A MAN who shouted racial abuse at Asian children and chanted "BNP" at them has been jailed for eight months.
Steven Moorhouse, 26, of Rushton Hill Close, Pellon, Halifax, admitted racially aggravated common assault and harassment between June and July last year.
The children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were aged between eight and 13.
Paul Williams, prosecuting, said Moorhouse made an inappropriate comment to a 12-year-old girl and her two younger brothers took exception.
Mr Williams said: "He said, 'Have you got an older sister? I need a woman to keep me off drugs'."
When the boys, eight and 10, objected, Moorhouse unleashed a tirade of racial abuse on them.
"He told them to go back to their own country," said Mr Williams, "While walking away he repeated the phrase, 'BNP, BNP'."
A week later, Moorhouse abused a 13-year-old white girl and her Asian boyfriend and threatened to return with a knife and stab one of them.
On July 4 he again used racist language towards the brothers from the earlier incident and swung out at one of them, clipping him with his finger.
Moorhouse – who has previous convictions for assault, threatening behaviour and harassment and committed the latest offences in breach of a suspended sentence – was overheard shouting that he would get the BNP to come and slit someone's throat.
Jailing him, Recorder Richard Mansell QC said: "You resort to violent, threatening, bullying behaviour when things don't go your way."
Halifax Courier
Monday, 31 May 2010
Racism in Russia as Ghanaian Man is Murdered in Cold Blood
As lawlessness and racism grips Russia, Africans living in the Country have been victims of racist attacks time and again. The Russians are known to be systematically racist as their hatred for blacks goes unabated. Africans in Russia, Germany, France and Italy have been victims of racist attacks ranging from their houses and living areas being burnt down to them being stabbed on the streets by racist gangs and also being killed in cold blood. It has become very rare for governments in this countries to pursue would be perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
It has been reported that a group of unidentified attackers has stabbed to death a Ghanaian national in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg, The 25-year-old man was taken to hospital in critical condition, with some 20 injuries to his head, neck, chest, kidney, stomach and limbs. He died several hours later. According to the Russian authorities, an investigation into the attack has been launched. Whether this investigation will be followed-up with a conviction is another matter. Russia has seen a wave of racially motivated crime since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Attacks by gangs of youths on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features are a routine occurrence in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Voronezh, which hosts many foreign university students.
newstimeafrica
It has been reported that a group of unidentified attackers has stabbed to death a Ghanaian national in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg, The 25-year-old man was taken to hospital in critical condition, with some 20 injuries to his head, neck, chest, kidney, stomach and limbs. He died several hours later. According to the Russian authorities, an investigation into the attack has been launched. Whether this investigation will be followed-up with a conviction is another matter. Russia has seen a wave of racially motivated crime since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Attacks by gangs of youths on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features are a routine occurrence in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Voronezh, which hosts many foreign university students.
newstimeafrica
Lawyers body demand ban on English Defence League
The UK-based Association of Pakistani Lawyers (APL) has called for a ban on the far right wing English Defence League following report in the British media that it plans to stoke up racial disorder in Muslim dominated areas of Bradford and Tower Hamlets in East London this summer.In a statement APL chair Amjad Malik has demanded a ban on this organisation saying it poses a threat to public order and has sinister aims.
“If British society rightly so has no place for Al-Muhejeron, so must be the case with English Defence League which should be proscribed before it’s too late as it threatens the very fabric of British society which is built on ‘tolerance’ and ‘live and let live’ principle,” Barrister Malik said.
Malik declared that the EDL group’s decision to target some of the UK’s most prominent Muslim communities including Bradford is a an attempt to provoke Muslim youth to take law in their own hands as the youth is already feeling disillusioned by past 10 years of negative campaign and governmental actions and foreign policy concerns.
“British Muslim youth feel under the cloud due to a heavy stop and search figures and usage of terror legislation against them. English Defence League has only one agenda and that is to stir public hatred and community tensions turning into riots and create a worst law and order situation having far reaching consequences for future stability in the society.”
He said this agenda of hate and despair is a ploy to divide people and communities who are living peacefully in Britain irrespective of their faith and colour.
app.com.pk
“If British society rightly so has no place for Al-Muhejeron, so must be the case with English Defence League which should be proscribed before it’s too late as it threatens the very fabric of British society which is built on ‘tolerance’ and ‘live and let live’ principle,” Barrister Malik said.
Malik declared that the EDL group’s decision to target some of the UK’s most prominent Muslim communities including Bradford is a an attempt to provoke Muslim youth to take law in their own hands as the youth is already feeling disillusioned by past 10 years of negative campaign and governmental actions and foreign policy concerns.
“British Muslim youth feel under the cloud due to a heavy stop and search figures and usage of terror legislation against them. English Defence League has only one agenda and that is to stir public hatred and community tensions turning into riots and create a worst law and order situation having far reaching consequences for future stability in the society.”
He said this agenda of hate and despair is a ploy to divide people and communities who are living peacefully in Britain irrespective of their faith and colour.
app.com.pk
Sunday, 30 May 2010
White power groups set for election year push (Sweden)
White power groups were less active in Sweden in 2009 than the previous year, according to a new report. But the movement is expected to increase its efforts in the run-up to the autumn general election.
White power groups were less active in Sweden in 2009 than the previous year, according to anti-racism foundation Expo’s annual report. But the movement is expected to increase its efforts in the run-up to the autumn general election.
Last year an estimated 40 white power groups attracted members across Sweden, roughly the same number as the previous year. But there was a considerable dip in the number of visible activities carried out by these groups, including public demonstrations and the distribution of leaflets.
Expo and the Swedish Security Police, Säpo, share the view that extreme groups on the left and right are likely to become more active this year,with an election coming up in Sweptember.
“These groups’ activities generally do increase when there’s an election,” said Säpo spokesman Patrik Peter.
On Wednesday two people were stabbed while handing out flyers for Svenskarnas Parti (‘Party for Swedes’) in Hallstahammar, 130 kilometres west of Stockholm. Four people people from the extreme left were arrested for attempted murder.
Three days later a demonstration by Svenskarnas Parti in nearby Västerås attracted 150 to 200 supporters. Two people were injured when clashes broke out with around 100 counter-demonstrators.
Expo editor Anders Dalbro highlighted the fact that Svenskarnas Parti, unlike many of their counterparts, will be running for election this year.
“For them it’s going to be a very active year. But organisations not running for election also benefit from the fact that it’s an election year,” he said.
According to Expo’s annual report, set for publication this week, the white power movement was hit by internal divisions in 2009.
“This is most noticeable when it comes to common demonstrations, which previously attracted a lot of people,” said Dalsbro.
The Local Sweden
White power groups were less active in Sweden in 2009 than the previous year, according to anti-racism foundation Expo’s annual report. But the movement is expected to increase its efforts in the run-up to the autumn general election.
Last year an estimated 40 white power groups attracted members across Sweden, roughly the same number as the previous year. But there was a considerable dip in the number of visible activities carried out by these groups, including public demonstrations and the distribution of leaflets.
Expo and the Swedish Security Police, Säpo, share the view that extreme groups on the left and right are likely to become more active this year,with an election coming up in Sweptember.
“These groups’ activities generally do increase when there’s an election,” said Säpo spokesman Patrik Peter.
On Wednesday two people were stabbed while handing out flyers for Svenskarnas Parti (‘Party for Swedes’) in Hallstahammar, 130 kilometres west of Stockholm. Four people people from the extreme left were arrested for attempted murder.
Three days later a demonstration by Svenskarnas Parti in nearby Västerås attracted 150 to 200 supporters. Two people were injured when clashes broke out with around 100 counter-demonstrators.
Expo editor Anders Dalbro highlighted the fact that Svenskarnas Parti, unlike many of their counterparts, will be running for election this year.
“For them it’s going to be a very active year. But organisations not running for election also benefit from the fact that it’s an election year,” he said.
According to Expo’s annual report, set for publication this week, the white power movement was hit by internal divisions in 2009.
“This is most noticeable when it comes to common demonstrations, which previously attracted a lot of people,” said Dalsbro.
The Local Sweden
MONEY, NOT ISLAM, MATTERS MOST IN DUTCH ELECTIONS
For a decade, the Netherlands has been at the forefront of a Europe-wide crackdown on immigration and the debate over a perceived failure of Muslims to integrate. But with national elections less than two weeks away, issues like banning burqas and mandatory citizenship classes have been shouldered aside in favor of the debate over how to balance the budget. Part of the reason immigration issues are dropping on the political agenda is a national consensus that newcomers, especially from poor Muslim countries, should be limited. But it also reflects a concern shared with the rest of Europe over the continent's financial crisis, even though the Dutch have one of the soundest economies among the 27 members of the European Union. All political parties are pledging spending cuts, and whatever the result, the average Dutchman will either see his taxes rise or his government benefits shrink — probably both. A conservative candidate with strong pro-business credentials has opened up a commanding lead in polls, siphoning support from the populist anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders, who has nose-dived from first to fourth place. Mark Rutte of the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, which goes by its Dutch acronym VVD, shone in a nationally televised debate Wednesday, defending a platform that includes building nuclear plants and cutting government jobs. "Windmills aren't powered by wind," Rutte jibed. "They're powered by subsidies." Along with aggressive spending cuts, Rutte's platform is almost as tough on crime and immigration as that of Wilders' Freedom Party — for instance, making immigrants ineligible for unemployment compensation for the first 10 years after they arrive.
Wilders is known for his film "Fitna," which offended many Muslims by linking Islam and violence. He is facing criminal prosecution under Dutch hate speech laws for comparing Islam to Naziism and calling for a ban on the Quran. Rutte's rise has left Wilders struggling to stand out. Earlier this week, Wilders released calculations he says show that nonwestern immigrants are a euro7 billion ($8.6 billion) annual drag on the Dutch budget because of higher criminality and unemployment rates. But his economic platform drew groans and laughter at Wednesday's debate for its single-minded focus on immigration. Health care costs, for example, can be cut by denying medical care to children of illegal immigrants. "You can all laugh about it, but it's about money," Wilders told a skeptical audience. "The Netherlands will have to decide. Are we an immigration country, or are we a country with social services?," he said. Recent polls show Rutte's VVD taking 36 seats in the 150-seat Dutch parliament, with former Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen's Labor the closest competitor at 29 seats. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's Christian Democrats are third with 25 and Wilders' Freedom Party is fourth at 17. Balkenende has failed to capitalize on a relatively low unemployment rate of 5.9 percent and a budget deficit that at 3.4 percent is also far better than the European average. Political analysts say many voters are simply tired of Balkenende, who has been in power since 2002.
Meanwhile, Cohen, who was a popular executive in Amsterdam, led in national polls briefly before sliding. That is at least partly due to his poor performance in the debates. Voters often say they appreciate Wilders' speaking ability and his refreshing lack of political correctness, but see him as unfit to govern. "Wilders makes the best jokes, but I don't vote on that basis," said Johan Bosma, an Amsterdam city employee, who supports Labor. "The problem with Wilders is that he has no ideas how to fix things, or he has bad ideas. You can't blame everything on one religion," he said. Flea market worker Assef Yoquobi said he has voted Labor in the past but not seen any results, so would probably not vote this time. "Politicians are all liars," he said. "The VVD, it's for rich people." Asked about Wilders he shook his head, no. "Crazy," he said.
