RISE OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN SCOTLAND (uk)

Attacks ranging from verbal abuse to vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries have coincided with events in the Middle East, says the report written by two Scots academics, due to be published in the journal of the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs next week. The document accuses the Scottish Trades Union Congress of bias after the STUC called for sanctions against Israel last year. The study was compiled by Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and former head of the philosophy department at Glasgow University, and Kenneth Collins, chairman of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and visiting professor at the medical faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They wrote: “There has been historically little anti-Semitism in Scotland, and in particular good relations with the churches. Recently there has been a significant increase, much of it associated with events in the Middle East. “Specifically, the Scottish trade union movement has pursued a policy of boycotting Israel despite a dialogue with the Jewish community aimed at understanding both sides of the conflict.” It is claimed that in 2008, 10 out of 541 anti-Semitic incidents recorded in the UK (1.8%) occurred in Scotland.

However, in 2009 this increased to 30, according to the Community Security Trust, a charity that “represents British Jewry to police, government and media on anti-Semitism and security”. The authors continued: “Events in the Middle East, often accompanied by popular conflation of Israelis and Jews, have a habit of leading to outbreaks of anti-Semitic activity. “These include anti-Semitic daubing at synagogues and cemeteries as well as threats and verbal abuse.” The study claims some Jews in Scotland believe community relations are deteriorating after the STUC opted to boycott Israel last year. The authors said: “The report of the STUC delegation [to Palestine] itself showed considerable bias in the way information was presented and their decisions were made. In fact, subsequent reports indicated that the STUC had already decided on a boycott and divestment policy and their visit was intended to confirm the decision.” David Moxham, deputy secretary of the STUC, said yesterday: “The study is a very partial account. It is out of context and attempts to show that we have approached this in a biased fashion. We are biased to the extent that we don’t consider the situation in the Middle East to be a conflict between equal partners. We do think that Israel does have an enormous responsibility to change its activities, as does the international community.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “There is no excuse for any form of hate crime; it is simply not acceptable and it will not be tolerated. That is why Scotland has tough legislation to prosecute those who carry out crimes based on discrimination. Only by working together can we all prosper in an equal, modern Scotland.” The document describes a long-standing Jewish community in Scotland which numbered 18,000 in the 1950s but is now around 10,000, largely due to emigration. About half live in the Glasgow suburb of East Renfrewshire. A further 1,119 Jews are living in Glasgow itself and 790 in Edinburgh. The study said the Jewish community in Scotland is more aged than wider Scottish society, and some 2.5% live in a medical or care establishment – the highest proportion of all religious groups in Scotland. Around 30% of Jews were of pensionable age, compared to 19% of the general population, and the study said: “In line with historical Jewish employment patterns, 27% of those working were self-employed, compared to a national proportion of 11%. Jews had higher educational qualifications, and more than twice the proportion of Jews were in higher managerial and professional occupations than in the wider community.”

Herald Scotland

ANOTHER MOLOTOV COCKTAIL FOUND IN ROMA HOUSE (Czech Rep.)

Another Molotov cocktail was found Thursday in a house in which Czech Romanies have been living and the local police said the liquid seems to be the same as that used in two cocktails thrown by unknown persons into another Roma house in Opava on Saturday night. None of the three Molotov cocktails burnt and nobody was injured. Sona Bradacova, spokeswoman for the regional police, said the police have been investigating the case. Nobody lived in the flat in which the bottle was found today and the windows of the room were permanently opened, she said. The incident was reported to the police by one of the house's residents. At night on March 14, unknown perpetrators threw a Molotov cocktail into a Romany house in Ostrava, which is the centre of the north Moravian region. The Molotov cocktail then fell into a room where a teenage girl was sleeping but it did not break. The girl woke up and managed to extinguish the burning wick and the carpet that had caught fire. The police investigate the case as an attempted murder.

The most serious arson attack afflicted a Romani family in Vítkov near Opava April 2009 when three Molotov cocktails burnt the house down. Three people were injured. A baby girl suffered burns on 80 percent of her body yet doctors succeeded in saving her life. The police caught the perpetrators, all right-wing extremists from north Moravia. Charged with an attempted racially-motivated murder of several people, their trial will start at the Ostrava court on May 11. They face up to 15 years in prison, but even life imprisonment, if found guilty. Kumar Vishwanathan, an activist working with the Romani community in the region, said previously that no such attack should be underestimated. He said much will depend on the court verdict in the forthcoming trial of four right-wing radicals suspected of the arson attack in Vitkov.

Prague Monitor

HUNGARY PARTY TO FOLLOW EUROPEAN EXTREMISM'S MOVE AWAY FROM FRINGES

It has been a good few weeks for racists, populists and rightwing radicals across Europe. A comeback for Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front in French regional elections. Big gains in Italy for the anti-immigrant Northern League. The Islam-baiting campaign of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands has taken his Freedom party to 25% and poll position ahead of June's general election. And this weekend, Hungary is facing its biggest political earthquake in 20 years of democracy. On Sunday, the mainstream right and the neofascists are expected to take over the Westminster lookalike parliament on the banks of the Danube. It will be a landslide victory. The left and the liberals who have run the country for eight years, taking Hungary to the brink of bankruptcy and into the arms of the International Monetary Fund, will be reduced to a rump. The next prime minister, Viktor Orban, a combative populist, is leading his centre-right Fidesz party to a huge majority, running at more than 60% in the opinion polls. He may even secure a two-thirds majority enabling him to rewrite Hungary's constitution at will. But the biggest breakthrough will be for Jobbik, the extremist antisemitic and antigypsy movement "for a better Hungary", which will win seats in the parliament for the first time and may emerge as the second biggest party. "It's a flood that's coming. Everyone knows it's coming. We're just waiting for it. Will we drown or will we swim," said Pal Tamas, director of Budapest's Institute of Sociology. "People are trying to use the antifascist argument against Jobbik. But it's not working. It's being very poorly received." During the past week a rabbi's home in the capital has been attacked during Passover and a Holocaust memorial was defaced. Budapest Jews have taken to the streets to protest. The country's large and marginalised Roma and gypsy communities are bracing themselves for a surge in racism and harassment.

