ManCity's Balotelli speaks out about racism

Young Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli has spoken out about the pain of suffering racial abuse from fans in his homeland, following his big money move to the English Premier League.

The 20-year-old of Ghanaian origin, an often controversial figure in Italy, moved to England from Inter Milan last week, just a few days after making his Italy debut in a friendly against Ivory Coast.

And having settled into his new home in Manchester, where he has been reunited with his former Inter boss Roberto Mancini, Balotelli spoke about the trauma of being racially abused, in particular from certain sections of the Juventus crowd.

"There were two or three incidents which are always annoying," he told Wednesday's La Gazetta dello Sport.

"I had to learn to live with racism in Italy, to pretend it was nothing, but it burnt.

"In England that doesn't happen. But it shouldn't happen anywhere."

Despite the racial abuse he suffered, Balotelli claimed it was not that but journalists that drove him away from the country of his birth.

And it was an incident after a Champions League match that for Balotelli was the last straw.

"Right after Inter-Barcelona (I decided to leave Italy). There were pages written about me in the newspapers, it was difficult to live in Milan and I told my agent: I want to go," he said.

Balotelli had been jeered by his own fans during that game, a crucial 3-1 victory in which he made a lacklustre 20-minute cameo appearance, and he further enraged them by throwing his shirt to the ground after the final whistle.

He was allegedly attacked by his own team-mates after the incident and was roundly criticised in the Italian press.
But he defended his reputation as a troublesome character.

"They say it in Italy but I'm not a bad boy. I'm an unusual guy, neither bad nor particularly good, very lively but normal."

And now that he is back working for the man who gave him his Inter debut, Balotelli had nothing to say about the coach with whom he regularly fell out last season: Jose Mourinho, now at Real Madrid.

"Mourinho is no longer my coach and I don't want to talk about him. Really, I don't care, I'm not interested in the reputation I had in Italy."

Looking at his new home in Manchester, Balotelli said he is hoping to score lots of goals.

"Apart from the paparazzi who are always following me, it seems a calm city and I like that.

"The only real problem is the weather.

"For a striker it's almost easier than in Italy where football is more tactical.

"I hope I'll feel good here, I can't wait to start playing and I'll do everything to be in the first team

Aboriginal victims remain fearful of racist attacks (Australia)

The families of five young Aboriginal men, who were ambushed by two car-loads of men wielding baseball bats, say there is deep fear in the community despite reassurances from police.

The men told police a group of caucasian men smashed their car windows near Wyndham on Saturday night, before chasing them through bush for hours with baseballs bats and torches.

Concerns were raised that police were not taking the incident seriously enough by ruling out race as a factor.

One of the men's relatives, who has asked only to be known only as Sissy, says those concerns remain despite a meeting with police yesterday.

"There's going to be probably a lot of fear for a long time, until these people are caught," she said.

"It's going to be sitting in the back of their minds, especially for local Indigenous people, there's going to be that fear."

However, she says yesterday's meeting with Police gave them hope.

"The boys have been on edge, waiting for the police," she said.

"There's been a lot of anger and frustration due to the reaction time, so that was disappointing, but after yesterday's meeting I can understand where the police are coming from."

ABC News

HMRC Northern Ireland Racist Staff Systemic Underpayment of Benefits To Ethnic Minorities (Northern Ireland)

The HMRC sacked seven of its Belfast workers with an additional 2 workers having already resigned for systemic racist abuse of ethnic minority benefit claimants by tampering with their computer records so that people from an ethnic minority background were paid less money then they were entitled to receive.

The Inland Revenue started the investigation in January following a complaint by customers that their records had been changed so as to result in less benefits being paid with investigations revealing many more similar cases.
This is a truly shocking development as people tend to trust what they receive from the Inland Revenue as being truthful and accurate and do not usually dispute the calculations and awards made.

This may represent the tip of the ice-berg as Northern Ireland having endured decades of sectarian violence is far more prone to xenophobia and racism as repeatedly illustrated over the years such as the recent case of several hundred Roma settlers being forced to leave Northern Ireland due to a campaign of violence, and also reflective of a persistent campaign of bombs and attacks despite all of the time, effort and cost expended on the peace process.

It seems there are a number of elements within Northern Ireland that are hell bent on spreading their sectarianism ideology throughout the UK. In response to which the HMRC should pull all tax and benefit activities out of Northern Ireland as it brings the whole tax and benefits system into disrepute, with other government departments in an atmosphere of cuts should seek to similarly revaluate whether they should continue to have a UK wide serving presence from within Northern Ireland.

Market Oracle

SERIES OF RACIST MURDERS OF ROMA IN HUNGARY UNPARALLELED IN PRESENT-DAY EUROPE

“Cowardly racist murders” – that’s what Romani Rose has called the recent attacks by neo-Nazis on Roma in Hungary. Rose was speaking on 2 August at the annual international commemoration at the site of the former extermination camp at Auschwitz. He went on to say the murders represented “a new dimension of the violence committed against this minority” and called on European governments to recognize Roma organizations as equal partners and to intensify cooperation with them. One week later, the Hungarian Police completed their investigation into the series of attacks and handed the file over to the state attorney. Media report that three men are to be charged with murder and a fourth, allegedly the driver, will be charged as an accomplice to one incident. Over the course of more than a year, six Roma people died as a result of the nine criminal acts under indictment.

At a commemoration of the Roma victims of the Holocaust held at the start of August in Hungary, János Bogdán, Jr. of the Party for Roma Unity (MCF) spoke of a “new Roma Holocaust” and pointed out that as a result of the recent parliamentary elections, numerous representatives of the “fascist party” Jobbik now sit in the Hungarian Parliament. According to Mária Silkó Szurmainé, a department head at the Hungarian National Resources Ministry, the recent economic crisis has brought citizens’ prejudices against minorities to the surface: “These problems, which were swept under the carpet for years, must be resolved. The Hungarians and the Roma do not face separate futures: Their future must be a joint one, and they must share responsibility for it.” After one of the most brutal of the attacks in Hungary last August, then-Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Vladimír Špidla said: “The Roma have become the target of an organized racist violence which feeds on political populism, verbal expressions of hatred, and media hogwash, making Roma the scapegoats for larger social problems.” Due to its previous governments’ unthrifty budget policies and its state debt, Hungary is one of the main victims of the global economic crisis, which has affected the daily life of a large number of its inhabitants.

Murder modeled on The Turner Diaries
The attacks featured a shocking brutality. The perpetrators selected Roma residences located on the outskirts of towns, specifically the very last house from which their escape route could be covered by a forest, or the last house on a street which could not be seen from the town. They then threw more than one Molotov cocktail at the targeted home and shot the Roma as they fled the ensuing fire. In one case they killed a five-year-old boy by shooting him in the head. These “executions” were performed with the same kind of felonious brutality that is described in detail in a book that has been called the neo-Nazi Bible: The Turner Diaries, a novel by US neo-Nazi William Pierce in which the main character has a good time shooting randomly selected Afro-Americans in the streets of the USA. The main aim of his efforts is to influence white-skinned people to either deport citizens of other skin colors from the USA or segregate them. At the start of August 2010, police in the US arrested a man at an airport in Atlanta suspected of committing a series of similar attempted murders against dark-skinned people in recent weeks there. The perpetrator injured or stabbed his victims using either a hammer or a knife. Police say the attacks were racially motivated.

A lengthy, desperate, and costly investigation
The investigation of these murderous attacks in Hungary was accompanied by partial inaction and numerous police mistakes similar to those committed during the investigation of arson attacks against Roma in the Silesian area of the Czech Republic. It often took a long time before police released any information whatsoever about the cases, and when they did release information, it was very vague, indicating that the probable motivation for the murders was revenge by loan sharks who had not received payment. For months the hypothesis that this was a series of racist attacks committed by the same group of perpetrators was rejected, even though the various attacks were very similar to one another in terms of how they were performed. The most brutal attack was responded to by an ambulance that did not arrive until almost an hour after the crime - without medical staff on board. One victim of the shooting was still alive when it arrived, but the crew did not succeed in saving his life. Local police said the fire had occurred due to an electrical short even though bullets were found at the scene, and the investigation of the case did not even begin until 10 hours after the crime had been committed. The police officers responsible were eventually disciplined in response to public pressure over a long period of time.

Eventually police increased the amount of the reward being offered for information about the perpetrators, which in the end reached the previously unseen amount of EUR 380 000 (that is not a typo). This breathtaking amount of money testifies to the amount of pressure being placed on police by the government, which primarily faced harsh criticism from the international community over the inability of the Hungarian authorities to investigate and halt this series of violent murders. FBI profilers even flew in from the US to assist Hungarian police in compiling profiles of the perpetrators and identifying them. No one ever got the reward. Police say they managed to track down the alleged perpetrators by wire-tapping a total of 4.5 million telephone calls. Experts estimate the investigation could not have cost taxpayers anything less than dozens of millions of euro. In mid-August of last year, a team of 120 detectives arrested the suspects at two night clubs in the eastern Hungarian town of Debrecín, where they were working as private security. Police allegedly also discovered the weapon used in the crimes at one of the clubs, a hunting rifle hidden in a secret space behind a wall in one of the rooms. A map was also found, marked with the sites of the previous attacks and three planned for the future. The day of the arrest was chosen in order to prevent the next attack. Of the six men arrested, two were released after interrogation and entered a witness protection program.