AP.org
Wilders is known for his film "Fitna," which offended many Muslims by linking Islam and violence. He is facing criminal prosecution under Dutch hate speech laws for comparing Islam to Naziism and calling for a ban on the Quran. Rutte's rise has left Wilders struggling to stand out. Earlier this week, Wilders released calculations he says show that nonwestern immigrants are a euro7 billion ($8.6 billion) annual drag on the Dutch budget because of higher criminality and unemployment rates. But his economic platform drew groans and laughter at Wednesday's debate for its single-minded focus on immigration. Health care costs, for example, can be cut by denying medical care to children of illegal immigrants. "You can all laugh about it, but it's about money," Wilders told a skeptical audience. "The Netherlands will have to decide. Are we an immigration country, or are we a country with social services?," he said. Recent polls show Rutte's VVD taking 36 seats in the 150-seat Dutch parliament, with former Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen's Labor the closest competitor at 29 seats. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's Christian Democrats are third with 25 and Wilders' Freedom Party is fourth at 17. Balkenende has failed to capitalize on a relatively low unemployment rate of 5.9 percent and a budget deficit that at 3.4 percent is also far better than the European average. Political analysts say many voters are simply tired of Balkenende, who has been in power since 2002.
Meanwhile, Cohen, who was a popular executive in Amsterdam, led in national polls briefly before sliding. That is at least partly due to his poor performance in the debates. Voters often say they appreciate Wilders' speaking ability and his refreshing lack of political correctness, but see him as unfit to govern. "Wilders makes the best jokes, but I don't vote on that basis," said Johan Bosma, an Amsterdam city employee, who supports Labor. "The problem with Wilders is that he has no ideas how to fix things, or he has bad ideas. You can't blame everything on one religion," he said. Flea market worker Assef Yoquobi said he has voted Labor in the past but not seen any results, so would probably not vote this time. "Politicians are all liars," he said. "The VVD, it's for rich people." Asked about Wilders he shook his head, no. "Crazy," he said.
AP.org
RUSSIAN GAYS ELUDE POLICE FOR FIRST CALM PROTEST
Gay and lesbian activists eluded Russian security services in a five-hour game of cat and mouse on Saturday to hold the first gay protest in Moscow not to be broken up by riot police.Gay and lesbian activists eluded Russian security services in a five-hour game of cat and mouse on Saturday to hold the first gay protest in Moscow not to be broken up by riot police.
After luring hundreds of riot police and undercover officers to a different location, a group of about 25 gay and lesbian activists unfurled a rainbow banner on Moscow's main Leningradsky Avenue, chanting "homophobia is Russia's disgrace." They said the subterfuge was needed to avoid a repeat of the violence seen in previous years when Moscow police, nationalists and ultra-Orthodox believers broke up similar protests. "It is very difficult to be openly gay in Russia: you can face serious problems at work and discrimination is very widespread," said Nikolai Bayev, a gay activist at the protest. "Russia is where most Western countries were in the 1970s when it comes to gay rights ... We are only just starting to really come out," he said. Police arrived soon after the brief protest, which the city of Moscow had refused to permit, but the activists scattered. Homosexuality could be punished with jail terms in the Soviet Union and though Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, intolerance remains very widespread. Polls have shown more than 80 percent of Russians see homosexuality as immoral. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has said gay protests are satanic and previous attempts to hold such events have ended in multiple arrests and clashes with ultra-Orthodox believers who say gays should be punished or treated in hospital for their "illness." Just days before last year's Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, police arrested at least 40 gay and lesbian activists at a similar protest. Gay activists had asked Western embassies to host the protest but they said their proposal was either ignored or turned down by envoys from the United States, Canada and major European Union states. "The EU and Western embassies are hypocrites," said British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, who traveled to Moscow to join the protest. "We are being hounded and hunted by the police and the FSB Security Service all because we want to hold a peaceful gay rights protest." The Moscow police declined to comment. A spokesman for the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, also declined comment and asked for questions in writing which he said would not be answered before Monday.
Reuters
After luring hundreds of riot police and undercover officers to a different location, a group of about 25 gay and lesbian activists unfurled a rainbow banner on Moscow's main Leningradsky Avenue, chanting "homophobia is Russia's disgrace." They said the subterfuge was needed to avoid a repeat of the violence seen in previous years when Moscow police, nationalists and ultra-Orthodox believers broke up similar protests. "It is very difficult to be openly gay in Russia: you can face serious problems at work and discrimination is very widespread," said Nikolai Bayev, a gay activist at the protest. "Russia is where most Western countries were in the 1970s when it comes to gay rights ... We are only just starting to really come out," he said. Police arrived soon after the brief protest, which the city of Moscow had refused to permit, but the activists scattered. Homosexuality could be punished with jail terms in the Soviet Union and though Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, intolerance remains very widespread. Polls have shown more than 80 percent of Russians see homosexuality as immoral. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has said gay protests are satanic and previous attempts to hold such events have ended in multiple arrests and clashes with ultra-Orthodox believers who say gays should be punished or treated in hospital for their "illness." Just days before last year's Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, police arrested at least 40 gay and lesbian activists at a similar protest. Gay activists had asked Western embassies to host the protest but they said their proposal was either ignored or turned down by envoys from the United States, Canada and major European Union states. "The EU and Western embassies are hypocrites," said British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, who traveled to Moscow to join the protest. "We are being hounded and hunted by the police and the FSB Security Service all because we want to hold a peaceful gay rights protest." The Moscow police declined to comment. A spokesman for the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, also declined comment and asked for questions in writing which he said would not be answered before Monday.
Reuters
EDL member seen kicking officer (UK)
A member of the English Defence League who was involved in the disorder which broke out at a rally in Stoke-on-Trent has been jailed for 16 weeks.
Jake Payne travelled up to the city from his home with friends to attend the event in Hanley city centre on January 23 this year.
Laura Jones, prosecuting, told North Staffordshire magistrates: "Payne was seen by officers at 3.20pm as part of a crowd in hostile confrontation with police.
"He was seen to kick out violently at one police officer, then encouraging some of the people in the crowd to behave in a disorderly fashion."
She said Payne admitted he was a member of the EDL and had previous convictions for public order offences.
Payne, aged 22 of Florey Gardens, Aylesbury, pleaded guilty to using threatening abusive or insulting words of behaviour with intent and failing to answer to his bail.
Lee Yates, defending, said: "He says he wishes to be sentenced and sent to prison forthwith because he knows from past experience he is unable to comply with community orders."
This is Staffordshire
Jake Payne travelled up to the city from his home with friends to attend the event in Hanley city centre on January 23 this year.
Laura Jones, prosecuting, told North Staffordshire magistrates: "Payne was seen by officers at 3.20pm as part of a crowd in hostile confrontation with police.
"He was seen to kick out violently at one police officer, then encouraging some of the people in the crowd to behave in a disorderly fashion."
She said Payne admitted he was a member of the EDL and had previous convictions for public order offences.
Payne, aged 22 of Florey Gardens, Aylesbury, pleaded guilty to using threatening abusive or insulting words of behaviour with intent and failing to answer to his bail.
Lee Yates, defending, said: "He says he wishes to be sentenced and sent to prison forthwith because he knows from past experience he is unable to comply with community orders."
This is Staffordshire
Saturday, 29 May 2010
English Defence League: Inside the violent world of Britain's new far right
Undercover Guardian investigation reveals plan by English Defence League to hit racially sensitive areas in attempt to provoke disorder over summer
MPs expressed concern tonight after it emerged that far-right activists are planning to step up their provocative street campaign by targeting some of the UK's highest-profile Muslim communities, raising fears of widespread unrest this summer.
Undercover footage shot by the Guardian reveals the English Defence League, which has staged a number of violent protests in towns and cities across the country this year, is planning to "hit" Bradford and the London borough of Tower Hamlets as it intensifies its street protests.
Senior figures in the coalition government were briefed on the threat posed by EDL marches this week. Tomorrow up to 2,000 EDL supporters are expected to descend on Newcastle for its latest protest.
MPs said the group's decision to target some of the UK's most prominent Muslim communities was a blatant attempt to provoke mayhem and disorder. "This group has no positive agenda," said the Bradford South MP, Gerry Sutcliffe. "It is an agenda of hate that is designed to divide people and communities. We support legitimate protest but this is not legitimate, it is designed to stir up trouble. The people of Bradford will want no part of it."
The English Defence League, which started in Luton last year, has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s. A Guardian investigation has identified a number of known rightwing extremists who are taking an interest in the movement – from convicted football hooligans to members of violent rightwing splinter groups.
Thousands of people have attended its protests – many of which have descended into violence and racist and Islamophobic chanting. Supporters are split into "divisions" spread across the UK and as many as 3,000 people are attracted to its protests.
The group also appears to be drawing support from the armed forces. Its online armed forces division has 842 members and the EDL says many serving soldiers have attended its demonstrations. A spokeswoman for the EDL, whose husband is a serving soldier, said: "The soldiers are fighting Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and Iraq and the EDL are fighting it here … Not all the armed forces support the English Defence League but a majority do."
Following the British National party's poor showing in this month's local and national elections anti-racist campaigners say some far-right activists may be turning away from the ballot box and returning to violent street demonstrations for the first time in three decades.
Nick Lowles, from Searchlight, said: "What we are seeing now is the most serious, most dangerous, political phenomenon that we have had in Britain for a number of years. With EDL protests that are growing week in, week out there is a chance for major disorder and a major political shift to the right in this country."
In undercover footage shot by Guardian Films, EDL spokesman Guramit Singh says its Bradford demonstration "will be huge". He adds: "The problem with Bradford is the security threat, it is a highly populated Muslim area. They are very militant as well. Bradford is a place that has got to be hit."
Singh, who was speaking during an EDL demonstration in Dudley in April, said the organisation would also be targeting Tower Hamlets.
A spokesman for the EDL confirmed it would hold a demonstration in Bradford on 28 August because the city was "on course to be one of the first places to become a no-go area for non-Muslims". The EDL has already announced demonstrations in Cardiff and Dudley.
The former Home Office minister Phil Woolas said: "This is a deliberate attempt by the EDL at division and provocation, to try and push young Muslims into the hands of extremists, in order to perpetuate the divide. It is dangerous."
The EDL claims it is a peaceful and non-racist organisation only concerned with protesting against "militant Islam". However, over the last four months the Guardian has attended its demonstrations and witnessed racism, violence and virulent Islamophobia.
During the election campaign David Cameron described the EDL as "dreadful people" and said the organisation would "always be under review".
A spokesman for the Home Office said that although the government was committed to restoring the right to "non-violent protest … violence and intimidation are wholly unacceptable and the police have powers to deal with individuals who commit such acts. The government condemns those who seek to spread hatred."
He added: "Individual members of EDL – like all members of the public – are of course subject to the law, and all suspected criminal offences will be robustly investigated and dealt with by the police."
The Guardian
Watch the Guardian video report
Part 1
Part 2
Please support the You Tube user and his channel. Justavaragejoe
Undercover footage shot by the Guardian reveals the English Defence League, which has staged a number of violent protests in towns and cities across the country this year, is planning to "hit" Bradford and the London borough of Tower Hamlets as it intensifies its street protests.
Senior figures in the coalition government were briefed on the threat posed by EDL marches this week. Tomorrow up to 2,000 EDL supporters are expected to descend on Newcastle for its latest protest.
MPs said the group's decision to target some of the UK's most prominent Muslim communities was a blatant attempt to provoke mayhem and disorder. "This group has no positive agenda," said the Bradford South MP, Gerry Sutcliffe. "It is an agenda of hate that is designed to divide people and communities. We support legitimate protest but this is not legitimate, it is designed to stir up trouble. The people of Bradford will want no part of it."
The English Defence League, which started in Luton last year, has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s. A Guardian investigation has identified a number of known rightwing extremists who are taking an interest in the movement – from convicted football hooligans to members of violent rightwing splinter groups.
Thousands of people have attended its protests – many of which have descended into violence and racist and Islamophobic chanting. Supporters are split into "divisions" spread across the UK and as many as 3,000 people are attracted to its protests.
The group also appears to be drawing support from the armed forces. Its online armed forces division has 842 members and the EDL says many serving soldiers have attended its demonstrations. A spokeswoman for the EDL, whose husband is a serving soldier, said: "The soldiers are fighting Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and Iraq and the EDL are fighting it here … Not all the armed forces support the English Defence League but a majority do."
