Arno Michaels used to be a proud Wisconsin white supremacist. He had a "hate metal" band, Centurion, that sold some 20,000 CDs about killing blacks and Jews, and undoubtedly acted as a soundtrack to fear and torment. (It still does; there remains a following in Europe.) But last year Michaels started an organization called Life After Hate, a web mag preaching anti-violence, and wrote a book My Life After Hate. It's part of his journey from hate leader — he organized 1988's Skinfest, which attracted monsters from all over the country to Milwaukee — to, well, anti-hate leader. Now 40, Michaels has a lot of making up to do. Things changed in the 90s, when he saw his own daughter at day care playing with kids of all races. "I didn’t want her to be a victim," he told the Shepherd-Express in February. "I thought about the parents of kids I’d beaten up. They loved their kids as much as I loved mine. It really hit me how horrible I’d been. I really regretted it." Now, he says, "hate was justified by a claim of love for the white race." That's what he believed from around age 17 to 24, when he was, let's say, an active racist. But white power isn't limited to targeting non-whites. It extends to targeting non-straights. Speaking to the Wisconsin Gazette's Will Fellows, Michaels explains why anti-gay hate was simply part of the mix. It's something he knows about all too well: his first arrest was for a gay bashing, and he's personally inflicted plenty of pain on our community simply for being queer.
What was the status of gays in your hate hierarchy?
Homosexuality was seen as a sick perversion of the natural order, an unnatural and unhealthy lifestyle choice, a symptom of the sick society that Jews were scheming to bring about. White men and women who were recruited into homosexuality wouldn’t produce more white offspring, further reducing the already sputtering white birth rate. Like everything else we didn’t like, homosexuality was seen as part of the Jewish plot to take out the white race.
Along with a desire to clean up society, seeking out gay people to attack had something to do with making a statement about our own masculinity. Gay people were generally easy targets. Anytime we encountered them we would hurt them if we thought we could get away with it, sometimes even in broad daylight in crowded areas. I believe the first time I was arrested as a skinhead was for attempted gay-bashing. A friend and I were caught in the alley behind a gay bar, armed with axe handles.
In one incident, I broke a gay guy’s eye socket with my elbow when he tried to respond to the taunts of my buddies. I will be haunted by that man’s broken face till the day I die. Today, my outspoken opposition to discrimination against LGBT people is driven as much by that memory as by a zeal for human rights in a broader sense.
How did anti-gay hatred compare to race/ethnicity-based hatred?
Both types of hatred are rooted in a fear of difference. Skinheads, like other fundamentalists, seek uniformity. Just as we pointed out and belittled African lips, Asian eyes and other racial/ethnic differences, we were always vigilant for differences in sexuality. The slightest bit of femininity displayed by a male was grounds for assault.
As whites, we didn’t worry about having to prove how not-black we were. But it was always important to keep your distance from homosexuality. Any good white man worth a damn had to either have a steady girlfriend, wife or a steady wake of female conquests to prove how not-gay he was. For those guys who weren’t a hit with the ladies, being called a faggot was always a concern. They would try to establish their heterosexuality by bashing gay men, verbally and physically.
Did you ever get to know any gay people?
I did have an uncle who was gay, who was ostracized by my family. I saw him as a tormented and mean person, which I blamed on his homosexuality instead of on how he was treated because of who he was. Back then, I cited my uncle as my personal connection with the sickness of homosexuality. He died alone in a mental hospital, and my aunt later took her own life in response to the guilt she felt for betraying him. Today, I cite my uncle’s sad story as my personal connection with the sickness of intolerance.
Queerty
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Trial begins for white supremacist accused of soliciting attack on Web post (USA)
 |
| William White |
The juror remembered to the minute when the call came in — at 9:34 a.m.
The voice on the other end of the phone had peppered him with questions, asking him to confirm his name, date of birth and other details. And then this: Were you on the jury that convicted Matthew Hale?
Within 20 minutes, the juror, Mark Hoffman, 46, was getting hateful texts, one after the other — although none specifically threatening him. By the end of the day, he learned that his personal information — address, phone numbers and even a photo — as well as references to his longtime partner had been posted on a Web site that identified him as a juror in the Hale case.
William White, a white supremacist from Roanoke, Va., went on trial Monday in federal court in Chicago on criminal charges that he had solicited an attack on Hoffman in a post on his Web site, overthrow.com. Prosecutors charge that White targeted Hoffman because he was the foreman on a federal jury in 2004 that had convicted Hale, a white supremacist from downstate Illinois, of plotting to kill a federal judge in Chicago.
"They wouldn't stop," Hoffman said of the texts he got on Sept 11, 2008. "I just kept breaking down in tears because they wouldn't stop."
Attorneys for White, though, told the jury that White at no point in the Web post specifically called for harm to come to Hoffman. While you might not like what he says, he has a constitutional right to say it, they contended during the first day of the trial.
"This is a man who believes in the supremacy of the white race," said one of White's attorneys, Chris Shepherd. "There's no getting around a lot of what Bill White says is downright offensive. … You don't confront bad ideas with more government censorship. You confront bad ideas with superior ideas."
Federal prosecutors, however, said White's post needs to be considered in light of other inflammatory language on his Web site, in which he called for violence against other people he considered enemies of the white race.
In his opening remarks, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ferrara said that White knew the audience he was addressing on overthrow.com — those with similar beliefs — and that he wanted them to "pick up" on the details he posted.
"It was a call for others to act … (to) find Mark Hoffman and physically and violently hurt him," Ferrara said.
The charges against White had been tossed by a judge, but an appellate court reversed that decision and ordered him tried.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, brought in from Milwaukee to preside over the trial, allowed jurors to be selected Monday without their names being publicly identified. The government had asked to protect their identities, saying jurors might fear for their own lives in light of the charges. The defense objected to the request.
Hale was convicted in 2004 of plotting the death of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow after she ruled against Hale in a trademark-infringement case. No attempt was made on Lefkow's life, but in an unrelated tragedy the following year, the judge's husband and mother were slain by a disgruntled litigant.
The post that White allegedly authored was titled "The Juror Who Convicted Matt Hale." It noted that Hoffman had "played a key role" in convicting Hale and referred to the juror as "gay and anti-racist."
In addition to the texts, Hoffman testified that he got a phone message that included racial and ethnic slurs.
Prosecutors pointed out to the jury Monday that White's Web site also contained a post in September 2008 that had a picture of President Barack Obama and the title: "Kill This (expletive)."
Nishay Sanan, another of White's attorneys, moved through the posts Monday with Hoffman, pointing out that much of the personal information was public at the time White posted it. Sanan also repeatedly asked him whether he ever saw a direct physical threat from White in the posts.
Hoffman responded no — although he immediately answered yes when prosecutors later asked him if he still felt threatened.
Chicago Tribune
Israeli neo-Nazi leader detained
A 24-year-old Israeli suspected of leading a neo-Nazi group in Petach TIkva was detained at Ben-Gurion Airport Monday.
Dmitri Bogotich, who is believed to have led his friends in perpetrating a series of vandalistic acts and attacks against various minorities in Petach Tikva and Tel Aviv, fled Israel in 2007.
On Israel's request, an international arrest warrant was issued against Bogotich, who apparently fled to Russia before being expelled to Kirgizstan. In recent days he was arrested while traveling in the country and handed over to Israel.
Israeli police officers accompanied Bogotich on his flight to Israel and detained him upon landing in the country, proceeding to handcuff and chain him. He was later taken for an interrogation about his role in the neo-Nazi gang; eight of its members have already been convicted and are serving their sentences
Following the arrest, the commander of Israel's Central Police District, Bentzi Sau, said that "the Israel Police will reach anywhere in the world in order to nab the criminals. The citizens have someone they can count on, and the criminals have something to fear."
The affair first came to light in September 2007, after police detained eight youngsters aged 16 to 21 on suspicion of assaulting various individuals, and mostly drug addicts, homosexuals, religious Jews, punks, and foreign workers. The gang sought out its victims near Tel Aviv's central bus station and Carmel market.
Y Net News
Far-right ‘hero’ is a convicted paedophile (UK)
The far-right group launched a campaign to free Richard Price, co-ordinator of the West Midlands division of the EDL, after he was jailed last month for violent behaviour. But Price, 41, had been convicted in June 2010 of making four indecent images of children, and possessing cocaine and crack cocaine. That conviction followed an earlier arrest in 2009 for public order offences believed to have been connected with EDL marches. Police were understood to have seized and analysed his computer, leading to the discovery of sexual images of children that he had downloaded. His home was also searched and the drugs were found.
Price admitted four counts of making indecent images of children and two charges of possessing cocaine when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court. He was banned from owning a computer for a year, given a three-year community supervision order and ordered to sign on to the sex offenders register for five years.
Price, from Quinton, Birmingham, and Collum Keyes, 23, also from Birmingham, were among 12 people arrested when they surged through police lines during a protest in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in May 2010. When that case came to court in December, Price admitted using threatening behaviour. He was jailed for three months and given a ten-year Criminal Anti-Social Behaviour Order banning him from attending marches outside Birmingham. Keyes, who admitted disorderly conduct, was fined £150.
When Price was jailed, EDL members launched a campaign urging supporters to write to the Prime Minister and MPs to try to “win justice for Richard Price, EDL”.
The Aston Villa supporter, who has also been linked to football hooliganism, was even likened by his supporters to a modern-day John Bunyan, the Puritan Christian preacher and author of Pilgrim’s Progress who was jailed for continuing his sermons without the permission of the established Church in the 1600s.
But today’s revelation that one of the EDL’s leading members has been convicted of sex offences will come as a huge embarrassment to a group that has struggled to shrug off its reputation as a new version of the National Front.
In recent months, particularly following the political demise of the British National Party, the EDL has begun to attract more support. Its leader, who had previously used the alias Tommy Robinson, was traced by The Times and gave his first interview using his real name. Stephen Lennon has vehemently denied that the group he started in Luton, Bedfordshire, is racist, saying that it has even set up a gay and lesbian division and given a prominent role to a Sikh supporter opposed to Islamic extremists.
Supporters of the EDL had claimed that Price became a political prisoner after he, along with Keyes, was banned from organising, controlling or travelling to any open-air protest outside Birmingham for ten years. It was the first time a Criminal Anti-Social Behaviour Order, sought by Thames Valley Police in conjunction with the National Domestic Extremism Unit, had been issued to a demonstrator connected to the EDL.
Last month, a database of EDL supporters was published on the internet. Hackers had attacked the group’s database of those who had made donations to the EDL and people who had bought clothing from its merchandise wing.
The Times Online
Barry pupils help spread anti-racism message (UK)
Four Barry pupils have been congratulated after their designs were chosen for an anti-racism campaign.
Jola Krystyna Brown, Rebecca Burrows and Jade Saif were presented with certificates by Vale of Glamorgan Mayor Colin Osborne at the Civic Offices on December 14.
The fourth successful student was Amelia Holden, but she was unable to make the awards ceremony due to illness.
Jade, from St Richard Gwyn School, said: "I’m really happy about having my drawing chosen.
"I was looking at a book that described shading techniques, so I decided to draw something like that."
More than 1,000 children took part in the Schools Against Racism 2011 Calendar and Poster competition, which is organised by Cardiff-based anti-racism charity Race Equality First.
Jola (Bryn Hafren), Rebecca (All Saints) and Amelia (Cadoxton Nursery) will see their designs used in a ‘Schools Against Racism’ calendar, whilst Jade’s will be part of a poster campaign to promote race equality.
Cllr Tony Hampton, Vae Council cabinet member for education and lifelong learning, said: "I think it’s a tremendous achievement that their pictures were selected as winning designs.
"They should be very proud of themselves.
"We are all entitled to be treated equally and we can all learn from this campaign."
Each child received £50 in vouchers, with their schools also pocketing £150.
Barry & District News
Jola Krystyna Brown, Rebecca Burrows and Jade Saif were presented with certificates by Vale of Glamorgan Mayor Colin Osborne at the Civic Offices on December 14.
The fourth successful student was Amelia Holden, but she was unable to make the awards ceremony due to illness.
Jade, from St Richard Gwyn School, said: "I’m really happy about having my drawing chosen.
"I was looking at a book that described shading techniques, so I decided to draw something like that."
More than 1,000 children took part in the Schools Against Racism 2011 Calendar and Poster competition, which is organised by Cardiff-based anti-racism charity Race Equality First.
Jola (Bryn Hafren), Rebecca (All Saints) and Amelia (Cadoxton Nursery) will see their designs used in a ‘Schools Against Racism’ calendar, whilst Jade’s will be part of a poster campaign to promote race equality.
Cllr Tony Hampton, Vae Council cabinet member for education and lifelong learning, said: "I think it’s a tremendous achievement that their pictures were selected as winning designs.
"They should be very proud of themselves.
"We are all entitled to be treated equally and we can all learn from this campaign."
Each child received £50 in vouchers, with their schools also pocketing £150.
Barry & District News
Monday, 3 January 2011
The Village Where the Neo-Nazis Rule (Germany)
Hitler salutes in the street and firing practice in the forest: Neo-Nazis have taken over an entire village in Germany, and authorities appear to have given up efforts to combat the problem. The place has come to symbolize the far right's growing influence in parts of the former communist east.
Horst and Birgit Lohmeyer have been working on their life's dream for six years, renovating a house in the woods near Jamel, a tiny village near Wismar in the far northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Birgit Lohmeyer writes crime novels, her husband is a musician, and both try to pretend everything is normal here in Jamel.
It wasn't easy to find their new home. The Lohmeyers spent months driving out to the countryside every weekend, heading east from where they lived in Hamburg, but most of the houses they saw were too expensive. Then they came across the inexpensive red brick farmhouse in Jamel. Slightly run-down, but not far from the Baltic Sea, the house sits surrounded by lime and maple trees, near a lake.
The Lohmeyers knew that a notorious neo-Nazi lived nearby -- Sven Krüger, a demolition contractor and high-level member of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). What the Lohmeyers didn't know was that other neighbors felt terrorized by Krüger. He and his associates were in the process of buying up the entire village.
