Coalition must tackle issues fuelling far right (UK)

The apparent failure of the British National Party to secure a parliamentary seat at the May 2010 general election has obscured the growth in support for far right groups.

In 2001 the BNP picked up 47,000 votes, in 2005 it had grown to 192,000. This year it was 563,000.

Based on a new analysis by iCoCo of the voting patterns for far right groups, this appears to be part of an underlying trend of gathering support which threatens the stability of the UK’s communities, and would lead to the need for greater spending by local government and their partners on dealing with tensions.

Under a proportional representation system the BNP would have picked up12 seats for the BNP.

Many people do have real concerns about migration and change within their neighbourhoods and we dismiss these concerns as ‘ignorant’ or ‘racist’ at our peril.

There is no doubt that the increased population numbers and changes in composition of local populations have increased pressure on local services and these do have to be understood and addressed.

It is true they are often exaggerated by the far right – but some are very real and pressing and are most keenly felt in poorer areas who already feel that they are under the greatest pressure.

In engaging with those arguments, there will no doubt be some racist views with which to contend, but for the most part people are simply concerned about the pace of change and will respond to debates which acknowledge the problems and where there is a willingness to address them.

Communications are key. We have to remember that the far right are constantly putting out messages, spreading alarm with misinformation and false rumours. Counter messages therefore have to be at least as pervasive and persuasive.

Formal publications, and even myth busting leaflets, may well only serve to reinforce the myths, or they may be disbelieved on the basis that ‘they would say that wouldn’t they’ or simply unread.

Again, there is no substitute for face to face engagement and debate, in which local people are involved and, whenever possible, are recruited as the champions in their local community.

There is also a need to engage with communities in different ways.

In particular, it is dangerous to depend upon self-appointed community leaders who may simply be the community ‘gatekeeper’ and who use their position to control communications to preserve their position of influence.

We need to develop a new model of ‘gateway’ community leaders who are willing and able to open their communities to wider and more varied influences and to empower them to do things for themselves.

It is therefore also necessary to have a much better ‘map’ of local communities which is constantly updated to reflect the changing patterns of diversity – and also to recognise the diversity within particular communities.

In long established communities, social capital and leadership has been slowly eroded. Working Men’s clubs, trade unions, local shops, clubs and societies have been under pressure and in some cases all but disappeared.

These local institutions also provided an opportunity to ‘air’ their views and discuss concerns about what is happening (or what they perceive to be happening) in their communities.

In common with many other parts of society, there is some evidence that the ‘glue’ of social networks which helped to bind local areas together has given way to an individualised community in which families provide their own entertainment and have little time for their neighbours.

This is to some extent recognised in the Coalition’s commitment to a ‘big society’. In the context of poorer, insular and disaffected communities, we therefore need to ask how civil society can be rebuilt to give people the opportunity to learn about others, come to terms with change and develop shared interests.

There is a danger in regarding the BNP as a spent force. They lost ground because of campaigns to oppose them on the ground in places like Barking and Dagenham, but also all of the minority parties were squeezed by the media focus on the three main parties, especially around the televised debates.

That may not be the case next time. We have to recognize that they do tap into real concerns, as the ‘bigoted woman’ incident showed and we need more debate, not less, to answer these concerns.

But we also need to recognize that whilst the BNP is part of the legitimate democratic framework they do stir up tensions in local communities and are often accompanied by more extreme far right groups who peddle hatred.

These tensions then have to be dealt with by public agencies and community groups who have to try to calm things down and offer reassurance – a costly exercise in both social and monetary terms.

Reuters
Professor Ted Cantle is executive chair, Institute of Community Cohesion at Coventry University. The opinions expressed are his own.-

Tories reinstate racist texts row councillor (UK)

A Tory councillor who admitted sending racist texts from his mobile phone has been reinstated by the board of the Conservative Party.

Cllr Richard Powell, a 24-year-old language school consultant, was suspended after it was revealed that he sent offensive texts over a six-month period.

But his membership has been “immediately reinstated” after he agreed to attend a diversity awareness course.
Cllr Powell, who represents Westbourne and West Cliff on Bournemouth council, still faces possible sanctions after the case is discussed at a group meeting at the town hall tomorrow.

His attendance on the course has been welcomed by councillors from all political groups in Bournemouth.

But they have voiced concerns that it may not be enough to repair the Conservatives’ tarnished reputation in the town.
Fellow Conservative Cllr Nick King told the Daily Echo: “It is all very well going to a training course but he needs to understand how that fits with the role of a councillor.

“We have to represent everybody. You can’t do or say anything that to you might be funny but to others might be grossly offensive. Even your private actions can have an impact on how people perceive you.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Claire Smith added: “I am certainly glad that he is undertaking the training but it does concern me that the reputation of all councillors has been damaged in this fiasco.”

Cllr Powell is one of four Conservative councillors currently under investigation and Cllr Smith added: “People are just disgusted with councillors in Bournemouth at the moment – they are tarring us all with the same brush, unfortunately.”

Christopher Hammond, community development officer at the Dorset Race Equality Council, said it was “content that the standards committee has addressed the issue” in recommending that Cllr Powell attend training.

He added: “However, we do feel that it is imperative all councillors act in a manner which is in keeping with their public position in both their private and official capacity, acting as community champions for all of their constituents regardless of race, sexuality, disability or religion.”

Bournemouth echo

Neo-Nazi claims life at risk for testifying in murder trial (USA)

A neo-Nazi “soldier” said his life will be at risk for testifying today against a recruit accused of killing a  Colorado Springs woman.

Kyle Robert Gray, an admitted member of the American Nazi Party, testified that he was the driver on Sept. 27 when Kandin Eric Wilson shot and killed Susana Pelayo-Perez during a bungled robbery.

In exchange for his testimony, Gray got a plea agreement that will allow him to serve between 20 to 34 years in an out-of-state prison for his protection.

“You’re not just talking. You’re testifying,” Deputy District Attorney Nathan Whitney said. “What do you think could happen to you?

“If they can get a hold of me, I’ll be killed,” Gray said.

Gray explained the structure of the party: how “prospects” like Wilson serve a probationary period before they become soldiers who follow orders from a general.

At the time of the shooting, he said there were about four party members in Colorado Springs. Wilson, known by his street name “Trailer,” had been turned down previously for acceptance before being given a probationary period in September 2009.

Wilson’s attorney, Philip L. Dubois, has suggested that the real gunman was a higher-up within the party for whom Gray is covering.

Dubois debunked some of the party terminology, asking if party members held elections or lobbied the Legislature.

No, Gray replied.

“The ANP is nothing more than a street gang, isn’t it?” Dubois asked.

“More so a prison gang,” Gray replied.

“So you were just out on the streets temporarily,” the attorney countered.

Dubois asked Gray about the tattoos he got when he became a soldier while in prison in 2007.

Gray pointed to an SS symbol next to his right eye and described another of an iron cross on his torso.

When Dubois asked him what SS stood for, Gray said it was a German word for “bodyguard.”

“So whose body are you supposed to be guarding?” the lawyer asked.

“My own,” Gray replied.

“I guess, one might say, Mr. Gray, isn’t that what you’re doing right now?”

Testimony continues tomorrow. The trial is expected to conclude later this week

Gazette

Harassment and Abuse the English Defence League (EDL) way

Here’s a video that has been uploaded to the You Tube website of the East Anglian Division of the EDL abusing the staff at their local KFC outlet.



Please support the uploaders You Tube channel.

Councillor found guilty of racial harassment over 'coconut' jibe (UK)

Shirley Brown, the first black Liberal Democrat elected to Bristol city council, called Asian opponent a 'coconut' during heated debate, court told.

A black councillor has been found guilty of racial harassment after describing an Asian political opponent as "a coconut" during a heated debate today.
Shirley Brown, 48, the first black Liberal Democrat elected to Bristol city council, who employed the term about a Conservative, Jay Jethwa, denied committing an offence.

Bristol magistrates court heard the term was used to accuse someone of betraying their heritage by pandering to white opinion, just as a coconut was brown on the outside but white in the middle.

She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £620 in costs. The chairman of the bench, Simon Cooper, told her the remark had been "purely gratuitous" and could have stimulated racial hatred.
"You made a mistake for which you have to accept responsibility," he added. "It is a sad case."

