The suicide bombing in Stockholm risks resulting in suspicions being cast against hundreds of thousands of Swedish Muslims, Ullenhag writes in a debate article in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper. He argues that it is unacceptable to blame an entire group for one person’s actions. “We who believe in the Swedish values of openness and tolerance have a responsibility to fight the Islamophobia and prejudice which can follow in the wake of terror,” writes Ullenhag. “We should never allow one individual’s act to result in an entire religion being seen as suspect or having a group saddled with collective guilt.” He points out that "more than 99.9 percent" of Sweden's estimated 400,000 Muslims are not among the list of roughly 200 violent Islamic extremists in the country identified by Swedish security service Säpo. Ullenhag said he shared concerns expressed to him by Muslim students in the days following the December 11th suicide bombing in Stockholm that the blasts would affect perceptions of them and their families.
He also cites a recent study from Sweden's Forum for Living History (Forum för levande historia) which found that tolerance among Swedish youth for Muslim, Jews, and Roma had decreased in recent years. In an effort to counteract potential discrimination against Swedish Muslims that could result from the suicide bombing, Ullenhag is meeting on Thursday with a number of prominent leaders from Sweden’s Muslim community. “The purpose of the meeting is to discuss how the government can deepen its work to combat discrimination and an increasing Islamophobia,” writes Ullenhag. “I want to listen to the experiences of Swedish Muslims and talk about what we can do to reduce polarisation and stop barriers between groups and people from taking root.” Ullenhag further emphasised that Sweden should never abandon its ideals of openness and tolerance in the fight against terrorism. “If a suicide bomber succeeds in creating large divisions and increased intolerance – then terror has won,” he writes.
The Local Sweden
Friday, 14 January 2011
IN FRANCE, FAR RIGHT SEIZES ON MUSLIM STREET PRAYERS
A call to prayer goes up from a loudspeaker perched on the hood of a car, and all at once hundreds of Muslim worshippers touch their foreheads to the ground, forming a sea of backs down the road.
The scene is taking place not in downtown Cairo, but on a busy market street in northern Paris, a short walk from the Sacre Coeur basilica. To locals, it's old news: some have been praying on the street, rain or shine, for decades. But for Marine Le Pen -- tipped to take over from her father this weekend as leader of the far-right National Front party -- it is proof that Muslims are taking over France and becoming an occupying force, according to remarks she made last month. Her comments caused a furore as she seized on the street prayers to drive home the idea that Islam is threatening the values of a secular country where anxiety over the role of Muslims in society has deepened in the past few years. More than two thirds of French and German people now consider the integration of Muslims into their societies a failure, pollster IFOP said in a survey published on Jan. 5. In France, where Islam is the second-largest religion after Catholicism, 42 percent saw it as a threat to national identity. "This has become a key political issue," said Frederic Dabi, IFOP's head of research. "Street prayers and the perceived growing influence of Islam are seen as impinging on French values of secularism, communal living."
Controversy over the street prayers has translated into growing confidence within the National Front, some 15 months before a presidential election likely to see a battle for votes between the far right and Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party. National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has said he expects the party to outdo its electoral performance in 2002, when it knocked out the mainstream Socialist candidate in the first round of voting, but then lost to Jacques Chirac. "These fears hang mostly on symbols: minarets in Switzerland, the niqab (full-face veil) in France, even the halal Quick menu," Dabi said, referring to a fast-food chain which recently opened a range of halal-only restaurants in France and Belgium. "The far right is playing on these fears." Le Pen's comments seem to be taking hold. A poll published by TNS Sofres this week, showed that support for National Front ideas has grown by 12 percentage points over the past year.
Mosque-o-phobia
Back on the market road, Friday prayers come to an end as quickly as they begin, with hundreds of worshippers packing up their mats and heading back to work. Many told Reuters that given the choice, they would avoid the cold and rain and pray indoors. The problem is that their warehouse-turned-prayer site, an unofficial mosque called al Fath, is too small to accommodate them all. "It's cold and filthy. Do you think we would be out here praying if we had the choice? The whole neighbourhood comes and prays in the street because there is not enough room inside, that's all," said Mohammed Delmi, 62. Such scenes are replicated at a dozen sites across France where worshippers kneel outside because prayer rooms are too full, according to a report by the centre-left daily Liberation.
"There are simply not enough of them," said Hakim El Karoui, head of the Islamic Culture Institute, which advises the City of Paris on faith issues. "It's no wonder there is an overflow." The problem has grown along with the country's Muslim population, which the French Council of Islamic Faith estimates at between 5-7 million, or 8 percent of the population -- a larger community than in any other European nation. Campaigners in favour of building new mosques said they faced two major difficulties, starting with financing: mosques in France must be funded privately due to restrictions against using public money for religious purposes. The second, pricklier issue is the public, which has grown increasingly intolerant of Islamic symbols. Research by pollster IFOP shows that support for building mosques fell to 20 percent in 2009 from 31 percent in 2000.
"We are walking on egg shells here," said Moussa Niambele, head of a group seeking new prayer space near the al Fath mosque. "There is the minaret issue in Switzerland and they do not want to import such problems to France." In Paris, where the Muslim population is denser than elsewhere in France, there is only one official mosque, La Grande Mosquee de Paris, located by a park on the posh Left Bank, far away from immigrant-heavy neighbourhoods. El Karoui said the problem had grown more acute since the closure of a large mosque in northern Paris two years ago forced more Muslims to pray in converted garages or vacant lots. A project to build two new prayer spaces which would be called "cultural" and "faith" centres lacks 5.9 million euros of private funding and building would not start before 2012. Worshippers were sceptical about the timetable. "You know, we have been praying on this street for years, long before Marine Le Pen made her remarks," said one man. "I am not going to throw away my raincoat quite yet."
Reuters
The scene is taking place not in downtown Cairo, but on a busy market street in northern Paris, a short walk from the Sacre Coeur basilica. To locals, it's old news: some have been praying on the street, rain or shine, for decades. But for Marine Le Pen -- tipped to take over from her father this weekend as leader of the far-right National Front party -- it is proof that Muslims are taking over France and becoming an occupying force, according to remarks she made last month. Her comments caused a furore as she seized on the street prayers to drive home the idea that Islam is threatening the values of a secular country where anxiety over the role of Muslims in society has deepened in the past few years. More than two thirds of French and German people now consider the integration of Muslims into their societies a failure, pollster IFOP said in a survey published on Jan. 5. In France, where Islam is the second-largest religion after Catholicism, 42 percent saw it as a threat to national identity. "This has become a key political issue," said Frederic Dabi, IFOP's head of research. "Street prayers and the perceived growing influence of Islam are seen as impinging on French values of secularism, communal living."
Controversy over the street prayers has translated into growing confidence within the National Front, some 15 months before a presidential election likely to see a battle for votes between the far right and Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party. National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has said he expects the party to outdo its electoral performance in 2002, when it knocked out the mainstream Socialist candidate in the first round of voting, but then lost to Jacques Chirac. "These fears hang mostly on symbols: minarets in Switzerland, the niqab (full-face veil) in France, even the halal Quick menu," Dabi said, referring to a fast-food chain which recently opened a range of halal-only restaurants in France and Belgium. "The far right is playing on these fears." Le Pen's comments seem to be taking hold. A poll published by TNS Sofres this week, showed that support for National Front ideas has grown by 12 percentage points over the past year.
Mosque-o-phobia
Back on the market road, Friday prayers come to an end as quickly as they begin, with hundreds of worshippers packing up their mats and heading back to work. Many told Reuters that given the choice, they would avoid the cold and rain and pray indoors. The problem is that their warehouse-turned-prayer site, an unofficial mosque called al Fath, is too small to accommodate them all. "It's cold and filthy. Do you think we would be out here praying if we had the choice? The whole neighbourhood comes and prays in the street because there is not enough room inside, that's all," said Mohammed Delmi, 62. Such scenes are replicated at a dozen sites across France where worshippers kneel outside because prayer rooms are too full, according to a report by the centre-left daily Liberation.
"There are simply not enough of them," said Hakim El Karoui, head of the Islamic Culture Institute, which advises the City of Paris on faith issues. "It's no wonder there is an overflow." The problem has grown along with the country's Muslim population, which the French Council of Islamic Faith estimates at between 5-7 million, or 8 percent of the population -- a larger community than in any other European nation. Campaigners in favour of building new mosques said they faced two major difficulties, starting with financing: mosques in France must be funded privately due to restrictions against using public money for religious purposes. The second, pricklier issue is the public, which has grown increasingly intolerant of Islamic symbols. Research by pollster IFOP shows that support for building mosques fell to 20 percent in 2009 from 31 percent in 2000.
"We are walking on egg shells here," said Moussa Niambele, head of a group seeking new prayer space near the al Fath mosque. "There is the minaret issue in Switzerland and they do not want to import such problems to France." In Paris, where the Muslim population is denser than elsewhere in France, there is only one official mosque, La Grande Mosquee de Paris, located by a park on the posh Left Bank, far away from immigrant-heavy neighbourhoods. El Karoui said the problem had grown more acute since the closure of a large mosque in northern Paris two years ago forced more Muslims to pray in converted garages or vacant lots. A project to build two new prayer spaces which would be called "cultural" and "faith" centres lacks 5.9 million euros of private funding and building would not start before 2012. Worshippers were sceptical about the timetable. "You know, we have been praying on this street for years, long before Marine Le Pen made her remarks," said one man. "I am not going to throw away my raincoat quite yet."
Reuters
Thursday, 13 January 2011
EDL leader's assault charge dropped
CPS withdraws charge against Stephen Lennon after new evidence emerges
The founder of the English Defence League was told that a charge of assaulting a police officer, during clashes with Islamist protesters, had been dropped.
Stephen Lennon, 27, of Luton, was due to go on trial this afternoon at West London magistrates court, but the Crown Prosecution Service said it had withdrawn the charge after new evidence emerged. However, Lennon may face a charge under the Public Order Act.
Lennon was arrested in west London on Armistice Day last year. He was among EDL demonstrators who clashed with Islamist protesters burning poppies during the two-minute silence.
The Guardian
The founder of the English Defence League was told that a charge of assaulting a police officer, during clashes with Islamist protesters, had been dropped.
Stephen Lennon, 27, of Luton, was due to go on trial this afternoon at West London magistrates court, but the Crown Prosecution Service said it had withdrawn the charge after new evidence emerged. However, Lennon may face a charge under the Public Order Act.
Lennon was arrested in west London on Armistice Day last year. He was among EDL demonstrators who clashed with Islamist protesters burning poppies during the two-minute silence.
The Guardian
Moscow police arrest dozens to avert racist riots
Russian police on Tuesday arrested dozens of people suspected of planning a racist rally near the Kremlin walls, as authorities looked to avert a repeat of last month's riots by ultra-nationalists who objected to the presence of non-Slavs in the country.
The arrests came after jittery police cordoned off part of a public square outside the Kremlin and evacuated a nearby shopping mall.
At least 30 police trucks lined up on Manezh Square in response to internet threats by ultra-nationalists to repeat the Dec. 11 riots, in which 5,000 people chanted "Russia for Russians" and beat dark-skinned passers-by. The riots were a reaction to the killing of a white Russian soccer fan during a fight with people from the south of the country. The violence left more than 30 people wounded and raised doubts about the government's ability to stem a rising tide of xenophobia. Days later, police detained 800 people in the capital and other cities to prevent further violence.