Jamel is an example of the far-right problem that has plagued Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for years. The rural region, once part of communist East Germany, has a poor reputation in this regard -- the NPD, which glorifies the Third Reich, has been in the state parliament since 2006 and neo-Nazi crimes are part of daily life. In recent months, a series of attacks against politicians from all the democratic parties has shaken the state. Sometimes hardly a week goes by without an attack on another electoral district office, with paint bombs, right-wing graffiti and broken windows.
Norbert Nieszery, leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the state parliament, calls it an "early form of terror." Nieszery's own office windows have been smashed twice. State Interior Minister Lorenz Caffier of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) says he has registered a "new level" of right-wing extremist violence. He believes the NPD is trying to raise its profile through aggressive behavior ahead of state parliament election in September. One local mayor requested police protection after receiving repeated right-wing threats. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, has warned that the NPD is becoming increasingly influential in local municipalities and that the neo-Nazis are trying to entrench themselves in daily life.
Mounting Concern About Far-Right Influence
Nowhere have they succeeded as well as in Jamel. If the right-wing extremists left, the village would be empty. Jamel is no longer just a problem at the regional or federal state level -- even Berlin is growing concerned about the situation.
SPD member Wolfgang Thierse, vice president of Germany's federal parliament, the Bundestag, visited the village a few months ago. He spent half an hour in the Lohmeyers' living room and promised to support them in their fight against the neo-Nazis. So far, nothing has changed. Jamel has come to symbolize the fact that there are places in Germany where right-wing extremists can do virtually whatever they want.
When the Lohmeyers moved here in 2004, they started to fix up their country house and to make contact with the neighbors -- although not with the neo-Nazi Krüger. But they were sure right-wing extremists wouldn't be the only people in Jamel.
Only gradually did they realize just where they had ended up. Plaster crumbled from many of the houses in the village and one roof had collapsed completely. Beer bottles, car tires and gas canisters were littered behind the bus stop. There were metal fences surrounding some properties and attack dogs strained against their chains in the front yards. No one bothered to remove the swastika scribbled on the sign at the entrance to the village.
Children Giving Hitler Salute
There were young men with shaved heads and army trousers in the village and Nazi rock music could be heard from across the fields on the weekends. Shots sounded from the woods, where the neo-Nazis practiced their shooting -- police later found bullet casings in trenches there. When the Lohmeyers walked through the village, children raised their hands in the Nazi salute.
Krüger has shaped the village. He grew up here, with a father who was known as a right-wing radical and who used to make his son salute each morning in the snow. Young Krüger was an outsider at school, an acquaintance remembers, and didn't find friends until he joined the skinhead scene. As a young man, he incited right-wing thugs to attack a campsite and spent time in pre-trial detention on suspicion of burglary. Still, for a long time, the Krügers were the only neo-Nazis in the village.
"Now," says Horst Lohmeyer, "they see Jamel as a 'nationally liberated zone'" -- a neo-Nazi term for places foreigners and those of foreign descent must fear to tread. The extremists took over the village in just a few years. They now own seven of the 10 houses and have driven out anyone who couldn't come to terms with them. They battered down doors and broke windows, slashed tires, flew the German imperial war flag and celebrated Hitler's birthday. In the 1990s, they stuck dead chickens on one family's garden fence with the warning, "We'll smoke you out."
The village emptied and Krüger encouraged his right-wing friends to buy the available houses. Few others dared to venture into Jamel anymore. Neo-Nazis greeted one couple that wanted to move there with "Piss off" -- and the couple's house burned down shortly before they planned to move in. One new property owner dared to set foot in the village only accompanied by police.
The Lohmeyers have made it their life's work not to let themselves be driven out of Jamel. Each year, they host a rock festival on a field behind their house. Governor Erwin Sellering of the SPD has been patron of the festival since 2009. Police fence in the area and guard the entrance, and in past years, things remained largely calm.
Help is Far Away
This summer, though, neo-Nazis jumped over the fence, yelling slurs and attacking concertgoers. Police stepped in and stopped the troublemakers. But police can't always protect the Lohmeyers -- the nearest station is 12 kilometers away.
Horst Lohmeyer sits in his kitchen, bent over a map, and runs his finger along the roads and through the towns -- Gressow, Neu Degtow, Grevesmühlen. It takes a quarter of an hour to reach the nearest police station. When Krüger got married this summer, the village was inundated with several hundred right-wing extremists from Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, including a number of high-ranking NPD politicians such as Stefan Köster, NPD party head for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Jamel has become a right-wing pilgrimage site -- they come from all over Europe to see the village where neo-Nazis call the shots. They celebrated Krüger's wedding until late in the night, with nationalist rock music and fireworks. The Lohmeyers lay awake in bed, frozen with fear.
Mayor Uwe Wandel is helpless in the face of the right-wing movement in his community. He sounds bitter when he talks about Jamel. "The police, the authorities, no one dares to intervene," he says. "The Nazis are laughing in our faces." Wandel says he has repeatedly asked the state government for help. The interior minister and a parliamentary delegation came by one time, he adds. "They stayed for 20 minutes, expressed concern -- then they left again."
No One Responsible
Jamel has become a lawless place, Wandel complains, and the authorities don't take decisive enough action against the right-wing extremists. He says Krüger is allowed to dump demolition waste and burn trash in the village with impunity. The head of the department of public order in nearby Grevesmühlen says higher-level officials at the district level need to tackle the problem. They in turn say the local authority is responsible for Jamel.
Krüger, meanwhile, has much bigger plans. He has been a member of the district council for the NPD since 2009 and has bought parts of a concrete factory in Grevesmühlen, which he uses for his NPD office and his demolition company. The company logo shows the outline of a Star of David being smashed; the slogan is, "We do the dirty work." Barbed wire encloses the factory premises and dogs bark. A sign above the entrance reads, "Better dead than a slave." Krüger prefers not to comment on the accusations against him. All he says is, "Nothing that's written about me is true. I don't stand a chance against the system."
Krüger has hired new employees in the last few months. He gets contracts from fellow members of the far-right scene, but also from local businesses. Mayor Wandel says he's appalled by how far these right-wing structures now extend. "I'm afraid of a second, third, fourth Jamel," he says.
Neo-Nazis placed a boulder at the entrance to the village. A plaque attached to the rock reads, "Village of Jamel - free, social, national." Signs next to it point the way to Hitler's birthplace ("Braunau am Inn 855 km") and to the formerly German cities of Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland) and Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). No one has removed the rock. "We've given up on Jamel," Wandel says.
Only the Lohmeyers are left.
Spiegel
Horst and Birgit Lohmeyer have been working on their life's dream for six years, renovating a house in the woods near Jamel, a tiny village near Wismar in the far northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Birgit Lohmeyer writes crime novels, her husband is a musician, and both try to pretend everything is normal here in Jamel.
It wasn't easy to find their new home. The Lohmeyers spent months driving out to the countryside every weekend, heading east from where they lived in Hamburg, but most of the houses they saw were too expensive. Then they came across the inexpensive red brick farmhouse in Jamel. Slightly run-down, but not far from the Baltic Sea, the house sits surrounded by lime and maple trees, near a lake.
The Lohmeyers knew that a notorious neo-Nazi lived nearby -- Sven Krüger, a demolition contractor and high-level member of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). What the Lohmeyers didn't know was that other neighbors felt terrorized by Krüger. He and his associates were in the process of buying up the entire village.
Jamel is an example of the far-right problem that has plagued Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for years. The rural region, once part of communist East Germany, has a poor reputation in this regard -- the NPD, which glorifies the Third Reich, has been in the state parliament since 2006 and neo-Nazi crimes are part of daily life. In recent months, a series of attacks against politicians from all the democratic parties has shaken the state. Sometimes hardly a week goes by without an attack on another electoral district office, with paint bombs, right-wing graffiti and broken windows.
Norbert Nieszery, leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the state parliament, calls it an "early form of terror." Nieszery's own office windows have been smashed twice. State Interior Minister Lorenz Caffier of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) says he has registered a "new level" of right-wing extremist violence. He believes the NPD is trying to raise its profile through aggressive behavior ahead of state parliament election in September. One local mayor requested police protection after receiving repeated right-wing threats. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, has warned that the NPD is becoming increasingly influential in local municipalities and that the neo-Nazis are trying to entrench themselves in daily life.
Mounting Concern About Far-Right Influence
Nowhere have they succeeded as well as in Jamel. If the right-wing extremists left, the village would be empty. Jamel is no longer just a problem at the regional or federal state level -- even Berlin is growing concerned about the situation.
SPD member Wolfgang Thierse, vice president of Germany's federal parliament, the Bundestag, visited the village a few months ago. He spent half an hour in the Lohmeyers' living room and promised to support them in their fight against the neo-Nazis. So far, nothing has changed. Jamel has come to symbolize the fact that there are places in Germany where right-wing extremists can do virtually whatever they want.
When the Lohmeyers moved here in 2004, they started to fix up their country house and to make contact with the neighbors -- although not with the neo-Nazi Krüger. But they were sure right-wing extremists wouldn't be the only people in Jamel.
Only gradually did they realize just where they had ended up. Plaster crumbled from many of the houses in the village and one roof had collapsed completely. Beer bottles, car tires and gas canisters were littered behind the bus stop. There were metal fences surrounding some properties and attack dogs strained against their chains in the front yards. No one bothered to remove the swastika scribbled on the sign at the entrance to the village.
Children Giving Hitler Salute
There were young men with shaved heads and army trousers in the village and Nazi rock music could be heard from across the fields on the weekends. Shots sounded from the woods, where the neo-Nazis practiced their shooting -- police later found bullet casings in trenches there. When the Lohmeyers walked through the village, children raised their hands in the Nazi salute.
Krüger has shaped the village. He grew up here, with a father who was known as a right-wing radical and who used to make his son salute each morning in the snow. Young Krüger was an outsider at school, an acquaintance remembers, and didn't find friends until he joined the skinhead scene. As a young man, he incited right-wing thugs to attack a campsite and spent time in pre-trial detention on suspicion of burglary. Still, for a long time, the Krügers were the only neo-Nazis in the village.
"Now," says Horst Lohmeyer, "they see Jamel as a 'nationally liberated zone'" -- a neo-Nazi term for places foreigners and those of foreign descent must fear to tread. The extremists took over the village in just a few years. They now own seven of the 10 houses and have driven out anyone who couldn't come to terms with them. They battered down doors and broke windows, slashed tires, flew the German imperial war flag and celebrated Hitler's birthday. In the 1990s, they stuck dead chickens on one family's garden fence with the warning, "We'll smoke you out."
The village emptied and Krüger encouraged his right-wing friends to buy the available houses. Few others dared to venture into Jamel anymore. Neo-Nazis greeted one couple that wanted to move there with "Piss off" -- and the couple's house burned down shortly before they planned to move in. One new property owner dared to set foot in the village only accompanied by police.
The Lohmeyers have made it their life's work not to let themselves be driven out of Jamel. Each year, they host a rock festival on a field behind their house. Governor Erwin Sellering of the SPD has been patron of the festival since 2009. Police fence in the area and guard the entrance, and in past years, things remained largely calm.
Help is Far Away
This summer, though, neo-Nazis jumped over the fence, yelling slurs and attacking concertgoers. Police stepped in and stopped the troublemakers. But police can't always protect the Lohmeyers -- the nearest station is 12 kilometers away.
Horst Lohmeyer sits in his kitchen, bent over a map, and runs his finger along the roads and through the towns -- Gressow, Neu Degtow, Grevesmühlen. It takes a quarter of an hour to reach the nearest police station. When Krüger got married this summer, the village was inundated with several hundred right-wing extremists from Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, including a number of high-ranking NPD politicians such as Stefan Köster, NPD party head for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Jamel has become a right-wing pilgrimage site -- they come from all over Europe to see the village where neo-Nazis call the shots. They celebrated Krüger's wedding until late in the night, with nationalist rock music and fireworks. The Lohmeyers lay awake in bed, frozen with fear.
Mayor Uwe Wandel is helpless in the face of the right-wing movement in his community. He sounds bitter when he talks about Jamel. "The police, the authorities, no one dares to intervene," he says. "The Nazis are laughing in our faces." Wandel says he has repeatedly asked the state government for help. The interior minister and a parliamentary delegation came by one time, he adds. "They stayed for 20 minutes, expressed concern -- then they left again."
No One Responsible
Jamel has become a lawless place, Wandel complains, and the authorities don't take decisive enough action against the right-wing extremists. He says Krüger is allowed to dump demolition waste and burn trash in the village with impunity. The head of the department of public order in nearby Grevesmühlen says higher-level officials at the district level need to tackle the problem. They in turn say the local authority is responsible for Jamel.
Krüger, meanwhile, has much bigger plans. He has been a member of the district council for the NPD since 2009 and has bought parts of a concrete factory in Grevesmühlen, which he uses for his NPD office and his demolition company. The company logo shows the outline of a Star of David being smashed; the slogan is, "We do the dirty work." Barbed wire encloses the factory premises and dogs bark. A sign above the entrance reads, "Better dead than a slave." Krüger prefers not to comment on the accusations against him. All he says is, "Nothing that's written about me is true. I don't stand a chance against the system."
Krüger has hired new employees in the last few months. He gets contracts from fellow members of the far-right scene, but also from local businesses. Mayor Wandel says he's appalled by how far these right-wing structures now extend. "I'm afraid of a second, third, fourth Jamel," he says.
Neo-Nazis placed a boulder at the entrance to the village. A plaque attached to the rock reads, "Village of Jamel - free, social, national." Signs next to it point the way to Hitler's birthplace ("Braunau am Inn 855 km") and to the formerly German cities of Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland) and Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). No one has removed the rock. "We've given up on Jamel," Wandel says.
Only the Lohmeyers are left.