Roma solution

"In terms of the gypsy issue, the situation in certain parts of the country is akin to civil war," said Jobbik's young leader, Gabor Vona. "Now only drastic interventions are capable of helping ... we must produce an environment in which gypsy people can return to a world of work, laws and education. And for those unwilling to do so, two alternatives remain: they can either choose to take advantage of the right of free movement granted by the European Union, and leave the country, because we will simply no longer put up with lifestyles dedicated to freeloading or criminality; or, there is always prison." Though banned, Jobbik maintains a "Hungarian guard" of paramilitaries who dress in 1940s fascist paraphernalia. Vona wants this "gendarmerie" to police Roma "ghettos". "Jobbik is openly legitimising anti-Roma violence. It is openly antisemitic. And it will do very well on Sunday," said Anton Pelinka, an Austrian political scientist working in Budapest. Gaspar Miklos Tamas, a liberal and veteran anticommunist dissident, wrote this week that "a national tragedy" was befalling Hungary. "There are many factors, but the most important is the success of the post-fascist Jobbik party." Jobbik won 15% of the vote in last summer's elections to the European parliament and could repeat the trick on Sunday, threatening to push Hungary's governing socialists into third place. The breakthrough comes as the far right across Europe becomes more than a fringe presence. In France a fortnight ago, the xenophobic National Front won 11% of the vote in regional elections, with 20% of those who voted for Nicolas Sarkozy three years ago opting for the far right. Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing coalition coasted to victory in Italian regional elections last week, but the real winner was Umberto Bossi's Northern League which captured the regions of Piedmont and Veneto and made big inroads in the working-class areas of northern Italy, normally a stronghold of the left.

Ahead of the Dutch elections, Wilders appears to be going from strength to strength, while later this month in Austria, the far-right mother of 10, Barbara Rosenkranz (left), whose husband publishes a neo-Nazi newsletter, will contest the Austrian presidency with the support of the country's bestselling tabloid, the Kronen Zeitung. In Belgium the extreme right separatist Vlaams Belang party has been joined by mainstream rightwing parties, so secessionists now enjoy almost 50% support among Flemish voters, according to the polls. A conventional explanation for the breakthrough of the far right sees the success as a protest vote, waxing and waning depending on the performance of the mainstream parties of the centre-right and left. "This is not such a big victory for Jobbik and Fidesz, more a result of the failures of the previous government and its incredible incompetence," said Julius Horvat, head of European studies at Budapest's Central European University. But analysts detect a more durable pattern, particularly in western Europe, entrenching the far right as an established presence in politics.

"This is no longer a sudden surge that then vanishes. The far right has become a permanent fixture in our societies now," said Jean-Yves Camus, a specialist in European radical movements at the Paris thinktank the Institute of International and Strategic Relations. In France, Le Pen has been a major factor in politics for 25 years. In Austria, the far right has been a key player since the late Joerg Haider hijacked the political agenda in the 1990s. Today in Rome, the "post-fascist" National Alliance of Gianfranco Fini held a centre-right conference on whether Italy should be transformed into a presidential system modelled on France. This week Bossi held a "summit" with Berlusconi to push his agenda of federalising Italy, meaning his wealthy northern power base stops subsidising the south. The Northern League has been in government in Italy for seven of the past nine years. In Denmark the far right has long been propping up a conservative government in parliament, and in Switzerland it is the strongest party. The far right leaders are now central and not peripheral players in their national politics.

Disaffected conservatives
Political scientists note that while there is much talk of "neofascism", in western Europe some of the most successful parties are rooted less in 1930s European fascism than in disaffection with mainstream conservativism. Whether out of opportunism or conviction, many have shifted to the far right to exploit the potent issues of immigration and Islam and to broaden their electoral base. This has occurred in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy. "What's new is that some of the conservatives have moved to the radical right, rejecting multiculturalism, Islam and immigration," said Camus. "It's … a radical right that is disconnected from the traditions of European fascism." In colonising the far-right territory, these former conservatives are winning over traditional leftwing voters. Where previously their powerbase was made up from small businesses, shopkeepers, and lower middle class, they are now making inroads into the working-class vote among those hostile to immigration and worried about job losses. In Hungary and in the young democracies of central Europe, the situation is different. "In post-communist Europe, it's the old-fashioned far right. In Western Europe, it's the postmodern far right," said Pelinka. "In central Europe it's still the old enemies — the Jews, the gypsies, the national minorities." If wealthy societies of western Europe are seized by new phobias, in the east old prejudices die hard. While 55% of Hungarians do not want Romas as neighbours, half are opposed to a homosexual or lesbian next door and 22% are averse to having a Slovak, Romanian or a Jew for a neighbour,according to a poll by Pal Tamas, leading Hugarian sociologists.
The Guardian

BNP activist admits explosive charge (UK)

However, David Lucas, of South Road, Lakenheath, denied two further charges when he appeared before Ipswich Crown Court for a hearing into his case yesterday.

The 49-year-old pleaded not guilty to having an explosive substance under suspicious circumstances and possessing a prohibited weapon.
A fourth charge of possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life was withdrawn by the Crown Prosecution Service during the same hearing.
Lucas is due to stand trial for the two allegations he denies on July 26 at the Crown Court.

The charges relate to April 23 last year.

The charge of possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances can only be brought by police with the authorisation of the Attorney General.
Lucas is currently on conditional bail. He is required to live and sleep each night at his address in South Road, Lakenheath, or at a caravan at Hockwold, Norfolk.

Lucas must also not make contact with William Hudson or Robert Chipperfield and not take any steps to leave the country.