An Associated Press television crew saw at least 20 people taken to police vans Tuesday after a police document check, including one person wearing clothes bearing the initials of a well-known nationalist organization, the Movement Against Illegal Immigration. Russian news agencies said up to 100 people were detained.
Kremlin critics accuse the authorities of fomenting social disorder to justify a crackdown on the opposition before presidential elections in 2012. Since the unrest, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed restricting the movement of nonresidents into big cities and President Dmitry Medvedev has called for mandatory prison sentences for people participating in unauthorized rallies. Moscow's police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev has said liberal values come a distant second to public order.
Critics, including former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, have said the measures proposed by Putin and Medvedev could cripple attempts to hold peaceful anti-government demonstrations.
Putin and Medvedev have said one of them will run for president in 2012, but they won't compete. It continues to appear that Putin, thought to retain real control over Russia since his eight-year stint as president ended in 2008, will run again.
While ethnic Russians make up four-fifths of Russia's population of 142 million, the country is also home to about 180 ethnic groups. The Caucasus region, with its mountainous terrain and isolated valleys, hosts at least 100 ethnicities including Chechens, who have waged two separatist wars since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
AP reporter David Nowak contributed to this report.
Fox News
The arrests came after jittery police cordoned off part of a public square outside the Kremlin and evacuated a nearby shopping mall.
At least 30 police trucks lined up on Manezh Square in response to internet threats by ultra-nationalists to repeat the Dec. 11 riots, in which 5,000 people chanted "Russia for Russians" and beat dark-skinned passers-by. The riots were a reaction to the killing of a white Russian soccer fan during a fight with people from the south of the country. The violence left more than 30 people wounded and raised doubts about the government's ability to stem a rising tide of xenophobia. Days later, police detained 800 people in the capital and other cities to prevent further violence.
An Associated Press television crew saw at least 20 people taken to police vans Tuesday after a police document check, including one person wearing clothes bearing the initials of a well-known nationalist organization, the Movement Against Illegal Immigration. Russian news agencies said up to 100 people were detained.
Kremlin critics accuse the authorities of fomenting social disorder to justify a crackdown on the opposition before presidential elections in 2012. Since the unrest, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed restricting the movement of nonresidents into big cities and President Dmitry Medvedev has called for mandatory prison sentences for people participating in unauthorized rallies. Moscow's police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev has said liberal values come a distant second to public order.
Critics, including former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, have said the measures proposed by Putin and Medvedev could cripple attempts to hold peaceful anti-government demonstrations.
Putin and Medvedev have said one of them will run for president in 2012, but they won't compete. It continues to appear that Putin, thought to retain real control over Russia since his eight-year stint as president ended in 2008, will run again.
While ethnic Russians make up four-fifths of Russia's population of 142 million, the country is also home to about 180 ethnic groups. The Caucasus region, with its mountainous terrain and isolated valleys, hosts at least 100 ethnicities including Chechens, who have waged two separatist wars since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
AP reporter David Nowak contributed to this report.
Fox News
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
EDL founder faces police assault trial (UK)
English Defence League founder Stephen Lennon is due to stand trial accused of assaulting a police officer during clashes with Islamic protesters in west London.
Lennon, of Layham Drive, Luton, was arrested by police in Kensington as the nation stopped to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day last year.
Five others associated with his group were also arrested, as members of Muslims Against Crusades, a group which purports to "expose the enemies of Islam", burned remembrance poppies.
Two Muslim protesters were arrested for public order offences.
One officer was taken to hospital with a head injury during the clashes, as about 50 men linked to the EDL were kept separate as they shouted abuse.
Lennon pleaded not guilty during a hearing in November at West London Magistrates' Court to assaulting a police officer.
The trial is due to begin at the same court on Wednesday.
Google Hosted News
Lennon, of Layham Drive, Luton, was arrested by police in Kensington as the nation stopped to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day last year.
Five others associated with his group were also arrested, as members of Muslims Against Crusades, a group which purports to "expose the enemies of Islam", burned remembrance poppies.
Two Muslim protesters were arrested for public order offences.
One officer was taken to hospital with a head injury during the clashes, as about 50 men linked to the EDL were kept separate as they shouted abuse.
Lennon pleaded not guilty during a hearing in November at West London Magistrates' Court to assaulting a police officer.
The trial is due to begin at the same court on Wednesday.
Google Hosted News
NEVER AGAIN' ASSOCIATION WINS EUROPEAN FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS AWARD (Poland)
The annual European Football Supporters Award (EFSA) has been awarded to groups promoting positive attitudes in sports since 2005. The jury is composed of representatives of UEFA, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the City of Brussels, the European Association of Sports Magazines and the 'Sport & Citizenship' association. It is led by Philippe Housiaux, the EFSA's initiator and spokesman. This year the selection was made from among 14 nominations coming from Belgium, France, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Wales, Turkey, Austria, Israel, Holland, Spain and Switzerland. According to the official EFSA statement, the 'NEVER AGAIN' Association has been selected for the award because of its “amazing battle against racism and xenophobia for the past 15 years”. “We are delighted to see so many years' hard work has been appreciated” - said Marcin Kornak, the Chairman of the 'NEVER AGAIN' Association who initiated its 'Let's Kick Racism Out of the Stadiums' campaign. - “Currently we focus on EURO 2012 preparations. We conduct educational activities, we also document racist incidents in Poland, Ukraine and other countries in the region”. The 'NEVER AGAIN' Association is an anti-racist educational and monitoring organization established in Poland in 1996.
It runs the 'Let's Kick Racism out of the Stadiums' campaign and actively participates in the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network. Since 2009, 'NEVER AGAIN' has coordinated the FARE East European Development Project supported by UEFA in the lead up to EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. 'NEVER AGAIN' has set up the East Europe Monitoring Centre documenting racism and xenophobia across the region.
FAREnet
It runs the 'Let's Kick Racism out of the Stadiums' campaign and actively participates in the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network. Since 2009, 'NEVER AGAIN' has coordinated the FARE East European Development Project supported by UEFA in the lead up to EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. 'NEVER AGAIN' has set up the East Europe Monitoring Centre documenting racism and xenophobia across the region.
FAREnet
Jewish-British anti-Muslim event in Toronto draws protests, arrests (UK)
Canadian Kahanists host British-based English Defense League, drawing anti-racist demonstrations.
Dozens of anti-racist activists demonstrated in front of a Zionist community center in Toronto, Canada on Tuesday to protest a public event organized by Jewish and British anti-Muslims. Four protestors were arrested in the fracas, and at least one police officer suffered a broken rib, according to The Globe and Mail.
The local chapter of the Jewish Defense League, an extreme-right organization founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, broadcasted a live speech by English Defense League founder Stephen Lennon, otherwise known as Tommy Robinson, drawing the ire of demonstrators.
The two groups on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean have found common cause in nationalist pride and Islamophobic rhetoric. Both groups claim that they do not promote prejudice against others, only pride in their own respective ethnicities, but critics accuse them of spreading hate against Arabs and other Muslims.
One group of demonstrators maintained a vigil across the intersection from the Zionist building, while a separate group of demonstrators marched towards the community center to confront the JDL. Police on foot and on horseback intervened and corralled the protestors, The Globe and Mail reported.
Toronto police said that one of their officers was had been taken to hospital with a broken rib after he was hit with a flagpole. At the end of the demonstration, police noticed that one of their squad cars had been vandalized, its windows smashed.
Anti-Racist Action, which organized the second group of protestors, claim that police responded violently, kicking one demonstrator in the face. Officers confiscated the cameras of activists videotaping the arrests and wiped their memory cards clean, say the ARA.
The EDL website says that the group's aims are to oppose what it calls the application of Sharia law in the U.K. “The root cause of the problem is the Koran, it’s Islam,” Lennon told the BBC in November. “And no one has got the balls to admit it and say it and talk about it. We will."
“The EDL has organized violent street marches that target Arab and Muslim people,” read an open letter signed by the organizers of Tuesday's protest. “They are part of an alarming rise in fascist, racist and neo-Nazi organizing in Europe over the last few years, including attacks on Muslims, immigrants and Roma people.”
“JDL supports the EDL,” says an announcement on the JDL Canadian website. “Now is the time to step forward and stop Political Islam. The British Establishment is following the appeasement policies of Neville Chamberlain," it reads, a reference to the British prime minister who tried to placate Adolf Hitler, implying that Muslims represent a threat of Nazi proportions.
In Israel, the Kach political party established by JDL founder Rabbi Meir Kahane was banned from running for the Knesset in 1992, due to its racist platform, but in recent years Kahane's followers have entered the Knesset under different names, and some of Kahane's proposed policies are now unabashedly espoused by ministers in the current government.
Bernie Farber of the establishment Jewish organization Canadian Jewish Congress, said of the JDL on the CJN website, "As long as they maintain the peace, as long as they do not engage in racist language or hate or violate Canadian law, they have the right to exist."
Farber said he was disappointed that the JDL would support the EDL because of its record of violence. But, he told the National Post, "Islamic fundamentalism is a real threat."
Haartez
Dozens of anti-racist activists demonstrated in front of a Zionist community center in Toronto, Canada on Tuesday to protest a public event organized by Jewish and British anti-Muslims. Four protestors were arrested in the fracas, and at least one police officer suffered a broken rib, according to The Globe and Mail.
The local chapter of the Jewish Defense League, an extreme-right organization founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, broadcasted a live speech by English Defense League founder Stephen Lennon, otherwise known as Tommy Robinson, drawing the ire of demonstrators.
The two groups on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean have found common cause in nationalist pride and Islamophobic rhetoric. Both groups claim that they do not promote prejudice against others, only pride in their own respective ethnicities, but critics accuse them of spreading hate against Arabs and other Muslims.
One group of demonstrators maintained a vigil across the intersection from the Zionist building, while a separate group of demonstrators marched towards the community center to confront the JDL. Police on foot and on horseback intervened and corralled the protestors, The Globe and Mail reported.
Toronto police said that one of their officers was had been taken to hospital with a broken rib after he was hit with a flagpole. At the end of the demonstration, police noticed that one of their squad cars had been vandalized, its windows smashed.
Anti-Racist Action, which organized the second group of protestors, claim that police responded violently, kicking one demonstrator in the face. Officers confiscated the cameras of activists videotaping the arrests and wiped their memory cards clean, say the ARA.
The EDL website says that the group's aims are to oppose what it calls the application of Sharia law in the U.K. “The root cause of the problem is the Koran, it’s Islam,” Lennon told the BBC in November. “And no one has got the balls to admit it and say it and talk about it. We will."
“The EDL has organized violent street marches that target Arab and Muslim people,” read an open letter signed by the organizers of Tuesday's protest. “They are part of an alarming rise in fascist, racist and neo-Nazi organizing in Europe over the last few years, including attacks on Muslims, immigrants and Roma people.”
“JDL supports the EDL,” says an announcement on the JDL Canadian website. “Now is the time to step forward and stop Political Islam. The British Establishment is following the appeasement policies of Neville Chamberlain," it reads, a reference to the British prime minister who tried to placate Adolf Hitler, implying that Muslims represent a threat of Nazi proportions.