Charges filed two years after the first crime occurred
Zoltán Csizner, director of the Hungarian State Bureau of Investigation (NNI), took advantage of the closing of the investigation to present the results of the detectives’ work. The Slovak Press Agency TASR quoted him as saying members of the gang could be proven to have attacked nine sites, murdering six people and injuring dozens (five severely). They used approximately 80 rounds of ammunition total; at seven of the sites they also threw a total of 11 Molotov cocktails at residences. As if wanting to explain why the investigation had taken so long, Csizner said a series of such killings has never been seen anywhere in Europe. In his view, the suspects selected sites for attack where recent events had caused social unrest related to Roma. Another criterion was the possibility for a rapid escape from the crime scene. The motivation of the attacks was said to have been revenge for alleged wrongdoing committed by the Roma long ago (not, however, committed by the victims of the attacks) and an effort to spark fear in society. There was no personal connection between the victims and the perpetrators.

András Dócs, head of the detective division at NNI, said at the press conference that three of the four men detained were suspected of having shot the Roma. The fourth detainee, according to police, was the driver during two of the anti-Roma attacks. NNI said the attacks were exceptional in terms of their motivation, which unlike other cases was neither financial nor sexual, but purely racist. Media reported that three of the attackers had publicly endorsed racist opinions and two had previously been connected with the Hungarian branch of the neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honor. During the 1990s, this organization also had a chapter in the Czech Republic which led to the establishment of the main Czech neo-Nazi group, National Resistance (Národní odpor). One of those charged in Hungary had worked as a professional soldier and served with a foreign mission in Kosovo. The group carefully rehearsed their attacks. Investigators say their attack on a refugee camp in Debrecín was their first test with live ammunition.

The media report that some of the attorneys for those indicted deny their clients’ guilt. Even though the suspects are said to have admitted to having been present at several crime scenes, they have denied taking part in the crimes which injured people. The expectation is that it will not at all be easy to convict the suspects of participating in specific crimes. Only one witness ever looked any of the perpetrators in the eyes: A 13-year-old Roma girl who survived the attack with serious injuries (her mother did not survive). Police are refusing to report the names of those detained and have not revealed which of the 15 total attacks from that time period they have managed to solve.

An international construction brigade helps the victims
Reconstruction of one of the burned-out homes is currently taking place in Hungary at the instigation of representatives of the German Football Union. During preparations for a match between Germany and Hungary, Theo Zwanziger, head of the German Football Union (DFB), asked representatives of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg how the union might help the victims of this racism. The Council turned to a branch of the International Building Camps (Internationaler Bauorden) in the nearby town of Ludwigshafen, which has been organizing building camps for years. In collaboration with Hungarian Roma organizations, they contacted the victims’ families to ask whether they would be interested in assistance. Three towns in which Roma homes had been burned down were eventually selected. In the town of Tatárszentgyörgy, approximately 80 km south of Budapest, the most brutal attack of all took place last February. Those shot were a father and his five-year-old son. The mother of the family hid herself and an infant from the assailants’ gunfire by staying in the burning house. One year after the attack, the survivors had nowhere to live and their insurance company was refusing to pay compensation for the damages so they could buy a new apartment.

This past May, a delegation of representatives of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the football unions of both countries visited the family along with Petra Pau, Vice-Chair of the German Parliament, in order to negotiate how construction would proceed. The mother of the murdered five-year-old boy had moved into a relative’s home with her other children, but in the end she decided to return to her own home if it would be reconstructed. During the visit, the guests gave the local elementary school gifts of football t-shirts and footballs. The DFB reported about this visit on its website, but the published text does not mention the racist attacks. This summer, volunteers from Germany, Poland and Romania as well as members of the surviving family transformed the ruined house into a new home. Volunteers received tickets and air travel to the Germany-Hungary match at the end of May as a reward for their work.

Romea

French expulsion of Roma to begin Thursday (France)

The deportation of Roma from France back to their countries of origin is to begin on Thursday the French government has announced.

With 51 Roma camps across the country now broken up over the past month and a further almost 250 to meet the same fate by October, some 700 Roma will be put on planes by the end of August

The first of Roma will leave France on Thursday when 79 are to be returned. Immigration minister Eric Besson said that the Roma involved had agreed to return of their own will, reports Le Monde. Adults receive €300 in cash for returning while €100 is given for children.

To prevent them coming back again and receiving return monies again, the French authorities are planning to take biometric data from those who are flown home.

Under EU rules, Roma are free to travel to France but have to prove they can support themselves in order to be allowed to stay longer than three months. Some 15,000 such Roma coming from central and eastern Europe, but predominantly Romania, are thought to be in France.

The destruction of camps is part of a wider security clampdown announced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the end of July. The move attracted immediate criticism from the left opposition but more recently also from politicians within the ranks of the president's centre-right UMP party.

"We are not stigmatising a community, but making people respect the law," interior minister Brice Hortefeux said justifying the moves on Tuesday (17 August).

The French authorities point out that last year some 10,000 Roma were deported from France to Bulgaria and Romania.
Mr Besson, for his part, acknowledged that some deportees might return and are allowed to "as it is the law" but they "cannot settle illegally, let alone receive assisted voluntary return."

He also hit back at criticism by a fellow UMP politician who likened the evacuation of the camps to World War II round-ups, saying he would rather such language is not used.

"People are interviewed, their identity is verified and we offer them money to go back to their country of origin," he told radio station RTL on Tuesday. "I would like someone to explain the connection with the round-ups of World War II."

Meanwhile Romania has expressed its concern about the potential problems arising from France's policy.

"I am concerned about the risks of this sliding into populism and generating certain xenophobic reaction against the backdrop of the economic crisis," foreign minister Teodor Baconschi said in an interview with RFI Romania.

"If we trade accusations or we collectively criminalise ethnic groups, we revive memories, among them less pleasant ones, and instead of finding solutions we will generate tensions," he added.

Two Romanian secretaries of state are due to travel to France on 30 August to discuss the integration of Roma and "how to prevent crimes."

euobserver

White supremacist arrested (USA)

A white supremacist leader has been arrested after allegedly threatening a boy with a weapon .

Neighbors told police they saw Brian J. Moudry, 33, run at 8 p.m. Sunday into the road in front of his house at 304 S. Reed St.
"He was holding (what looked like) a silver handgun and yelling at someone who had just ridden near his residence," Chief Fred Hayes said.

Witnesses were unable to describe the ethnicity of the boy, who fled from the armed man.

"Mr. Moudry was standing outside the doorway when officers arrived, but went inside and refused to exit the house or talk to them," Hayes said. "As police established a perimeter, the subject began yelling statements about white supremacy from inside."

Moudry had claimed to be the local leader of the Creativity Movement, a white supremacist group.

Police remained at the scene until around 9:30 p.m. Sunday before determining Moudry was not going to shoot anyone from inside his home.

"We obtained an arrest warrant for unlawful use of a weapon and took him into custody around noon Monday," Lt. Brian Dupuis said.

Moudry allowed police to search his home.

"We found the remnants of a silver bb gun inside that matched the description of the weapon witnesses saw him with," Dupuis said.

Bomb allegations

On July 17, Moudry reportedly threatened to bomb a mail truck after having trouble restarting his mail delivery.

Moudry was questioned by federal postal inspectors.

No criminal charges were filed, but he was "encouraged to behave," reports said.

Suburban Chicago News

Alan Berg's neo-Nazi killer dies in prison (USA)

Bruce Pierce, who was serving a life sentence for the 1984 slaying of Denver talk radio host Alan Berg, has died of natural causes, prison officials said.

Pierce died Monday at the federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., where he had been locked up since 1987 when he was sentenced to 250 years.

Pierce, a resident of Montana, was a reputed neo-Nazi who pumped 13 shots into the Jewish talk-show host from KOA radio in 1984. The incident was the basis for "Talk Radio," a play by Eric Bogosian that was adapted into the feature film of the same name, directed by Oliver Stone.

A prison spokesman told The Denver Post Pierce was "an average inmate" who passed the time working at the institution and taking part in recreational activities.

UPI

English Defence League march should be banned, say police chiefs

Banning order request of far right rally in Bradford follows 10,000-name petition

Police chiefs have called on the home secretary, Theresa May to ban a march by the far right English Defence League (EDL) due to take place in Bradford later this month.

