Introducing Tyson. The EDL's new Dog Defence League's Leader.

Earlier on today whilst surfing the video sharing site You Tube, we came across a video uploaded by an EDL suppoter that reveals a new and interesting development in the EDL's campaign.

Apparently there is now a Doggy division of the protest movement.

This  DDL(Dod Defence League) (sic)  led by the Large Spiked Collared Muzzled Rottweiler Tyson, actively campaign against Muslim taxi drivers who refuse to allow guide dogs into their cabs.

As to why Tyson only feels its necessary to target Muslims taxi driver's who don't allow guide dogs into taxi's rather than any taxi driver that does not allow guide dogs is anybody's ruff guess.

I would ask readers to make up their own my mind as to why an EDL member would take such an "ard" dog to such an event with such a ferocious looking collar.

Here's the video description as it's posted on You Tube, it even has made up words.

And here's Tyson

Hindu terrorism charges force India to reflect on prejudices against Muslims

When a series of bomb attacks ripped through Muslim neighborhoods, mosques and shrines in India in recent years, suspicion fell firmly on a familiar culprit: Islamist terror. After each incident, scores of Indian Muslims were rounded up, and many were tortured. Confessions were extracted, the names of various militant “masterminds” leaked to the media and links with Pakistan widely alleged.

Never mind that most of the victims were Muslims; it seemed natural to many people, from New Delhi to Washington, to assume the attacks were the work of extremist Pakistani militants and their Indian Muslim sympathizers, intent on fanning religious tensions in India and disrupting the peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Read the full item at the Washington Post

Nationalist link suspected in FSB bombing (Russia)

Wednesday’s bomb outside the FSB Academy in Moscow may have been the work of a nationalist group, investigators believe.

However, there is no clear link between extremist groups and the attack, police sources admitted to gzt.ru, although yesterday saw the start of legal proceedings to outlaw far right movement DPNI.

And officers admit that the explosive device was more sophisticated than those usually planted by nationalist gangs.


The Moscow News

Jewish Council 'alarmed' by anti-Muslim hearings (USA)

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) has expressed concern over the hearings on so-called radicalization of Muslims in the United States spearheaded by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

JCUA says the anti-Muslim hearings “go against American values of religious freedom, diversity and equality”.

“We are disturbed by the narrow scope of the hearings, which are singling out and stereotyping an entire community. We oppose using a discriminatory lens of religion and race to investigate threats to national security,” JCUA said in a statement posted on its website.

The group said that the Muslim community in the United States is the victim of "injustices being perpetrated on a daily basis which is not just a threat to that community, but a threat to all people striving for equality in our diverse society." JCUA described the hearings as "troubling" adding that they could further fan the flame of anti-Muslim sentiments in the United States.

FACTS & FIGURES
Congressman Peter King, who has rationalized his past defense of IRA terrorism without a hint of self-awareness or irony, is now the self-appointed protector of America from future terrorist attacks by holding a congressional hearing on the "Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response." Guardian

King has in the past claimed there are "too many mosques" in America and that 85% of American mosques and its religious leaders are radicalized, a statement that has been thoroughly discredited. Guardian

Despite a recent study showing that 40% of all extremist plots in America were thwarted as a result of Muslim American help, King ignores this evidence and stubbornly asserts that there is a "lack of cooperation" by Muslims with law enforcement. The intent, scope and framing of King's hearing have been criticized by law enforcement officials, counter-terrorism professionals, civil rights organizations, interfaith leaders and political commentators as being misguided, ineffective and potentially dangerous. Guardian

The majority of terror plots in America since 9/11 have been committed by non-Muslims, especially rightwing extremists and white supremacists. Examples include the failed Martin Luther King parade bomber in Washington State; Jared Lee Loughner, the Arizona shooter who killed six people, including a judge, and Joseph Stack who flew his plane into an IRS building last year. Guardian

 In the first-ever, nationwide survey of Muslim Americans, the Pew research center found some rather interesting facts:

 Roughly two-thirds (65%) of adult Muslims in the U.S. were born elsewhere. Among native-born Muslims, roughly half are African American (20% of U.S. Muslims overall), many of whom are converts to Islam. pewresearch.org

