BNP activist cleared of intolerance on online comments

A BNP activist who posted comments online describing immigrants as "savage animals" and "filth" while working as a teacher has been cleared of racism.

The General Teaching Council (GTC) had heard Adam Walker used a school laptop during lessons in County Durham to post the descriptions.
Mr Walker, from Spennymoor, said he had been singled out because of his views.

The GTC said it was "troubled" by some postings, but was not satisfied the views were "suggestive of intolerance".

'Dumping ground'
It found him guilty of a single charge of misconduct after he admitted using a laptop during lessons and imposed a conditional registration order upon him.

It means Mr Walker will remain on the teaching register and could apply for teaching posts, but the order requires Mr Walker to notify any prospective employer of its terms.
Mr Walker was the first teacher to appear before the GTC accused of racial intolerance.

It was alleged the views expressed in the postings constituted unacceptable professional conduct.

He resigned from Houghton Kepier Sports College, in Houghton-le-Spring, in 2007 after his head teacher asked IT staff to investigate his use of the internet.
The GTC panel, sitting in Birmingham, said it was "troubled" by some of the postings made by Mr Walker, who also claimed Britain was becoming a "dumping ground for the filth of the Third World".

But the three-member committee said it was not satisfied that the "intemperate" views expressed by Mr Walker during his time at the school were suggestive of intolerance.

Delivering the committee's verdict, its chairwoman, Angela Stones, said some of Mr Walker's postings contained offensive terms and demonstrated views or an attitude that might be considered racist.
However, Mrs Stones added: "The committee does not accept that references to 'immigrants' are of themselves suggestive of any particular views on race."

The hearing was told that in one posting, it was alleged Mr Walker claimed the BNP had risen in popularity because "they are the only party who are making a stand and are prepared to protect the rights of citizens against the savage animals New Labour and Bliar (sic) are filling our communities with".

'Hostile climate'
The teacher's trade union representative, Patrick Harrington, told the disciplinary hearing that Mr Walker did not accept his postings were racist, claiming that assumptions had been made about the teacher's views because of his membership of the BNP.
In a statement read to the hearing, Mr Walker stressed that he had not communicated his political thoughts and beliefs to staff or pupils at Houghton Kepier.

He said: "I have certainly never discriminated against an individual on grounds of race, faith or sexuality."
Commenting on the content of his postings, Mr Walker said he had been influenced by media coverage of a female Pc shot dead by two illegal immigrants and the murder of British hostage Ken Bigley in Iraq.

He said: "Looking back now, I feel that I was unduly influenced by the hostile climate the media created.
"This led me to express intemperate views which lacked complexity and balance.

"I have never condemned all immigrants or asylum seekers. My comments relate to those I perceive as coming to our country and committing criminal offences or otherwise behaving badly."

'Outrageously persecuted'
Anti-fascist and pro-BNP demonstrators had gathered outside the GTC's offices in Birmingham city centre.

BNP leader Nick Griffin was among those present. He claimed Mr Walker had been "outrageously persecuted" for his political beliefs.
He said: "The charges about supposed racism, racial intolerance, and so on, have been thrown out.
"The committee have upheld the right of Adam Walker and every other teacher in the country to criticise Government policy in no uncertain terms."

Asked about calls from some quarters for BNP members to be banned from teaching, Mr Griffin replied: "Teachers obviously have to keep politics out of the classroom.
"As long as they do that they should be entitled to hold whatever political views they want."

BBC news

Auschwitz theft suspect claims persecution (Sweden)

Swedish former neo-Nazi leader Anders Högström, held in Poland in connection with the theft of the "Arbeit  Macht Frei" sign from Auschwitz, has reported the tax agency (Skatteverket) for denying him protected identity, arguing that he is being victimized.
In a letter to the parliamentary ombudsman (Justitieombudsmännen - JO), Högström has claimed that he and his family have been subjected to threats and violence, arguing that he is unable to return to Sweden until "this issue is resolved."

"[I] request that the Ombudsman investigate the circumstances surrounding why I was denied a classified national registration status," wrote Högström. "I am suspected for the sign theft in Poland and my home and my relatives have been damaged and threatened."
34-year-old Högström argued that he had previously submitted six medical certificates along with police documentation of 62 death threats and threatened assaults as well as other public documents supporting his application.
The former neo-Nazi furthermore alleges that the tax agency's choice of administrator may have had some bearing on his case.

"An anti-apartheid activist who immigrated from Gambia, a man of great reputation? Eight children with different women..many born the same year every few months....," Högström wrote asking why the original administrator was taken off his case.

He alleged that his new administrator rejected the request for a classification status on the grounds that "a public figure only has himself to blame."

Högström also forwards claims that he had been attacked with a needle and has suffered personality changes as result, a development that he claims would never happened had he been anonymous in the register.

"Many say that my personality has changed due to what was injected into me... I received blisters, sweating, nausea, vomiting, everything is documented in the case record that was shown to the tax agency."

Anders Högström is currently been held in custody in Poland after he was extradited from Sweden in April, two months after his arrest on a Polish warrant. A court in the southern Polish city of Krakow, where he is being questioned, ordered him to stay behind bars for at least two more months in April, Poland's PAP news agency reported.

Högström has denied plotting the December 18th theft of the gateway sign from the site of the camp in the southern Polish city of Oswiecim, which became a notorious symbol of genocide by the occupying Nazi Germans.

Polish police recovered the five-metre metal "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign ("Work Will Set You Free" in German) on December 20th.