West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison said that because of the "understandable concerns of the community", police would be backing a campaign to ban the march that is due to take place on 28 August.
Bettison said: "Having carefully considered the issues arising from any planned or unplanned march by protesters in Bradford, I have decided to apply to Bradford council for an order prohibiting the holding of a public procession on that day."

The move follows a campaign that saw more than 10,000 people in Bradford sign a petition, while community, religious and anti-racist groups joined local politicians in calling for the march to be banned.

Paul Meszaros, who co-ordinated the Bradford Together initiative, said: "It is nice that the people of Bradford have been listened to.

It is a victory for the campaign that saw thousands of Bradfordians come together and say clearly that we do not want these people coming to cause divisions and violence."

The council is expected to make a formal application to May who will decide whether to grant a ban.

However, police say that even if May agrees, there are no powers to prevent the EDL holding a "static demonstration", as they have done in other towns over the past year. Bettison said: "If the home secretary agrees to a ban, it does not prevent static, visible demonstrations taking place. But I believe that this would be less disruptive to residents of Bradford and would enable the force to better manage the operation."

Tonight a spokesman for the EDL said that although it may have to "modify its plans slightly" its demonstration on 28 August would "most definitely still go ahead".

Nick Lowles from Hope not Hate, which organised the anti-EDL campaign along with Bradford council, said the police decision was a victory for "people power". He added that a ban would stop the EDL marching through predominantly Asian areas of the city.

"While the EDL threat hasn't completely gone away our campaign has contributed to the racists being kept away from Muslim communities in Bradford," said Lowles. "This is a victory for the people of city and especially the 10,700 who signed our petition."

The EDL started in Luton last year and has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s. It claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation opposed only to "militant Islam". But many of its demonstrations have ended in confrontations with the police after some supporters became involved in violence, as well as racist and Islamophobic chanting. In May, the Guardian revealed that the EDL was planning to step up its Islamophobic street campaign targeting Bradford and Tower Hamlets in London

The Guardian

SARKOZY FACES BACKLASH OVER ROMA EXPULSIONS (France)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's drive to expel illegal Roma from the country has provoked criticism from the Roma themselves and a backlash from within the ranks of his own centre-right party. On Sunday (15 August), over 250 cars and caravans belonging to Roma people were used to block a major road outside the southwestern city of Bordeaux. It is the first major protest to take place since the closure of illegal Roma camps began two weeks ago and it caused serious disruption on the public holiday weekend, French radio station RFI reported. Since Mr Sarkozy's crackdown started on 6 August, over 40 camps affecting some 700 adults and children have been closed, with the government aiming to shut down 300 in total over the coming months. Any illegal immigrants are to be deported to their country of origin. The president's move against illegal Roma is part of a wider security clampdown that began in the wake of the shooting of a youth by police in the Loire Valley in July. The killing, carried out after the youth committed an armed robbery at a casino, provoked a riot. Mr Sarkozy subsequently proposed tough new laws, including stripping French nationality from those who attempt to take the life of a police officer, thereby becoming the first French head of state to openly link immigrants and crime.


The proposals have attracted opprobrium from the left of France's political establishment but the action against the Roma camps has also drawn criticism from within the president's centre-right UMP party. Following the latest raid on Saturday on a camp in an eastern Paris suburb, UMP law-maker Jean-Pierre Grand said the government's policy was "turning disgraceful" and likened the camp evictions to round-ups during World War II. Mr Grand said he had to react after hearing "that the authorities, arriving very early in the morning, break up families, sending men to one side and women and children on the other, and threatening to separate mothers and children." He went on to note that these type of evictions do not work, as the Roma tend to regroup later. Other conservative politicians have also spoken out against the tightening security laws. In an interview with Le Parisien, ex-minister Christin Boutin, president of the UMP-allied Christian Democrat Party (PCD), called for an end to "cultivating fear" and "putting people up against one another." "Stigmatisation of one or another community exacerbates violence," she noted, adding that many French people have foreign origins, including the president himself, who has a Hungarian background.

While the EU has largely declined to comment on Paris' intentions towards illegal Roma or its proposed new laws, the UN has been quite blunt. An anti-racism panel from the United Nations last week said that France is experiencing "a significant resurgence of racism" and lacked the political will to deal with the problem. Some members of the panel expressed concern over the nature of the political discourse in the country, including on national identity and immigration. However, a survey last week by the pro-government Le Figaro newspaper indicates the hardline approach may make Mr Sarkozy, who has been slumping in the polls, more popular. The survey showed strong public support for his security crackdown, including 79 percent of those asked in favour of the dismantling of gypsy camps.

EUOBserver

Businessman guilty of hate speech (South Africa)

A wealthy businessman who painted the words "I am a monkey" on the chest of an African child attending his daughter's birthday party, has been ordered to unconditionally apologise and pay R15 000 in damages to the child's father.

Durban's Equality Court magistrate, John Sander, ruled that the discrimination suffered by the child and his father "strikes at their human dignity - the heartbeat of our democracy and our constitution".

The father, a sergeant in the defence force, laid the complaint against Deven Pillay with the help of the Human Rights Commission. He cannot be named to protect the identity of his son, who is now 12, but was 10 at the time.
Pillay denied the allegations, saying someone else had written the words on the child. He claimed that the father was attempting to extort money from him because, compared to his neighbours, he was "a man of means".

The court heard evidence that the children's party was held at Pillay's home in an SA National Defence Force complex because his wife is in the navy.

Pillay said he had spent R20 000 on a jumping castle and told his daughter she could invite whoever she wanted. She invited all the children in the street - about 60 to 70 - including the complainant's son.

The young boy returned home that day with "I am a monkey" written on his chest and a misspelt "I am a gorilla" on his back.
He said Pillay had written on the front of his chest. After seeing it, another child had written the other sign on his back.

While the son testified that he was not upset at all by the incident, his father said in his complaint to the court: "I am extremely upset by this crass, racist act and the insulting behaviour directed at my child. Painting this on the chest of an African child amounts to dissemination of propaganda or ideas which propound the racial inferiority of Africans."

In spite of Pillay's denial that he wrote the words, the magistrate ruled that he had. He said the child had not seen anything wrong in the words, so he would not have lied about who had written them.

He accepted that Pillay was not generally a racist, taking into account that the vast majority of children there that day were African. He ruled, however, that Pillay was guilty of discrimination and hate speech, and ordered him to apologise and pay damages.

IOL

'Anti-Semitism is worse in 2010 than 1910'

Times are dire, anti-Semitism is on the rise and the world is becoming a more perilous place for the Jews to  live in by the day, if you ask Prof. Robert S. Wistrich, the head of the Hebrew University's Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism and the author of a recently published book on the subject called A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism - From Antiquity to the Global Jihad.

"Anti-Semitism is continually morphing all the time, which is its strength," he explained. "There's no sign of diminution and it will probably get worse. We see it in every indicator possible showing a clear and steady rise in the number of attacks recorded on Jews."

Why are things as bad as he believes they are? Wistrich says the last decade has seen a several strands of hatred towards Jews intertwine forming an unholy alliance between the extreme left and right together with fundamental Islam.

"What I think that really struck me about the last decade that I don't think was new but has become more intense is that we've seen the coming together of classical anti-Semitism with a number of other strands like anti-Americanism, Islamic fundamentalism and international delegitimization of Israel. Their convergence has become much starker."

But not everyone agrees with Wistrich's opinion. As one reviewer of his tome pointed out, as prevalent and intolerable as anti-Semitism may be nowadays it couldn't possibly be any worse than it was, say, back in 1910, could it?

However, according to Wistrich, it is.

"The year 1910 in comparison with what we've been living through in the past decade is a paradise," he said unhesitatingly. "There was a nasty and ugly potential for anti-Semitism in 1910 but relatively speaking Jews lived in a stable environment and as one Jewish writer Stefan Zweig wrote it was an age of golden security."

The one big exception to that rule is Czarist Russia, that great bastion of anti-Semitism where Jews were confined to live under institutional discrimination within the confines of the Pale of Settlement and were victims of periodic pogroms. Anti-Semitism in Russia in 1910 was worse than it is today, he admits – but not the West.

"Today, even in the most advanced and democratic societies, Jews are uncomfortable," he claims. "The real difference between 1910 and today is not that anti-Semitism is less common but that Israel provides a powerful shield and deterrent. Not a perfect deterrent and also a cause of anti-Semitism in itself."

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Wistrich no one can doubt the depth of his knowledge or his commitment to research.

Wistrich's book includes 150 pages of footnotes. In conducting his research he read sources in 12 different languages: English and Hebrew, as you'd expect from an academic who was raised in Britain and teaches in Israel; his mother's native Polish and its cousins Russian and Ukrainian; tongues of Germanic origin including German, Dutch and Yiddish; the Latin lingos of Western Europe, French, Italian and Spanish, and, finally, even Arabic.

