Dutch government misses Senate majority, say exit polls (Netherlands)

The Dutch centre-right cabinet, backed by an anti-Islam party, is set to fall short of a majority in the Senate after regional polls, exit polls suggest.

They predict that the two government parties and Geert Wilders' Freedom Party would win 35 out of 75 seats.

This could derail the implementation of some of the key policy pledges of the cabinet led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, analysts warn.

Officials result of the regional polls are expected overnight.
MPs anger

Exit polls suggest that Mr Rutte's Liberal VVD party, the Christian Democrats (CDA) and Mr Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) will secure 35 seats in the Senate.

If confirmed, this is three short of the majority needed to pass laws through the veto-wielding upper house.

Analysts say the minority government is hoping to win support form some smaller parties, but even this may not be enough to muster a majority.

Mr Rutte's five-month-old cabinet has pledged to ban the full Islamic veil in the country, to impose curbs on immigration and also to implement budget cuts.

However, last year's coalition deal angered some CDA lawmakers who said they would not work with Mr Wilders.

Last year, he went on trial in Amsterdam on charges of inciting hatred with his film Fitna (Division).

The film juxtaposes the Muslim holy book, the Koran, with the 9/11 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people in the US were killed in 2001.

BBC News

Bulgarian Nationalists Launch Attack on Power Utilities

Bulgaria's far-right nationalist Ataka party asked Tuesday Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, to dismiss the head of the energy watchdog, Angel Semerdzhiev, over the looming hike in electric power prices.

The move comes in the aftermath of reports the three power utilities in the country – Czech CEZ, Austrian EVN, and German E.ON are requesting between 5% and 15% increase of prices after July 1, 2011.

Ataka leader, Volen Siderov, says Smerdzhiev, who is the Chair of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR), must go if the price hike materializes and is adamant the contracts with the power utilities must be annulled and "electric power must become a Bulgarian matter."

The nationalists demand for DKEVR to keep the price at the current level.

Siderov further accused the right-wing Member of the Parliament, Rosen Yordanov, in conflict of interests, claiming CEZ has financed his election campaign and through him, the campaign of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) party.

UDF leader, Martin Dimitrov, retaliated by calling Siderov a liar, saying Yordanov is a mid-level employee of CEZ; the company had never funded his campaign and all document related to the campaign have been submitted with the National Audit Office.

Dimitrov also accused the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party of using Siderov as their "loudspeaker," when matters become unpleasant, and asked GERB to never again send their "servant" to them.

CEZ also reacted to the nationalist leader's attack by distributing a letter to the media, firmly denying any involvement in political activities and parties' financing.

Novinite

Skinhead leader believed slain in Citrus Heights home (USA)

A decade ago, the influence of white supremacist gangs in the Sacramento region was so prevalent that skinheads with swastika tattoos could walk into area restaurants without drawing a second glance.

Leaflets denouncing minorities routinely appeared on neighbourhood lawns, three area synagogues were set ablaze, and a Shasta County gay couple were murdered by a pair of racist brothers.

Law enforcement began calling 1999 the "Summer of Hate" and cracked down on the gangs until they seemed to disappear.

But they never really went away, and the mysterious slaying inside a Citrus Heights home before dawn Wednesday served as a reminder that the groups are still present.

The victim is believed to be 40-year-old David Lynch, one of the nation's best known hate-group leaders and a skilled organizer who aimed to unite disparate skinhead gangs as a force against minorities.

Citrus Heights police did not formally release the name of the man found with gunshot wounds to his head and torso inside a house in the 5900 block of Merlindale Drive.

But Lynch is listed as an owner of the home, and hate group monitors said they had confirmed he was the victim.

Police also did not release the identity of a man detained Wednesday afternoon as a "person of interest," but three law enforcement sources told The Bee the individual was an associate of Lynch from the world of hate groups who recently had been fired by Lynch.

Police went to the house after a 4 a.m. 911 call reported shots being fired. Officers found the man dead in a bedroom and a 33-year-old woman with a leg wound in the hallway. A law enforcement source said detectives believe the assailant may have entered the home through an unlocked door.

The woman, whose name was not released, was taken to Mercy San Juan Medical Centre and was expected to survive. Police said a teenage girl and another woman inside the house were unharmed.

Avoided confrontationsLynch had worked for years as an asbestos removal technician and had several daughters from different relationships, acquaintances said.

It was clear from the front of his home that he did not care for some outsiders. The front doormat read, "Come back with a warrant." And a sign taped to the front door warned, "Jehovah's Witnesses or any other Christian solicitors will be sacrificed and eaten if you knock on our door!!!"

Despite the warnings, neighbours described Lynch as quiet and reclusive.

