This is not a parallel justice system, it is simply part of our tradition," Dorin Cioaba, son of the self-proclaimed King of the Gypsies, said on Monday, when opening the first formal court (called Stabor in Romani language) for the minority group in Romania. "We are here to mediate different disputes among people of our community, so we will try not to judge them, but only to reconcile people," he told Balkan Insight. The unofficial courthouse is located in Sibiu, southern Transylvania, home to a large community of Roma. Dressed in long white and purple gowns, Cioaba, the court's president, and the seven members of a jury opened the first session with a hearing on a dispute between two Roma men who were wrangling over the ownership of a gold necklace that belonged to their mother. Dorin Cioaba, 41, is a graduate in law, while the members of the court's ruling committee are leaders (called bulibasa) of different Roma families.
After more than an hour of carefully listening to both parties' arguments, the jury decided to postpone the case until the end of next month. "Our main aim is to help people reconcile and to go to the official justice system only if there are no other solutions. That's why we are addressing cases of minor disputes among members of our community. Furthermore, we can offer legal advice for those in need," says Florin Cioaba. Among the cases he mentioned are commercial and civil law disputes, counseling for married couples in trouble or the violation of Roma traditions. Until now, the Stabor rulings have not been open to the public and have been held in various locations, including out in the open, often in the street. The mediation has been offered by informal leaders of the community, including elders. Romania is officially home to some 550,000 Roma, although it is widely believed that their real number is at least twice as high. Many people of Roma origin do not declare their ethnicity on account of the widespread prejudice they face in the Balkan country.
Balkan Insight
Thursday, 3 March 2011
ROMA LEADER TO SUE 'FACEBOOK' PROTEST ORGANIZER OVER RACIST SLOGANS (Croatia)
The president of the Roma Football Association has said he would sue the organizer of the so-called "Facebook" protests for not curbing his follower's racist slogans. Tofko Dedic-Toti said that the organizer of the protest, Ivan Pernar, should have intervened when some of the protesters started yelling "Gypsies! Gypsies" in front of the government buildings, referring to the officials that they want deposed. "Roma are in continuous struggle against racism, discrimination, intolerance and poverty. Mr. Pernar is the organizer of the protest and he should have reacted" when people around him started using "gypsy" as a derogatory word to insult the officials, Dedic-Toti said. "For ten years I've been advocating equality, and I want to prove in human and tolerant way, that we are equal inhabitants." Dedic-Toti is demanding an apology from Pernar, the daily Jutarnji List writes. A series of anti-government protest has swept some towns in Croatia with, Zagreb at their center. The protests were first organized by Ivan Pernar over Facebook.
The Croatian Times
The Croatian Times
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Net rumours lead to anti-refugee egg attack (Sweden)
A group of right-wing extremists demonstrated outside a housing facility for unaccompanied refugee children near Stockholm after internet rumours about a suspected sexual assault spiraled out of control.
Police have launched a preliminary investigation into a suspected case of agitation against ethnic groups (hets mot folkgrupp) after a group of right-wing activists screamed racial slurs and threw eggs at the refugee housing facility in Solna, north of Stockholm.
"Outside the refugee facility they screamed 'blackheads' [svartskallar] and 'go home immigrants' and other things," police spokesperson Diana Sundin told the magasine Expo, which tracks right-wing extremism.
Police spokesperson Marie-Louise Nilsson from Stockholm's western district, while refusing to confirm who was behind the action, confirmed for the TT news agency that around 30 people, primarily men, arrived at the facility in their cars.
They were carrying signs and threw eggs at the building, in addition to screaming racial slurs, but left the scene once police arrived.
The attack on the refugee housing facility, which took place on Saturday, comes following accusations that residents at the facility had sexually molested girls at a nearby public pool.
A week prior to the incident, 18 teenage boys and 2 staff members from the facility visited the Husbybadet public pool.
During the visit, five to seven of the boys allegedly molested three young girls, aged 11 and 12 years old, the Aftonbladet newspaper reported.
"They were touched on the back, legs, and behind. No clothes were removed," police spokesperson Diana Sundin told the newspaper, adding that the boys were quickly separated from the girls when the incident took place.
The boys were subsequently reported to police on suspicions of sexual molestation.
In the days following the incident, however, the boys' alleged crimes became wildly exaggerated on a number of internet discussion forums.
Blogs and chat sites described a "gang rape of an 11-year-old girl, carried out by 20 men", a description which police emphatically reject.
"The whole thing has been blown way out of proportion. No one was raped. No one has said anything like that during interviews or in the report, but such rumours have started to spread on the internet," the police's Mats Eriksson told Aftonbladet.
According to Expo, the action was carried out by white-power activists from the Nordisk Ungdom ('Nordic Youth').
On the group's website are film clips and photos taken at what the Nordisk Ungdom call a "Protest action against rapists".
"This is to protest against the anti-Swedish and reckless sexual assault carried out by so called refugee children at the Husbybadet in Stockholm last Sunday against a 11-year-old Swedish girls," writes the group.
Now police fear the activists are planning new attacks against the facility.
"The whole thing has gone way out of proportion. Now there are rumours they plan to take another run at the facility," the police's Nilsson told the TT news agency.
As a result, police have increased surveillance around the facility. Johanna Hållén a spokesperson with facility operator Attendo Care, said the incident has affected the refugee children living there.
"Clearly they think it's unpleasant," she told Expo.
So far no one has been informed that they are suspected of any crime following Saturday's egg attack on the facility and police continue to investigate the matter.
The Local Sweden
Police have launched a preliminary investigation into a suspected case of agitation against ethnic groups (hets mot folkgrupp) after a group of right-wing activists screamed racial slurs and threw eggs at the refugee housing facility in Solna, north of Stockholm.
"Outside the refugee facility they screamed 'blackheads' [svartskallar] and 'go home immigrants' and other things," police spokesperson Diana Sundin told the magasine Expo, which tracks right-wing extremism.
Police spokesperson Marie-Louise Nilsson from Stockholm's western district, while refusing to confirm who was behind the action, confirmed for the TT news agency that around 30 people, primarily men, arrived at the facility in their cars.
They were carrying signs and threw eggs at the building, in addition to screaming racial slurs, but left the scene once police arrived.
The attack on the refugee housing facility, which took place on Saturday, comes following accusations that residents at the facility had sexually molested girls at a nearby public pool.
A week prior to the incident, 18 teenage boys and 2 staff members from the facility visited the Husbybadet public pool.
During the visit, five to seven of the boys allegedly molested three young girls, aged 11 and 12 years old, the Aftonbladet newspaper reported.
"They were touched on the back, legs, and behind. No clothes were removed," police spokesperson Diana Sundin told the newspaper, adding that the boys were quickly separated from the girls when the incident took place.
The boys were subsequently reported to police on suspicions of sexual molestation.
In the days following the incident, however, the boys' alleged crimes became wildly exaggerated on a number of internet discussion forums.
Blogs and chat sites described a "gang rape of an 11-year-old girl, carried out by 20 men", a description which police emphatically reject.
"The whole thing has been blown way out of proportion. No one was raped. No one has said anything like that during interviews or in the report, but such rumours have started to spread on the internet," the police's Mats Eriksson told Aftonbladet.
According to Expo, the action was carried out by white-power activists from the Nordisk Ungdom ('Nordic Youth').
On the group's website are film clips and photos taken at what the Nordisk Ungdom call a "Protest action against rapists".
"This is to protest against the anti-Swedish and reckless sexual assault carried out by so called refugee children at the Husbybadet in Stockholm last Sunday against a 11-year-old Swedish girls," writes the group.
Now police fear the activists are planning new attacks against the facility.
"The whole thing has gone way out of proportion. Now there are rumours they plan to take another run at the facility," the police's Nilsson told the TT news agency.
As a result, police have increased surveillance around the facility. Johanna Hållén a spokesperson with facility operator Attendo Care, said the incident has affected the refugee children living there.
"Clearly they think it's unpleasant," she told Expo.
So far no one has been informed that they are suspected of any crime following Saturday's egg attack on the facility and police continue to investigate the matter.
The Local Sweden
Dutch polls open in crucial provincial vote (Netherlands)
Polling stations opened in the Netherlands for a vote that will determine whether or not the government, backed by an anti-Islam party, obtains a crucial senate majority.
"The polling stations are open. So far, there have been no reports of problems," an official at the electoral council's information centre told AFP, shortly after about 10,000 ballot stations opened at 7:30 am (0630 GMT).
In an unusually closely watched election for the country's 12 provincial councils, voters will choose 566 deputies charged in turn with electing, along party lines, the 75-member upper house of parliament, or senate, on May 23.
Almost 30 parties will contest Wednesday's elections in which about 13 million of the Netherlands' 16.5 million citizens are eligible to vote until 9:00 pm.
A minority, rightist government of the pro-business VVD and Christian Democratic CDA that came to power in national elections last June, already relies on an unstable pact with anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders's Party for Freedom (PVV) to pass laws through the 150-seat lower house.
It now needs majority support (38 votes) in the veto-wielding senate to pass laws as part of its rightist programme of budget cuts and tougher immigration measures, much maligned by the opposition.
Stressing it was too close to call, the latest opinion polls predicted 37 senate seats for the VVD-CDA-PVV alliance.
If correct, this will be the first government since World War I to see a senate elected in which it has no majority, forcing it to lobby for legislative support among opposition parties.
Analysts say that repeated senate rejection of its bills would leave the government no option but to quit.
The first exit polls are expected at 9:00 pm. The official outcome will be announced "a few days later", according to the electoral council.
Google Hosted News
"The polling stations are open. So far, there have been no reports of problems," an official at the electoral council's information centre told AFP, shortly after about 10,000 ballot stations opened at 7:30 am (0630 GMT).
In an unusually closely watched election for the country's 12 provincial councils, voters will choose 566 deputies charged in turn with electing, along party lines, the 75-member upper house of parliament, or senate, on May 23.
Almost 30 parties will contest Wednesday's elections in which about 13 million of the Netherlands' 16.5 million citizens are eligible to vote until 9:00 pm.
A minority, rightist government of the pro-business VVD and Christian Democratic CDA that came to power in national elections last June, already relies on an unstable pact with anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders's Party for Freedom (PVV) to pass laws through the 150-seat lower house.
It now needs majority support (38 votes) in the veto-wielding senate to pass laws as part of its rightist programme of budget cuts and tougher immigration measures, much maligned by the opposition.
Stressing it was too close to call, the latest opinion polls predicted 37 senate seats for the VVD-CDA-PVV alliance.
If correct, this will be the first government since World War I to see a senate elected in which it has no majority, forcing it to lobby for legislative support among opposition parties.
Analysts say that repeated senate rejection of its bills would leave the government no option but to quit.
The first exit polls are expected at 9:00 pm. The official outcome will be announced "a few days later", according to the electoral council.
Google Hosted News
Louis Farrakhan Continues Anti-Semitic Campaign At Annual Saviours' Day Conference (USA)
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said today that anti-Semitism was "front and center" at the Nation of Islam's annual meeting near Chicago, and that the organization and its longtime leader, Louis Farrakhan, continue to engage in a targeted campaign against Jews.
Minister Farrakhan's February 27 keynote address featured a range of conspiratorial messages about Jews and Zionists, including accusing Jews and Israel of trying to push the U.S. into a war with Iran, blaming Jews for killing Jesus, and claiming that Jews were responsible for Black suffering through history.
The NOI convention's opening plenary session, titled "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews," sought to demonstrate disproportionate Jewish involvement in the slave trade and to blame Jews for Black suffering ever since. Speakers accused Jews of controlling the media and called for the NOI's anti-Semitic books to be taught in schools nationwide.
"Anti-Semitism has suffused the Nation of Islam's message, and Farrakhan is the standard bearer and bigot in chief," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "For the past two years he has put anti-Semitism front and center on the agenda, so that it is now a drumbeat heard across the organization. And perhaps what's more disturbing is that despite his anti-Semitic rants, he has not been made a pariah in his own community. What does it take for him to stop being a pied piper of hatred?"
Farrakhan, who has a long history of anti-Semitic and racist statements, addressed the Nation of Islam's 2011 Saviours' Day convention at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Included among his conspiratorial messages was the allegation that "Zionists" are goading the United States into "a military offensive against Libya," whose leader, Muammar Qaddafi, he praised as "my brother" and "my friend."
"At a time when Qaddafi is engaged in a brutal and violent crackdown against his own people, it is shocking to hear Farrakhan praising him," said Mr. Foxman. "Qaddafi's actions against his own people are indefensible, and yet Farrakhan defends him."
Additional excerpts from Farrakhan's Saviours' Day address:
"President Obama, if you allow the Zionists to push you, to mount a military offensive against Qaddafi and you go in and kill him and his sons as you did with Saddam Hussein and his sons, I'm warning you this is a Libyan problem, let the Libyans solve their problem among themselves."
