Our intention is to inform people of racist, homophobic, religious extreme hate speech perpetrators across social networking internet sites. And we also aim to be a focal point for people to access information and resources to report such perpetrators to appropriate web sites, governmental departments and law enforcement agencies around the world.
We will also post relevant news worthy items and information on Human rights issues, racism, extremist individuals and groups and far right political parties from around the world although predominantly Britain.
A bill honoring the life of the woman who hid Anne Frank's family and salvaged her diary is winding its way through the U.S. House of Representatives.
The non-binding resolution seeking to honor the life of Miep Gies is sponsored by Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio) and has 60 co-sponsors.
Gies helped to hide the Frank family from 1942 until they were turned in by an unknown informant in August 1944. Gies discovered the diary pages of Anne Frank and saved them in her desk for Anne's return. When Anne's death in Bergen-Belsen was confirmed, Gies turned the documents over to Anne's father, Otto.
The bill commends Gies, who died on Jan. 11, just shy of her 101st birthday, “for her bravery during Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and her dedication to preserving the memory of Anne Frank and the Holocaust.” JTA
A teacher accused of expressing religious intolerance on the internet will answer a misconduct charge today.
Technology teacher Adam Walker, a member of the British National Party, is due to appear at a General Teaching Council committee hearing in Birmingham today.
Mr Walker, from Spennymoor, County Durham, is alleged to have demonstrated views suggestive of racial and religious intolerance while using a school laptop.
The allegation, brought against him by the GTC, states that he engaged in unacceptable professional conduct while employed at Houghton Kepier Sports College in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, between February and March 2007.
Jury selection and opening statements are scheduled to begin yesterday in the second federal trial of hate blogger and former FBI informant Hal Turner.
Turner’s first trial ended in a mistrial on Dec. 7, with jurors leaning 9-3 in favor of acquittal. He is charged with threatening to assault and murder three federal judges in Chicago. Turner stated in blog entries that they “deserve to be killed” and posted their exact work locations.
Meanwhile, documents filed in federal court last month provide more details about Turner’s past role as a paid FBI informant. His traveling companion during his FBI-financed trip to Brazil was longtime National Alliance member Tripp Henderson of New Jersey, who in a posting to a National Alliance E-group once urged lone wolves to start a race war by shooting undocumented immigrants. On Jan. 31, 2005, Turner and Henderson left for the 10-day excursion to Sao Paulo to woo potential supporters willing to donate between $500,000 and $1 million to the National Alliance. Turner was then able to provide information to the FBI on 12 white supremacists from multiple countries, according to the documents. During the six-week period following the trip, Turner — whose FBI code name was “Valhalla” — received a $3,000 advance payment, in addition to $2,000 he’d already been paid during that fiscal year.
Turner’s intelligence also led to the conviction of James Mazzone (also known as James McManus), who was sentenced to 10 years in state prison for narcotics sales, according to the documents. Mazzone, an Aryan Nations leader, was listed on the group’s website as the New Jersey contact for the neo-Nazi organization.
Turner’s history as an FBI informant figured prominently in his first trial, with the defense arguing that the FBI had not prosecuted Turner when he made similar statements against public officials while an informant. (The FBI severed its relationship with Turner in August 2007, nearly two years before he published the comments for which he was charged.) As it did during the first trial, the government asked that Turner’s defense not be allowed to refer to his work as an FBI informant, calling it “an irrelevant sideshow designed to distract and confuse the jury.” U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter, who also presided over Turner’s first trial, denied the request on Feb. 19, along with the defense’s motion to bar testimony from the alleged targets of Turner’s threats: Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer. Prosecutors opted not to put the judges on the stand during Turner’s first trial, but plan to do so this time. In interviews with the FBI filed in court, all three judges said they regarded Turner’s blog posts as threats, but did not change their routines or seek additional personal security because of them.
The government is expected to begin making its case Today in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, which was also the location of Turner’s first trial. The three judges will be the government’s first witnesses, according to court documents.