"He avoided any kind of confrontation, period," said neighbour Brian Hegney, 43.

The most common complaint against Lynch seemed to be that his Dodge Ram truck had a loud muffler, which could be heard when he left around 7:30 a.m. and came home around 5 p.m.

A sticker on the truck's back wind shield on Wednesday paid tribute to "Joe Rowan: Fallen Hero." Rowan, killed in a 1994 shooting in Wisconsin, was lead singer of a Delaware skinhead band and a member of Hammerskin Nation, whose website says it is a "leaderless group of men and women who have adopted the White Power Skinhead lifestyle."

Neighbor Cori Llopis said Lynch would attend neighbourhood Fourth of July celebrations, but stayed near his backyard gate rather than talking with neighbours. "He's been nothing but nice, but we haven't had anything to do with him," Llopis said.

Another neighbour, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said Lynch was a skinhead who hung a Confederate flag from his roof last year on the Fourth of July. The family made a point of avoiding his home, the neighbour said.

Billy Roper, chairman of the Arkansas-based white supremacist group White Revolution, said he had known Lynch for a decade and that "he didn't go around trying to hurt people's feelings or use pejorative terms" toward minorities.

"It's a tragedy," Roper said. "I can tell you that I know how people view those of us who are white nationalists and they think that we're blind haters. David Lynch was one of the most friendly, kind, compassionate people you'd ever meet."

American Front founder

Experts on the shadowy world of white supremacists, racists and skinheads described Lynch as the founder of the hate group American Front and more recently a unifying force working to coalesce skinhead groups throughout the West.

"He really was a force in the skinhead world," said Brian Levin, director of the Centre for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. "The fact that he's dead is a blow to the skinhead movement. He was one of the survivors. Instead of flaming out, he really grew a base and really marketed the skinheads."

Hatewatch, a blog of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a nonprofit organization that campaigns against racism, described him as a "clever and charismatic racist skinhead organizer whose history of racist activism dates back to the late 1980s."

Sacramento Sheriff's Lt. Milo Fitch, who ran the gang unit from the mid-1990s until 2002, when hate groups in Sacramento were particularly active, said Lynch was a behind-the-scenes organizer who used his personality to attract recruits.

"He was very prominent in the white supremacist movement and continued to remain that way today," Fitch said. "He was originally from San Francisco and then ended up here after living in Florida for a while and bouncing across the country."

Fitch said Lynch had been an associate of two of the nation's most prominent hate-group leaders – William Pierce of the National Alliance in West Virginia and Tom Metzger of White Aryan Resistance in the San Diego area.

"He was a very charismatic guy," Fitch said, adding that he once ran into him as Lynch was having drinks. "I could see why people would be drawn to him – the people who are vulnerable, the kids they usually prey upon. He wasn't educated but very smart, articulate when you talked to him."

Levin, who has studied hate leaders for years, said Lynch most recently was involved in organizing skinhead protests in Southern California and that his longevity in such movements was a testament to his intelligence.

"He was part of the racist skinhead worlds, but even more than that he was someone who wanted to create a unified front to protect a nation, and particularly California, that he saw going down the tubes in large part due to demographic changes and the empowerment of minorities.

"He was a true believer. The movement really lacks charismatic leaders, and he was one of them."

Sacbee

South Africa's Trevor Manuel slams 'racist' Jimmy Manyi

One of South Africa's most powerful ministers, Trevor Manuel, has accused the government spokesman of "the worst order of racism" over remarks he made about mixed race people.

Mr Manuel made the comments in an open letter published in a local newspaper.

Spokesman Jimmy Manyi said in an interview last year - which resurfaced recently - there was an "over supply of coloureds" (mixed race people) in Western Cape Province.

Mr Manyi has not commented.

Mr Manuel, a minister in the presidency in charge of economic policy, is the first minister to comment on the row.

"I want to put it to you that these statements would make you a racist in the mould of HF Verwoed [former South African prime minister, dubbed the 'architect of apartheid]," he wrote in the letter published in The Star newspaper.

Mr Manuel is the most senior member of South Africa's coloured community in the government.

"I now know who Nelson Mandela was talking about when he said from the dock that he had fought against white domination and that he had fought against black domination - Jimmy, he was talking about fighting against people like you."

The BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says it is unusual for a minister to launch such a strong public attack on another government official.

Mr Manuel's letter has caused mixed reaction in South Africa, our correspondent says.

While the ANC's youth wing has criticised him for publicly reprimanding Mr Manyi, civil society has applauded the move.

The ANC-led government has come under pressure from white- and coloured-led opposition parties over the years, who have accused it of ignoring the needs of the mixed race community in favour of black people.