Brown's remark came as she argued against a Conservative attempt in February 2009 to cut funds to the council's Legacy Commission, established in 2008, the year after the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British empire.

Jethwa had said spending £750,000 of taxpayers' money "righting the wrongs of slavery" did not make sense. Ian Jackson, prosecuting, said Brown "was heard to say: 'In our culture we have a word for you which many in this city would understand, a coconut.

"And at the end of the day I just look at you as that. And the water's either worth throwing away or drinking it'."
Jethwa, 42, did not hear the remark during the council meeting but watched it later on a webcast.

She wept as she told the court: "I was completely shocked and I was numb and had to rewind the footage to see if it was only me she had directed the comment to. I was very, very upset and distressed.

The word is doubly insulting as it insults both me and the white population."

She considered Brown's remarks about the water as "racist" and "to mean that my comments were worth throwing out.

The Conservative party lodged a formal complaint and a member of the public then complained to Avon and Somerset police, who launched a criminal investigation.

Brown was suspended for a month by the council's standards committee last summer for using "offensive and abusive language", although it did not judge the remarks racist.

The punishment was overturned in September after Brown appealed.

Brown, councillor for the ethnically diverse ward of Ashley, Bristol, denied racially aggravated harassment at a previous hearing.

Speaking after the hearing Jethwa said: "I am satisfied with the court's decision.

"It vindicates the decision to prosecute. It sends out a message that such calculated insults will not be tolerated from any quarter."

The Guardian

RACIST AND HOMOPHOBIC ATTACKS INCREASING IN DERRY (N. Ireland)

There has been a rise in racist attacks in the Foyle area over the last year. Police said there were 17 more incidents compared to the previous 12-month period. Homophobic attacks increased from eight to 10.The figures came to light after two men were assaulted in Londonderry at the weekend. They said they were targeted because they are gay. The couple, aged 22 and 38, were beaten by three men in the city centre at about 0200 BST on Saturday morning. The police are treating it as a homophobic attack. "I believe there are low-level hate incidents that happen on a day and daily basis," said Inspector Tony Callaghan. "Whether it's race based, religion based, sectarian, homophobic or relating to disabilities. People out there are suffering in silence." The men attacked on Saturday morning suffered cuts and bruising to their faces. One of the men, who did not want to be identified, said it had affected both of them badly. "I'm terrified of going to bed, I'm terrified walking down the street," he said. "I've got to walk my fella to his work because he's terrified. "It's just absolutely soul destroying and it's not on."

'Sinister'
David McCartney from gay support group Rainbow Project said the impact of a hate attack was "quite extraordinary". "It's not that random, violent assault," he said. "There is something more sinister and more hateful and hurtful to it and you're left feeling you don't belong. "You're left feeling you're not a part of this community, you're singled out, set apart and picked upon." Foyle MP Mark Durkan said the attack was "sickening". "Regardless of whether it expresses itself in the sort of wanton attack on this gay couple or in the subtle prejudice we see all too often, homophobia is inexcusable. "As a community we need to show our solidarity with those who suffer this awful prejudice. And we need to show those who attack them that it is they who are in the tiny minority in this society."

BBC News

Nazi-sympathising teen targeted Birkenhead shop to assault Sri Lankan owners (UK)

Two Nazi-sympathising teens targeted a corner shop to assault the Sri Lankan owners.

Judge David Aubrey QC told Robert Phillips, 19, and Michael Walters, 18, their behaviour was “racist and it was despicable and it was upon vulnerable people” as he put them both behind bars.

He added: “You targeted these premises. You inflicted violence upon the proprietors and you shouted thoroughly offensive racist remarks at the proprietors.”

Liverpool crown court heard when the pair were arrested in the wake of the attack, police found offensive material including Nazi symbols and stickers at their homes and on their mobile phones. Philips even had a Adolf Hitler screen saver on his computer.

On the day of the attack, on November 15 last year, the skin-head pair were dressed in army fatigues and boots. They targeted Mathiyaparanam Kokularajan and his wife Komathy as they pulled the security shutters down on their shop, The Corner Store, on Argyle Street South, Birkenhead.

Eric Lamb, prosecuting, told how they ran over the street shouting racist insults. As the couple tried to flee the skin-heads chased them. Philips then pushed Mrs Kokularajan into her husband, before they rained blows on him.
Judge Aubrey, who described Philips as the “ring-leader”, then described how he kicked the couple.

He said: “You even kicked an innocent a woman who was going about her business.

“When I look at you now, it really is almost impossible to find the words for it.”

The judge sent Phillips, of East Prescot Road, Knotty Ash, to a Young Offenders' Institute for 14 months and Walters, of Sandon Road, Wallasey, for eight months after they both admitted common assault.

Gerald Pachter, defending Phillips, told the court there was a different side to his client, whose family were appalled by his actions.

Speaking after the court case Mr Kokularajan described the terrifying attack and said: “We had closed our shop for the evening when we noticed two boys walking straight towards us. They called my wife a p***, kicked her in to the street and hit me around the head. It was shocking because most people are friendly around here.”

Liverpool Echo

Neo-Nazi White returns to court (USA)

William A. White, Roanoke's most vociferous racist and the self-proclaimed commander of a neo-Nazi organization, again faces criminal charges.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision released Monday, reinstated a charge that White encouraged violence against the foreman of a Chicago jury that convicted a fellow white supremacist years ago.

"Although First Amendment speech protections are far-reaching, there are limits," a three-judge panel from the court wrote.

The ruling reverses a judge's dismissal of the charge on free-speech grounds last July, before White was convicted of similar charges in Roanoke.

White, serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, now faces the prospect of being returned to Chicago. He is charged with posting the name, address and telephone number of the foreman of a jury that convicted neo-Nazi leader Matthew Hale in 2004 of plotting to have a federal judge killed.

Although White made no direct threats against the juror, prosecutors had argued that his words must be viewed in the context of other material on overthrow.com, the now-defunct website that carried his inflammatory rhetoric.

The court of appeals noted that White once wrote that "everyone associated with the Matt Hale trial has deserved assassination for a long time."

White, who moved to Roanoke in 2004 and created the American National Socialist Workers Party, is currently serving time in a federal prison in Beckley, W.Va.

After years of pushing the line between free speech and illegal conduct, he was convicted in December of making racially motivated threats against people in Missouri, Delaware and Virginia.

Nishay Sanan, a Chicago attorney who represents White, said he plans to ask the full court of appeals to review Monday's decision.

In dismissing the charge last July, U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman noted that White broke no laws when he dug up the publicly available contact information for the juror and posted it to overthrow.com.

As for the government's argument that White's intent to have the juror harmed was betrayed by other posts on a website viewed by violent racists, Adelman wrote: "An intimidating context alone does not remove the protection of the First Amendment."
That may be true, the higher court conceded. But such a question should be decided by a jury at trial, it said, not by a judge on a motion to dismiss.

Whether White is guilty of soliciting harm against the juror turns on his intent at the time he made the posts, which can best be determined once a jury hears additional evidence, the court ruled.

The ruling appears to open the door for prosecutors to bring up other posts on overthrow.com in which White has written that the "enemies" of the white supremacy movement should be harassed, intimidated and lynched.

Shortly before he was arrested in October 2008, White was preparing to distribute a magazine with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama on the cover. The illustration showed Obama's head in the sights of an assassin's rifle, with the cross hairs extended to form a swastika. Below the image was the headline:
"Kill this n-----?"

When White's appeal was argued earlier this year, appellate Judge Richard Posner picked up on the government's assertion that White's carefully selected words amounted to a coded solicitation.

Posner brought up the words of King Henry II of England, who supposedly once asked aloud, "Will no one rid me of this pestilent priest?" before his knights took the hint and killed Thomas Becket.

Queried by Posner about the case, Sanan said the king should be given the same protection today that White was afforded under the First Amendment.

"Not punishable?" Posner retorted. "You're kidding."

roanoke

JEWISH DANCE GROUP STONED IN HANOVER, GERMANY

German police are investigating the stoning of a Jewish dance group trying to perform on the street in the city of Hanover. Youths reportedly shouted "Juden Raus" (Jews Out) as they attacked the dancers of the Chaverim ("Friends" in Hebrew) dance troupe last weekend. Police said several Muslim immigrant youths were among the attackers and two youths were being questioned. A German Jewish leader said she feared growing anti-Israeli sentiment.

