the primary factor. Instead it blames a ‘dangerous Islamist ideology’ for creating ‘a hatred of the Western way of life’ as if such ideology is free-standing and exists in some kind of vacuum.

“In this discourse all Islamic political or social activists who are critical of the government, from whatever political hue, get lumped together with the sinister description of ‘Islamists’….

“By denying the legitimacy of democratic opposition to government foreign policy from Muslims, and by promoting and recognising only those Muslims who toe the line, government policy is serving to strengthen the hands of the genuine extremists; those who say that our engagement in the democratic process is pointless or wrong….

“The government now increasingly tars all Islamic organisations and individuals that openly oppose Western oppressive polices in the Middle East with the ‘extremist’ brush. Hence their recent attacks on the mainstream Islam Expo event in London….

“The danger of this approach is that it serves to squeeze the democratic space for dissent within the Muslim community. If Muslims organisations are reluctant to provide the space for sensitive discussions for fear of extremist’s accusations, where are these young people to go? Where will their views and concerns get an airing? The answer is obvious. They will be expressed in private and secret, with the genuine extremists keen to be provide listening ears and simplistic solutions.”

Salma Yaqoob in The Respect Paper, September 2008

German anti-Islam rally cancelled after clashes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ProtestorsGerman police cancelled an anti-Islamic congress planned for Saturday in Cologne after leftist opponents of the rally clashed with its right-wing backers.

The group Pro-Cologne called the rally to oppose a decision by local authorities in Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

It invited like-minded nationalist groups from around Europe to join the “Stop Islam” rally to fight what it called the “Islamisation and immigration invasion” of Germany and Europe.

“The rally has been cancelled,” a police spokesman said. Many protesters cheered the announcement. A spokesman for Pro-Cologne said they were surprised by the cancellation and would hold a news conference later on Saturday.

Police said 40,000 people protested against the rally. It had been expected to attract 1,500 people but only dozens made it.

Some of the protesters carried placards reading “Nazis out of Cologne” and “Temples, synagogues, churches and mosques – everything’s okay”. “We’re here to show racism the red card,” said Cologne mayor Fritz Schramma. “Racists and extremists aren’t welcome.”

Reuters, 20 September 2008

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NAMP calls for BNP councillor to be prosecuted over anti-Muslim leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police are facing a race row after allegedly failing to properly investigate “Islamophobic” leaflets. Muslim officers have accused the Lancashire force of failing to make arrests over a hate crime and now plan to take the issue to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The flyers, from six months ago, said: “Muslims are exclusively responsible for the heroin trade.” The leaflets, printed by BNP councillor Brian Norton Parker, appeared in Pendle and Burnley and demand an “apology” and “compensation” from Muslims.

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Nebraska company fires Muslims over Ramadan prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Grand Island meatpacking plant fired at least 86 workers Friday after they walked off the job amid a dispute over prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, company officials said. But a Muslim leader and one of the fired workers said 150 Muslims lost their jobs.

JBS Swift & Co. spokeswoman Tamara Smid confirmed 86 firings late Friday, saying the employees were terminated earlier that day for repeatedly leaving work without authorization. She would not give any other details, including whether anyone else had been fired.

Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said 80 workers were thrown out after an altercation late Thursday. He says when they tried to return for their shift Friday, they were fired, along with 70 others.

Associated Press, 19 September 2009

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