Some opposition politicians say Mr Manuel's rebuke may be intended to help the ANC win over the coloured vote ahead of local elections due in April.

Mr Manyi made the statements during a televised interview in March 2010, when he was director-general of the Labour Department.

The ruling Africa National Congress (ANC) has since distanced itself from Mr Manyi's remarks, saying they were "disturbing" and "unacceptable".

The government's communication department has issued an apology on behalf of Mr Manyi.

BBC News

FROM FINANCIER TO FLAG-BEARER FOR GERMANY'S FAR-RIGHT

Thilo Sarrazin's attacks on immigration have divided a nation. Tony Paterson watches an unlikely demagogue in action.

It was not the sort of reception normally laid on for an author whose book has sold well over one million copies: outside the community hall in Ehringshausen, a sprawling suburban town north of Frankfurt, an angry army of left-wing protesters was growing hoarse from screaming: "We don't want racist pigs!" Burly police struggled to keep them on the pavement. An elderly woman in a fluffy hat had covered herself with placards proclaiming: "Thank you foreigners for everything you have done to build up Germany!" But on the steps of the community hall, a crowd of grey-haired, middle-aged men queued to see the writer who has polarised the country by daring to write what many claim is "what everybody really thinks". The author was Thilo Sarrazin, the renowned 65-year-old former Bundesbank board member and Berlin city government finance minister who has shocked and nauseated parts of Germany's liberal establishment with his explosive, bestselling book about immigration entitled Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany is doing away with itself).

Sarrazin's work is a long and divisive essay, based on questionable statistics, about what he considers to be the combined ill-effects of continued Muslim immigration and an accelerating decline in the birth rate of intelligent white Germans. His argument, boiled down, is that Muslim immigrants are chronic under-achievers who not only breed like rabbits but are more likely to be dependent on social security and involved in crime than ethnic Germans and other Europeans. "No other group is so intent on stressing its otherness, especially through clothing worn by women," Sarrazin says. "In no other religion is the transition to violence, dictatorship and terrorism so fluid." Sarrazin quotes and agrees with Enoch Powell, who in 1968 shocked Britain with his infamous "rivers of blood" speech predicting that the UK would be swamped with West Indian immigrants. In a similar vein, Sarrazin predicts the Germans will eventually be outnumbered by an underclass of Muslims. "I don't want the land of my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to become predominantly Muslim, or to become a place where Turkish and Arabic are mostly spoken, or to be a country in which women wear headscarves and the daily rhythm is determined by the call of the muezzin," he writes. "Whole clans have a long tradition of incest and correspondingly many handicaps. "More children from cleverer people before it's too late." Towards the end of his 450-page book, Sarrazin presents readers with the grim spectre of a future Germany in which Muslims are in the majority and Cologne's mighty cathedral has to be handed over to the Islamic community for future use as a mosque.

Since it was published in August by Germany's respected DVA publishing house, Deutschland schafft sich ab has topped Der Spiegel magazine's national bestseller list. The book is now on its 16th edition. At the last count it had sold in excess of 1.3 million copies, making it one of the most widely read titles published in Germany since the Second World War. Sarrazin's views are credited with sparking a "long overdue" debate in Germany and elsewhere about immigration. They have helped to foster a climate in which Chancellor Angela Merkel has denounced attempts to build a multicultural society as a "complete failure". David Cameron chose Germany to make virtually the same statement in February. But the book has also found many critics, including the general secretary of Germany's Central Council of Jews. He suggested that Sarrazin should apply for a job as a spokesman on race issues for the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party. In Ehringshausen, the author was making one of his regular appearances at a public reading of his work. The event, which was sold out almost a month in advance, was organised by the youth wing of Ms Merkel's Christian Democratic party and billed as an "opportunity for people to discuss an explosive subject on the spot". The town's 600-seat community hall was packed. The audience almost exclusively consisted of white middle-aged or older Germans.

With his grey hair, moustache, tweed jacket and thick spectacles, Sarrazin looked like an elderly schoolmaster at a strict 1950s prep school. The protesters were his first target. "These are left-wing fascists, who don't read and know nothing," he announced to his audience, earning a burst of wild applause. Sarrazin then ran through his well-known theories which were peppered with observations: "Britain provides a good case study on Muslims. Immigration from the Indian sub-continent has shown that Hindus far outperform Muslim Pakistanis and Bangladeshis at school," he insisted. "The more religious the Muslims, the worse they are at school, at work and at integration." Department for Education figures show that Indian children outperform those from Pakistan or Bangladesh, and they are more likely to be Hindus. But Muslim children educated in Muslim schools outperform those taught in non-faith state schools, according to a study carried out in Bradford, debunking his theory that the more religious the Muslims, the worse they are at school. The author delighted in telling the crowd about a podium discussion at which a young headscarf-wearing Muslim woman asked him what she should do to integrate herself better into German society: "I told her: 'You must take off your headscarf !' It is legitimate for the German Volk to ask whether it wants to keep its identity."