Spiegel
Sunday, 2 January 2011
2 FAR-RIGHT EXTREMISTS RELEASED FROM CUSTODY ON BAIL (Czech Rep.)
The Prague 1 district court has decided to release after 14 months Patrik Vondra, former chairman of the Prague branch of the disbanded ultra-right Workers' Party (DS) and Michaela Dupova, a former DS member, from custody on a 400,000-crown bail, judge Libor Vavra told CTK yesterday. Besides, they promised not to be involved in any criminal activity and they will be under the supervision of a probation officer, Vavra said. Vondrak, Dupova and another six DS activists are charged with support and promotion of movements to suppress human rights and freedoms. Vondrak, 25, and Dupova, 21, spent about 14 months in custody, since the police raids at the end of October 2009. According to state attorney Zdenka Galkova, the eight people assisted in pasting up stickers of the neo-Nazi National Resistance (NO) movement and in organising a demonstration in memory of fallen German Wehrmacht soldiers and SS members. The remaining six defendants were not in the custody.
Dupova is also charged with operating a website of the Resistance Women Unity (RWU), a women's branch of the NO, according to police, and helping organise a concert of "white power music." If found guilty, the accused extremists face up to eight years in prison since they committed crimes as members od an organised group in a very efficient way. Police consider Vondrak one of the leading and most active representatives of the neo-Nazi NO. He was also a co-founder of the Young National Democrats civic association which tried to stage a march of ultra-right radicals through Prague' Jewish quarter on November 10, 2007, the anniversary of the Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany in the night of November 10, 1938. The other charged persons are Milan Hroch, former chairman of the DS regional organisation in Vysocina, Richard Lang, Filip Vavra, who invited former Grand Wizard of Ku-Klux-Klan David Duke to the Czech Republic, DS candidate in the 2008 EP elections Petr Fryc, Daniel Zavadil and Martin Vaclavek. All the defendants have pleaded not-guilty.
Prague Daily Monitor
Dupova is also charged with operating a website of the Resistance Women Unity (RWU), a women's branch of the NO, according to police, and helping organise a concert of "white power music." If found guilty, the accused extremists face up to eight years in prison since they committed crimes as members od an organised group in a very efficient way. Police consider Vondrak one of the leading and most active representatives of the neo-Nazi NO. He was also a co-founder of the Young National Democrats civic association which tried to stage a march of ultra-right radicals through Prague' Jewish quarter on November 10, 2007, the anniversary of the Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany in the night of November 10, 1938. The other charged persons are Milan Hroch, former chairman of the DS regional organisation in Vysocina, Richard Lang, Filip Vavra, who invited former Grand Wizard of Ku-Klux-Klan David Duke to the Czech Republic, DS candidate in the 2008 EP elections Petr Fryc, Daniel Zavadil and Martin Vaclavek. All the defendants have pleaded not-guilty.
Prague Daily Monitor
Neo-Nazi leader may face more time in prison (USA)
As William A. White nears the end of his prison sentence, the neo-Nazi leader from Roanoke is facing the possibility of more time behind bars for his Internet aggressions.
A trial is scheduled to begin Monday in federal court in Chicago, where White is charged with using his website to encourage violence against the foreman of a jury that convicted a fellow white supremacist in 2004.
Slated to last all week, the trial comes just two weeks before White's expected release date.
Once described as one of the loudest voices in America's neo-Nazi movement, White has been serving a 2½-year sentence after his convictions in Roanoke of making threats against a bank employee in Missouri, a university administrator in Delaware and a group of apartment tenants in Virginia Beach.
The victims -- like the juror in the Chicago case -- were strangers to White and to one another, bound only by their innocent involvement in a news event or controversy that enraged the 33-year-old enough to make him bombard them with hateful e-mails, telephone calls, letters and blog posts. Most of White's outbursts were prompted by his contempt for blacks and Jews.
White argues that, even as an avowed racist, he is entitled to free speech protection.
It is a defense that has produced mixed results, depending on the individual details of each of the eight charges White has faced during his three-year battle with the federal government.
Convicted of three charges and cleared of four, White will face the final one Monday when jury selection begins in U.S. District Court in Chicago. If found guilty, he would face up to 10 years in prison.
The charge involves a Sept. 11, 2008, post that White made to Overthrow.com, a website he used to promote his white supremacy group, the now-defunct American National Socialist Workers Party, and disparage his perceived enemies.
White listed the name, address and telephone numbers of a juror who, he said, "played a key role in convicting Matt Hale," according to federal prosecutors. Hale, the former leader of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator, was convicted of soliciting the murder of a federal judge in Chicago and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Although the post made no direct threats against the juror, prosecutors say it amounted to a solicitation of others to harm the man -- especially when taken in context with other Overthrow.com missives.
White would often list the names, home addresses and telephone numbers of his targets, along with language that prosecutors say was likely to influence his racist and potentially violent audience.
For example, when the case of six black youths charged with assaulting a white classmate led to a civil rights demonstration in Jena, La., White listed the defendants' addresses under the headline: "Lynch the Jena 6." White said he was making the information public "in case anyone wants to deliver justice."
Other posts expected to be presented as evidence this week include White's opinion that his ideological opponents "should be shot, rather than debated," and accounts of his self-described urge to "kill, kill, kill."
White's attorneys say that, despite his unpopular political views, there's nothing in his writings that explicitly encourages violence.
"This was not a solicitation, and it was protected by the First Amendment," attorney Nishay Sanan of Chicago said of the post about the juror in the Hale case. "That's the crux of our case."
Any mention of the First Amendment will be contested by federal prosecutors. In a motion filed last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ferrara asked U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman to prohibit White from invoking the First Amendment, saying he should not be allowed to testify as a lay witness on a legal matter.
"This court will instruct the jury on the appropriate legal standards for when a communication is a solicitation," Ferrara wrote. Because the right to free speech is not part of that standard, he argued, invoking the First Amendment would be "gratuitous and an appeal to emotion and sentiment."
Yet free speech has been a key part of the case from the start.
In July 2009, Adelman dismissed the charge against White, noting that he broke no laws in obtaining the publicly available address and telephone numbers of the juror. As for using passages from Overthrow.com to interpret.
Roanoke
A trial is scheduled to begin Monday in federal court in Chicago, where White is charged with using his website to encourage violence against the foreman of a jury that convicted a fellow white supremacist in 2004.
Slated to last all week, the trial comes just two weeks before White's expected release date.
Once described as one of the loudest voices in America's neo-Nazi movement, White has been serving a 2½-year sentence after his convictions in Roanoke of making threats against a bank employee in Missouri, a university administrator in Delaware and a group of apartment tenants in Virginia Beach.
The victims -- like the juror in the Chicago case -- were strangers to White and to one another, bound only by their innocent involvement in a news event or controversy that enraged the 33-year-old enough to make him bombard them with hateful e-mails, telephone calls, letters and blog posts. Most of White's outbursts were prompted by his contempt for blacks and Jews.
White argues that, even as an avowed racist, he is entitled to free speech protection.
It is a defense that has produced mixed results, depending on the individual details of each of the eight charges White has faced during his three-year battle with the federal government.
Convicted of three charges and cleared of four, White will face the final one Monday when jury selection begins in U.S. District Court in Chicago. If found guilty, he would face up to 10 years in prison.
The charge involves a Sept. 11, 2008, post that White made to Overthrow.com, a website he used to promote his white supremacy group, the now-defunct American National Socialist Workers Party, and disparage his perceived enemies.
White listed the name, address and telephone numbers of a juror who, he said, "played a key role in convicting Matt Hale," according to federal prosecutors. Hale, the former leader of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator, was convicted of soliciting the murder of a federal judge in Chicago and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Although the post made no direct threats against the juror, prosecutors say it amounted to a solicitation of others to harm the man -- especially when taken in context with other Overthrow.com missives.
White would often list the names, home addresses and telephone numbers of his targets, along with language that prosecutors say was likely to influence his racist and potentially violent audience.
For example, when the case of six black youths charged with assaulting a white classmate led to a civil rights demonstration in Jena, La., White listed the defendants' addresses under the headline: "Lynch the Jena 6." White said he was making the information public "in case anyone wants to deliver justice."
Other posts expected to be presented as evidence this week include White's opinion that his ideological opponents "should be shot, rather than debated," and accounts of his self-described urge to "kill, kill, kill."
White's attorneys say that, despite his unpopular political views, there's nothing in his writings that explicitly encourages violence.
"This was not a solicitation, and it was protected by the First Amendment," attorney Nishay Sanan of Chicago said of the post about the juror in the Hale case. "That's the crux of our case."
Any mention of the First Amendment will be contested by federal prosecutors. In a motion filed last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ferrara asked U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman to prohibit White from invoking the First Amendment, saying he should not be allowed to testify as a lay witness on a legal matter.
"This court will instruct the jury on the appropriate legal standards for when a communication is a solicitation," Ferrara wrote. Because the right to free speech is not part of that standard, he argued, invoking the First Amendment would be "gratuitous and an appeal to emotion and sentiment."
Yet free speech has been a key part of the case from the start.
In July 2009, Adelman dismissed the charge against White, noting that he broke no laws in obtaining the publicly available address and telephone numbers of the juror. As for using passages from Overthrow.com to interpret.
Roanoke
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Neo-Nazi leaders Vondrák and Dupová released on CZK 400 000 bail each (Czech Rep)
The Prague 1 District Court has decided to release Patrik Vondrák, the former chair of the Prague branch of the banned Workers' Party (Dělnická strana - DS) and former DS member Michaela Dupová from custody. Presiding judge Libor Vávra told the Czech Press Agency yesterday that both have been released on CZK 400 000 bail each after promising in writing to refrain from criminal activity. Both will also be under the observation of a probation officer. Vondrák, Dupová, and six others face charges of supporting and promoting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms.
Judge Vávra said the court had decided on 16 December to release the 25-year-old Vondrák. The decision to release Dupová, who is 21, was made on 27 December. Both had been behind bars for more than a year since police raided their homes at the end of last October. According to police, Vondrák is one of the leading and most active representatives of the neo-Nazi National Resistance (Národní odpor - NO). The prosecutor is charging the eight defendants with participating to various degrees in four separate criminal acts. They have all denied the charges.
Defendants Vondrák, Dupová, Richard Lang, Milan Hroch (former chair of the DS regional organization in Vysočina), Martin Václavek (a former DS member) and Daniel Zavadil are charged with organizing and convening a gathering and march on 6 June 2009 in Jihlava which town officials dispersed immediately after it began. The event had been announced as a commemorative march in honor of the victims of the Second World War, but its true purpose was to honor the memory of Wehrmacht soldiers who fell during the war as well as the memory of SS members. The prosecution charges Hroch and Lang with planning the event. Zavadil notified the town hall of it and Václavek was his deputy convener.
The lawsuit alleges that Lang also arranged for memorial wreaths for the event and was present for it as an organizer. Dupová, according to the file, agreed with Lang to provide drums and to produce a memorial wreath. The lawsuit also says the gathering was addressed by Herbert Schweiger, a veteran of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler SS division, and by Austrian nationalist Gottfried Küssel. According to the case file, Vondrák invited them both to the Czech Republic and provided them with transportation.
Dupová faces charges for two other criminal acts. According to the case file, she contributed to creating and running the website of Resistance Women Unity (RWU), which police say is the women's branch of NO. The lawsuit claims she was the website administrator and published articles by herself and others on the site. According to the state prosecutor, those texts promoted and disseminated Nazi and neo-Nazi ideology.
In addition, according to the file, Dupová is said to have contributed to organizing and holding a concert of white power music in support of neo-Nazis who had been apprehended and later sentenced. The concert took place in February 2009 in Srby (Kladno district) and was attended by about 120 people. According to the lawsuit, Dupová knew the performers and others present would be disseminating Nazi and neo-Nazi ideology during the concert and celebrating the NO. Another crime concerns allegations that Vondrák, Dupová, Lang, Petr Fryč (a DS candidate during the European Parliamentary elections) and Filip Vávra posted promotional stickers for the NO in the center of Prague on 4 December 2008.
Experts on right-wing extremism say Lang is connected to the NO, while police say Hroch has also been actively engaged in the organization. Experts also say Vávra was connected with the NO; he has most recently attracted attention for inviting former Ku-Klux-Klan leader David Duke to the Czech Republic. Vávra admitted to the court that he was a right-wing radical at the end of the 1990s, but claims to have gradually become more moderate.
Romea
Judge Vávra said the court had decided on 16 December to release the 25-year-old Vondrák. The decision to release Dupová, who is 21, was made on 27 December. Both had been behind bars for more than a year since police raided their homes at the end of last October. According to police, Vondrák is one of the leading and most active representatives of the neo-Nazi National Resistance (Národní odpor - NO). The prosecutor is charging the eight defendants with participating to various degrees in four separate criminal acts. They have all denied the charges.
Defendants Vondrák, Dupová, Richard Lang, Milan Hroch (former chair of the DS regional organization in Vysočina), Martin Václavek (a former DS member) and Daniel Zavadil are charged with organizing and convening a gathering and march on 6 June 2009 in Jihlava which town officials dispersed immediately after it began. The event had been announced as a commemorative march in honor of the victims of the Second World War, but its true purpose was to honor the memory of Wehrmacht soldiers who fell during the war as well as the memory of SS members. The prosecution charges Hroch and Lang with planning the event. Zavadil notified the town hall of it and Václavek was his deputy convener.
The lawsuit alleges that Lang also arranged for memorial wreaths for the event and was present for it as an organizer. Dupová, according to the file, agreed with Lang to provide drums and to produce a memorial wreath. The lawsuit also says the gathering was addressed by Herbert Schweiger, a veteran of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler SS division, and by Austrian nationalist Gottfried Küssel. According to the case file, Vondrák invited them both to the Czech Republic and provided them with transportation.
Dupová faces charges for two other criminal acts. According to the case file, she contributed to creating and running the website of Resistance Women Unity (RWU), which police say is the women's branch of NO. The lawsuit claims she was the website administrator and published articles by herself and others on the site. According to the state prosecutor, those texts promoted and disseminated Nazi and neo-Nazi ideology.
In addition, according to the file, Dupová is said to have contributed to organizing and holding a concert of white power music in support of neo-Nazis who had been apprehended and later sentenced. The concert took place in February 2009 in Srby (Kladno district) and was attended by about 120 people. According to the lawsuit, Dupová knew the performers and others present would be disseminating Nazi and neo-Nazi ideology during the concert and celebrating the NO. Another crime concerns allegations that Vondrák, Dupová, Lang, Petr Fryč (a DS candidate during the European Parliamentary elections) and Filip Vávra posted promotional stickers for the NO in the center of Prague on 4 December 2008.