In Israel, the Kach political party established by JDL founder Rabbi Meir Kahane was banned from running for the Knesset in 1992, due to its racist platform, but in recent years Kahane's followers have entered the Knesset under different names, and some of Kahane's proposed policies are now unabashedly espoused by ministers in the current government.
Bernie Farber of the establishment Jewish organization Canadian Jewish Congress, said of the JDL on the CJN website, "As long as they maintain the peace, as long as they do not engage in racist language or hate or violate Canadian law, they have the right to exist."
Farber said he was disappointed that the JDL would support the EDL because of its record of violence. But, he told the National Post, "Islamic fundamentalism is a real threat."
Haartez
Six months in prison for racist thug (UK)
A racist thug has been jailed after attacking a female security guard.
Richard Cochrane, 31, was being held in a cell when he pushed the woman and hurled racist abuse at her.
Cochrane, of Wheatley Court, Mixenden, was being held in the cells at Calderdale Magistrates Court with his brother, William, after a court appearance on February 11, 2010.
GS4 security guard, Carolina Silviera, was bringing William back to the cell when there was an altercation at the cell door.
At that point Cochrane ran out of the cell towards Miss Silviera and pushed her backwards.
He called her racist names' before saying she was 'going to get her head kicked in'.
Bradford Crown Court heard how the attack had left Miss Silviera apprehensive and lacking confidence in the workplace and socially.
Cochrane initially denied the incident in police interview but later pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault by beating.
He was sentenced to six months in prison.
Judge Peter Benson said: "If it had just been the assault you would have served three months but it seems to me the racially aggravation of this offence merits another three months."
Halifax Courier
Richard Cochrane, 31, was being held in a cell when he pushed the woman and hurled racist abuse at her.
Cochrane, of Wheatley Court, Mixenden, was being held in the cells at Calderdale Magistrates Court with his brother, William, after a court appearance on February 11, 2010.
GS4 security guard, Carolina Silviera, was bringing William back to the cell when there was an altercation at the cell door.
At that point Cochrane ran out of the cell towards Miss Silviera and pushed her backwards.
He called her racist names' before saying she was 'going to get her head kicked in'.
Bradford Crown Court heard how the attack had left Miss Silviera apprehensive and lacking confidence in the workplace and socially.
Cochrane initially denied the incident in police interview but later pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault by beating.
He was sentenced to six months in prison.
Judge Peter Benson said: "If it had just been the assault you would have served three months but it seems to me the racially aggravation of this offence merits another three months."
Halifax Courier
Pupils' reward for anti-racism efforts (UK)
Children from three city schools are being rewarded for their work in tackling racism.
A total of £25,000 was awarded to Lincoln City FC's sport and education trust last year to run a two-year programme funded by Nike's Stand Up Speak Up campaign.
The campaign was launched in 2005 by French football star Thierry Henry following reports of racist incidents in football.
The money was raised by the sale of two interlocked wristbands, one black and one white.
Children from Monks Abbey, St Peter at Gowts and Bishop King primary schools in Lincoln are this week receiving awards for taking part in the project teaching them how discrimination has a negative affect on people's lives.
This is Lincolnshire
A total of £25,000 was awarded to Lincoln City FC's sport and education trust last year to run a two-year programme funded by Nike's Stand Up Speak Up campaign.
The campaign was launched in 2005 by French football star Thierry Henry following reports of racist incidents in football.
The money was raised by the sale of two interlocked wristbands, one black and one white.
Children from Monks Abbey, St Peter at Gowts and Bishop King primary schools in Lincoln are this week receiving awards for taking part in the project teaching them how discrimination has a negative affect on people's lives.
This is Lincolnshire
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Second N.S. brother to be sentenced for hate crime in cross-burning (Canada)
The second of two Nova Scotia brothers convicted of a hate crime for burning a cross on an interracial couple's lawn last winter will be sentenced today.
Justin Rehberg, 20, of Avondale was convicted last fall of inciting racial hatred and criminal harassment.
His 21-year-old brother, Nathan, was sentenced Monday to six months in jail, minus four months credit for time already served.
Prosecutor Darrell Carmichael said Monday he recommends a lesser sentence for the younger Rehberg.
Nathan Rehberg wept in court and apologized for setting a 2.5-metre wooden cross on fire last year outside the Poplar Grove home of Shayne Howe and Michelle Lyon.
Howe, who is black, and Lyon, who is white, testified they awoke in the middle of the night last Feb. 21 to the sight of a blazing cross on their lawn.
Howe said after Monday's sentencing that he accepted Rehberg's apology.
Winnipeg Free Press
Justin Rehberg, 20, of Avondale was convicted last fall of inciting racial hatred and criminal harassment.
His 21-year-old brother, Nathan, was sentenced Monday to six months in jail, minus four months credit for time already served.
Prosecutor Darrell Carmichael said Monday he recommends a lesser sentence for the younger Rehberg.
Nathan Rehberg wept in court and apologized for setting a 2.5-metre wooden cross on fire last year outside the Poplar Grove home of Shayne Howe and Michelle Lyon.
Howe, who is black, and Lyon, who is white, testified they awoke in the middle of the night last Feb. 21 to the sight of a blazing cross on their lawn.
Howe said after Monday's sentencing that he accepted Rehberg's apology.
Winnipeg Free Press
Borough Council wants EDL march in Luton banned (UK)
Luton Borough Council has written to the home secretary asking her to ban a proposed march by the English Defence League (EDL) in the town next month.
The EDL, which says it opposes Islamic extremism, wants to march through Luton on 5 February.
The council also wants Theresa May to extend the banning order to any proposed counter protests by groups such as Unite Against Fascism.
In a statement the council said there was a real risk of disorder.
'Spark tensions'
"We recognise that a banning order on the EDL and counter demonstrators would not prohibit them from holding a static demonstration," the statement said.
"However a march is, in our opinion, provocative and not conducive to the public good at this time and would risk serious disorder."
The council said that any march proposed by the EDL would need to travel through residential areas from the railway station and other access points into the town.
"The presence of high numbers of demonstrators supporting rival and diametrically opposing views is not conducive to the wellbeing of our community and has the potential to spark tensions and community impacts which as a council we have worked so hard to avoid in recent years," the statement went on to say.
The EDL, Unite Against Fascism and the TUC demonstrated in Peterborough on 11 December.
A 28-year-old was arrested and bailed in relation to those protest marches.
BBC News
The EDL, which says it opposes Islamic extremism, wants to march through Luton on 5 February.
The council also wants Theresa May to extend the banning order to any proposed counter protests by groups such as Unite Against Fascism.
In a statement the council said there was a real risk of disorder.
'Spark tensions'
"We recognise that a banning order on the EDL and counter demonstrators would not prohibit them from holding a static demonstration," the statement said.
"However a march is, in our opinion, provocative and not conducive to the public good at this time and would risk serious disorder."
The council said that any march proposed by the EDL would need to travel through residential areas from the railway station and other access points into the town.
"The presence of high numbers of demonstrators supporting rival and diametrically opposing views is not conducive to the wellbeing of our community and has the potential to spark tensions and community impacts which as a council we have worked so hard to avoid in recent years," the statement went on to say.
The EDL, Unite Against Fascism and the TUC demonstrated in Peterborough on 11 December.
A 28-year-old was arrested and bailed in relation to those protest marches.
BBC News
Police hunt racist thugs over attack in Manchester (UK)
Police are hunting a gang of racist thugs who attacked and robbed a door-to-door salesman in Greater Manchester.
The victim, a 20-year-old Asian man, was working on the Limeside Estate, in Oldham, selling digital television products, on the afternoon of Wednesday 5th January when he was assaulted.
He was working around Walkers Road, Oak Road and Firth Avenue but throughout the afternoon, a group of five white men were walking around the estate shouting racial abuse at the victim.
At about 6pm, on Hollins Road, the group approached the victim, grabbed him, racially abused him and demanded his mobile phone and cash.
They pushed him against a wall and patted his body for items. As they tried to grab his mobile the victim resisted and he was punched twice to the head by one of the offenders, who then intimated he had a knife.
The group ran off with the phone.
The main offender in the group was about 5ft 6in tall of medium build with dark hair. He was wearing a lime green hooded top.
Police Constable Andrew Swettenham said: "This was a horrendous experience for this man, who was simply trying to do his job. The abuse that he suffered culminated in an attack where he was robbed.
"Someone on this estate will know who these people are and may even have witnessed this incident."
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0161 856 9577 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Click Manchester
The victim, a 20-year-old Asian man, was working on the Limeside Estate, in Oldham, selling digital television products, on the afternoon of Wednesday 5th January when he was assaulted.
He was working around Walkers Road, Oak Road and Firth Avenue but throughout the afternoon, a group of five white men were walking around the estate shouting racial abuse at the victim.
At about 6pm, on Hollins Road, the group approached the victim, grabbed him, racially abused him and demanded his mobile phone and cash.
They pushed him against a wall and patted his body for items. As they tried to grab his mobile the victim resisted and he was punched twice to the head by one of the offenders, who then intimated he had a knife.
The group ran off with the phone.
The main offender in the group was about 5ft 6in tall of medium build with dark hair. He was wearing a lime green hooded top.
Police Constable Andrew Swettenham said: "This was a horrendous experience for this man, who was simply trying to do his job. The abuse that he suffered culminated in an attack where he was robbed.
"Someone on this estate will know who these people are and may even have witnessed this incident."
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0161 856 9577 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Click Manchester
Monday, 10 January 2011
Deputy state prosecutor target of far-right hate video (Israel)
Clip reportedly calls for Shai Nitzan's murder after he asked police to investigate anti-Arab Facebook groups; PM: Incitement hurts democracy.
The deputy state prosecutor Shai Nitzan has become the target of a video circulating the Internet which reportedly called for his murder, after he asked the Israel Police last week to launch an investigation into two Facebook groups that contained anti-Arab racist content on Wednesday.
Nitzan said the Facebook groups, which were were opened under the names "Death to all Arabs" and "Demonstration in Umm el-Fahm against the Islamic Movement," had violated anti-racism and anti-incitement laws.
RELATED:
Opinion: That we need a reminder to integrate Arabs is shameful
Police question Eliahu on anti-Arab posters from 2008
Israel Radio reported on Monday that the video, which ended with the slogan "Kahane was right," accused Nitzan of failing to investigate Arab incitement and focusing only on Jews.
The video has been distributed via email, and was sent by an individual posing as the Justice Minister, Yaackov Neeman.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on police to investigate the video and track down those who made it, saying, "criticism is legitimate but incitement and calls to murder... harm the values of democracy of the State of Israel and must be severed."
The "Death to all Arabs" Facebook group had 170 followers, and included clear calls for acts of violence against Arabs and support for such acts, Nitzan stated last week.
A police source told The Jerusalem Post that video "was being examined" by investigators.
Jerusalem Post
The deputy state prosecutor Shai Nitzan has become the target of a video circulating the Internet which reportedly called for his murder, after he asked the Israel Police last week to launch an investigation into two Facebook groups that contained anti-Arab racist content on Wednesday.
