RACISM ON THE RISE IN BRITAIN

Racist attacks are on the rise in Britain, where both politicians and the tabloid media routinely disparage Roma gypsies, Muslims and migrants, a European rights watchdog charged on Tuesday. Race-linked offences in England and Wales jumped from 31 000 in 2003 to more than 38 000 five years on, according to a report from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) based on British government figures. More than 13 000 race or discrimination cases were successfully prosecuted in 2007-2008, against 8 800 for the previous two years, said the commission, which is part of the pan-European Council of Europe rights body. Asylum-seekers were often vulnerable to hasty decisions to reject their claims, unnecessary detention and intense public hostility, the report said. "Together with Muslims, migrants, Gypsies, they are regularly presented in a negative light both in political discourse and in the media, especially the tabloid press," it added.

Roma faced "some of the most severe levels of hostility and prejudice" in modern Britain. But stop and search practices ordered under new anti-terror laws also "disproportionately" affected blacks, Muslims and other minority groups, ECRI said, urging Britain to boost the share of minorities in the force. Anti-Semitic incidents were also on the rise, as was the number of anti-Semitic comments in leading British media. The watchdog acknowledged British authorities had toughened the legal framework for fighting racism and discrimination, and were working to promote racial equality in jobs and education, with school results already improving. But overall, the ECRI report said "the tone of public debate continues to include some elements of racist and xenophobic discourse". Britain was not alone in being criticised by the Council of Europe for its treatment of Roma gypsies. 

Roma also faced severe forms of discrimination in Estonia, where their children were systematically placed in schools for the disabled, despite having no handicap. In a report on racism in Estonia, also released on Tuesday, ECRI slammed the country for failing to punish discrimination based on nationality, race, colour or religion unless it endangers a person's life or property. Similarly, in a report on Albania, it criticised the country for failing to adopt laws to tackle discrimination against minorities, especially impoverished Roma and Egyptian Albanians who are currently denied the vote. Austria, by contrast, has adopted laws to combat discrimination but they are rarely applied, with blacks and Muslims most exposed to discrimination but Jews also facing persistent anti-Semitism, ECRI said. Employers in Austria can choose to sack foreign workers first, housing ads can discriminate against minorities, and minority children are left to fall by the wayside at school, ECRI wrote in a country report. Like in Britain, ECRI accused some politicians and media of whipping up hostility towards asylum-seekers. On a plus note, ECRI said Austria had made headway in recent years on improving the plight of Roma gypsies.

GOVERNMENT ISSUES NEW HANDBOOK TO COMBAT HOMOPHOBIA IN CZECH SCHOOLS

The Czech government is distributing a new handbook to primary and secondary school teachers called “Homophobia in Schools” – aimed at raising awareness of homosexuality and the problem of bullying based on sexual orientation. The government council behind the handbook says it wants teachers to be better able to recognise homophobia – and to do something about it. Children in schools everywhere call each names in the playground, and often that juvenile name-calling is of a sexual nature; boys and girls will often taunt each other with names such as “poof” or “homo” and so on. For most people it’s a normal part of adolescence, but some believe it should be clearly put into context by teachers, in an effort to create greater tolerance of homosexuality in later life. Lucie Otáhalová, head of the secretariat of the government council for human rights:

“Of course young people laugh at different things, not only at gays and lesbians – that’s part of the youth culture, but I think the role of schools and teachers should be to talk about this, to talk about homosexuality, to discuss it with students and show them that this is not correct. So that’s basically the purpose of the handbook – we want to give the handbook to these teachers, so they know what is homophobia, what types of students are the perpetrators, what types of students are the victims, and how to solve the problem.”