Farrakhan accused American Zionists and Israel of trying to push the U.S. into a war with Iran and charged that, "Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system."
"Some of you think that I'm just somebody who's got something out for the Jewish people. You're stupid. Do you think I would waste my time if I did not think it was important for you to know Satan? My job is to pull the cover off of Satan so that he will never deceive you and the people of the world again."
"The Black people of America are the real children of Israel."
ADL
Minister Farrakhan's February 27 keynote address featured a range of conspiratorial messages about Jews and Zionists, including accusing Jews and Israel of trying to push the U.S. into a war with Iran, blaming Jews for killing Jesus, and claiming that Jews were responsible for Black suffering through history.
The NOI convention's opening plenary session, titled "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews," sought to demonstrate disproportionate Jewish involvement in the slave trade and to blame Jews for Black suffering ever since. Speakers accused Jews of controlling the media and called for the NOI's anti-Semitic books to be taught in schools nationwide.
"Anti-Semitism has suffused the Nation of Islam's message, and Farrakhan is the standard bearer and bigot in chief," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "For the past two years he has put anti-Semitism front and center on the agenda, so that it is now a drumbeat heard across the organization. And perhaps what's more disturbing is that despite his anti-Semitic rants, he has not been made a pariah in his own community. What does it take for him to stop being a pied piper of hatred?"
Farrakhan, who has a long history of anti-Semitic and racist statements, addressed the Nation of Islam's 2011 Saviours' Day convention at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Included among his conspiratorial messages was the allegation that "Zionists" are goading the United States into "a military offensive against Libya," whose leader, Muammar Qaddafi, he praised as "my brother" and "my friend."
"At a time when Qaddafi is engaged in a brutal and violent crackdown against his own people, it is shocking to hear Farrakhan praising him," said Mr. Foxman. "Qaddafi's actions against his own people are indefensible, and yet Farrakhan defends him."
Additional excerpts from Farrakhan's Saviours' Day address:
"President Obama, if you allow the Zionists to push you, to mount a military offensive against Qaddafi and you go in and kill him and his sons as you did with Saddam Hussein and his sons, I'm warning you this is a Libyan problem, let the Libyans solve their problem among themselves."
Farrakhan accused American Zionists and Israel of trying to push the U.S. into a war with Iran and charged that, "Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system."
"Some of you think that I'm just somebody who's got something out for the Jewish people. You're stupid. Do you think I would waste my time if I did not think it was important for you to know Satan? My job is to pull the cover off of Satan so that he will never deceive you and the people of the world again."
"The Black people of America are the real children of Israel."
ADL
Four white supremacists convicted in 2008 beating (Hemet, USA)
Four members of a white supremacist gang were found guilty this week of a 2008 beating in a Hemet mobile home park that left a Hispanic man in a coma for several weeks.
Three different juries convicted Justin Tyme Hayes, 23, Derek Shane O'Brien, 24, Scott James Siewert, 25, and Mark Wisler, 19, of various charges.
The four men are members of the C.O.O.R.S. Family Skins, a Hemet skinhead gang whose name stands for Comrades of Our Racial Struggle.
All four men jumped Sergio Cortez on Nov. 14, 2008, at the Jackson Mobile Home Park on Elk Avenue in Hemet. During the attack, both Wisler and Hayes yelled out, "White power" and "C.O.O.R.S. up," Deputy District Attorney Tim Cross said.
Prosecutors alleged that the attack was racially motivated but did not pursue hate crime charges because they didn't believe they could prove to every jury that race was the only motive.
The attack began when Siewert and Derek Richardson, who was not charged in the case, thought they saw Cortez breaking into Siewert's car. They ran outside and started hitting him. Cortez was able to run away but Richardson gave chase, Cross said.
Defense attorney Thomas Gage said Hayes admitted to the attack. But Gage said it did not amount to attempted murder because it began in the heat of passion.
"He didn't act with the intent to kill. The jury obviously saw it otherwise," Gage said. "He acknowledged his role in the assault. It was more of a spontaneous, booze-fueled assault more than anything planned out."
The same jury that convicted Hayes found Siewert guilty of assault. He faces up to eight years in prison.
Another jury found Wisler guilty of attempted murder and assault and gang charges, and ruled the attack was premeditated. He could face life in prison for the premeditation charge.
The third jury found O'Brien guilty of attempted murder, assault and a gang enhancement. He also faces up to 22 years in prison.
Sentencing is set for May 6 in French Valley.
PE.com
Three different juries convicted Justin Tyme Hayes, 23, Derek Shane O'Brien, 24, Scott James Siewert, 25, and Mark Wisler, 19, of various charges.
The four men are members of the C.O.O.R.S. Family Skins, a Hemet skinhead gang whose name stands for Comrades of Our Racial Struggle.
All four men jumped Sergio Cortez on Nov. 14, 2008, at the Jackson Mobile Home Park on Elk Avenue in Hemet. During the attack, both Wisler and Hayes yelled out, "White power" and "C.O.O.R.S. up," Deputy District Attorney Tim Cross said.
Prosecutors alleged that the attack was racially motivated but did not pursue hate crime charges because they didn't believe they could prove to every jury that race was the only motive.
The attack began when Siewert and Derek Richardson, who was not charged in the case, thought they saw Cortez breaking into Siewert's car. They ran outside and started hitting him. Cortez was able to run away but Richardson gave chase, Cross said.
Defense attorney Thomas Gage said Hayes admitted to the attack. But Gage said it did not amount to attempted murder because it began in the heat of passion.
"He didn't act with the intent to kill. The jury obviously saw it otherwise," Gage said. "He acknowledged his role in the assault. It was more of a spontaneous, booze-fueled assault more than anything planned out."
The same jury that convicted Hayes found Siewert guilty of assault. He faces up to eight years in prison.
Another jury found Wisler guilty of attempted murder and assault and gang charges, and ruled the attack was premeditated. He could face life in prison for the premeditation charge.
The third jury found O'Brien guilty of attempted murder, assault and a gang enhancement. He also faces up to 22 years in prison.
Sentencing is set for May 6 in French Valley.
PE.com
Athens mayor struggles to keep far-right group in check
Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis is to invite the heads of the various political groupings on the City of Athens council for talks after another rowdy meeting of councillors on Monday threatened to get out of hand.
Kaminis decided on holding head-to-head meetings after more complaints about the behavior of the leader of the far-right Chryssi Avgi grouping Nikos Michaloliakos.
The outspoken Michaloliakos has already caused controversy at council meetings by verbally abusing leftist councillor Petros Constantinou and performing the Nazi salute.
On Monday, Michaloliakos asked for a constituent to address the council meeting and, after obtaining permission, the guest launched a verbal assault on Constantinou.
Representatives of other groupings also complained about the large number of associates that accompany Michaloliakos to council meetings.
City of Athens council rules mean that each grouping is only allowed a limited amount of guest passes for meetings but opponents have accused Chryssi Avgi of ignoring the restrictions and creating an intimidating atmosphere at City Hall.
Michaloliakos became the first member of Chryssi Avgi to be voted onto the City of Athens council in last November’s local election. The extreme right group campaigned very heavily in Aghios Panteleimonas and other central Athens districts with a high percentage of immigrant residents.
ekathimerini
Kaminis decided on holding head-to-head meetings after more complaints about the behavior of the leader of the far-right Chryssi Avgi grouping Nikos Michaloliakos.
The outspoken Michaloliakos has already caused controversy at council meetings by verbally abusing leftist councillor Petros Constantinou and performing the Nazi salute.
On Monday, Michaloliakos asked for a constituent to address the council meeting and, after obtaining permission, the guest launched a verbal assault on Constantinou.
Representatives of other groupings also complained about the large number of associates that accompany Michaloliakos to council meetings.
City of Athens council rules mean that each grouping is only allowed a limited amount of guest passes for meetings but opponents have accused Chryssi Avgi of ignoring the restrictions and creating an intimidating atmosphere at City Hall.
Michaloliakos became the first member of Chryssi Avgi to be voted onto the City of Athens council in last November’s local election. The extreme right group campaigned very heavily in Aghios Panteleimonas and other central Athens districts with a high percentage of immigrant residents.
ekathimerini
Action on hate crime (UK)
An event is being held in Hartlepool aimed at targeting hate crime after there were 83 complaints reported to police last year.
A group called Ohanaezi is organising a community safety event which will look at crime experienced by minority groups, including ethnic minorities, disabled people and lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered (LGBT) people in Hartlepool.
It will take place this Saturday at St Joseph’s Church Hall, in Grange Road, and anyone who has encountered intimidation, bullying, racist abuse or any other anti-social behaviour linked to their way of life is encouraged to attend.
A range of speakers will be at the event, including police community support officers from Cleveland Police, and Hartlepool MP Iain Wright.
The aim of the event, which runs from 10am until noon, is to encourage minority groups to speak out and report hate crime.
Police figures from 2010 show there were 83 reported incidents of hate crime in Hartlepool, which now has residents of more than 20 different nationalities, including Polish, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, African and Filipino.
Of these, 63 were race-related, 16 were homophobic, one was faith-related, one was transgender-related and two targeted disabled people.
During the event, various agencies will be on hand to give advice and support on how to deal with such issues.
Hartlepool Voluntary Development Agency (HVDA), which helped to set up Ohanaezi, which supports black, Afro-Caribbean and other minorities, is helping to organise the event and other agencies involved include the Safer Hartlepool Partnership and Hartlepool Community Network.
Peter Gowland, project development officer with HVDA, said: “It’s important that minority communities are supported and advised just as any group would be in Hartlepool..”
Ward councillors are expected to attend the event, as well as ethnic minority groups including Hartlepool Chinese Association, the town’s asylum seeker and refugee group.
Traditional foods from around the world will be served at the end of the event.
For more information, call HVDA on (01429) 262641.
Hartlepool Mail
A group called Ohanaezi is organising a community safety event which will look at crime experienced by minority groups, including ethnic minorities, disabled people and lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered (LGBT) people in Hartlepool.
It will take place this Saturday at St Joseph’s Church Hall, in Grange Road, and anyone who has encountered intimidation, bullying, racist abuse or any other anti-social behaviour linked to their way of life is encouraged to attend.
A range of speakers will be at the event, including police community support officers from Cleveland Police, and Hartlepool MP Iain Wright.
The aim of the event, which runs from 10am until noon, is to encourage minority groups to speak out and report hate crime.
Police figures from 2010 show there were 83 reported incidents of hate crime in Hartlepool, which now has residents of more than 20 different nationalities, including Polish, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, African and Filipino.
Of these, 63 were race-related, 16 were homophobic, one was faith-related, one was transgender-related and two targeted disabled people.
During the event, various agencies will be on hand to give advice and support on how to deal with such issues.
Hartlepool Voluntary Development Agency (HVDA), which helped to set up Ohanaezi, which supports black, Afro-Caribbean and other minorities, is helping to organise the event and other agencies involved include the Safer Hartlepool Partnership and Hartlepool Community Network.
Peter Gowland, project development officer with HVDA, said: “It’s important that minority communities are supported and advised just as any group would be in Hartlepool..”
Ward councillors are expected to attend the event, as well as ethnic minority groups including Hartlepool Chinese Association, the town’s asylum seeker and refugee group.
Traditional foods from around the world will be served at the end of the event.
For more information, call HVDA on (01429) 262641.
Hartlepool Mail
Spokesperson for EDL's Norwegian sister organisation resigns, says it has been 'taken over by neo-Nazis'
The PST (Norwegian Security Service) held a press conference yesterday to announce their new threat-assessment report. As in previous years the report noted the threat of internet radicalization among Muslims, but this year PST chief Janne Kristiansen also named a new anti-Islamic organization, the Norwegian Defence League (NDL).
The organization is not discussed much, but is well known among the extreme right, Islam critics and anti-racist movements. On Facebook, different NDL groups have 500 members, and the group's leaders claim they have over 600 supporters in Norway. Many are young men in their 20s, inspired by the English Defence League in the UK.
"NDL profiles itself as a legal political movement, but as we see from the UK, the boundaries are fluid. It oftens ends in violent confrontations with those holding the opposite opinion," PST department head Jon Fitje told Dagbladet.
Remi Huseby (22), from Haugesund, who presented himself as the group's spokesperson last month, has received much attention from the media and anti-fascist groups. Last week he was kicked out of the Transport Workers Union due to his position. After PST named the NDL yesterday, he had enough. In an SMS to Dagbladet Huseby announced he's resigning from the organization: "Hereby confirm that I'm leaving the NDL because the NDL has been taken over by neo-Nazis".