His passport remains with police.

eadt

CALLS FOR CONDEMNATION OF NEO-NAZI ATTACK (Slovenia)

The NGOs, civil initiatives and youth sections of coalition SocDems, Zares and LibDems associated in the campaign "For All Families" called on Thursday for a public condemnation of the attack of a group of neo-nazis on a student in the lobby of the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts (FF) on Tuesday. The campaign - which was set up in support for the new family law bill, which allows gay adoptions and is currently in parliamentary procedure - called on all who oppose the ideas of neo-nazism and neo-fascism to condemn all hate-based movements and actions. According to the campaign, organised forms of neo-nazism and neo-fascism are on the rise in Slovenia, with extreme rightist groups under false pretense of patriotism spreading hatred and intolerance based on nationality, race or creed.


The lack of public condemnation of acts of violence, like Tuesday's attack on the 29-year-old, give extremists courage for new forms of hostility.

STA

Terreblanche laid to rest in South Africa

The funeral of South Africa's white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, who was killed at his farm on Saturday, has taken place without major incident.

Several police and army units were deployed to prevent possible clashes between supporters of Mr Terreblanche and the local black population.

About 3,000 people commemorated his controversial life in the rural north-western town of Ventersdorp.

Mr Terreblanche led the Afrikaner Resistance movement, the AWB
The ceremony at the Afrikaner Protestant Church ended with some mourners performing Nazi-style salutes.

Following the ceremony, Mr Terreblanche's coffin accompanied by the mourners travelled to his farm, about 10km (six miles) away.

Thousands of AWB supporters gathered in the town, with the mourners including armed men in camouflage as well as young children, says the BBC's Karen Allen.
South Africa's trade union federation, Cosatu, held a mass meeting on the other side of the town.
Our correspondent says the effect of this meeting - called to discuss recent farm violence - was unclear.

On the one hand, it was a way of occupying black farm workers who otherwise might have turned up at the funeral, she says.
But on the other hand, it could be seen as a somewhat provocative gesture given the timing, she adds.
The church where the service was held is normally attended mostly by white South Africans.

Some had travelled long distances to take part in the funeral.
As a gesture of reconciliation, dignitaries from the local black community were invited to attend the service, our correspondent says.

But just a handful of them took up the offer.

Murder charges
Two of Mr Terreblanche's workers have been charged with his murder.
Although the authorities stress that the killing had more to do with money than politics, it has led to a period of heightened racial tension.
The death of Mr Terreblanche and the rising popularity of Julius Malema of the ANC Youth League are destroying South Africa's hard-won peace, opposition leader Helen Zille said.

White groups and opposition parties blamed Mr Malema for singing an apartheid-era song at rallies, that includes the lyrics "shoot the Boer [farmer]".

The ANC has rejected that link, but accepts that the song and the debate around it was polarising society.
It has now instructed its members to stop using it.

BBC News

'Racist motive' in Pole's murder (UK)

A Polish man was kicked about the head and had his throat stamped on during a suspected race-hate murder in Newry.

The claim was made in the High Court in Belfast during a challenge to grant bail to the teenager accused of killing Marek Muszynski.
Adrian Cunningham, 19, from Lisgullion Park, Newry, faces a charge of murdering Mr Muszynski at Upper Edward Street in the city in July 2009.

The challenge to bail failed, but the the bail conditions were tightened.
Prosecutors said Mr Muszynski, 40, was confronted by two men after leaving an off-licence and taken to an alleyway after they told him a suspicious car was following him.

It was alleged that he was knocked to the ground, beaten and robbed of some small change before his trousers were pulled down.
The court heard that after the fatal attack, Mr Cunningham, then bought drink and a takeaway meal to eat at a flat where he changed his clothing.

Emotions
A district judge granted him bail on Wednesday but on Friday the prosecution mounted a High Court appeal, claiming he may flee or be targeted for possible reprisals because emotions are still running high.
Crown counsel Gareth Purvis said: "Police would say this was an extremely violent, unprovoked and also, they believe, racially motivated attack."

He told the court the victim had been a vulnerable man who depended on a local soup kitchen for food.
A judge was told Mr Cunningham, who is charged along with two other men allegedly stood on the victim's throat with one foot and lifted his other leg so all the weight bore down on him.
According to the prosecution Mr Muszynski's head was kicked and bounced about from side to side.

Sociology
"Police are regarding this incident as a hate crime, purely because of the applicant's admissions of racial taunts made at the scene," Mr Purvis added.
Remarks allegedly shouted included: "Go back to your own country, you're not wanted in Ireland."

A defence lawyer claimed his client, represented the "most unlikely criminal".

He said Mr Cunningham hoped for a career in hairdressing and had undertaken a foundation degree in sociology while on remand.
The accused's father, a senior civil servant, gave evidence to stress how the family would monitor him if granted bail.
Upholding the original decision to release Mr Cunningham on bail, Lord Justice Girvan said that none of the prosecution's objections to bail could be sustained.

However, he imposed further conditions, including requirements for any passports to be surrendered and for Mr Cunningham to live with his parents.
He was also banned from going within half a mile of a city centre bar where witnesses in the case were located.
BBC News

'Arrogant Facebook failing to tackle paedophile threat,' claims child protection expert

Facebook was last night accused of arrogant complacency in the face of soaring numbers of complaints about online paedophiles.

Child protection teams say cases involving bullies and sexual predators have trebled on the networking site this year.
Jim Gamble, of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said: 'Is Facebook so arrogant that it does not matter what the collective child protection community think? Social networking websites need to make some decisions
'Do you want to be a chosen site for rapists and murderers?'

The site has already snubbed a request to add a 'panic button' for children to alert police and child protection staff to paedophiles.
Other sites such as Bebo and MSN have adopted the 'Click-CEOP' button but Facebook has agreed to put it only on a separate reporting area and not on every page.
Mr Gamble, a former deputy director of the National Crime Squad, said Facebook had never reported any suspicious or inappropriate behaviour to a UK police force.

CEOP, which comprises former police officers, child protection officials and computer experts, monitors online paedophile activity and passes intelligence to police forces. It receives some public money.