MOVEMENT TO DEMONSTRATE OVER RACIALLY-MOTIVATED ATTACK (Czech Rep)

The Czech Movement for an effective solution to the issue of unadaptable people plans a demonstration outside the Chamber of Deputies over an attack by two Romany teenagers on a 13-year-old majority population boy in Krupka, north Bohemia, its head Pavel Vanicek said yesterday. The movement wants all perpetrators of racially-motivated acts to be justly punished. The attack took place in end-April. Police spokeswoman Ilona Novotna said two perpetrators aged 14 and 17 brutally beat up the boy. His injuries included a ripped spleen. Novotna confirmed the attack had a racial subtext. The perpetrators were soon detained. The older was accused of robbery and of causing serious bodily harm with a racial subtext. The younger boy is minor and he cannot be prosecuted. He has been placed in an institute for problematic children and youth. Photographs of the beaten-up boy were posted on the Internet a few days after the attack. Rightist extremists compare the incident with last year's arson attack in Vitkov, north Moravia, in which a girl, then two years old, suffered burns to 80 percent of her body. She has survived, but with permanent harm to her health. The attack in Krupka has been sharply criticised by Tomas Vandas, chairman of the extremist Workers' Party of Social Justice (DSSS).


Prague Monitor

Griffin tries to buy time with resignation ploy

Under pressure from a series of revelations by the British National Party’s former webmaster Simon Bennett and calls for new leadership by party activists and organisers stung by their disastrous election results, Nick Griffin has announced that he will step down as leader “by the end of 2013”.

His declaration, made to a meeting of the party’s Advisory Council and key organisers on 22 May, is unlikely to satisfy those who have been contributing to Bennett’s website trying to win support for a leadership challenge this year. Many will consider that three and a half years is too long for the party to stagnate under Griffin, and will be all too well aware of Griffin’s past form at wriggling out of awkward situations and commitments.

According to a statement on the BNP website, Griffin intends to concentrate on getting re-elected to the European Parliament in 2014. He then intends “to help the other European nationalist parties to achieve the level of sophistication which the BNP has been able to build up, because a victory for any one of these parties is a victory to all of us”.

These “European nationalist parties” are likely to include some of Europe’s most hardline racist and fascist organisations. Griffin and his fellow BNP MEP Andrew Brons are members of the Alliance of European National Movements, a far-right group in the European Parliament formed in Budapest last October. Its other members are the three MEPs from Hungary’s fascist Jobbik party and the three French National Front MEPs.

The group is also supported by Italy’s Fiamma Tricolore, the Belgian National Front and the Swedish National Democrats, none of which have MEPs.
Griffin’s announcement shows that he remains more an internationalist fascist than a British nationalist, true to the politics he learned from his mentor, the convicted Italian terrorist Roberto Fiore. No doubt he has also become accustomed to the European Parliament’s generous salary and expenses regime.

Between now and 2013, Griffin intends to concentrate on “putting into place of the last ‘building blocks’ of the BNP’s administrative and political machine”. This is a more buoyant description than in his e-newsletters since the election in which he said that the party’s “underdeveloped elections department” had to be overhauled and restructured.

Griffin would then make way for “a younger person who does not have any baggage which can be used against the party,” a recognition that his presence is a liability for the party. Finding a person without “baggage”, who “will be able to drive support up to where it [the BNP] can be a serious contender for power” may be hard. Until now, any person fitting that description has left the party either in one of Griffin’s “purges” or because they have discovered that the party is not what they expected it to be.

The extended Advisory Council meeting also heard “consultant” Jim Dowson claim that “contrary to internet rumour-mongers”, the BNP owns the “Truth Truck” advertising vehicle for which Dowson raised a reported £80,000 or more in 2008. This was apparently confirmed in person by Jennie Noble, “the BNP treasurer who paid for the vehicle”.
If that is true then why did the BNP’s solicitors tell bailiffs trying to seize the vehicle to meet a debt that it was owned by an unconnected third party?

Dowson also stated that he did not take a commission on transactions through the BNP’s Belfast call centre. However he was silent on whether his call centre staff, who include friends and relations of Dowson and Griffin, were paid commission on party memberships and other sales, as evidenced by Bennett.

He did however reveal that he, under the guise of his “Midas Consultancy” business, was paid £165,000 for raising £2.6 million in donations for the party since January 2008.
Whether Dowson really has raised £2.6 million cannot be verified at present. The 2008 accounts showed an increase in donations of £662,000 over 2007, but the 2009 accounts will not be available until the end of July, provided the party manages to submit them on time. The BNP claimed to have raised over £500,000 for its European election campaign and there have been some fundraising appeals since then, such as to fight the legal action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) over the BNP’s “whites only” membership criterion, but central party fundraising for this year’s elections seemed to have stalled. Much of the money to pay for general election deposits and leaflets was raised locally by party branches, with no input from Dowson.

Even if Dowson has raised a seven-figure sum, BNP members might raise eyebrows at the amount paid to a consultant who is always keen to point out that he is not a party member.

The meeting was told that BNP membership now stands at “just under 14,000 … increasing by several hundred every month” and that the rate at which BNP members fail to renew has decreased from over 70% to less 20%, now doubt testament to the harassment several members have reported from Dowson’s call centre – people rejoin just to stop the constant phone calls. The BNP has past form in exaggerating its membership and we can only wait to see how these claims compare with the audited figures in the party’s 2009 and 2010 accounts.
Missing from the announcements was any response to the numerous members who are calling for greater transparency in the BNP’s finances.

Griffin concluded by claiming that the party had “emerged from the meeting re-energised and ready for the ongoing struggle to save our nation from destruction at the hands of the old parties”, which is a rather creative way of describing the widespread disillusionment following the twin blows of the party’s capitulation over admitting “non-white” members and its rout in the general and local elections.

Hope Not Hate

BNP-supporting teacher described immigrants as 'filth'

A BNP member posted comments on the internet describing some immigrants as "savage animals" and "filth" while working as a technology teacher, a disciplinary panel heard today.