"Islam-hostile groups can take different forms. We see the developments in Europe and fear the same in Norway," says Fitje. Though the NDL hadn't used violence, the PST defines it it as an "extreme right-wing group". With Huseby out of the organization, it's unclear what political profile the NDL will have. If cultivating violence and radicalization become dominant, the group might get more attention from the security service.
Dagbladet
Translated by Islam in Europe
The organization is not discussed much, but is well known among the extreme right, Islam critics and anti-racist movements. On Facebook, different NDL groups have 500 members, and the group's leaders claim they have over 600 supporters in Norway. Many are young men in their 20s, inspired by the English Defence League in the UK.
"NDL profiles itself as a legal political movement, but as we see from the UK, the boundaries are fluid. It oftens ends in violent confrontations with those holding the opposite opinion," PST department head Jon Fitje told Dagbladet.
Remi Huseby (22), from Haugesund, who presented himself as the group's spokesperson last month, has received much attention from the media and anti-fascist groups. Last week he was kicked out of the Transport Workers Union due to his position. After PST named the NDL yesterday, he had enough. In an SMS to Dagbladet Huseby announced he's resigning from the organization: "Hereby confirm that I'm leaving the NDL because the NDL has been taken over by neo-Nazis".
"Islam-hostile groups can take different forms. We see the developments in Europe and fear the same in Norway," says Fitje. Though the NDL hadn't used violence, the PST defines it it as an "extreme right-wing group". With Huseby out of the organization, it's unclear what political profile the NDL will have. If cultivating violence and radicalization become dominant, the group might get more attention from the security service.
Dagbladet
Translated by Islam in Europe
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Spanish police arrest four suspected ETA members
Spanish police have arrested four suspected members of the armed Basque group ETA, Spanish media reported Tuesday.
The two men and two women were detained in raids carried out in the early hours of Tuesday in and around Bilbao, the online editions of El Pais and El Mundo reported citing unnamed anti-terrorism sources.
Police suspect the four, who had no prior criminal record, were part of an ETA cell that carried out several attacks, including one that killed the head of an anti-terrorism police unit in June 2009, the nespapers said.
Eduardo Puelles died instantly when a limpet bomb attached to his car exploded at a car park near his home in Arrigarriga, near Bilbao.
The police operation carried out on Tuesday was linked to the arrest in May 2010 in Bayonne in southwestern France of the suspected military leader of ETA, Spanish national Mikel Kabikoitz Karrera Sarobe, known as Ata.
During Sarobe's arrest police found documents linking the four detained on Tuesday to ETA, the newspapers said.
ETA on January 10 declared a "permanent and general ceasefire" to be verified by the international community.
It was the first unilateral declaration of a permanent ceasefire in ETA's campaign of bombings and shootings for a homeland independent of Spain, which has claimed the lives of 829 people.
But Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero rejected the declaration, saying he wants nothing less than ETA's dissolution.
ETA had announced a ceasefire in March 2006 within the framework of negotiations with Madrid. But nine months later, it set off a bomb in the car park of Madrid's airport, killing two men.
Spanish authorities believe their campaign against ETA in recent years, with dozens of arrests made in cooperation with forces in other countries, particularly France, has seriously weakened ETA's operational capacity.
The group has not staged an attack on Spanish soil since August 2009.
Google Hosted News
The two men and two women were detained in raids carried out in the early hours of Tuesday in and around Bilbao, the online editions of El Pais and El Mundo reported citing unnamed anti-terrorism sources.
Police suspect the four, who had no prior criminal record, were part of an ETA cell that carried out several attacks, including one that killed the head of an anti-terrorism police unit in June 2009, the nespapers said.
Eduardo Puelles died instantly when a limpet bomb attached to his car exploded at a car park near his home in Arrigarriga, near Bilbao.
The police operation carried out on Tuesday was linked to the arrest in May 2010 in Bayonne in southwestern France of the suspected military leader of ETA, Spanish national Mikel Kabikoitz Karrera Sarobe, known as Ata.
During Sarobe's arrest police found documents linking the four detained on Tuesday to ETA, the newspapers said.
ETA on January 10 declared a "permanent and general ceasefire" to be verified by the international community.
It was the first unilateral declaration of a permanent ceasefire in ETA's campaign of bombings and shootings for a homeland independent of Spain, which has claimed the lives of 829 people.
But Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero rejected the declaration, saying he wants nothing less than ETA's dissolution.
ETA had announced a ceasefire in March 2006 within the framework of negotiations with Madrid. But nine months later, it set off a bomb in the car park of Madrid's airport, killing two men.
Spanish authorities believe their campaign against ETA in recent years, with dozens of arrests made in cooperation with forces in other countries, particularly France, has seriously weakened ETA's operational capacity.
The group has not staged an attack on Spanish soil since August 2009.
Google Hosted News
Man jailed for creating extremist videos (UK)
Admin Comment : Once again this story disproves the claims of on-line UK based hate promoters that anything can be posted on-line and there is no legal way that they can be held accountable if its on a foreign owned website.
Please read and bookmark our guide’s to reporting hate and abuse on the internet to UK law enforcement agencies and our guide to reporting extremist race hate content on You Tube.
Both guides can be found in our pages section on the right of this blog page.
A terrorist who created extremist videos and uploaded them onto the Internet was jailed for five years today, Friday 25 February, following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Mohammed Gul, 23, of Elm Park Avenue, Hornchurch, posted movies he had created, as well existing extremist videos, on YouTube.
He also made a compilation video on his laptop by editing footage of attacks on coalition soldiers together with logos of terrorist groups and extremist commentary. Gul then used the family computer to put the clip on the web before posting links to on an online chat room.
On Thursday 24 February Gul was found guilty of five counts of dissemination of terrorist publications contrary to Section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006 following a trial at the Old Bailey. The jury heard he transmitted terrorist publications which could have encouraged the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
The jury found him not guilty of one count of dissemination of terrorist publications contrary to Section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006.
Gul was sentenced to five years in prison for each count to run concurrently. He is also subject to a 15 year notification order under the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 for 15 years.
Between March 2008 and February 2009 Gul uploaded extremist videos to You Tube under four different accounts, three of which were subsequently suspended by You Tube due to the content of the movies.
Under accounts named ‘marinetargetcorp’, ‘marinetargetinc’, ’35marines’ and ‘marinetargetboy’ he posted videos including footage of attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, the making of and detonation of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), terrorist training camps and footage of the 9/11 attacks in New York.
He then moved on to creating a compilation video of extremist material relating to the situation in Gaza following the conflict with Israel in December 2008.
The movie file, Liiamara.mov, created by Gul from available audio and video media, depicted images from Gaza and then of IED explosions of cars and tanks with a red circle superimposed to highlight the bodies falling out of the vehicles. It also included images from other conflicts around the world, including IED attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a sniper attack on a coalition soldier.
Arabic scripture and chanting (Nasheeds) were used out of context and added to these images to promote terrorist ideology.
Gul was arrested at his home address on Tuesday 10 February 2009.
Officers searched the premises and recovered two computers and a number of storage devices containing the extremist material.
A large amount of extremist material was also found including footage of executions and martyrdom videos by suicide bombers.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, Senior National Co-ordinator Terrorist Investigations, said: “The videos posted on the internet by Gul were inflammatory and clearly had the potential to incite terrorism.
“The clips graphically showed acts of terrorism and the logos of known terrorist groups.
“This is one of the first successful prosecutions relating to disseminating terrorist publications via the Internet and shows our commitment to tackling those who support and encourage terrorism whatever means they use.”
TKKN.com
Call for blockade of neo-nazi march in the town of Novy Bydzov (Czech Rep)
Admin Comment : The Neo-Nazi’s in the Czech Rep are extremely violent and dangerous and have carried out many attacks against the Roma people that have resulted in deaths.
Please publicise and circulate this Call to Action and support the Roma people’s plight.
Call for blockade of neo-nazi march in the town of Novy Bydzov
Novy Bydzov is a small town of around 7.000 people located on the east from Prague, about one hour driving away. Recently it hit news because of the so-called racial tension between Roma population and white inhabitants, followed by the official statement of the Major of the town saying „Roma people rape, steal and loot in the middle of the day“. Neo-nazis smelt their chance and call for a march through the town.
Their march is organized by the same people as the serious attempt to mass attack on Roma population in Litvinov two years ago. Translated call for action follows:
On Saturday March 12th neonazis are trying to march through the town of Novy Bydzov. The aim of their march is not to propagate nazi ideology in open or more hidden way nor it is to commemorate the death of one of the
nazi leaders. Their aim is to directly terrorize, chicane and to try to attack the Roma population of the town.
History and current praxis of neonazi movement teach us that we have to face it any time it tries to stand up. „Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee!“, Ernest Hemingway quoted English poet John Donne and in this quote he precisely described the essence of the coming neo-nazi attack on Roma population of Novy Bydzov. Because tomorrow any of you could be the target of their perverse hate; spectrum of their enemies is really wide in the end: Roma people, homeless people, trade unionist, homosexuals, Jews, communists, social democrats and other leftists, alternative youth, feminists, unemployed, anarchists, immigrants...
We are not saying that there are no troubles in the town of Novy Bydzov. But neonazis are coming with the final solution; perverse, inhuman idea which manifested itself with gas chamber during the World War II. We saw
how their solution looks like in praxis two years ago, when the same people marched in the town of Litvinov attacking with Molotovs, home made grenades and bricks. Antifascist movement ignored the event which
we regard as our fault. Short time after that the group of people attending this kind of events attacked Roma family in the town of Vitkov, burning small Roma girl almost to death...
Every time nazis attacked some majority without any resistance, they are stronger. Every time they marched without being faced by the much bigger group of those who they want to eliminate, they are a step further. In
their heads the self-esteem for some similar attack is growing. So never ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee!
We call all antifascists to come and block the place of gathering of the nazi demo. The meeting point is Masarykovo namesti in the town of Novy Bydzov at 11:00 (two hours before announced nazi assembly on the same
place).
There would be no organizers on the place as this action could only be describe as something like „civil disobedience“. So have a talk with your friends and come together in bigger or small groups. Have a talk
about to what extend do you want to resist the neo-nazi demo and to what extend are you ready to resist police. The diversity of tactic doesn’t prevent the unity in our aim to block the nazi march. Sit-in blockade, human chain or street barricade do not eliminate each other, but support each other. Just stick to one simple rule: do not criticize actions of other antifascists whatever their tactic is.
Stay united.
Antifascist solidarity group
Map of the place here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=cs&geocode=&q=Masarykovo+n%C3%A1m%C4%9Bst%C3%AD,+Nov%C3%BD+Byd%C5%BEov,+%C4%8Cesk%C3%A1+republika&aq=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.724817,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Masarykovo+n%C3%A1m%C4%9Bst%C3%AD,+504+01+Nov%C3%BD+Byd%C5%BEov,+%C4%8Cesk%C3%A1+republika&t=h&z=16
Please publicise and circulate this Call to Action and support the Roma people’s plight.
Call for blockade of neo-nazi march in the town of Novy Bydzov
Novy Bydzov is a small town of around 7.000 people located on the east from Prague, about one hour driving away. Recently it hit news because of the so-called racial tension between Roma population and white inhabitants, followed by the official statement of the Major of the town saying „Roma people rape, steal and loot in the middle of the day“. Neo-nazis smelt their chance and call for a march through the town.
Their march is organized by the same people as the serious attempt to mass attack on Roma population in Litvinov two years ago. Translated call for action follows:
On Saturday March 12th neonazis are trying to march through the town of Novy Bydzov. The aim of their march is not to propagate nazi ideology in open or more hidden way nor it is to commemorate the death of one of the
nazi leaders. Their aim is to directly terrorize, chicane and to try to attack the Roma population of the town.
History and current praxis of neonazi movement teach us that we have to face it any time it tries to stand up. „Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee!“, Ernest Hemingway quoted English poet John Donne and in this quote he precisely described the essence of the coming neo-nazi attack on Roma population of Novy Bydzov. Because tomorrow any of you could be the target of their perverse hate; spectrum of their enemies is really wide in the end: Roma people, homeless people, trade unionist, homosexuals, Jews, communists, social democrats and other leftists, alternative youth, feminists, unemployed, anarchists, immigrants...
We are not saying that there are no troubles in the town of Novy Bydzov. But neonazis are coming with the final solution; perverse, inhuman idea which manifested itself with gas chamber during the World War II. We saw
how their solution looks like in praxis two years ago, when the same people marched in the town of Litvinov attacking with Molotovs, home made grenades and bricks. Antifascist movement ignored the event which
we regard as our fault. Short time after that the group of people attending this kind of events attacked Roma family in the town of Vitkov, burning small Roma girl almost to death...
Every time nazis attacked some majority without any resistance, they are stronger. Every time they marched without being faced by the much bigger group of those who they want to eliminate, they are a step further. In
their heads the self-esteem for some similar attack is growing. So never ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee!