In one important language of particular importance to the study of anti-Semitism in our time, however, he said he had to rely on translations: Farsi. Iran and the fundamental Islam it espouses are a key component in the surge of hatred towards Jews around the world.

"There's a common resentment of Israel and American often linked with anti-Semitic thinking. Clearly, this has been round 70-80 years but it picked up steam with the Islamic Revolution. What we see is an assault on the West in which Israel and the Jews have become a surrogate for an attack."

Wistrich's prose has won praise by reviewers but his thick brick of a book isn't light reading. In case you've ever wondered what kind of a person walks into a bookstore and picks up a 1,000 page history of anti-Semitism Wistrich's answer might surprise you –it's not just Jews, he says.

"By far the most insightful comments have been from non-Jews," he says. "In the US I appear on nationwide radio shows."

As one might expect those readers are mostly Mormons, Catholics and evangelicals, who tend to be supportive of Israel and Jews in general. But he said he has many secular non-Jewish readers in the US In any case, he commended his non-Jewish readership's "genuine horror of reading and grasping the scale of the phenomenon."

Nearing the end of the interview one might be tempted to label Wistrich a pessimist. But he denies that he is one.

Instead, he says he is a "guarded optimist." Ironically, the elites are the great hope in the struggle against anti-Semitism. Once, they despised and feared uppity Jews. Now, they realize the error of their ways.

"This is a sign of belated awakening of some of the political elites to anti-Semitism," he said. "There are some minority voices in the Arab world, they are inconsequential now but will not be forever. Doesn't mean we're going to turn things round. That would require a long and concerted effort. But it has to begin somewhere."

To Wistrich's mind the Jews in 2010 –as in 1910- have no one but themselves to rely on, and he ends the interview paraphrasing Rabbi Hillel's famous saying.

"If Jews don't mobilize," he asks, "then why should we expect others?"

JPost

Albania 'Road Rage' Death Sparks Ethnic Fears (Albania)

The death of a Greek minority man in an apparent road rage incident in Southern Albania has provoked fears of unrest among ethnic communities.

Officials from Athens, Tirana and the Orthodox Church have condemned the killing of Aristotel Gumi, 35, who died after being struck by a car in his home village of Himara four days ago following an argument with a group of Albanians.
Grigoris Delavekouras, the Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman, condemned the death, calling on the entire Albanian political class to react.

“Unacceptable criminal acts like that aim to arouse ethnic tension with unpredictable consequences and undermine the bilateral relations between Greece and Albania,” he said.

Sali Berisha, the Albanian Prime Minister, said: “If the motives reported in the media are right, this was a terrible crime, an extremely fanatical and blind act.”

Vangjel Dule, the head of the minority party, the Union for Human Rights, PBDNJ, said in a statement on Monday that only officers from the Greek minority should police Himara to avoid problems in the future.

Gumi is reported to have got into a quarrel with an Albanian man and four of his friends at a roadside bar on Thursday night.

He was allegedly run down by a car driven by his rival as he fled on his motorcycle.

The local community has been angered over reports the suspects turned on Gumi over his use of the Greek language.
Dozens of townspeople from Himara and nearby villages used boulders to block the main road connecting the town with city of Vlora in protest over the killing, leaving thousands of tourists stranded for nearly 14-hours.
Seven youths from the nearby city of Vlora have been charged with Gumi's premeditated murder and aiding a fugitive, after being arrested on Friday.

The main suspect reported to police on Sunday evening.

The head of Albania’s Orthodox Church, Archbishop Janullatos, who is also Greek, called on the authorities to inform the public about the incident “in order not to ruin the climate of coexistence between the two ethnic communities”.

In a string of interviews with the local media, the mayor of Himara Vasil Bollano, called the death “unprecedented,” saying it was motivated by ethnic hatred.

A controversial figure, Bollano was acquitted by an appeals court two months ago over charges of abuse of power for ordering the removal of road signs because they were not bilingual.

He has previously declared large areas of southern Albania as 'Greek land' and claimed autonomy for the region.

Estimates of the Greek minority in Albania range around three per cent of the total population.

Indonesia urges religious tolerance

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, has stressed the need for religious tolerance amid growing calls for him to act against extremists who regularly attack minorities in the country.

In a speech to parliament on Monday, the eve of the country's independence day, Yudhoyono called on Indonesians to exercise the "true philosophy of harmonious living in a pluralistic society".

"To build a democratic and fair life, I want to underline the importance of maintaining and strengthening our brotherhood, harmony and tolerance as a nation," he said.

"In everyday life we still find cases that don't reflect the harmony, tolerance and mutual respect ... related to religion, ethnicity, tribe and regions. We must not ignore such a situation."

Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion and the country of some 240 million people, 80 per cent of whom are Muslim, has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

However, in recent months, it has been plagued by rising violence by Islamic groups who have launched attacks on mosques belonging to minority sects and Christian churches.

Call for action
Hundreds of Indonesians, mostly Christians, held a prayer vigil in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on Sunday urging Yudhoyono to stop the attacks and guarantee religious freedom.

In July the Indonesian rights group the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace said there were 28 cases of religious freedom violations from January to July, up from 17 for the whole of 2008 and 18 in 2009.

The violations, mostly by radical Muslim groups, included forced closure of churches and attacks such as torching and damaging churches, it said.

Human Rights Watch early this month said Indonesia was letting Islamist groups trample the constitutional rights of minorities, leading to inter-communal violence.

It called on Yudhoyono to repeal laws that it said gives extremists from the dominant religious group the legal space to launch violent attacks on people of other faiths and sects.

Yudhoyono also said during his speech that the government was optimistic of a 7.7 per cent growth in the economy by 2014.

aljazeera

Roma protest blocks French bridge

Roma (Gypsies) have blocked a major road bridge near Bordeaux in protest after hundreds of them were  evicted from an illegal campsite.

Around 250 vehicles blocked the bridge for five hours on Sunday, causing tailbacks of up to five kilometres on a public holiday weekend.

More than 40 illegal camps have been closed in the past week.

The French interior minister says Roma from Eastern Europe will be deported on "specially chartered flights".

The blockade on the Aquitaine Bridge was the first major counter-protest by Roma and travellers since the French government began its crackdown.

The regional traffic information centre said the blockade caused tailbacks of five kilometres on the Paris-bound carriageway of the A630.

Police said the Roma had been expelled from a camp in the town of Anglet, to the south, and were prevented from setting up a new camp on an exhibition ground nearer Bordeaux.

There are hundreds of thousands of Roma or travelling people living in France who are part of long-established communities.

The other main Roma population is made up of recent immigrants, mainly from Romania and Bulgaria. They have the right to enter France without a visa, but must have work or residency permits to settle over the long term.

The interior minister has announced that he will be meeting Romanian junior minister next week to call on Romanian police to assist in the crackdown in France.

BBC News

Breaking through hate crime barriers (UK)

A squad of students who aim to banish hate crime have taken their campaign all the way to Westminster.

The pupils from De La Salle High School earned a top five place in a Parliamentary awards scheme with their project aimed at creating awareness of hate crime.

The School Council Awards were open to every primary and secondary school in the country and De La Salle’s effort won them a place at the final in London.

De La Salle students made the grade with their hate crime project – which aimed to remove the barriers created by racism and intolerance of just being ‘different’ – whether it be age, sexuality, disability, religion, or even the area are you come from, the music people listen to or the way they dress.

Council members Stephen Pennington, Catherine Brown, and Rachel Eden travelled to Westminster for the final, where they just missed out on first place in the 11-16 age group to a London school.

Back home, there was more civic recognition – with the pupils greeted in the Mayor’s Parlour.

St Helens Star

'White supremacist' puts a genteel face on racism (Canada)

Paul Fromm's efforts to rouse public opinion against the Tamil migrant ship began last month from his home in  Ontario, with impassioned messages posted to Stormfront.org, the Florida-based neo-Nazi website of which he is a "sustaining member" and radio host.

It continued last week in Calgary, when he led a group of Aryan Guard skinheads to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's constituency office, and so terrified the receptionist that she locked the door and would not accept Mr. Fromm's delivery of a letter until police arrived.

But for Canada's best known racist agitator, things did not really get going until he reached the Pacific shore at Esquimalt, B.C., on Saturday, where the boat was docked.

There, accompanied by Doug Christie -- famous as the go-to civil liberties lawyer for every top Canadian racist of the last 30 years -- Mr. Fromm got himself front and centre on the national weekend news, flanked by his small group of two dozen protesters.

Mr. Fromm, whose license to teach high school in Ontario was revoked in 2007 for his activism against non-white immigration and ties to groups like the defunct neo-Nazi Heritage Front, appeared in reports by three major news outlets, identified only as the leader of a group called "Canada First," or "Canada First Immigration Reform Committee."