The General Teaching Council (GTC) was told that Adam Walker used a school laptop to access an online forum in which he claimed parts of Britain were a "dumping ground" for the Third World.

Mr Walker, who resigned from Houghton Kepier Sports College in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, in 2007, is the first teacher to appear before the GTC accused of racial intolerance.

Opening the case against the former soldier, GTC presenting officer Bradley Albuery alleged that postings made by the teacher demonstrated views suggestive of both racial and religious intolerance.
Mr Albuery said Mr Walker used the pseudonym Corporal Fox to make the postings to a forum on Teessideonline, which addressed the popularity of the BNP, during February and March 2007.

In one posting, Mr Walker claimed the BNP had risen in popularity because "they are the only party who are making a stand and are prepared to protect the rights of citizens against the savage animals New Labour and Bliar (sic) are filling our communities with".
In another posting on the same day, Mr Walker wrote: "By following recent media coverage of illegal animals and how they are allowed to stay here despite committing heinous crimes, I am, to say the very least, disgusted."
Another posting claimed that some immigrants hated people who were white and had western values.

It is alleged that the views expressed in the postings constitute unacceptable professional conduct.
Concluding his opening statement, Mr Albuery said: "This case is not about the BNP or whether teachers should be members of that lawful party.
"This case is about the actions and behaviour of a registered teacher, using a school property on school premises in school time."
Mr Walker, from Spennymoor, County Durham, is alleged to have spent more than eight hours using the laptop for purposes not connected to his school duties.

The teacher, who worked at Houghton Kepier for more than six years, resigned after his headteacher asked IT staff to investigate his use of the internet.
The teacher's trade union representative, Patrick Harrington, told the three-member disciplinary panel that Mr Walker accepted he was wrong to use a computer to access Teessideonline during school time.

But Mr Harrington submitted that none of the terms used by Mr Walker had demonstrated racial or religious intolerance.
"To us, the subject matter of what he was doing is not relevant," Mr Harrington said.
"Immigrant is not a racial term. Immigrant is simply a description of people moving to one country from another country - immigrants comprise of all different races."

Many people objected to the fact that people were not deported after committing serious crimes, Mr Harrington said, claiming that assumptions had been made about Mr Walker's views because of his membership of the BNP.
"There is an underlying prejudice and assumption that he is thinking in a racial way," Mr Harrington told the panel.
In a statement read to the hearing, Mr Walker stressed that he had not communicated his political thoughts and beliefs to staff or pupils at Houghton Kepier.

His statement read: "I have always sought to bring out the best in my pupils.
"I have certainly never discriminated against an individual on grounds of race, faith or sexuality. Part of why I became a teacher is to help people overcome social disadvantage and reach their full potential."

Mr Walker, who lived in Germany, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel while serving in the armed forces, said many teachers used the internet for many different reasons.
"I do not deny that I used my computer to access the internet," he stated. "With the value of hindsight I now regret making any personal use of the internet during lesson time. I would like to apologise for it."

Mr Walker - who previously lived and worked as a teacher in Japan and married a Japanese woman - said his travels had led him to value the beauty and diversity of different cultures.
Commenting on the content of his postings, Mr Walker said he had been influenced by media coverage of a female PC shot dead by two illegal immigrants and the murder of British hostage Ken Bigley in Iraq.

"Looking back now I feel that I was unduly influenced by the hostile climate the media created," Mr Walker explained. "This led me to express intemperate views which lacked complexity and balance.

"I should have taken more time to think about the possible offence my words might have caused and I think I could have expressed myself more carefully and positively.
"I have never condemned all immigrants or asylum seekers. My comments relate to those I perceive as coming to our country and committing criminal offences or otherwise behaving badly.

"In many cases, I cut and pasted views from a variety of sources in order to provoke debate and these were not attributed.
"Had I been posting under my own name, I would have taken more case to distinguish between my own views and the views of others I was reposting."
24 Dash

PARTY DITCHES CANDIDATE OVER PRO-IMMIGRANT VIEWS (Sweden)

The nationalist Sweden Democrat party has jettisoned a candidate for election to the local council in Ljusdal in eastern Sweden after the renegade politician expressed support for a refugee centre in the town.

Fredrik Hansson was the Sweden Democrats’ sole candidate for election to Ljusdal's governing council until his comments led local leaders in Gävleborg county to withdraw the party's ballot list for the town. “His remarks contradict the party’s programme,” said Sweden Democrat county chairman Roger Hedlund to newspaper Ljusdals-Posten. Fredrik Hansson said the decision was laughable, arguing that further immigration is necessary if Sweden is to cope with the problems associated with an ageing population. “I thought I’d stir their macho pot,” said Hansson of his involvement with the Sweden Democrats. “Nobody told me what I could and couldn’t say,” he added. Roger Hedlund said the party would now consider drawing up a new ballot list for the local elections. “We have a working group of around ten people and should probably be able to come up with something closer to the election,” he said.