Nitzan said the Facebook groups, which were were opened under the names "Death to all Arabs" and "Demonstration in Umm el-Fahm against the Islamic Movement," had violated anti-racism and anti-incitement laws.
RELATED:
Opinion: That we need a reminder to integrate Arabs is shameful
Police question Eliahu on anti-Arab posters from 2008
Israel Radio reported on Monday that the video, which ended with the slogan "Kahane was right," accused Nitzan of failing to investigate Arab incitement and focusing only on Jews.
The video has been distributed via email, and was sent by an individual posing as the Justice Minister, Yaackov Neeman.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on police to investigate the video and track down those who made it, saying, "criticism is legitimate but incitement and calls to murder... harm the values of democracy of the State of Israel and must be severed."
The "Death to all Arabs" Facebook group had 170 followers, and included clear calls for acts of violence against Arabs and support for such acts, Nitzan stated last week.
A police source told The Jerusalem Post that video "was being examined" by investigators.
Jerusalem Post
Survey to uncover real extent of hate crime (UK)
An attempt to uncover the true extent of hate crime in South Wales is being made, with the launch of a new survey.
Experts fear the number of attacks they know about is just the tip of the iceberg, with up to 90% of offences not reported to police.
The survey, launched by the Cardiff and the Vale Equality and Human Rights Network, will investigate racial and religiously motivated crimes as well as those motivated by hostility against disability, gender and sexual orientation.
Disability rights campaigner Simon Green, confined to a wheelchair after suffering a series of benign tumours on his legs, said: “I might be on a night out in town, sitting in a cafe with my mother, or shopping in the supermarket, and someone will walk up to me and make a vile, derogatory comment about my disability.
“People have called me a cripple, have said they will wring my neck and have tried to tip me out of my wheelchair.”
The 35-year-old, from Bryntirion, Bridgend, said: “People will excuse it as friendly banter, but it’s a crime.
“The work that is being done to highlight this issue is massively important because there are people out there who don’t realise they can report these attacks.”
The survey is part of the three-year Big Lottery funded All Wales Hate Crime Research Project, led by Cardiff-based Race Equality First in partnership with Cardiff University.
Race Equality First’s Mair Rigby said: “I am of the opinion that hate crime is significantly under-reported in Wales.
“As we don’t know the actual amount of hate crime, it’s difficult to give a degree or percentage. But most surveys show that across strands between 50% to 90% of victims state not reporting hate crime to the police. The police estimate that about 90% of homophobic hate crime goes unreported, for example.
“We need more research to give us a better idea of the true levels of under-reporting.”
People can register their interest in participating in the survey by going to the website: www.waleshatecrimeresearch.com
Wales Online
Experts fear the number of attacks they know about is just the tip of the iceberg, with up to 90% of offences not reported to police.
The survey, launched by the Cardiff and the Vale Equality and Human Rights Network, will investigate racial and religiously motivated crimes as well as those motivated by hostility against disability, gender and sexual orientation.
Disability rights campaigner Simon Green, confined to a wheelchair after suffering a series of benign tumours on his legs, said: “I might be on a night out in town, sitting in a cafe with my mother, or shopping in the supermarket, and someone will walk up to me and make a vile, derogatory comment about my disability.
“People have called me a cripple, have said they will wring my neck and have tried to tip me out of my wheelchair.”
The 35-year-old, from Bryntirion, Bridgend, said: “People will excuse it as friendly banter, but it’s a crime.
“The work that is being done to highlight this issue is massively important because there are people out there who don’t realise they can report these attacks.”
The survey is part of the three-year Big Lottery funded All Wales Hate Crime Research Project, led by Cardiff-based Race Equality First in partnership with Cardiff University.
Race Equality First’s Mair Rigby said: “I am of the opinion that hate crime is significantly under-reported in Wales.
“As we don’t know the actual amount of hate crime, it’s difficult to give a degree or percentage. But most surveys show that across strands between 50% to 90% of victims state not reporting hate crime to the police. The police estimate that about 90% of homophobic hate crime goes unreported, for example.
“We need more research to give us a better idea of the true levels of under-reporting.”
People can register their interest in participating in the survey by going to the website: www.waleshatecrimeresearch.com
Wales Online
Liverpool players accused of racism in FA Youth Cup tie at Anfield (UK)
• Crystal Palace player 'disgusted with racism throughout game'
• We didn't receive any complaints, says Liverpool spokesman
• We didn't receive any complaints, says Liverpool spokesman
The Football Association intends to contact Palace today for a full account of what happened and to ascertain whether they intend to make an official complaint. Palace were not returning calls yesterday.
The FA may also ask to speak to Dan Pringle, one of the players involved in a 3-1 defeat for Palace. Pringle expressed his dismay on his Twitter account after the match, saying: "Disappointed with result but really disgusted with the racism from Liverpool throughout the game. Disgraceful."
When he was contacted by several Palace supporters he later clarified that he was talking about Liverpool's players rather than the crowd.
Liverpool reacted with surprise, not least as they had several black players in their team. A club spokesman said: "We didn't receive any complaints either during or after the game and nothing was mentioned by the referee."
Liverpool's academy side are managed by Rodolfo Borrell, who was appointed in July 2009 after a successful 13-year spell at Barcelona, where he managed every age group from under‑11 to under‑17.
The Guardian
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Arson attacks against Berlin mosques continue (Germany)
Detectives said on Saturday there was a message left at the site of the attack at the Ahmadiyya community in the Wilmersdorf district of Berlin, but did not reveal what it said.
Someone had set the entrance to the mosque on fire, but the passer-by noticed the flames at around 1:45 am on Saturday, and started putting out the blaze himself. When police officers arrived, they finished off the job with a fire extinguisher from their vehicle.
Criminal detectives are now on the case, trying to determine whether there is a link between this attack and arson attacks on other mosques during 2010.
The last six months of last year saw six such attacks – the Shitlik mosque on Columbiadamm was attacked in June, twice in August and again in November, while the Neukölln Al-Nur mosque was attacked in November and an Islamic cultural centre in Tempelhof was targeted in December.
No-one was hurt in any of the attacks, but damage was done in every case.
The Local Germany
THE AGONISING PACE OF THE LAST NAZI TRIAL (Germany)
The final chance to get justice for 27,900 Jews murdered at Sobibor has descended into farce
He used to cover his face with a grey baseball cap to try to escape the glare of publicity, but that was over a year ago. These days the judges have relented: the man alleged to be the last Nazi mass murderer to face justice is allowed to wear sunglasses in court all the time – even if the world's media now virtually ignores him. Ninety-year-old John Demjanjuk is suspected of having been a brutal prison guard at the infamous Sobibor extermination camp in German-occupied Poland during the Second World War. He stands accused of complicity in the slaughter of 27,900 Jews, most of whom were Dutch. Yet, lying prone on a hospital bed wrapped up in a green prison coverlet, Mr Demjanjuk often falls asleep as evidence against him is read out in court. The Demjanjuk trial has been billed as Germany's, and quite possibly the world's, final attempt to bring one of the remaining suspected Nazi war criminals to justice. For elderly Holocaust survivors such as Jules Schelvis, whose entire family was murdered in Sobibor, a verdict is far more important than retribution: "Justice must be done and be seen to be done, the sentence is almost irrelevant," he declared as the trial opened. He is one of the very few to have survived Sobibor.
The Munich court case against Mr Demjanjuk began in November 2009 and was meant to end in early 2010 at the latest. No one is making predictions now. "We are not quite sure when it will end," said Michael Koch, one of the lawyers representing the families of Sobibor victims. "If things don't go in our favour, we could still be here in October." The scores of reporters from across the globe who attended the trial opening have gone. So have nearly all the relatives of those who were murdered in Sobibor. As a result, the case has been shifted to Munich Court B266, a smaller and dingier 1970s-built courtroom. Among the few journalists who now cover the proceedings is a reporter who works for a neo-Nazi website. Were it not for the gravity of the crimes that Ukranian-born defendant is alleged to have committed, his appearances in court, would qualify as material for a television farce. The trial often degenerates into stand-up shouting matches between Ralph Alt, the presiding judge, and Ulrich Busch, Mr Demjanjuk's defence lawyer – not least because the proceedings are agonisingly slow. Every shred of evidence read out in court has to be simultaneously translated into Ukranian by a court translator to enable Mr Demjanjuk to comprehend what is going on. Yet the accused says nothing and only ever opens his mouth to emit moans or strange gurgling sounds.
The proceedings have been slowed to a snail's pace by the aged and apparently ailing defendant's state of health. Doctors have ruled that bone marrow disease and the fact that he suffers from anaemia, attacks of gout, and chronic hip pain mean that he is only fit to appear in court for two days a week for a maximum of three hours a day. They are by no means certain that he will live long enough to witness the end of his own trial. Proceedings often grind to a halt as soon as they start with doctors proclaiming that their patient is "not well enough to attend court today". Mr Demjanjuk is then driven back to his cell in Stadelheim prison, Munich, where he has been incarcerated since his extradition from the US in May 2009. But Mr Demjanjuk's health is far from being the only barrier in the way of justice being done and being seen to be done. The prosecution case is severely hampered by the fact that there is not a single witness still alive who remembers having seen Mr Demjanjuk in Sobibor. One of the few witnesses who had been expected to help solve this problem was a former Nazi death camp guard called Samuel Kunz who had been due to give evidence last month. But Kunz, who also faced the prospect of being tried himself for the alleged murder of thousands of Jews, died quietly at his home near Bonn in the middle of November aged 89.
The main piece of evidence against Mr Demjanjuk is what is alleged to be his SS identity card, No 1393, which has been released to the court from former Soviet archives. The other is a statement by a former and now deceased camp guard called Ignat Danilchenko, who testified under Soviet interrogation that he had seen Mr Demjanjuk driving Jews into the gas chambers of Sobibor. However, Mr Demjanjuk's defence lawyer argues that the ID card is a fake document manufactured by the KGB in order to deliberately incriminate Mr Demjanjuk. He has also found other statements by Danilchenko which contradict his claims about having seen Mr Demjanjuk in Sobibor. In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned a previous conviction of Demjanjuk saying it had reasonable doubts about his identification as another Nazi prison guard nicknamed Ivan the Terrible. The court must also decide whether to accept an argument put forward by the prosecution, which has no legal precedent in post-war death camp trials. This proposition, backed by historians' research, maintains that simply by being employed as an SS guard in Sobibor, Mr Demjanjuk would automatically have taken part in the mass murder of prisoners. The defence argues that such claims are ridiculous, and that the prosecution must prove not only that he was there but that he also murdered.
Mr Demjanjuk may never have addressed the court in person, but on the first anniversary of the opening of his court case in Germany last November, his lawyer read out a statement from him. In it, Mr Demjanjuk claimed to be a "simple prisoner of war" who was being unjustly prosecuted by a German judiciary which in the past had not only acquitted war criminals but also not even bothered to prosecute them. History bears out his latter claim. Germany's post-war legal system was often massively short on justice. Back in 1966, 11 former Nazi SS men were tried by a West German court for the genocide at Sobibor. Only Karl Frenzel, the camp commandant, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes. The court heard accounts of how Frenzel whipped a dying prisoner and then pulled out a pistol and shot him dead. Five other defendants were given jail terms of between three and eight years. The other five were acquitted. At scores of similar trials during the same era, defendants had charges against them dropped simply because they could argue that they were only obeying orders and that not to have done so would have meant their own certain deaths.