Lucie says the decision to publish the handbook was partly motivated by surveys showing that up to 75% of male pupils in the Czech Republic had negative attitudes towards gays and lesbians. But here at the Londýnská primary school in Prague, I discovered far more tolerant views:

“We sometimes say – you are gay – but we don’t really mean it in the real meaning. I don’t know any, but I think they are a little bit funny, but they are only people so I don’t know why to discriminate against them.” “I tolerate this orientation, and the people, in the community, and I saw a lot of films about this theme. I like these people! They’re only people, and I don’t have a problem with them.”
The deputy head of the Londýnská school, Václav Nádvorník, strongly agrees that schools should accept homosexuality as a fact of life, and says the booklet is undoubtedly a good thing. However he believes it’ll just end up filed away with all the other publications schools like his receive from the government each year:

“There are gays and lesbians in the classroom, it’s true. In Moravia, Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, everywhere. They’re everywhere. But the way how children are educated about them and how they are respected is different, and it’s according to the personality of the teacher. Government can do nothing. As I said, it’s according to the teacher. If the teacher wants to accept it, it’s possible. If they don’t, it’s impossible.”
The Londýnská school is a progressive, cosmopolitan school in urban Prague, known for embracing diversity; attitudes to homosexuality elsewhere in the country, such as in the Catholic heartland of South Moravia, may be quite different. How children view homosexuality and how schools respond to homophobic behaviour depends largely on the attitudes of their teachers and parents, who - of course - simply reflect the values of their community.

Radio Prague

COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S ANTI-RACISM COMMISSION PUBLISHES NEW REPORT ON AUSTRIA

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) today published its fourth report on Austria which deals with racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance in this country. ECRI’s Chair, Nils Muiznieks, said that while there has been progress in certain areas, the prevalence of racist discourse, the disadvantaged position of non Austrian children in education and the lack of a comprehensive integration policy remain sources of concern. As regards positive developments, Austrian anti-discrimination legislation has been strengthened thanks to the adoption of Equal Treatment Acts in each of the nine Länder. Some of these offer broader protection against discrimination than at federal level and provide access to newly created or reinforced specialised bodies. The authorities have pursued their efforts to provide the police and the judiciary with training on criminal legislation against racism and xenophobia. Steps have been taken to recruit police officers with an immigrant background, which is encouraging. Measures have been adopted at local level to facilitate immigrants’ integration. German language support has been provided to children with an immigrant background. In addition, access to employment has been facilitated for persons arriving in Austria for the purpose of family reunification. At the same time, racism in public discourse remains a worrying issue, in the absence of an adequate response by the authorities. Far-right political parties have openly exploited prejudice against minorities, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, Jews and Muslims and their statements have not been always condemned by mainstream political parties in a sufficiently strong manner. In addition, some media have contributed to creating an atmosphere of hostility against members of minority groups and asylum seekers. At present, Austria does not have an effective press self-regulatory body, the Press Council having stopped functioning since 2002.


Non-Austrian children still find themselves in a disadvantaged position in the education system and their over-representation in schools for pupils with special needs is a problem. There continue to be major disparities between citizens and non-citizens in the field of labour. Discriminatory practices in the field of housing and employment, for example advertisements, are still common and have not been adequately addressed. There is still no comprehensive integration policy at federal level and the obligation to fulfil an “integration contract” in order to obtain a residence permit is too coercive and does not include enough incentives to promote integration. Austria’s family reunification policy is on the whole too restrictive and the quota system for family reunification inappropriate. Although it is well-developed, Austrian legislation in the field of discrimination remains highly fragmented and complex; this undermines its effectiveness. The Commission for Equal Treatment and the Ombudspersons for Equal Treatment lack the structural independence required to command full public confidence. The same is true for the Bureau for Internal Affairs which deals, among other matters, with allegations of ill-treatment by the police. In its report, ECRI has made a number of recommendations, three of which require priority implementation and will be revisited by ECRI in two years’ time:


* Provide the Ombudspersons for Equal Treatment with sufficient financial and human resources, the guarantees that make them fully independent and the power to apply to the courts;
* Promote, without encroaching on the principle of media independence, the reestablishment of a regulatory mechanism for the press that would ensure respect of ethical standards;
* Improve the response to allegations of racist or racially discriminatory behaviour by the police, by measures such as establishing an independent body with powers to investigate individual complaints.
Council of europe

The English Defence League show how they are fighting for Christianity.