The Local Sweden

FAR-RIGHT BRITISH PARTY LICKS WOUNDS AFTER POLL WIPE-OUT

As the dust settles after Britain's election, the far-right British National Party, or BNP, is reassessing its strategy after its much-hoped for success turned into a spectacular defeat. After winning its first two seats in the European Parliament last year, the BNP had promised to create a "political earthquake" in the May 6 elections by winning its first member of parliament, or MP, in Barking, east of London. On the night, however, leader Nick Griffin did not even come close to unseating incumbent Labour MP Margaret Hodge - and the party lost all 12 of the local councilors that it won here four years ago. "You're not wanted here and your vile politics have no place in British democracy. Pack your bags and go," a defiant Hodge said in her victory speech. Their poor showing was a surprise and goes against a European trend - the far-right entered parliament for the first time in Hungary this year, holds power in Slovakia and Italy and contested presidential elections in Austria. But experts warn it is too soon to write them off, as the party won half a million votes nationwide, a tripling of its support since the 2005 election. "It certainly wouldn't be wise to be complacent about the BNP's demise," said Dr. Robert Ford of the University of Manchester. One reason for this is that the key concerns that drove the party's support show no signs of going away, in particular immigration, which the BNP has promised to halt and reverse with a voluntary repatriation scheme. National politicians avoid the issue - but Hodge has tried to tackle it ever since the BNP won its 12 council seats in 2006, as well as a perception among many working-class Britons that the Labour party has abandoned them. While she can do little about the influx of migrants, she assured voters she would address the perceived unfairness in the way they use public services, in particular social housing, and sought to listen to their other concerns. "Was I certain we would win? No," she told AFP - but hundreds of hours of campaigning, with the help of anti-fascist groups, ensured she took 54 percent of the vote compared to Griffin's 15 percent. The message she sent to her Labour party - currently embroiled in a leadership election after Gordon Brown stepped down - was that they had to engage with the BNP. "You can't beat them by ignoring them," she said.


In a radio interview shortly after polling day, Griffin admitted the party "took the most terrible battering" in Barking but blamed in part the "very high expectations" after the EU elections last year. The BNP campaign was damaged by the arrest of its publicity chief on suspicion of threatening to kill Griffin, and the taking down of the website by a disgruntled party member just two days before polling day. But Griffin also said Labour had put together a "fantastic" operation and said the BNP's trouncing must be taken as a "wake-up call." The party has a serious image problem, however. Despite Griffin's modernizing efforts over the past decade, the media and many voters still see it as racist and Ford warned this could prevent them ever winning power. "It's not that there isn't a potential support for the kind of politics that the BNP represent, it just looks increasingly unlikely that the BNP will be the party that successfully mobilizes that potential," he said. This view is reflected on the streets of Barking, where Rashid Aleem, 41, pointed to Griffin's appearance on a prime-time TV debate last year as the moment when it became clear what the party stood for. Although he cites immigration as a concern, he told AFP: "People saw that and realised he's using the influx of eastern European immigrants as a front for his real agenda, which is racist." Unemployed construction worker Guy Kerr, 47, admits he is the kind of person the BNP courts and backs their policies on more jobs for indigenous British workers and to pull troops out of Afghanistan. "But they're racist," he said, adding: "I honestly thought they would get in here and I'm glad they didn't."

Hurriyet daily news

Swedes more positive to immigrants: report

Swedish attitudes to immigration and refugee centre has become more positive with urbanites, women and young people among the most favourable, a new report from the SOM institute in Gothenburg shows.

The SOM survey, conducted in the autumn of 2009, shows that 36 percent of Swedes consider that there are too many foreigners living in Sweden. In 1993 the figure was 52 percent.

"Never before have Swedish attitudes been so accepting as their are now," Professor Marie Demker wrote in an opinion article in the Dagens Nyheter daily on Monday.

In 1993, 25 percent replied that they would not like an immigrant from another continent marrying into the family, this figure had dropped to 12 percent in the autumn.
"Despite the attempts to mobilize, groups which oppose immigration remain a peripheral sub-culture," Demker wrote.
Among the parliamentary parties, supporters for the Moderates are most sceptical while those who back the Green Party are the most enthusiastic supporters of immigration.

While support for the right of immigrants to freely practice their religion has not changed since 1993, and remains at around 40 percent among Swedes. Supporters of the Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) have however become less tolerant of immigrants' religious practice today than 17 years ago although it remains above average at 41 percent.
Supporters of the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), who strive to make immigration an election issue, show the lowest levels of tolerance towards both immigrants and refugee centres, representing a clear exception in the SOM institute survey.

Among SD supporters, 95 percent agreed with the statement that Sweden "should accept fewer refugees" compared to 46 percent of the population as a whole. 88 percent agreed with the statement that there "are too many foreigners in Sweden" as compared to 36 percent of the population as a whole.

Since 1993 SOM has monitored Swedish attitudes to immigration and refugee centres on six occasions. The surveys are based on a series of standardized so-called tolerance claims.

The Local Sweden

HOTEL FINED FOR GUEST SLUR AT DISCRIMINATION SEMINAR (Sweden)

The court upheld a district court ruling in favour of the Discrimination Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsman - DO) who had taken up the woman's case, and ordered the hotel to pay 8,000 kronor ($1,000) in compensation plus interest and court costs. The woman, whose is member of Sweden's Roma community, was attending the conference at the Elite Grand Hotel in Norrköping in eastern Sweden when she was repeatedly asked by staff as to why she was there. According to court documents three different members of staff approached the woman and asked her whether she was a guest at the hotel. At one point she was informed that the coffee which she was helping herself to at the time was for the consumption of paying guests only. The woman was in Norrköping to attend a conference addressing the subject of ethnic discrimination and she later reported the hotel to DO. The hotel responded, in its defence, that it had previously had problems with Roma and thefts, an explanation the hotel later changed, arguing instead that staff are instructed to check the identity of all guests that they don't immediately recognise. "It is almost impossible to imagine that hotel staff in practice approach every single guest that they do not immediately recognize," the court stated in response to the hotel's explanation. The court furthermore ruled that the Grand Hotel had not sufficiently been able to prove that the woman had not suffered insult or injury as a result of the discrimination and thus remained liable to pay the damages awarded by district court. The Elite Grand Hotel Norrköping's general manager, Krister Eriksson, told The Local on Friday that he was unwilling to comment further on the case.