The Demjanjuk trial, as today's fortysomething state prosecutors and lawyers put it, is an attempt by a "new generation within the German judicial system" to make amends for the gross shortcomings of the past. German historian Norbert Frei sums it up as follows: "The Germans owe it not only to the victims and the survivors to put Mr Demjanjuk on trial, they also owe it to themselves."
The Independant
He used to cover his face with a grey baseball cap to try to escape the glare of publicity, but that was over a year ago. These days the judges have relented: the man alleged to be the last Nazi mass murderer to face justice is allowed to wear sunglasses in court all the time – even if the world's media now virtually ignores him. Ninety-year-old John Demjanjuk is suspected of having been a brutal prison guard at the infamous Sobibor extermination camp in German-occupied Poland during the Second World War. He stands accused of complicity in the slaughter of 27,900 Jews, most of whom were Dutch. Yet, lying prone on a hospital bed wrapped up in a green prison coverlet, Mr Demjanjuk often falls asleep as evidence against him is read out in court. The Demjanjuk trial has been billed as Germany's, and quite possibly the world's, final attempt to bring one of the remaining suspected Nazi war criminals to justice. For elderly Holocaust survivors such as Jules Schelvis, whose entire family was murdered in Sobibor, a verdict is far more important than retribution: "Justice must be done and be seen to be done, the sentence is almost irrelevant," he declared as the trial opened. He is one of the very few to have survived Sobibor.
The Munich court case against Mr Demjanjuk began in November 2009 and was meant to end in early 2010 at the latest. No one is making predictions now. "We are not quite sure when it will end," said Michael Koch, one of the lawyers representing the families of Sobibor victims. "If things don't go in our favour, we could still be here in October." The scores of reporters from across the globe who attended the trial opening have gone. So have nearly all the relatives of those who were murdered in Sobibor. As a result, the case has been shifted to Munich Court B266, a smaller and dingier 1970s-built courtroom. Among the few journalists who now cover the proceedings is a reporter who works for a neo-Nazi website. Were it not for the gravity of the crimes that Ukranian-born defendant is alleged to have committed, his appearances in court, would qualify as material for a television farce. The trial often degenerates into stand-up shouting matches between Ralph Alt, the presiding judge, and Ulrich Busch, Mr Demjanjuk's defence lawyer – not least because the proceedings are agonisingly slow. Every shred of evidence read out in court has to be simultaneously translated into Ukranian by a court translator to enable Mr Demjanjuk to comprehend what is going on. Yet the accused says nothing and only ever opens his mouth to emit moans or strange gurgling sounds.
The proceedings have been slowed to a snail's pace by the aged and apparently ailing defendant's state of health. Doctors have ruled that bone marrow disease and the fact that he suffers from anaemia, attacks of gout, and chronic hip pain mean that he is only fit to appear in court for two days a week for a maximum of three hours a day. They are by no means certain that he will live long enough to witness the end of his own trial. Proceedings often grind to a halt as soon as they start with doctors proclaiming that their patient is "not well enough to attend court today". Mr Demjanjuk is then driven back to his cell in Stadelheim prison, Munich, where he has been incarcerated since his extradition from the US in May 2009. But Mr Demjanjuk's health is far from being the only barrier in the way of justice being done and being seen to be done. The prosecution case is severely hampered by the fact that there is not a single witness still alive who remembers having seen Mr Demjanjuk in Sobibor. One of the few witnesses who had been expected to help solve this problem was a former Nazi death camp guard called Samuel Kunz who had been due to give evidence last month. But Kunz, who also faced the prospect of being tried himself for the alleged murder of thousands of Jews, died quietly at his home near Bonn in the middle of November aged 89.
The main piece of evidence against Mr Demjanjuk is what is alleged to be his SS identity card, No 1393, which has been released to the court from former Soviet archives. The other is a statement by a former and now deceased camp guard called Ignat Danilchenko, who testified under Soviet interrogation that he had seen Mr Demjanjuk driving Jews into the gas chambers of Sobibor. However, Mr Demjanjuk's defence lawyer argues that the ID card is a fake document manufactured by the KGB in order to deliberately incriminate Mr Demjanjuk. He has also found other statements by Danilchenko which contradict his claims about having seen Mr Demjanjuk in Sobibor. In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned a previous conviction of Demjanjuk saying it had reasonable doubts about his identification as another Nazi prison guard nicknamed Ivan the Terrible. The court must also decide whether to accept an argument put forward by the prosecution, which has no legal precedent in post-war death camp trials. This proposition, backed by historians' research, maintains that simply by being employed as an SS guard in Sobibor, Mr Demjanjuk would automatically have taken part in the mass murder of prisoners. The defence argues that such claims are ridiculous, and that the prosecution must prove not only that he was there but that he also murdered.
Mr Demjanjuk may never have addressed the court in person, but on the first anniversary of the opening of his court case in Germany last November, his lawyer read out a statement from him. In it, Mr Demjanjuk claimed to be a "simple prisoner of war" who was being unjustly prosecuted by a German judiciary which in the past had not only acquitted war criminals but also not even bothered to prosecute them. History bears out his latter claim. Germany's post-war legal system was often massively short on justice. Back in 1966, 11 former Nazi SS men were tried by a West German court for the genocide at Sobibor. Only Karl Frenzel, the camp commandant, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes. The court heard accounts of how Frenzel whipped a dying prisoner and then pulled out a pistol and shot him dead. Five other defendants were given jail terms of between three and eight years. The other five were acquitted. At scores of similar trials during the same era, defendants had charges against them dropped simply because they could argue that they were only obeying orders and that not to have done so would have meant their own certain deaths.
The Demjanjuk trial, as today's fortysomething state prosecutors and lawyers put it, is an attempt by a "new generation within the German judicial system" to make amends for the gross shortcomings of the past. German historian Norbert Frei sums it up as follows: "The Germans owe it not only to the victims and the survivors to put Mr Demjanjuk on trial, they also owe it to themselves."
The Independant
Boss racially harassed manager, tribunal rules (UK)
A company boss harassed a London-based office manager by making a "highly offensive racist remark", an employment tribunal has ruled.
David Wood asked in the presence of Valerie Moxam, "Why is it that white girls like black men?" then laughed, the panel found.
Ms Moxam was later fired by text message by Mr Wood, managing director of landscaping contractor Visible Changes, though that was not racially motivated, the tribunal in Watford said.
However at a subsequent grievance meeting, Mr Wood made another racist remark, saying: "Yeah, I often joked about 'Why do black men have big c****?'," which also amounted to harassment, it found.
Other claims of discrimination, including against the company's health and safety co-ordinator Susan Ward, failed.
British-born Ms Moxam's parents are from Jamaica. She is fair-skinned like her parents, and has ginger hair and blue/green eyes.
Ms Moxam, 42, of Dolphin Road, Northolt, west London, said after the hearing: "The past 18 months have been extremely challenging and stressful, but I felt so strongly that I wouldn't give up.
"What I have learned from this victory is that it is important for each one of us to take a stand and fight for respect and dignity. It is our civil liberty. People must be held accountable for their actions in the workplace."
Employment judge John Hobson said of Mr Wood's remark about white girls liking black men, which the panel found had been said: "This was a highly offensive racist remark in the presence of the claimant and amounted to harassment."
Claims against the company, of South Harrow, north-west London, and Mr Wood of race discrimination by harassment were upheld. It was understood that the parties reached a financial settlement after the findings.
Milngavie Herald
David Wood asked in the presence of Valerie Moxam, "Why is it that white girls like black men?" then laughed, the panel found.
Ms Moxam was later fired by text message by Mr Wood, managing director of landscaping contractor Visible Changes, though that was not racially motivated, the tribunal in Watford said.
However at a subsequent grievance meeting, Mr Wood made another racist remark, saying: "Yeah, I often joked about 'Why do black men have big c****?'," which also amounted to harassment, it found.
Other claims of discrimination, including against the company's health and safety co-ordinator Susan Ward, failed.
British-born Ms Moxam's parents are from Jamaica. She is fair-skinned like her parents, and has ginger hair and blue/green eyes.
Ms Moxam, 42, of Dolphin Road, Northolt, west London, said after the hearing: "The past 18 months have been extremely challenging and stressful, but I felt so strongly that I wouldn't give up.
"What I have learned from this victory is that it is important for each one of us to take a stand and fight for respect and dignity. It is our civil liberty. People must be held accountable for their actions in the workplace."
Employment judge John Hobson said of Mr Wood's remark about white girls liking black men, which the panel found had been said: "This was a highly offensive racist remark in the presence of the claimant and amounted to harassment."
Claims against the company, of South Harrow, north-west London, and Mr Wood of race discrimination by harassment were upheld. It was understood that the parties reached a financial settlement after the findings.
Milngavie Herald
Road rage racist gets five months (UK)
A road rage driver who punched a motorist through the open window of his car on a South Tyneside road after hurling racist abuse has been jailed.
Robert Crane pulled up his car behind Emrah Cifti's motor at traffic lights on John Reid Road, South Shields, got out and launched the terrifying attack.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Mr Cifti, a British national who is of Turkish origin, suffered a "glancing blow" to his face, but was not seriously injured.
Crane, who had used racist abuse towards to Cifti, drove away from the scene but was followed by another motorist, who passed on his registration number to the police.
Crane was tracked down and arrested within days.
During police interview, Crane admitted he had become angry and said it was because of Mr Cifti's bad driving.
Judge Roger Thorn jailed Crane for five months.
The judge said: "You left your vehicle and used words of racial hostility then decided you would become judge, jury and sentencer.
"These incidents of road rage are something that happen almost daily and have a terrifying impact on upon victims. Sentences will be passed that mark the courts' severe disapproval of this kind of behaviour."
Crane, of Split Crow Road, Gateshead, had pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault.
Ron Mitchell said the dad-of-two is a family man, who works as a panel beater, who had succumbed to a loss of temper. Mr Mitchell added: "It was a moment of complete stupidity."
Shields Gazette
Robert Crane pulled up his car behind Emrah Cifti's motor at traffic lights on John Reid Road, South Shields, got out and launched the terrifying attack.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Mr Cifti, a British national who is of Turkish origin, suffered a "glancing blow" to his face, but was not seriously injured.
Crane, who had used racist abuse towards to Cifti, drove away from the scene but was followed by another motorist, who passed on his registration number to the police.
Crane was tracked down and arrested within days.
During police interview, Crane admitted he had become angry and said it was because of Mr Cifti's bad driving.
Judge Roger Thorn jailed Crane for five months.
The judge said: "You left your vehicle and used words of racial hostility then decided you would become judge, jury and sentencer.
"These incidents of road rage are something that happen almost daily and have a terrifying impact on upon victims. Sentences will be passed that mark the courts' severe disapproval of this kind of behaviour."
Crane, of Split Crow Road, Gateshead, had pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault.
Ron Mitchell said the dad-of-two is a family man, who works as a panel beater, who had succumbed to a loss of temper. Mr Mitchell added: "It was a moment of complete stupidity."