'So awful'
The group was trying to perform in Hanover's Sahlkamp district, which has a large immigrant community. One of the dancers was injured in the leg and the troupe cancelled the performance after the attack. Police said one German suspect aged 14 and a 19-year-old of North African origin were being questioned. Alla Volodarska, of the Progressive Jewish community of Hanover, told Associated Press news agency she had spoken to the dancers involved. "What happened is just so awful. The teenagers started throwing stones the moment our dance group was announced, even before they started dancing." Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the Die Welt newspaper that anti-Semitic feelings were widespread in both far-right and Muslim communities in the country. "It particularly saddens me that those anti-Semitic views can already be seen with such vehemence among children and youths," she said.

BBC News

BNP faces financial turmoil if found in contempt of court

Nick Griffin could have his assets seized if high court rules that leader breached order to amend party's constitution.

Fresh from its disastrous showing at the ballot box on 6 May, the British National party now faces financial turmoil with its assets threatened by court action. The high court is to decide whether Nick Griffin and two other BNP officials should face contempt of court proceedings in which their assets could be confiscated under a "writ of sequestration". The assets include Griffin's MEP salary, investments and pensions and any property that they might own. The case shows that no political party is above the law.

The contempt proceedings were brought by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) after the BNP was accused of failing to remove potentially racist clauses from its constitution. The BNP had been in breach of the Race Relations Act 1976 by admitting only white people to the party, but it revised its constitution in February to say it would allow people of any descent or origin to join, but only if the individual "agrees with or supports or does not oppose or does not disagree with the principles of our party".

However, the principles of the party in this amended constitution are still in terms of promoting indigenous over non-indigenous interests, including maintaining the "integrity of the indigenous British" and "restoring and maintaining" the indigenous British as "an overwhelming majority" (indigenous being defined by those that settled in these islands between 11500BC and 6 July 1189).

It is not difficult to see how this is contrary to the Race Relations Act 1976, because by signing up to the principles, any non-indigenous member would have to give up their racial and cultural identity. The BNP has also not changed its rule preventing new members from attending any party meeting until they have been interviewed by two BNP officials. A court in March ruled that this was intimidatory and directed against non-indigenous applicants.
If the high court rules that the BNP is in breach of the March order and gives permission to the EHRC to issue the writ, then it will appoint four commissioners. Two to three of the commissioners will be "authorised and commanded" to take possession of the BNP's assets. These assets will be kept in the hands of the commissioners until the BNP complies with the order to make its constitution free of racial discrimination.

Not only would this be a bitter pill for the BNP to swallow ideologically, it would also be financially punitive. A commissioner can cost up to £1,000 a day, and if the BNP has its assets confiscated, it will cost them up to £3,000 a day for those assets to be held. The BNP faces a period of financial turmoil.

The Guardian

Two gay men attacked in Londonderry (Northern Ireland)

Two men who were assaulted in Londonderry at the weekend have said they were targeted because they are gay.

The couple, aged 22 and 38, were beaten by three men in the city centre at about 0200 BST on Saturday morning.
They suffered cuts and bruising to their faces. Police are treating it as a homophobic attack.

One of the men, who did not want to be identified, said it had affected both of them badly.

"I'm terrified of going to bed, I'm terrified walking down the street," he said.

"I've got to walk my fella to his work because he's terrified.

"It's just absolutely soul destroying and it's not on."

BBC News

3 FAR-RIGHT YOUTH ARRESTED DURING BULGARIA'S GAY PARADE

Three young men have been arrested for attempting to attack the participants in the 3rd annual Sofia Pride gay parade taking place in the Bulgarian capital Saturday. Several other far right extremists have attempted to provoke the participants in the gay parade including through verbal abuse but their intentions have been prevented by the police, the Interior Ministry announced. Earlier on Sunday, some 100 nationalist and far-right youth gathered for an anti-gay parade rally with slogans such as “Gays want death for Bulgarians”, “Homosexuals out of Bulgaria, to keep our children pure”, “Bulgaria is a place for normal people – gays should go to jail” and “All the gays, go to Uganda”, there were several provocation attempts during the Sofia Pride parade itself but those foiled by the police. A total of 300 police officers were commissioned Saturday to guard the 3rd Sofia Pride gay procession. The 2010 provocation attempts pale in contrast to the first edition of the parade in 2008 when the police arrested several dozen skin heads throwing Molotov cocktails at the participants.


Novinite.com

RACIAL VIOLENCE: THE BURIED ISSUE (uk)

Research published by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), reveals dangerously high levels of racial violence in the UK - a violence which is spreading into new areas.

As mainstream parties compete as to which can reduce immigration fastest - ostensibly to defuse community fears - no one asks who actually bears the immediate fall-out of such tensions - Black and Minority Ethnic, asylum-seeker/refugee and migrant communities. As far as the authorities are concerned the Macpherson inquiry (set up in the wake of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993) has dealt with racial violence. It no longer exists, it is no longer a problem issue. But the IRR's report, Racial violence: the buried issue, reveals that, on average, five people a year in the UK have lost their lives to racial violence since Stephen's death - a total of eight-nine victims in seventeen years.

And analysis of 660 racial attacks in 2009 reveals that certain groups of people are particularly at risk: 'dispersed' asylum seekers, newly-arrived migrant workers, those who look Muslim and/or work in isolating trades such as taxi-cabbing, food take-aways, small shops and eateries. The map of violence has changed quite dramatically since studies were first done a generation ago, when primarily areas like Southall, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham witnessed the most racial attacks and racist murders. Such areas are now, in part through struggles against racism, more 'at ease' with their diversity. Today racial violence is on the rise in towns, cities and villages which are only now beginning to change demographically - with the arrival of asylum seekers, migrant workers, overseas students, and the natural movement of settled BME families from the larger conurbations.

According to the report's authors: 'The governments' line that community tension is based solely on new immigration to the UK is partial and opportunistic. The UK is now witnessing an ever-expanding mosaic of different racisms based on different local conditions. And politicians themselves are responsible, through their neglect of poor disadvantaged areas, policies including the demonisation of certain groups and rhetoric around the war on terror, for creating, particularly in areas where competition over scarce resources is keenest, a climate in which racial violence will flourish. The drastic economic cuts of the new government can only make things worse.'

Key statistics

* 89 people have lost their lives in attacks with a racial element since the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993.

* Victims of attacks are overwhelmingly Asian (45%); Black (18%); Migrant workers (10%). Men are usually the victims of attacks (80%).

* Attacks take place on the street (37.6%); in the home (12%), taxi/taxi offices (10%), takeaways, restaurants, pubs and bars (8.6%); shops (8%); religious institutions and/or people in their vicinity (4.3%).

* 34% of attacks took place at the weekend when perpetrators are often under the influence of drink and drugs.

Download the IRR's Briefing Paper: Racial violence: the buried issue Here (pdf file, 300kb).

Read the IRR's Factfile on the Racially Motivated Murders (Known or Suspected) 2000 onwards
 
The Institute of Race Relations

Germans celebrate the diversity of their 'multiculti' World Cup team

Germany's football team is the most ethnically diverse in the country's history

Yagiz Dogan is hankering after a pair of orange and silver trainers similar to those worn by German footballer Mesut Ozil. "I'm saving up for them, after all he's my hero," says the 15-year-old, who lives in a flat in the Berlin district of Neukölln with his Turkish parents and grandparents.

Yagiz has hung a German flag from the window, much to the confusion of his mother. "Of course I want Germany to win the World Cup," he says.

He also thinks it's fine that Ozil, the German-born son of Turkish immigrants, has chosen to play for Germany rather than Turkey.

"What should be strange about that? He was born here, brought up here, he speaks the language, understands the culture – just like me. I can identify with him."

The boy could be speaking for Ozil himself. But what's clear from talking to him is how natural it is for a whole generation of young Germans – known as "Generation M" or "multiculti" – that their national football team comes from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Not only is this German team the youngest it has been since 1934 – half the squad are 24 or under – it is also the most ethnically diverse it has ever been. No fewer than half of the players were either born outside Germany, are the sons of immigrants, or have one non-German parent. And what's more, says national coach Joachim Löw, "they have a strong sense of identification with the eagle on their breasts and with the nation as a whole".
The effect of such a radical transition cannot be overstated in a country that for years did not consider itself a land of immigration, and where foreigners brought in to fill the skills gap were deliberately called "guest workers" on the understanding, or hope, that they would go home.