We call all antifascists to come and block the place of gathering of the nazi demo. The meeting point is Masarykovo namesti in the town of Novy Bydzov at 11:00 (two hours before announced nazi assembly on the same
place).
There would be no organizers on the place as this action could only be describe as something like „civil disobedience“. So have a talk with your friends and come together in bigger or small groups. Have a talk
about to what extend do you want to resist the neo-nazi demo and to what extend are you ready to resist police. The diversity of tactic doesn’t prevent the unity in our aim to block the nazi march. Sit-in blockade, human chain or street barricade do not eliminate each other, but support each other. Just stick to one simple rule: do not criticize actions of other antifascists whatever their tactic is.
Stay united.
Antifascist solidarity group
Map of the place here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=cs&geocode=&q=Masarykovo+n%C3%A1m%C4%9Bst%C3%AD,+Nov%C3%BD+Byd%C5%BEov,+%C4%8Cesk%C3%A1+republika&aq=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.724817,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Masarykovo+n%C3%A1m%C4%9Bst%C3%AD,+504+01+Nov%C3%BD+Byd%C5%BEov,+%C4%8Cesk%C3%A1+republika&t=h&z=16
Black KOMO4 News reporter saves White Supremacist from ass kicking (USA)
Admin: We just had to post this video.
Geert Wilders: Anti-Islam wave unstoppable (Netherlands)
In an interview with Dutch news channel NU.nl, Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders has said that the PVV’s ideas are striking a chord with increasing numbers of people across Europe.
Mr Wilders spoke of an unstoppable ‘anti-Islam’ wave. “We are having our own little revolution down here,” he said.
Mr Wilders believes that some of the measures he wants to take in collaboration with the ruling Dutch coalition will eventually be introduced across Europe. Some critics say many of the current cabinet’s intended measures are in violation of European legislation. However, Mr Wilders argues that many people in other European countries support the measures.
A party similar to the PVV has been created in Germany: Die Freiheit (Freedom), led by Rene Stadtkewitz. Mr Wilders says another PVV-type party may be launched in the United Kingdom, filling the gap between the allegedly racist British National Party and the Conservatives.
"The time that the CDU (German Christian Democrats) and the CDA (Dutch Christian Democrats) could ignore the problems is definitively over. It is not a temporary comet or something like that. The genie is out of the bottle and it will never be put back in again. Never again.” Mr Wilders says the fear of new PVV-type parties will ensure that many of the Dutch government’s anti-immigration policies will find widespread support throughout Europe.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Mr Wilders spoke of an unstoppable ‘anti-Islam’ wave. “We are having our own little revolution down here,” he said.
Mr Wilders believes that some of the measures he wants to take in collaboration with the ruling Dutch coalition will eventually be introduced across Europe. Some critics say many of the current cabinet’s intended measures are in violation of European legislation. However, Mr Wilders argues that many people in other European countries support the measures.
A party similar to the PVV has been created in Germany: Die Freiheit (Freedom), led by Rene Stadtkewitz. Mr Wilders says another PVV-type party may be launched in the United Kingdom, filling the gap between the allegedly racist British National Party and the Conservatives.
"The time that the CDU (German Christian Democrats) and the CDA (Dutch Christian Democrats) could ignore the problems is definitively over. It is not a temporary comet or something like that. The genie is out of the bottle and it will never be put back in again. Never again.” Mr Wilders says the fear of new PVV-type parties will ensure that many of the Dutch government’s anti-immigration policies will find widespread support throughout Europe.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Tourist arrested after giving Hitler salute (Berlin, Germany)
Admin Comment : Anti-Nazi laws across Europe vary considerably and Britain is considered one of the most tolerable.
Canadian tourist's fun and games taken seriously by local authorities after an attempt to stage a Monty Python-esque sketch in front of Reichstag leads to arrest.
Hundreds of the tourists who visit Berlin's Reichstag every year seem to believe that if they impersonate Adolf Hitler and his henchmen, as done by the Monty Python crew with incredible success, they too will receive applause from adoring crowds.
What they fail to understand is that impersonating any Nazi gestures or using any Nazi regime symbols is illegal in Germany and is considered a severe crime with a punishment that includes imprisonment.
A 30-year-old Canadian tourist who visited the Reichstag and had apparently overlooked German laws and regulations and wished to make other visitors to the popular tourist attraction laugh, asked his girlfriend to film him while he gave a Heil Hitler salute.
It took less than a minute before policemen walked up to the Quebec resident and proceeded to handcuff and arrest him. The police also confiscated his digital camera's memory card Britain's Daily Mail reported on Monday.
The Canadian tourist now stands to be prosecuted for carrying out a 'forbidden gesture' and if convicted could be imprisoned for up to six months. Nevertheless, it is estimated that he will not be prosecuted but will be forced to pay a fine. Local media later reported that the tourist was released on bail a few hours after his arrest.
'You can call him a b*****d and you can give him the finger, but you cannot do that,' a German police officer said in response to the arrest.
Arresting foreign citizens over Nazi salutes has occurred in the past in Germany. Three years ago a British businessman gave the salute to a Cologne airport employee and was arrested within 90 seconds by police at the scene.
YNetNews
Canadian tourist's fun and games taken seriously by local authorities after an attempt to stage a Monty Python-esque sketch in front of Reichstag leads to arrest.
What they fail to understand is that impersonating any Nazi gestures or using any Nazi regime symbols is illegal in Germany and is considered a severe crime with a punishment that includes imprisonment.
A 30-year-old Canadian tourist who visited the Reichstag and had apparently overlooked German laws and regulations and wished to make other visitors to the popular tourist attraction laugh, asked his girlfriend to film him while he gave a Heil Hitler salute.
It took less than a minute before policemen walked up to the Quebec resident and proceeded to handcuff and arrest him. The police also confiscated his digital camera's memory card Britain's Daily Mail reported on Monday.
The Canadian tourist now stands to be prosecuted for carrying out a 'forbidden gesture' and if convicted could be imprisoned for up to six months. Nevertheless, it is estimated that he will not be prosecuted but will be forced to pay a fine. Local media later reported that the tourist was released on bail a few hours after his arrest.
'You can call him a b*****d and you can give him the finger, but you cannot do that,' a German police officer said in response to the arrest.
Arresting foreign citizens over Nazi salutes has occurred in the past in Germany. Three years ago a British businessman gave the salute to a Cologne airport employee and was arrested within 90 seconds by police at the scene.
YNetNews
Monday, 28 February 2011
Pipers unite against white supremacists (France)
 |
| Yannick Martin |
Hundreds of traditional musicians from Brittany's top pipe bands, known as Bagadoù, convened on the town of Brest for the region's most prestigious championships on Sunday.
They were joined by thousands of fans in showing their support for Yannick Martin, a 24-year old virtuoso of the bombard, a double reed instrument from the oboe family, who has twice been crowned Brittany's champion player.
Mr Martin has been the target of a hate campaign by a Houston-based white supremacist website called Breiz Atao (Brittany Forever), the name of a Breton nationalist journal that supported Nazism in the second world war.
In a post called "le biniou et la bombarde" (a play on words for bagpipe and "wog"), commentators claimed that "an extra-European will never be a real Breton. Whether it pleases people or not, we've never seen black Celts." The site also included a provocative video later removed.
Mr Martin, born in Columbia but adopted and raised by a Breton family, has filed for charges of "racial discrimination". His brother, adopted and raised by a different family is also a top pipe player. Both play in one of the region's most acclaimed bands, Kemper, which competed in Brest yesterday.
Read this item in full at Telegraph
Olympic Logo Is ‘Racist’, Claims Iran (UK)
“The use of the word Zion by the designer of Olympics logo…in the emblem of the Olympics Games 2012 is a very revolting act,” says Mohammad Aliabadi, head of the National Olympic Committee in Iran, in an official letter to the International Olympic Committee.
In the same way that some people see Christ’s body in a dog’s arse, or the Virgin Mary on toast, the Iranians claim to see the word ‘Zion’ in the already maligned logo. And, yeah, it’s kind of there if you read top-left, down, up-again, then down to bottom-right, and tilt your head a little, and try and put Lisa Simpson out of your mind. But if you read left-to-right it might be a product placement for 1980′s toy line ‘Zoids‘. And if it does say ‘Zion’, perhaps the designer was a closet Matrix fan rather than a proponent of the Jewish homeland.
According to the Guardian, Iran may even boycott the games unless the logo is changed. Which ain’t going to happen. London would love to welcome the Iranian athletes into our city, but if their official representatives are going to get so uppity over some unintended pareidolia, they’re going to have a difficult time fitting in.
The Londonist
EDL BLASTED FOR SICK GUN STUNT (UK)
And it has renewed worries the anti-Islam group is ready to bring bloody conflict to British streets.
Disturbingly, the hooded thugs pose in front of flags bearing the name and No Surrender slogan of the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force.
The link to the UVF – a group responsible for at least 481 Catholic murders – has sparked fears factions of the anti-Islamic EDL could launch terror attacks against British Muslims.
The sinister snap was among a set posted on the web this month by men claiming to be from the EDL’s Birmingham Division.
In another, a man makes a sick Nazi salute.
Anti-fascist groups have slammed the EDL – led by ex-British National Party member Stephen Lennon, 28 – for not weeding out such extremists from their own ranks.
A spokesman from Searchlight said: “Time after time we hear from the likes of the EDL’s leadership how they are a non-racist organisation.
“Perhaps they would like to act now and tell us how they will deal with the further adulation of gun-toting extremists, in particular the UVF – an organisation that made its name in Ireland by murdering people whose sole crime normally was that they were born Catholics.”EDL leader Lennon – aka Tommy Robinson – and right-hand man Kevin Carroll, 41, are second generation Irish and have spoken in the past of their pride in their roots.
The EDL was formed in Luton, Beds, in 2009 and marches against Muslim extremism and Sharia law.
Around 1,500 people, many shouting racist chants, were at the latest protest in Luton on February 5.
Daily Star
Extremist British Muslim planning rally in front of White House is a ‘publicity whore,’ critics say (USA)
In his latest stunt, Choudary is calling for the United States to implement Sharia law and he plans to make the appeal at a rally in front of the White House Thursday. He told The Daily Caller in a phone interview that he is coming to Washington to explain to Americans “why Sharia is better for them.”
“I believe capitalism is dying a slow death right now, as you can see with the recession and with the credit crunch and with social and economic dismay the world as whole and the pandemic of promiscuity, drugs, alcohol and all the other diseases,” Choudary said. “That’s the worst and I believe it’s time for a change.”
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, a research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College in London, told TheDC that while Choudary’s persona has become a “joke” in Britain, what he advocates for is quite radical.
“Here, now, he’s seen as a little bit of a joke,” Hitchens said. “But, really, I should caveat that because Choudary is a part of a movement that’s been going on in the U.K. for maybe 15 or so years, which specifically calls for the establishment of Sharia law in the U.K. They want an Islamic state.”
Choudary co-founded Al-Muhajiroun, an extremist Islamist group currently banned in Britain, with Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, who was convicted in absentia last November in a Lebanese court and given a life sentence for training al-Qaeda recruits. Choudary is rumored to be traveling to the United States with Abu Izzadeen, who served three and a half years in a British prison for terrorist fundraising and inciting terrorism overseas. Izzadeen was released in May 2009.
Hitchens says the problem is that while Choudary may not fully believe what he preaches, his followers do. And while Choudary and his followers are technically against acts of violence, including suicide bombings, they won’t denounce such acts of terrorism when they occur. Choudary and his followers have repeatedly rejected opportunities to denounce the 9/11 terrorist attacks or the July 7, 2005 subway bombings in London – and in fact have publicly praised them. Al-Muhajiroun, for instance, infamously labeled the 19 hijackers responsible for the carnage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks the “Magnificent 19.”
“They wouldn’t advocate acts of violence,” Hitchens said. “But, at the same time, they do actually glorify it.”
Hitchens said that Choudary’s worldview and mission is similar to al Qaeda’s, “it’s just that they’re not going to carry out a bombing campaign.”
Douglas Murray, the director of Britain’s Centre for Social Cohesion, told TheDC that Choudary’s legal education allows him to be a “chancer” or an “opportunist.” Murray said Choudary knows how to run right up against the line of what is legally acceptable. That’s how Choudary can use his extremist Islamic views to get attention and stay out of trouble.
“This is his way to gain some sort of public profile,” Murray said. “It’s a very strange thing. I think he says things that are deliberately inflammatory in order to get attention. The American media has fallen for it in the same way the British media fell for it.”
Despite his clownish behavior, Murray recommends Americans still take Choudary seriously. “He’s treated as a bit of a joke by some people,” Murray said in a phone interview. “And what I’ve just said would suggest that he is a joke. But he’s not.”
