Twisted BNP cashing in on hero's funeral

Grieving Jessica Deans has blasted the BNP for using a photo of her fiancé's coffin to plug their hateful policies.

The picture - taken at the funeral of marine Liam Elms - appears in an online video to drum up election support for the far-right party.

But Jessica branded it an outrage - and his family insist the fallen hero would have raged against the BNP's loathsome views.

Corporal Liam, 26, was killed by a roadside bomb while battling the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Jessica, a 22-year-old nurse, said: "I find it an outrage that an image of Liam's coffin on the day of his funeral is being used as propaganda for the BNP's personal gain."
And Liam's father Michael, 51, said: "We haven't give our permission for them to use any coverage of Liam's funeral on this video.
"It's out of order that the picture has been put in the public domain and for the BNP to use it for political gain is not on.
" It feels like an easy way for the BNP to get people involved in their party and to make money."
The video has been watched thousands of times since it was put on the BNP website and YouTube last week.
Party leader Nick Griffin shamelessly uses it in a plea for cash to bolster his election fund.
The photo shows Liam's coffin - draped in a Union Flag - being carried by three comrades.
Griffin, who was filmed in front of a portrait of Winston Churchill, describes the Afghan conflict as "a ludicrous no-win war" and pledges to end British involvement.
And as Liam's coffin flashes on screen, he says: "We need our coffers filled so we can afford to fight every single seat we should be fighting up and down the country."
But Liam's dad - who also served in the forces - said: "I'm angry with the BNP because what they are saying is the complete opposite of what Liam wanted.
"Liam's last words to me were, 'I'm where I want to be, doing what I want to do with the people I want to be with. Don't worry'."
Michael added: "Any party that says the troops should be brought out without any power being in place to look after local Afghans is going against what our boys are fighting for."
Liam died on New Year's Eve 2008 on patrol in Helmand with 45 Commando and Afghan troops. The photo used by the BNP was taken at his funeral last January - when he was hailed a "true patriot".
Hundreds of mourners packed St Joseph's church in his home town of Wrightington, Lancs, and more than 150 had to wait outside.
Liam's mum Maureen, 52, said: "I would love all the soldiers in Afghanistan to come home safe.
"But they have chosen to do a job out there and they will stay until the Afghans are safe."
Liam's family are asking people who want to help British troops to support legitimate charities such as Help For Heroes, the Royal Marine Benevolent Fund and the British Legion - not the BNP.
His sister Rachael, 28, has raised £20,000 for Help For Heroes by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
And she plans to raise more in a 900-mile London-Geneva bike ride - www.justgiving.com/rachael-elms - this year.
The BNP tried to play down the row over Liam's coffin.
An official said: "The picture was intended to be representative of a problem we're trying to give our view on - it is not homing in on an individual.
"No offence was intended to the family."
We have made a donation to the British Legion at the Elms' request for their interviews.
The People

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Asking Sites To Screen For Sexual Predators (USA)

Many teens spend hours on the computer. Facebook, for some, has become a way of life.

"I do use it a lot, because it is a good thing to keep in contact with my sister, who is in college," said Tenn Amanda Wojcinski.
"There are people on it everyday, all day, updating statuses. Every third second sometimes," said student Mark Arnone.

According to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Facebook, MySpace, and more than a dozen other sites have taken advantage of information that has come to New York State through a law called Estop. It requires sex offenders to register their email addressees and internet accounts with the state. The state has turned over that information to those social networking sites, and sex offenders are removed from the sites. To give you an idea, to date, 160 in Erie County, and 75 in Niagara County. The Attorney General is also stressing the importance of being careful online, knowing it is out there.
"I have two high school students at home, two young ladies happen to be my daughters, and they say when I start to talk about this, we know dad, we know. People came into school and talked about it, we know. It is worse than you think," said Cuomo.
Now Cuomo is calling on other other kids websites to do the same thing. Screen their users for sex offenders, because they have already found more than 4000 sex offenders accounts from using EStop information. The Attorney General is also again stressing to students to be very careful.
"Beware. Yes you have to be cynical. Yes you have to be a little skeptical. The people who are out there are very good at coming up with identities, and getting information, making believe they are someone they are not," said Cuomo.
And for the kids who are online a lot, they got Cuomo's message about being careful loud and clear.
"Definitely watch out who I accept as a friend. Who is chatting me. Definitely stuff like that," Arnone added.

WKBW

BERLINERS FIGHT ANTI-SEMITISM AMONG MUSLIMS(Germany)

Yasmin Kassar is one of the many activists in Berlin who find anti-Jewish sentiments among young Muslims intolerable. For a year and a half now, the Syrian-German woman has been working to change people's attitudes in Kreuzberg, a neighborhood with a large Muslim population. "You can see that whenever the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gets worse - like when we had the Gaza conflict towards the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 - anti-Semitic views are articulated here more often by residents with a Muslim background," Kassar told Deutsche Welle. But instead of criticizing the particular aspects of the Israeli government's policies, it's often Jews in general who become the target of verbal - and in rare cases physical - attacks in Berlin. At the Kreuzberg Initiative Against Anti-Semitism (KIGA), Yasmin helps to develop programs and concepts to enable multi-ethnic schools to tackle anti-Jewish sentiments with sound arguments. There's a lot of work to be done. According to a recent study conducted by the Emnid polling institute among young Turks living in Germany, a minority has taken a real interest in learning more about Jews, their contributions to German society and what they had to endure in Nazi Germany.

Invisible targets

The leader of Germany's opposition Green party, Cem Oezdemir, who has Turkish roots himself, calls it a form of "anti-Semitism without Jews. "These young Muslims are often people who don't know any Jews in person," Oezdemir said. "Their radical views stem from an over-identification with the Middle East conflict, from parents who are willing to employ all the well-known Jew-related cliches, and from schools that don't know how to tackle the problem in classes full of students with migrant backgrounds." The Berlin project Anti-Semitism in the Context of Migration and Racism (AMIRA) has been tackling the problem since 2007. The organization's Gabriel Freville says he and his colleagues aim to provide social workers on the ground with viable programs and arguments for their discussions with young Muslims about Jewish life in the city and anti-Semitism. "It's a question of attitude, of how you approach the youngsters," says Freville. "If somebody says 'I hate Jews' it's important not to start moralizing, telling him that he's a bad guy. Instead, you have to try to understand his reasoning and look into the problems behind it."

Knowledge gaps

The Emnid survey found that almost 70 percent of those polled knew nothing or almost nothing about the Holocaust. Seventy-five percent said they had never been to a concentration camp memorial site in Germany, let alone a Jewish museum. Ufuk Topkara is trying to change that. The historian, who also has Turkish roots, shows young Muslims around Berlin's Jewish Museum. "While they're here in the museum, young Muslims start questioning everything they've ever heard about Jews before. You can see this in their faces," Topkara told Deutsche Welle. "Only, I very much doubt whether this has a lasting effect when the kids are back in their normal environment," he added. Others say too much fuss is being made about anti-Semitism within Germany's Muslim communities. While admitting that anti-Jewish sentiments can certainly be found there, Kenan Kolat, chairman of the secular Turkish Community in Germany, says this phenomenon should be placed in a wider context. "There never was a Holocaust, they say. The Jews capitalized on the 9/11 aftermath, they say. All Jews are rich - you can find all these prejudices among some Muslims here and it is just a reflection of what you find in society here at large," Kolat told public broadcaster ARD.

DW