“If we do need immigrants, the public opinion polls show that the majority of Canadians don’t want the ethnic balance upset,” Mr. Fromm said, according to the Toronto Star story.

The media exposure for his message recalls an episode in 2008, when Fox News was criticized by a U.S. anti-hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, for allowing Mr. Fromm to appear as a "free speech activist."

Fox News is one thing, but to score prominent coverage offering comment on a national refugee crisis to the Toronto Star, Canadian Press, and CTV indicates that Mr. Fromm's nose for media is especially refined.

No outlet responded to requests for comment.

Mr. Fromm said he was "pleasantly surprised at the amount of press interest."

"I did find it unusual," he said. "I took it to mean that some of the journalists have actually gone to journalism school."
The Victoria Times-Colonist reported on the protest and identified Mr. Fromm as a "white supremacist."

The others are not the first media outlets to be fooled in this way. On the surface, "immigration reform" has the same kind of naive appeal as "historical revisionism," a euphemism for Holocaust denial, and a field in which Mr. Fromm is highly regarded as a free speech champion.

Dressed as he was in a suit and tie on a sunny summer's day, Mr. Fromm made an obviously professional spokesman for the media pack. His manner is typical of the public pose struck by other elder statesmen of Canadian racism, such as Don Andrews, a fellow traveller back to university days in Toronto, whose conviction for the wilful promotion of hatred against blacks and Jews was upheld in 1990 at the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Andrews has a similar attention-grabbing prank of getting municipal governments across Canada to declare "European Heritage Week," without realizing that the sponsoring organization, his Nationalist Party of Canada, is explicitly white supremacist.

It is a winning strategy, to put a genteel face on racism for the unsuspecting public, as Jared Taylor of American Renaissance discovered in Halifax in 2007, when he challenged an unwitting Black studies professor to debate him on multiculturalism, then basked in media coverage when the professor realized he was an avowed racist, and cancelled.

In the case of the Tamil migrants, all Mr. Fromm had to do to seize the spotlight as a voice of dissent was to gather a few people on a roadside outside of Victoria, B.C., and just start talking.

"The only way to really do something about people smuggling is to make sure that if you come in through the back door illegitimately like this, you don't get in," he said in the CTV report. For balance, his remarks were followed by the more welcoming sentiments of a group of native women from a nearby reserve.

For the modern "immigration reform" activist, that is how to play the publicity game -- think like the media, get to the scene, and get on camera. And if success if measured by exposure, it is also how to win.


"I'll talk to anybody," Mr. Fromm said.

Financial Post

Garda issue warning over online racism (Ireland)

The Garda  have warned people who set up pages inciting racism on online social networks that they are open to prosecution, and even people who join these sites could face charges.

Sgt David McInerney of the Garda Racial and Intercultural Office said site hosts like Facebook were also “open to prosecution” if there was a valid complaint about racist online material.

“It is only a matter of time before a prosecution is brought,” he said.

Two anti-Traveller pages were recently pulled by Facebook following complaints from members of the public.

One of the sites had more than 8,000 members before it was closed down, while another site still in operation which promotes abuse against Travellers has more than 300 members.

The Irish Traveller Movement described the sites as “particularly vile” and “grossly offensive”, while Pavee Point and the Waterford Travellers Community Development Project have lodged formal complaints with the Garda.

Sgt McInerney encouraged people with complaints to continue to come forward. He described racist online activity as “very harmful” and “a very very serious form of crime. People don’t realise the harm it causes. Such sites can lead directly to racial abuse against minorities in the streets.”

Also condemning the sites, Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey said: “Social networking sites have a responsibility to ensure that the platforms they provide aren’t being abused.

“There is a constant need for vigilance in relation to racism. Racism should be confronted however and wherever it manifests itself.”

The Minister’s reconfigured department now has responsibility for the Government’s equality remit, formerly with the Department of Justice.

Irish Times

BNP finances come under police scrutiny

The BNP’s financial mess seems to be attracting the attention of the authorities. Rumours are circulating that Nick Griffin was arrested and had to post bail in Bruges last week. It also seems that party Treasurer David Hannam has been questioned by police over the party's finances.

According to the BNP’s former webmaster, Simon Bennett, the BNP has been served by a winding up order by the accountants Deloitte LLP, acting as liquidator on behalf of HM Revenue and Customs, Allied Irish Bank and two other organisations.

It’s going from bad to worse for Griffin and co.

Hope Not Hate

Nurseries on guard for neo-Nazis (Germany)

A regional government in eastern Germany has ordered the operators of children’s day-care centres to pledge allegiance to the constitution following recent cases in which neo-Nazis have attempted to set up kindergartens, work in them or influence their teaching.

The measure is aimed at halting what anti-Nazi campaigners say is a new and disturbing phenomenon: the indoctrination of toddlers by teachers and parents in the former communist east, which has a strong neo-Nazi presence.

In future, anyone who wants to open a nursery in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one of Germany’s 16 states, must sign a declaration that they and their teachers adhere to the democratic values enshrined in the country’s Basic Law, the government announced late last month.

“I am concerned that right-wing extremists could become managers of kindergartens,” said Manuela Schleswig, the social affairs minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Her decision follows a recent case in which a village in the state almost permitted a father of seven to take over a kindergarten that was about to close due to a shortage of funds.

A background check on the man, who offered to run the kindergarten free of charge, revealed he was a member of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), and he was not hired.

The NPD is openly xenophobic and anti-Semitic and extols a vision of a Fourth Reich containing only Germans. It is more extreme than other European anti-immigrant parties such as France’s Front National, Austria’s Freedom Party and the Dutch Party of Freedom.

Eastern Germany has been dogged by right-wing extremism ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Attacks on Jewish property and racist assaults on ethnic minorities are commonplace there.

The violence has been blamed in part on high unemployment that followed the rapid economic collapse in the east in the 1990s and on a lack of education about the Nazi period in schools during the communist regime.

Analysts say that despite a myriad of government initiatives to combat racism and lure people away from the Nazi scene, the far-right is becoming more deeply entrenched because the neo-Nazi youths of the 1990s have had children and are trying to influence the way they are taught in kindergartens and schools.

Nursery teachers and activists say there has been a growing incidence of far-right members either training to be kindergarten workers or seeking to influence nurseries, for example by supplying racist books. There is mounting concern that there may be enough neo-Nazi families in some regions to secure a majority on parent boards.
“There appears to be a strategy within the far-right scene to encourage young women to train for jobs in the teaching and welfare sectors because that offers the opportunity to convey national ideology later on,” said Heike Radvan, an educational scientist at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, an anti-racism group.

A recent editorial in the newspaper of the NPD encouraged members to go into teaching to promote “nationalist education” for young Germans.

“There are cases where right-wing mothers get involved in day-care centres, for example by helping to set up a playground, and in a second step try to bring in their ideology,” said Ms Radvan. “For example they bring in a children’s book that portrays a racist view of the world.”

In one case, a mother who had argued against a school being called “School Against Racism” was found to have published recipes for swastika-shaped cakes on her private website.

The NPD openly espouses Nazi ideology but benefits from Germany’s liberal laws on freedom of speech and is a legitimate party, which entitles it to public funding. It has solid support in the east, and is represented in the regional parliaments of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony, another eastern state.

Immigrant groups have labelled parts of the east as no-go areas. Police recorded 891 far-right assaults in Germany last year, of which 382 were categorised as racist or anti-Semitic. There was a total of 18,750 far-right crimes, including offences such as arson, daubing swastikas on headstones in Jewish cemeteries or smashing the windows of restaurants run by immigrants.

In public statements, leaders of the NPD regularly praise the achievements of Hitler’s regime and dismiss Germany’s crimes during the Nazi era. Hitler salutes are commonplace at closed-door meetings and members talk about sending their opponents off in “freight trains”, in reference to the trains that took Jews to the concentration camps, say former NPD members.

The Amadeu Antonio Foundation, named after a contract worker from Angola who was beaten to death by neo-Nazi youths in 1990, has been training kindergarten teachers to spot far-right parents by their clothes and tattoos, and is advising them on how to resist attempts by them to influence teaching.

In some cases far-right parents can be identified by the Nordic names they call their children. “Some parents bring in children and say their child is called ‘Odin’ or ‘Heil Odin’. You have to think about how to deal with that,” said Ms Radvan.

Critics say forcing Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s kindergarten operators to sign a declaration won’t solve the problem. “I think it is nonsense and totally exaggerated to respond by issuing such a declaration,” said Bernd Wagner, a leading analyst of the far-right scene. “It won’t work because any NPD member would simply sign the pledge.”

Mr Wagner said the emphasis should be placed on tackling neo-Nazi parents. “The children aren’t infected in kindergartens, they’re indoctrinated at home, where they have access to nationalist literature and where you sometimes get relatives greeting each other with Sieg Heil,” he said.