Experts on right-wing extremism say Lang is connected to the NO, while police say Hroch has also been actively engaged in the organization. Experts also say Vávra was connected with the NO; he has most recently attracted attention for inviting former Ku-Klux-Klan leader David Duke to the Czech Republic. Vávra admitted to the court that he was a right-wing radical at the end of the 1990s, but claims to have gradually become more moderate.
Romea
Community leaders praise response to the EDL protests (UK)
Community and civic leaders have praised Bradford people for standing up to the English Defence League last summer, and urge them to sustain the unity into 2011.
The Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Peter Hill praised Bradford for standing up to racism during the EDL rally.
“All praise to the people of Bradford who showed those people the door,” he said. “The word ‘nimby’ has been mocked over the years, but on August 10 the people of Bradford made it respectable when they said ‘Not in my back yard’.
“It drew a line under the 2001 riots. The authorities did a terrific job, but so did the people of Bradford.”
Coun Hill called on Bradfordians to pull together for a prosperous new year.
“For 2011, I hope there’s an upturn in business and that the cuts that have to be made are not as severe as feared,” he said. “The people of Bradford have to stick together, we need to pull together as a city.” Looking back on 2011, the year he became Lord Mayor, Councillor Hill said highlights had included Royal visits by Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
“They were a one-off and a real feather in the cap of the city,” he said. “What has really stood out are all the wonderful things people are doing, things I would never have known about had I not been Lord Mayor.
“I am invited to things every day and find people hiding their light under a bushel, doing terrific work in the community. I take my hat off to them – the city would be a lot poorer without them.”
The Very Reverend Dr David Ison, Dean of Bradford Cathedral, wants people to “work at what’s really important in the light of what will happen in 2011.”
He said: “That means not trying to get lots of material things, but discovering what we’re on this earth for, and how much we still have to learn, so that we can become the people God has made us to be.
“I hope as many people as possible have a happy and prosperous 2011, and that those who have good things will use them to help people worse off than themselves.”
He added: “I hope we will care for one another, and our environment, and get to know each other better across differences of culture, race, religion, age and sexuality. Kindness is an underrated virtue – let’s have more of it in 2011. And some warm sunshine too!”
Ishtiaq Ahmed, spokesman for Bradford Council for Mosques, hopes for “a very peaceful and prosperous year” in the city.
“The work and effort that all the community have put together to resist attacks from organisations like EDL has placed Bradford in a better light and we hope that kind of unity will be sustained over the next 12 months,” he said.
“Personally, I would like to keep my energy levels up and keep working for the betterment of the community, and for the unity of all Bradfordians.
“Bradford Council for Mosques takes pride in its work with other faith communities and we want to take that partnership to another level.”
Chairman of the Yorkshire Society Keith Madeley became an MBE in the New Year Honours list, for services to the community. Mr Madeley wants to see more development in the city centre in 2011. He said: “As a Bradfordian my hope for next year would be to see more movement, in respect of the Westfield development.
“I come across people who don’t go into Bradford to shop any more, there is nothing to attract them.”
Also at the top of Mr Madeley’s 2011 wishlist is the prospect of a rail-link between the Interchange and Forster Square railway stations becoming a reality.
Mr Madeley, a former railwayman, said: “An east-west link would be great, rather than being at the end of the line.
“For me that would be a real defining moment for Bradford.”
The Telegraph & Argus
The Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Peter Hill praised Bradford for standing up to racism during the EDL rally.
“All praise to the people of Bradford who showed those people the door,” he said. “The word ‘nimby’ has been mocked over the years, but on August 10 the people of Bradford made it respectable when they said ‘Not in my back yard’.
“It drew a line under the 2001 riots. The authorities did a terrific job, but so did the people of Bradford.”
Coun Hill called on Bradfordians to pull together for a prosperous new year.
“For 2011, I hope there’s an upturn in business and that the cuts that have to be made are not as severe as feared,” he said. “The people of Bradford have to stick together, we need to pull together as a city.” Looking back on 2011, the year he became Lord Mayor, Councillor Hill said highlights had included Royal visits by Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
“They were a one-off and a real feather in the cap of the city,” he said. “What has really stood out are all the wonderful things people are doing, things I would never have known about had I not been Lord Mayor.
“I am invited to things every day and find people hiding their light under a bushel, doing terrific work in the community. I take my hat off to them – the city would be a lot poorer without them.”
The Very Reverend Dr David Ison, Dean of Bradford Cathedral, wants people to “work at what’s really important in the light of what will happen in 2011.”
He said: “That means not trying to get lots of material things, but discovering what we’re on this earth for, and how much we still have to learn, so that we can become the people God has made us to be.
“I hope as many people as possible have a happy and prosperous 2011, and that those who have good things will use them to help people worse off than themselves.”
He added: “I hope we will care for one another, and our environment, and get to know each other better across differences of culture, race, religion, age and sexuality. Kindness is an underrated virtue – let’s have more of it in 2011. And some warm sunshine too!”
Ishtiaq Ahmed, spokesman for Bradford Council for Mosques, hopes for “a very peaceful and prosperous year” in the city.
“The work and effort that all the community have put together to resist attacks from organisations like EDL has placed Bradford in a better light and we hope that kind of unity will be sustained over the next 12 months,” he said.
“Personally, I would like to keep my energy levels up and keep working for the betterment of the community, and for the unity of all Bradfordians.
“Bradford Council for Mosques takes pride in its work with other faith communities and we want to take that partnership to another level.”
Chairman of the Yorkshire Society Keith Madeley became an MBE in the New Year Honours list, for services to the community. Mr Madeley wants to see more development in the city centre in 2011. He said: “As a Bradfordian my hope for next year would be to see more movement, in respect of the Westfield development.
“I come across people who don’t go into Bradford to shop any more, there is nothing to attract them.”
Also at the top of Mr Madeley’s 2011 wishlist is the prospect of a rail-link between the Interchange and Forster Square railway stations becoming a reality.
Mr Madeley, a former railwayman, said: “An east-west link would be great, rather than being at the end of the line.
“For me that would be a real defining moment for Bradford.”
The Telegraph & Argus
Friday, 31 December 2010
EDL-speech rabbi calls for Chief TV debate
The rabbi who spoke at an English Defence League rally two months ago has apparently challenged Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks to a televised BBC debate on "Is Islam a religion of peace?"
Californian Nachum Shifren was the speaker at the far-right group's October rally outside the Israeli Embassy.
He called Muslims "dogs" and criticised British community leaders and rabbis for speaking out against him, saying: "To all my Jewish brothers who have called me a Nazi… I say to them they don't have the guts to stand up here and take care of business."
Now Rabbi Shifren, who lost a bid for a Californian state senate seat, claims he is planning a TV debate with the Chief Rabbi on "the Islamification of Britain, cultural Marxism in western liberalism, multiculturalism and its effect on the host society".
In an email seen by the JC, Rabbi Shifren says he has set rules for the debate structure, to be followed by the Chief Rabbi and the BBC - despite no known interest in such a programme from either party.
He demands that the debate should not be moderated or edited, with no "extraneous commentary." He adds: "The programme should not be advertised or announced using such inflammatory labelling as 'far-right 'extremist.' i.e. not served up in terms that suit the Marxist-Islamist agenda of the BBC.
"This is strictly a bout between two combatants from which the listener and viewer may draw their own conclusions." He also requests that no audience be present at the debate to avoid "Trotskyist structures."
No-one from the Chief Rabbi's office was available for comment.
The JC
Californian Nachum Shifren was the speaker at the far-right group's October rally outside the Israeli Embassy.
He called Muslims "dogs" and criticised British community leaders and rabbis for speaking out against him, saying: "To all my Jewish brothers who have called me a Nazi… I say to them they don't have the guts to stand up here and take care of business."
Now Rabbi Shifren, who lost a bid for a Californian state senate seat, claims he is planning a TV debate with the Chief Rabbi on "the Islamification of Britain, cultural Marxism in western liberalism, multiculturalism and its effect on the host society".
In an email seen by the JC, Rabbi Shifren says he has set rules for the debate structure, to be followed by the Chief Rabbi and the BBC - despite no known interest in such a programme from either party.
He demands that the debate should not be moderated or edited, with no "extraneous commentary." He adds: "The programme should not be advertised or announced using such inflammatory labelling as 'far-right 'extremist.' i.e. not served up in terms that suit the Marxist-Islamist agenda of the BBC.
"This is strictly a bout between two combatants from which the listener and viewer may draw their own conclusions." He also requests that no audience be present at the debate to avoid "Trotskyist structures."
No-one from the Chief Rabbi's office was available for comment.
The JC
Thursday, 30 December 2010
German far-right parties announce merger
Two cash-strapped German far-right parties said on Thursday that they have agreed to merge ahead of an election-heavy year when voters in seven of the country's 16 states go to the polls.
The German National Democratic Party (NPD) and the smaller German People's Union (DVU) said that their leaders had signed an agreement on Wednesday creating the new party, "NPD - The People's Union", from January 1.
"What we have achieved is the creation of one strong and unified right-wing party," NPD leader Matthias Faust said in a statement.
"The election in Saxony-Anhalt (in eastern Germany) in March will show that it will be easier in future to bring national policies into (state) parliaments.
"The subsequent domino effect will bring further successes for the national opposition."
Earlier this year Germany became engulfed in a debate about immigration sparked by a book by a central banker who said Europe's biggest economy was being made "more stupid" by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants.
NPD officials welcomed the book, which became a best-seller. Polls showed considerable sympathy for some of its arguments, leading to fears that a populist party with a charismatic leader could win considerable support.
But neither the NPD nor the DVU, which have been beset by major financial problems and falling membership, have appeared to benefit and neither party has ever had any seats in the federal parliament.
The NPD, formed in 1964, has six seats in the regional parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and eight in Saxony, both in the depressed former communist east of the country where unemployment and poverty rates are high.
The DVU, created by millionaire Gerhard Frey in 1971, has one seat in the parliament of the western city state of Bremen. It says it has around 4,000 members while the NPD was estimated in 2009 to have 6,000-7,000.
Voters go the polls in Hamburg in February, in Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in March, in Bremen in May and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin in September.
Expatica
The German National Democratic Party (NPD) and the smaller German People's Union (DVU) said that their leaders had signed an agreement on Wednesday creating the new party, "NPD - The People's Union", from January 1.
"What we have achieved is the creation of one strong and unified right-wing party," NPD leader Matthias Faust said in a statement.
"The election in Saxony-Anhalt (in eastern Germany) in March will show that it will be easier in future to bring national policies into (state) parliaments.
"The subsequent domino effect will bring further successes for the national opposition."
Earlier this year Germany became engulfed in a debate about immigration sparked by a book by a central banker who said Europe's biggest economy was being made "more stupid" by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants.
NPD officials welcomed the book, which became a best-seller. Polls showed considerable sympathy for some of its arguments, leading to fears that a populist party with a charismatic leader could win considerable support.
But neither the NPD nor the DVU, which have been beset by major financial problems and falling membership, have appeared to benefit and neither party has ever had any seats in the federal parliament.
The NPD, formed in 1964, has six seats in the regional parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and eight in Saxony, both in the depressed former communist east of the country where unemployment and poverty rates are high.
The DVU, created by millionaire Gerhard Frey in 1971, has one seat in the parliament of the western city state of Bremen. It says it has around 4,000 members while the NPD was estimated in 2009 to have 6,000-7,000.
Voters go the polls in Hamburg in February, in Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in March, in Bremen in May and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin in September.
Expatica
Youth fire brigade volunteers spark Nazi salute scandal
Youth fire volunteers in North Rhine-Westphalia are caught in a neo-Nazi scandal after they were photographed giving a Hitler salute, media reported Thursday.
The youths in the city of Gladbeck have twice been snapped giving the salute, consisting of an outstretched right arm, in front of cameras, daily Bild reported.
One incident happened during a fire brigade camp in the Recklinghausen district and the other during a group holiday in Austria.
Fire Department chief Josef Dehling told Bild: “It is an absolute shock. These explicit photos shook me. The pictures are a catastrophe for us. Such ideas don’t belong here – not now, now ever.”
The pictures were taken in 2008 but have just now come to light. One was a picture of at least seven youths lined up on a balcony giving the salute during a week-long holiday in the Austrian town of Wagrain, near Salzburg.
“An older youth pushed the others into giving the pose,” Dehling said.
The 19-year-old has since left the fire service.
A second picture, from the camp in Coesfelder, Recklinghausen, shows several older youths, two of whom were camp leaders, giving the salute.
“It will certainly have severe consequences,” Dehling said. “Nothing is being swept under the carpet here. We immediately went on the offensive, asked the youths and their parents come in here and had a talk with them.”
Dehling insisted there was not an ingrained Nazi problem in the region’s fire service.
“But it would not be enough just to shrug it all off as a bad joke. We won’t put up with right-wing extremist ideas and we will now explain this to the youths in conversations and lectures.”
Police and state authorities were also involved in educating the youths, he said.
The Local Germany
The youths in the city of Gladbeck have twice been snapped giving the salute, consisting of an outstretched right arm, in front of cameras, daily Bild reported.
One incident happened during a fire brigade camp in the Recklinghausen district and the other during a group holiday in Austria.
Fire Department chief Josef Dehling told Bild: “It is an absolute shock. These explicit photos shook me. The pictures are a catastrophe for us. Such ideas don’t belong here – not now, now ever.”
The pictures were taken in 2008 but have just now come to light. One was a picture of at least seven youths lined up on a balcony giving the salute during a week-long holiday in the Austrian town of Wagrain, near Salzburg.
“An older youth pushed the others into giving the pose,” Dehling said.
The 19-year-old has since left the fire service.
A second picture, from the camp in Coesfelder, Recklinghausen, shows several older youths, two of whom were camp leaders, giving the salute.
“It will certainly have severe consequences,” Dehling said. “Nothing is being swept under the carpet here. We immediately went on the offensive, asked the youths and their parents come in here and had a talk with them.”
Dehling insisted there was not an ingrained Nazi problem in the region’s fire service.