Shields Gazette
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Imprisoned Neo-Nazi claims he’s the victim of religious discrimination
Michael Heaton, 43, who is a former leader of the British Freedom Fighters, was jailed last year for posting more than 3,000 hate-filled comments on far-right websites.
But the Aryan Strike Force member has complained to prison chiefs at HMP Wymott, Lancs., after he was banned from wearing a Thor’s Hammer pendant.
He claims his rights are being infringed but prison bosses have ruled that the necklace has a ”fascist meaning” and ”Neo-Nazi overtones”.
In a letter sent to inmates’ magazine Inside Time, the ex-English Defence League activist complained he was being singled out for religious discrimination.
He said: ”Moslems (sic) can wear hats in prison when nobody else can, Christians are allowed their crosses, so imagine my shock when I enquired about wearing my religious pendant and was refused.
”I am what is called an Odinist. So that I can feel nearer my god I requested to be allowed to wear my pendant.
”The reply I got was that my application had been refused on the grounds that the pendant ‘looks a little like a Maltese cross, which has a fascist meaning and neo-Nazi overtones’.
”To say I was shocked at this would be an understatement! Other religious groups are afforded the respect for their religious symbols in prison, so why not me?
”His (the governor) response was that Thor’s hammer is on the prison ‘banned list’. Surely this cannot be right? Is there anything I can do about it?”
Heaton, serving 30 months in jail for using threatening and abusive language likely to stir up racial hatred, claims that his pendant is an Odinist rather than a Nazi symbol.
However, prison staff refused his request to wear it after learning that far-right groups have adopted the symbol as a depiction of aryan supremacy.
A trial at Liverpool Crown Court in June last year heard food packer Heaton, who has a scorpion tattoo on his neck, wanted to ”clear the country of all ethnic minorities”.
He posted a series of racist comments on the Aryan Strike Force website including: ”Jews will always be scum and must be destroyed.”
He added: ”I would encourage any religion or race which wants to destroy the Jews, I hate them with a passion.”
When cops raided his home in Greater Manchester they found large quantities of Nazi and Hitler memorabilia, a semi–automatic BB gun and a samurai sword.
Judge Stephen Irwin said: ”You wanted to start a race war. You were clearly filled with racial hatred.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said it would not discuss complaints made by individual inmates.
He said: ”The provision of religious artefacts in prison is at the discretion of the governor following a thorough risk assessment.”
Norse gods Thor and Odin are worshipped by Odinists and Pagans but their symbols have been hijacked by many white supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups.
Heaton’s co-defendant Trevor Hannington, 58, of Cardiff, was sentenced to two years for six offences.
Small World News Service
Racist abuse hurled at woman (UK)
A racist yob who hurled abuse at a Bolton woman is being hunted by police.
The 30-year-old woman was subjected to a barrage of name-calling while waiting at Darwen railway station.
She was standing on the Manchester bound platform to catch a train to Bolton when a man on the opposite platform began shouting racist abuse at her.
He called her names and asked where she came from, which British Transport Police Officers said made her feel “extremely uncomfortable”.
The incident happened on Monday, November 29 PC Lorraine Faulkner, at British Transport Police, said: “The abuse levelled at the woman was completely unacceptable and we are trying to trace the man responsible.”
He is described as being white, about 5’ 8” tall with a reddish complexion and short sandy coloured spiky hair.
He was wearing dark grey tracksuit bottoms and a similar coloured top and the victim believes he had no top teeth.
Anyone with information should call British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting background log B8/NWA of 7/1/11.
This is Lancashire
The 30-year-old woman was subjected to a barrage of name-calling while waiting at Darwen railway station.
She was standing on the Manchester bound platform to catch a train to Bolton when a man on the opposite platform began shouting racist abuse at her.
He called her names and asked where she came from, which British Transport Police Officers said made her feel “extremely uncomfortable”.
The incident happened on Monday, November 29 PC Lorraine Faulkner, at British Transport Police, said: “The abuse levelled at the woman was completely unacceptable and we are trying to trace the man responsible.”
He is described as being white, about 5’ 8” tall with a reddish complexion and short sandy coloured spiky hair.
He was wearing dark grey tracksuit bottoms and a similar coloured top and the victim believes he had no top teeth.
Anyone with information should call British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting background log B8/NWA of 7/1/11.
This is Lancashire
Friday, 7 January 2011
Leading rabbi in Berlin warns Jews to hide their identity as fears of neo-Nazi attacks rise
Jews living near Berlin are being warned to shed clothing that identifies their religion as fears of neo-Nazi attacks rise.
A leading rabbi in the German state of Brandenburg, made the plea, 65 years after the end of the Second World War and the Holocaust. He is urging Jews not to wear skullcaps, long coats or other “identifying symbols” of Judaism, unless they know self-defence.
Shaul Nekrich, the new chief rabbi of Brandenburg, said: “I think the state has a problem with anti-Semitism.
“I hear the stories from the communities. They are wary of being recognised as Jews on the streets. In the town of Bernau, the synagogue has been defaced with swastikas several times.
“As a Jew it is dangerous to wear things that identify you as such unless you are well versed in martial arts.”
He said that he had been accosted on a train in Brandenburg three years ago by drunks who threw his Hebrew prayer book to the ground.
Formerly from Russia, Rabbi Nekrich is responsible for teaching in an area where there are 1,300 Jews.
After reunification, Brandenburg became the centre of skinhead activity in Germany.
But it was thought that the problem was under control after the introduction of local initiatives to face down Hitler worshippers.
The Mirror
A leading rabbi in the German state of Brandenburg, made the plea, 65 years after the end of the Second World War and the Holocaust. He is urging Jews not to wear skullcaps, long coats or other “identifying symbols” of Judaism, unless they know self-defence.
Shaul Nekrich, the new chief rabbi of Brandenburg, said: “I think the state has a problem with anti-Semitism.
“I hear the stories from the communities. They are wary of being recognised as Jews on the streets. In the town of Bernau, the synagogue has been defaced with swastikas several times.
“As a Jew it is dangerous to wear things that identify you as such unless you are well versed in martial arts.”
He said that he had been accosted on a train in Brandenburg three years ago by drunks who threw his Hebrew prayer book to the ground.
Formerly from Russia, Rabbi Nekrich is responsible for teaching in an area where there are 1,300 Jews.
After reunification, Brandenburg became the centre of skinhead activity in Germany.
But it was thought that the problem was under control after the introduction of local initiatives to face down Hitler worshippers.
The Mirror
GOVERNMENT VOWS TO ABOLISH DISCRIMINATORY LAW AGAINST ROMA (Turkey)/
A law that allows the Interior Ministry to expel Roma people from Turkey as it deems necessary, referring to this group as “gypsies” in its text, will be abolished, State Minister Faruk Çelik has announced. In a meeting he held with representatives of more than 20 Roma associations from all over Turkey at Justice and Development Party (AK Party) headquarters yesterday, Çelik said the Roma were highly dignified people who were also sensitive about Turkey’s unity. He said legislation that was first passed in the 1930s urgently needed to be amended. He recalled that the AK Party had removed an article from the Public Works Law of 1934 that stated: “Those who have not shown allegiance to Turkish culture, anarchists, nomadic gypsies, spies and those who have been expelled cannot be accepted as immigrants to Turkey.” He said a similar provision that left it to the will of the Interior Ministry to expel “gypsies” was to be removed this week. “I know the Roma are proud to be citizens of Turkey and to be in Turkey under this flag. They are people who are in love with this country, this flag and the country’s unity. That’s why expressions humiliating the Roma were removed from relevant legislation in 2006,” he said.
The government launched the Roma initiative in late 2009. A government-sponsored workshop was held on Dec. 9, 2009 to address issues facing the Roma community. Representatives of Turkey’s Roma community in Ýstanbul, Edirne, Kýrþehir, Artvin, Van and several other cities, 120 people in all, attended the event. A report was drafted listing the Roma community’s demands from the government following the workshop. In an unprecedented meeting, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan met with nearly 10,000 Roma in March of last year as part of the Roma initiative. Çelik said the government is determined to continue with the Roma initiative and to address problems faced by them. AK Party Deputy Chairman Salih Kapusuz also delivered a speech during the meeting and said the AK Party government has been exerting great efforts to abolish discrimination and misconceptions in the society about the Roma and other disadvantaged groups. “A Turkey where everyone is a first class citizen and where past mistakes have been abolished is our target,” Kapusuz said. Meanwhile, a group of Roma was in Parliament yesterday and listened to Prime Minister Erdoðan as he delivered a speech during his party’s parliamentary group meeting.
Today Zaman
The government launched the Roma initiative in late 2009. A government-sponsored workshop was held on Dec. 9, 2009 to address issues facing the Roma community. Representatives of Turkey’s Roma community in Ýstanbul, Edirne, Kýrþehir, Artvin, Van and several other cities, 120 people in all, attended the event. A report was drafted listing the Roma community’s demands from the government following the workshop. In an unprecedented meeting, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan met with nearly 10,000 Roma in March of last year as part of the Roma initiative. Çelik said the government is determined to continue with the Roma initiative and to address problems faced by them. AK Party Deputy Chairman Salih Kapusuz also delivered a speech during the meeting and said the AK Party government has been exerting great efforts to abolish discrimination and misconceptions in the society about the Roma and other disadvantaged groups. “A Turkey where everyone is a first class citizen and where past mistakes have been abolished is our target,” Kapusuz said. Meanwhile, a group of Roma was in Parliament yesterday and listened to Prime Minister Erdoðan as he delivered a speech during his party’s parliamentary group meeting.
Today Zaman
Neo-Nazi Guilty in Threat Case (USA)
In U.S. district court in Chicago Wednesday, jurors found avowed neo-Nazi William White (pictured) of Roanoke, Va., guilty of soliciting an attack on Mark Hoffman of Chicago, who six years ago was foreman of the jury that convicted white supremacist Matt Hale of plotting to murder a federal judge.
In 2008, White posted information about Hoffman on the website Overthrow.com, including his home address, his phone numbers, and the fact that he is gay and his partner is African-American. White also wrote on the site that he held Hoffman responsible for what he considered the wrongful conviction of Hale. Hoffman then began receiving numerous hateful and harassing phone calls and text messages, leading federal prosecutors to charge White with solicitation.
Prosecutors said White’s posting of the information clearly showed he wanted to incite violence against Hoffman. Defense attorneys argued that the intent was merely to harass him, which is not a violent crime.
In an unusual development Wednesday, jurors asked for the courtroom to be cleared of press and spectators before they announced their verdict, a request the judge denied. Prosecutors said they could see why the jurors were concerned.
“They were hearing a case where the life of another juror was threatened by a white supremacist because of his role in convicting another dangerous white supremacist,” assistant U.S. attorney William Hogan Jr. told the Tribune. Defense attorney Nishay Sanan, however, said the request showed the verdict was “based on fear,” not the law.
White, who will be sentenced later, faces up to 10 years in prison in the case. He is already serving a 30-month sentence on another online threat conviction in Virginia.
Advocate
Office manager's dismissal 'tainted by race', tribunal told (UK)
The dismissal of an office manager from the north west London company she worked for was "tainted by race", an employment tribunal has been told.