 A majority of Muslim Americans (53%) say it has become more difficult to be a Muslim in the United States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Most also believe that the government "singles out" Muslims for increased surveillance and monitoring. pewresearch.org

 Muslim Americans express broad dissatisfaction with the direction of U.S. foreign policy. Most say that the U.S. made the wrong decision in using force against Iraq. pewresearch.org

 More than one-fifth of U.S. Muslims (22%) currently are enrolled in college classes, with similar rates of college enrollment among foreign-born (22%) and native-born (20%) Muslims. pewresearch.org

 About a quarter (24%) of Muslim Americans have a college degree, including 10% who have gone on to graduate study. These numbers are similar to the U.S. general public. pewresearch.org

 Economically, family income among Muslim Americans is roughly comparable with that of the population as a whole. Among adults nationwide, 44% report household incomes of $50,000 or more annually, as do 41% of Muslim American adults. pewresearch.org

Press TV

Wilders' inciting hatred trial reopens (Netherlands)

The trial of MP Geert Wilders on inciting hatred and discrimination charges reopens on Monday.

The original trial was halted last October after a number of irregularities that a law court panel said could be deemed prejudicial to the anti-Islam party leader.

The trial is now reopening with a new panel of three judges. The Netherlands does not have jury trials.

Monday morning’s proceedings will kick off with an opening statement from Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz in which he will outline the legal arguments why he believes Wilders should not stand trial.

Alliance
Wilders, whose party is in an alliance with the new government, is on trial in Amsterdam on charges of discrimination and inciting hatred against Muslims, Moroccans and non-Western immigrants.

The trial centres on a number of statements made by Wilders over the years. In one, he likened the Koran to Hitler's book Mein Kampf and called for it to be banned.

In another, he said: 'The borders will be closed that day for all non-western immigrants....We have to stop the tsunami of islamisation. It is affecting our heart, our identity, our culture.'

In the earlier trial, the public prosecution department said Wilders should be found not guilty on all charges. The department had been ordered to take the case to court by the appeal court after a number of groups and immigrant organisations called on it to press charges.

Dutch News

More eyewitness testimonies from brutal police intervention in Nový Bydžov Czech Rep)

ROMEA, translated by Gwendolyn Albert

Eyewitnesses to the brutal police intervention against a peaceful gathering of those opposing the neo-Nazi march in Na Šarlejích street in Nový Bydžov have been writing in to the editors at news server Romea.cz. According to those harmed and to eyewitnesses, the entire intervention was disproportionate and very brutal. Mounted police officers rode their horses at top speed into a crowd of people who luckily managed to begin a retreat just before the onslaught began. News server Romea.cz and news server Denikreferendum.cz have published several accounts.

The start of the intervention was described for news server Romea.cz by Karel Richter: "The police horses set off at a gallop and charge the crowd with brutal force. Their riders, armed with long night sticks, swing at the demonstrators willy-nilly. The body of one of the horses throws me aside and pushes me against the alley wall. The crowd is separated into two parts, each pressed against the walls of the alley, with the police riders in the center charging people and beating them with their night sticks. I hear the smacking noise as one of the riders breaks the nose of a young girl standing next to me with his night stick. She is bleeding profusely. I want to help her but I can't, I can't get to her, the police rider is swinging his arms at me and luckily misses my head by a few centimeters, but air brushes my face as the stick swooshes past. Police officers then start using tactical explosions, throwing stun grenades into the tangles of people who are shouting with fear, pressed to the walls, being sliced at by the police riders. People are screaming with fear like animals and running away."

Another demonstrator wrote to news server Romea.cz: "As I started running out of fear, police officers riding those poor horses slammed me into the fence. I tried to speed up. Even though the mounted police could clearly see they had achieved what they wanted and that I and the other demonstrators, all out of our minds with fear, were now running away along the fence, they did not stop swinging at us with their night sticks. I was struck on the shoulder, as was a somewhat older woman in front of me."