The Local Sweden

ANTI-ISLAM MOVEMENT REACHES POLAND

European anxiety over the presence of Muslims in traditionally Christian societies has arrived in Poland, where the capital has been blanketed in anti-Islamic posters and several hundred protesters recently showed up to denounce the construction of a mosque. Demonstrators waved signs proclaiming “Stop Islamization,” galvanized by posters put up around Warsaw showing a woman clad in a black chador, with menacing minarets that looked like missiles peering out behind her. Counter-demonstrators, separated by a line of police, denounced them as “fascists” and “racists.” What makes the demonstration surprising is that unlike western European countries where there are millions of Muslims, Poland, a country of 38 million, has only about 30,000 Muslims. But at a time when Switzerland has voted to ban the construction of new mosques, when France and Belgium are considering restrictions on women covering their faces in public, and Italy’s nationalist Northern League wants to keep mosques at least a kilometer away from any churches, Islam as a political issue has arrived in Poland. “We wanted to start a public debate,” Piotr Slusarczyk, one of the demonstrators' leaders, told the Rzeczpospolita daily. “We are warning against radical Islam in Europe.” Samir Ismail, a Kuwaiti Palestinian doctor who has lived more than 20 years in Poland and is the leader of the newly formed Muslim League, said that for the capital's 10,000 Muslims, the mosque would simply be a place to pray. He pointed out that the community has been careful not to offend, opting for a 16-yard high minaret instead of the 25-yard one approved by the building permit. “We don’t want to create misunderstandings,” he told the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. “We are aware that we have a problem with being accepted.”

The friction around Poland’s still tiny Muslim minority is a sign of the country’s growing normalization and integration into the European Union. Immigrants were almost unknown in communist times, but as Poland becomes wealthier, it is starting to attract outsiders, from Ukrainians working on construction or as domestic help, to Muslim Chechens escaping Russian repression in their homeland. In one sense, Poland’s growing diversity is a return to the past. Before World War II, Poland was a multinational stew, with ethnic Poles making up only about two-thirds of the population. The country had large numbers of Ukrainians, Jews and Germans, as well as a small Muslim minority — Tatars descended from the hordes of Genghis Khan who had terrorized Europe in the Middle Ages. Several thousand Tatars had settled in Poland and Lithuania in the 14th century, and, despite losing their language, never lost their religion. World War II left Poland a very different country. The Jews had been mostly murdered by the Germans, and most of the survivors left after the war. Germans were expelled, and by shifting Poland’s borders hundreds of miles to the west, there were no large Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities. After 1945, Poland was almost completely monoethnic — one of the only minorities left were the Tatars, who have two villages in northeastern Poland, each with a small mosque. New Muslim migrants, like Samir Ismail, have very little in common with the Tatars, who have been well integrated into Polish life for centuries — they even had their own cavalry unit before the war. Ismail and other Muslims formed their own organization in 2003, designed to advocate for the interests of new immigrants, including the need to build themselves a place to worship. From that time they have been trying to build a mosque in Warsaw with the help of Saudi sponsors. As the project has neared completion, it has begun to arouse the ire of some Polish nationalists, who fear that their country could soon have the same issues with Muslim minorities as countries in western Europe. “We have the example of other countries where the idea of freedom of religion is abused,” said Slusarczyk. But Poland’s laws do not allow for any religious discrimination. “The decision permitting this investment has been taken long ago,” said Tomasz Andryszczyk, a spokesman for the Warsaw city government. “What are we supposed to do? It would be bad if this project ran into any troubles.”

The Global Post

Nick Griffin to step down as leader of the BNP in 2013 ? ? ?

Lancaster Unity has posted an interesting item today stating that Nick Griffin has stated to the BNP advisory council that he intends to step down from his Herr Leader position in 2013.


Could this be real intention or could it be that Nick been watching too much Black Adder and hatched a (not so) cunning plan?

Personally I doubt very much that Griffin will goose step away that easy!

Anyway the full story can be read by clicking HERE

RUSSIA TO FINGERPRINT MIGRANTS IN SQUEEZE ON ‘SHADOW ECONOMY’

Russia plans to fingerprint, photograph and license migrant workers in a bid to shrink the “shadow economy” and boost tax revenue, the government’s official Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper said. The new rules will apply to about 1.2 million of the estimated 3 million foreigners who work as nannies, builders, drivers, cooks and other jobs classified as “temporary” by the Federal Migration Service, the newspaper said today. Such workers will have to buy licenses good for between one and three months, while so-called highly skilled workers, mainly those who earn more than 2 million rubles ($64,000) a year, will be excluded from the new requirements. President Dmitry Medvedev is seeking to turn Russia into a “white-collar” country, Vladislav Surkov, Kremlin first deputy chief of staff, said in March. One million skilled-job vacancies went unfilled in Russia last year because of a lack of qualified workers, the World Bank said in a report in March. At the same time, because of a shrinking labor force, Russia will need 12 million immigrant workers within 20 years, the bank said. While cracking down on foreign laborers, Russia plans to make life easier for workers who are better educated and skilled to help lure investment from abroad. The government wants to react quickly to “painful points” flagged by investors, Deputy Economy Minister Stanislav Voskresensky told reporters in Moscow on May 7. One way to do that is to relax visa requirements for “highly skilled” workers, Voskresensky said.
The Business Week

NEO-NAZIS ATTACK SLOVAKIA’S FIRST GAY PRIDE EVENT, CANCELLING ITS PARADE

It was supposed to be the first gay pride parade ever organised in Slovakia to support the empowerment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. But the parade planned for downtown Bratislava was cancelled after neo-Nazi groups attacked the march on May 22. The organizers explained that Slovakia’s police were unable to secure the safety of those attending. Members of the neo-Nazi group Slovenská Pospolitos attacked the participants at a pre-parade rally for LGBT rights. A tear gas canister thrown by one of the approximately 80 neo-Nazis interrupted the rally, attended by 500 people, while the extremists also were throwing eggs at the participants, the Sme daily reported. Two rally participants who were carrying a rainbow flag, the symbol of the parade, were attacked by the neo-Nazis at Hviezdoslav Square in Bratislava. They attacked the flag barriers with their fists in the face, the SITA newswire reported. The rally and parade had been announced long in advance and observers said that the police had enough time to prepare for the security and safety of the parade participants. “Instead of the parade of pride, Slovakia has experienced a day of shame,” wrote Sme’s deputy editor-in-chief Lukáš Fila in his commentary suggesting that the attack by the neo-Nazis against the participants shows a failure by the state.