“We urgently needed to address the welfare of children who grow up in such families and explore what scope local authorities have to deal with that.”

The National

Demonstrators allowed to protest neo-Nazi march (Germany)

A last-minute court ruling enabled around 1,000 people to take part in a demonstration in Lower Saxony on Saturday to protest an annual march by neo-Nazis.

The site of British army interrogation of Nazis between 1945 and 1947, the town of Bad Nenndorf has  attracted neo-Nazis staging a "remembrance" march for the last five years.

The Hannover administrative court gave permission for the neo-Nazi march on Friday, but banned a counter demonstration, only for the upper administrative court in Lüneburg to countermand that ban in the evening.

The demonstration organised by the German trades union association was thus allowed – and around 1,000 people showed up with banners reading "Bad Nenndorf defends itself" and "German perpetrators are not victims."

They were limited by the court to holding a rally rather than marching through the town or going near the neo-Nazi rally, where about 850 people gathered.

A small group disrupted the neo-Nazi march, managing to drive a small bus and trailer behind the police barriers and unload a concrete pyramid.

Four people chained themselves to it - around 100 metres from the planned neo-Nazi rally point.

The Local Germany

ANTI-SEMITISM FEARED AHEAD OF EURO 2012 (Poland)

The stands surrounding the soccer field of the Resovia sports club in the Polish city of Rzeszów were quite full. The two local soccer teams, Resovia and Stal, which play in the Polish Second League, met for a local derby. Both clubs have a distinguished history: Resovia is one of the oldest sports clubs in history, while Stal won the Polish championship in the mid 1970s. As in most derby matches worldwide, the rivalry is bitter and filled with hatred. Even before the start of the game, Resovia's fans took to the streets of Rzeszów and chanted, "The Aryan masses are coming." During the game, some of them waved a huge cloth banner carrying a cartoon showing a Jew with a curved nose, wearing a striped yarmulke in the meaningful colors of blue and white – the colors of the flag of Israel, the colors of prisoners' uniform in Auschwitz and the official colors of the rival camp. On the devout Jew's face they scribbled the international "no entrance" sign. A poster held next to the cartoon read, "Death to those with curved noses."

Although the Nazis massacred masses of Polish people, the anti-Semitic racism raging in the Polish soccer stadiums lacks any historic cognition. It is based on pure hatred. The recent anti-Semitic incident in Rzeszów sparked a fervent response in Poland. After the incident was revealed to the media by organizations fighting anti-Semitism, the Polish Football Association decided to penalize Resovia with a ridiculous fine and close the fields to its fans for two months. A number of inciters were arrested by the police. The club's chairman, former Justice Minister Aleksander Bentowski, referred to the incident as "outrageous," and the team released a late apology saying that "the Jews of Rzeszów were starved to death and executed in the Rzeszów Ghetto, which later turned into a concentration camp for the entire region. Some of the city's Jews were sent to the death camps, while the others were shot in nearby forests. 'Death to the Jews' calls in this place must be punished."

The 'Jewish' club
Before World War II, one-third of Rzeszów's residents were Jews. The city even had a name in Yiddish – "Reisha." Nearly all of the Rzeszów's Jews were murdered by the Nazis, and today there is no information on Jews residing in the city, all the more so on Jews playing with the Stal club. Nonetheless, the club is considered "Jewish" by the fans of its rival club in the city – not only because of its symbol and its players' clothes, but simply because it's considered "the enemy." Despite the anti-Semitic posters and slogans, the heads of the rival clubs and representatives of the Polish Football Association who were present at the match kept silent. After all, anti-Semitism is a life's routine in Polish soccer. In nearly every city, as well as among the First League clubs, there are "Jewish teams" which are despised by their rivals and are subject to shocking anti-Semitic propaganda.

Fans of certain teams, which absurdly refer to themselves as "Aryan," arrive at the games with a racist belief about the need to create a "white Poland." They wave Nazi flags and posters sending the Jews to the gas chambers. Now, following the World Cup in South Africa, preparations have begun for the European Football Championship games scheduled to take place in two years in Poland and Ukraine for the very first time. But senior Polish government officials have voiced their concern that the wild racism of local soccer fans will prompt the European Football Association to punish their country and hold the desired championship in a different country. The situation in Ukraine is not much better. In a report released about a month ago, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) harshly criticized the slow progress made in the war against anti-Semitism in Poland, particularly in the soccer field. "Anti-Semitism is tolerated in part of the political world and influential media," the report said. "Racism among soccer fans, involving serious insults to black players and crude references to the Holocaust, is a major problem which must be tackled by the authorities as well as by the Polish Football Association and soccer clubs."

The Cracovia soccer club in Krakow, which plays in Poland's First League, is traditionally considered a Jewish club, because it had opened its ranks to Jews before the war. Its rivals regularly voice anti-Semitic slogans during matches. Two years ago, a police investigation was launched against Arkadiusz Mysona, one of the most popular soccer players in Poland, for wearing a shirt with anti-Semitic slogans after winning a league match with the £KS £ódŸ club. Mysona quickly apologized for the act, claiming that at the end of the match, as the players removed and changed their shirts, a fan approached him and handed him the anti-Semitic shirt. Mysona said he did not check the shirt, and immediately took it off after his colleagues showed him the writing. "Anti-Semitism in Polish soccer is a serious phenomenon, particularly in light of the fact that only a small number of Jews live in Poland," says Dr. Rafal Pankowski of the FARE (Football against Racism in Europe) organization. The organization was founded in 1999 by fans from across Europe, who decided to launch a war on the racism phenomenon.

"Anti-Semitism in soccer is not directed against the physical presence of Jews in the stadiums, as there are almost none, neither among the fans nor among the players. The incident in Rzeszów is not unusual or special in Polish soccer," stresses Pankowski, who also heads a center monitoring racism in soccer across Eastern Europe. "There are people who treat it lightly and claim it is virtual anti-Semitism. We say that using the word 'Jew' against fans of a rival club is as anti-Semitic if there are no Jews in those clubs. "Moreover, extreme right-wing organizations are very active in stadiums. They promote their ideology there and try to recruit new members. The most active movement is NOP (the National Rebirth of Poland) – a fascist organization which has been trying to influence the soccer culture for years." Pankowski notes that anti-Semitism in Poland is not restricted to the soccer world, but that in the soccer arena it is very clear.

"Soccer evokes emotions in a very special way," he explains. "It's related to the issue of personal and national identity, the element of the team and the masses, and these are used as emotion evokers. "For a long time, the main problem was the tolerance expressed by the Polish clubs and sports institutions towards this phenomenon. Only recently they began changing their attitude for the better, partially thanks to our work. But the situation could be better. We provide the clubs with training and instruction programs and provide them with information on neo-Nazis and anti-Semitic and racist symbols seen inside the stadiums."

Beginning of a change?
As part of the war on racism and anti-Semitism in Polish soccer, Pankowski and his colleagues recently inaugurated a wandering exhibition about the multi-cultural roots of Polish soccer. The exhibition reveals that many of the founders of Polish soccer and those who contributed to it in the first half of the 20th century were members of minority groups, mainly Jews. The different leagues had Jewish clubs, as well as Jewish actors, coaches and managers. Józef Klotz made history when he scored the first goal for the Polish team against Sweden in 1924. He was murdered by the Nazis in 1941, as was national team player and Cracovia Kraków star Leon Sperling and popular soccer player Zygmunt Steuermann, who played for the rival club in Krakow and later for Jewish club Hasmonea Lwów. "Beyond anti-Semitism, there is also the phenomenon of racism against black footballers," clarifies Pankowski. "They began coming to Poland in the early 1990s, at the end of the Communist era. The Polish national team also has foreign players who acquired citizenship, like Roger Guerreiro from Brazil. There was a harsh racist response towards them, but because they are such good players, this resistance died down. And still, many of them face serious racism."

Do you believe the European Championship could be moved to a different country?

"The Union of European Football Associations is aware of the situation. This is the reason they support anti-racism campaigns among the fans. They take it very seriously. "Some time ago we held a big European convention in Warsaw on racism in soccer. We chose Warsaw in order to convey a message on the importance of this matter in Poland. I don’t know if this racism will lead to the cancellation of the championship in Poland, but we must reduce the chance for racist and neo-Nazi incidents during the championship. "The European Championship is a very big opportunity for us. The improvement achieved so far is insignificant and not quick enough. We cannot eliminate the anti-Semitism phenomena completely before the Championship, but the state and society must do their utmost to improve the situation."