Another 58-year-old demonstrator sent in her eyewitness account to news server Romea.cz and emphasized that she is not some teenager spoiling for a fight. "I was standing in the front, I believe in the third row (waiting for Ondřej Liška to return from the town hall) and I could not believe my eyes that it was possible to intervene against us so brutally and so quickly just because we were standing in the way. Aren't there worse misdeeds and crimes going on in this country? A cop grabbed my bag and pulled me out of the crowd, flinging me to the ground, and I was glad that some good soul pulled me out of the pandemonium and got me up off of my broken knees, because the pressure of the cops taking off and the horses and the shoving people could not be withstood. We had just been standing there with our arms linked, no one had done anything. A girl next to us got a truncheon to the head and was bleeding so much she couldn't even see the road," the victim told us.

Martin Marek, a student activist from Plzeň, described the intervention for Deník Referendum as follows: "The police called on those present to disperse, which most of them did not do, but rather attempted to form human chains in several rows. A disproportionate police intervention was then launched against the non-violent, peaceful gathering. The riot police parted their ranks and made way for mounted police to gallop aggressively and incomprehensibly into the passively standing people. Some people never even managed to get up off the ground before the intervention began and found themselves directly beneath the hooves of the police horses. Most of those gathered had no room to retreat in the narrow space, so they were struck by police with night sticks and collapsible truncheons. A small group of roughly six people were surrounded by police officers by the wall of one of the buildings. The officers repeatedly struck them with night sticks and charged them with the horses before letting them leave the scene. One of the police officers standing apart from the protesters was struck down by a horse and then the riot police ran at the surprised and out-of-breath demonstrators and started to use firecrackers in addition to truncheons."

Martin Marek also points out that some of the riot police were not wearing identification numbers, so it is not possible to identify them and complain against specific officers for using disproportionate force, such as those who used the metal collapsible truncheons. "People drew attention to the police officers' lack of numbers before the intervention, but in vain," Martin Marek writes.

Another demonstrator, Dagmar Daňková, responding to the coverage on TV NOVA, which labeled all of those who had counter-demonstrated as anarchists, wrote for Deník Referendum: "Am I a typical anarchist? I am the mother of a grown son, a teacher who forces her friends to stamp their public transportation tickets even coming home from a party at night. Before it all started, I was admonishing a boy from Antifa that the police are not our enemies. I hope the welt on my arm hurts a good while longer so I can be reminded how terribly clueless I am."

Another demonstrator sent an e-mail to Romea.cz that reads: "I, for example, was reading in order to make the time pass. When the horses suddenly charged us, I was pressed to the wall and the infantry started to push us. Before I could put my book away, a riot cop had battered it out of my hands. He let fly to get that book away from me, probably in the interest of securing order, and batted it beneath his colleagues' feet. There was no other reason for him to do that. One of the last people to be pushed out of the street selflessly managed to pick it up, so I won't have to pay the library fine. In the meantime, I saw a shower of completely unjustified blows being struck by the infantry with their truncheons and even more malicious blows being struck from the height of the horses' saddles - which surprisingly managed to miss me - and a few firecrackers exploded beneath my feet. In the noise, smoke and stench you couldn't see or hear. Of course, all it would have taken to get us to move out of the way of the neo-Nazi march would have been to have pushed us back with the infantry. Practically no one would have offered any resistance, we were all empty-handed. We did not come there to fight with anyone, the cops least of all. I did not see anyone who wanted a fight, and against a police phalanx we would have been powerless."

Were you among the demonstrators in Na Šarlejích street? Describe your experiences to us and let us know if you were injured! Send us your photographs or video footage of this brutal police intervention! Write to us at romea@romea.cz.

Romea

MIGRANT ISLAND PUTS EUROPE ON EDGE (Italy)

Thousands of Tunisians landing on a rocky Italian outcrop have put Europe on edge about the fallout of North Africa's revolts -- and a visit by a French far-right leader is set to raise tensions. After a revolution in Tunisia in January sparked uprisings across the region, around 8,000 undocumented immigrants have made the perilous journey to the island of Lampedusa -- more than the total for the whole of 2010. While the island's fishing communities have been patient with the wave of weary migrants arriving on rickety boats, Lampedusa's 850-bed immigrant centre is heavily overcrowded and local authorities say the island has been overrun. And there are fears now that the strife in Libya will open the floodgates and bring hundreds of thousands more migrants -- a concern that Europe's leading anti-immigration advocates have been quick to seize on. Given by recent polls as a favourite in France's presidential election next year, France's National Front leader Marine Le Pen is set to visit Lampedusa on Monday with Mario Borghezio -- a lawmaker from Italy's Northern League party. As she prepared for her trip to the 20-square-kilometre island that has a population of just 6,000 people, Le Pen said she wanted to see the front lines of the immigration crisis to "get an idea of what's going on." "I have no intention of being provocative," Le Pen said in an interview with Italian news agency ANSA.