Fila states that if the state was unable to secure order at an event which had been announced months in advance and about which all media had been reporting and to which foreign diplomats had confirmed their presence, then in what other areas are the police incapable of securing public order? The event was intended to remind society of how diverse and colourful humankind is – hence the rainbow has become the symbol of gay parades all around the world. In Slovakia, Rainbow Pride was organised by the Queer Leaders’ Forum civic association, an informal group named Queers, and other civic groups. The organizers expressed regret that the police were unable to secure the planned path of the parade. The history of gay pride marches goes back to the Stonewall riots of 1969 when gay people in New York protested against raids made by police on local gay bars. Since then, a parade in New York to commemorate those events has taken place every year – and the tradition of gay pride parades has spread around the world. The organisers of Bratislava’s Pride event had said they hoped that the rally and parade would provide space not only for people with different sexual orientations, but also for all others who appreciate the values of an open society and support the concept of universal human rights.

The Slovak Spectator

CHILD OF FRANCE’S FAR RIGHT PREPARES TO BE ITS LEADER

Marine le Pen tried her best to flee her father and politics, she says, oppressed by the infamy of her inheritance, which followed her everywhere. But now she is widely expected to succeed Jean-Marie Le Pen as leader of the National Front, the persistent far-right party preaching French purity and exceptionalism, opposing immigration and the European Union, and which she wants to bring into the media age. More and more, she is the face of the party in television debates and national campaigning. “It’s amazing to see how destiny can mock you sometimes,” she said in a long interview at the party’s new headquarters, set incongruously in this Communist-run Parisian suburb. “I find myself there, in politics, when most of my life I tried to escape from that.” She sees herself as having a destiny now, if not one so lofty as that of the party’s emblem, Joan of Arc, chosen by Mr. Le Pen as a symbol of French sanctity and resistance to invaders. With her father, 81, set to retire early next year, Ms. Le Pen, 41, intends to carry the banner of the National Front into the 21st century, fighting a new host of enemies — including Islam — that supposedly threaten holy France. It is hard to see Marine Le Pen as a victim, but the National Front thrives on the sense of victimhood of its voters, who see a noble people trampled by supranational forces, impoverished by globalization and overrun by immigrants, many of them Muslim. But her own childhood, she says, was a misery. The youngest of three daughters of a reviled politician who happily pressed buttons of xenophobia, anxiety and anti-Semitism, Marine often found herself ostracized. Her left-leaning teachers despised her; she wanted a lawyer’s career, but again, she says, the widespread hatred of her father interfered. “No one wanted to have as an associate Marine Le Pen — it was simply seen as professional suicide,” she wrote in a 2006 autobiography, “À Contre Flots” (“Against the Current”). “Things were never insignificant. Never easy. We remained the daughters of Le Pen, and people would tend to make us feel guilty, always.”


But today she speaks of her decision to take up her father’s mantle as a kind of destiny, or sometimes as a kind of communicable disease. “Politics is a virus you never recover from,” she said. “It can be dormant, but in the end it always comes back, and the only way you can cure it is never to catch it.” She grew up with the disease, she said. “My father gave me that virus, this passion for the others. I was born and raised with politics, ate politics, slept politics. I tried to escape from it because I wanted to have my own job, but in the end it was the only thing that thrilled me.” It also nearly killed her. In 1976, when she was 8, her family’s house was blown up. The event scarred her, she said. “At that time, there wasn’t any psychological first aid. It was a bombing, and when it happened, I suddenly realized the dangers weighing on me, on my father, on my family.” Another shock was her parents’ divorce eight years later, when her mother, Pierrette, moved to America with her father’s biographer and demanded alimony. “Let her clean houses,” Mr. Le Pen said, and then Pierrette Le Pen posed for Playboy, wearing only an apron and wielding not a banner, but a mop. Marine Le Pen described her mother’s photospread as having “the effect of a steamroller on me,” and her parents’ feud as “a descent into hell.” But she is hardly the first person to turn childhood misfortune and isolation into politics, and she speaks with an eloquent forcefulness markedly different from her father’s more folksy style. Tall, blond and telegenic, she is the party’s “executive vice president for training, communication and propaganda”; she has been an elected member of the European Parliament since 2004. Twice divorced, she has three children: a daughter, nearly 12, and 11-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. While she is in a relationship, she keeps her private life to herself.