Dr. Maciej Koz³owski, a former Polish ambassador to Israel who serves today as head of a department in the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw involved in nurturing the ties with Israel and the Jewish people, agrees with Pankowski. "Ahead of the Euro 2012, we cannot tolerate racism on our football fields," he says. "The European Association is extremely tough on this matter. In general, anti-Semitism among the young generations in Poland is less common than among the older generations, but there are cells of violent anti-Semitism among young soccer fans. It's a serious problem. There are clubs which are tolerant of this phenomenon." In Krakow, even before World War I, there were two clubs – Wisla didn't take in Jews, while Cracovia did. "Before World War II, the great wave of anti-Semitism in Poland sparked a debate on boycotting the Jewish sports clubs," says Dr. Kozlowski. "Cracovia objected. A similar situation took place in Lodz. And then they began treating those clubs as 'Jewish' clubs. "There are fans who hold signs in the fields reading, 'White empire,' 'Jew hunters,' 'Jews to the gas chambers.' They are a minority, but a dangerous one. I'm encouraged by the large number of organizations fighting this phenomenon."

Following the serious incident in Rzeszów, the Polish foreign minister appealed to the country's new attorney general and asked him to look into the possibility of launching criminal proceedings against fans describing themselves as "Aryan" for supporting the Nazi ideology. "The war on anti-Semitism," Kozlowski stresses, "is long and hard. A significant breakthrough can take place through the church, which is capable of playing a decisive role in this matter thanks to its history and public importance in Poland. "This year we managed to convince the church in Krakow to include in seminars for young priests courses about Judaism and the relations between the Jews and the Polish people. It's the beginning of a change."

YNet

Sarkozy's party furious over UN racism report

France's ruling right-wing UMP party has lashed out at a UN committee that accuses the government of failing to stem a rising tide of racism in the country. Members of the UN’s Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Cerd) come from countries which do not respect human rights and are “100 leagues from reality”, party leaders said Friday.

The committee's report denounced a “lack of political will” to end an allegedly increasing number of racist and xenophobic incidents.

But members of the party hit back with an attack on the countries of origin of committee members.

UMP Dominique Paillé deputy spokesperson told RTL radio that he was “surprised by the attitude of the committee” and notably of “its composition ... which includes people from countries which absolutely do not respect human rights”.

UMP MP Christian Vanneste declared that the committee's make-up "renders it suspect" on France Info radio.

"Not every country that is on it is an example of living democracy or of respect for minorities," he said. "Algeria, Russia, Romania, which treat Roms very badly - you see the state they're in when they get here."

Vanneste also cast doubt on the democratic credentials of Pakistan and Turkey.

The report also criticised President Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent declarations concerning the Roma population in France, as well as his plan to strip criminals of foreign origin of French citizenship.

A Roma camp in Anglet, where 1,000 people have lived in 274 caravans since 1 August, was evacuated Friday morning in an emergency procedure at the request of the mayor, the day after Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux revealed that 40 Roma camps have been closed in a fortnight.

RFI

European Right-Wing Leaders Visit Japan War Shrine

French nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen and other European right-wing politicians paid a visit Saturday to a Japanese shrine that has drawn outrage for honoring war criminals.

Mr. Le Pen, leader of the far-right French National Front, and Adam Walker of the British National Party said they were making the visit, which came a day ahead of the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II, to pay respect to those who died in war.

"What counts is the will that we had to honor those who have fallen for defending their country, whether they are Japanese, or any soldiers of the world, we have the same respect for them," Mr. Le Pen said.

Mr. Le Pen is known for his anti-immigrant and extremist views. He shocked France when he qualified for the second round of the 2002 presidential race, which Jacques Chirac eventually won.

The visit to Yasukuni, an ornate Shinto shrine in downtown Tokyo, was arranged by the International Conference of Patriotic Organisations, which brought together right-wing parties from eight European countries with members of a Japanese ultranationalist group called the Issuikai.

Yasukuni honors Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals. Pacifists and victims of Japanese aggression, such as China and the Koreas, say it glorifies Japan's past militarism.

The visit by Mr. Le Pen and others may also anger some former prisoners of war in those countries being represented by the right-wing groups.

Tens of thousands of British, Dutch and other European soldiers and civilians were captured by the Japanese Imperial Army as they swept across Europe's former Asian colonies at the beginning of World War II. Thousands were executed, tortured and starved to death in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.

When asked about his visit, Mr. Walker told Associated Press Television News: "I'm honoring the dead. I am here to honor the dead—heroes that have died for their country."

Past visits to Yasukuni by Japanese politicians have provoked outrage from China, Korea and neighboring Asian countries.

Some lawmakers, as well as hundreds of regular Japanese whose relatives and friends died as soldiers in World War II, are expected to visit Yasukuni on Sunday to mark the end of World War II.

But Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his ministers are expected to shun the visit—the first time all members of a cabinet will stay away.

Mr. Kan's liberal Democratic Party defeated the long-reigning conservative Liberal Democrats for the first time in decades in last year's parliamentary elections.

Mr. Kan on Tuesday apologized to South Korea for its colonial rule and the suffering Japan caused the Korean people, and expressed hopes for a partnership.

Japanese leaders have repeatedly apologized for wartime aggression against the country's Asian neighbors, including a 1995 apology from a leftist-leaning prime minister that marked the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

WSJ

Rates of anti-gay hate crime rise in Portsmouth (UK)

Homophobic hate crime in the city of Portsmouth has risen by 12 per cent, this year, compared to 2004.

Over half the people who responded to a local council survey said they'd experienced hate crime in the area, according to Portsmouth News.

Fifty nine per cent of respondents had experienced one or more incidents or homophobic crimes in the last year. To put that into context, the national average is 12 per cent.

But the problem is not just with people outside of the community – 29 per cent said they had experienced some kind of abuse within a current or former relationship.

However, the survey found the gay community's confidence in public services was rising thanks to lesbian and gay liaison officers.

Pink News

Resistance grows among Christian Democrats against Geert Wilders

The number of signatories to a petition by Christian Democrats against the involvement of Geert Wilders and his anti-Islam PVV party in any government has doubled in one day.

Since the petition was published in Trouw on Thursday, the number of signatories has reached 100, up from 44.

The signatories want the party to stop negotiating with the PVV and the Liberal VVD for a minority government supported in parliament by Wilders. They say the ideology of the PVV is 'against the Dutch constitution and a threat to our demoncratic society'.

A spokesman for party leader Maxime Verhagen told the press on Thursday that Verhagen understands the concerns of the party members, but added: 'We are only at the beginning of negotiations and it's the result that matters'.

Party conference
A special party conference is scheduled for the end of August when Verhagen will explain to party members what sort of support Wilders is offering and what he wants in return. But the signatories, who include local politicians and former MPs and mayors, are not prepared to wait.

According to historian Wouter Beekers, who initiated the petition, Christian Democrats will tend to accept what Verhagen says at the conference and action must be taken now, reports the Volkskrant.

Unique action
It is most unusual for Christian Democrats to make any criticism of their party public, particularly in the form of a mass demonstration. But many members are still keeping silent.

Some, like Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, have already fought back. The former Nato general secretary told the Volkskrant he would not be joining 'that herd of old elephants'. In his opinion, former politicians always think they know best.

Dutch News

BNP want Jewish 'comrades' to fight Muslims (UK)

Members of far-right organisations are urging colleagues to support an unlikely ally - Israel.

Small groups of BNP and English Defence League supporters are championing the Jewish state as part of a perceived struggle with the Muslim world.

They call for Israel and the BNP to be "comrades in arms".

One person commenting on a pro-BNP blog suggested that the party should open an office in Israel to "show solidarity with the Israeli people".

But Jon Benjamin, Board of Deputies chief executive, warned: "No one in their right mind should have any truck with the BNP or their ilk."

A blogger on The Green Arrow, an independent website which supports the BNP, encouraged others to look to Israel to avoid the West's "meek surrender to Islam".

Under the name Reconquista, the blogger wrote: "Against the backdrop of an enormous anti-Israel propaganda campaign waged by Muslims and by the Marxist left, Israel continues to fight for its very survival.

"I believe it is absolutely imperative for British Nationalists to be fully aware of the lies, deceptions, hypocrisy and moral cowardice surrounding Israel and the Jewish people."

One person commented on the blog: "I have written several times calling for committees for the mutual defence of white and Jewish communities to be set up here. Both people are under attack… Jewish people need to stop opposing us as their enemy."

Another adds: "We need Israel. We must join with them to fight this terrible wave of Islam trying to take over the world. The Jews know all about ethnic cleansing, and they will never allow themselves to be in that position again."

In May, the extreme right-wing anti-Islamic fundamentalism group the English Defence League launched a "Jewish division", encouraging Jews to "lead the counter-Jihad fight in England".

Mr Benjamin said: "Short-term political expediency and pronouncements of this kind are merely a cynical ploy by the BNP to try to re-invent themselves to capture the support of those who should know better."

A CST spokesman said: "There may be the odd BNP activist who thinks that antisemitism is stupid, and there may well be others who think that supporting Israel is a good idea, but none of it changes what the BNP is all about."