Ms Merkel's young conservatives had hoped that Sarrazin's reading would spark a lively pro-and-con discussion between their guest and the audience. But the middle-aged crowd in the hall appeared to agree with everything the speaker had to say. Sarrazin was delivered soft-ball questions, such as: "What should we do to stop the rise of the Muslim population?" He replied: "Intelligent women must have more children." He did not mean intelligent Muslim women. One member of the audience won special applause after stating: "Let's be honest Mr Sarrazin, the whole debate about immigration is being conducted by naïve do-gooders and token immigrants. When are you going to start your own political party?" The author refused to take up the challenge and somewhat meekly replied that he believed the main parties faced their last chance to take up the issue themselves. Sven Ringsdorf, one of the young conservatives' leaders, said the event has shown that "Sarrazin has struck a chord with the audience". He said the young conservatives had wanted to provide a platform for Sarrazin and had not considered inviting a speaker who might take issue with his views. When Sarrazin's critics have tried to speak at his readings they were shouted down. In Ehringshausen, judging by the 137-metre queue for signed copies of Deutschland schafft sich ab, it seemed reasonable to assume that the same would have happened this time. Most of those in the queue interviewed by The Independent had a negative story to tell about their experience with Germany's 3.5 million Turks. Annette, a hairdresser in her 30s and one of the few younger women at the event, complained that Turkish mothers at her child's kindergarten refused to bring their offspring to children's parties and just stayed away without saying anything.

Siegfried, a pensioner in his 70s, said that Turks "hang around in knife gangs and threaten people". Pushing a wheelchair-bound relative down the street, he described how he was forced off the pavement by a group of young Turkish boys. "They are all the same," he said. When Deutschland schafft sich ab was first published there were fears that Sarrazin's views would lead to the sudden formation of a new and threatening far-right party. In the meantime, the book is viewed more or less as a safety valve which enables many ordinary Germans to see their prejudices reflected and not feel alone. If a survey conducted among 10,000 Sarrazin readers for Germany's Süd deutsche Zeitung newspaper is anything to go by, his fans are dyed-in-the-wool conservatives rather than raving neo-Nazis. An overwhelming majority was shown to be middle class and middle-aged or elderly men who valued "a harmonious private life" and "cleanliness in the home". Most of them subscribed to the following assertion: "I don't like changes in my life. I prefer to stick to my old habits." Some say that such findings make Sarrazin's book no less disturbing, as they suggest there is a grain of truth in the claim that he has written "what everybody thinks".


Profile – Thilo Sarrazin, 66, the son of a doctor, grew up in the West German town of Recklinghausen and studied economics at Bonn University. He has spent most of his working life as a civil servant. He served as a Berlin city government finance senator and as a Federal Bank board member. He is a member of the opposition Social Democratic Party. He is married to a teacher, with whom he has two children. His book, Germany Does Away With Itself, was published in 2010 and predicts that Germans will soon be outnumbered by an underclass of semi-criminal, welfare-dependent Muslims who breed like rabbits. The book provoked an outraged response from immigrant and Jewish community groups. But it has sold almost 1.3 million copies. 

 The Independant

FIRST FORMAL ROMA COURT OPENS IN ROMANIA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pipers unite against white supremacists (France)

Yannick Martin

Pipe players of Brittany on Sunday united against a group of US based white supremacists who are campaigning to discredit the French region's top piper, who happens to be a black man.

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 Olympic logo is many things to many people — forward-looking style icon, hideous malbranding, even hardcore porn. We can now add ‘racist’ to the list.

“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)

This chilling photo could blow apart the English Defence League’s claim to non-violence.

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)

Critics say radical British cleric Anjem Choudary is more of a “publicity whore” than a devout Muslim.

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

Galliano arrest spotlights rise in anti-Semitism

Designer is the latest celebrity mired in controversy as attacks on Jews increase

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)

Level of far-right support could outstrip that in France or Holland, says poll for Searchlight

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

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

Web giant Facebook axes sickening hate site that shows Celtic boss Neil Lennon covered in blood (UK)

Facebook has shut down a vile page that showed Neil Lennon riddled with bullets and branded him a "dead man walking".

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

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

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 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.

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 

Controversy over comments about Roma by Hungarian far-Right leader

Gábor Vona, chairman of the radical nationalist party Jobbik, has recently come under fire for comments made about Roma in Hungary.

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

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