With her father she is respectful, referring to him as “the president” or by his full name. For Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist at the Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques, her father is an impediment to her efforts to change the party. “It’s a burden, and she probably can’t get rid of it until he dies,” Mr. Camus said. She does not share her father’s anti-Semitism or deny the Holocaust, Mr. Camus said. But like Gianfranco Fini of Italy, who moved away from neo-Fascism, she will at some point need to make a speech breaking with “all those neo-Nazis on the fringe of the National Front,” he said. “She really wants to play a role in French politics,” Mr. Camus said. “It’s been said that Le Pen is content to be an outsider with media attention, but I really think she’s different. She wants to be part of a coalition someday on the French conservative right.” She is part of a younger generation that did not know World War II or the colonial wars her father fought in. “She incarnates a younger generation; she wants to ‘déringardiser’ the party,” or make it less tacky, said Nonna Mayer, a political scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research. “She does not embody the same extreme right as her father,” Ms. Mayer told the newspaper Libération, but attracts a more traditional voter, hurt by globalization and industrial decline.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has tried to absorb the National Front’s voters as the single candidate of the right, taking tough stands against the full facial veil, for instance, and restricting immigration. In this way, said Simon Serfaty, a European scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, “the National Front corrupts the larger parties” and forces them rightward. Ms. Mayer thinks the party has lost some of its support recently. But Mr. Camus said, “They’re not going away,” noting that many who voted for Mr. Sarkozy in 2007 returned to the National Front in the regional elections. Ms. Le Pen shares her father’s core beliefs. Immigration should stop and citizenship by birthplace should not be automatic, she said, proposing “a deterrence policy; we must deter people who want to immigrate.” She favors a “French first” policy for benefits. France erred terribly by trying to integrate immigrants rather than assimilating them, she said. “When you go see French people of immigrant descent in the suburbs and ask, ‘Are you French?’ he says, ‘No, I’m a Muslim,’ and that’s a problem.” Foreigners must “blend in with the national community because we are an old civilization,” Ms. Le Pen said. “There has been a withdrawal into non-French identities because we sapped French nationality of its content,” she said. “So how can someone be proud? We spend all our lives saying, ‘We are bastards, colonizers, slavery promoters.’ ” As for the European Union, she predicted, “Like the Soviet empire in its time, this E.U. empire will collapse.” Asked about her hopes for her children, Ms. Le Pen softened for a moment, but just a moment, then gave a speech. “I want them to inherit a country with an untouched cultural heritage, to accomplish what everyone wants: have a family, live safely, build a patrimony, do a job that will allow them to live decently and pass on their own heritage.” France has given much to civilization, she said, sounding much like Mr. Sarkozy. “There is something special about France,” she said. “If the French model disappears, it would be a loss for the entire world.”

NY Times

Calls to ban far-right parade in Newcastle

FAR-RIGHT group the English Defence League are planning a march through Newcastle, sparking counter protests.

The EDL, which claims to protest against Muslim extremism, will march from the city’s Central Station to the Bigg Market, on Saturday, May 29.

Members of anti-fascist groups and trade unions are planning counter demonstrations for the same day.

Some councillors have called for the EDL’s parade to be banned.
But only the Home Secretary can order a ban of a political march if there are concerns over the police’s ability to control it.

Northumbria Police has said it will have no problem. A spokeswoman said: “This is a busy bank holiday weekend with many events taking place in Newcastle and across the force area. We have drawn up plans to ensure we will have the appropriate resources at our disposal at all times.

“The force has a long history of dealing with large-scale events from music festivals and party conferences through to high-profile football matches. A wide range of specialist and uniformed officers will be working on the day who are well-versed in this type of policing operation.”

The TUC, North East Against Racism and Unite Against Fascism are all staging protests.

Newcastle City Council’s deputy leader Coun David Faulkner said: “Philosophically I’m uncomfortable about banning these marches, even though I find them very unpleasant.

“My view is that people have a right to protest in a democracy, however unsavoury and repulsive their views may be to others.”
The EDL calls itself a “counter-jihad movement” and denies being a racist group. But its marches around the UK have been dogged by counter-protests.

Anti-fascists and EDL members were involved in violent clashes during a demo in Bolton in March.

Steve Simmons of the EDL said: “We work closely with the police and do not allow bad behaviour among members.”
But Coun Dipu Ahad, Labour member in Elswick, said: “Do we really want this kind of thing in our city? Relationships between communities in Newcastle are very good and harmonious and this can only stir up hatred.
“It’s all very well saying a demonstration will be peaceful, but it only takes a few individuals to cause trouble and you have a riot.

“Newcastle is billed as a City of Peace, so how can this march be allowed to threaten that?

“I’ve had many emails and phone calls from the Muslim community and they are extremely worried. This march can only serve to break up bonds built up and increase tension.”

Chronicle Live

Lithuanian court: Swastikas a ‘historic legacy’

A Lithuanian court has ruled that a swastika is a part of the country's historic legacy and not a Nazi symbol.

The ruling on Wednesday capped a three-month case involving four men who displayed swastikas at Klaipeda's national independence parade.
“It is not a Nazi attribute, but a valuable symbol of the Baltic culture, an ancient sign of our ancestors, which had been stolen from them and treacherously used by other peoples,” one of the defense witnesses said, according to RT, Russia's English news channel.

Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi hunter and Israel director, called the decision “outrageous” and likely to lead to a tremendous increase in the use of Nazi symbols by Lithuania’s ultra-nationalists.
“Allowing the use of swastikas sends a clear message to those local residents harshly victimized by the Nazis that they are no longer welcome in their country of birth,” he said. Lithuanian judges are “again” showing bias in favor of Holocaust perpetrators rather than victims. “We urge the Lithuanian courts to overturn this outrageous and contemptible decision as quickly as possible.”

Swastikas previously have been displayed in Lithuania on May Day, and once in front of the Presidential Palace in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, according to news reports. Neither instances prompted police or legal action.

JTA

Leeds racism row singer loses unfair dismissal claim against police (UK)

A racism row singer fired from his day job with West Yorkshire Police has lost his claim for unfair dismissal.

Gary Marsden I'Anson, of Morley, was arrested and sacked over his alleged association with the British National Party and for using work time to compile right-wing CDs and DVDs for his rock band Anglo Saxon.

The police imaging officer of 23 years claimed West Yorkshire Police unfairly dismissed and discriminated against him.
But an employment tribunal in Leeds has ruled against Mr I'Anson.

Deputy Chief Constable David Crompton said: "This case was significantly aggravated by the fact that force computers were being used in order to generate material which was clearly supportive of the BNP and which had content that was unquestionably contrary to the aims and values of the force."
Now jobless Mr I'Anson, 48, said: "It's a sad day for freedom of speech, artistic expression, liberty, democracy and human rights. It is a good day for political correctness."