There is overwhelming evidence to support a finding of discrimination, Valerie Moxam's representative, Peter Ward, said in closing submissions.
British-born Ms Moxam, whose parents are from Jamaica, has told the hearing in Watford that David Wood dismissed her from landscaping contractor Visible Changes for reasons of race. She is suing the company, Mr Wood, and the firm's health and safety co-ordinator, Susan Ward.
Ms Moxam, of Dolphin Road, Northolt, west London, who is fair-skinned like her parents, and has ginger hair and blue/green eyes, was fired by text message, the tribunal has heard.
She said she had previously heard racist remarks being made at the firm, of South Harrow, north west London, and added: "There is no doubt in my mind that the reason for my dismissal was, at least in part, my race."
Managing director Mr Wood has denied that he used an email from his accountant telling him of the firm's financial problems as an excuse to get rid of Ms Moxam because she was not fitting in.
He also denied allegations that he made racist comments, including one at a grievance meeting which followed the text message, where he is alleged to have said: "Yeah, I often joked about 'Why do black men have big c****?'
Mr Ward said: "Ms Moxam simply did not fit in in the workplace, because she did not join in with the racist banter. It was becoming obvious to employees that she was from an ethnic minority. 'Who are we going to get rid of?' - That is tainted by race."
Mr Wood has told the tribunal he "panicked" after receiving an email from his accountant, telling him to cut any employee who was not needed. He said he and his wife Alison decided they could do Ms Moxam's work, but he added: "We suffered tremendously when Val left."
The tribunal panel started its deliberations but said it would not give any judgment before Friday morning.
Google Hosted News
There is overwhelming evidence to support a finding of discrimination, Valerie Moxam's representative, Peter Ward, said in closing submissions.
British-born Ms Moxam, whose parents are from Jamaica, has told the hearing in Watford that David Wood dismissed her from landscaping contractor Visible Changes for reasons of race. She is suing the company, Mr Wood, and the firm's health and safety co-ordinator, Susan Ward.
Ms Moxam, of Dolphin Road, Northolt, west London, who is fair-skinned like her parents, and has ginger hair and blue/green eyes, was fired by text message, the tribunal has heard.
She said she had previously heard racist remarks being made at the firm, of South Harrow, north west London, and added: "There is no doubt in my mind that the reason for my dismissal was, at least in part, my race."
Managing director Mr Wood has denied that he used an email from his accountant telling him of the firm's financial problems as an excuse to get rid of Ms Moxam because she was not fitting in.
He also denied allegations that he made racist comments, including one at a grievance meeting which followed the text message, where he is alleged to have said: "Yeah, I often joked about 'Why do black men have big c****?'
Mr Ward said: "Ms Moxam simply did not fit in in the workplace, because she did not join in with the racist banter. It was becoming obvious to employees that she was from an ethnic minority. 'Who are we going to get rid of?' - That is tainted by race."
Mr Wood has told the tribunal he "panicked" after receiving an email from his accountant, telling him to cut any employee who was not needed. He said he and his wife Alison decided they could do Ms Moxam's work, but he added: "We suffered tremendously when Val left."
The tribunal panel started its deliberations but said it would not give any judgment before Friday morning.
Google Hosted News
Warrant issued for man over B.C.-based racist website (Canada)
The RCMP have issued a Canada-wide warrant for Paul Craig Cobb, 59, who is believed to have gone to the United States.
Cobb — who holds both U.S. and Canadian citizenship — runs the website podblanc.com, which he created in 2005 from Estonia, where he was living at the time. The site has since been shut down.
The Estonian government deported him in August 2009 and the RCMP say Cobb has been living in Canada since then.
He was arrested at the Vancouver Public Library last June after a six-month investigation by the B.C. Hate Crime Team.
"During the course of the investigation, evidence was obtained that alleged the website was being operated by Mr. Cobb from various locations within Vancouver and that this website contained hate material," said RCMP spokesman Insp. Tim Shields.
But Cobb was released within 10 hours of his arrest because a criminal charge could not be laid immediately.
He is believed to have fled to the United States soon after his release.
On Dec. 30, 2010, a charge of wilful promotion of hatred was approved against Cobb and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Vancover Sun
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Nazi-era graves to be dug up in Austria
Officials in western Austria say exhumations are to take place at a psychiatric hospital thought to contain the remains of Nazi victims.
The remains of 220 people are buried at a cemetery in Hall in Tyrol province.
The Nazis murdered thousands of disabled people they thought unfit to live, deeming it "euthanasia". The hospital believes many died there as part of the programme.
A planned construction project has been halted to allow a full investigation.
Some 30,000 people were killed at one psychiatric hospital alone - Schloss Hartheim, near Linz in upper Austria.
Tilak, the company responsible for the Hall hospital, said the graves contained the remains of people buried between 1942 and 1945.
There were, it added, "suspicions that the dead [were] at least partially victims" of the programme of murders the Nazis referred to as "euthanasia".
'Dark chapter'
Exhumations are to begin when the ground thaws, probably in March.
Announcing that a commission of experts would be formed shortly to investigate, Guenther Platter, governor of Tyrol province, said he had been "deeply shaken" by the discovery.
"This dark chapter of history must now be carefully brought to light," he added.
Investigators would be seeking to identify the remains and establish the cause of death, Tilak representatives were quoted as saying by Austria's Die Presse newspaper.
Hospital historian Oliver Seifert said it was already clear that not all of those buried had been victims of the Nazis.
"We know that active killing went on at other institutions in Austria... but there are no indications of this at the moment in Hall," he told Reuters news agency.
Hall Hospital remains a functioning psychiatric hospital, with beds for 500 patients.
BBC News
The remains of 220 people are buried at a cemetery in Hall in Tyrol province.
The Nazis murdered thousands of disabled people they thought unfit to live, deeming it "euthanasia". The hospital believes many died there as part of the programme.
A planned construction project has been halted to allow a full investigation.
Some 30,000 people were killed at one psychiatric hospital alone - Schloss Hartheim, near Linz in upper Austria.
Tilak, the company responsible for the Hall hospital, said the graves contained the remains of people buried between 1942 and 1945.
There were, it added, "suspicions that the dead [were] at least partially victims" of the programme of murders the Nazis referred to as "euthanasia".
'Dark chapter'
Exhumations are to begin when the ground thaws, probably in March.
Announcing that a commission of experts would be formed shortly to investigate, Guenther Platter, governor of Tyrol province, said he had been "deeply shaken" by the discovery.
"This dark chapter of history must now be carefully brought to light," he added.
Investigators would be seeking to identify the remains and establish the cause of death, Tilak representatives were quoted as saying by Austria's Die Presse newspaper.
Hospital historian Oliver Seifert said it was already clear that not all of those buried had been victims of the Nazis.
"We know that active killing went on at other institutions in Austria... but there are no indications of this at the moment in Hall," he told Reuters news agency.
Hall Hospital remains a functioning psychiatric hospital, with beds for 500 patients.
BBC News
MUSLIM GROUPS OFFER TO PROTECT THREATENED COPTIC CHURCHES (Netherlands)
Three Dutch Muslim organisations have offered to help protect three Coptic churches in the Netherlands from possible terrorist attack, the Telegraaf reports on Tuesday. The names of the three churches – in Eindhoven, Utrecht and Amsterdam - are listed on a website which is considered to have links to Al Qaida. The Muslim organisations have called on all Muslims to denounce the threat. 'We are the ones who should do this because Al Qaida claims to operate in the name of Islam,' the Telegraaf quoted the organisations as saying. 'Christian Copts, ourselves and all the Dutch have a common enemy: terrorists.' Police have already taken action to increase security around the church in Utrecht and the counter-terrorism service is monitoring the situation, the paper says. The Coptic church celebrates Christmas on January 7, and the website had called for bomb attacks on targets around Europe on that date.
Dutch News
Dutch News
UKIP and BNP seek to woo voters in Oldham by-election (UK)
The leaders of both the BNP and UKIP have been campaigning in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, bidding to woo disenchanted voters.
Nick Griffin, whose party came fourth in the seat at the general election, said a BNP win would boost the area.
But the UKIP leader Nigel Farage said his party wanted to "thrash the BNP in this constituency."
The poll, on 13 January, was triggered by a court ruling annulling the general election result from May.
The BNP gained 5.7% of the poll in the 2010 General Election while UKIP came fifth with 3.9% of the votes cast.
"To get the British National Party elected in a place like this would be such a huge shock to the political system without a shadow of a doubt, the government would try and pour money into the place to try and bribe voters back with their own money," said Mr Griffin.
"We're saying vote for us and finally they'll stop ignoring Oldham."
Mr Farage said: "I was absolutely determined on behalf of our party that we chose a strong candidate for the big campaign.
"I want us to thrash the BNP in this constituency, there is no room for that kind of extremism in British politics.
"With UKIP you have a party that is patriotic, proud to be British but not extreme in any way."
The election was called after an election court found that victorious MP Labour's Phil Woolas had made false statements about his Liberal Democrat opponent Elwyn Watkins.
The full list of candidates (in alphabetical order) is:
* Debbie Abrahams (Labour)
* Derek Adams (British National Party)
* Kashif Ali (Conservative)
* Peter Allen (Green Party)
* David Bishop (Bus-Pass Elvis Party)
* The Flying Brick (Monster Raving Loony Party)
* Loz Kaye (Pirate Party of the United Kingdom)
* Stephen Morris (English Democrats)
* Paul Nuttall MEP (UK Independence Party)
* Elwyn Watkins (Liberal Democrats)
BBC news
Nick Griffin, whose party came fourth in the seat at the general election, said a BNP win would boost the area.
But the UKIP leader Nigel Farage said his party wanted to "thrash the BNP in this constituency."
The poll, on 13 January, was triggered by a court ruling annulling the general election result from May.
The BNP gained 5.7% of the poll in the 2010 General Election while UKIP came fifth with 3.9% of the votes cast.
"To get the British National Party elected in a place like this would be such a huge shock to the political system without a shadow of a doubt, the government would try and pour money into the place to try and bribe voters back with their own money," said Mr Griffin.
"We're saying vote for us and finally they'll stop ignoring Oldham."
Mr Farage said: "I was absolutely determined on behalf of our party that we chose a strong candidate for the big campaign.
"I want us to thrash the BNP in this constituency, there is no room for that kind of extremism in British politics.
"With UKIP you have a party that is patriotic, proud to be British but not extreme in any way."
The election was called after an election court found that victorious MP Labour's Phil Woolas had made false statements about his Liberal Democrat opponent Elwyn Watkins.
The full list of candidates (in alphabetical order) is:
* Debbie Abrahams (Labour)
* Derek Adams (British National Party)
* Kashif Ali (Conservative)
* Peter Allen (Green Party)
* David Bishop (Bus-Pass Elvis Party)
* The Flying Brick (Monster Raving Loony Party)
* Loz Kaye (Pirate Party of the United Kingdom)
* Stephen Morris (English Democrats)
* Paul Nuttall MEP (UK Independence Party)
* Elwyn Watkins (Liberal Democrats)
BBC news
Jews Were Top Targets Of Bigots In ‘09 (USA)
As counties comply with mandatory reporting to Albany, disturbing trend emerges.