From January to March, it had 252 complaints about Facebook - 40 per cent of which related to paedophiles grooming children. That compares with 297 complaints throughout 2009.
Mr Gamble said: 'Our reports are increasing month on month.

'None of these [252] complaints came direct from Facebook.

'If their system is so robust and they are receiving so many reports and concerns from young people, then where are they?

'What Facebook do not understand is prevention or deterrence.

'The sort of thing I'm talking about is a mother calling us and saying her daughter has been talking to someone on Facebook she is worried about and she's reported it to Facebook and there is no response.

'Facebook are confusing their approach to content with their approach to behaviour.

'That is where predators will go online, engage the young and vulnerable, and lure them offline where they can abuse them.'

Mr Gamble is due to meet the vice-president of the site in Washington on Monday for urgent talks.
Facebook claims having the panic button on every page could lead to fewer reports of potential predators.
The issue hit the headlines last month following the conviction of a serial rapist for the murder of schoolgirl Ashleigh Hall.
Peter Chapman posed as a young boy on Facebook to lure the 17-year-old to her death in Sedgefield, County Durham.
Yesterday Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, accused Facebook of being irresponsible.

'It seems so bizarre that they won't adopt the CEOP button. They will get more business because their site will be seen as safer,' he said.

A spokesman for Facebook said: 'We take the issue of safety very seriously, and recently met the Home Secretary to discuss online safety.

'We are due to meet with CEOP next week to talk them through our safety strategy.

'We will wait to have this meeting prior to sharing our plans more widely with the public soon afterwards.'

Daily Mail

UNITE TO FIGHT THE BNP'S NASTY NICK (UK)

One of Britain's top interfaith campaigners has called on the main political parties to abandon point-scoring over the BNP and unite to tackle the threat at the polls on 6 May.

The BNP is set to field a record number of candidates in next month's general election, which comes less than a year after the party won two seats in the European Parliament.
Warning that he fears Britain will wake up on 7 May to find the BNP has gained its first member of Parliament and up to 50 additional council seats. Fiyaz Mughal demanded that Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats do more to counter Nick Griffin's far-right party.

The director of Faith Matters, who also serves as an adviser on extremism to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, told the Jewish News: The political parties should now be involved in a cross synergy of activities against the BNP, but they are all too busy trying to score points off each other on this issue. I want to see the parties do more individually and collectively because it's a national security issue, not a party political or diversity issue.

And while acknowledging that major parties were taking some action in this battle, he described this activity as merely papering over the edges. In the wake of the BNP�s gains at the European elections, Mughal brought together representatives from eight cultural anti-extremist and faith-based organisations including the Board of Deputies and the CST.

He said the aim was partly to learn, disseminate and promote some of the efforts taking place in the Jewish community from where a majority of anti-BNP activity emanates.

Mughal now wants to see the political leaders make people aware of the reality of the far right through their messages and that it is a threat to all communities not just the Muslim and Jewish communities.

And he also called for the three main parties to hold a joint meeting with interested groups after the poll to develop a plan that looks at how each of the stakeholders can play a role over the next few years in tackling this. They have got to ensure that each partner has resources.

Mughal's call for a united approach against the BNP was yesterday backed by the CST. Spokesman Mark Gardner said: The mainstream parties are well aware of our community's concerns regarding the BNP and share many of them. As a point of principle, we would support calls for the leading parties to work together on combating the BNP, but we recognise that such co-operation will be partly influenced by local constituency factors and personalities.

While saying that political parties have a role to play in combatting the BNP together�, Three Faiths Forum Director Stephen Shashoua stressed this is not only about politics. The more people that are coming out against the bnp the better.

The top three parties last night moved quickly to emphasise their abhorrence to the BNP and their credentials against the party. Liberal Democrat Spokesperson said: We have a strong record of taking on the BNP, for example in Burnley where we have won a series of electoral victories over them. We believe that the best way to take on the BNP is by addressing the issues on the doorstep and showing people that BNP's brand of hate-fuelled politics is useless. A Labour Party spokesperson said: We are fighting hard against the BNP�s vile and divisive politics wherever they are active, and we believe that on polling day the British people will clearly reject the disgusting politics of the BNP. For the Conservatives, Shadow Cohesion minister Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said: The BNP are completely beyond the pale. They are an appalling bunch of people. What the mainstream parties have to do is prove their worth. Get on the doorstep, explain to people how we are going to take up their concerns, how we are going to respond to their issues. That is the best way to beat these dreadful people by working together on combating the BNP. But we recognise that such co-operation will be partly influenced by local constituency factors and personalities.

While saying that political parties have a role to play in combatting the BNP together, Three Faiths Forum Director Stephen Shashoua stressed this is not only about politics. The more people that are coming out against the BNP the better.

The three main parties last night moved quickly to emphasise their abhorrence of the BNP. A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: The best way to take the BNP on is by showing people that its brand of hate-fuelled politics is useless.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: We are fighting against the BNP's vile politics and believe that on polling day the British people will clearly reject their disgusting politics.

For the Conservatives, Shadow Cohesion Minister Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said:

The BNP are completely beyond the pale. They are an appalling bunch of people. What the mainstream parties have to do is prove their worth. Get on the doorstep, explain to people how we are going to take up their concerns, how we are going to respond to their issues. That is the best way to beat these dreadful people.
Totally Jewish

MoD apologise over Catterick Garrison firing range 'mosques' (UK)

THE Ministry of Defence (MoD) started to dismantle models of mosques built on an Army firing range last night after being accused of helping to radicalise young Muslims.

North-East Islamic groups had condemned the seven cutouts erected on military ranges on Bellerby Moor, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire.

Workmen last night removed the green domes from the structures, after the MoD issued an apology for any offence caused.
Turki Aba-Alala, president of Newcastle Islamic Society, said: “This suggests the Army is targeting mosques rather than terrorists. It makes the Muslim students coming to this country, and Muslims from the UK more scared.
“Things like this just increase the insecurity of young Muslims and can help to radicalise them.”