Posted in Extremist Crime by Sonia Scherr on March 1, 2010 SPLCenter
Members of the far-right Scottish Defence League want to hold a rally in the town, but a counter movement today called for the event to be cancelled
A Scottish anti-fascism movement says far-right protesters should be stopped from demonstrating at Lockerbie.
The Scottish Defence League (SDL) unveiled plans to hold a "respect vigil" at the town's memorial to the 270 people who died when Pan Am flight 103 was blown up over Dumfriesshire.
The group, which says it is against the "Islamification" of Britain, also wants to use the event as a protest against Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who was branded a "traitor" over his decision to release Libyan bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
On Monday, Scotland United released a statement saying the SDL and its sister organisation, the English Defence League, should not be allowed to demonstrate in Lockerbie. The group is backed by all of Scotland's mainstream political parties, as well as trade unionists, charities and faith groups.
In a statement, undersigned by supporters, Scotland United said: "We strongly oppose plans by the Scottish Defence League and English Defence League to demonstrate in Lockerbie. The SDL is a racist group whose aim is to divide us by making scapegoats of one community, just as the Nazis did with the Jews in the 1930s.
"Whatever one's personal or political views on the release of Mr Megrahi, we believe that such a march is totally inappropriate and a cheap publicity stunt. Any attempt to use Lockerbie would cause further distress and suffering to those who have lost loved ones and would be abhorrent.
"We have a simple message for these racist and fascist groups. There is no place for your organisation in Lockerbie or in Scotland, and we condemn any organisation that wishes to capitalise on the murder of 270 innocent men and women. We call on the SDL and all other groups to cancel their action and stay out of Lockerbie."
Dumfries MSP Elaine Murray has also lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament, blasting the SDL and EDL's plans as "deplorable" and calling for the march to be called off.
The Scottish Defence League denies it is a racist or violent organisation. In the limited public content on the group's Facebook site, it states: "This group is for people that can join us to protest the Muslim extremists that support terror in our land and burn our national flag."
The group has worked to keep details of planned actions more secret, since police prevented some members entering Edinburgh for a planned march last month.
In an effort to heighten awareness about the contributions made by foreign workers to the Italian economy, the promoters of the first strike by immigrants in the country invited workers to stay home and to boycott shopping for one day.
Similar protests took place in other European countries on Monday (the initiative started in France and found supporters in Spain and Greece, as well). A comparable boycott, “A Day Without Immigrants,” championing full rights for immigrants living in the United States, took place in 2006.
But demonstrations Monday had a particular resonance in Italy, where anti-immigrant rhetoric has increased recently in anticipation of regional elections at the end of the month, and where foreign labor makes up nearly 10 percent of the work force.
While introducing one electoral initiative last week, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi accused the left of “wanting an invasion of immigrants,” only to strengthen the opposition’s electoral basis.
Around Milan, electoral posters for the anti-immigrant Northern League party depicted a Native American Indian chieftain with the slogan: “They put up with immigration, now they live on reserves.”
But various studies suggest that immigrant labor has become a fundamental component of the Italian economy.
“Many Italians are convinced that immigrants are a burden, but in fact they have a very positive effect on our welfare system,” said Maurizio Ambrosini, a professor of the sociology of migration at the University of Milan, pointing out that Italian families have become increasingly dependant on foreign caregivers to look after their children and elderly parents. The construction industry, too, is heavily dependant on foreigners, particularly from East European countries, he added. “If anything, Italy constantly needs new waves of immigrants,” he said.
Statistics published last autumn by the Catholic Caritas Migrants foundation suggested that the 4.5 million legal immigrants in Italy (about 7.2 percent of the population) contribute about 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, often in jobs snubbed by Italians.
In its most recent annual report, issued last May, the Bank of Italy estimated that in 2006 foreigners “contributed about 4 percent to revenue from personal income tax, V.A.T. and excise duties, social security contributions, and the regional tax on productive activities.” More specifically, foreign residents contributed “around €4.5 billion in personal income tax and just under €10 billion in social security contributions, equivalent to 3 and 5 percent respectively of revenue from these two items,” according to the bank’s report, which also found that “the increase in the supply of labor resulting from immigration does not seem, on average, to have had negative effects on the wages or job prospects of the native population.”