Mr I'Anson denies any political links to the BNP and says he is not racist but an 'anti-terrorist patriot.'

He said police were "talking nonsense" over claims he is associated with the BNP.
In 2007 Mr I'Anson was arrested on suspicion of possession of written material with intent to incite racial hatred. He denied any wrongdoing and no charges were brought.

After being suspended on full pay he was eventually sacked in February 2009, after a two-year investigation.

Yorkshire Evening Post

Is Dora the Explorer an illegal immigrant?

Campaigners against a controversial new immigration law in the US state of Arizona have adopted a popular children's cartoon character as a symbol of their cause.

Dora the Explorer has taught millions of American children basic Spanish phrases on her Nickelodeon TV show.
But a doctored image on the internet now shows the cartoon heroine with a black eye in a police mugshot.

Her alleged crimes? Illegal border crossing and resisting arrest.

Several websites, including the influential Huffington Post, have run satirical stories describing Dora's capture by the immigration authorities.
One picture circulating on Facebook shows her vaulting over the fence on the US-Mexican border.

Another shows an advert for a mock television show entitled Dora the Illegal Immigrant.
Meanwhile, some anti-immigration sites have questioned whether the character is part of a conspiracy to persuade Americans to welcome migrants from Latin America.

Global empire
For almost a decade, the doe-eyed cartoon heroine has been one of the most prominent Hispanic characters on children's television in the US.
Her TV show has spawned a global empire, with her smiling face appearing on everything from lunch boxes to computer games.
But as the controversy over illegal immigration has intensified, Dora has been drawn into the political debate.

Most of the websites that have appropriated her image assume she is a migrant from Mexico.
Dora has brown skin, dark hair, and speaks Spanish with an American accent. She lives in a tropical country with pyramids, accompanied by friends Boots the Monkey and Isa the Iguana.

But Nickelodeon has declined to comment on her background, and her place of birth and citizenship have never been made clear.
The Dora police mugshot was originally created last year by Debbie Groben of Sarasota, Florida, for a contest on the fake news site FreakingNews.com.

Last month, Arizona passed a law requiring police, in the context of enforcing other laws, to question people about their immigration status if they have reasonable suspicion they are in the US illegally.

Opponents have rallied against the measure, saying it it will encourage racial profiling of Hispanics, who make up three-quarters of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.

BBC News

Moscow Pride banned as protesters say they will march anyway

Moscow city hall has banned a Pride parade for the fifth year running.

Gay rights activists applied for permission to hold a march on May 29th but officials turned it down, citing reasons of security.
Organiser Nikolai Alexeyev told PinkNews.co.uk that the decision was "purely political" and had nothing to do with safety.
He said he saw no reason why activists would not hold a march anyway.

Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov has consistently refused permission for the march and has called gays and lesbians"satanic" in the past.
Despite five years of bans, marches have been held anyway and some have ended in violence.

In May 2006, more than 120 people were arrested and in 2007, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell were severely beaten by neo-Nazis. Last year, marchers accused police of brutality.

Activists applied on May 17th for permission to hold the event on a street in central Moscow. An appeal will be heard today but Mr Alexeyev said he expected it to be rejected.

He said: "The reasons are absolutely the same as previous years – security reasons. That it will endanger participants and passersby.
"It's nothing to do with security. I have talked to the police and they say it would be no problem to provide security.

"There will be no anti-gay protesters if the protest is protected by police. They are scared of the police. There will not be direct clashes unlike in Vilnius and Riga.

"This is the decision of the mayor. . . it is purely a political decision."

Mr Alexeyev said that if permission was denied, campaigners would still march as they have done in recent years.
He said: "Yes. I don't see any reason why we won't do it this year."

He added that activists had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights over the repeated bans and hoped to receive a decision on the case this year.

When asked whether he believed public opinion was starting to turn in favour of gay rights, he said that unlike previous years, no organised protests had yet been made against the parade.

Last year's march caught worldwide attention as it was held while Moscow hosted the Eurovision Song Contest final.
Under the scrutiny of the world's media, marchers escaped serious injury but were roughly arrested and fined.

They have unsuccessfully tried to have the mayor prosecuted under Article 149 of the Russian Criminal Code for using his political power to prevent legal public events for the LGBT community in the city.

Mr Luzhkov said in December: "For several years, Moscow has experienced unprecedented pressure to conduct a gay pride parade, which cannot be called anything but a Satanic act.

"We have prevented such a parade and we will not allow it in the future. Everyone needs to accept that as an axiom."

Pink News

Neo-Nazi cleared by Latvian court

The Supreme Court of Latvia has overturned a two-year sentence to a certain Andris Jordans, convicted in 2008 a year after he declared himself the Fuhrer of a neo-Nazi campaign for ethnic cleansing. He glorified the Nazi Holocaust and called the Jews and the Gypsies scam which he would gladly deal with by mowing them down with a machine gun.

Symptomatically, the authorities defended him as a law-abiding gent with full entitlement to the freedom of expression and did not prosecute him before being urged to do so by the United Nations.

So what now for the cleared Mr Jordans?

We hear about this from the Latvian Euro-MP Tatyana Zhdanok.

"Mr Jordans and his likes are regulars at reunions and commemorations held by former Latvian members of the Nazi SS.
The rhetoric at such gatherings exposes the participants as unreformed Nazis".

Unfortunately, the scourge is not confined to Latvia. Ahead of independence anniversary celebrations in neighbouring Estonia, for example, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has awarded service medals to five wartime collaborators with the Nazis.

Sixty five years after its defeat on the battlefield, Nazism is still going strong in certain parts of Europe.

Voice of Russia