Following the British National party's poor showing in this month's local and national elections anti-racist campaigners say some far-right activists may be turning away from the ballot box and returning to violent street demonstrations for the first time in three decades.
Nick Lowles, from Searchlight, said: "What we are seeing now is the most serious, most dangerous, political phenomenon that we have had in Britain for a number of years. With EDL protests that are growing week in, week out there is a chance for major disorder and a major political shift to the right in this country."
In undercover footage shot by Guardian Films, EDL spokesman Guramit Singh says its Bradford demonstration "will be huge". He adds: "The problem with Bradford is the security threat, it is a highly populated Muslim area. They are very militant as well. Bradford is a place that has got to be hit."
Singh, who was speaking during an EDL demonstration in Dudley in April, said the organisation would also be targeting Tower Hamlets.
A spokesman for the EDL confirmed it would hold a demonstration in Bradford on 28 August because the city was "on course to be one of the first places to become a no-go area for non-Muslims". The EDL has already announced demonstrations in Cardiff and Dudley.
The former Home Office minister Phil Woolas said: "This is a deliberate attempt by the EDL at division and provocation, to try and push young Muslims into the hands of extremists, in order to perpetuate the divide. It is dangerous."
The EDL claims it is a peaceful and non-racist organisation only concerned with protesting against "militant Islam". However, over the last four months the Guardian has attended its demonstrations and witnessed racism, violence and virulent Islamophobia.
During the election campaign David Cameron described the EDL as "dreadful people" and said the organisation would "always be under review".
A spokesman for the Home Office said that although the government was committed to restoring the right to "non-violent protest … violence and intimidation are wholly unacceptable and the police have powers to deal with individuals who commit such acts. The government condemns those who seek to spread hatred."
He added: "Individual members of EDL – like all members of the public – are of course subject to the law, and all suspected criminal offences will be robustly investigated and dealt with by the police."
The Guardian
Watch the Guardian video report
Part 1
Part 2
Please support the You Tube user and his channel. Justavaragejoe
Muslims must refuse to rise to EDL provocation
By ignoring planned EDL demonstrations and looking toward dialogue to dispel myths, Muslims can facilitate cohesion by Samia Rahman
The Guardian's investigation into the English Defence League (EDL) was a fascinating insight into the motivations and aims of the far-right anti-Islamic group. Some of the comments by individuals justifying their involvement with the EDL were hardly a surprise to those of us used to the mythologising and half-truths that get bandied about every time Islam is discussed. The level of hate and fear has, sadly, become a typical reaction from some who will use any excuse to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into a spot of Muslim-bashing.
That familiar cry of "we want our country back" has been directed over centuries against the Jews, the Irish, African-Caribbeans, South Asians, eastern Europeans and so on. Many of these groups continue to bear the brunt of casual racism exposed by the Guardian piece but Islam seems to be firmly on the frontline.
Only this week, a Facebook group whipped up a frenzy of anti-immigrant feeling, which rapidly metamorphosed into anti-Muslim ranting by claiming that the police were attempting to ban the flying of the English flag for fear of upsetting minorities. Of course, the rumour was complete nonsense and stemmed from a letter advising a pub in Croydon to ban football club shirts to minimise confrontation between fans of rival teams. Nothing to do with Muslims, immigrants or the flag, yet almost 160,000 people believed the story and were up in arms about them Muslims with their mosques and their burqas.
It's the ease with which a kernel of truth associated (or not) with Muslims can be blowtorched, twisted out of all recognition and sculpted into something quite unrecognisable from the original that is so disturbing. And it's such hysteria that serves to fuel the anti-Islamic sentiment expressed by those EDL members featured in the Guardian.
Islam, and consequently Muslims, seem to have become a dirty word – only a couple of weeks ago I was on a bus in south London on which a rather flustered weekend dad was trying to control his unruly young son. "You fucker," screamed the boy as his father attempted to stop him from licking the window of the bus. "Don't you dare swear at me you little shit," the dad spat back. "Muslim. You love Muslims you do, you Muslim," was the youngster's bizarre retaliation. I didn't know whether to laugh or despair as the father hissed at his child to "shut the fuck up".
It's fair to say that Muslims have a PR problem and I'm the first to admit that it's not as if some from our ranks haven't fuelled this anger and suspicion. Going all the way back to the Salman Rushdie affair, on to the London bombings, radicalisation, Danish cartoons, not to mention the cartoon-fest on Facebook, the actions of a few Muslims have proved severely damaging. Such notoriety has fomented and unified anti-Muslim sentiment unrestricted by race, background and political persuasion.
One particularly inflammatory incident involving Muslims in recent times involved a group of extremists protesting during a parade in Luton for soldiers returning from Iraq and is thought to have been a catalyst for the creation of the EDL. What was less widely reported was that the Muslim extremists numbered only a handful and were not representative of the views of the large Muslim community in Luton. In fact, the extremists were prevented from repeating their provocative demonstration by other Luton Muslims – who literally drove them out of town.
The EDL claim they are not anti-Muslim and merely anti-militant Islam, although the line is evidently blurred. However, if that really is the case perhaps they would wish to offer their support to the many Muslim grassroots initiatives, as well as intellectual and theological forums striving to challenge extremism. These positive steps rarely grab the headlines in the way that stories about reactionary Muslims do. Perhaps that is much of the problem.
The overwhelming majority of Muslims living in the UK have better things to do than pursue the Islamification of this country and certainly are not keen on the idea of replacing the British constitution with Shariah law by 2040, as if that was even remotely on the cards – considering only 3% of the population of the UK is Muslim. When the EDL faithful wax lyrical about the Islamisation of England I have some difficulty understanding what exactly they mean.
Once the old wives' tales and misinformation are stripped away from their arguments, it is hard to see how Islam is directly and negatively impinging upon their lives. Muslims are a pluralistic and eclectic community with a vast array of individual perspectives that cannot be reliably generalised, never mind brought together to form any sort of movement for Islamisation.
The fact that the EDL is planning a summer of anti-Islamic demonstrations in cities with significant Muslim populations, including Bradford where I currently live, is certainly worrying. The likelihood of counter-demonstrations heightening racial tension and stirring up trouble is also ominous. But Muslims must counter the anti-Islamic momentum by refusing to react, and turning their focus towards transparency and dialogue in an attempt to dispel myths, address concerns and facilitate integration and cohesion.
As troubling as the rise in anti-Islamic sentiment and the casual Islamophobia that comes with it is, there is some solace to be gained in the fact that the British National party performed poorly in the general election. If the EDL is heralding a sharp shift in the political mood to the right, present evidence may prove disappointing for them. If it's a summer of violence and clashes with local Muslims on the streets they are hoping for, let's disappoint them on that front too.
The Gurardian
That familiar cry of "we want our country back" has been directed over centuries against the Jews, the Irish, African-Caribbeans, South Asians, eastern Europeans and so on. Many of these groups continue to bear the brunt of casual racism exposed by the Guardian piece but Islam seems to be firmly on the frontline.
Only this week, a Facebook group whipped up a frenzy of anti-immigrant feeling, which rapidly metamorphosed into anti-Muslim ranting by claiming that the police were attempting to ban the flying of the English flag for fear of upsetting minorities. Of course, the rumour was complete nonsense and stemmed from a letter advising a pub in Croydon to ban football club shirts to minimise confrontation between fans of rival teams. Nothing to do with Muslims, immigrants or the flag, yet almost 160,000 people believed the story and were up in arms about them Muslims with their mosques and their burqas.
It's the ease with which a kernel of truth associated (or not) with Muslims can be blowtorched, twisted out of all recognition and sculpted into something quite unrecognisable from the original that is so disturbing. And it's such hysteria that serves to fuel the anti-Islamic sentiment expressed by those EDL members featured in the Guardian.
Islam, and consequently Muslims, seem to have become a dirty word – only a couple of weeks ago I was on a bus in south London on which a rather flustered weekend dad was trying to control his unruly young son. "You fucker," screamed the boy as his father attempted to stop him from licking the window of the bus. "Don't you dare swear at me you little shit," the dad spat back. "Muslim. You love Muslims you do, you Muslim," was the youngster's bizarre retaliation. I didn't know whether to laugh or despair as the father hissed at his child to "shut the fuck up".
It's fair to say that Muslims have a PR problem and I'm the first to admit that it's not as if some from our ranks haven't fuelled this anger and suspicion. Going all the way back to the Salman Rushdie affair, on to the London bombings, radicalisation, Danish cartoons, not to mention the cartoon-fest on Facebook, the actions of a few Muslims have proved severely damaging. Such notoriety has fomented and unified anti-Muslim sentiment unrestricted by race, background and political persuasion.
One particularly inflammatory incident involving Muslims in recent times involved a group of extremists protesting during a parade in Luton for soldiers returning from Iraq and is thought to have been a catalyst for the creation of the EDL. What was less widely reported was that the Muslim extremists numbered only a handful and were not representative of the views of the large Muslim community in Luton. In fact, the extremists were prevented from repeating their provocative demonstration by other Luton Muslims – who literally drove them out of town.
The EDL claim they are not anti-Muslim and merely anti-militant Islam, although the line is evidently blurred. However, if that really is the case perhaps they would wish to offer their support to the many Muslim grassroots initiatives, as well as intellectual and theological forums striving to challenge extremism. These positive steps rarely grab the headlines in the way that stories about reactionary Muslims do. Perhaps that is much of the problem.
The overwhelming majority of Muslims living in the UK have better things to do than pursue the Islamification of this country and certainly are not keen on the idea of replacing the British constitution with Shariah law by 2040, as if that was even remotely on the cards – considering only 3% of the population of the UK is Muslim. When the EDL faithful wax lyrical about the Islamisation of England I have some difficulty understanding what exactly they mean.
Once the old wives' tales and misinformation are stripped away from their arguments, it is hard to see how Islam is directly and negatively impinging upon their lives. Muslims are a pluralistic and eclectic community with a vast array of individual perspectives that cannot be reliably generalised, never mind brought together to form any sort of movement for Islamisation.
The fact that the EDL is planning a summer of anti-Islamic demonstrations in cities with significant Muslim populations, including Bradford where I currently live, is certainly worrying. The likelihood of counter-demonstrations heightening racial tension and stirring up trouble is also ominous. But Muslims must counter the anti-Islamic momentum by refusing to react, and turning their focus towards transparency and dialogue in an attempt to dispel myths, address concerns and facilitate integration and cohesion.
As troubling as the rise in anti-Islamic sentiment and the casual Islamophobia that comes with it is, there is some solace to be gained in the fact that the British National party performed poorly in the general election. If the EDL is heralding a sharp shift in the political mood to the right, present evidence may prove disappointing for them. If it's a summer of violence and clashes with local Muslims on the streets they are hoping for, let's disappoint them on that front too.
The Gurardian
GREECE CONDEMNED FOR CONTINUED SERIOUS AND WIDESPREAD DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ROMA
The complaint marks a turning point in the Committee’s work, being the first time it has been asked and agreed to re-examine an issue that it has previously considered. In returning to this issue, the Committee found that not only had Greece made insufficient progress in implementing recommendations from the previous decision but it had also committed significant new breaches of its housing obligations. The result is that the housing situation for most Roma families has worsened in the last five years. Commenting on the decision, Iain Byrne, a Senior Lawyer at INTERIGHTS who worked on the case, said: “This decision clearly demonstrates that governments can no longer fail to implement their economic and social rights obligations and expect to be let off the hook. By dismissing the Greek Government’s objections to a re-examination of the complaint, the Committee has sent a clear signal that victims should not be denied access to justice. It is to be hoped that, in contrast to its record over the last five years, the Greek Government will take concrete action to address the Committee’s serious concerns.”