The change has come about thanks to a 1999 revamp of citizenship laws. Half the current team's players would not have been allowed in just over a decade ago.

Some bloggers on far-right websites railed in anger following Germany's swashbuckling 4-0 defeat of Australia a fortnight ago, insisting that the team was now "no longer German". But the team has won over the hearts of most Germans, who are delighted by the verve and fearlessness the new generation has injected into the game.

Ozil, arguably the star of this current team, who scored the winning goal in Wednesday's match against Ghana, said that he sees his "Turkish side" coming out in his technique and feel for the ball, "and the give-it-your-all attitude to my game is the German part of me".

The Guardian

BNP leader Nick Griffin grooms his daughter to replace him

Party insiders say Griffin has quietly boosted 24-year-old Jennifer’s role, giving her huge influence over  membership and finance.

But they believe Griffin has no intention of ­relinquishing his vice-like grip on the ­party he has led since 1999 – ­despite his pledge to step down by 2013.

They expect him to copy his 82-year-old French ­Fascist ally Jean Marie Le Pen, who has ensured his daughter Marine is in pole position to replace him as head of France’s National Front.

Last year Jennifer was appointed a director of Adlorries, a company that controls a substantial ­proportion of the BNP ­finances, under her married name Jennifer Matthys.
She was also given a ­crucial role as party membership secretary, working in the BNP’s main call centre in Belfast, where she lives.

Jennifer, who was leader of the BNP’s youth wing as a teenager, has been at her father’s side at impor­tant party events. ­Earlier this month she was used as the public face of the party in a promotional film.

Griffin’s manoeuvring risks sparking further revolt among the party faithful, who have openly questioned his leadership since the BNP was humiliated in May’s ­national and local ­elections.

Simon Bennett, the former BNP webmaster who quit his job on the eve of the ­election in a row over alleged corruption and incompetence, said: “He knows his days are numbered and installing his daughter is the perfect Plan B.

“She would be the nominal leader but he would be the real power behind the throne.”

The Mirror

EHRC case against the BNP now moves from County Court to the High Court.

Apparently the court case against the British National Party (BNP) by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is now being moved from County court to the High Court.

So far very little news about this is emerging and we have no trust in the BNP ‘s website reporting of these events.

However as they are the only ones reporting this incident its well worth reading as this could be another huge nail being hammered into the BNP’s coffin.

BNP Website

Germany to Launch Exit Program for Militant Islamists

Germany has been offering programs for people who want to leave the neo-Nazi scene for years. Now, in a bid to combat the threat of Islamist terrorism, authorities are setting up a telephone hotline for those keen to give up jihad.

Could it be that Islamists just need a helping hand to turn their back on extremism? That, at least, is what Germany is hoping -- and has set up a new program to facilitate the process.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, will launch the so-called exit program at the end of June, agency chief Heinz Fromm announced Monday, speaking at the presentation of the service's annual report for 2009 in Berlin. The agency is to set up a telephone hotline that militant Islamists can call if they want to leave radical Islamist groups. Multilingual specialists will be available to give potential quitters advice in Turkish or Arabic, as well as German, Fromm said, without giving further details of the program.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière described the scheme as a "valuable preventative effort." Fromm however warned against overly high expectations for the scheme. "We'll have to wait and see if it gets a big response," he said. The agency's programs for neo-Nazis wanting to quit their milieu, which have been running for several years, have only met with moderate success.

'Feelings of Insecurity'
According to the intelligence agency's findings, the number of members and supporters of radical Islamist groups in Germany increased in 2009 by around 5 percent compared to the previous year. Germany now has 29 Islamist organizations with an estimated 36,000 members, the largest of which is the Turkish association Milli Görüs, described by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as "anti-democratic."

Fromm and de Maizière warned of an ongoing threat to Germany from Islamist terrorism. In 2009, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution registered an "unprecedented" series of Islamist propaganda messages directed at Germany, warning of attacks against German targets if the country did not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The messages were intended to influence the outcome of the September 2009 general election. The promised attacks did not, however, materialize. There have been seven serious attempts to carry out Islamist terror attacks in Germany since 2000, according to the agency.

So-called "homegrown" terrorism poses a particular threat in Germany. The members of radical Islamist groups include young Germans who have converted to Islam, a phenomenon de Maizière attributed to "situations of loss and insecurity" during puberty. "Feelings of inferiority" make young people vulnerable to being inducted into the radical Islamist scene, he said.

Violence from Both Sides
The agency also recorded a sharp rise in acts of violence motivated by left-wing extremism in 2009, which rose by more than 50 percent to over 1,100. The number of arson attacks increased from 62 in 2008 to 113 in 2009. Arson attacks on cars in cities such as Berlin and Hamburg have been the focus of much media attention in the last couple of years. Fromm played down the threat of terrorist acts by left-wing extremists, however. Although some people in the far-left scene play with "the idea of attempting something like that, (those ideas) are not currently finding support," Fromm said.

There was a small drop in acts of right-wing violence in 2009, down to 891 acts from 1,042 in 2008. De Maizière stressed that, despite the fall, the threat of far-right violence should not be "neglected."

Spiegel

Boy made nailbombs with chemicals bought on eBay

A boy with an "unhealthy interest" in explosives and right wing politics made gunpowder and nailbombs with chemicals bought from his mother’s eBay account.
Police found a pipe packed with nails and screws and charged with powder in the 16 year old’s bedroom, and a pipe with a firework inside hidden under a waste oil tank at a nearby petrol station.

The youngster also had literature from the right wing groups the British National Party and the English Defence League, together with Nazi emblems.
Officers were tipped off by the eBay seller who was concerned about the commodities being bought. The family's house in Tamworth, Staffs, was immediately evacuated while explosives and firearms experts searched the property for three days.

They found the device, loaded with nails, in his bedroom. It was examined by the Defence Laboratory and found to be capable of producing a "lethal shot". Two days later they found the device with a firework inside.

Stafford Crown Court heard internet conversations from a chat room dedicated to explosives and firearms had been found on a computer in the house.

Malcolm Morse, prosecuting, added that the mother of one of the boy's friends had handed in a video clip from a mobile phone camera showing an explosive device being detonated in a tree. The clip was labelled with the boy’s name and claiming ownership of the device.

The boy, who cannot be named, admitted possessing a firearm without a certificate – the only charge that could be applied to the device found in his bedroom, said Mr Morse. He also admitted having an explosive substance and making an explosive substance.

Judge John Wait made the boy subject to a three year controlling order for public safety. He told him he was a danger to the public and added that he found it hard to believe that his parents had let him carry on making explosive substances and not seen the danger of the combination with extreme politics.

Defending, Darron Whitehead, said: "It would be very easy to simply infer that this young man is a terrorist with hidden agendas. They don't exist in this case.

"There was never at any time, any positive intention to make any aggressive use of the items strewn about his bedroom.
"There is nothing in this case to suggest there was any intention to cause harm to human life."

He said the boy’s interest began with fireworks before developing into a wider interest in pyrotechnics.

Mr Whitehead said the boy’s parents and his neighbours all knew about his interests and were not concerned about him.
One of the boy’s friends, Jason Cunningham, 27, from Tamworth, admitted making an explosive substance and perverting the course of justice. He was jailed for 12 months.

The Telegraph

FRANCE'S NATIONAL FRONT: WILL MARINE LE PEN TAKE THE REINS?

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who heads France's National Front party, has long peppered politics with right-wing bons mots. (Nazi occupation was "not especially inhumane," he once said.) Now his daughter, Marine Le Pen, is showing that she, too, can make headlines. She called on President Nicolas Sarkozy to step down if implicated in a bribery case dating to 1995. She recently knocked France's racially diverse World Cup soccer team: "I don't see myself represented by this France team." And after police on June 15 banned a provocative "pork sausage and booze" party that was to be held in a heavily Arab-Muslim quarter of Paris, Ms. Le Pen said, "the French state has capitulated once again."