“But it would not be enough just to shrug it all off as a bad joke. We won’t put up with right-wing extremist ideas and we will now explain this to the youths in conversations and lectures.”
Police and state authorities were also involved in educating the youths, he said.
The Local Germany
Auschwitz sign theft: Swedish man jailed
Anders Hoegstroem, a former neo-Nazi leader, admitted theft under a plea bargain last month and will be moved to Sweden to serve his sentence.
The infamous sign was stolen in December last year and recovered in three pieces three days later.
The judge in Krakow also jailed two Poles for up to two-and-a-half years.
One of the pair, named as Andrzej S, apologised in court for the offence, Polish media report.
The 5m (16ft) wrought-iron slogan which translates as "Work sets you free" is a potent symbol of many of the Nazi-era atrocities. During the Nazi Holocaust, 1.1 million people - most of them Jews - were murdered at Auschwitz.
The sign has since been repaired although it now hangs in the Auschwitz museum and has been replaced by a replica at the entrance to the former death camp.
Three other Poles were given prison terms earlier this year for the theft which was thought to have been ordered by another Swede still at large. So far, no evidence of other individuals has come to light.
Hoegstroem, 34, who was detained in Sweden in February had at first denied involvement in stealing the sign but later changed his plea.
On being told the verdict, he said he accepted the court's decision. He is now likely to be returned to Sweden in a week's time.
BBC News
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Anti Polish Hate Crimes Are Sweeping Scotland (UK)
Back in early December, Rafal Gorski, returned to Poland planning never again to return to Scotland. This is because of all of the racist insults and harassment that he had to put up with. He said while simply walking down the street people would yell out, “F***ing Polish, go back to Poland!”
Of course, the taunts are not enough to make everyone leave. However, if the taunts did not scare people, the threats on their lives and the lives of their families do. Many of the Polish people leaving the area said that they simply could not take day-to-day life in Scotland anymore. This has now put Scotland on the map, but for all the wrong reasons.
The real name of Mr Gorskis was changed by the media in order to protect him. Apparently reports showed that he was allegedly abused. Reports suggest that his neighbor, whose name is not being released, took part in the abuse of the Polish family.
One Polish family, who was interviewed after being attacked, said that the couple that attacked them said that they were stealing jobs from the locals. They said that Polish people had no right to be in Scotland, and they should go back to Poland.
Also, two months ago, police in Scotland found graffiti on a bridge that said, “Polish C**ts, Get out of Scotland.” Police statistics show reports of hate crimes against other white people have risen fivefold in Scotland over recent years. Experts say that the hate crimes on Polish people are the main cause of this. A 2008 study found that there was an increase in racial tension in the Highlands. Eastern Europeans were among the most frequently targeted.
Emigrate.co.uk
Of course, the taunts are not enough to make everyone leave. However, if the taunts did not scare people, the threats on their lives and the lives of their families do. Many of the Polish people leaving the area said that they simply could not take day-to-day life in Scotland anymore. This has now put Scotland on the map, but for all the wrong reasons.
The real name of Mr Gorskis was changed by the media in order to protect him. Apparently reports showed that he was allegedly abused. Reports suggest that his neighbor, whose name is not being released, took part in the abuse of the Polish family.
One Polish family, who was interviewed after being attacked, said that the couple that attacked them said that they were stealing jobs from the locals. They said that Polish people had no right to be in Scotland, and they should go back to Poland.
Also, two months ago, police in Scotland found graffiti on a bridge that said, “Polish C**ts, Get out of Scotland.” Police statistics show reports of hate crimes against other white people have risen fivefold in Scotland over recent years. Experts say that the hate crimes on Polish people are the main cause of this. A 2008 study found that there was an increase in racial tension in the Highlands. Eastern Europeans were among the most frequently targeted.
Emigrate.co.uk
GERMAN POLICE UNION URGES BAN OF FAR-RIGHT NPD
Germany's police union GdP and the Central Council of Jews in Germany have appealed for renewed efforts to ban the National Democratic Party (NPD), a fringe group with no federal-level representation, but with seats in two of Germany's 16 state parliaments. "From my own and a police point of view, I urge and support a ban," police union head Bernhard Witthaut told Deutsche Welle. "I think it's terrible how they mock foreigners living in Germany, I think their concept of a state is terrible." Witthaut was not alone in his comments. The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said in an interview over the weekend that the NPD, which currently has an estimated 7,000 members, had clearly set itself the goal of destroying democracy in Germany. The country must resist such attempts, he said, if necessary by issuing a ban. The head of the Turkish Community in Germany, Kenan Kolat, urged a more consistent prosecution of xenophobic attacks in Germany. Banning the NPD, he told the news agency dapd, could also "have a positive effect in the fight against right-wing extremism and racism." The German government attempted to ban the NPD in a case heard by the country's highest court, the Constitutional Court, in 2001. But the case was thrown out two years later after it was disclosed that several people in the NPD's inner circle were German secret service undercover agents or informants.
Signal in the fight against far-right extremism
The police union's Witthaut said that some people in law enforcement believed it would be easier to deal with the far-right party if you knew how it operated and where it was active, whereas if the party were to go underground, it would be much more difficult to keep an eye on its activities. But he said he was convinced that outlawing a party listed as racist, anti-Semitic and revisionist by Germany's domestic intelligence agency would be "an important signal in the fight against right-wing extremism." "Many might view the risk of a renewed failure before Germany's highest court as such a grave aspect that they might dismiss steps in that direction," Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on Monday. But he added that banning the NPD was desirable, and he would continue to lobby for a ban of the party.
The Deutsche Welle
Turkey needs hate crime laws, civil society groups say
Turkey needs to legally define a category for offenses and crimes that were perpetrated solely due to hatred of an individual or minority group, according to a number of civil society organizations and jurists.
Turkey, not unlike most countries of the world, is not free of crime against minorities and disadvantaged groups. Among these, crimes motivated by bias against the target due to their background or identity are defined as hate crimes. However, the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) does not include such a category. The Social Change Association, in a bid to lobby for creating such a legal category, recently held a rally against hate crimes.
Hate crimes were first included in international criminal law in 2003. Forty-eight Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) members now have legislation that categorizes hate crimes, while eight OSCE members, including Turkey, currently have no such legal description of bias-motivated crimes in their penal codes. “A symbolic message would be given if this is put into law,” says OSCE representative Tankut Soykan, adding, “This will show that such crimes are not tolerated and that they cannot be covered up.”
The Social Change Association and the Initiative to Stop Nationalism have jointly started a campaign under which a number of activities and events will be held in addition to preparing a bill in this direction. A group of jurists are working on the proposed legislation, while the two organizations will also collect signatures for their cause. The campaign started with a two-day symposium organized at the Taksim Hill Hotel on Dec. 17-18.
Hate crime law will send a message
Soykan, the adviser on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims at OSCE, has stated that legal measures alone are not enough to combat hate crimes, stressing that social policy changes are also necessary. He said integrating this definition into legislation would serve more symbolically to highlight that such crimes would never be covered up.
“If you do this, you answer forcefully such crimes as the political mechanism, which would in turn contribute to social awareness on the issue. Such a law would also work to make security forces more active in this regard, and victims will be more aware of how to seek legal remedies,” he said, adding that in other countries special laws made hate crimes punishable more severely in comparison to the same offenses not motivated by bias against the target.
“But you still need more than laws. For example, if you look at Kosovo, it has the world's best anti-hate crime legislation, but you don't see any of that when you look at practice. Creating awareness amongst the public is very important. Increasing people's sensitivity on this issue would be much more effective than amending the law,” he said.
Asuman İnceoğlu, an assistant professor at Bilgi University, says such crimes should be punished with the harshest penalties possible within the confines of criminal law. She stressed that there was no way a judge could hand down a harsher punishment for a crime committed due to bias if this is not defined legally.
“If the perpetrators are not punished, this gives them the message that they can get away with it, which in turn brings about a cycle of crime. This is why harsher sanctions are needed in criminal law for crimes of this type,” she said.
TodayZaman
Turkey, not unlike most countries of the world, is not free of crime against minorities and disadvantaged groups. Among these, crimes motivated by bias against the target due to their background or identity are defined as hate crimes. However, the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) does not include such a category. The Social Change Association, in a bid to lobby for creating such a legal category, recently held a rally against hate crimes.
Hate crimes were first included in international criminal law in 2003. Forty-eight Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) members now have legislation that categorizes hate crimes, while eight OSCE members, including Turkey, currently have no such legal description of bias-motivated crimes in their penal codes. “A symbolic message would be given if this is put into law,” says OSCE representative Tankut Soykan, adding, “This will show that such crimes are not tolerated and that they cannot be covered up.”
The Social Change Association and the Initiative to Stop Nationalism have jointly started a campaign under which a number of activities and events will be held in addition to preparing a bill in this direction. A group of jurists are working on the proposed legislation, while the two organizations will also collect signatures for their cause. The campaign started with a two-day symposium organized at the Taksim Hill Hotel on Dec. 17-18.
Hate crime law will send a message
Soykan, the adviser on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims at OSCE, has stated that legal measures alone are not enough to combat hate crimes, stressing that social policy changes are also necessary. He said integrating this definition into legislation would serve more symbolically to highlight that such crimes would never be covered up.
“If you do this, you answer forcefully such crimes as the political mechanism, which would in turn contribute to social awareness on the issue. Such a law would also work to make security forces more active in this regard, and victims will be more aware of how to seek legal remedies,” he said, adding that in other countries special laws made hate crimes punishable more severely in comparison to the same offenses not motivated by bias against the target.
“But you still need more than laws. For example, if you look at Kosovo, it has the world's best anti-hate crime legislation, but you don't see any of that when you look at practice. Creating awareness amongst the public is very important. Increasing people's sensitivity on this issue would be much more effective than amending the law,” he said.
Asuman İnceoğlu, an assistant professor at Bilgi University, says such crimes should be punished with the harshest penalties possible within the confines of criminal law. She stressed that there was no way a judge could hand down a harsher punishment for a crime committed due to bias if this is not defined legally.
“If the perpetrators are not punished, this gives them the message that they can get away with it, which in turn brings about a cycle of crime. This is why harsher sanctions are needed in criminal law for crimes of this type,” she said.
TodayZaman
Race row comic Frankie Boyle loses a third of his TV audience (UK)
Frankie Boyle has lost a third of his TV audience as he faces a storm over his use of racist language.
The Scots comic launched his controversial Channel 4 series Tramadol Nights to a healthy 1.3 million viewers on November 30. But now he is proving a major turn-off after causing outrage with a string of tasteless gags.
In last week’s show the Sun columnist made a joke at the expense of Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey and upset many by using the words P*** and n*****. Yester-day it emerged his average audience figures were down to 880,000 by December 14.
Bosses fear even more will switch off when the last episode of the six-part series is screened tomorrow. Channel 4 were yesterday unavailable to confirm the figures for his most recent broadcast.
During the show Boyle referred to a bomb wiping out “a whole bunch of P****” and joked about the “Ministry of War” having a “department of n***** bombing”.
Despite a flood of complaints Channel 4 bosses have consistently defended the near-the-knuckle comedian. Chief executive David Abraham insisted last week: “Comedy is very subjective and the intent of these sketches is manifestly satirical.”
But critics were furious. A spokesman for Show Racism the Red Card said: “We condemn the use of racist terminology. It is never acceptable in any context.”
The Scots comic launched his controversial Channel 4 series Tramadol Nights to a healthy 1.3 million viewers on November 30. But now he is proving a major turn-off after causing outrage with a string of tasteless gags.
In last week’s show the Sun columnist made a joke at the expense of Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey and upset many by using the words P*** and n*****. Yester-day it emerged his average audience figures were down to 880,000 by December 14.
Bosses fear even more will switch off when the last episode of the six-part series is screened tomorrow. Channel 4 were yesterday unavailable to confirm the figures for his most recent broadcast.
During the show Boyle referred to a bomb wiping out “a whole bunch of P****” and joked about the “Ministry of War” having a “department of n***** bombing”.
Despite a flood of complaints Channel 4 bosses have consistently defended the near-the-knuckle comedian. Chief executive David Abraham insisted last week: “Comedy is very subjective and the intent of these sketches is manifestly satirical.”
But critics were furious. A spokesman for Show Racism the Red Card said: “We condemn the use of racist terminology. It is never acceptable in any context.”
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Site calling for genocide of Jews, Canadians reappears (Canada)
The resurrection of a website advocating the genocide of Jews and Canadians, founded by a Toronto extremist who is wanted by police, highlights the difficulties of policing the Internet, where public postings can be generated and disseminated from almost anywhere.
The website was founded by Salman Hossain, 25, a Canadian extremist who fled Canada earlier this year during a police investigation into use of the Internet to promote terrorist violence in Canada.
Police subsequently charged him with five hate crimes -- two counts of advocating genocide and three counts of promoting hatred -- but have so far been unable to locate him.
The site was shut down after the charges were laid.
The National Post reported last month that the site had reemerged on a U.S. free-speech server but was again shut down. This month it found a new home, through Internet servers based in Switzerland.
"We are aware that he has a website up and running in various locations," said Inspector Dave Ross of the Ontario Provincial Police. "We are monitoring it and are continuing to liaise with enforcement agencies around the world. We are actively seeking him. We haven't forgotten about him. Our hope is that some day you will see him back in Canada in custody."
The fact that the alleged crimes continue despite his fugitive status shows the difficulties of such cases.
"The Internet poses very unique challenges to law enforcement agencies around the world, not only for hate crimes but a vast number of offences. It has certainly opened the global marketplace to criminals of all types," said Insp. Ross.
Mr. Hossain is wanted by the OPP for advocating genocide and is named in a worldwide Interpol fugitive list. He is believed to have returned to his native Bangladesh and appears to have had technological issues with accessing the Internet.
This month any obstacles were overcome and the website Filthy Jewish Terrorists renewed its stream of violent imagery, language and fierce anti-Jewish and anti-Western sentiments.