Ali Luft, from the Muslim Federation Cleveland, also criticised the decision to build the models.

He said: “It just doesn’t look right. It’s disturbing people when they hear about it.

“They should be training soldiers in streets, mountains or caves where these people hide – not mosques.” The firing range is used by troops from Europe’s biggest Army base at nearby Catterick Garrison.

Some of the mosques had single domes and others had double domes. The structures, which are visible from a public road, were first brought to the attention of the Bradford Council for Mosques (BMC) by a passer-by.
BMC members, who have visited the range to inspect the models, said yesterday that the mosques were being used as a symbol of danger and served to reinforce negative stereotypes of Muslims.
Mohammed Saleem Khan, chief executive of the council, said the shape and colour of the structures – a green dome – symbolised an Islamic place of worship.

“It is so obvious,” he said.

“Even a non-Muslim recognised the significance. The first person who raised the issue with us was a non-Muslim.”

In response, the Army said it was vital soldiers trained in an environment which replicated where they were deployed.
Officials said the facilities at Bellerby Moor had been upgraded recently following feedback from troops in Afghanistan.

A spokesman said the structures were meant to be generic Eastern buildings rather than mosques, and were not used as target practice.

He added: “We apologise for any offence that we may have caused. It was never our intention for these generic structures to look like or replicate mosques, only to provide a setting similar to operational environments in which our personnel could train.

“We are seeking a meeting with representatives from the Muslim community to hear their concerns in order to discuss the way forward. We are in the process of removing the offending structures.”

The Northern Echo

Australia halts Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum claims

Australia has announced the immediate suspension of all new asylum claims by people from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the decision had been made "in the light of changing circumstances" in those countries.
He added that the move would "send a strong message to people smugglers".
Correspondents say a recent increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat has put pressure on the Australian government.

Rights group Amnesty International called the decision "an appalling political move".

Friday's announcement came as news emerged that the navy had intercepted a sinking boat with 70 people on board off Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, where Australia has a detention centre.

'Hardline approach'
More than 100 boats carrying asylum seekers have been intercepted by the Australian navy since the current government came to power in 2007.
Many of them are carrying people from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Mr Rudd has been under mounting political pressure over the rise in the number of boat people, says the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney.
The immediate suspension on the processing of visa applications from new Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers is clearly intended as a deterrent.

But our correspondent says the decision is being widely interpreted as a political move to neutralise an always sensitive issue ahead of this year's election.

"We have taken a consistently hard-line approach to people smuggling and today's announcements will further strengthen the integrity of Australia's immigration system," said Mr Evans.

Boats will not be turned away by the Australian navy and boat people will still be taken to a detention centre at Christmas Island.
However new arrivals will not be able to apply for asylum.
The Australian government says it will review the situation for Sri Lankans after three months, and for Afghans after six.

Amnesty International urged the Australian government to explain why it believed security conditions in the affected countries had improved enough to justify suspending asylum claims.

"Sadly it appears that the government has caved in to political pressure and is now attempting to override the rights of the most vulnerable to score political points," said Andrew Beswick, of Amnesty International Australia.
BBC News

AWB Secretary General Andrie Visagie in TV studio bust up

The leader of a far right paramilitary group stormed out of a live TV debate amid continuing tension following the murder of Eugene Terreblanche

Secretary General of the AWB Andre Visagie was appearing on the ETV television show Africa 360, when he stood up and appeared to threaten Lebohang Pheko, director of policy of a campaign group.

ETV anchor Chris Maroleng intervened before Visagie called his own security man onto the set. Visagie claims he was not being given the chance to answer accusations made against him.

Tensions are continuing to run high in South Africa following the killing of white supremacist and former AWB leader Eugene Terreblanche.
BBC News

South Africa set for Eugene Terreblanche funeral

The funeral of Eugene Terreblanche, the infamous South African white supremacist leader, is to take place.

Thousands of supporters are expected in the rural town Ventersdorp to commemorate his controversial life.
Terreblanche was killed on his farm on Sunday. Two of his workers have been charged with murder.

Having fought South Africa's transition to democracy, Terreblanche was hated by many, if not most, of his fellow countrymen.
But thousands of Terreblanche's supporters are expected to fill the grounds of the Afrikaans Protestant Church for his funeral in Ventersdorp.
Though all the indications are that the murder had more to do with money than politics, it has led to a period of heightened racial tension.

White groups and opposition parties blamed an ANC official, Julius Malema, for singing an apartheid-era song at rallies, that includes the lyrics "shoot the farmer".

The ANC has rejected that link, but accepts that the song and the debate around it was polarising society.

It has now instructed its members to stop using it.
BBC News

London UKIP election candidate in racism row (UK)

A UKIP parliamentary candidate has been reinstated after posting racist remarks on a social care website.

Paul Wiffen, who is campaigning to be MP for Ilford South in east London, responded to a criticism of the party on the Community Care site.
The remarks focused on Muslims, Romanian Gypsies and African and Caribbean communities.
UKIP said he had been suspended but, following his apology and an inquiry, he was allowed back into the party.

The comment was made in response to a post by Community Care's Outside Left blogger on asylum.

Mr Wiffen, chair of UKIP London, said: "You left-wing scum are all the same, wanting to hand our birthright to Romanian gypsies who beat their wives and children into begging and stealing money they can gamble with, Muslim nutters who want to kill us and put us under medieval Sharia law, the same Africans who sold their Afro-Caribbean brothers into a slavery that Britain was first to abolish (but you still want to apologize for!)"
He has since apologised saying: "I was very surprised to see such a party political piece on a website called 'Community Care', and when I read the lies about UKIP being a racist party, I just saw red, and fired off an angry email.

"I am truly sorry to anyone offended by some of the language I used."

A spokesman for UKIP said: "UKIP is a party of real people, not career politicians.

"Real people sometimes make mistakes, and when they do, they should apologise.