Succession campaign in full swing
Her higher visibility comes as a National Front succession campaign is in full swing. The senior Le Pen is set to retire as champion of a proud France that, he's long said, is being invaded and cheated by foreign hordes, Brussels bureaucrats, and globalization. He also decries what he calls excessive Jewish influence in the media. An often-vicious party fight is under way between Ms. Le Pen and Bruno Gollnisch, Mr. Le Pen's stalwart right-hand man. The battle is over the face and direction of the far right, whose influence here has always outweighed its numbers. Ms. Le Pen, tall, blond, and articulate, wants to move the Front away from the splendid isolation of its 5 to 12 percent vote and appeal to a mainstream that has also moved right. She has rebuffed her dad's anti-Semitism and speaks inclusively of gays and feminists – while nourishing an anti-immigrant, antiburqa, anti-Islam line that plays to a silent majority. Mr. Gollnisch, serious, gray-haired, a professor and ultranationalist who speaks Japanese and Malay and is deeply loyal to Mr. Le Pen, wants the party to remain a haven for fellow travelers. His anti-Semitism is intact; a 2004 speech saying Holocaust facts are a "dispute of history" landed him in court. Most French think the daughter, with her populist touch, will win. But in party ranks, Gollnisch is seen as a standard-bearer who put in time and hard work. He told Le Figaro newspaper: "I want … to defend the French identity, which appears more threatened than ever."

"She's a pure product of her father, and she's got the leader's name. That has weight," says Arun Kapil of the American University in Paris. "But to the card-carrying party member, Gollnisch has legitimacy. He goes way back to the '70s." He adds, "If Marine wins, the Front national has a chance to break out … if Gollnisch wins, they retreat to 2 percent." Gollnisch insists that he has the moxie to move the party out. He casts himself as a "little guy from the provinces." But so far he isn't even talking to the main center-right party of Mr. Sarkozy, where the voters are. His hatred for political correctness is reputedly visceral. "He prefers to fish in silent, dark waters," a Paris political analyst says. His outreach is to figures like Philippe de Villiers, a denizen of the extremes who opposes the European Union, the euro, Islam, and Turkey in Europe; who wants riot police to use live ammunition; and who this month tried to ban a heavy-metal concert as "Satanist." Ms. Le Pen, meanwhile, is taking on figures like Sarkozy and getting quoted almost daily. On the socialist left, she is compared to Sarah Palin, especially after claiming a feminist mantle. And the return home this week of France's World Cup team, disgraced by its poor performance on and off the field, has only given Ms. Le Pen's earlier statements added weight. Much of the national reaction to the team's behavior was racially loaded, prompting urban affairs minister Fadela Amara to warn against "building a highway for the National Front."

Party witch hunt
Gol­l­nischians snarl that Ms. Le Pen, a tool of Zionists, is conducting party witch hunts to out his supporters. "She is an empty shell … compatible with anything," says former Front vice president Jean-Claude Martinez. Gollnisch is "faithful to the fundamentals of the Front, whose program he wrote," says analyst Philippe Cohen. "When Marine is 'divisive,' Gollnisch says he is ready to rally the scattered forces of the extreme right." Mr. Le Pen is silent on the internal struggle. He has long been the face of the European far right, and a powerful influence as the mainstream scrambled to match his ability to capture popular discontent. In 2002, he shocked Paris by facing Jacques Chirac in the national runoff. In 2007, his party did poorly. But Sarkozy's victory was partly based on adopting Le Pen positions and siphoning votes. Whether the daughter can move the party into power politics is unclear. In The New York Times recently, she described the trials of being a Le Pen, but affirmed core party views: "There has been a withdrawal into non-French identities because we sapped French nationality of its content.… So how can someone be proud? We spend all our lives saying, 'We are ... colonizers, slavery promoters.' " The Le Pens, in any event, seem here to stay. Mr. Le Pen's granddaughter, Marion Marechal Le Pen, ran in the March local elections. She's 19.

CSMonitor

Greens MP and pal attacked by 'racist' football fans (Austria)

Greens MP Werner Kogler was given a "beer shower" as he acted as a go-between at an open air World Cup party.

The financial issues expert said today (Fri) he reprimanded a group of four young men shouting racist slurs before they spilled beer over his head at the venue in the city centre of Graz on Wednesday night.

Kogler claimed the youths provoked other football enthusiasts watching Germany playing Ghana by shouting paroles like "shitty niggers".

The politician – who is his party’s front runner for the 26 September provincial elections of Styria – announced one of his mates suffered a broken cheekbone as the situation got out of hands. The attacker was arrested, he added.
Austrian Greens Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Ulrike Lunacek revealed recently a protester threw stones at her during a demonstration for gay rights in the Slovakian capital Bratislava.

Lunacek said the route of the "Rainbow Pride Bratislava 2010" march was changed after the incident, adding that the attacker was put in custody.

Austrian Times

Met boss: Day I took on racist yobs who called me 'Paki'

Scotland Yard's most senior Muslim officer has told how he challenged a gang of yobs who racially abused him while he was off duty.

Chief Superintendent Dal Babu was walking to a church confirmation when he was subjected to shouts of "Paki, Paki." The father-of-two blocked the men's path until help arrived, as they tried to jostle him and push past.
Two people have now been convicted over the abuse.

The Harrow borough commander, who was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, told how he was on his BlackBerry getting directions to the church in St Albans when he walked past a pub and saw three men. One shouted: "Paki, Paki."

In a witness statement, Mr Babu, 47, who lives in London, said one of the white men asked: "Come on Paki what you going to do about it?" Mr Babu added: "He beckoned me to come towards him with his hand. The two other men were laughing and started to walk towards me. I am unfamiliar with St Albans and was concerned I was going be assaulted. The man in the grey top continued to shout.

"I decided I should identify myself as a police officer and call for assistance. I then crossed the road and produced my warrant card and said, 'I am Chief Superintendent Babu from the Metropolitan Police I want to speak to you. I phoned 999. The three men started to surround me and I noticed all of them smelt of intoxicating liquor. I said, 'I want you to stay here, There is CCTV that will capture everything you do.'"

Two of the men tried to walk away but, said Mr Babu: "I blocked their path ... they pushed past me, the man in the yellow top pushed me causing my BlackBerry to fall and come apart." But he managed to hold on to two of them until uniformed officers arrived. The abuse took place last month. At Hertford magistrates' court, Jamie Healy, 27, of Watford, was given a community order after pleading guilty to a public order offence. Michael Dimaio, 24, of St Albans, is awaiting sentence after admitting causing racial aggravation.

Mr Babu, one of 10 children of Indian migrants, joined the Met in 1983 and is a founding member of the National Association of Muslim Police. He helped build bridges between police and Muslim communities after the 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings.

This is London

School sends home more than 20 children for racist chants during World Cup game

A school suspended more than 20 children after they started chanting racial abuse during a playground showing of a World Cup game.

Education chiefs at the Pent Valley Technology College in Cheriton, Kent, confirmed today that 'a number of children' had been suspended or excluded following an outbreak of 'racial taunting'.

More than 100 children at the secondary school were watching a match after school bosses decided to rig up a giant screen in the playground so pupils could watch lunchtime games.

The incident - which involved around 25 children taunting children of other nationalities - is believed to have taken place during the Honduras v Chile game on June 16.

Head teacher Mario Citro said that a group of youngsters had been sent home from school after 'abusive and racist comments' were made.

He refused to say how many had been suspended or if any had been permanently excluded, but did say that 'a number' of pupils had been excluded.

A source at the school, however, said between 20 and 25 children had been sent home immediately following the incident.

Mr Citro said that the incident was captured on CCTV and that some students had behaved in an 'intimidating manner'.

He added: 'A group of youngsters was making abusive and racist comments to the ones who aren't English.

'Some were trying to be horrible to some of our children from other countries - that is behaviour we don't accept.'

Mr Citro, who said staff take a 'hard line' on racism, addressed a school assembly in the wake of the incident telling children that any racist behaviour would not be tolerated.

He said: 'I reminded the students that what happened was something we would never accept at Pent Valley.

'I reinforced our stance against racism and reminded them how proud we are of our mixed community and how we've always got on together.'

A spokesman for Kent police confirmed that racist chanting had 'got out of hand', but said the school had handled the incident itself.