"He's never had any concern for the warrant hanging over his head. He is thumbing his nose at Canadian police and at Interpol. The site is up and gotten even more vile," said Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
"It speaks to the ineffectiveness of the law in terms of trying to deal with modern technology. A lot of the law dealing with hate crimes is based on the fact that people are living in Western countries where the law applies. But Salman Hossain left and is clearly living in a place where Western law and Western mores have no meaning and so he is basically free to post whatever he wants.
"I do believe the law will eventually catch up to him. "
One article on the site, listed as having been written by Mr. Hossain and posted Dec. 17, again encourages the killing of Jews and Westerners and expresses hope his articles harm Western society.
"I encourage Iran to get assistance from others in committing a full scale genocide against the Jew run nations of the Western World (Australia, Europe and North America to be more precise). Killing them with bio-genetic weaponry would literally be the best option," it says in part.
Another article, posted on Dec. 18, is entitled: "Learning How To Identify Jews During Roundup Time!"
Despite that type of content, the website offers a "legal disclaimer" that states: "Our web site does not advocate terrorism or genocide against any people. All information on this site is for informational purposes only."
A phone call and email from the National Post to the contact information provided for the site's domain registration in Lucerne, Switzerland, went unanswered yesterday.
National Post
The website was founded by Salman Hossain, 25, a Canadian extremist who fled Canada earlier this year during a police investigation into use of the Internet to promote terrorist violence in Canada.
Police subsequently charged him with five hate crimes -- two counts of advocating genocide and three counts of promoting hatred -- but have so far been unable to locate him.
The site was shut down after the charges were laid.
The National Post reported last month that the site had reemerged on a U.S. free-speech server but was again shut down. This month it found a new home, through Internet servers based in Switzerland.
"We are aware that he has a website up and running in various locations," said Inspector Dave Ross of the Ontario Provincial Police. "We are monitoring it and are continuing to liaise with enforcement agencies around the world. We are actively seeking him. We haven't forgotten about him. Our hope is that some day you will see him back in Canada in custody."
The fact that the alleged crimes continue despite his fugitive status shows the difficulties of such cases.
"The Internet poses very unique challenges to law enforcement agencies around the world, not only for hate crimes but a vast number of offences. It has certainly opened the global marketplace to criminals of all types," said Insp. Ross.
Mr. Hossain is wanted by the OPP for advocating genocide and is named in a worldwide Interpol fugitive list. He is believed to have returned to his native Bangladesh and appears to have had technological issues with accessing the Internet.
This month any obstacles were overcome and the website Filthy Jewish Terrorists renewed its stream of violent imagery, language and fierce anti-Jewish and anti-Western sentiments.
"He's never had any concern for the warrant hanging over his head. He is thumbing his nose at Canadian police and at Interpol. The site is up and gotten even more vile," said Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
"It speaks to the ineffectiveness of the law in terms of trying to deal with modern technology. A lot of the law dealing with hate crimes is based on the fact that people are living in Western countries where the law applies. But Salman Hossain left and is clearly living in a place where Western law and Western mores have no meaning and so he is basically free to post whatever he wants.
"I do believe the law will eventually catch up to him. "
One article on the site, listed as having been written by Mr. Hossain and posted Dec. 17, again encourages the killing of Jews and Westerners and expresses hope his articles harm Western society.
"I encourage Iran to get assistance from others in committing a full scale genocide against the Jew run nations of the Western World (Australia, Europe and North America to be more precise). Killing them with bio-genetic weaponry would literally be the best option," it says in part.
Another article, posted on Dec. 18, is entitled: "Learning How To Identify Jews During Roundup Time!"
Despite that type of content, the website offers a "legal disclaimer" that states: "Our web site does not advocate terrorism or genocide against any people. All information on this site is for informational purposes only."
A phone call and email from the National Post to the contact information provided for the site's domain registration in Lucerne, Switzerland, went unanswered yesterday.
National Post
COULD HUNGARIAN ANTI-SEMITISM GET OUT OF CONTROL?
The rise of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik Party has ratcheted up debate about anti-Semitism in this country and focused attention on the seeming paradoxes of Jewish life here. On the one hand, a recent article in Germany's Der Spiegel described Budapest as "Europe's capital of anti-Semitism," where Jews are "being openly intimidated" and making plans to leave the country. On the other, Hungary is home to a flourishing and multifaceted Jewish life that finds vigorous public expression in religious, cultural and even culinary ways, and also enjoys high-profile government recognition.
I saw this myself at Chanukah when I munched on latkes at a Friday night oneg Shabbat, sampled doughnuts at a sit-down dinner for Holocaust survivors, joined 20-somethings at a riotous klezmer/hip-hop gig, and just missed witnessing the foreign minister, Budapest's mayor and other VIPs help light a big menorah set up in the center of town. While anti-Semitism remains a serious concern in this central European country, Budapest-based Jewish writer Adam LeBor wrote in the Economist, the Der Spiegel article was a one-sided screed that portrayed the Jewish experience in Hungary "solely through the warped prism of anti-Semitism rather than its much more complex, and healthy, reality."
A timely and important new book puts contemporary Hungarian anti-Semitism into perspective. Based on studies carried out since the early 1990s, "The Stranger at Hand: Antisemitic Prejudices in Post-Communist Hungary" is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the scope and impact of the phenomenon. It’s just too bad that its $131 price tag will put it out of reach of many potential readers. Written by Andras Kovacs, a sociologist at Budapest's Central European University who has devoted decades to tracking both the development of anti-Semitism and the development of Jewish life and identity here, the book presents a highly complex and sometimes contradictory picture. A large part of Hungarian society, both Jewish and non-Jewish, is convinced that anti-Semitism has increased in Hungary since the fall of communism, Kovacs writes. "What is said on the street, written in newspapers, and heard on the radio can and does give rise to concern," he writes. “Are the fears legitimate?" The answer, he told JTA in an interview, is a mix of yes, no and maybe.
Jobbik, with its anti-Semitic rhetoric and virulently anti-Roma, or Gypsy, political platform, won nearly 17 percent of the vote in April elections and entered Parliament as Hungary's third-largest party. But recent evidence shows that it has been losing support amid divisive internal squabbles, and newly imposed legal measures have clamped down hard on its once-feared paramilitary wing, the Hungarian Guard. Still, Jobbik did not emerge from thin air, and Kovacs's book traces the evolution of several anti-Semitic trends against a shifting background of political and social change.
He identifies three main types of anti-Semitism in Hungary. The first is "classic" anti-Jewish prejudice, based on social and religious stereotypes that date back centuries and were kept alive, if suppressed, under communism. The second occurs when anti-Semitism becomes a sort of "language and culture" that fosters a general anti-Semitic worldview. The third is political anti-Semitism, "where political activists discover that they can mobilize certain social groups by using anti-Semitic slogans to achieve their own goals."
Kovacs' research shows the recent growth in anti-Semitism to be qualitative rather than quantitative. Surveys show that 10 to 15 percent of Hungarians are hard-core anti-Semites, while another 25 percent nurtures anti-Jewish prejudices to some degree. Contrary to popular perception, Kovacs said, these figures "have increased to some extent but not dramatically over the past 17 years." What is different and much more alarming, according to Kovacs, is how the type and expression of anti-Semitism is changing within that proportion. For one thing, the percentage of political anti-Semites has grown. These political anti-Semites, he said, are "more urban, better educated and relatively younger" than they tended to be in the past.
Jobbik's key leaders, for example, are youthful, clean cut, and media and Internet-savvy -- factors that helped enhance their appeal ahead of the April vote. Related to this is the way hate speech among the general public has been emboldened by the open use of anti-Semitic and anti-Roma rhetoric by extreme right public figures. Kovacs calls this a "dangerous dynamic." He said young people in particular frequently seem to lose their inhibitions, and their use of slurs against Jews and Roma often goes unchecked by parents, teachers and other authority figures. "We know that people are much more cautious in expressing their prejudices if they think that it is not legitimate," Kovacs said. "But when they realize that so-called important people use this language openly, they feel they can use it as well. This is what we feel now in Budapest."
What follows is unclear. So far, Jobbik's anti-Jewish rhetoric seems aimed at creating a body of like-minded followers rather than serving as a rallying cry for concrete political action against Jews, according to Kovacs. But could the extreme right eventually elevate political anti-Semitism into a force with significant mainstream influence? Kovacs thinks it's unlikely, but ultimately, he writes in his book, it will depend on how Hungary's mainstream cultural and political leaders react to any attempts to "transform the prejudice that once affected the margins of Hungarian society into a language, culture and ideology."
JTA
I saw this myself at Chanukah when I munched on latkes at a Friday night oneg Shabbat, sampled doughnuts at a sit-down dinner for Holocaust survivors, joined 20-somethings at a riotous klezmer/hip-hop gig, and just missed witnessing the foreign minister, Budapest's mayor and other VIPs help light a big menorah set up in the center of town. While anti-Semitism remains a serious concern in this central European country, Budapest-based Jewish writer Adam LeBor wrote in the Economist, the Der Spiegel article was a one-sided screed that portrayed the Jewish experience in Hungary "solely through the warped prism of anti-Semitism rather than its much more complex, and healthy, reality."
A timely and important new book puts contemporary Hungarian anti-Semitism into perspective. Based on studies carried out since the early 1990s, "The Stranger at Hand: Antisemitic Prejudices in Post-Communist Hungary" is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the scope and impact of the phenomenon. It’s just too bad that its $131 price tag will put it out of reach of many potential readers. Written by Andras Kovacs, a sociologist at Budapest's Central European University who has devoted decades to tracking both the development of anti-Semitism and the development of Jewish life and identity here, the book presents a highly complex and sometimes contradictory picture. A large part of Hungarian society, both Jewish and non-Jewish, is convinced that anti-Semitism has increased in Hungary since the fall of communism, Kovacs writes. "What is said on the street, written in newspapers, and heard on the radio can and does give rise to concern," he writes. “Are the fears legitimate?" The answer, he told JTA in an interview, is a mix of yes, no and maybe.
Jobbik, with its anti-Semitic rhetoric and virulently anti-Roma, or Gypsy, political platform, won nearly 17 percent of the vote in April elections and entered Parliament as Hungary's third-largest party. But recent evidence shows that it has been losing support amid divisive internal squabbles, and newly imposed legal measures have clamped down hard on its once-feared paramilitary wing, the Hungarian Guard. Still, Jobbik did not emerge from thin air, and Kovacs's book traces the evolution of several anti-Semitic trends against a shifting background of political and social change.
He identifies three main types of anti-Semitism in Hungary. The first is "classic" anti-Jewish prejudice, based on social and religious stereotypes that date back centuries and were kept alive, if suppressed, under communism. The second occurs when anti-Semitism becomes a sort of "language and culture" that fosters a general anti-Semitic worldview. The third is political anti-Semitism, "where political activists discover that they can mobilize certain social groups by using anti-Semitic slogans to achieve their own goals."
Kovacs' research shows the recent growth in anti-Semitism to be qualitative rather than quantitative. Surveys show that 10 to 15 percent of Hungarians are hard-core anti-Semites, while another 25 percent nurtures anti-Jewish prejudices to some degree. Contrary to popular perception, Kovacs said, these figures "have increased to some extent but not dramatically over the past 17 years." What is different and much more alarming, according to Kovacs, is how the type and expression of anti-Semitism is changing within that proportion. For one thing, the percentage of political anti-Semites has grown. These political anti-Semites, he said, are "more urban, better educated and relatively younger" than they tended to be in the past.
Jobbik's key leaders, for example, are youthful, clean cut, and media and Internet-savvy -- factors that helped enhance their appeal ahead of the April vote. Related to this is the way hate speech among the general public has been emboldened by the open use of anti-Semitic and anti-Roma rhetoric by extreme right public figures. Kovacs calls this a "dangerous dynamic." He said young people in particular frequently seem to lose their inhibitions, and their use of slurs against Jews and Roma often goes unchecked by parents, teachers and other authority figures. "We know that people are much more cautious in expressing their prejudices if they think that it is not legitimate," Kovacs said. "But when they realize that so-called important people use this language openly, they feel they can use it as well. This is what we feel now in Budapest."
What follows is unclear. So far, Jobbik's anti-Jewish rhetoric seems aimed at creating a body of like-minded followers rather than serving as a rallying cry for concrete political action against Jews, according to Kovacs. But could the extreme right eventually elevate political anti-Semitism into a force with significant mainstream influence? Kovacs thinks it's unlikely, but ultimately, he writes in his book, it will depend on how Hungary's mainstream cultural and political leaders react to any attempts to "transform the prejudice that once affected the margins of Hungarian society into a language, culture and ideology."
JTA
Channel 4 urged to sack comedian Frankie Boyle in race jibe row (UK)
Friends claim he has laughed off calls for him to be banned from TV following a deluge of complaints about racist language in his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights.
Many viewers were outraged after he used the P-word and n-word during a series of near-the-knuckle sketches.
One skit involved a woman dressed as Super Mario. She danced provocatively in front of the cameras before waving and saying: “Hello to P***’s everywhere.”
Then during his stand-up routine Boyle, 38, turned the subject to war.
He said: “Basically we are murdering a load of shepherds. What gets me is our callousness as a society when we read out our dead on the news first, because our lives are more important. Other people’s aren’t worth as much.”
Adopting a newsreader’s tone, he added: “A bomb went off in Kandahar today, killing two British servicemen, three UN relief workers and a whole bunch of P****.”
Later he said: “The Ministry of Defence? At least in the old days we were honest, it was The Ministry of War.”
In a posh phone voice he added: “Hello Ministry of War, department of n*****-bombing, how can I help?”
His remarks triggered a furious reaction. A spokesman for Show Racism the Red Card said: “We condemn Frankie Boyle’s use of racist terminology.
“Regardless of context and intention, the use of words such as these has the effect of normalising racist language.
“That is never acceptable. It is dehumanising and provides the foundations on which serious hate crimes are built.” MP John Whittingdale, chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, said: “There’s no question that these words are deeply offensive to many people.
“I think it’s entirely right that Ofcom should carry out an immediate investigation to decide whether this is acceptable.
“It’s very hard to justify – even in terms of political satire.”
On Digital spy forums, Dolly Stanford said: “He used to be funny and offensive, now he is just offensive. Shame.”