Murray points out that 1 in every 6 terrorism-related convictions in the last decade can be linked to Choudary’s Al-Muhajiroun organization – and, even though that group is currently banned, its members still meet under different banners.
“It doesn’t, in a way, matter whether Choudary believes or not in what he says,” Murray said in a phone interview. “The problem is there are people in his group who follow him and do believe it.”
Hitchens said Choudary is a “publicity whore” and will get people who disagree with him riled up on purpose. He can then, Hitchens explained, go back to his followers and say, “see, they hate Muslims.”
“He has chosen a very good time in America to come and do this,” Hitchens said. “Because of the Ground Zero Mosque and because of the ways things are going in American discourse about Islam, and Muslims, and homegrown extremism, he’s going to come in there and force fuel onto the flames. In fact, that’s what he wants. He wants to escalate tensions.”
Though there is some question whether the terrorist-glorifying radical will be permitted to enter the United States, Choudary told TheDC that since he is a British citizen, he doesn’t need a visa, which makes the process of getting through Customs and Border Protection easier. And since, he says, he has “never been convicted of any crimes or terrorist offenses,” he doesn’t “see how I should be restricted in anyway.”
Citing privacy laws, the Department of Homeland Security refused to comment on whether Choudary will be allowed to enter the country when contacted by TheDC.
Daily Caller
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Galliano arrest spotlights rise in anti-Semitism
The arrest and suspension of couture designer John Galliano, amid allegations of a booze-fuelled outburst this weekend in a Paris district known for its Jewish community, has reinforced reports of an alarming increase in anti-Semitism.
The French fashion house Christian Dior suspended the designer in the aftermath of what is being described as a drunken confrontation with a couple in the Marais district.
Claims by the pair, denied by Galliano, that he used anti-Jewish and racist slurs against them drew him into a welter of controversy which has most recently led to career trouble for the actors Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson.
Galliano's representatives were last night trying to limit the damage caused by the controversy. His lawyer said the designer intended to claim for defamation and injury against his accusers and pronounced him shocked that Dior had suspended him.
The move came just days after the CBS television network pulled one of America's biggest comedy TV shows, Two and a Half Men. Although Charlie Sheen had tested the company's patience with cocaine and drink-fuelled binges, hotel-room orgies of violence and numerous tabloid eruptions, he overstepped the mark when he appeared to flirt with anti-Semitism in a radio broadcast, referring to the show's creator Chuck Lorre by the Hebrew name Chaim last Thursday.
Hollywood star Mel Gibson suffered another recent postponement of his latest film, The Beaver, capping nearly five years of serious career problems since he was recorded making anti-Semitic comments during a drink-driving arrest in 2006.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center last week highlighted what it suggests is an ongoing problem, with its list of the 10 most high profile anti-Semitic outbursts of 2010.
In the UK, the Community Security Trust, an advisory body for British Jews, warned of a steady increase in attacks in the UK since 1984, with 639 anti-Semitic incidents last year. This was the topped only by a freak jump in numbers the previous year during Israeli military operations in Gaza. Across Europe, monitoring groups report growing concern. On last year's 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, vandals marked at least 18 gravestones with swastikas when they desecrated a Jewish cemetery in France. France's main Jewish organisation, CRIF, said that 13 tombstones at the Cronenbourg cemetery in Strasbourg had also been overturned.
And in the former Soviet Union, anti-Semitic and ultranationalist skinheads increasingly profess themselves above the law. A judge withdrew from a politically charged Moscow murder trial this month involving fascists Nikita Tikhonov and Evgeniya Khasis, who are accused of killing human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in January 2009.
The sentencing judge for the trial, Eduard Chuvashov, was shot dead in April last year.
Star's dilemma
For what she must hope is her crowning moment at tonight's Oscars for her role in Black Swan, Natalie Portman will have wished for anything but the last-minute fashion crisis she now faces.
She is among a gaggle of high-profile guests, who, having been painstakingly fitted with one of Galliano's frocks, face a daunting decision over which dress to wear to the ball.
Galliano's alleged rant could see both Portman and her peers obliged to answer the most untimely and unwanted questions on anti-Semitism.
Penélope Cruz wore Galliano at last year's awards, as did Cameron Diaz, while Charlize Theron, Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto, and Heidi Klum are known to be a fans.
Meanwhile, the model Kate Moss recently revealed she asked Galliano to design the dress for her wedding later this year.
The Independant
Searchlight poll finds huge support for far right 'if they gave up violence' (UK)
Huge numbers of Britons would support an anti-immigration English nationalist party if it was not associated with violence and fascist imagery, according to the largest survey into identity and extremism conducted in the UK.
A Populus poll found that 48% of the population would consider supporting a new anti-immigration party committed to challenging Islamist extremism, and would support policies to make it statutory for all public buildings to fly the flag of St George or the union flag.
Anti-racism campaigners said the findings suggested Britain's mainstream parties were losing touch with public opinion on issues of identity and race.
The poll suggests that the level of backing for a far-right party could equal or even outstrip that in countries such as France, the Netherlands and Austria. France's National Front party hopes to secure 20% in the first round of the presidential vote next year. The Dutch anti-Islam party led by Geert Wilders attracted 15.5% of the vote in last year's parliamentary elections.
Anti-fascist groups said the poll's findings challenged the belief that Britons were more tolerant than other Europeans. "This is not because British people are more moderate, but simply because their views have not found a political articulation," said a report by the Searchlight Educational Trust, the anti-fascist charity that commissioned the poll.
According to the survey, 39% of Asian Britons, 34% of white Britons and 21% of black Britons wanted all immigration into the UK to be stopped permanently, or at least until the economy improved. And 43% of Asian Britons, 63% of white Britons and 17% of black Britons agreed with the statement that "immigration into Britain has been a bad thing for the country". Just over half of respondents – 52% – agreed with the proposition that "Muslims create problems in the UK".
Jon Cruddas, the Labour MP who fought a successful campaign against the British National party in his Dagenham and Rainham constituency in east London, said that the findings pointed to a "very real threat of a new potent political constituency built around an assertive English nationalism". The report identified a resurgence of English identity, with 39% preferring to call themselves English rather than British. Just 5% labelled themselves European.
Earlier this month David Cameron delivered a controversial speech on the failings of "state multiculturalism". The speech was seized on by the anti-Islamic English Defence League, which said that the prime minister was "coming round" to its way of thinking. BNP leader Nick Griffin also welcomed the speech as a sign that his party's ideas were entering "the political mainstream".
The poll also identified a majority keen to be allowed to openly criticise religion, with 60% believing they "should be allowed to say whatever they believe about religion". By contrast, fewer than half – 42% – said "people should be allowed to say whatever they believe about race".
The Guardian
WILDERS BOOK: ISLAM IS IDEOLOGY (Netherlands)
Populist MP Geert Wilders is writing a book about the history of Islam that argues it is not a religion but an ideology. The book, which was to be published in the first half of 2011, is now due to appear in the second half of the year, Mr Wilders told news website NU.nl. The initiative for the book, Mr Wilders says, comes from the United States, where it will appear first, to be followed by a Dutch translation. Mr Wilders also revealed he is working on a continuation of his short anti-Islam film but he couldn't yet say when it would be completed.
Regarding the unrest in the Arab world, the far-right politician claims that democracy will not take hold in the Maghreb and the Middle East unless people turn away from Islam. He warned that things could go either way and the future could see regimes that are even worse than those of ousted Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia or that of Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Regarding the unrest in the Arab world, the far-right politician claims that democracy will not take hold in the Maghreb and the Middle East unless people turn away from Islam. He warned that things could go either way and the future could see regimes that are even worse than those of ousted Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia or that of Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
ITALY ARRESTS MOROCCANS FOR INCITING HATRED OF POPE
Six Moroccan men have been arrested in northern Italy on suspicion of seeking to incite hatred of Pope Benedict among Muslims. Police in the city of Brescia said the suspects had allegedly banded together to stir up religious hatred. A note was found calling for the Pope to be punished for converting a Muslim journalist to Roman Catholicism. According to another source, the suspects are not suspected of planning attacks. Five of the men, who are all Brescia residents, were placed under house arrest while the sixth was taken into custody. The note found by police urges Muslim immigrants not to integrate into Italian society, Italian media report.
Police said the six were accused of "setting up a group that aimed to incite discrimination, racial and religious hatred, violence and jihad against Christians and Jews". The Pope was condemned for converting Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, a former columnist for Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Mr Allam, an outspoken critic of Muslim militancy and strong supporter of Israel, was baptised by the Pope in March 2008.
BBC News
Police said the six were accused of "setting up a group that aimed to incite discrimination, racial and religious hatred, violence and jihad against Christians and Jews". The Pope was condemned for converting Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, a former columnist for Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Mr Allam, an outspoken critic of Muslim militancy and strong supporter of Israel, was baptised by the Pope in March 2008.
BBC News
Web giant Facebook axes sickening hate site that shows Celtic boss Neil Lennon covered in blood (UK)
The gruesome, mocked-up image of the Celtic boss sparked furious complaints to the social network giant.
And Labour last night said the hateful attack on Lennon proved that tougher controls were needed to curb "hate crimes" on the internet.
The sick page, titled "Bet I can get one million people to hate Neil Lennon", featured a doctored photo of the Parkhead manager in his playing days - with around 40 fake bullet wounds on his head and body and "dead man walking". written on his shirt.
Lennon and two of his Northern Irish players, Paddy McCourt and Niall McGinn, were sent bullets through the post last month. Loyalist bigots in Ulster were blamed.
Facebook began an inquiry last week after a complaint about the page.
But at first, they allowed the site to stay active if the offending photos were removed. Bosses said the site was not in breach of Facebook's rules because Lennon is a public figure.
At the time, their spokesman said: "We want Facebook to be a place where people can express their views.
"Just as in the offline world, this means we sometimes come across views different to our own."
The photos were taken off the page, but they 'Abusive comments on these sites should be treated just like any hate crime re-appeared later last week. And last night, Facebook confirmed: "The page has been removed from the site.
"We encourage people to use Facebook's reporting tools when they encounter offensive content. "If it breaches our terms, it will be removed once reported to us."
Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker MSP said: "The level of abuse being posted each day on these sites is simply not acceptable.
"We really need to legislate to bring this type of conduct under the criminal law.
"Abusive comments on social networking sites should be treated like any other hate crime."
Last night, Lennon told the Sunday Mail that the honour of being Celtic boss made it worth putting up with death threats.
He said: "These are things out with my control. I can only take advice from the security people.
"It's worth it, there's no doubt about it. It's not tough, not at all. The only time it's tough is when you're a goal down at Ibrox after three minutes.
"The dugout is a good place to be, it's the thing I love doing. It's important for the players to know I'm fully focused on them."
Daily Record
2,000 in Jerusalem rally against racism
Around 2,000 Israelis rallied against racism in the centre of Jerusalem late Saturday after the murder of a Palestinian and calls by rabbis on landlords not to rent apartments to Arabs.
The demonstration, called by several left-wing groups, featured many young people brandishing placards condemning racism.
They called for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, leader of ultranationalist party leader Israel Beitenu, who have been accused of engendering a climate of xenophobia.
Israeli police have arrested four young Israelis, including two settlers, on suspicion of involvement in the crime. According to a neighbour of the victim was stabbed in an unprovoked attack as he returned home from work in west Jerusalem.
The Edmonton Journal
The demonstration, called by several left-wing groups, featured many young people brandishing placards condemning racism.
They called for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, leader of ultranationalist party leader Israel Beitenu, who have been accused of engendering a climate of xenophobia.
Israeli police have arrested four young Israelis, including two settlers, on suspicion of involvement in the crime. According to a neighbour of the victim was stabbed in an unprovoked attack as he returned home from work in west Jerusalem.
The Edmonton Journal
Supply teacher sacked for teaching teenager 'racist rhyme' to help him revise (UK)
A supply teacher was sacked for teaching a boy of 16 a racist rhyme to help him with his revision.
James Hersey, 68, recited: “Black boys rape our young girls, but virgins go without” to help the boy memorise the colour code for wiring electronic resistors. The code is black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, grey, white. He was sacked from Oriel High School in Crawley, West Sussex, and later found guilty of professional misconduct by the General Teaching Council.
The grandad-of-three, from Hove, East Sussex, denied being racist, claiming he was just an “old-fashioned teacher”.
Daily Mirror
James Hersey, 68, recited: “Black boys rape our young girls, but virgins go without” to help the boy memorise the colour code for wiring electronic resistors. The code is black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, grey, white. He was sacked from Oriel High School in Crawley, West Sussex, and later found guilty of professional misconduct by the General Teaching Council.
The grandad-of-three, from Hove, East Sussex, denied being racist, claiming he was just an “old-fashioned teacher”.