The spokesman said: 'Some children got suspended after some England chanting got out of hand and ended up racist in tone.

'We were told about it but not called out as the school managed it quickly.'

Mr Citro refused to confirm how many pupils at the 1,300 student school were suspended or excluded, adding: 'A number of children have been excluded but I'm always concerned about people's privacy.'

Daily Mail

Racist violence migrates to the country (UK)

Racism and xenophobic violence is flourishing in towns and villages across Britain – while inner city areas that were once hotbeds of racial violence are now more "at ease" with diversity, according to a new report.
Researchers at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) analysed 660 racist attacks across Britain last year and found growing evidence to suggest that violence against minorities has shifted to rural areas and towns.

The IRR said hatred and bigotry had spread in less than a generation thanks to a broad spread of asylum seekers, migrant workers, overseas students and the movement of settled ethnic minority families. Prejudice was also being fanned, they concluded, by mainstream political parties competing with one another over which could cut immigration the fastest.

"What has emerged is that the map of violence has changed quite dramatically since studies were first done of such violence in the 1970s," the authors wrote.

"It is no longer poor, deprived areas of London such as Southall, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham, which witnessed many of the racial attacks and racist murders a generation or two ago, that are now so prone to serious attacks. Not only are black and ethnic minority communities now more established there but also a whole history of struggle against racism has strengthened these communities."

They added: "But what was significant was that ethnic minorities in a whole host of cities, towns and areas, not traditionally associated with such violence, now appear to be experiencing it. These are areas which have traditionally been very white and are not affluent. In some cases, core industries have gone and a whole generation of young people are without a future."

The authors said minority ethnic groups, asylum seekers and migrant communities are bearing the brunt of these tensions. They found asylum seekers, newly-arrived migrant workers and people who look Muslim are most at risk of attack, while trades that isolate individuals, such as cab driving, serving in takeaways and staffing small shops were found to be the most dangerous. IRR researchers say at least 89 identifiably racist murders have taken place in Britain since Stephen Lawrence was killed while waiting for a bus in Eltham, south London, in 1993 – an average of five a year. Of the victims, 39 were Asian, 25 were black, four were white British and three were white eastern Europeans.

Lee Bridges, who analysed official crime statistics for the report, found that while racist attacks had decreased in London over the past decade, they have dramatically risen in proportion elsewhere.

In 1999/2000, London recorded 23,401 racist incidents, 49 per cent of the national total. By 2007/8 that number had dropped to 9,866, a 58 per cent reduction. Last year, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Thames Valley and Lancashire accounted for 28 per cent of the national total, a 103 per cent increase on 10 years ago.

Case Study: Indian sailor died after attack by gang of 20 youths

Gregory Fernandes, a 32-year-old sailor from Goa in India, was walking back to the cargo ship he worked on in Fawley, Hampshire when he and a friend were set upon by a 20-strong gang of youths. It was October 2007. Mr Fernandes was his family's breadwinner. A passerby broke up the fight and drove Mr Fernandes to his cargo ship, but he dropped dead from a heart attack.

Police concluded that the attack, which took place in a normally quiet backwater of Hampshire, had clear racist overtones. The gang had been shouting "Paki" during the assault. In January 2008, the Fernandes family expressed concern at the police investigation and the failure to charge anyone in connection with his death. Three young boys were later charged with his murder. At their trial in February 2009, the three admitted lesser charges of manslaughter. In March 2009, Stephen Pritchard, 18, Daniel Rogers, 18, and Chay Fields, 16, were sentenced to six-and-a-half years. A 15-year-old boy admitted GBH on Mr Fernandes' friend and was given a 12-month detention and training order. Another 15-year-old who admitted assault was given an 18-month supervision order.

The Independant

The BNP past of the EDL leader

Nick Lowles and Simon Cressy expose Tommy Robinson

Searchlight can exclusively reveal that the leader of the English Defence League is a former British National
 Party member who has served 12 months’ imprisonment for assaulting an off-duty police officer.


Self-proclaimed EDL leader Tommy Robinson is really Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, from Bedford.

In 2004 he joined the BNP with a family membership. In the same year he assaulted an off-duty police officer who intervened to stop a domestic incident between Yaxley-Lennon and his partner Jenna Vowles. During the scuffle Yaxley-Lennon kicked the officer in the head.

He was convicted on 18 April 2005 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, for which he was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, and assault with intent to resist arrest, for which he received a concurrent term of three months.
Vowles, also a BNP member, was cautioned for possession of cocaine. She told the court that the she found two empty bags in her house and was taking them out so that her parents did not find them.

Yaxley-Lennon attended Putteridge High School in Luton and moved to nearby Bedford more recently. Robinson also claims on his Facebook site that he attended Putteridge school.

The revelation that Robinson had been a member of the BNP explains why so many of the initial EDL activists also attended BNP meetings in the Luton/Bedford area.

More importantly, it dispels the myth that the roots of the EDL are not in hard-core racism.

It destroys the protestations by the EDL leadership that, “They aren’t the BNP and they aren’t Nazis,” made at their phoney press conference held last September in a disused Luton warehouse, where they unfurled a swastika flag and proceeded to try to set it alight for the cameras.

It also explains the real reason why Robinson felt the need to hide his face.

Apart from his BNP membership and his convictions for violence, Robinson told a BBC film crew that he lived in a part of Luton where Islamic fanatics lived and that he feared for his safety. The reality is somewhat different as he lives in Wilstead, a relatively leafy village on the outskirts of Bedford.

The exposure of his identity follows a split in the EDL that is mostly being fought over the internet.

Paul Ray, self-styled spiritual guru of the EDL, has posted a series of messages on his Lionheart blog, in which he and his friend Nick Greger announce their intention to take control of the EDL. Ray was the original mover in creating the EDL, although he quickly fell out with the other leaders and moved abroad to Malta. Ray has focused his efforts on making Crusader-themed anti-Muslim promotional videos, and he and Greger have just issued a notice of “expulsion” of the EDL’s leaders, together with a demand for control of the EDL’s websites.

In one of their videos Greger goes on to say “another well-known man will soon appear within the new leadership, a man from Ulster, who is also currently in exile”.
This is almost certainly a reference to Greger’s friend Johnny Adair, a prominent loyalist terrorist who now lives in Scotland following an intra-loyalist feud. Adair’s friendship with Greger was the subject of a television documentary in 2006, when Adair met Greger while in prison for plotting acts of terror and was then the head of a nazi group in Dresden, Germany.

It is thought that Ray and Greger were responsible for the appearance of a video on YouTube that unveiled Robinson as Stephen Yaxley along with a series of photographs, following outlandish claims by Ray that the EDL led by Robinson threatened to kidnap and harm members of Ray’s family.

Robinson later confirmed on his Facebook page that the photographs were indeed of him, saying, “Hey at least people can see my hansome face now”.

Hope Not Hate

No-holds-barred racism as Griffin gets desperate (UK)

“A Third World slum colonised by millions of African and Asian immigrants, facing the growing certainty of eventual civil war between an ever-growing Muslim community and everybody else”.


This is how Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, which claims to be not racist, described Britain in an email to supporters on 23 June appealing for money to help him fight the continuing action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over the BNP’s racist constitution.

In the email, which also described Trevor Phillips, the chair of the EHRC, as an “immigrant Marxist” and a “black Marxist”, Griffin said he was “ready to go to prison” for his beliefs.

Outrageously he invoked Winston Churchill, the “heroes of D-Day” and “Spitfire pilots” in a blatant attempt to win sympathy and persuade supporters to open their wallets yet again for him.

Griffin has often referred to an impending civil war in Britain, especially after electoral failure such as in last month’s elections. After the BNP failed to win any MEPs in the 2004 European election despite gaining 800,000 votes, Griffin said the party might have to consider alternatives to the ballot box. The following year the BNP’s general election manifesto called for adults who have completed a period of military service to be “required to keep in a safe locker in their homes a standard-issue military assault rifle and ammunition”, a policy the party has never renounced.

A number of BNP members have tried to turn Griffin’s talk about civil war into action. They include David Copeland, the London bomber, and Robert Cottage, who was convicted for possession of explosives.