Local lawmakers from the centre-left opposition Democratic Party are not convinced. "It's a real provocation for all Lampedusans who believe firmly in Christian values, hospitality and human solidarity," they said. Migrants usually only stay a few days on Lampedusa and are then put on ships or planes to immigrant detention centres across Italy. An agreement with Tunisia on returning those not granted asylum has fallen through since the revolution, meaning thousands are stranded. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, also from the Northern League, has warned that some of the 1.5 million people trying to flee Libya could be headed for Italy's shores -- and Italy can't cope on its own, he says. "Europe is being invaded," Maroni has said in one of many dramatic comments. But Maroni too, said Le Pen's trip should not "throw fuel on the fire" of a delicate situation on the gorund in Lampedusa. "We will ensure it is not used as propaganda for French domestic politics," he said.

There are major divisions in Europe on how much burden-sharing there should be on immigration, with many northern European states sceptical. "Europe's job is not to rescue North Africans from their own governments... and bring them to Europe," Andrew Brons, an MEP from the far-right British National Party told the European Parliament last month. When in late February Italy called for more EU help to handle the problem, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said: "There's no refugee influx right now. Let's not provoke one by talking about it." Germany and the Nordic countries have refused funding for a budget for the EU border management agency Frontex big enough to buy boats, helicopters and planes to help North African country's control their shores. In an interview Wednesday with French daily Le Midi Libre, Le Pen called for a three-way agreement with Spain and Italy to take a ruthless approach to incoming boats and use military vessels to tow them straight back. The measure, she said, would help save lives: "If we should welcome even just one of these boats without taking it back to the country it came from, we would be sending out a terrible signal to 'try the adventure'." But Jean-Pierre Cassarino, a professor at the European University Institute, said simply turning the boats back or expelling migrants from Europe were not solutions that addressed the social and economic reasons for migration. "They are short-sighted policies that are aimed at responding to emergency situations. They are responding to consequences, not causes. The approach has be reviewed," Cassarino told AFP.

AFP

NATIONALISTS GETTING MORE DANGEROUS (Russia)

Nationalist groups in Russia are becoming increasingly clandestine and dangerous, researchers said on Thursday, speaking after violent riots by extreme-rightists and football supporters shook Moscow late last year. While fewer people died at the hands of nationalists last year than the year before, ultra-nationalist groups are gaining more supporters and becoming more sophisticated, said SOVA Centre, an independent group which monitors hate crimes in Russia. “The young have stopped rallying around their leaders. There are a lot of small groups which prefer to lay low. It’s thousands of people. “They believe they are conducting a guerilla war, not only against migrants but also against the authorities,” said researcher Alexander Verkhovsky as he presented the group’s latest report on xenophobia and racism in the country. “While it was relatively easy to fight them several years ago, it has now become much harder to find them,” he said, chalking up the change in tactics to an increasing pressure from the authorities.

“There has been a change that may have consequences in the future: football fans have joined radical nationalists,” said Verkhovsky. “They used to belong to two different environments that did not trust each other.” In December, scores of football fans and ultranationalists clashed with police near the Kremlin in a protest ostensibly at police handling of the shooting of a Spartak Moscow football fan in one of the most violent riots in recent years. Russia’s tough-talking premier Vladimir Putin has vowed to “respond severely” to the violence and said it was a “disturbing sign”. But many analysts say the Kremlin has deliberately courted nationalists for years and the December riots and the subsequent police crackdown showed that the authorities did not entirely control the situation. “The situation is bad, things have gone too far and it is not clear how to find a way out of it,” said Verkhovsky.

Last year, nationalists killed 37 people and injured 382, said the report co-authored by Galina Kozhevnikova, a founder and director of the SOVA Centre, who passed away earlier this month. By comparison, 84 people were killed and 434 injured in racist attacks in 2009.

AFP