Drawing on a large amount of material presented by the complainants, together with the findings of a number of UN, Council of Europe and national experts, the Committee found significant evidence that many Roma continue to live in housing which fails to meet minimum standards of habitability and infrastructure. Many settlements consist solely of prefabricated housing with no electricity, running water or waste collection. The Committee dismissed the Government’s arguments that Greek legislation provides adequate safeguards for the prevention of discrimination, emphasising that in general, but in particular in the case of the Roma, merely ensuring identical treatment as a means of protection against any discrimination is not sufficient. Instead, real and effective equality requires taking into account the different situation that the Roma find themselves. The Committee also concluded that the Government failed to demonstrate that either in law or practice there was sufficient provision for consultation with those to be affected by eviction, including reasonable notice and information on the provision of alternative accommodation. In summary, “no serious efforts are being made to find alternative sites or accommodation.”
In a finding that could also impact on access to justice for other marginalised communities, the Committee also deemed that the legal recourse available was not sufficiently accessible. With many Roma families unaware of the right to challenge an eviction notice, for example, the Committee found that “[t]he special circumstances of Roma families threatened by eviction means that special support should be available including targeted advice on availability of legal aid and on appeals.” The Committee concluded unanimously that there had been a violation of (a) Article 16 of the Charter on the grounds that the different situation of Roma families is not sufficiently taken into account with the result that a significant number of Roma families continue to live in conditions that fail to meet minimum standards and (b) Article 16 of the Charter on the grounds that Roma families continue to be forcibly evicted in breach of the Charter and the legal remedies generally available are not sufficiently accessible to them.
Panayote Dimitras, spokesperson for Greek Helsinki Monitor, said: “The Government must admit that the Roma housing program failed; that most housing loans did not help Roma move out from destitute settlements into adequate homes; that hundreds of forced evictions have been taking place instead. Appropriate authorities must investigate these charges and punish those found responsible. The Government should appoint new persons to implement a new holistic and effective integration plan so as to execute the double Special Charter conviction and avoid a third one in a few years. This new approach requires that authorities work directly with destitute Roma and those really representing them, rather than state-appointed assimilated Roma 'leaders'.”
inter rights
NAZI MEMORABILIA FOUND WITH ARSONISTS (Czech Rep.)
Mazel questioned this yesterday. "I have never come across any extremists wanted to attack any storage facility. It is to be a sign of racial war that is always waged against people, an ethnic group or a hostile race," Mazel said. Authorised experts said the confiscated things unequivocally proved the defendants were intensively interested in extremist issues and that they lived for the neo-Nazi movement. "This can be primarily seen in their effort to support their imprisoned friends," Mazel said, adding that the defendants were among the worst extremists. Mazel said he had often found the symbol C18 on the things and video recordings. This is the name of a British neo-Nazi terrorist organisation. The defendants also had clothes with the number 18. Mazel said it was a visible allusion to the name of Adolf Hitler for neo-Nazis. Mazel said the found things were clearly witnessing of promotion of racial exclusiveness and xenophobic attitudes. The police found with Cojocaru a neo-Nazi magazine with the texts calling Romanies rubbish or beasts. They call for a racial purge, Mazel said. Mazel said video recordings of neo-Nazi music bands were found among the confiscated things. At the beginning of the trial Cojocaru and Mueller denied active membership of neo-Nazi cells. "I only wanted to belong somewhere," Mueller said. "I liked the fashion, the bomber jackets they wore," Cojocaru said.
Prague Monitor
ECCLES MOSQUE ATTACKED (uk)
Vandals carried out two attacks in one night on a Manchester mosque on April 10. They were captured on camera as they removed fencing and threw bricks through the windows. The vandalism is the latest in a series of Islamophobic attacks on the mosque in Liverpool Road, Eccles. CCTV cameras were installed after a break-in in 2006 when intruders caused extensive damage. Local officers are now providing reassurance to religious leaders and members of the community by holding a series of meetings with the Eccles mosque committee and conducting high visibility joint patrols with a committee member in the local area. Eccles Mosque Chair, Ali Anees, told The Muslim News, “We have had problems regularly. In March, someone threw paint over the outside of the mosque and wrote graffiti. “Then at about 2am last Saturday two men got into the grounds. One is on film throwing bricks which had been taken from a wall of a neighbouring building. They attacked the building twice in about 20 minutes. “Three sections of the windows were smashed and bricks were found inside the office of the mosque. We had another incident in March when eggs were thrown at people leaving the mosque by people driving past. After the damaged caused in 2006, they have spent £425,000 on new buildings. “We have up to 500 members and they are very angry about the attacks. We want the culprits caught.” One vandal is seen to hurl at least five bricks through windows and temporary fencing is pulled down.
In a statement to The Muslim News Sergeant Tom Martin from Salford South Neighbourhood Policing Team said, “We are working closely with members of the mosque to ensure this type of incidents doesn’t happen again. Existing CCTV cameras have been reviewed to maximize their potential and a local resident has agreed to remove loose bricks outside his home in order to prevent them from being used to cause further damage. “I can reassure the community that we do not tolerate this kind of vandalism and we will do everything possible to bring the offenders to justice. If residents have any concerns what so ever, they can contact a member of my team.”
muslimnews
In a statement to The Muslim News Sergeant Tom Martin from Salford South Neighbourhood Policing Team said, “We are working closely with members of the mosque to ensure this type of incidents doesn’t happen again. Existing CCTV cameras have been reviewed to maximize their potential and a local resident has agreed to remove loose bricks outside his home in order to prevent them from being used to cause further damage. “I can reassure the community that we do not tolerate this kind of vandalism and we will do everything possible to bring the offenders to justice. If residents have any concerns what so ever, they can contact a member of my team.”
muslimnews
UNITING IN CITY OF PEACE AGAINST FAR-RIGHT DEMO (uk)
Representatives from Show Racism the Red Card praised football clubs for backing the anti-racism drive. Education worker Laura Pitcock said: “We work tirelessly to get rid of racist beliefs and we stand behind the UAF to combat the EDL.” She added: “We need to go out and show them Newcastle enjoys being a multi-cultural city.” Steve Simmons, from the EDL, said: “The only concern we have is the UAF – they pop up wherever we go. We have Sikhs and Hindus and mixed race people. The central bombardment of ‘Nazi scum off our streets’ is wearing a bit thin now.” A police spokeswoman said: “It is important people know that as a police force we have no powers to ban a static assembly or protest that is arranged for a peaceful purpose. “We act in a neutral capacity in such matters, respect the right to peacefully protest and have a duty to facilitate this right. “However, our role is also to protect, reassure and support our communities. Where people act in a criminal manner they will be identified and dealt with. “We are working closely with the organisers of all events and have emphasised to them it is their responsibility to ensure those involved act in a peaceful way. We will only intervene if this is not the case. They have responded very positively to this approach.”
The Chroniclelive
GYPSY SITE RACE FEAR (uk)
Furious residents have joined David Blunkett to fight plans for a new gypsy site on a residential street - which the MP warned could ignite a "tinderbox" of ethnic tensions. The site - a former woodyard on Abbeyfield Road, Pitsmoor, near the junction of Holtwood Road - is one of three identified in the city as new locations to house travellers. New gypsy camps could also be sited off Sicey Avenue, between Firth Park and Shiregreen, and on Ross Street, off Main Road, Darnall. The proposals were revealed for the first time in the draft Sheffield Development Framework, approved for public consultation by the city council, which earmark sites around the city for development in coming years. The council says it needs to provide 29 additional plots for gypsies on top of existing sites at Halfway and Redmires. Brightside and Hillsborough MP Mr Blunkett, whose constituency includes Burngreave, said:"It's an area of major deprivation with a major issue around community cohesion. The last thing you do is put a travellers' site there. "Where you add one problem on top of another and another so even the most understanding residents feel under strain, you create a tinderbox of tensions." Mr Blunkett added: "The area has very large challenges - in particular integration of existing Slovak and Roma populations - and I would be concerned about the impact of an influx of travellers. "The disruption which would be caused by traveller families bringing their children into schools and taking them out again after a few weeks would be devastating. "Some schools are already subject to very challenging conditions and this could finish them as parents of other children take them elsewhere."
Seven residents attended Sheffield Council's cabinet, where the draft document was passed, after being alerted to the proposals by Burngreave councillor Ibrar Hussain. Ann Claytor, of Abbeyfield Road, said: "What makes them think Burngreave can cope with another influx of people with health and social needs?" Fellow Abbeyfield Road resident Gwyn Fields said: "The area is already saturated with transient groups and is fragile. Would it take much to tip the balance?" Other residents were unhappy about the impact of the scheme on "quality of life" and of extra traffic and parked cars, particularly on children crossing the road to Abbeyfield Park. Coun Hussain said: "The campaign starts now to stop this development." Coun Peter Price, who represents Shiregreen and Brightside and chairs the North East Community Assembly, is opposing Pitsmoor plans and those for Sicey Avenue. He said: "Both sites are surrounded by homes and, in the case of Sicey Avenue, is overlooked by new flats, many of which have yet to be sold. "Gypsy sites need space to facilitate the livelihood of site users, such as small scale industrial activity, metal sorting and needing commercial vehicles. "This will cause a considerable nuisance to nearby neighbours. How any planning authority could contemplate this is beyond our comprehension and we believe would not be tolerated in any other area." Coun Penny Baker, Sheffield Council cabinet member for housing, said: "This is a consultation document and nothing is set in stone. Everything said in response will be taken away and used when developing the final document."
The Star
Seven residents attended Sheffield Council's cabinet, where the draft document was passed, after being alerted to the proposals by Burngreave councillor Ibrar Hussain. Ann Claytor, of Abbeyfield Road, said: "What makes them think Burngreave can cope with another influx of people with health and social needs?" Fellow Abbeyfield Road resident Gwyn Fields said: "The area is already saturated with transient groups and is fragile. Would it take much to tip the balance?" Other residents were unhappy about the impact of the scheme on "quality of life" and of extra traffic and parked cars, particularly on children crossing the road to Abbeyfield Park. Coun Hussain said: "The campaign starts now to stop this development." Coun Peter Price, who represents Shiregreen and Brightside and chairs the North East Community Assembly, is opposing Pitsmoor plans and those for Sicey Avenue. He said: "Both sites are surrounded by homes and, in the case of Sicey Avenue, is overlooked by new flats, many of which have yet to be sold. "Gypsy sites need space to facilitate the livelihood of site users, such as small scale industrial activity, metal sorting and needing commercial vehicles. "This will cause a considerable nuisance to nearby neighbours. How any planning authority could contemplate this is beyond our comprehension and we believe would not be tolerated in any other area." Coun Penny Baker, Sheffield Council cabinet member for housing, said: "This is a consultation document and nothing is set in stone. Everything said in response will be taken away and used when developing the final document."
The Star
LGBT PUBLIC EVENTS IN EUROPE ARE STILL SUBJECTS TO BANS, LIMITATIONS AND VIOLENT PROTESTS
by Juris Lavrikovs, ILGA-Europe's Communications Manager
28/5/2010- Arrival of the spring means the beginning of Pride season across Europe. This season LGBT people in Europe already experienced limitations of their constitutional right to peaceful assembly and even faced hateful and violent opposition.
Chiºinãu - Moldova
This year the Mayor of Chiºinãu again initiated a ban on a public event in supporting the adoption of anti-discrimination legislation. The court ruled that the planned peaceful demonstration can only take place in a park far from the city centre. The organisers, GenderDoc-M, rejected the alternative location for their event and plan to appeal this decision. Following the court decision they have cancelled their original demonstration in the central square.
Nikolaev – Ukraine
The Rainbow Spring LGBT Festival was organised by LiGA (Nikolaev, Ukraine) from 14-17 May. The Nikolaev authorities banned the festival's public events in 2008 and 2009, and thus the organisers included only private events in the 2010 festival programme such as round table discussions and community events. The local authorities and the Ukrainian Ombudsman's office were asked to be present at the round table discussions but declined to participate.