In raising the prospect of imprisonment Griffin no doubt also has his eye on Eddy Butler’s challenge to his leadership of the BNP, announced on 18 June. Griffin may hope that party members would hardly desert a man who was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for them.

However most BNP members are likely to see through this ploy. Growing numbers want a new party leader because of Griffin’s incompetence in producing electoral results, dubious financial dealings and his insistence on handing over administrative and financial control of the party to the “consultant” Jim Dowson, a militant anti-abortion campaigner with criminal convictions for violence.

Butler, the BNP’s national elections officer until he was peremptorily sacked at the end of March, is now trying to collect the signatures of 20% of BNP members with at least two years’ membership, which he needs to force a leadership election. Several party branch organisers are calling local meetings so that members can sign the forms.

BNP activists all over the country are beginning to support Butler’s challenge. One of them is Danny Lake, former leader of the Young BNP. Echoing the views of many party members, he describes Griffin as “a man who has brought the party far but remains stunted by a damaged reputation”. Griffin is standing “with a set of disastrous election results behind him”, Lake points out, before expressing the view that Griffin will not allow a clean fight.

Hope Not Hate

Burned girl a symbol of Roma hate and hope (Czech Rep)

Natalka Kudrikova is a bright-eyed, three-year-old girl recovering from the severe burns she suffered when far-right extremists threw a Molotov cocktail into her home.

Her family and authorities say she was targeted because they are Roma, or gypsies. Natalka lost 80 percent of her skin, two fingers (a third was later amputated) and spent months lying in an induced coma following the attack last year in Vitkov, in the Czech Republic. She is still recuperating after 14 major surgeries.

In May, Natalka returned to Ostrava Hospital for rehabilitation sessions so that one day she may be able to get around without support. "I'd rather not take her back to the hospital," said her mother, Anna Sivakova, "but if she must return, my dream is that she learns how to walk without any help."

The very next day, four young men accused of attacking Natalka, filed into Ostrava District Court to hear the indictment: a racially motivated attempted murder.

According to the prosecutor, the attack was planned for the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth. Court experts confirmed swastikas and other Nazi memorabilia were found in the defendants' homes.

In court, Ivo Muller and Vaclav Cojocaru described their coordinated Molotov cocktail attack. Their only excuse -- they said they thought they were attacking an empty storehouse of stolen goods.
Under cross-examination, Muller and Cojocaru admitted attending anti-Roma demonstrations organized by right wing extremists.

The other defendants, Jaromir Lukes and David Vaculik, did not take the stand. Lukes is accused of being the ringleader, a claim his defense counsel strongly denies although he concedes Lukes drove the getaway car. His lawyer also vehemently denies there was any racial motivation to the attack.

An anti-fascist website published a photo of Lukes walking next to the leader of the far-right Workers' Party. Another photo showed Vaculik wearing the armband of the Workers' Party, the public face of the Czech far right.

The leader of the now banned Workers' Party, Tomas Vandas, denied any involvement.

"Yes, we may have used those people as organizers of our public meetings but how could we know they would commit a crime?" said Vandas. "I hope Natalka gets better soon," he added.

Miroslav Mares, from Masaryk University in Brno, is the leading academic specialist on Czech extremist groups.

He thinks it's unlikely that the Workers' Party was directly involved in the arson attack, but he says they were responsible "for inflaming anti-Roma sentiment."

"Maybe some youngsters from the neo-Nazi scene said to themselves, 'If the whole population is against Romas we are justified in carrying out such attacks,'" he said.

And surveys do show anti-Roma sentiment is widespread. The European Union EURoma website says Czech Romas endure extremely high unemployment rates, low educational standards, isolation, and the prejudices of the majority population.

"In regions with high unemployment and poor social conditions, the rise of extremism is popular with unemployed young men but we can see more and more women on the neo-Nazi scene," Marek said.

Lucie Slegrova, 20, is a flag-waving militant of the now renamed Workers' Social Justice Party. She denies her party is inspired by Hitler's Nazi ideology.

Instead, she says, they follow their own nationalist ideas. "The Czech Republic should be for people who know how to behave. If the gypsies don't want to follow the rules, they're free to leave," she said.

Only one percent of Czech voters supported the Workers' Social Justice Party in the last elections, but Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer worries that 7 percent of Czech students voted for the far-right party, according to an unofficial nationwide poll.

"A lot of people are frustrated with politicians, and have troubles due to the crisis and recession. My message to them is please think it over and don't believe these very bad prophets," Fischer said.

The far-right movement has made bigger gains in neighboring Hungary where 17 percent of voters chose the Jobbik party in the last elections.

Violence has been much worse as well. In the last two years, nine Roma have been killed in Hungary in unprovoked night-time attacks, according to the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC).

Roma bashing also became an issue in the Slovakian election campaign. The far right Slovak National Party commissioned billboards showing a dark-skinned man with tattoos and an inflammatory message: "Vote SNS so we don't feed those who don't want to work."

In eastern Slovakia many Roma live in segregated communities like the village of Ostrovany where municipal authorities spent some $16,000 to build a wall separating the Roma from their white neighbors, because of fears of "alleged Roma crime," said Stanislav Daniel from ERRC.

"To me the wall is a symbol of segregation because public finances were used to target a stereotype, not what's real," Daniel said.

The wall separates a tidy town from a rural slum. Roma, living right next to the wall, have no sewage or garbage collection and there's just one tap with drinking water for dozens of families.

Back in the Czech Republic, Natalka's father, Pavel Kudrik, has chosen to stay in the region and rebuild a comfortable home for his wife and four daughters.

After police asserted that Natalka's family were victims of a racist attack, many Czechs opened their wallets and their hearts.

Prime Minister Fischer's wife and son spearheaded a nationwide campaign to help them -- a move that led to the Fischer family having full-time police protection after they received anonymous death threats.

But the current climate is not the only reason Fischer wants to clamp down on right wing extremism.

Everyone in his family died in the Holocaust except for his father and grandmother. "Sixty-five years after WWII, the societal memory is getting weak," he said.

And Roma activists complain that recognition of their sacrifices under the Nazis has never been properly acknowledged.

Half-a-million Roma perished in what they call the "Devouring" -- Hitler's campaign to eliminate them as a people.

Last May, several hundred Czech Roma gathered at a memorial for the victims of the Lety concentration camp. Hundreds of Czech Roma children died there and are buried nearby in a mass grave.

Jan Vrba is one of the camp's last survivors. He was born there. His sister perished there.

"What happened in Vitkov made me cry", said Jan. "Little Natalka reminded me of my sister who died in this camp."

--
Here is a video report about the attack.



CNN

Neo-Nazis sentenced to 4 and a half years jail at Liverpool Crown Court (uk)

Two Neo-Nazis have been sentenced to a total of four-and-a-half years behind bars by a judge at Liverpool Crown Court, for inciting racial hatred.

Food packer Michael Heaton, 42, was handed a 30-month jail term for "using threatening and abusive language likely to stir up racial hatred".

His co-defendant Trevor Hannington, 58, was sentenced to two years after admitting six offences and being found guilty by a jury of the same offence as Heaton.

Passing sentence Judge Stephen Irwin QC said: "You clearly intended to stir-up racial hatred on behalf of the organisation

"In my judgement you saw yourself as the leader of a potentially significant National Socialist Group. You wanted to start a race war. You were clearly filled with racial hatred and you have certainly given that impression in court.

"This offence is so serious and your character is so distorted by racial hatred that only a significant sentence will suffice."

The judge told Hannington: "You are a long-standing racist and you have never hidden those views. You are a lonely man with little in your life.

"You lived in a shambles. You habitually told lies in an attempt to gain status but it is clear that you are largely a fantasist."

In a 12-day trial the court had earlier heard that Heaton idolised Nazi warlord Rudolf Hess and kept piles of memorabilia including swaztikas and a fearsome armoury of weapons.

Heaton was convicted on four counts of "using threatening and abusive language likely to stir up racial hatred".

At an earlier hearing, Hannington, admitted six further counts of using threatening and abusive language, and possessing notorious terrorism handbooks "The Anarchists Cookbook" and "The Complete Improvise Kitchen".

The jury heard that both Hannington and Heaton published a string of vile messages on the Aryan Strike Force website, which the pair operated together, between January and June 2008.