Another viewer said: “I liked him on Mock the Week, but this is just dreadful.”
Scots-born Boyle, who writes a column for the Sun, has already faced a barrage of criticism over earlier shows in which he made sexual jibes about Katie Price and her disabled son Harvey.
He also cracked sick jokes about cancer victims and mocked people with Aids.
Channel 4 – slammed three years ago for refusing to take responsibility for the Shilpa Shetty Celebrity Big Brother race row – seemed to be trying to tough it out again last night.
It pointed out that a warning was broadcast before Tuesday night’s show that it “contained very strong language and uncompromising adult content which some viewers will find offensive”.
But critics argue that Boyle’s comments breach TV rule 2.3 regarding “generally accepted standards”. It says any broadcast must justify in context any discriminatory language regarding race. Earlier this year Boyle had an on-stage run-in with the mother of a Down’s syndrome child. He spent five minutes of a stand-up show poking fun at sufferers and their parents by criticising their hair, clothing and voices.
He then turned on the audience, picking on a couple – Sharon and Keiron Smith – in the front row and accusing them of talking. Laughter turned to awkward silence when Mrs Smith told Boyle: “My daughter has Down’s syndrome and I’m very upset.”
Boyle retorted: “This is my last tour. I don’t give a f*** what people think.” Insiders at Channel 4 privately admitted the outspoken comedian has been testing executives’ patience.
But Shane Allen, the channel’s head of comedy commissioning, insisted: “We refute any suggestion we are endorsing or condoning racist language.
“This cutting edge comedy is clearly intended to ridicule and satirise the use of these words – Frankie Boyle was not endorsing them.”
- BOYLE also made a cruel jibe about missing Madeline McCann. Describing things you could say to change the atmosphere at a dinner party, he said: “We are all here – who’s looking after Madeleine?” A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann said: “It was deeply offensive.”
Daily Mirror
LEADING PRIEST BLAMES JEWS FOR GREECE’S PROBLEMS
A high-level priest on the morning show of the largest television station in Greece blamed world Jewry for Greece's financial problems. The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim also blamed world Jewry for other ills in the country during his appearance on Mega TV. Mixing Freemasons with Jewish bankers such as Baron Rothschild and world Zionism, the Metropolite said that there is a conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy. He also accused international Zionism of trying to destroy the family unit by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages.
Thirteen minutes into the program the Greek host asked the Metropolite, "Why do you disagree with Hitler's policies? If they are doing all this, wasn't he right in burning them?" The Metropolite answered, "Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire."
Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization," the Metropolite also said. The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim is not the only Greek priest with such extreme ideas, as Salonika's Metropolite Anthimos also has preached similar ideas from his pulpit. "Watching and listening to the program, I felt disgust hearing the Metropolite of Piraeus expressing himself like that against world Zionism, and shamelessly saying that Hitler with the help of Jewish bankers did what he did," said Benjamin Albala, president of the Athens Jewish community.
JTA
Thirteen minutes into the program the Greek host asked the Metropolite, "Why do you disagree with Hitler's policies? If they are doing all this, wasn't he right in burning them?" The Metropolite answered, "Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire."
Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization," the Metropolite also said. The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim is not the only Greek priest with such extreme ideas, as Salonika's Metropolite Anthimos also has preached similar ideas from his pulpit. "Watching and listening to the program, I felt disgust hearing the Metropolite of Piraeus expressing himself like that against world Zionism, and shamelessly saying that Hitler with the help of Jewish bankers did what he did," said Benjamin Albala, president of the Athens Jewish community.
JTA
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Racist 'deserved time spent in jail' (UK)
A racist who launched a tirade of "utterly abhorrent" abuse at two reporters posing as a married Asian couple for a TV documentary has been told he deserved every day of his jail term.
Sean Ganderton, 23, "bullied and threatened" journalists Amil Khan and Tamanna Rahman as they went undercover in Southmead to film an episode of the BBC's Panorama programme.
Ganderton was jailed for two years at Bristol Crown Court in May after admitting racially aggravated harassment.
Yesterday the 23-year-old, who lived in Trowbridge Road, Southmead, before he was jailed, tried to challenge his sentence at London's Criminal Appeal Court, with lawyers arguing it was "too long" for his crime. But the appeal was dismissed by three judges, who said the sentence was "not excessive".
Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, sitting with Lord Justice Leveson and Mr Justice King, told the court the reporters who went to live in Ringwood Crescent between June and August last year secretly filmed material for the programme, entitled Panorama Undercover: Hate on the Doorstep, which was broadcast last October.
During that time, they were subjected to a barrage of racial insults, abuse and threatening behaviour from Ganderton and others.
The court heard on one occasion, Ganderton told Mr Khan he should be walking in the road, because then it would be "bye bye Paki", and punched him in the head.
Miss Rahman was also subjected to abuse, followed in the street and Ganderton threatened to cut her throat.
In a victim impact statement which was read to the court, she said she found the experience "distressing" and was stunned that Ganderton and others seemed to find it "amusing". She also said she "felt sorry" for other people who might have to face the same kind of treatment.
Sentencing him at Bristol Crown Court in June, Judge Michael Roach said Ganderton's behaviour was "utterly abhorrent", and that he had "bullied and threatened" the victims in a "cowardly way".
His lawyers argued his jail term was too long, saying the judge did not take enough account of the fact it was his first offence, his admission of guilt, or the fact he was of "low intelligence".
But, dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said the sentence was "not even arguably excessive" for a crime of this nature.
Another man, 18-year-old Martin Durnell, of Ringwood Crescent, was sentenced to 21 months' youth custody alongside Ganderton in June. He was not before the court to appeal against his sentence yesterday.
This is Bristol
Sean Ganderton, 23, "bullied and threatened" journalists Amil Khan and Tamanna Rahman as they went undercover in Southmead to film an episode of the BBC's Panorama programme.
Ganderton was jailed for two years at Bristol Crown Court in May after admitting racially aggravated harassment.
Yesterday the 23-year-old, who lived in Trowbridge Road, Southmead, before he was jailed, tried to challenge his sentence at London's Criminal Appeal Court, with lawyers arguing it was "too long" for his crime. But the appeal was dismissed by three judges, who said the sentence was "not excessive".
Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, sitting with Lord Justice Leveson and Mr Justice King, told the court the reporters who went to live in Ringwood Crescent between June and August last year secretly filmed material for the programme, entitled Panorama Undercover: Hate on the Doorstep, which was broadcast last October.
During that time, they were subjected to a barrage of racial insults, abuse and threatening behaviour from Ganderton and others.
The court heard on one occasion, Ganderton told Mr Khan he should be walking in the road, because then it would be "bye bye Paki", and punched him in the head.
Miss Rahman was also subjected to abuse, followed in the street and Ganderton threatened to cut her throat.
In a victim impact statement which was read to the court, she said she found the experience "distressing" and was stunned that Ganderton and others seemed to find it "amusing". She also said she "felt sorry" for other people who might have to face the same kind of treatment.
Sentencing him at Bristol Crown Court in June, Judge Michael Roach said Ganderton's behaviour was "utterly abhorrent", and that he had "bullied and threatened" the victims in a "cowardly way".
His lawyers argued his jail term was too long, saying the judge did not take enough account of the fact it was his first offence, his admission of guilt, or the fact he was of "low intelligence".
But, dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said the sentence was "not even arguably excessive" for a crime of this nature.
Another man, 18-year-old Martin Durnell, of Ringwood Crescent, was sentenced to 21 months' youth custody alongside Ganderton in June. He was not before the court to appeal against his sentence yesterday.
This is Bristol
Police arrest EDL protest’s leader (UK)
 |
| Guramit Singh |
Guramit Singh (28), from Nottingham, was arrested yesterday (22nd December) on suspicion of intentionally causing religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress.
Cambridgeshire Police received two complaints after Mr Singh, an unofficial leader and spokesman for the EDL, gave a speech during the EDL’s two-hour protest in the city on Saturday, December 11.
Mr Singh was addressing around 1,000 EDL supporters and hundreds of onlooking members of the public during his speech, which was delivered outside Peterborough Magistrates’ Court and has since been uploaded onto YouTube.
A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Police said: “A 28-year-old man from Nottingham was arrested on suspicion of intentionally causing religiously aggravated harassment alarm or distress, under section four of the public order act 1986.
“He was questioned in Nottingham and has now been bailed.
“Police are investigating whether any further criminal offences were committed during protests in Peterborough.
“The arrested man will return to a police station in Cambridgeshire in February.”
The EDL held its protest claiming to be against Islamic extremism and its perceived rise in England.
The protesters went from outside the Peterborough United Football Ground, in London Road, to Peterborough Magistrates’ Court in Lower Bridge Street, where they gathered for a static protest and were addressed by Mr Singh.
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the other unofficial leader of the EDL, confirmed that Mr Singh had been arrested.
Mr Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, said: “Guramit was arrested in the morning.
“The EDL are fully behind him and we don’t think there was anything wrong with his speech.
“It doesn’t surprise me that he has been arrested but it does disappoint me.”
The EDL’s decision to come to Peterborough to march and protest sparked the biggest policing operation in the history of the city.
Around 1,000 officers from 18 forces across the country were drafted in to police the EDL march as well as the counter demonstration which was organised by Peterborough Trades Union Council.
The operation cost Cambridgeshire Police an estimated £750,000 to pay overtime and draft extra officers in for the day. It resulted in 10 arrests on the day.
Police investigations are ongoing following the marches and officers have asked anyone with information to contact them on 0345 456 4564 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Petersborough Today
Police raid neo-Nazi youth group (Germany)
Authorities carried out dawn raids in five cities on members of the "Young Nationalist Democrats" (JN), whose activities and slogans bear "clear parallels" to the banned neo-Nazi organisation HDJ, police said. They searched apartments in Oranienburg, Ludwigshafen, Bad Dürkheim, Heidelberg and Osnabrück.
"Various blatantly right-wing extremist documents belonging to IG Fahrt & Lager were found during the searches," the police said in a statement. "The searches were intended to stop the upcoming national year-end camp."
The HDJ, whose names translates as "German Youth Loyal to the Homeland," ran Hitler Youth-style camps teaching children as young as six that foreigners and Jews were a threat to the nation. Authorities banned the group in March 2009.
The state Office for Criminal Investigation in Hannover warned there was a danger that the JN would break laws at their planned get-together, including incitement to racial hatred and wearing banned uniforms.
The Local Germany
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
ECUADORIAN MAN HOSPITALIZED AFTER BRUTAL NEO-NAZI ATTACK IN GERMANY
An Ecuadorian man was hospitalized following a vicious neo-Nazi attack in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday. The unidentified 24-year victim was severely injured as he was waiting at a tramway stop early Saturday morning. The three assailants first insulted the Ecuadorian national and then beat him up, breaking his nose and inflicting multiple bruises on his body. Two female companions of the victim from Mexico and Germany were also attacked by the neo-Nazi thugs as they tried to protect their friend. The Mexican woman was slightly injured in the assault, according to the report. Police managed to arrest all three assailants, ages 18, 21 and 23.
The neo-Nazi movement is especially strong in formerly communist East Germany where foreigners are scapegoated for the worsening economic situation and high unemployment rate. Germany continues to be plagued by racially motivated attacks in recent years. Neo-Nazis and far-right extremists have committed more than 11,0000 acts of crimes during the first nine months of this year. The overall number of recorded far-right crimes is expected to surge further since many victims have yet to report to police. At least of 465 people were injured in far-right attacks and police arrested 246 in connection with these assaults. Only seven people were detained pending trial.
At least 137 people have reportedly been killed since Germany's reunification in 1990 as a result of neo-Nazi and other far-right violent acts. The number of fatalities due to far-right violence is three times as high as previously reported by police and the German government which has tried to downplay the threat of neo-Nazi violence, according to press reports. The German government has been under fire for not really cracking down on far-right violence which is targeting mostly foreigners and leftist activists.
Young neo-Nazis feel more and more emboldened to commit hate crimes, knowing that police won't charge them with an offense. Most of the suspects implicated in far-right crimes are juveniles. Hate crime experts and sociologists have repeatedly stressed Germany's political leadership lacked a clear, effective strategy and a real political will to combat neo-Nazi crimes.
Two Circles. net
The neo-Nazi movement is especially strong in formerly communist East Germany where foreigners are scapegoated for the worsening economic situation and high unemployment rate. Germany continues to be plagued by racially motivated attacks in recent years. Neo-Nazis and far-right extremists have committed more than 11,0000 acts of crimes during the first nine months of this year. The overall number of recorded far-right crimes is expected to surge further since many victims have yet to report to police. At least of 465 people were injured in far-right attacks and police arrested 246 in connection with these assaults. Only seven people were detained pending trial.
At least 137 people have reportedly been killed since Germany's reunification in 1990 as a result of neo-Nazi and other far-right violent acts. The number of fatalities due to far-right violence is three times as high as previously reported by police and the German government which has tried to downplay the threat of neo-Nazi violence, according to press reports. The German government has been under fire for not really cracking down on far-right violence which is targeting mostly foreigners and leftist activists.
Young neo-Nazis feel more and more emboldened to commit hate crimes, knowing that police won't charge them with an offense. Most of the suspects implicated in far-right crimes are juveniles. Hate crime experts and sociologists have repeatedly stressed Germany's political leadership lacked a clear, effective strategy and a real political will to combat neo-Nazi crimes.
Two Circles. net
Schoolboy is sought after racist attack (Southhampton UK)
Police are hunting a schoolboy who attacked staff at a Chinese takeaway.
Officers in Hedge End are appealing for information after the incident at the Hong Kong Chef, Townhill Way, West End.
The youth was abusive towards staff and was told to leave.
While being thrown out, he attacked one member of staff leaving him with cuts and bruises on his arm, and hurled racist abuse at another.
The youth was white, about 14 years old, slim, 5ft 6in with blonde, medium-length hair.
He was wearing a long-sleeved grey jumper with jeans and trainers.
Anyone with information should contact Hedge End police station on 101.
Daily Echo
Officers in Hedge End are appealing for information after the incident at the Hong Kong Chef, Townhill Way, West End.
The youth was abusive towards staff and was told to leave.