Baltic Pride – Vilnius (Lithuania)
This year's traditionally troubled Baltic Pride was scheduled to take place in Vilnius. It was the first time such event was organised in Lithuania. Considering previous bans and violent protests during other Pride events in the Baltics and strong opposition within Lithuania, this event attracted significant attention from and presence of European and international politicians and human rights organisations. ILGA-Europe organised two of its events in Vilnius to coincide with and to support the Baltic Pride. The permission for the planned March for Equality was temporarily suspended prior to the March, but successfully challenged in the court by the organisers. The March went ahead under heavy police protection and significant number of protesters. Despite some attempts to disturb the March and a smoke bomb thrown towards the marchers, the event went without any major incidents and no one was hurt.
Slavic Pride – Minsk (Belarus)
Just a week before the planned event, the organisers of the Slavic Pride in Minsk received a letter from Mr Mikhail Titenkov, deputy head of Minsk City Executive Committee, refusing permission for the Slavic Pride march to take place. The letter refers to Article 9 of the Law of Belarus Republic on the staging of public events and says that “public events are not allowed at the distance of less than 200 metres from underground pedestrian crossings and metro stations. About 20 activists defied the ban and went to the streets of Mink and were arrested by the militia. ILGA-Europe issued a statement condemning the ban of the Slavic Pride.
Rainbow Pride - Bratislava (Slovakia)
This was the first ever Pride event organised in Slovakia. While the Rainbow Pride March took place, its rout had to be changed and the marchers could not walk through the centre of Bratislava due to hundreds of neo-Nazi protesters disturbing the March and intimidating its participants. The police was criticized for the lack of resources and the number of police personal allocated to this event. At the same time this event was proclaimed as victory as it took place for the first time in Slovakia.
Russia
Moscow prepares to see the 6th banned LGBT Pride on 29 May (http://www.gayrussia.ru/en). A last decision on an appeal to the ban is expected from the Tverskij Court on 28 May. The ban on three pickets has been upheld by the Taganskij Court of the Moscow region, because of the negative effect on public transport and inability to guarantee for the security of the participants.
On 26 June a Pride event is planned to take place in St. Petersburg There is little hope for it to be sanctioned from authorities.
In the mean time, LGBT activists all over Russia are using different forms to bring visibility to the issue of homophobia. This year, more than 1000 people in 34 Russian cities took part in the public actions around the Rainbow Flashmob and the Day of Silence
ILGA Europe
28/5/2010- Arrival of the spring means the beginning of Pride season across Europe. This season LGBT people in Europe already experienced limitations of their constitutional right to peaceful assembly and even faced hateful and violent opposition.
Chiºinãu - Moldova
This year the Mayor of Chiºinãu again initiated a ban on a public event in supporting the adoption of anti-discrimination legislation. The court ruled that the planned peaceful demonstration can only take place in a park far from the city centre. The organisers, GenderDoc-M, rejected the alternative location for their event and plan to appeal this decision. Following the court decision they have cancelled their original demonstration in the central square.
Nikolaev – Ukraine
The Rainbow Spring LGBT Festival was organised by LiGA (Nikolaev, Ukraine) from 14-17 May. The Nikolaev authorities banned the festival's public events in 2008 and 2009, and thus the organisers included only private events in the 2010 festival programme such as round table discussions and community events. The local authorities and the Ukrainian Ombudsman's office were asked to be present at the round table discussions but declined to participate.
Baltic Pride – Vilnius (Lithuania)
This year's traditionally troubled Baltic Pride was scheduled to take place in Vilnius. It was the first time such event was organised in Lithuania. Considering previous bans and violent protests during other Pride events in the Baltics and strong opposition within Lithuania, this event attracted significant attention from and presence of European and international politicians and human rights organisations. ILGA-Europe organised two of its events in Vilnius to coincide with and to support the Baltic Pride. The permission for the planned March for Equality was temporarily suspended prior to the March, but successfully challenged in the court by the organisers. The March went ahead under heavy police protection and significant number of protesters. Despite some attempts to disturb the March and a smoke bomb thrown towards the marchers, the event went without any major incidents and no one was hurt.
Slavic Pride – Minsk (Belarus)
Just a week before the planned event, the organisers of the Slavic Pride in Minsk received a letter from Mr Mikhail Titenkov, deputy head of Minsk City Executive Committee, refusing permission for the Slavic Pride march to take place. The letter refers to Article 9 of the Law of Belarus Republic on the staging of public events and says that “public events are not allowed at the distance of less than 200 metres from underground pedestrian crossings and metro stations. About 20 activists defied the ban and went to the streets of Mink and were arrested by the militia. ILGA-Europe issued a statement condemning the ban of the Slavic Pride.
Rainbow Pride - Bratislava (Slovakia)
This was the first ever Pride event organised in Slovakia. While the Rainbow Pride March took place, its rout had to be changed and the marchers could not walk through the centre of Bratislava due to hundreds of neo-Nazi protesters disturbing the March and intimidating its participants. The police was criticized for the lack of resources and the number of police personal allocated to this event. At the same time this event was proclaimed as victory as it took place for the first time in Slovakia.
Russia
Moscow prepares to see the 6th banned LGBT Pride on 29 May (http://www.gayrussia.ru/en). A last decision on an appeal to the ban is expected from the Tverskij Court on 28 May. The ban on three pickets has been upheld by the Taganskij Court of the Moscow region, because of the negative effect on public transport and inability to guarantee for the security of the participants.
On 26 June a Pride event is planned to take place in St. Petersburg There is little hope for it to be sanctioned from authorities.
In the mean time, LGBT activists all over Russia are using different forms to bring visibility to the issue of homophobia. This year, more than 1000 people in 34 Russian cities took part in the public actions around the Rainbow Flashmob and the Day of Silence
ILGA Europe
Racist abuse hurled at local businessman (UK)
AN Andover businessman says he was deeply upset after being subjected to what he described as ‘a more intelligent form of racism’.
Mr Taj Uddin – managing director of Pink Olive Investments, which runs the Pink Olive, Blue Garlic and Mumbai Thai restaurants – was walking back to his car in Shepherds Spring car park in Andover at lunchtime when a group of six or seven youths shouted racial abuse at him.
The 28-year-old businessman said: “I’ve faced far worse. I grew up in London, in the East Bethnal area, in the 1990s when we used to get chased up to the flats with baseball bats.
“I thought that was past us in this day and age, but it still exists in a different form – it’s a more intelligent form of racism, rather than the thuggish form.”
He said the youths, aged 16 to 17, were obviously educated and that in a way that was more serious because the more physical form of racism could be passed off as coming from people who knew no better.
“It was upsetting,” he added.
Mr Uddin runs the Blue Garlic Indian restaurant in Tidworth, the Pink Olive in Weyhill and the Mumbai Thai in Andover. The Mumbai Thai was opened by Andover MP Sir George Young in November last year.
Police say they are still investigating the incident, which happened at about 1.30pm on 13 May. Anyone with information is asked to contact Andover police on 0845 045 4545.
This is Hampshire
Mr Taj Uddin – managing director of Pink Olive Investments, which runs the Pink Olive, Blue Garlic and Mumbai Thai restaurants – was walking back to his car in Shepherds Spring car park in Andover at lunchtime when a group of six or seven youths shouted racial abuse at him.
The 28-year-old businessman said: “I’ve faced far worse. I grew up in London, in the East Bethnal area, in the 1990s when we used to get chased up to the flats with baseball bats.
“I thought that was past us in this day and age, but it still exists in a different form – it’s a more intelligent form of racism, rather than the thuggish form.”
He said the youths, aged 16 to 17, were obviously educated and that in a way that was more serious because the more physical form of racism could be passed off as coming from people who knew no better.
“It was upsetting,” he added.
Mr Uddin runs the Blue Garlic Indian restaurant in Tidworth, the Pink Olive in Weyhill and the Mumbai Thai in Andover. The Mumbai Thai was opened by Andover MP Sir George Young in November last year.
Police say they are still investigating the incident, which happened at about 1.30pm on 13 May. Anyone with information is asked to contact Andover police on 0845 045 4545.
This is Hampshire
Friday, 28 May 2010
How to beat the BNP – and make sure they don't come back By Margaret Hodge
Several symbolic victories lightened the gloom for Labour at the election, but none more so than the trouncing of the BNP in Barking and Dagenham. I doubled my majority; the BNP was driven into third place by the Tories; and all of its councillors lost their seats. In short, the politics of hatred and racism were decisively rejected.
Four years ago, I warned of the dangers of the rise of the extreme Right, after a surge in BNP support in my area. Some believed that by raising the problem, I was creating it. But I remain convinced that we cannot deal with the issue by ignoring it. All that does is add to the alienation of those who believe that politicians don't listen to their grievances, and haven't a clue about their concerns.
The argument about whether we should share platforms with the BNP is redundant. It is only through open debate that we can expose its false prospectus and vile intentions. That is why, in Barking and Dagenham, the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, consistently refused to debate with me, or the other candidates. He knew he'd lose the argument – on immigration, on the BNP's hideous heritage, and on local concerns and priorities.
The people here looked to the BNP because they have legitimate grievances. They have experienced the most rapid demographic change in the country. All of us would feel some unease if our neighbours suddenly seemed foreign, and the produce in the shops became unfamiliar. The traditional employer, Ford, has cut back from 40,000 workers to 4,000. The sale of council houses created a lack of decent affordable homes. The local Labour Party became too complacent, and there was no mainstream opposition.
The result was a cocktail of circumstances that the BNP could exploit. In 2006, they put forward 13 candidates in the local elections and won 12 seats. With more candidates, they might well have taken control of the council. Our voters felt we had completely lost touch with them.
Our response was to do everything we could to reconnect with people, and give them a positive reason for voting Labour. In our coffee afternoons, street meetings and door-to-door visits, we didn't talk about national issues. Instead, we listened to what voters were concerned about – from potholes, to the resiting of bus stops, to anti-social behaviour. And, of course, they talked about immigration and the impact they felt it was having on housing, jobs, schools and crime.
First, we always tried to deliver on the local concerns, to show people we were listening. Second, we worked hard to stay in touch with those we met, so people got to know their MP and local activists. Finally, we talked about immigration. Voters of every race share the same concerns about the way housing and welfare benefits are allocated. We didn't promise to turn the clock back. But just by listening and showing understanding, we began to restore confidence and trust.
Since 2006, we have almost doubled our party membership, and are now truly representative of our community. In the council wards where the BNP was strongest, we put forward African and Asian candidates – and they won with handsome majorities.
Yet this is the beginning, not the end of the campaign. The BNP retained its deposit in 72 constituencies, and remains a threat to tolerant, democratic politics across Britain. In particular, we still have to find our way through the issue of immigration. To this end, we need a better system for rationing housing and benefits, with priority for those who have lived in an area for longest. This would immediately lance the toxic perception that the allocation systems are unfair. In that way, we could start to change people's attitudes to immigration, and relegate the BNP to the dustbin, where it belongs.
Margaret Hodge is the MP for Barking & Dagenham
The Telegraph
Jobbik maintains plan to set up paramilitary organization
"We will set up a state reserve force, the Hungarian National Guard, which will be able to continually support and supply the army with new staff, as well as to protect important assets in the country," said the opposition party's programme.
The new organisation expects to rely on members of the banned Hungarian Guard. Jobbik plans the organisation to provide civil defence and disaster management tasks, and to come under the army's command should there be a war.
Jobbik leader Gabor Vona has made it clear that the party has not given up on the idea of setting up a new guard despite the fact that it would need governing party Fidesz's support to set up a true "state-run reserve force". If it cannot be run by the state then Jobbik will insist on its being a civil organisation, the paper said.