The EDL state that they against the Islamifacation of the UK and are defending Christianity and Christian values for the British People.
So while they were expressing support for Geert Wilders and defending these so called Christian values in London they showed their respect for Christianity.

By pissing on a church.   
 (Westminster Abbey)

EDL Founding Member admits EDL now controlled by BNP activist.

As many will know the English Defence League “EDL” is a Violent football hooligan thugs led anti-Islamic movement and has always maintained that it has nothing to do with the British National Party “BNP”.

And equally the British National Party has stated it has nothing to do with the EDL and it is not in fact it’s current boot boy army.
Yet an interesting video has appeared on You Tube which was made by the EDL’s founding member Paul Ray. It was posted on a You Tube EDL channel by a user called LutonLionheart.
In the video Paul Ray admits that one of the EDL’s main activists is none other than the BNP Gold Member and Activist Chris Renton.
He state’s that Chris Renton is actively involved with two neo-Nazi organisations Combat18 and Stormfront.
He also goes on to state that Chris Renton BNP activist is now the commander in chief of the EDL.
He also states that the EDL now to has serious Neo-Nazi leanings with Chris Renton BNP being at the forefront of that influence.
The video was originally removed by the previous up loader but it has been re-uploaded by a anti-racist activist for others to see.
The You Tube user by the id of CY2290 has many great videos on his channel and are worth a perusal. To go to his channel please click HERE

Roma duped into seeking Swedish asylum

An estimated 1,000 Roma people, primarily from Serbia, have been lured this year alone into travelling to Sweden in the vain hope of securing residence permits, the Swedish Migration Board has said.

Buses filled with Roma people have been pulling into Gothenburg and Malmö on an almost daily basis.

"Travel agencies run by unscrupulous businessmen are tricking already vulnerable people into coming to Sweden," said board director-general Dan Eliasson.
The migration board chief is advising Roma people not to make the long trip to Scandinavia as their chances of being granted residency are "extraordinarily small".
"They probably feel that they are living in difficult social conditions and maybe even that they are discriminated against, but this is not something that gives them the right to protection in Sweden.

"Generally they'll quickly be informed that they can't get a residence permit and they'll have to go home," said Eliasson, who added that the vast majority came to Sweden from Serbia, though some have also made their way north from Montenegro and Macedonia.
The Roma population in Serbia is considerably poorer than the wider population, and sporadic reports have emerged of violations perpetrated against Roma in Serbia, Kosovo and, recently, in Italy.

"But in order to gain asylum you need to be able to show that you are persecuted and risk violent treatment. It is very difficult to receive asylum from Europe," said Eliasson.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg 'hacked into emails of rivals and journalists'

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been accused of hacking into the email accounts of rivals and journalists.

The CEO of the world's most successful social networking website was accused of at least two breaches of privacy in a series of articles run by BusinessInsider.com.

As part of a two-year investigation detailing the founding of Facebook, the magazine uncovered what it claimed was evidence of the hackings in 2004.

In the first instance, it said that, when Zuckerberg discovered that Harvard's student newspaper The Crimson was planning on running an article on him in 2004, he used reporters' Facebook logins to hack into their accounts.

In the second instance, the magazine claimed Zuckerberg hacked into the accounts of rivals at Harvard who accused him of stealing their idea for a social network. He then allegedly tried to sabotage the rival network they had set up.

Business Insider claimed that Zuckerberg learned The Crimson was planning to write an article on him when he was called in for an interview in 2004.

The newspaper was investigating allegations by other Harvard students that Zuckerberg had stolen their social networking idea - allegations that are now well-documented and became the subject of a $65million legal suit.
In 2004, however, Facebook - which now boasts over 400million users around the world and is an incorporated company worth millions - was still just a network confined to Harvard students known as TheFacebook.com.
At the time, Zuckerberg was involved in a now well-publicised dispute with three other Harvard students who had originally asked him to help them create an online social network.
Business Insider chronicles the dispute in detail as part of its main article on the founding of Facebook.