"Both UKIP and Mr Wiffen have apologised for any offence caused."

Mike Gapes, Labour MP for Ilford South, said: "There is an unpleasant whiff about Mr Wiffen."

Toby Boutle, the Conservative candidate for the area, said if Mr Wiffen 's comments are correct then "it says a lot about UKIP that someone like this is their regional chairman in London".
Lib Dem candidate Anood Al-Samerai said: "I would not wish to see this man standing in Ilford South."

BBC News

Hungary party to follow European extremism's move away from fringes

Extremist anti-Roma group Jobbik on course for success at this Sunday's elections in Hungary

It has been a good few weeks for racists, populists and rightwing radicals across Europe. A comeback for Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front in French regional elections. Big gains in Italy for the anti-immigrant Northern League. The Islam-baiting campaign of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands has taken his Freedom party to 25% and poll position ahead of June's general election.

And this weekend, Hungary is facing its biggest political earthquake in 20 years of democracy. On Sunday, the mainstream right and the neofascists are expected to take over the Westminster lookalike parliament on the banks of the Danube. It will be a landslide victory.
The left and the liberals who have run the country for eight years, taking Hungary to the brink of bankruptcy and into the arms of the International Monetary Fund, will be reduced to a rump.

The next prime minister, Viktor Orban, a combative populist, is leading his centre-right Fidesz party to a huge majority, running at more than 60% in the opinion polls. He may even secure a two-thirds majority enabling him to rewrite Hungary's constitution at will.
But the biggest breakthrough will be for Jobbik, the extremist antisemitic and antigypsy movement "for a better Hungary", which will win seats in the parliament for the first time and may emerge as the second biggest party.

"It's a flood that's coming. Everyone knows it's coming. We're just waiting for it. Will we drown or will we swim," said Pal Tamas, director of Budapest's Institute of Sociology. "People are trying to use the antifascist argument against Jobbik. But it's not working. It's being very poorly received."
During the past week a rabbi's home in the capital has been attacked during Passover and a Holocaust memorial was defaced. Budapest Jews have taken to the streets to protest. The country's large and marginalised Roma and gypsy communities are bracing themselves for a surge in racism and harassment.

Roma solution
"In terms of the gypsy issue, the situation in certain parts of the country is akin to civil war," said Jobbik's young leader, Gabor Vona. "Now only drastic interventions are capable of helping ... we must produce an environment in which gypsy people can return to a world of work, laws and education. And for those unwilling to do so, two alternatives remain: they can either choose to take advantage of the right of free movement granted by the European Union, and leave the country, because we will simply no longer put up with lifestyles dedicated to freeloading or criminality; or, there is always prison."

Though banned, Jobbik maintains a "Hungarian guard" of paramilitaries who dress in 1940s fascist paraphernalia. Vona wants this "gendarmerie" to police Roma "ghettos".
"Jobbik is openly legitimising anti-Roma violence. It is openly antisemitic. And it will do very well on Sunday," said Anton Pelinka, an Austrian political scientist working in Budapest.
Gaspar Miklos Tamas, a liberal and veteran anticommunist dissident, wrote this week that "a national tragedy" was befalling Hungary. "There are many factors, but the most important is the success of the post-fascist Jobbik party."

Jobbik won 15% of the vote in last summer's elections to the European parliament and could repeat the trick on Sunday, threatening to push Hungary's governing socialists into third place.
The breakthrough comes as the far right across Europe becomes more than a fringe presence. In France a fortnight ago, the xenophobic National Front won 11% of the vote in regional elections, with 20% of those who voted for Nicolas Sarkozy three years ago opting for the far right.

Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing coalition coasted to victory in Italian regional elections last week, but the real winner was Umberto Bossi's Northern League which captured the regions of Piedmont and Veneto and made big inroads in the working-class areas of northern Italy, normally a stronghold of the left.
Ahead of the Dutch elections, Wilders appears to be going from strength to strength, while later this month in Austria, the far-right mother of 10, Barbara Rosenkranz (left), whose husband publishes a neo-Nazi newsletter, will contest the Austrian presidency with the support of the country's bestselling tabloid, the Kronen Zeitung.

In Belgium the extreme right separatist Vlaams Belang party has been joined by mainstream rightwing parties, so secessionists now enjoy almost 50% support among Flemish voters, according to the polls.
A conventional explanation for the breakthrough of the far right sees the success as a protest vote, waxing and waning depending on the performance of the mainstream parties of the centre-right and left.

"This is not such a big victory for Jobbik and Fidesz, more a result of the failures of the previous government and its incredible incompetence," said Julius Horvat, head of European studies at Budapest's Central European University.

But analysts detect a more durable pattern, particularly in western Europe, entrenching the far right as an established presence in politics.

"This is no longer a sudden surge that then vanishes. The far right has become a permanent fixture in our societies now," said Jean-Yves Camus, a specialist in European radical movements at the Paris thinktank the Institute of International and Strategic Relations.

In France, Le Pen has been a major factor in politics for 25 years. In Austria, the far right has been a key player since the late Joerg Haider hijacked the political agenda in the 1990s.
Today in Rome, the "post-fascist" National Alliance of Gianfranco Fini held a centre-right conference on whether Italy should be transformed into a presidential system modelled on France. This week Bossi held a "summit" with Berlusconi to push his agenda of federalising Italy, meaning his wealthy northern power base stops subsidising the south.

The Northern League has been in government in Italy for seven of the past nine years. In Denmark the far right has long been propping up a conservative government in parliament, and in Switzerland it is the strongest party. The far right leaders are now central and not peripheral players in their national politics.

Disaffected conservatives
Political scientists note that while there is much talk of "neofascism", in western Europe some of the most successful parties are rooted less in 1930s European fascism than in disaffection with mainstream conservativism. Whether out of opportunism or conviction, many have shifted to the far right to exploit the potent issues of immigration and Islam and to broaden their electoral base. This has occurred in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy.