Fidesz, which is forming the new government, has ruled out allowing any kind of paramilitary-type organisation to be formed.
politics Hu
AMNESTY FRETS OVER RACISM IN SWITZERLAND
ECRI report Switzerland Measures have been taken to foster the integration of immigrants in areas such as employment, housing and health. The federal bodies in charge of racism and migration have continued to raise awareness on racism and racial discrimination. Steps have been taken to combat right-wing extremism. However, there has been a dangerous growth of racist political discourse against non-citizens, Muslims, Black people and other minorities. Legislation is insufficiently developed to deal with direct racial discrimination, which targets in particular Muslims and persons from the Balkans, Turkey and Africa. Travellers and Yenish communities with an itinerant life style are still faced with a shortage of stopping sites and prejudice leading to instances of discrimination. Legislation governing asylum seekers has been tightened and hostility towards them has increased.
World Radio
DUTCH FAR-RIGHT MEP SPARKS TENSION AT TURKEY-EU MEETING
The 64th meeting of the European Union-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee was marred by tension on Tuesday evening after harsh and judgmental remarks by a Dutch member of the European Parliament. During the meeting, held in Ýstanbul, Turkey’s chief EU negotiator Egemen Baðýþ was responding to questions from the committee when Barry Madlener, a Dutch politician from the Party for Freedom (PVV), stood up and started speaking: “If a referendum were to be held in the Netherlands today, then 80 percent would say ‘no’ to Turkey’s EU membership,” the Anatolia news agency reported. “Why do you recognize the illegitimate KKTC [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus] elections that are held? Your real friend is Iran’s dictator [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad,” NTV news channel quoted Madlener as saying. He left the meeting hall after delivering these remarks, NTV reported. While speaking, Baðýþ recalled Madlener’s remarks about the results of a possible referendum and asked whether Madlener was in the hall. Seeing that he left the meeting, Baðýþ criticized him for leaving without listening to the answers to the questions he posed. “I will tell those who are curious the answer to that question. Racism is a very dangerous illness. Europe has suffered much from this illness. We see that there are still those who can’t get rid of this in Europe. That’s why the EU is very important,” Baðýþ was quoted as saying by Anatolia, as he called the EU “the most comprehensive peace project.”
Today Zaman
Today Zaman
Serbian police ban neo-Nazi group planned rally
Serbian police have banned a planned rally by a small neo-Nazi group after it was condemned by Serb parties, non-governmental organisations and the World Jewish Congress.
The “Serbian March -- March for the Unity of Serbia", led by the Nacionalni Stroj (National Front) group, was scheduled for October 7 in the northern city of Novi Sad.
Police said the rally was banned “ecause it endangered public morals and public safety.”
The rally would coincide with the birthday of Heinrich Himmler, the SS commander who orchestrated the murder of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma (Gypsies) on the territory of the then Yugoslavia in WWII.
The Nacionalni Stroj members -- including 31-year-old leader Goran "The Fuhrer" Davidovic -- have already been jailed for spreading racial hatred in Novi Sad.
The group, whose name means "National Rank" in Serbian, was found guilty of having disrupted a Novi Sad university lecture about the threat of fascism in November 2005, assaulting some participants and raising their arms in the Nazi salute.
In early 2005, anti-Semitic posters and graffiti signed by the group appeared in Novi Sad and Belgrade.
The World Jewish Congress had sent a letter of protest regarding the rally to Serb President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
In the letter, Ronald Lauder, the WJC’s president said: "The extremist views and neo-Nazi activities of Nacionalni Stroj are well known, and certainly not in line with the principles of a democratic society.”
Similar protests were lodged by local non-governmental organisations in Serbia.
ej press
The “Serbian March -- March for the Unity of Serbia", led by the Nacionalni Stroj (National Front) group, was scheduled for October 7 in the northern city of Novi Sad.
Police said the rally was banned “ecause it endangered public morals and public safety.”
The rally would coincide with the birthday of Heinrich Himmler, the SS commander who orchestrated the murder of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma (Gypsies) on the territory of the then Yugoslavia in WWII.
The Nacionalni Stroj members -- including 31-year-old leader Goran "The Fuhrer" Davidovic -- have already been jailed for spreading racial hatred in Novi Sad.
The group, whose name means "National Rank" in Serbian, was found guilty of having disrupted a Novi Sad university lecture about the threat of fascism in November 2005, assaulting some participants and raising their arms in the Nazi salute.
In early 2005, anti-Semitic posters and graffiti signed by the group appeared in Novi Sad and Belgrade.
The World Jewish Congress had sent a letter of protest regarding the rally to Serb President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
In the letter, Ronald Lauder, the WJC’s president said: "The extremist views and neo-Nazi activities of Nacionalni Stroj are well known, and certainly not in line with the principles of a democratic society.”
Similar protests were lodged by local non-governmental organisations in Serbia.
ej press
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Bogus cop is stoking up race row (UK)
A BOGUS police officer is operating in and around Worksop telling people to remove their England shirts and take down their flags.
A probe was launched after the Guardian revealed that a woman in the town had been asked to take down her England flags by what she thought was a genuine police officer.
It has now emerged that someone is posing as a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) and was in Clumber Park last weekend asking people to remove their England shirts.
Chief Superintendent Dave Wakelin said: "I am aware of last week's publicity regarding the story that one of my staff members advised a local Worksop resident to remove her flag from her balcony as it was upsetting foreign residents."
"We are now absolutely certain that these were not bona-fide members of Notts Police, and this, linked to reports that over the weekend similar incidents occurred with people in Clumber Park being told remove their England shirts, leads me to believe that there is someone in our local community intending to cause unease."
My staff and I respect the right of local people of whatever nationality to display their flags over the coming months and beyond."
"Only if the behaviour of anyone leads us to suspect they are intending to incite racial hatred will the police become involved."
"The mere showing of a flag or the wearing of a football shirt will not attract, on its own, any form of intervention by my officers."
"In relation to the incidents at Clumber Park over the weekend, I am keen to establish the identity of a white man, aged 40 to 50, 5ft 8" to 5ft 10" tall, of medium build, with stubble. He was wearing trousers and a shirt that gave him the appearance of a PCSO."
"If anyone knows of this man's real identity I would be grateful for his details to be passed either direct to us on 0300 300 999 or Crimestoppers 0800 555 111."
He also urged people to drink responsibly during the World Cup so that alcohol-related violence does not ruin the sporting event,
Bassetlaw MP John Mann said it was of "considerable concern" that someone was impersonating a police officer.
"Someone is trying to cause trouble when the whole of the community wants to get behind our England cricket, football and rugby teams. Particularly with the World Cup coming up everybody wants to get behind the England football team," he said.
"We want to see flags up everywhere"
Worksop Guardian
A probe was launched after the Guardian revealed that a woman in the town had been asked to take down her England flags by what she thought was a genuine police officer.
It has now emerged that someone is posing as a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) and was in Clumber Park last weekend asking people to remove their England shirts.
Chief Superintendent Dave Wakelin said: "I am aware of last week's publicity regarding the story that one of my staff members advised a local Worksop resident to remove her flag from her balcony as it was upsetting foreign residents."
"We are now absolutely certain that these were not bona-fide members of Notts Police, and this, linked to reports that over the weekend similar incidents occurred with people in Clumber Park being told remove their England shirts, leads me to believe that there is someone in our local community intending to cause unease."
My staff and I respect the right of local people of whatever nationality to display their flags over the coming months and beyond."
"Only if the behaviour of anyone leads us to suspect they are intending to incite racial hatred will the police become involved."
"The mere showing of a flag or the wearing of a football shirt will not attract, on its own, any form of intervention by my officers."
"In relation to the incidents at Clumber Park over the weekend, I am keen to establish the identity of a white man, aged 40 to 50, 5ft 8" to 5ft 10" tall, of medium build, with stubble. He was wearing trousers and a shirt that gave him the appearance of a PCSO."
"If anyone knows of this man's real identity I would be grateful for his details to be passed either direct to us on 0300 300 999 or Crimestoppers 0800 555 111."
He also urged people to drink responsibly during the World Cup so that alcohol-related violence does not ruin the sporting event,
Bassetlaw MP John Mann said it was of "considerable concern" that someone was impersonating a police officer.
"Someone is trying to cause trouble when the whole of the community wants to get behind our England cricket, football and rugby teams. Particularly with the World Cup coming up everybody wants to get behind the England football team," he said.
"We want to see flags up everywhere"
Worksop Guardian
BNP man’s poll form had forgeries (Wales, UK)
South Wales Police received a number of complaints from members of the public concerned that their details had been used on Richard Barnes’ nomination form.
Mr Barnes stood for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney in the recent election, but received only 1,173 votes.
Before a prospective candidate is allowed to stand, he or she must obtain 10 signatures: a proposer, a seconder and those who signed the nomination papers.
Police investigated the claims and as a result a 30-year-old man was arrested and later cautioned for tampering with ballot nomination papers after he was found to be responsible for forging signatures.
A South Wales Police spokesman said: “Mr Barnes was unaware of the actions and the man was cautioned on May 16.”
Ronald Fealey, of Penydarren, was one of those who had his name used to forge a signature.
He said: “Someone told me my name was on the nomination form and I thought they were taking the Mick about it.
“My son downloaded the nomination form and there my name was. I reported it to the returning officer and they informed the police.
“I don’t know why my name was chosen, it possibly could have been out of a hat for all I know.”
Katy Meredith, of Church Street, Penydarren, was also a victim of the deception. She did not sign the nomination papers and said she did not vote BNP.
The Echo contacted the BNP but received no response.
Merthyr Tydfil Council was unable to help the Echo contact Richard Barnes, but did say: “Fraudulently signing election nomination papers is a criminal offence.
“Therefore, when Merthyr council was officially made aware that there was a potential issue with one of the candidates’ nomination papers the week after the election, the matter was referred directly to South Wales Police for investigation. Merthyr council has no further role.”
Wales Online
Anti-Roma attacks continued in Hungary, says AI 2009 report
Violent attacks against Roma continued in Hungary last year, Amnesty International said in its latest global report on human rights published on Thursday morning. The world's largest human rights organisation said that 2009 was marked by "political and economic upheaval" in Hungary that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. The document said that the "radical right-ring organisation" Magyar Garda (Hungarian Guard) staged a series of marches in towns with a Roma population in eastern Hungary. The report notes that Jobbik, which it describes as "an extreme right-wing political party with a strong anti-Roma and an increasingly anti-Semitic agenda" gained three seats in the European parliamentary elections in June. AI said that a Hungarian court banned Magyar Garda, an organisation linked to Jobbik, arguing that it overstepped its rights as an association and curtailed liberties of the Roma. In July, however, Jobbik announced the relaunch of the Guard and one of its newly elected MEPs wore the Guard's uniform in the first parliamentary session in Brussels. In October the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about the rise of extremism in Hungary, and appealed to all political party leaders to ensure that no xenophobic or anti-Roma statements be made in the 2010 parliamentary election campaign. The report discusses in detail the fatal attacks against Roma people in Tatarszentgyorgy, Tiszalok and Kisleta. AI notes that "about 400 Romani women initiated legal proceedings" against Oszkar Molnar, then an MP of the Fidesz party, over his allegedly defamatory remarks on Roma women. He was also widely criticised by NGOs, other politicians and the media for his anti-Semitic comments during a TV interview. In September the LGBT pride march took place in Budapest with adequate protection and no incidents were reported during the March, the report says. However, a young woman was allegedly attacked by two or three anti-gay protesters after the march, sustaining injuries to her head and arms. The Budapest Police Department started an investigation of the incident, having classified it as "violence against a member of a social group" despite the amendments made in February to the Criminal Code introducing new crimes of homophobic and other rate related attacks.
Politics Hu
Politics Hu
EDL WALSALL DEMO CANCELLED
The controversial English Defence League have called off a planned demonstration against a proposed mosque in Walsall after learning that the biggest single group opposed to the scheme are Muslims. George Makin reports.
The anti-Islamic EDL had announced they would hold a demonstration on June 19 against a scheme to build a new place of worship in Vicarage Close which had previously been denied planning permission by the Walsall council.
Proposers of the development have announced their intention to appeal the decision.