While being thrown out, he attacked one member of staff leaving him with cuts and bruises on his arm, and hurled racist abuse at another.
The youth was white, about 14 years old, slim, 5ft 6in with blonde, medium-length hair.
He was wearing a long-sleeved grey jumper with jeans and trainers.
Anyone with information should contact Hedge End police station on 101.
Daily Echo
Alleged racist sniper suspected in immigrant murders (Sweden)
A 38-year-old Swedish man suspected of a year-long shooting spree against immigrants is now suspected of two more murders and five more murder attempts, a prosecutor said Monday.
The suspect, who media have identified as Peter Mangs, was remanded in custody in early November, facing one charge of murder and five charges of attempted murder. Two other murder attempts were since attributed to him.
On Monday, prosecutor Solveig Wollstad in Malmoe told news agency TT that two men of foreign origin killed in 2003 -- a 23-year-old shot on his way to work and a 66-year-old found dead at home -- were possibly murdered by the suspect.
He is now also suspected of five new murder attempts from 2006 to this year, she said.
The suspicions "are sufficient for me to remand him in custody for credible motives," Wollstad told TT.
The man was arrested early November following weeks of a police manhunt for a sniper as shootings targeting immigrants intensified.
He had a licence for two weapons and was described as a loner.
The incidents in Malmoe, Sweden's third largest city, bore chilling similarity to the case of a gunman who targeted immigrants in Stockholm in the early 1990s, dubbed "Laserman".
The "Laserman", John Ausonius, shot 11 people of immigrant origin, killing one, around Stockholm from August 1991 to January 1992.
Ausonius, who got his nickname by initially using a rifle equipped with a laser sight, was jailed for life in 1994.
CNEWS
The suspect, who media have identified as Peter Mangs, was remanded in custody in early November, facing one charge of murder and five charges of attempted murder. Two other murder attempts were since attributed to him.
On Monday, prosecutor Solveig Wollstad in Malmoe told news agency TT that two men of foreign origin killed in 2003 -- a 23-year-old shot on his way to work and a 66-year-old found dead at home -- were possibly murdered by the suspect.
He is now also suspected of five new murder attempts from 2006 to this year, she said.
The suspicions "are sufficient for me to remand him in custody for credible motives," Wollstad told TT.
The man was arrested early November following weeks of a police manhunt for a sniper as shootings targeting immigrants intensified.
He had a licence for two weapons and was described as a loner.
The incidents in Malmoe, Sweden's third largest city, bore chilling similarity to the case of a gunman who targeted immigrants in Stockholm in the early 1990s, dubbed "Laserman".
The "Laserman", John Ausonius, shot 11 people of immigrant origin, killing one, around Stockholm from August 1991 to January 1992.
Ausonius, who got his nickname by initially using a rifle equipped with a laser sight, was jailed for life in 1994.
CNEWS
Monday, 20 December 2010
Racist violence continues in Russia - even if the police carry out preventive measures
To prevent new racist violence in Russia, the police have arrested more than 1,500 people. About 500 participants in a right-wing demonstration have been taken in custody in Moscow on Saturday, and a further 800 persons as a preventive measure, police said. In the last days have nationalists repeatedly attacked Russian citizens or immigrants from the Caucasus and other countries.
The police had prevented "unauthorized meetings" in Moscow and Moscow region, told Yevgenij Gildejov, spokesman for the regional police, to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. One of the preventive measures was the arrest of 808 people, he said. Gildejow did not tell how many nationalists and how people with Caucasian origin have been taken in the actions.
About 500 nationalists gathered on Saturday near the TV station Ostankino. They shouted slogans like "Russia for Russians". Hundreds of policemen were deployed there. Almost all participants in the demonstration were arrested, said Moscow police spokesman Viktor Birjukow. Most protesters were underage youth.
Also in southwestern Russia, nationalists were arrested. Russian media reported from Volgograd 150 arrests and 100 from the industrial city of Samara. Already on Wednesday, approximately one thousand people were arrested for fear of clashes between ultra-nationalists and immigrants.
In recent days, young Russian ultra-nationalists repeatedly took part in violent clashes with young pepole of Caucasian origin. The clashes were triggered by the death of a Russian football fan which was killed in a fight with a group of people from the Caucasus.
Last Sunday a man from a former Soviet Republic was murdered - investigators suspect three young Russian extremists, among them a 14-year-old boy. He has already confessed to having stabbed the victim, the news agency Interfax reports, citing sources within the security apparatus. According to media reports, in Moscow and Moscow region another man from a former Soviet Republic was stabbed on Saturday and a Vietnames citizen was brutally beaten.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the violence on Saturday on Russian television a "worrying sign" but stressed that the young ultra-nationalists were not a "lost generation." Putin said Thursday during a question program on television that authorities want to proceed "hard against any form of extremism". (Source: russland.RU - Internet Zeitung)
Russia Media RU
The police had prevented "unauthorized meetings" in Moscow and Moscow region, told Yevgenij Gildejov, spokesman for the regional police, to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. One of the preventive measures was the arrest of 808 people, he said. Gildejow did not tell how many nationalists and how people with Caucasian origin have been taken in the actions.
About 500 nationalists gathered on Saturday near the TV station Ostankino. They shouted slogans like "Russia for Russians". Hundreds of policemen were deployed there. Almost all participants in the demonstration were arrested, said Moscow police spokesman Viktor Birjukow. Most protesters were underage youth.
Also in southwestern Russia, nationalists were arrested. Russian media reported from Volgograd 150 arrests and 100 from the industrial city of Samara. Already on Wednesday, approximately one thousand people were arrested for fear of clashes between ultra-nationalists and immigrants.
In recent days, young Russian ultra-nationalists repeatedly took part in violent clashes with young pepole of Caucasian origin. The clashes were triggered by the death of a Russian football fan which was killed in a fight with a group of people from the Caucasus.
Last Sunday a man from a former Soviet Republic was murdered - investigators suspect three young Russian extremists, among them a 14-year-old boy. He has already confessed to having stabbed the victim, the news agency Interfax reports, citing sources within the security apparatus. According to media reports, in Moscow and Moscow region another man from a former Soviet Republic was stabbed on Saturday and a Vietnames citizen was brutally beaten.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the violence on Saturday on Russian television a "worrying sign" but stressed that the young ultra-nationalists were not a "lost generation." Putin said Thursday during a question program on television that authorities want to proceed "hard against any form of extremism". (Source: russland.RU - Internet Zeitung)
Russia Media RU
Church calls up ‘black St George’ to fight racism (UK)
Clergy at Manchester Cathedral believe the BNP and English Defence League have ‘hijacked’ the religious festival.
And they plan to fight back with a festival of puppets and poets on Sunday, May 8.
A Catalan-style procession will snake through the city, with jazz music and giant versions of George and the dragon, led by a puppet inspired by a painting in the cathedral by contemporary artist Mark Cazalet.
The altarpiece, created in 2001, depicts the saint as a young black man cutting free the restraints of a pitiful dragon.
The puppets are being built by homeless people who use the Booth Centre charity, linked to the cathedral.
The day will include a reading by Andrew Motion, the former Poet Laureate, of a specially-commissioned work.
The carnival is also inspired by epic Elizabethan poem The Faerie Queene, which re-tells St George’s legend.
Church leaders said the idea was to show English nationalism should be about ‘tolerance and opening up to people’ – and not stirring up racial division.
Canon Andrew Shanks, from the cathedral, said he and other churchmen wanted to help ‘rebrand’ St George’s Day.
He said: “I remember the BNP had a big rally in one of the squares in Manchester a couple of years ago.
“It felt very ugly. There were all these St George’s flags – and the same flag was on our tower.
“There is a war going on about the flag and the meaning of it and we are doing our damnedest to interpret it our way.”
Canon Shanks said the church’s ‘challenging’ painting of St George in a housing estate is about ‘unlocking passion for urban renewal’. He said: “We have taken that as inspiration.”
Anglican vicars face an unusual problem next year as St George’s Day – traditionally April 23 – will clash with Easter Saturday.
Many parishes are opting to mark St George’s Day in May instead.
An English hero with true global appeal
Despite being England’s patron saint, St George was actually born in Turkey and lived in Palestine.
Little is known for sure about his life, but according to myth he became a Roman soldier and was beheaded for his Christian beliefs in 303 AD.
Revered throughout the Christian church, he is also patron saint of Georgia, Malta and Portugal, as well as soldiers, farm workers, lepers and the modern Scout movement.
Although far-right English groups have attempted to adopt him as a symbol, it is thought he was black and of Middle Eastern descent.
The most famous myth about him - that he killed a dragon while riding a white horse - probably developed in the 14th Century.
Manchester Evening News
Graves vandal gets maximum prison term (USA)
A Nazi memorabilia collector was sentenced to seven years in prison for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti on headstones at a Jewish cemetery.
Polish national Mariusz Wdziekonski, 25, was given the maximum sentence in a Chicago court for desecrating 67 graves with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery in Chicago in January 2008. He was convicted earlier this month.
"You wanted to inflict your hatred. You wanted to inflict your pain. You brought shame to your family," Cook County Circuit Judge Larry Axelrood said Dec. 17 before handing down the sentence.
Wdziekonski, who entered the United States in 2004 and has admitted to being a collector of Nazi memorabilia, has been imprisoned for three years and could be eligible for early release in a few months. He also could be deported, according to reports.
JTA News
Polish national Mariusz Wdziekonski, 25, was given the maximum sentence in a Chicago court for desecrating 67 graves with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery in Chicago in January 2008. He was convicted earlier this month.
"You wanted to inflict your hatred. You wanted to inflict your pain. You brought shame to your family," Cook County Circuit Judge Larry Axelrood said Dec. 17 before handing down the sentence.
Wdziekonski, who entered the United States in 2004 and has admitted to being a collector of Nazi memorabilia, has been imprisoned for three years and could be eligible for early release in a few months. He also could be deported, according to reports.
JTA News
English Defence League donor details 'stolen' after database hacked (UK)
Supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) are facing potential embarrassment after a database containing their personal details was hacked into.
Police are believed to be investigating the security breach, which also included the far-Right groups’s payment system being illegally accessed.
Amid fears of violence toward members, the EDL said it will support vulnerable people. They also urged members to change their online shopping details after concerns were raised that they would be published on the internet.
Officials were forced to email supporters after the incident, which is understood to have occurred in recent days, apologising for the “attack”.
It remains unclear who was behind the hacking incident and whether it was a politically motivated attack or a party member with a grudge against the group. The EDL did not disclose to supporters which police force was investigating the breach.
In their email to supporters, officials confirmed that hackers had accessed their donor lists and the far right group’s payments systems, exposing customers who buy merchandise.
“As you may have become aware the English Defence League clothing site was recently attacked,” read the email, seen by The Daily Telegraph.
“This attack took two forms, firstly member’s names and addresses were stolen from the donation database (and) secondly the details of members purchasing items from the clothing site.
“The EDL would like to apologise for this security leak. The leadership is doing everything they can to understand how this occurred so it can never happen again.”
The email confirmed that officials had contacted police.
“If, as an affected member you are concerned for your safety, contact the police,” they said.
“With regards to the criminal action against the EDL, the leadership is working with the police and it is being taken extremely seriously.
“There is currently an on going investigation and evidence is being collected.”
The breach comes days after the party was embroiled in controversy after asking American preacher Pastor Terry Jones to attend a demonstration in Britain.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, had faced calls to bar Mr Jones from entering the country after he was reportedly invited to address the EDL at a rally in Luton in February.
The preacher sparked outrage when he announced plans by his Florida-based church to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America.
The preacher said he would fight moves to ban him from coming to Britain, insisting he would be bringing a ''positive message''.
But the EDL later claimed it had not invited Mr Jones to speak at the event but he had approached them and they agreed in principle.
The weekend’s incident is similar to a security breach involving the far-right BNP in 2008, where the names, addresses and contact details of some 10,000 of its members were published online.
The list, which included details of some members' jobs, was reported to include serving and former police officers as well as members of the armed forces.
A spokesman for the EDL did not respond to inquiries for comment.
The Telegraph
Police are believed to be investigating the security breach, which also included the far-Right groups’s payment system being illegally accessed.
Amid fears of violence toward members, the EDL said it will support vulnerable people. They also urged members to change their online shopping details after concerns were raised that they would be published on the internet.
Officials were forced to email supporters after the incident, which is understood to have occurred in recent days, apologising for the “attack”.
It remains unclear who was behind the hacking incident and whether it was a politically motivated attack or a party member with a grudge against the group. The EDL did not disclose to supporters which police force was investigating the breach.
In their email to supporters, officials confirmed that hackers had accessed their donor lists and the far right group’s payments systems, exposing customers who buy merchandise.
“As you may have become aware the English Defence League clothing site was recently attacked,” read the email, seen by The Daily Telegraph.
“This attack took two forms, firstly member’s names and addresses were stolen from the donation database (and) secondly the details of members purchasing items from the clothing site.
“The EDL would like to apologise for this security leak. The leadership is doing everything they can to understand how this occurred so it can never happen again.”
The email confirmed that officials had contacted police.
“If, as an affected member you are concerned for your safety, contact the police,” they said.
“With regards to the criminal action against the EDL, the leadership is working with the police and it is being taken extremely seriously.
“There is currently an on going investigation and evidence is being collected.”
The breach comes days after the party was embroiled in controversy after asking American preacher Pastor Terry Jones to attend a demonstration in Britain.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, had faced calls to bar Mr Jones from entering the country after he was reportedly invited to address the EDL at a rally in Luton in February.
The preacher sparked outrage when he announced plans by his Florida-based church to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America.
The preacher said he would fight moves to ban him from coming to Britain, insisting he would be bringing a ''positive message''.
But the EDL later claimed it had not invited Mr Jones to speak at the event but he had approached them and they agreed in principle.
The weekend’s incident is similar to a security breach involving the far-right BNP in 2008, where the names, addresses and contact details of some 10,000 of its members were published online.
The list, which included details of some members' jobs, was reported to include serving and former police officers as well as members of the armed forces.
A spokesman for the EDL did not respond to inquiries for comment.
The Telegraph
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