Daily Mirror
Saturday, 26 February 2011
The website of a left-leaning public broadcaster has removed a cartoon depicting a plan by the far-right PVV party as a Nazi death camp following serious threats to its staff. (Netherlands)
The cartoon, by Adriaan Soeterbroek and posted on the VARA’s Joop.nl site, ridiculed a PVV plan to create "hooligan villages", likening them to a Nazi concentration camp with PVV leader Geert Wilders showing the inmates into a shower. In World War II millions of people, mostly Jews and Roma gypsies, were killed in Nazi gas chambers disguised as showers.
The VARA says it removed the cartoon after careful consideration, saying that while freedom of expression is a key right some of its staff felt too threatened to continue working. The broadcaster has reported the incident to the police.
Due to its initial refusal to remove the cartoon, PVV top candidate Machiel de Graaf refused to participate in a debate the VARA broadcast on 16 February ahead of the 2 March provincial elections.
Radio Netherlands News
Pamela Geller's Anti-Islam Org Labelled A 'Hate Group' (USA)
Manhattan blogger Pamela Geller, the fiery and offensive Atlas Shrugs blogger who organizes vehemently anti-Islamic protests, is not just a far right-winger, but is actually now part of a 'hate group'.
That's coming from the Southern Poverty Law Center, who classified Geller's organization, Stop the Islamization of America, in the same class as the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists.
Atlas Shrugs has posted such stories as the one where Geller said Obama was actually the son of Malcolm X, while others are devoutly anti-union, anti-left and anti-Islam. She calls the organizers of Park51 "bloodsuckers" and whenever a Mosque goes up in the city, it is spun into a paranoid conspiracy theory.
In May, Geller purchased bus ads urging moderate Muslims to leave their faith. The ads read "Leaving Islam? Fatwa on your head? Is your family threatening you?"
Recently Geller made headlines with her fight against Park51, the proposed Islamic centre near ground zero, and went so far as to create weird posters that somehow meshed Wal-Mart in with Islam.
Geller herself shrugged off the dubious honour of being labelled part of a "hate group." From The Daily News:
Geller, who runs a blog called Atlas Shrugs, dismissed the Law Center as an "uber left" group that has "failed to address the greatest threat to our national security." "My group is a human rights group," she said. "And these people are taken seriously? This is the morally inverted state of the world."
Huffington Post
That's coming from the Southern Poverty Law Center, who classified Geller's organization, Stop the Islamization of America, in the same class as the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists.
Atlas Shrugs has posted such stories as the one where Geller said Obama was actually the son of Malcolm X, while others are devoutly anti-union, anti-left and anti-Islam. She calls the organizers of Park51 "bloodsuckers" and whenever a Mosque goes up in the city, it is spun into a paranoid conspiracy theory.
In May, Geller purchased bus ads urging moderate Muslims to leave their faith. The ads read "Leaving Islam? Fatwa on your head? Is your family threatening you?"
Recently Geller made headlines with her fight against Park51, the proposed Islamic centre near ground zero, and went so far as to create weird posters that somehow meshed Wal-Mart in with Islam.
Geller herself shrugged off the dubious honour of being labelled part of a "hate group." From The Daily News:
Geller, who runs a blog called Atlas Shrugs, dismissed the Law Center as an "uber left" group that has "failed to address the greatest threat to our national security." "My group is a human rights group," she said. "And these people are taken seriously? This is the morally inverted state of the world."
Huffington Post
Controversy over comments about Roma by Hungarian far-Right leader
During a parliament session on the 14th February, he said that a major problem in Hungary was the fast reproductive rate of the gypsy community.
The Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly László Kövér made no objection to this remark. When the Socialist chairman Attila Mesterházy later advised Kövér to take action against similar behaviour in the future, he was told by the Speaker to not commentate on how the session was being led or else he would not be allowed to speak.
Vona also spoke about the way in which gypsy crime, especially in the Borsod county, was causing people to live in a state of fear.
Whilst in parliament, the Jobbik leader was wearing the banned uniform of the Hungarian Guard, a paramilitary-style organisation he formed in 2007 but which was disbanded by the Metropolitan Court of Budapest in 2009 for activities that were deemed in contravention of the human rights of minorities.
This is not the first time that Vona has made such comments. At a speech at the end of January outlining the future strategies of his party, he expressed his view that it was essential to ‘slow the reproduction’ of Roma, promoting the idea of food stamps instead of financial benefits as a means to do so. This forms part of Jobbik’s intention to increase the number of Hungarian families and avoid Roma becoming ‘a majority in Hungary,’ even though the Romani community currently make up around 2% of the country’s total population.
In addition, he said that gypsy children should be educated in special boarding schools to break the cycle of crime that is passed on through generations in the gypsy community.
There have been strong reactions to Vona’s statements on the birth rate of Roma, with the current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declaring that ‘unnecessary life has never been born.’ Green party Politics Can Be Different added that such comments against Roma or other groups like Jews cannot be tolerated in today’s Hungary.
At present, Jobbik is Hungary’s third largest party, with 3 seats in the European Parliament. It describes its aim as defending the interests of Hungary, with support for Hungarians living in bordering countries to achieve self-determination. Jobbik has faced allegations of being fascist and anti-Semitic but these have been denied by the party.
Romea.az
Figures show an increase in homophobic and transphobic hate crimes (UK)
Hate crimes against gay and transgender people in Gloucestershire have risen according to new figures.
Victims reported almost 80 such crimes last year in the county with several areas such as Gloucester and the Forest of Dean seeing a rise in attacks.
These figures from the Safer Gloucester Partnership Research suggested figures were "just the tip of the iceberg", and for every hate crime reported at least five were not.
John Huggins, of The Westgate pub, which is aimed at the gay community, said he believed the figures showed more people were reporting the crimes.
He added: "I've not experienced any homophobia, except a few individuals name calling as they walk past the outside of The Westgate, mainly at night."
In 2005, 24-year-old barman Jody Debrowski, from Stroud, was murdered in a homophobic attack in London. Despite the shock waves his death caused, the county research show hate crime has not gone away here.
The figures show a rise of 11.4 per cent in 2009/10 than 2008/9.
In Gloucester, 23 homophobic crimes were reported to police in 2009/10, an increase of 15 incidents compared to the previous year. Meanwhile the Forest saw a rise with five crimes in 2008/09 rising to 13 in 2009/10 - a 160 per cent increase.
Police spokesman Chris Jackson said: "In the past, some people may have felt an incident was too trivial or insignificant to report and wouldn't be taken seriously, but that is no longer the case.
"People are now far less tolerant of any homophobic or transphobic incidents, realise they are unacceptable and come forward to report them."
This is Gloucestershire
Victims reported almost 80 such crimes last year in the county with several areas such as Gloucester and the Forest of Dean seeing a rise in attacks.
These figures from the Safer Gloucester Partnership Research suggested figures were "just the tip of the iceberg", and for every hate crime reported at least five were not.
John Huggins, of The Westgate pub, which is aimed at the gay community, said he believed the figures showed more people were reporting the crimes.
He added: "I've not experienced any homophobia, except a few individuals name calling as they walk past the outside of The Westgate, mainly at night."
In 2005, 24-year-old barman Jody Debrowski, from Stroud, was murdered in a homophobic attack in London. Despite the shock waves his death caused, the county research show hate crime has not gone away here.
The figures show a rise of 11.4 per cent in 2009/10 than 2008/9.
In Gloucester, 23 homophobic crimes were reported to police in 2009/10, an increase of 15 incidents compared to the previous year. Meanwhile the Forest saw a rise with five crimes in 2008/09 rising to 13 in 2009/10 - a 160 per cent increase.
Police spokesman Chris Jackson said: "In the past, some people may have felt an incident was too trivial or insignificant to report and wouldn't be taken seriously, but that is no longer the case.
"People are now far less tolerant of any homophobic or transphobic incidents, realise they are unacceptable and come forward to report them."
This is Gloucestershire
More neo-Nazi offences reported (Austria)
The frequency of National Socialist activities is on the rise, new figures show.
The justice ministry said yesterday (Thurs) that 741 people were reported for spreading neo-Nazi propaganda or engaging in crimes with a far-right political background last year, up by 39.5 per cent to 2009 when 513 such cases were dealt with by the police and state prosecutors.
Forty-five people were sentenced for such crimes last year, down one from 46 in the previous year, according to the ministry which released the figures upon request by Social Democratic (SPÖ) MP Johann Maier. Long-term figures however show that the number of people found guilty of such acts has been on the rise over the past years. Just 11 people were sentenced for National Socialist activities in 1998.
Meanwhile, a taxi driver in Vienna has been accused of throwing out an opera singer because of the colour of her skin.
US star Angel Blue said yesterday she was ordered to get out of the vehicle moments after she entered it. "The driver said: ‘I don't drive black women - get out!’" the 27-year-old claimed.
Blue said the driver was a grey-haired Austrian aged between 50 and 60. She appealed on police to find the man, while the Association of Taxi Drivers in Vienna argued this was "impossible" considering the 4,500 cabs in the city.
Austria Independent
The justice ministry said yesterday (Thurs) that 741 people were reported for spreading neo-Nazi propaganda or engaging in crimes with a far-right political background last year, up by 39.5 per cent to 2009 when 513 such cases were dealt with by the police and state prosecutors.
Forty-five people were sentenced for such crimes last year, down one from 46 in the previous year, according to the ministry which released the figures upon request by Social Democratic (SPÖ) MP Johann Maier. Long-term figures however show that the number of people found guilty of such acts has been on the rise over the past years. Just 11 people were sentenced for National Socialist activities in 1998.
Meanwhile, a taxi driver in Vienna has been accused of throwing out an opera singer because of the colour of her skin.
US star Angel Blue said yesterday she was ordered to get out of the vehicle moments after she entered it. "The driver said: ‘I don't drive black women - get out!’" the 27-year-old claimed.
Blue said the driver was a grey-haired Austrian aged between 50 and 60. She appealed on police to find the man, while the Association of Taxi Drivers in Vienna argued this was "impossible" considering the 4,500 cabs in the city.
Austria Independent
‘Citizen’s arrest’ ends in court (UK)
BNP father and son deny assaulting man over vandalised poster
Two members of the British National Party tried to carry out a citizen’s arrest on a man who was defacing a party poster in Aberdeen, a court has heard.
Steven Thomson, 42, and his son Gregor Thomson, 21, deny assaulting Stefan Knust, but admit trying to detain him while they waited for police in Great Northern Road on March 25 last year.
The men were guarding the poster, after one had been vandalised the night before, when they saw two men run up and throw paint over it, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard yesterday.
The pair are alleged to have repeatedly punched Mr Knust on the head and body and repeatedly kicked him.
Steven Thomson, of 5 Gibblestone House, Scalloway, Shetland, told the court he had spent 12 years in the Army, worked in the prison service and been trying to enter the police force when he discovered he suffered from a genetic heart problem.
He said a security firm had been hired to protect the poster during the day, but he had been tasked with guarding it at night.
Two men ran away after throwing paint on the poster, but Mr Knust fell as he crossed the road, Thomson said.
“I grabbed him with my right hand by his collar,” he said. “He was using his arms to try to break my grip of his clothing.”
Thomson sen was trying to video the vandalism using a camera, but had accidentally turned the recording function off, the court heard.
Thomson told the court he had helped to chase and detain the person who had vandalised the poster the previous night, which had cost £600 to replace.
When asked by fiscal depute Victoria White if he was “annoyed and angry” about the vandalism, he replied: “Yes”.
His son, of 10A Summerfield Place, Aberdeen, said they had intended to carry out a “citizen’s arrest”, and “take hold of them with reasonable force” until the police arrived.
Both men have left the BNP, the court heard yesterday.
The case will return to court next month, when Sheriff Malcolm Garden asked to be addressed on when a person is entitled to perform a citizen’s arrest.
Press and Journal
Two members of the British National Party tried to carry out a citizen’s arrest on a man who was defacing a party poster in Aberdeen, a court has heard.
Steven Thomson, 42, and his son Gregor Thomson, 21, deny assaulting Stefan Knust, but admit trying to detain him while they waited for police in Great Northern Road on March 25 last year.
The men were guarding the poster, after one had been vandalised the night before, when they saw two men run up and throw paint over it, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard yesterday.
The pair are alleged to have repeatedly punched Mr Knust on the head and body and repeatedly kicked him.
Steven Thomson, of 5 Gibblestone House, Scalloway, Shetland, told the court he had spent 12 years in the Army, worked in the prison service and been trying to enter the police force when he discovered he suffered from a genetic heart problem.
He said a security firm had been hired to protect the poster during the day, but he had been tasked with guarding it at night.
Two men ran away after throwing paint on the poster, but Mr Knust fell as he crossed the road, Thomson said.