Such concerns may be well-founded. The Green Arrow site includes readers' comments such as "it's the Jews who own all the media".

The JC

Court approves neo-Nazi march, but bans counter demonstration (Germany)

A Hannover court has approved a neo-Nazi march in the Lower Saxony spa town of Bad Nenndorf this weekend, but declined to authorise a counter-demonstration by left-wing protestors because they allegedly  pose a greater danger and the neo-Nazis registered first.

The administrative court confirmed its decision on Thursday to exclude the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), overturning a previous ruling by a Schaumburg district court, which had said there were not enough police there to handle both sides at the same time. But the Hannover court said the some 2,000 officers could at least handle one demonstration.

Because the neo-Nazis registered for permission first, and officials expect violence-prone anarchists to be attracted to the counter demonstration, the far-right extremists will be allowed to march unopposed, the court said.

The DGB called the decision an “unbelievable ruling” and said it would appeal to the state of Lower Saxony’s top administrative court.

Right-wing extremists have come to Bad Nenndorf since 2006 to stage a "funeral march" in honour of Nazis they say were mishandled there between 1945 and 1947 at an interrogation centre by occupying British troops.

The Local Germany

Racist Serial Stabber Arrested By FBI (USA)

A young man notorious for being a racist serial stabber has been arrested for attacking 20 men.


Commonly known to everyone as Racist Serial Stabber, the person stabbed 20 men out of whom 5 died and 15 survived having severe injuries. The victims belong from Michigan, Virginia and Ohio.

The people whom Racist Serial Stabber attacked were mostly dark men. Only two of the attacked victims were of white skin. He got his Racist Serial Stabber name from there.

The suspect was wearing a dark green Chevy blazer when authorities at the airport caught him after spotting him via security cameras at the airport. His portrait was already released by police after he was seen at the site of his last crime.

According to police, the suspect was boarding flight for Tel Aviv from the Hartsfield-Jackson International airport. Further details about the case will be released once the investigation is done.

All Voices

Champagne binge woman's racist tirade (UK)

A woman who launched a racist rant after drinking champagne at Fortnum and Mason was spared jail yesterday

Holly Mercer, 20, subjected doorman Jean Luc Abenou to a barrage of abuse at another bar after she was wrongly accused of stealing a wallet. Southwark crown court heard she called him a "f***ing black man" and added: "I will send you back to Jamaica where you belong ... BNP will get you all out."

She admitted racially aggravated harassment. Judge Nicholas Lorraine-Smith gave her a 12-month community order. She must do 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £150 costs. "Your behaviour was atrocious [but] what you shouted didn't betray your true views," he said.

The court heard Mercer, of Aldwych, spent the night of April 13 in bars including Fortnum in Piccadilly. She abused Mr Abenou in the Ku Bar, Soho.

This is London

Facebook vows new security measures to combat alarming 'trolling' abuse trend

Facebook, the social networking site, has pledged to develop new security measures to combat a growing surge in cyber bullying and abuse of strangers.

Engineers at Facebook are reportedly working on new systems to fight the trend of “trolling”, where  anonymous online users “bombard” victims with offensive messages or abuse.

Reports have claimed a growing number of “tribute” pages had been targeted including those in memory of the Cumbria shootings victims and soldiers who died in Afghanistan
In other extreme cases such abuse has led to some teenagers committing suicide.

At present users can only manually delete abusive messages. But in efforts to combat the growing trend, Facebook officials said they were working on new systems that automatically delete abuse.

Administrators of such sites will also be given new advice on how to cope with “trolls” and be given access to the new tools.

It comes just weeks after the announcement that children using Facebook could now report bullying and suspicious behaviour directly to the authorities after the launch of a new application.

Officials figures from Ofcom show that children as young as eight were using Facebook despite age restrictions.

Jim Gamble, the chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), who has been working with Facebook to combat cyber bullying, welcomed the news.

Mr Gamble, Britain's most senior official responsible for protecting youngsters online, said the “ClickCEOP” application on Facebook had been downloaded more than 10,000 times since the button's launch last month.

The application gives users a direct link to advice, help and the ability to report cyber problems to the centre.

“We're working with Facebook. They are a good partner and we're going to get closer and closer to them,” he told ITV News.

“But in the longer term, we want the Click CEOP button to be a default. So you don't have to be sensible to realise you need it there, that you don't need to be a motivated parent to be reassured that your child is best protected.”

Mr Gamble has openly criticised Facebook, recently for not following the example of similar sites such as Bebo and failing to introduce the panic button on each user's profile page.

He has warned that officers had seen a significant increase in complaints from parents and children reporting alleged paedophiles, bullies and hackers who were exploiting the site.

A Facebook spokesman said that while the company already employed “robust” systems, engineers were developing new programmes to combat the threat.

“Because ‘trolls’ tend to set up fake accounts, we employ robust systems to flag and block them based on name and anomalous site activity,” he said.

“Users who send lots of messages to non-friends, for example, or whose friend requests are rejected at a high rate, are marked as suspect.

“We’ve built extensive grey lists that prevent users from signing up with names commonly associated with fake accounts.”

He added: “Through the reporting process our team is also able to identify additional accounts using the same IP address so it is possible in certain situations to proactively remove multiple fake accounts.

“There’s always room for improvement, which is why we have a team of security experts and site integrity engineers working on these systems and developing new ones.”

The Telegraph

Last Laugh Is on German Far Right in Court Case (Germany)

Germany’s far-right supporters lost a major court case on Wednesday after a judge ruled that a satirical anti-racist clothing label depicting a stork that looks like Hitler was not damaging to a clothing label much favored by neo-Nazis.

The case pitted Storch Heinar, the anti-racist and anti-fascist label, against Thor Steinar, the cult label for far rightist movements here. The ruling, in Nuremberg, is seen as a victory a left-leaning youth group, Endstation Rechts, whose name translates as “last stop for the right wing.”

Set up by a group of Social Democrats in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2008 to combat growing rightist extremism there and also in the state of Saxony, Endstation Rechts hit on the idea of starting its own clothing label aimed at satirizing the far-right political parties.

The youth group’s label, Storch Heinar (Storch is the German word for stork), has as its emblem an awkward and scrawny stork, which has become a symbol for a growing movement that is trying to oppose the influence of far-right parties, such as the National Party of Germany, or N.P.D., and neo-Nazi movements.

The N.P.D. is represented in the state governments of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well as Saxony.

From the beginning, Storch Heinar was turned into a cartoon character that satirizes Hitler. It has a Hitler-esque mustache and wears an oversized military helmet. Satirizing Hitler’s own life, the stork has an unhappy childhood, is not recognized as an artist, has a very big superiority complex and above all has ambitions to be the greatest fashion designer of all times.

Such humor did not go down at all with Mediatex, the company that owns Thor Steinar. The label won wide appeal among far-right supporters in Germany because of its emphasis on Nordic mythology, which the Nazis used to propagate their philosophy of racial purity.

Mediatex at first tried to take over the trademark of Storch Heinar and copyright the avian name. But it failed.
Then this year, Mediatex filed a complaint against Mathias Brodkorb, a Social Democrat legislator in the state Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and one of the founders of Storch Heinar. Mediatex alleged that Storch Heinar was injuring and disparaging Thor Steinar. The case went to court last month.

In his ruling, Judge Horst Rottmann said Wednesday that there was no danger that the two labels could be confused, so the danger of Thor Steinar losing potential customers was not an issue. As for denigrating or disparaging Thor Steinar, Mr. Rottmann said satire, as artistic expression and freedom, was protected under the country’s freedom of speech laws.

NY Times

UN watchdog criticises France for resurgence of racism

France is experiencing "a significant resurgence of racism" and lacked the political will to fix the problem, experts from the UN's anti-discrimination watchdog said Wednesday.

The criticism came as a panel of 18 experts from the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination presented a 90-page report on racism in France, the first since 2005.

After the session, the French delegation unexpectedly announced the preparation of a national action plan against racism.

Despite numerous legal instruments, France was facing "a notable resurgence in racism and xenophobia", Togolese expert Ewomsan Kokou said.

According to U.S. inspector Pierre-Richard Prosper, the resurgence was due to "the absence of true political will".

The debate covered treatment of traveller communities and the Roma, the debate on national identity, the non-recognition of the rights of minorities and the hardening of political discourse.

The situation of travelling communities and immigrants is a hot-button issue in France, following a threatened crackdown by President Nicolas Sarkozy in the wake of recent violence.

Sarkozy's threat to strip foreign-born nationals of French citizenship if they committed crimes came in for particular criticism.

"I don't know what a 'French person of foreign origin' is," said Gun Kut, a Turkish inspector. "I ask if this is compatible with the constitution."

The panel would wait for responses from the French delegation in a session Thursday before drawing up their recommendations.

"France has been placed on the grill," said Malik Salemkour, from the League of Human Rights.

Vancover Sun