"What's new is that some of the conservatives have moved to the radical right, rejecting multiculturalism, Islam and immigration," said Camus. "It's … a radical right that is disconnected from the traditions of European fascism."

In colonising the far-right territory, these former conservatives are winning over traditional leftwing voters. Where previously their powerbase was made up from small businesses, shopkeepers, and lower middle class, they are now making inroads into the working-class vote among those hostile to immigration and worried about job losses.
In Hungary and in the young democracies of central Europe, the situation is different.

"In post-communist Europe, it's the old-fashioned far right. In Western Europe, it's the postmodern far right," said Pelinka. "In central Europe it's still the old enemies — the Jews, the gypsies, the national minorities."

If wealthy societies of western Europe are seized by new phobias, in the east old prejudices die hard. While 55% of Hungarians do not want Romas as neighbours, half are opposed to a homosexual or lesbian next door and 22% are averse to having a Slovak, Romanian or a Jew for a neighbour,according to a poll by Pal Tamas, leading Hugarian sociologists.

The Guardian

Police probe house fire as arson victim suspects retaliation for anti-Nazi activity (Canada)

Abbotsford police are reporting that accelerant was used in a fire that damaged a home 2am Monday had a fused device connected to it.

The presence of the device caused investigators to request outside assistance, said spokesman Const. Ian MacDonald.
"We didn't relinquish the investigation, we asked for some expertise from the [RCMP] bomb squad," he said.

A resident of the house in question, Maitland Cassia, identified himself as a member of Anti-Racist Action, and said he was jolted out of bed by what he described as a loud "blast."
Cassia fears the fire was in retaliation for an anti-Nazi rally he helped organize that took place at New Westminster's Braid SkyTrain Station on March 21.
The rally generated media coverage and subsequent photos from the event splashed Cassia's name and face across several Lower Mainland newspaper websites, making him a target, he said.

He said he is fearful of further retaliation, and planned on moving out.
Members of the bomb squad were on scene Monday, said MacDonald, and collected several items of interest in evidence bags and containers.
Heavy black scorching and damage to the exterior could be seen beside a door at the side of the house.
Police suspect the device was used as a way to create distance when the accelerant was set off, and are treating the incident as arson.
The Braid rally in March drew hundreds of anti-Nazi protesters, and was in response to a planned white supremacy, neo-Nazi rally that never materialized.
Online sites quoted Cassia declaring the rally a "victory" for those opposed to racial discrimination.

Vancouver Sun

Hypocrisy in action – Ignoring the Christian Terrorists

With all the talking in the UK from the far right about Islamic terrorists Douglas Todd makes a really good point in his blog for The Vancouver Sun.

If a follower of Islam can be called an Islamic Terrorist, why shouldn’t a Christian be called a Christian Terrorist?
Here’s what he wrote.

When the opportunity has arisen since September 11, 2001 and even before, the North American media hasn't hesitated to expose the evils of "Muslim terrorists." We also do so in regard to "Sikh terrorists," as Canadians are highly aware ever since an Air India jet was blown up in 1985.

But what about "Christian terrorists?"
The phrase does not often fall from our lips. Not even when there is ample reason for it to do so.

Why are the media not referring to the nine recently arrested members of a paramilitary extremist U.S. organization called Hutaree as "Christian terrorists?"

This is not an idle, mischievous thought. It is a serious question about the kind of labels we put on any militants who plan to wreak havoc in the name of a religion, philosophy or ideology.

Even though they have ample reason to do so, both the FBI and the U.S. media are rigorously avoiding describing the nine men and women as "terrorists." Sometimes they don't even mention "Christian."

Still, these Michigan-based Hutarees have put together a weapons stockpile, train to fight while wearing camouflage gear, believe in the Biblical battle against the Anti-Christ, judge President Barack Obama to be controlled by Satan, think of themselves as martyrs and were allegedly planning to kill a policeman and then bomb his funeral, killing more innocents and starting a war.

Even their website defines the word, Hutaree, as "Christian warrior." {Here's their website.)

Yet, what are these would-be terrorists being called by federal officials and the media?

"Extremists."

"Militants."

"Radicals."

Even "patriots."

The media don't seem to want to call them "Christian terrorists," because it might suggest Christianity is itself illegitimate and dangerous. And that's a hard sell on a continent where most people remain loyal in various ways to Christianity, which they consider a religion of love.

Yet that is exactly the argument made by Muslims. Why, they ask, does their entire religion, which they associate with peace and altruism, get maligned by being intimately and constantly linked with foreign terrorists who are Muslim?

Is it time for some fairness in labelling? Or, simply, better labelling? What do you think the Hutarees should be called by the FBI and media? What do you think Muslims who are extremists should be called?

{Jokes not at all appreciated.}

Vancouver Sun

Neo-Nazis increase online social network activity for new recruits (Germany)

Right-wing extremists are increasing their activity on online social networks to reach young people, the Lower Saxony state intelligence service warned on Thursday.

Neo-Nazis are using sites like Facebook, and similar German sites such as SchülerVZ, StudiVZ, Wer-kennt-wen and StayFriends to find new recruits, head of the agency Hans Wargel told daily Die Welt.

The danger is that many young people are unable to recognise propaganda and attempts at indoctrination from these groups at first glance, he said, explaining that instead of blatant symbols such as swastikas, many are using graffiti and other less-recognisable imagery from youth culture.

“The right-wing extremists appear as a wolf in sheep’s clothing online,” he told the paper. “At first they seem very harmless, and try to surreptitiously gain the trust of other users.”

The tactic is new for these groups, he added, referring to a newspaper for the neo-Nazi NPD party called

Deutsche Stimme, which recently encouraged its members to appear on online forums as people with humour, hobbies, and serious cultural interests.
They were also told not to openly identify with the NPD and its ideology, he said.

The Local Germany

When rightwing hate goes mainstream (USA)

The Republican party is indulging extremists, hoping they'll put down their guns long enough to vote for them this November.