The EDL’s proposed demonstration led to a joint statement by the leaders of all three party leaders on Walsall council, fearful of a repeat of violent clashes which have occurred at other EDL events, that the rightwing group was not wanted in the town.
During negotiations with police EDL organiser were surprised to learn the original planning application had been opposed by many Muslims in Walsall who claim there are enough mosques in the borough already.
The EDL are now planning for a demonstration in Dudley on June 19 and for another in Alum Rock in Birmingham at a later date
The Stirrer
The anti-Islamic EDL had announced they would hold a demonstration on June 19 against a scheme to build a new place of worship in Vicarage Close which had previously been denied planning permission by the Walsall council.
Proposers of the development have announced their intention to appeal the decision.
The EDL’s proposed demonstration led to a joint statement by the leaders of all three party leaders on Walsall council, fearful of a repeat of violent clashes which have occurred at other EDL events, that the rightwing group was not wanted in the town.
During negotiations with police EDL organiser were surprised to learn the original planning application had been opposed by many Muslims in Walsall who claim there are enough mosques in the borough already.
The EDL are now planning for a demonstration in Dudley on June 19 and for another in Alum Rock in Birmingham at a later date
The Stirrer
SPANISH TOWN TO BAN BURQA IN MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS
Spain's northeastern town of Lerida is to vote Friday to ban the wearing of the burqa in municipal buildings, the mayor's office said, in an apparent first for the country. A proposal was being drawn up and the majority socialists were behind the push to ban the face-covering Islamic veil in the municipality's buildings, a spokesman for the mayor's office said Wednesday. The town had asked its legal services to look into the possibility of banning the garment in all public spaces in the name of the fundamental rights of women, the official said. "We cannot regulate the usage of the burqa in the road, but we can do that in municipal buildings," he said. Few women wear the full veil in Lerida, a town in the Catalonia region that has about 140,000 residents, one-fifth of whom are immigrants including from North Africa. The garment has sparked intense debate in many European countries, with Belgium deputies last month backing a draft law banning the garment in all public places, including on the streets, in a first for Europe. The text must be adopted by the upper house Senate before it can come into effect. France's cabinet has also approved a draft law to ban the full-face veil from public spaces, opening the way for the text to go before parliament in July. Spain's socialist government is opposed to legislating against the burqa.
Expatica
Expatica
Zimbabwe police arrest gay rights activists
Two members of a Zimbabwean gay rights association are in custody, their lawyers say.
They say the two are facing charges of possessing pornographic material and insulting President Robert Mugabe.
Ellen Chadian - administrator of the group, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe - and Ignatius Muhambi - an accountant - were picked up during a raid.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Zimbabwe, but the group has been allowed to operate openly.
Dzimbabwe Chimbga, a lawyer representing the pair, said they had been arrested on Friday.
"The initial charges are that they were found in possession of pornographic material," Mr Chimbga said.
"Now the police want to add a charge of insulting the president," he added.
Police told by AP news agency say that they had found a letter undermining President Mugabe during the raid.
Mr Mugabe has in the past described same-sex partners as "lower than dogs and pigs", but arrests of gays are rare in Zimbabwe, correspondents say.
Homosexual acts are illegal in most African countries.
Last week a judge in Malawi sentenced a gay couple to 14 years in prison with hard labour after they held a traditional engagement ceremony.
BBC News
They say the two are facing charges of possessing pornographic material and insulting President Robert Mugabe.
Ellen Chadian - administrator of the group, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe - and Ignatius Muhambi - an accountant - were picked up during a raid.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Zimbabwe, but the group has been allowed to operate openly.
Dzimbabwe Chimbga, a lawyer representing the pair, said they had been arrested on Friday.
"The initial charges are that they were found in possession of pornographic material," Mr Chimbga said.
"Now the police want to add a charge of insulting the president," he added.
Police told by AP news agency say that they had found a letter undermining President Mugabe during the raid.
Mr Mugabe has in the past described same-sex partners as "lower than dogs and pigs", but arrests of gays are rare in Zimbabwe, correspondents say.
Homosexual acts are illegal in most African countries.
Last week a judge in Malawi sentenced a gay couple to 14 years in prison with hard labour after they held a traditional engagement ceremony.
BBC News
SLOVAKS RETALIATE OVER HUNGARIAN CITIZENSHIP LAW
Hungary's decision to allow ethnic Hungarians living abroad to apply for dual citizenship has sparked an angry response from neighbouring Slovakia. Slovakia has voted to amend its own citizenship law, stripping anyone of their Slovak citizenship if they apply for Hungarian nationality. Southern Slovakia is home to roughly 500,000 ethnic Hungarians, about a tenth of the country's population. Slovak leader Robert Fico has called Hungary's move a "security threat". Aside from the Hungarian case, dual citizenship is generally allowed in Slovakia. The two EU members have repeatedly sparred over the treatment of the substantial Hungarian minority in Slovakia, most recently about a new language law which Hungary says hurts minority rights.
Tit-for-tat moves
The amendment to Hungary's citizenship law passed almost unanimously in the Hungarian parliament on Wednesday. Slovakia retaliated by passing its own measure later in the day. The Hungarian measure is due to come into effect in 2011, while the Slovak one, which still needs approval from the president, would come into force in July, Reuters news agency reported. The Hungarian law will allow ethnic Hungarians living abroad to apply for Hungarian citizenship, if they speak Hungarian and have Hungarian ancestry. This was one of the campaign pledges of incoming Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his centre-right Fidesz party, which won a landslide majority in elections in April. Of Hungary's neighbours, only Slovakia has objected to the move. Mr Fico told the Slovak parliament on Tuesday that Hungary was attempting to revise history, and accused Hungary of gross ignorance of the bilateral friendship treaty, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest. Hungary ceded two-thirds of its territory under the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, after being on the losing side in World War I. As a result, large Hungarian minorities now live in neighbouring Slovakia, Romania and Serbia. Bratislava is particularly upset that Hungary did not seek talks before passing the amendment, our correspondent says. Slovakia will hold parliamentary elections next month, and Mr Fico is battling for the nationalist vote, he adds.
BBC News
Tit-for-tat moves
The amendment to Hungary's citizenship law passed almost unanimously in the Hungarian parliament on Wednesday. Slovakia retaliated by passing its own measure later in the day. The Hungarian measure is due to come into effect in 2011, while the Slovak one, which still needs approval from the president, would come into force in July, Reuters news agency reported. The Hungarian law will allow ethnic Hungarians living abroad to apply for Hungarian citizenship, if they speak Hungarian and have Hungarian ancestry. This was one of the campaign pledges of incoming Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his centre-right Fidesz party, which won a landslide majority in elections in April. Of Hungary's neighbours, only Slovakia has objected to the move. Mr Fico told the Slovak parliament on Tuesday that Hungary was attempting to revise history, and accused Hungary of gross ignorance of the bilateral friendship treaty, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest. Hungary ceded two-thirds of its territory under the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, after being on the losing side in World War I. As a result, large Hungarian minorities now live in neighbouring Slovakia, Romania and Serbia. Bratislava is particularly upset that Hungary did not seek talks before passing the amendment, our correspondent says. Slovakia will hold parliamentary elections next month, and Mr Fico is battling for the nationalist vote, he adds.
BBC News
Ex-BNP webmaster confirms Jim Dowson owns the BNP
Simon Bennett replaced the site, which received more visitors than any other political party website, with a brief statement accusing the party of “several attempts of theft today with regards to design work and content owned by myself”. He also claimed that Arthur Kemp and Jim Dowson, two close aides to Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, had threatened violence against him and his family.
Bennett’s action meant that supporters could no longer make online donations or membership applications. For the first time for many months, BNP e-news bulletins came without a donation button.
Bennett had been in dispute with Dowson, the convicted criminal who in effect owns the BNP, for a year, but matters came to a head when Griffin insisted, against Bennett’s advice, on adding an image of a jar of Marmite to a version of the BNP’s television election broadcast pre-released on the party website.
According to a longer statement by Bennett, this “very deliberate copyright infringement” was a stunt by Griffin and Dowson to provoke a reaction from Unilever, which owns the Marmite brand, and so “create publicity and a fund raising opportunity”. In the event, Bennett claimed, website traffic, donations and membership applications barely increased at all.
After Unilever responded by launching proceedings over copyright infringement, Griffin and Dowson realised they had underestimated the severity of the legal and financial consequences and came up with pathetic excuses, such as a claim that a “joker” had amended the film. When Unilever’s lawyers refused to believe them, Bennett says he was expected “to go to court and lie through my teeth in order to bail them out of a ridiculous hole they had dug themselves into”.
Griffin and Dowson had misjudged Bennett. Unlike they themselves and their more sycophantic supporters, Bennett “was not prepared to spend five years in prison for perjury just to protect the financial interests of fools” and told Unilever’s lawyers the truth.
Bennett had refused to do their bidding so Griffin and Dowson wanted him out. Bennett was prepared to go but wanted to be paid for his website design work. Claiming he had invested around £40,000 into the site, he said he was not prepared simply to hand it over to Griffin and Dowson so that they could use it to make more money. “It was my bloody hard work, commitment and money that developed that site into the success it became,” wrote Bennett, “and for Dowson to try and force control of it for his own advantage made me feel sick.”
Money is what it is all about – not for Bennett but for Griffin and Dowson, who, Bennett claims, is paid £120,000 a year by the party. As Searchlight already knew from other sources, Bennett’s dispute with Dowson started over the fact that the telesales staff at Dowson’s call centre earned commission from subscriptions and party memberships and so were telling party members not to renew their membership on the website because it was “unsafe and had been hacked”.
Bennett complained to Griffin who said he would look into it. Shortly afterwards he was contacted by the call centre manager, Kate Hunt, and Dowson. A heated exchange ended with Dowson threatening: “I am a Glasgow/Belfast man as you are about to find out. I was patient simon [sic] but you crossed the line sir, its time some manners were put on you.”
Bennett had crossed Dowson and could not win. As Bennett says in his statement, confirming the conclusions of Searchlight’s investigations: “Jim Dowson now controls just about every aspect of the party structure (including the recently acquired print services) and also the party’s finances with one exception. You’ve guessed it – the website!”
By the Sunday after election day the BNP had a new website up and running, set up by Chris Barnett who, Bennett says, used to run a web server for an online pornographic studio in Birmingham. But the story was not over. Bennett also had control of the party’s Facebook site, with its nearly 26,000 members, and its Twitter feed. He now linked them to a new website of his own on which he exposed Dowson’s financial dealings with the BNP and called for reform of the party.
As well as setting up his own site Bennett posted on various far-right internet forums, disclosing the nefarious ways the BNP operates. On one he revealed that Kemp, the BNP’s website editor who had moved through a variety of party posts, had also threatened Bennett and had once opposed Griffin.
“He threatened to drive to Cornwall, rip my head off off and shove it up my @rse,” wrote Bennett. “I expected better of him too, but I noticed the change in his anti-griffin attitude once he started ‘fund-raising’ for our best friend Jim. From that day on he became very pro-Jim and pro-griffin, even though he knew they planned his downfall at the EU election planning meeting in 2008. They humiliated him, stripped him of his position, income and dignity. He suffered it for over a year until he was offered a scrap of food which he grabbed with both hands and stabbed me in the back to get to it.”
Bennett also removed Griffin’s personal MEP’s website though not the similar websites he runs for Andrew Brons, the BNP’s other MEP, and Richard Barnbrook, the party’s London Assembly member, with whom he has no dispute.
The BNP has taken legal proceedings against Bennett, presumably paid for out of members’ donations, but that has not silenced him. Bennett is gradually adding to his new website, which is likely to become a centre for any moves to oust Griffin from the BNP leadership in the coming months.
Searchlight
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
BNP man sentenced after shoving two women at East Croydon station
A BNP thug who ran for council has been given a year's community service for assaulting two female pacifist campaigners.