“Immigrants come here to work, they’re funding our pensions, it makes sense to integrate them,” said Ciro Piscelli, a left-leaning municipal councilman for the town of Rozzano, in the Milanese hinterland. He was one of several hundred people who met in front of Milan City Hall on Monday morning in support of the strike. Like many other southern Italians, Mr. Piscelli emigrated to Lombardy from his native Naples in the 1970s, so he said he “spoke from experience.” Immigrants, he said, “are a resource.”
But such considerations seem to take a back seat whenever trouble involving immigrants arises. Calls to toughen up immigration policies multiplied last month, after rioting between immigrant groups disrupted a Milanese neighborhood last month.
And studies suggest that racist sentiments are rising in Italy, especially among the young. Research commissioned by the national and regional governments and presented to the lower house last month found that nearly half of Italians between the ages 18 and 29 express varying degrees of xenophobic or racist sentiments. “Young people themselves say that they perceive racism as increasing,” said Enzo Risso, the director of the SWG research institute that carried out the survey.
Jorge Carazas, one of the speakers at the rally Monday, came to Italy from Argentina 10 years ago. “We are the country’s new citizens and we want to send politicians a clear message,” he said. “No matter what racist tones the government chooses to adopt, we’re not going anywhere. This is our home.”
An influential Muslim scholar is to issue in London a global ruling against terrorism and suicide bombing.
Dr Tahir ul-Qadri, from Pakistan, says his 600-page judgement, known as a fatwa, completely dismantles al-Qaeda's violent ideology.
The scholar describes al-Qaeda as an "old evil with a new name" which has not been sufficiently challenged.
The scholar's movement is growing in the UK and has attracted the interest of policymakers and security chiefs.
In his religious ruling, Dr Qadri says that Islam forbids the massacre of innocent citizens and suicide bombings.
Although many scholars have made similar rulings in the past, Dr Qadri's followers argue that the massive document being launched in London goes much further.
They say it sets out point-by-point theological arguments against the rhetoric used by al-Qaeda inspired recruiters.
The fatwa also challenges the religious motivations of would-be suicide bombers who are inspired by promises of an afterlife.
The populist scholar developed his document last year as a response to the increase in bombings across Pakistan by militants.
The basic text has been extended to 600 pages to cover global issues, in an attempt to get its theological arguments taken up by Muslims in western nations. It will be promoted in the UK by Dr Qadri's organisation, Minhaj ul-Quran International.
Shahid Mursaleen, spokesman for Minhaj-ul-Quran in the UK, said the fatwa was hard-hitting.
"This fatwa injects doubt into the minds of potential suicide bombers," he said.
"Extremist groups based in Britain recruit the youth by brainwashing them that they will 'with certainty' be rewarded in the next life.
"Dr Qadri's fatwa has removed this key intellectual factor from their minds."
Religious rulings
The document is not the first to condemn terrorism and suicide bombing to be launched in the UK.
Scholars from across the UK came together in the wake of the 7 July London attacks to denounce the bombers and urge communities to root out extremists.
But some scholarly rulings in the Middle East have argued that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is an exceptional situation where "martyrdom" attacks can be justified.
Although Dr Qadri has a large following in Pakistan, Minhaj ul-Quran International remained largely unknown in the UK until relatively recently.
It now has 10 mosques in the British cities with significant Muslim communities and says it is targeting younger generations it believes have been let down by traditional leaders.
The organisation is attracting the attention of policymakers and security chiefs who are continuing to look for allies in the fight against extremists.
The Department for Communities, which runs most of the government's "Preventing Violent Extremism" strategy, has tried building bridges with a variety of liberal-minded groups, but often found that they have limited actual influence at the grassroots. BBC News