Late Monday afternoon I received an email from the American Patriot Foundation informing me that Terrence Lakin, a lieutenant colonel in the US army, needed my help. It seems that Lakin had refused to obey orders unless his commander-in-chief – that would be Barack Obama – produces evidence proving he was born in the United States and is thus constitutionally qualified to serve as president. Lakin now faces a court-martial and prison.

Well, good for Lakin. What struck me about the missive, though, was not the banality of his foolish quest. Rather, it was the atmospherics surrounding the group that has taken up his cause. The American Patriot Foundation has a nice office in Washington. Its spokeswoman, Margaret Hemenway, is a former government official who has written for the Washington Times, among other publications. Its founder is a former Republican senator, Bob Smith, who told Salon that he no longer controls the group, but who pointedly declined to criticise Lakin.
In other words, Lakin's outburst of birtherism should not be seen in isolation. Instead, it's further evidence that rightwing hate, aided and abetted by leading Republicans, has gone mainstream.

The first warning came a year ago, when the department of homeland security predicted a rise in rightwing extremism fuelled by economic calamity and the election of our first black president. News of the report, and especially about a warning contained therein that military veterans might be pulled into the movement, set off criticism among conservative bloggers. Yet it proved prescient.

The most recent and oddest manifestation was last week's arrest of nine people involved in what authorities have referred to as a "Christian militia" intent on sparking revolution. But there have been other examples, each treated by the media as isolated incidents. The murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, whose killer was sentenced to life in prison last week. The pilot who crashed his plane into an Internal Revenue Service facility in Austin, Texas, in February. Protesters whipped into a frenzy during the healthcare debate who yelled racist and homophobic slurs at members of Congress, who spat upon one and who phoned in threats of violence.
According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, the number of rightwing extremist groups has risen exponentially during the past 18 months. And in an interview with National Public Radio's On the Media last week, he was unstinting in placing at least some of the blame for that with their enablers in the Republican party and in the media. Potok said:

"I'm talking about when [Republican congresswoman] Michele Bachmann says President Obama is setting up political re-education camps all around the country, presumably to turn our children into Marxist robots. I'm talking about when Steve King, a congressman out of Iowa, says that 25 Americans every single day are either murdered or run over and killed by drunken, as he would say, 'criminal illegal aliens', or when Glenn Beck on Fox News talks about the possibility that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is running a set of secret concentration camps to intern good patriotic Americans, all of that and much more. And that is becoming quite common today."

The right is ever fond of pointing out that leftwing extremists have also been among us for lo these many years, from the Weather Underground during the Vietnam war to the 9/11 truthers of recent years. But such groups have never received an iota of support from Democrats. Indeed, when Beck, of all people, ferreted out someone who might be called a truther sympathiser last year in the Obama White House, that person lost his job immediately.
By contrast, a mainstream conservative figure like Sarah Palin posts a map on her Facebook page of Democratic congressmen she wants defeated that is festooned with gun-sight crosshairs and then hosts a Fox News special on inspirational Americans.
"At the least, the Republicans are playing footsie with extremism – while extremism seems to be spreading," writes the veteran progressive journalist David Corn.

We are living through a frightening moment in American history – the near-collapse of the economy, followed by a slow and uncertain recovery, a mountain of public debt and war seemingly without end.
A responsible political opposition would find a way to oppose Obama and the Democratic Congress while at the same time standing up to the forces of extremism. Instead, today's Republican party coddles and indulges them, hoping they'll put down their guns long enough to vote for them this November.

It's a sick and cynical game, and we can only hope it doesn't end in tragedy.

By Dan Kennedy writing in The Guardian

POLICE INVESTIGATE LATEST ATTACK AGAINST ROMANIES (Czech Rep.)

Late on Saturday night, two bottles containing an unknown substance were thrown into the doorway of a block of flats inhabited by Romany families in Opava, north Moravia. The bottles failed to catch fire and didn’t cause any damage. The police are investigating the incident as a threat to public safety. A similar attack took place only three weeks ago, in the nearby city of Ostrava. Unknown perpetrators threw a Molotov cocktail into the room of a fourteen-year-old Romany girl who was woken by the noise and was able to extinguish the fire before it could spread. Though nobody was injured in both recent cases, Czech Romanies says they feel at high risk from neo-Nazi violence. Last year, the worst arson attack on a Romany family in Vítkov shocked the country: the family’s two-year-old daughter Natálka suffered burns on eighty percent of her body. With the trial of the Vítkov attack perpetrators coming up in May, Kumar Vishwanathan, a social worker and Romany rights activist, is hoping for the court to send a clear signal. “I think it’s really necessary for the courts to make it clear that such brutal attacks with Molotov cocktails are not welcome in this country, that it is a grave crime and that it will be punished very severely. We are hoping that the court will send a clear signal and will be bold enough not to downplay the significance of this attack.”


Before last year’s highly publicized attack in Vítkov, arson attacks did not receive as much attention as they do now, says Mr. Vishwanathan. “Such arson attacks have been happening here for the past ten years. I think there is a greater sensitivity to this issue now, both from the Roma community and the Czech public and institutions and the media. So what used to hardly be reported on in the past, because nobody was really injured, now it’s being dealt with and people are giving it the necessary attention and in the past, it used to be ignored or the victims themselves didn’t even report it. It’s a serious issue, especially in the northern Moravia region.” Earlier this year the extremist far-right Workers’ Party was banned by the Supreme Administrative Court; many people believe this at least is a step in the right direction when it comes to combating such violence. Miroslav Brož is an expert on extremism. “I think with the dissolution of the Workers’ Party, the Czech state has demonstrated that it is willing to fight against extremism, and I’d rather use the word neo-Nazism to be precise, and that it does not have a place in our society. And I think that the development has been that to a certain extent, neo-Nazi activities have been on the decline. If you think back to late 2008 and early 2009, neo-Nazis held marches through Czech towns every weekend.”

Radio Prague