David Clarke, who got 518 votes when he stood in Heathfield for this year's local elections, was sentenced on four counts of assaulting anti-racism campaigners.
Clarke, of Dunley Drive, New Addington, pushed and shoved Lorna Nelson-Homian, James Cox, Nigel Green and Silvia Beckett in two separate attacks last May outside East Croydon train station.
Croydon Magistrates' Court handed the 41-year-old a 12-month community order last week and ordered him to pay costs of £650.
Clarke denied attacking the Hope Not Hate campaigners but was found guilty on April 30.
Giving evidence in relation to the first incident on May 27, campaigner Nigel Green said: "I saw him [Clarke] walking towards me.
"He was walking right towards me and I could see there would be problems. I decided to stop and put the leaflets behind my back.
"But he gestured for me to give him a leaflet and he basically snatched them out of my hand. They were thrown down on the street and that was quite a shock to me.
"Then he sort of pushed me and grabbed my arm and twirled me around. I was very shaken because I had done nothing to provoke him."
Prosecutor Daniel Irving told the court how after the first assault Clarke left, only to return to repeatedly shove Ms Beckett to get to Mr Green.
The court heard Clarke almost knocked the woman off her feet.
Mr Irving told the court that when Clarke spotted other Hope Not Hate campaigners two days later he screamed at them: "F****** scumbags, filth on our streets, taking all our jobs."
Then Clarke again snatched leaflets, threw them on the floor and shoved Ms Nelson-Homian and Mr Cox.
This is Croydon
David Clarke, who got 518 votes when he stood in Heathfield for this year's local elections, was sentenced on four counts of assaulting anti-racism campaigners.
Clarke, of Dunley Drive, New Addington, pushed and shoved Lorna Nelson-Homian, James Cox, Nigel Green and Silvia Beckett in two separate attacks last May outside East Croydon train station.
Croydon Magistrates' Court handed the 41-year-old a 12-month community order last week and ordered him to pay costs of £650.
Clarke denied attacking the Hope Not Hate campaigners but was found guilty on April 30.
Giving evidence in relation to the first incident on May 27, campaigner Nigel Green said: "I saw him [Clarke] walking towards me.
"He was walking right towards me and I could see there would be problems. I decided to stop and put the leaflets behind my back.
"But he gestured for me to give him a leaflet and he basically snatched them out of my hand. They were thrown down on the street and that was quite a shock to me.
"Then he sort of pushed me and grabbed my arm and twirled me around. I was very shaken because I had done nothing to provoke him."
Prosecutor Daniel Irving told the court how after the first assault Clarke left, only to return to repeatedly shove Ms Beckett to get to Mr Green.
The court heard Clarke almost knocked the woman off her feet.
Mr Irving told the court that when Clarke spotted other Hope Not Hate campaigners two days later he screamed at them: "F****** scumbags, filth on our streets, taking all our jobs."
Then Clarke again snatched leaflets, threw them on the floor and shoved Ms Nelson-Homian and Mr Cox.
This is Croydon
Catherine Ariemma, Georgia high school teacher, in hot water after students wear KKK robes in school
A Georgia history teacher could be fired after allowing four students to wear mock Ku Klux Klan attire for their final project.
Catherine Ariemma, who teaches an advanced placement course that combines U.S. history and film at Lumpkin County High School, was suspended after four teens wore the inflammatory white robes through the school's cafeteria, according to The Associated Press.
Several black students at the school, about 75 miles north of Atlanta, were incensed, and at least one parent complained.
Lumpkin County School Superintendent Dewey Moye said that Ariemma, who has taught at the school for six years, was placed on administrative leave.
Ariemma's students watch films pertaining to U.S. history and at the end of the year choose a theme on which they base their own final projects. Her class chose to take on racism and its roots this year, she said.
"This stuff happened in history," Moye told The AP. "Do you ignore it? No. But you certainly don't walk the hallway in the garb."
Ariemma said the teens brought white sheets and cone-shaped party hats to school and that she took them through the cafeteria to another area to shoot their film. A fellow teacher confronted Ariemma afterward.
"That's when I heard there were a couple of students who were upset," Ariemma told The AP.
Cody Rider, a student at Lumpkin County High School, told Atlanta's WSB-TV on Monday that he and his cousin saw the students walk through the cafeteria in the robes and were upset.
Ariemma said that while she felt the students were addressing an important issue in American history, she told The AP that it "was poor judgment on my part in allowing them to film at school. … That was a hard lesson learned."
NY Daily News
Catherine Ariemma, who teaches an advanced placement course that combines U.S. history and film at Lumpkin County High School, was suspended after four teens wore the inflammatory white robes through the school's cafeteria, according to The Associated Press.
Several black students at the school, about 75 miles north of Atlanta, were incensed, and at least one parent complained.
Lumpkin County School Superintendent Dewey Moye said that Ariemma, who has taught at the school for six years, was placed on administrative leave.
Ariemma's students watch films pertaining to U.S. history and at the end of the year choose a theme on which they base their own final projects. Her class chose to take on racism and its roots this year, she said.
"This stuff happened in history," Moye told The AP. "Do you ignore it? No. But you certainly don't walk the hallway in the garb."
Ariemma said the teens brought white sheets and cone-shaped party hats to school and that she took them through the cafeteria to another area to shoot their film. A fellow teacher confronted Ariemma afterward.
"That's when I heard there were a couple of students who were upset," Ariemma told The AP.
Cody Rider, a student at Lumpkin County High School, told Atlanta's WSB-TV on Monday that he and his cousin saw the students walk through the cafeteria in the robes and were upset.
Ariemma said that while she felt the students were addressing an important issue in American history, she told The AP that it "was poor judgment on my part in allowing them to film at school. … That was a hard lesson learned."
NY Daily News
Police highlight Facebook as e-crime is targeted
The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (Asps) will demand at their annual conference later this week that internet providers and search engines such as Google start regulating themselves to curb growing levels of online crime.
Speaking in advance of the Dunblane conference, Chief Super-intendent David O’Connor, the incoming president of the association, said there was growing concern about increases in e-crime and the lack of regulation by companies online.
His speech will also outline concerns about the fact the police service is over capacity in the management of sex offenders.
Hundreds of millions of pounds are estimated to be lost in Scotland each year as a result of internet scams. O’Connor will say the Scottish Government, internet providers and senior officers need to come together to discuss e-crime and a better way of paying for its policing.
Facebook has been at the centre of a number of court cases involving adults grooming young people. The most high-profile in the UK was that of Ashleigh Hall, 17, who was murdered by convicted rapist Peter Chapman, 33, in Sedgefield, County Durham. She had agreed to meet him after he posed as a young man on the popular site.
Eight members of the worst child abuse network in Scotland were found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh of a catalogue of charges relating to abuse and indecent images of children as a result of Operation Algebra last year.
O’Connor said: “The industry should be regulating itself and there should be measures in place to counter fraud and exploitation.
“Prevention is far better than cure. While Operation Algebra was a great success we would rather that those crimes had not happened. E-crime is a huge issue for the police – with growing incidents of banking fraud and identity theft.
“On the internet it is very difficult to identify victims and even more difficult to identify suspects. Whilst we are trying to put measures in place to track these people down it is highly specialist, technical and resource
intensive work.”
O’Connor is expected to tell police officers and the Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill: “In terms of public protection one of the biggest threats facing our communities relates to various chat-room facilities providing online social networking sites … Identity fraud and credit card fraud over the internet are costing this country millions of pounds.”
A Facebook spokesperson said: There is no single answer or silver bullet that makes the internet or Facebook safer but we continue to invest in improving the experience for our users on the site.”
Herald Scotland
BNP Race hate boss porkies to PCC exposed (UK)
THIS is the footage that proves BNP big wig Jim Dowson has been telling porkies!
Barefaced race hate Glaswegian Dowson has asked the Press Complaints Commission to rule that the Sunday World was wrong to say he was a member of the BNP – he told them had never been a member, yet here he is delivering a rousing right-wing speech – proving he’s up to his neck in the far right party.
Last year we revealed Dowson was behind the secret fundraising centre which is tucked away in east Belfast.
But after our first story he appeared on UTV and gave an interview to say he was not connected with the political side of the BNP and was just a businessman running a call centre.
He even said he didn’t agree with the BNP’s politics!
And he has complained to the Press Complaints Commission because we said he was a life member.
Poor affronted Jim told the PCC in an indignant letter: “They also allege that I am a BNP life member when I have never been a member of the party ever in my life!”
But a video passed to us by anti-fascist magazine Searchlight shows Jim praising the racist party and urging people to join up. And he’s even captioned North West Fundraiser.
Rambles
And we’ve since discovered that Jim may not have paid his member-ship to the BNP – because according to sources he owns it!
He has been BNP leader Nick Griffin’s right-hand man – to such an extent he has caused angry rumblings within the party.
During the seven minute video, which was taken during a fundraising event in Blackburn, Lancashire two months ago, Dowson repeatedly uses the phrases ‘we’ and ‘us’ when talking about the BNP.
We’ve picked out some of his most ‘rousing’ rants so you can make up your own mind if convicted criminal Dowson is in the BNP.
“We’re living with the Chinese and the Koreans,” says BNP Jim with a BNP backdrop, as the title BNP North West fundraiser is put on the screen of the BNP internet TV channel.
“They’re now the top of the tree. They’re going to be the ones who dominate the world. But it doesn’t matter how many cheap radios they build or cheap cars they build – they’ll never have what we have and that’s British blood.”
He then rambles on about soldiers and famous wars and battles including Waterloo, Agincourt, The Falklands and Afghanistan.
He tells the crowd: “The same blood is in you as they had. You are the sum total of your ancestors. Think what they suffered; think what they gave to build this Great Britain.
“How can Trevor Phillips (black head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission) ever hope to destroy us? I’ll tell you how, by destroying the British National Party.
“The only bulwark against tyranny is the BNP – you people have joined, given, you’ve campaigned, you’ve leafleted.
“We are the frontline. We are the thin red line against total destruction, annihilation and oblivion. We are the people who are standing in guard.”
He then babbles on about the film Zulu, which he thinks is called Rourke’s Drift, and likens the BNP to the British soldiers who repelled wave after wave of Zulu warriors during the Boer War.
He then slags off the British people who he says have run away because they are too scared to join the BNP in case they lose their job or get into trouble.
He then says of the BNP: “We will turn this country round.”
“People like (Trevor) Phillips and (Jack) Straw have mistaken us for being soft. There’s nothing soft about Blackburn and if Trevor Phillips and any of his cronies came here they would soon find out.”
He says he has helped turn the party around from being an amateurish party with no offices to having five UK offices, two MEP’s and are now bigger than UKIP.
“This party is going places – think what we have achieved,” says BNP Jim.
He talks about the leaked BNP list and tells anyone in the audience that if they weren’t on it, why weren’t they on it.
“When the list came out they thought we’d all run and hide. I was manning the phones that week and all week we got people in their 70s phoning saying ‘sign me up’ – they were joining in their 100s.”
The speech was part of a fundraiser in Blackburn which took place just before the election.
Boasted
But sadly for Jim the election was an unmitigated disaster.
The party hoped to get four MP’s elected to Westminster but failed to secure a single seat.
They had boasted about taking control of Barking and Dagenham council but were wiped out 51-0 by Labour.
Furthermore BNP sources are blaming Jim Dowson.
As revealed last week he, and the Belfast office, were being held responsible for the election blunder. Anti-fascist magazine Searchlight ran a ‘Hope not Hate’ campaign against the BNP during the election and Irish correspondent Matthew Collins hailed it a total success.
“Jim Dowson and his operation of shadow companies has as good as bought the BNP,” says Matthew.
“From our point of view, he’s the best thing to ever happen to the BNP.
“We’ve already begun to drive his party out of our council chambers and I’m sure the people of Northern Ireland will follow suit and chose hope over hate.”
Hope Not Hate
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)