“I grabbed him with my right hand by his collar,” he said. “He was using his arms to try to break my grip of his clothing.”
Thomson sen was trying to video the vandalism using a camera, but had accidentally turned the recording function off, the court heard.
Thomson told the court he had helped to chase and detain the person who had vandalised the poster the previous night, which had cost £600 to replace.
When asked by fiscal depute Victoria White if he was “annoyed and angry” about the vandalism, he replied: “Yes”.
His son, of 10A Summerfield Place, Aberdeen, said they had intended to carry out a “citizen’s arrest”, and “take hold of them with reasonable force” until the police arrived.
Both men have left the BNP, the court heard yesterday.
The case will return to court next month, when Sheriff Malcolm Garden asked to be addressed on when a person is entitled to perform a citizen’s arrest.
Press and Journal
Friday, 25 February 2011
EDL dismisses Jewish arm as too extreme (UK)
The head of the EDL's Jewish division, Roberta Moore, previously announced that the group was working with the JTF, whose leader Victor Vancier has been imprisoned for terrorism offences.
This week the EDL's leadership issued a statement saying that if the Jewish Division continued relations with the JTF, they would sever ties with her.
It said: "A member of the Jewish Division this week decided to link herself with terrorist organisation JTF. This was the decision and wishes of one single individual within the EDL, and does not mean that the EDL is linked with this movement.
"If they [the Jewish EDL] continue with their plans to forge links with the terrorist JTF, the EDL will have no option but to sever its links with the Jewish division as we cannot support terrorist sympathisers."
But Ms Moore said she was determined to continue the affiliation. She said the EDL leadership who had released the statement were "complete idiots," adding: "I have put my foot down; I am the one in contact with the JTF. If some people don't like it, then screw them. There are lots of Jewish people very upset that the EDL put out that statement - and I haven't received any personal messages telling me to cut off contact with Victor."
However, the EDL made it clear that they and Ms Moore were at odds on the matter. A spokesman said: "The EDL never has and never will have any affiliations with the Jewish Task Force. Unfortunately Ms Moore has caused a great deal of trouble and unrest within the EDL because of her gung-ho attitude."
Victor Vancier spent five years in prison from 1987 for 18 bomb attacks against Soviet targets in the US to protest against the treatment of Soviet Jews.
He posted on the JTF forum: "There are elements in the EDL who desperately want to be accepted by the leftwing establishment and the media. These elements have no principles or courage. Roberta Moore and the Jewish Division represent courageous and noble elements. If the EDL is not willing to work with JTF, then they are rejecting all rightwing Jews, evangelical Christians and others who believe in the right of the Jewish people to the entire land of Israel."
The Jewish Chronicle
Minorities complain of rising racism in Russian universities
There's increasing concern about the high levels of discrimination which ethnic minority students face if they study at Russian universities. Insults, beatings and official harrassment are among the complaints.
Fenced off public squares guarded by hundreds of security officers are not an uncommon sight in Moscow. City authorities are anxious to avoid gatherings that could lead to violent clashes between right-wing hooligans and ethnic minorities.
Such street battles first happened in December, after a football fan was killed, allegedly by people from the Caucasus region of Russia. Making an appeal for calm at the time, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addressed the issue of extremism and discrimination in Russian society - normally a taboo for the authorities.
Putin called the extremism a "virus" that had to be suppressed. He could also have mentioned the fact that many of those who participated in the riots were students. Indeed, racism at Russian universities appears to be a growing problem.
Ten years ago, Moscow University law student Aida moved to live in the Russian capital with her family from Dagestan in the North Caucasus - now infamous as a stronghold of Islamist terrorism. With her long dark hair and dark eyes, 22-year-old Aida says she that she is discriminated against because of her origin, and because of fears of terrorism.
"Just recently there was another unpleasant incident at my own faculty," said Aida. "It was just after the blast at Domodedovo airport at the end of January. As always I showed my student card to the security at the entrance. And he just started swearing at me with racist remarks and said something about me probably not even knowing Russian."
North Caucasus students asked to inform
It's not only fellow students and security staff who treat students from the North Caucasus in an unfriendly manner. The university authorities are also guilty, according to Dmitriy Dubrovski, a human rights expert and professor of history at the University of St. Petersburg.
“My students didn't tell me at first," said Dubrovski. “Then I found out that everyone from the North Caucasus has to fill out a couple of forms, in which they are questioned about their relatives: where they live, if they're members of a rebel group, what property they own, what cars they drive and so on. That's outrageous. If nothing else, it's a breach of article 51 of the Russian constitution that guarantees that you don't have to give testimony against your own relatives."
Students from the North Caucasus are not the only ones suffering from xenophobia. There are around 130,000 foreign students at Russian universities, many from China, Vietnam or African countries.
Though they regularly suffer racist remarks, even from staff, Dubrovski said that hardly anyone complains.
"The main difficulty is that no one talks about the problems," he said. "Countries like China and Vietnam for example don't even want their students to complain and would prefer them to leave Russia if there is a problem. They don't want to risk their relations with Russia. As a result, the students put up with everything with gritted teeth and we don't have a clue what is really going on."
Beaten up for talking to Russian girl
Boris Dengsten from Congo came to Russia three years ago, because it was a perfect chance to get a quality university degree. In May last year he was beaten up by more than a dozen Russian students who had been drinking, after they saw him and another student from Congo talking to a Russian girl at a bus stop.
#b#"One of them pulled the girl on her arm and asked her: Why do you speak to these apes," said Dengsten. "I said, ‘Where do you see apes, we are people too, aren't we?' And he just continued swearing at us. And then he hit me really hard, I almost fell. And when my friend hit him back to stop him, we were attacked by 15 Russians at once."
In the end it was Dengsten, not any of the Russian students, who was expelled from university - for having started a fight. While his case may be an extreme one, it shows the dangers that non-European students may face. Those with black skin or an Asian appearance rarely venture out alone at night.
Dengsten made his story public in the Russian courts with help from human rights organizations, but he lost his case. Now the 26-year-old has given up and will return to Congo, where an uncertain future awaits him: universities in Congo only accept new students who are under 25. The fact that he hoped to gain a university degree in Russia, Dengsten believes, could turn out to have been the biggest mistake of his life.
Author: Mareike Aden, Moscow / rc
Editor: Michael Lawton
DW-World
Fenced off public squares guarded by hundreds of security officers are not an uncommon sight in Moscow. City authorities are anxious to avoid gatherings that could lead to violent clashes between right-wing hooligans and ethnic minorities.
Such street battles first happened in December, after a football fan was killed, allegedly by people from the Caucasus region of Russia. Making an appeal for calm at the time, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addressed the issue of extremism and discrimination in Russian society - normally a taboo for the authorities.
Putin called the extremism a "virus" that had to be suppressed. He could also have mentioned the fact that many of those who participated in the riots were students. Indeed, racism at Russian universities appears to be a growing problem.
Ten years ago, Moscow University law student Aida moved to live in the Russian capital with her family from Dagestan in the North Caucasus - now infamous as a stronghold of Islamist terrorism. With her long dark hair and dark eyes, 22-year-old Aida says she that she is discriminated against because of her origin, and because of fears of terrorism.
"Just recently there was another unpleasant incident at my own faculty," said Aida. "It was just after the blast at Domodedovo airport at the end of January. As always I showed my student card to the security at the entrance. And he just started swearing at me with racist remarks and said something about me probably not even knowing Russian."
North Caucasus students asked to inform
It's not only fellow students and security staff who treat students from the North Caucasus in an unfriendly manner. The university authorities are also guilty, according to Dmitriy Dubrovski, a human rights expert and professor of history at the University of St. Petersburg.
“My students didn't tell me at first," said Dubrovski. “Then I found out that everyone from the North Caucasus has to fill out a couple of forms, in which they are questioned about their relatives: where they live, if they're members of a rebel group, what property they own, what cars they drive and so on. That's outrageous. If nothing else, it's a breach of article 51 of the Russian constitution that guarantees that you don't have to give testimony against your own relatives."
Students from the North Caucasus are not the only ones suffering from xenophobia. There are around 130,000 foreign students at Russian universities, many from China, Vietnam or African countries.
Though they regularly suffer racist remarks, even from staff, Dubrovski said that hardly anyone complains.
"The main difficulty is that no one talks about the problems," he said. "Countries like China and Vietnam for example don't even want their students to complain and would prefer them to leave Russia if there is a problem. They don't want to risk their relations with Russia. As a result, the students put up with everything with gritted teeth and we don't have a clue what is really going on."
Beaten up for talking to Russian girl
Boris Dengsten from Congo came to Russia three years ago, because it was a perfect chance to get a quality university degree. In May last year he was beaten up by more than a dozen Russian students who had been drinking, after they saw him and another student from Congo talking to a Russian girl at a bus stop.
#b#"One of them pulled the girl on her arm and asked her: Why do you speak to these apes," said Dengsten. "I said, ‘Where do you see apes, we are people too, aren't we?' And he just continued swearing at us. And then he hit me really hard, I almost fell. And when my friend hit him back to stop him, we were attacked by 15 Russians at once."
In the end it was Dengsten, not any of the Russian students, who was expelled from university - for having started a fight. While his case may be an extreme one, it shows the dangers that non-European students may face. Those with black skin or an Asian appearance rarely venture out alone at night.
Dengsten made his story public in the Russian courts with help from human rights organizations, but he lost his case. Now the 26-year-old has given up and will return to Congo, where an uncertain future awaits him: universities in Congo only accept new students who are under 25. The fact that he hoped to gain a university degree in Russia, Dengsten believes, could turn out to have been the biggest mistake of his life.
Author: Mareike Aden, Moscow / rc
Editor: Michael Lawton
DW-World
Interactive experience looks at Nazi attitudes to disabled people (UK)A unique exhibition examining the similarities between Nazi and modern attitudes to disabled people will be shown at The Brewhouse from February 26 to April 9. Resistance is a dual-screen interactive installation, comprising drama and documentary films and an immersive audio-video experience, which takes as its starting point the Nazi programme of mass-murder targeting disabled people living in institutions and, importantly, disabled people's resistance to it. The opening film follows the story of Elise, a patient who sweeps the institution. She doesn't speak but watches everything. She watches buses full of patients' leave and return empty. When it's her turn, she knows what's in store. Based on real events, this is the story of one woman's resistance in the only way she could. Over a decade in the making, it is the latest project from award-winning writer-director Liz Crow, whose previous work has been shown at Tate Modern and the British Film Institute. Miss Crow said: “This is an episode of history that is virtually hidden, yet the values that underpinned it still echo through disabled people's lives today. “It is a timely piece of work that I hope people will not only be moved, but also empowered by. I want people to come away feeling inspired to get involved, be effective and find the courage to be a part of change. “Resistance is about a sense of possibility.” The Brewhouse Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5.30pm.
Resistance is a dual-screen interactive installation, comprising drama and documentary films and an immersive audio-video experience, which takes as its starting point the Nazi programme of mass-murder targeting disabled people living in institutions and, importantly, disabled people's resistance to it. The opening film follows the story of Elise, a patient who sweeps the institution. She doesn't speak but watches everything. She watches buses full of patients' leave and return empty. When it's her turn, she knows what's in store. Based on real events, this is the story of one woman's resistance in the only way she could.
Over a decade in the making, it is the latest project from award-winning writer-director Liz Crow, whose previous work has been shown at Tate Modern and the British Film Institute.
Miss Crow said: “This is an episode of history that is virtually hidden, yet the values that underpinned it still echo through disabled people's lives today.
“It is a timely piece of work that I hope people will not only be moved, but also empowered by. I want people to come away feeling inspired to get involved, be effective and find the courage to be a part of change.
“Resistance is about a sense of possibility.”
The Brewhouse Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5.30pm.
Somerset County Gazette
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Jews, Arabs unite on UK campuses (UK)
Trained campus 'ambassadors' to promote conflict resolution, prevent heckling during lectures. Gerald Ronson: When Islamophobia hurts Muslims, it also hurts Jews
British campuses serve as fertile ground for heated political debates between Israelis and Arabs, but a new initiative sponsored by Gerald Ronson, one of the wealthiest Jews in the UK, aims to combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia at universities across the country.
As part of the Campus Ambassadors program, 20 Muslim and Jewish students with leadership skills underwent six months of training in conflict resolution, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported on Monday.
The 'ambassadors' for the Coexistence Trust are currently enrolled in 10 of the UK's leading universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and the University of Manchester.
Now that they have completed their training, the students will begin working on joint projects and promote "damage control" activities. For example, the students will make certain that those who are invited to speak at the universities, regardless of their politics, will be able to speak their minds and not be heckled by either Jews or Muslims.
One of the 'ambassadors', Yuval Yaakov, attends Imperial College in London. "My hope is that we will be able to prove that Jew and can coexist and promote productive dialogue," he says.