Hannington, of Hirwaun, South Wales, described as a lonely "Walter Mitty" character, also admitted posting instructions for making a home made flame-thrower on the site operated from his home.

Heaton was found not guilty on two counts of "soliciting to murder". Hannington was also found not guilty of "soliciting to murder".
Hannington's hate-filled postings include messages which read: "Kill the Jew, Kill the Jew, Burn the synagogues, and Burn the Scum".

Heaton wrote, "Jews will always be scum, and must be destroyed, I would encourage any race who wants to destroy the Jews, I hate them with a passion."

The court was also told of Heaton's connections with other convicted neo-nazi extremists, including Mark Atkinson, who was jailed for five years in 2005 for publishing racial hatred in a right-wing magazine called Stormer.

Heaton's relationship with another activist, named only as Maroney, was also described. Maroney is currently serving a life sentence after "fire-bombing" the home of a Yemeni neighbour, before firing a crossbow wildly down the street, and for sexually assaulting his girlfriend.

The court heard that Heaton, who describes himself as "slightly National Socialist", had expressed his anger at Maroney's conviction on the ASF website, writing: "Life, for singeing a Paki's grass!"

The court heard that Michael Heaton had made more than 3,000 obscene and inflammatory postings on the website under a string of pseudonyms while his co defendant operated under the aliases of Fist and Lee88.

During a search of Heaton's home, in Greater Manchester, detectives unearthed large quantities of Nazi and Hitler-related material, and a vast array of weapons.

A copy of the Nazi dictator's book, Mein Kampf, was also available to users of the website.

But in interview Heaton confessed that the man he really he idolised Hitler's upper-class henchman Rudolf Hess.
Throughout the trial, jurors were shown evidence of the pair's neo-nazi activities, including a series of videos designed for the training of extremists and activists which featured Mr Heaton violently attacking another man, in a demonstration of strength and aggression.

Further images showed 6 ft 2 inch Heaton at a Neo-Nazi demonstration in Manchester where he was seen making the Nazi salute.

Judge Irwin QC ordered the destruction of a cache of lethal weapons including knuckledusters, flick knives, and and scythes found at Heaton's home in Greater Manchester.

Click Liverpool

SPAIN'S SENATE VOTES TO BAN BURQA

In a significant escalation of Spain’s debate over how to handle radical Islam, the Senate on Wednesday  narrowly and unexpectedly approved a motion to ban Muslim women from wearing in public the burqa or other garments that cover the whole body. The vote, 131 to 129, was another setback for the Socialist government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which had favored more-limited restrictions on Islamic clothing and has instead been pushing to curtail religious fundamentalism through better education. The Spanish vote comes amid several national initiatives across Europe to restrict the spread of radical Islam and defend liberal values. In Belgium, the lower house of Parliament has already approved a measure that, if unamended by the upper house, would make it a crime to wear in public “clothing that hides the face.” France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe, has also been inching toward such a ban on the burqa. The measure has the backing of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who recently condemned the garment as “a sign of subservience” rather than one of religion. In Switzerland last year, a referendum banned the construction of minarets. While national politicians may be urging a clampdown on the burqa, such moves are still expected to run into legal obstacles. In March, France’s top administrative body, the Council of State, warned the government that a full ban would be unconstitutional. A commission of the Council of Europe, the European institution dealing with human rights issues, also recently warned governments against imposing a complete ban that would violate women’s individual rights.

Before the Spanish Senate’s vote, some of the country’s local authorities had already moved to introduce restrictions on the burqa. The issue was especially heated in the region of Catalonia, where the debate over Islam and immigration has become entangled in early campaigning ahead of regional elections later this year. The pending elections may have proved crucial in the Wednesday vote, as senators from the CiU, a Catalan party, surprisingly switched their earlier stance to vote in favor of a burqa ban. The motion adopted by the senators calls on Spain to outlaw “any usage, custom or discriminatory practice that limits the freedom of women.” It was drafted and led by politicians from the main center-right opposition People's Party. Justifying the vote, one of the senators from the CiU, Montserrat Candini, said that “we cannot tolerate that nobody understands that we are not in favor of banning the burqa.” The Senate’s position also came as a surprise because although Spain has become a major European entry point for Muslim migrants from North Africa, few of those immigrants wear either the burqa or the niqab, which does not cover the eyes. A similar argument has also been made by opponents of a burqa ban in countries like France, where only an estimated 100,000 women wear the burqa out of a Muslim population of about 5 million. France, however, already passed a law in 2004 to ban head scarves or any other “conspicuous” religious symbol from state schools in order to preserve their secularism. The Spanish government is supposed to follow the Senate’s motion. However, given that Socialist senators opposed the ban, the governing party is likely to seek ways to circumvent the vote. Anna Terrón, the secretary of state for immigration, said the Senate vote had “more to do with the election campaign in which the CiU is involved than with a real discussion” on the burqa.

NYTimes

TWO EXTREMISTS CHARGED, NEO-NAZI IDEOLOGUE FILIP VÁVRA ALLEGEDLY ONE OF THEM (Czech Rep.)

The Nova television channel and its online news server tn.cz report that police have charged two men with promoting extremism, one of whom is allegedly Filip Vávra. Previous media investigations have fingered Vávra as being behind the creation of the neo-Nazi National Resistance group and connected to the international neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honor in the past. Nova reports that police have charged Vávra with the crime of inciting hatred or suppression of the human rights and freedoms of a particular group. The charges are allegedly related to the distribution of materials with neo-Nazi subject matter. Police are refusing to reveal any further information about the case. Pavel Hanták, spokesperson for the Organized Crime Detection Unit (Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zloèinu - ÚOOZ) only made a general statement to the television channel that police had charged two men. "Two more people have been charged as part of the Lott case, both men,” Hanták told iDNES.cz, adding that a significant advance in the case occurred about a month ago. Nova reported that police have been following Vávra for some time. He has declined to comment.

Vávra was behind an invitation extended last year to former Ku-Klux-Klan leader David Duke, whose visit to the Czech Republic ended in his detention and deportation. Police charged him with denying the Holocaust in his book “My Awakening”, which has come out in Czech translation. His prosecution was later halted. Over the past two years, police have focused greater attention on promoters of extremism. The Security Information Service (Bezpeènostní informaèní služba – BIS), the country’s civilian counter-intelligence agency, reported at the start of May that right-wing extremist activity fell in the Czech Republic during the first three months of 2010. BIS says developments on the neo-Nazi scene were particularly influenced by last year’s police raids against members of the scene and the trial of the Workers’ Party (Dìlnická strana - DS) which ended in the party’s ban. The right-wing radical scene is currently the least united and most fragmented it has ever been. According to a Czech Interior Ministry report on the issue of extremism in 2009, the number of people charged in relation to extremism last year rose by half the number charged in 2008. The incidence of extremist crime rose by more than one-fifth, but such crimes still comprise only 0.07 % of crime overall. The report said the April arson attack on the home of a Romani family in Vítkov was the most serious extremist crime of last year.

Romea

CROATIAN LEADERS SLAM USE OF FASCIST SYMBOLS

Croatia's top officials on Wednesday slammed the use of fascist symbols at a concert aimed at raising funds for the defence of the country's generals tried for war crimes committed during the 1991-1995 war. President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor in a joint statement "most strongly condemn the use of fascist symbols" during the concert held last Sunday in the central coastal town of Split "with the alleged aim to support Croatian generals and their defence before the UN war crimes court in The Hague". The two also called on HRT national television which broadcast the concert, to "act responsibly and urgently and adopt measures that would enable it in the future to immediately halt programmes in the case of a glorification of totalitarian ideologies".

 Josipovic, the supreme commander of the country's armed forces, launched a probe into the participation of active military personnel in the concert, the statement said. Among the dozen singers who took part in the concert that was attended by thousands of people figured Marko Perkovic Thompson, a controversial singer known for his sympathies with the country's World War II pro-Nazi regime. His fans often display symbols of the Ustasha regime and use the Nazi salute. The concert was held to raise money for the defence of three former generals tried before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The three -- Ivan Cermak, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac -- have been charged with war crimes against ethnic Serbs. Many Croatians see them as national heroes. Croatia's proclamation of independence from the former Yugoslavia sparked the 1991-1995 war with Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs who opposed the decision.

AFP