Anti-Semitic incidents made up the largest share of New York hate crimes reported in 2009, according to statistics just released by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services. The number of incidents involving Jewish victims also rose 15 percent from 219 in 2008 to 254.
Statistics for 2010 have not yet been compiled by the division.
Attacks against Jews amounted to 37 percent of the total, more than anti-black incidents (21 percent), attacks against gay men (12 percent) or attacks against Hispanics (6 percent) in a hateful year that saw a 14 percent increase in all bias incidents in the state, from 599 to 683.
The state’s Jewish number is higher than that of the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit of incidents here, based on complaints to the organization, which showed 209 incidents. That year the agency decided to change its definition of anti-Semitic incidents to those specifically targeting Jews rather than including swastikas that defaced general targets.
The state figures did not break down the types of crimes directed at each group, but did list 39 swastika incidents, slightly down from 43 in 2008. The number of aggravated harassment incidents described as physical contact due to race or religion more than doubled, from 41 to 83.
The report was released as word spread this weekend of a series of threats mailed to New York City synagogues. A letter believed to originate from the same sender arrived by mail and warned of an attack on New Year’s Eve that did not materialize. Congregation Ohab Tzedek in Manhattan received one of the letters, its rabbi, Allen Schwartz, told the New York Post.
The letters are being investigated by the New York Police Department. David Pollock, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and the group’s liaison with police on security issues declined to disclose the contents of the letters to avoid inspiring copycat acts. But he said the letter was printed with the same typeface in all instances and had similar messages with different names signed.
“There is no reason to think this was an international group,” Pollock said Monday.
He added that the spike in anti-Semitic incidents shown in the state report was likely a result of anti-Zionism as well as the recession.
“I think the international vilification of Israel grants permission to carry out anti-Semitic acts,” said Pollock.
Ron Meier, director of the ADL’s New York region, said that while the data “point to how diligent the Jewish community and law enforcement community have to be” the “silver lining” is that more police departments are compiling and reporting statistics to the division of criminal justice as required by the state’s Hate Crimes Act of 2000.
“In 2008 hate crimes were reported by 35 counties, and in 2009 43 of the 62 counties reported them,” said Meier. “We are moving toward full compliance.
The ADL offers tolerance-training programs in public schools in response to bias attacks of any kind. Meier said that the “long-term trend” over the last decade shows fewer bias attacks than in previous years, but said the recent spike in such crimes, despite harsher penalties for them was perplexing.
“One piece of the puzzle is the times we are living in,” he said. “These are very difficult economic times, which causes all kinds of dislocation, which in its own way causes tensions and points of friction.”
In one of the most serious recent hate crimes against Jews, last month two teenage boys, 14 and 15, were arrested and charged with serious beating attacks against chasidic men in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. One attack left the victim, Joel Weinberger, 26, with a broken jaw, broken leg and facial injuries. Pollock said the two suspects in that case, who were apprehended after a chase following one attack and, police said, confessed to other attacks on Jews, remain in juvenile detention while awaiting trial after a judge refused to remand them to their parents.
Also last month, 200 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Flatbush, Brooklyn, were defaced or overturned.
The Jewish Week.
Anti-Semitic incidents made up the largest share of New York hate crimes reported in 2009, according to statistics just released by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services. The number of incidents involving Jewish victims also rose 15 percent from 219 in 2008 to 254.
Statistics for 2010 have not yet been compiled by the division.
Attacks against Jews amounted to 37 percent of the total, more than anti-black incidents (21 percent), attacks against gay men (12 percent) or attacks against Hispanics (6 percent) in a hateful year that saw a 14 percent increase in all bias incidents in the state, from 599 to 683.
The state’s Jewish number is higher than that of the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit of incidents here, based on complaints to the organization, which showed 209 incidents. That year the agency decided to change its definition of anti-Semitic incidents to those specifically targeting Jews rather than including swastikas that defaced general targets.
The state figures did not break down the types of crimes directed at each group, but did list 39 swastika incidents, slightly down from 43 in 2008. The number of aggravated harassment incidents described as physical contact due to race or religion more than doubled, from 41 to 83.
The report was released as word spread this weekend of a series of threats mailed to New York City synagogues. A letter believed to originate from the same sender arrived by mail and warned of an attack on New Year’s Eve that did not materialize. Congregation Ohab Tzedek in Manhattan received one of the letters, its rabbi, Allen Schwartz, told the New York Post.
The letters are being investigated by the New York Police Department. David Pollock, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and the group’s liaison with police on security issues declined to disclose the contents of the letters to avoid inspiring copycat acts. But he said the letter was printed with the same typeface in all instances and had similar messages with different names signed.
“There is no reason to think this was an international group,” Pollock said Monday.
He added that the spike in anti-Semitic incidents shown in the state report was likely a result of anti-Zionism as well as the recession.
“I think the international vilification of Israel grants permission to carry out anti-Semitic acts,” said Pollock.
Ron Meier, director of the ADL’s New York region, said that while the data “point to how diligent the Jewish community and law enforcement community have to be” the “silver lining” is that more police departments are compiling and reporting statistics to the division of criminal justice as required by the state’s Hate Crimes Act of 2000.
“In 2008 hate crimes were reported by 35 counties, and in 2009 43 of the 62 counties reported them,” said Meier. “We are moving toward full compliance.
The ADL offers tolerance-training programs in public schools in response to bias attacks of any kind. Meier said that the “long-term trend” over the last decade shows fewer bias attacks than in previous years, but said the recent spike in such crimes, despite harsher penalties for them was perplexing.
“One piece of the puzzle is the times we are living in,” he said. “These are very difficult economic times, which causes all kinds of dislocation, which in its own way causes tensions and points of friction.”
In one of the most serious recent hate crimes against Jews, last month two teenage boys, 14 and 15, were arrested and charged with serious beating attacks against chasidic men in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. One attack left the victim, Joel Weinberger, 26, with a broken jaw, broken leg and facial injuries. Pollock said the two suspects in that case, who were apprehended after a chase following one attack and, police said, confessed to other attacks on Jews, remain in juvenile detention while awaiting trial after a judge refused to remand them to their parents.
Also last month, 200 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Flatbush, Brooklyn, were defaced or overturned.
The Jewish Week.
Van driver's racist abuse at father and daughter (UK)
A father and daughter were racially abused by a van driver who skidded around the corner of an icy Farnborough road last month.
The man, described as having a "dirty appearance", was turning from Greatfield Road into Ley Road on the morning of December 18 but was apparently driving too fast for the conditions.
At the same time, a 29-year-old woman was walking towards Ley Road to meet up with her father in his vehicle.
As the white van skidded, the father waved to his daughter to warn her about it.
But the van driver then got out of his vehicle and shouted racist abuse at the pair, who retreated into their car, fearing they might be attacked.
The suspect was described as white, aged in his late 20s, around 5ft 8in tall and of medium to stocky build.
Police said he had a "dirty" appearance, short light, brown hair and was wearing a waist-length yellow fluorescent jacket.
An older woman of stocky build was also in the van, which police said was a car-derived vehicle with orange writing on the side and a yellow beacon on its roof.
PC Mark Sumner said: "This was a totally unprovoked incident that has left the victim feeling scared and upset.
"If anyone has any information that can help us with this investigation, please get in touch.
"I’d also like to hear from anyone who saw a van driving dangerously in the area that morning."
Anyone with any information should contact PC Sumner at Farnborough police station on 101, via the Hampshire police website or call the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555111.
Get Hampshire
The man, described as having a "dirty appearance", was turning from Greatfield Road into Ley Road on the morning of December 18 but was apparently driving too fast for the conditions.
At the same time, a 29-year-old woman was walking towards Ley Road to meet up with her father in his vehicle.
As the white van skidded, the father waved to his daughter to warn her about it.
But the van driver then got out of his vehicle and shouted racist abuse at the pair, who retreated into their car, fearing they might be attacked.
The suspect was described as white, aged in his late 20s, around 5ft 8in tall and of medium to stocky build.
Police said he had a "dirty" appearance, short light, brown hair and was wearing a waist-length yellow fluorescent jacket.
An older woman of stocky build was also in the van, which police said was a car-derived vehicle with orange writing on the side and a yellow beacon on its roof.
PC Mark Sumner said: "This was a totally unprovoked incident that has left the victim feeling scared and upset.
"If anyone has any information that can help us with this investigation, please get in touch.
"I’d also like to hear from anyone who saw a van driving dangerously in the area that morning."
Anyone with any information should contact PC Sumner at Farnborough police station on 101, via the Hampshire police website or call the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555111.
Get Hampshire
Soldier shouted racist abuse (UK)
A serving soldier who racially abused two English people in Perth was fined £300 and ordered to pay compensation of £200 for his efforts.
William Yeaman (22) of Kestrel Way, Perth, called a female an “English whore” and yelled “fat English boy” at a youth.
Yeaman also assaulted the youth by punching him on July 10.
On Wednesday, Perth Sheriff Court heard Yeaman had attracted the attention of residents of Dunnock Park in Muirton when they heard a disturbance outside at about 11.30pm.
Two residents, both of whom were born and raised in England, went to investigate.
One of them saw Yeaman and asked him to be quiet. He then shouted back “English whore”.
Yeaman approached the woman’s home and entered the garden, standing face-to-face with a male who he called a “fat English boy” and “English t**t”.
Admitting his racist offences, he told cops: “Cos I’m in the wrong. It’s all against me, I accept that.”
Yeaman’s solicitor described the matter as a “disgraceful incident” for which the accused had since apologised.
He said the actions of Yeaman, a first offender, had been out of character.
He also told Sheriff Michael Fletcher a promotion to Lance Corporal for Yeaman was being held off until the outcome.
Yeaman was among a group of soldiers put forward for the promotion, but the only one not to have received it straight away.
He said Yeaman, an army driver involved in weapons, was currently on stand-by to go to Afghanistan in October 2011.
Perth Advertiser
William Yeaman (22) of Kestrel Way, Perth, called a female an “English whore” and yelled “fat English boy” at a youth.
Yeaman also assaulted the youth by punching him on July 10.
On Wednesday, Perth Sheriff Court heard Yeaman had attracted the attention of residents of Dunnock Park in Muirton when they heard a disturbance outside at about 11.30pm.
Two residents, both of whom were born and raised in England, went to investigate.
One of them saw Yeaman and asked him to be quiet. He then shouted back “English whore”.
Yeaman approached the woman’s home and entered the garden, standing face-to-face with a male who he called a “fat English boy” and “English t**t”.
Admitting his racist offences, he told cops: “Cos I’m in the wrong. It’s all against me, I accept that.”
Yeaman’s solicitor described the matter as a “disgraceful incident” for which the accused had since apologised.
He said the actions of Yeaman, a first offender, had been out of character.
He also told Sheriff Michael Fletcher a promotion to Lance Corporal for Yeaman was being held off until the outcome.
Yeaman was among a group of soldiers put forward for the promotion, but the only one not to have received it straight away.
He said Yeaman, an army driver involved in weapons, was currently on stand-by to go to Afghanistan in October 2011.
Perth Advertiser
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Allow A Former Skinhead To Explain Why White Supremacists Hate (And Brutalize) Gays
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
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
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
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