Coexistence Trust chairman Lord Mitchell, who hosted the launch, said, "Islamophobia is the same poison as anti-Semitism, coming from the same people, and both our communities have to work together to counter all this. Together we can be much stronger than if we try to do it separately."
Ronson added "when Islamophobia hurts Muslims, it also hurts Jews."
The launching of the program at the House of Lords was attended by Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, the first Muslim woman to serve in the British cabinet.
YNetNews
British campuses serve as fertile ground for heated political debates between Israelis and Arabs, but a new initiative sponsored by Gerald Ronson, one of the wealthiest Jews in the UK, aims to combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia at universities across the country.
As part of the Campus Ambassadors program, 20 Muslim and Jewish students with leadership skills underwent six months of training in conflict resolution, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported on Monday.
The 'ambassadors' for the Coexistence Trust are currently enrolled in 10 of the UK's leading universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and the University of Manchester.
Now that they have completed their training, the students will begin working on joint projects and promote "damage control" activities. For example, the students will make certain that those who are invited to speak at the universities, regardless of their politics, will be able to speak their minds and not be heckled by either Jews or Muslims.
One of the 'ambassadors', Yuval Yaakov, attends Imperial College in London. "My hope is that we will be able to prove that Jew and can coexist and promote productive dialogue," he says.
Coexistence Trust chairman Lord Mitchell, who hosted the launch, said, "Islamophobia is the same poison as anti-Semitism, coming from the same people, and both our communities have to work together to counter all this. Together we can be much stronger than if we try to do it separately."
Ronson added "when Islamophobia hurts Muslims, it also hurts Jews."
The launching of the program at the House of Lords was attended by Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, the first Muslim woman to serve in the British cabinet.
YNetNews
Grampian Police complaints and race crime reports rise (UK)
Grampian Police has been told to take action after a large rise in complaints against officers and reports of racially-motivated crimes.
Complaints against officers increased by almost 70% from just under 300 in 2006/07 to almost 500 in 2009/10, according to a new report.
The number of reported racially-motivated crimes rose from 449 to 879.
However, detection rates improved from 59.9% in 2006/07 to 69.3%, above the the Scottish average.
The Accounts Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland compiled the report.
It said Grampian Police and the joint police board performed well, but that more progress could be made.
The report said that the force considers members of the public are more prepared to make complaints because they have confidence in its willingness to deal with them.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling”
End Quote Andrew Laing Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary
It said that evidence suggests that the force was meticulous in recording complaints and this, coupled with changes in recording processes, may have accounted for some of the increase.
The report revealed an overall reduction in recorded crimes since 2006/07 and crimes of violence, indecency, dishonesty and reckless behaviour were at their lowest level for seven years.
Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, Andrew Laing, said: "Grampian Police force is performing well and demonstrates many of the elements of best value.
"Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling.
"However, it is unclear why recorded instances of racially-motivated crime and complaints against the police have increased and the force should make further efforts to understand and explain this."
'Excellent report'
The force and the board are to produce an improvement plan to show how they intend to address the findings.
Chief Constable Colin McKerracher said: "This is an excellent report that acknowledges the tremendous effort that has gone into our strategy for delivering the highest quality of policing for the people of the north east of Scotland.
"Over the past few years we have seen our officer numbers rise, crime rates across the region fall to a seven-year low and with detection rates for violent crime at their highest level over the same period."
The force said it recognised and acknowledged the areas for improvement.
BBC News
Complaints against officers increased by almost 70% from just under 300 in 2006/07 to almost 500 in 2009/10, according to a new report.
The number of reported racially-motivated crimes rose from 449 to 879.
However, detection rates improved from 59.9% in 2006/07 to 69.3%, above the the Scottish average.
The Accounts Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland compiled the report.
It said Grampian Police and the joint police board performed well, but that more progress could be made.
The report said that the force considers members of the public are more prepared to make complaints because they have confidence in its willingness to deal with them.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling”
End Quote Andrew Laing Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary
It said that evidence suggests that the force was meticulous in recording complaints and this, coupled with changes in recording processes, may have accounted for some of the increase.
The report revealed an overall reduction in recorded crimes since 2006/07 and crimes of violence, indecency, dishonesty and reckless behaviour were at their lowest level for seven years.
Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, Andrew Laing, said: "Grampian Police force is performing well and demonstrates many of the elements of best value.
"Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling.
"However, it is unclear why recorded instances of racially-motivated crime and complaints against the police have increased and the force should make further efforts to understand and explain this."
'Excellent report'
The force and the board are to produce an improvement plan to show how they intend to address the findings.
Chief Constable Colin McKerracher said: "This is an excellent report that acknowledges the tremendous effort that has gone into our strategy for delivering the highest quality of policing for the people of the north east of Scotland.
"Over the past few years we have seen our officer numbers rise, crime rates across the region fall to a seven-year low and with detection rates for violent crime at their highest level over the same period."
The force said it recognised and acknowledged the areas for improvement.
BBC News
Court ruling pushes race-hate thugs underground (Russia)
The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office has suspended the activities of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) and will seek a court decision to declare it an extremist organization. The movement’s leaders warn that this will only force their members to go underground and that it risks sparking repeat riots on Manezh Square.
The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office investigated whether the Movement Against Illegal Immigration was within the law and concluded that “it is pursuing extremist goals and objectives.” Prosecutor Yury Semin personally signed the ruling suspending the group’s activity, his next move will be to seek a court ruling banning it.
Movement spokesmen told Gazeta.ru that they had only just received a copy of the ruling. “Plainclothes officers from the Moscow anti-extremism squad gave the document to movement leader Vladimir Yermolayev in Gostiny Dvor, where we had a news conference scheduled for today,” Alexander Belov (Potkin), DPNI’s informal leader, said. He believes the authorities chose not to warn them about the ban so as not to spark a protest.
Now Belov and his followers propose “taking all possible legal action.” But he is less than confident that the ruling will be in his favor. “There is no real court system here so the decision will be a formality,” Belov said. Even after the ban, which Belov describes as a done deal, the Dpni.org site and “public control centers” will stay in the open – units of the movement that render legal aid to “people in conflict situations,” i.e. nationalists facing extremism charges.
“The authorities have banned the largest nationalist organization and the need for a large-scale national-oriented political structure is now more pressing than ever before,” Belov argues. He is confident that a right-wing party will appear in Russia, though he is not going to register one formally. He has a stark warning for the authorities: the nationalists will call people out onto the streets.
Dmitry Demushkin, former leader of Slavic Union, said exactly that almost a year ago: “We will simply stop reining in the ‘autonomous’ gangs, who knife Tajiks and blow up markets.” However, when the Slavic Union was banned in April 2010, human rights activists did not observe any spike in the activity of neo-Nazi killers on Russian streets: legal nationalists and ‘autonomous’ cells essentially do not cooperate with each other, while autonomous radicals fill their blogs, forums and online communities with repeated calls to kill both Demushkin and Belov, deeming them traitors.”
No deadline has been set for examining the ban. The precedent is not encouraging: only a few days after the Slavic Union was banned, Demushkin set up a new nationalist organization registered under the name of Slavic Force.
RiaNovosti
The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office investigated whether the Movement Against Illegal Immigration was within the law and concluded that “it is pursuing extremist goals and objectives.” Prosecutor Yury Semin personally signed the ruling suspending the group’s activity, his next move will be to seek a court ruling banning it.
Movement spokesmen told Gazeta.ru that they had only just received a copy of the ruling. “Plainclothes officers from the Moscow anti-extremism squad gave the document to movement leader Vladimir Yermolayev in Gostiny Dvor, where we had a news conference scheduled for today,” Alexander Belov (Potkin), DPNI’s informal leader, said. He believes the authorities chose not to warn them about the ban so as not to spark a protest.
Now Belov and his followers propose “taking all possible legal action.” But he is less than confident that the ruling will be in his favor. “There is no real court system here so the decision will be a formality,” Belov said. Even after the ban, which Belov describes as a done deal, the Dpni.org site and “public control centers” will stay in the open – units of the movement that render legal aid to “people in conflict situations,” i.e. nationalists facing extremism charges.
“The authorities have banned the largest nationalist organization and the need for a large-scale national-oriented political structure is now more pressing than ever before,” Belov argues. He is confident that a right-wing party will appear in Russia, though he is not going to register one formally. He has a stark warning for the authorities: the nationalists will call people out onto the streets.
Dmitry Demushkin, former leader of Slavic Union, said exactly that almost a year ago: “We will simply stop reining in the ‘autonomous’ gangs, who knife Tajiks and blow up markets.” However, when the Slavic Union was banned in April 2010, human rights activists did not observe any spike in the activity of neo-Nazi killers on Russian streets: legal nationalists and ‘autonomous’ cells essentially do not cooperate with each other, while autonomous radicals fill their blogs, forums and online communities with repeated calls to kill both Demushkin and Belov, deeming them traitors.”
No deadline has been set for examining the ban. The precedent is not encouraging: only a few days after the Slavic Union was banned, Demushkin set up a new nationalist organization registered under the name of Slavic Force.
RiaNovosti
Neo-Nazi worked at Zurich university (Switzerland)
The University of Zurich’s student newspaper revealed today that a neo-Nazi had been working in their philosophy department for four years.
In 1999 the unnamed man was convicted in Dortmund, Germany for spraying swastikas and slogans promoting labour camps on walls. He was seen as someone who could take the neo-Nazi scene in Dortmund forward and had founded a local arm of the German Nationalists party.
As subsequently reported by the 20 Minuten newspaper, the person did not have their contract renewed at the end of last year after colleagues found out about his past, and because there was not enough progress in his doctoral thesis.
The Dean of the Philosophy, Professor Bernd Roeck, said it was unfortunate that someone with such a past took the assistant position at the expense of others.
World Radio
In 1999 the unnamed man was convicted in Dortmund, Germany for spraying swastikas and slogans promoting labour camps on walls. He was seen as someone who could take the neo-Nazi scene in Dortmund forward and had founded a local arm of the German Nationalists party.
As subsequently reported by the 20 Minuten newspaper, the person did not have their contract renewed at the end of last year after colleagues found out about his past, and because there was not enough progress in his doctoral thesis.
The Dean of the Philosophy, Professor Bernd Roeck, said it was unfortunate that someone with such a past took the assistant position at the expense of others.
World Radio
Arlington man pleads guilty to federal hate crime at mosque (USA)
An Arlington man pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to a hate crime at an Arlington mosque this past summer when he set fire to playground equipment at the mosque.
Henry Glaspell, 34, faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
According to court documents, attorneys in the case are recommending a 14-month sentence, but the presiding judge is not bound by that recommendation.
During the plea hearing, Glaspell admitted that he set fire to playground equipment at the mosque in July as part of a series of ethnically motivated acts directed at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent associated with the mosque, a U.S. Justice Department news release said.
Glaspell also admitted that he stole and damaged mosque property, threw used cat litter at the front door of the mosque, and shouted racial or ethnic slurs at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent at the mosque on multiple occasions, according to the release.
This is the 50th prosecution of post-Sept. 11, 2001, backlash against Arab and Muslim Americans, the release said.
Jamal Qaddura, spokesman for the Tarrant County Islamic community, said surveillance cameras at the Dar El-Eman Islamic Center, 5511 Mansfield Road, caught Glaspell spray-painting graffiti and setting fire to playground equipment valued at more than $11,800.
Qaddura said he will ask people from the mosque to help him craft a victims' impact statement to deliver to the court prior to sentencing.
"I am praying for him and wish him all the best," Qaddura said. "I and the community have asked God to forgive him, but he has to pay his debt to society."
Star-Telegraph.com
Henry Glaspell, 34, faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
According to court documents, attorneys in the case are recommending a 14-month sentence, but the presiding judge is not bound by that recommendation.
During the plea hearing, Glaspell admitted that he set fire to playground equipment at the mosque in July as part of a series of ethnically motivated acts directed at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent associated with the mosque, a U.S. Justice Department news release said.
Glaspell also admitted that he stole and damaged mosque property, threw used cat litter at the front door of the mosque, and shouted racial or ethnic slurs at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent at the mosque on multiple occasions, according to the release.
This is the 50th prosecution of post-Sept. 11, 2001, backlash against Arab and Muslim Americans, the release said.
Jamal Qaddura, spokesman for the Tarrant County Islamic community, said surveillance cameras at the Dar El-Eman Islamic Center, 5511 Mansfield Road, caught Glaspell spray-painting graffiti and setting fire to playground equipment valued at more than $11,800.
Qaddura said he will ask people from the mosque to help him craft a victims' impact statement to deliver to the court prior to sentencing.
"I am praying for him and wish him all the best," Qaddura said. "I and the community have asked God to forgive him, but he has to pay his debt to society."
Star-Telegraph.com
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