The other Harvard students - Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra - had accused Zuckerberg of intentionallly misleading them about his willingness to help them build their website, HarvardConnection.com.
They had approached the student newspaper, the Crimson, about their accusations.
On hearing their claims, Crimson reporters then spoke to Zuckerberg about the allegations, Business Insider said.

Zuckerberg was apparently able to convince the newspaper that he network he was building differed substantially to HarvardConnection.com, which he viewed primarily as a dating website. The newspaper pulled the story.
However after further claims emerged, Zuckerberg apparently became anxious that the paper would run a story on him after all.
Business Insider claimed he then told a friend how he had hacked into the accounts of Crimson staff.
He allegedly told the friend that he used TheFacebook.com to search for members who said they were Crimson staff.

Then, he allegedly examined a report of failed logins to see if any of the Crimson members had ever entered an incorrect password into TheFacebook.com.
In the instances where they had, Business Insider claimed that Zuckerberg said he tried using those incorrect passwords to access the Crimson members' Harvard email accounts.
In two instances, the magazine claimed, he succeeded - and was able to read emails between Crimson staff discussing the possibility of writing an article on the accusations surrounding him.

'In other words,' Business Insider claimed, 'Mark appears to have used private login data from TheFacebook to hack into the separate email accounts of some TheFacebook users'.

It would not be the only time that Zuckerberg breached privacy, Business Insider claimed.
In a separate article in the series, the magazine alleged that Zuckerberg had also hacked into his rivals at HarvardConnection.com - which, by May of 2004, had been renamed 'ConnectU'.

Although Facebook was already wildly popular by the summer of 2004 - reaching a million users by the fall - Zuckerberg, the magazine claimed, was still concerned about his competition.
Those concerns, it was alleged, led him to hack in to ConnectU's site and make changes to multiple user profiles - including one of its founders and the fellow student accusing him of stealing the ideas for Facebook, Cameron Winklevoss
Business Insider alleged that Zuckerberg created a fake account filled with fake information for Winklevoss.

It also alleged that he logged into the accounts of some ConnectU users and changed their privacy settings to invisible - apparently making it harder for people to find friends on the network.
Eventually, the magazine claimed, Zuckerberg deactivated at least 20 ConnectU accounts entirely.
Business Insider admitted it was not clear how Zuckerberg could have hacked into the ConnectU accounts.
When Facebook was approached about the allegations in the Business Insider articles, the company told Mail Online: 'We’re not going to debate the disgruntled litigants and anonymous sources who seek to rewrite Facebook’s early history or embarrass Mark Zuckerberg with dated allegations.

'The unquestioned fact is that since leaving Harvard for Silicon Valley nearly six years ago, Mark has led Facebook's growth from a college website to a global service playing an important role in the lives of over 400 million people.'
However the magazine also claimed that a source close to the company said it was the fallout from instances such as these - as well as the expensive litigation with ConnectU - that has shaped Facebook's current privacy policies.
Fears over privacy present one of Facebook's biggest challenges, with the company coming under fire from users almost every time it makes a change to its privacy policies.

After its investigation, Business Insider concluded that Zuckerberg had led his ConnectU rivals on regarding his own intentions of building a social network.
But the magazine said that, in light of the fact that Zuckerberg appeared to consider the two networks as two separate things, and that he had never signed a contract with Connect U, the $65million settlement eventually paid to ConnectU was over the top.

The alleged hackings detailed above, however, it claimed were far 'more troubling'.
The claims will be read with interest by the millions of Facebook users concerned about their privacy - but the full fallout still remains to be seen.

dailymail

We must not be afraid of taking on Islamic extremists (UK)

Muslims are standing up to fundamentalist organisations such as the Islamic Forum of Europe. We should do the same, writes Andrew Gilligan

The East End has one of the best local papers in Britain, a genuine mirror of its community. But curiously, this week's issue seems to have missed a story which has been making some serious waves in that very community. One of the local MPs, Labour's Jim Fitzpatrick, was quoted in The Sunday Telegraph, and on national television, as saying that his party had been infiltrated by a secretive, fundamentalist organisation, the Islamic Forum of Europe – which he compares to the Militant Tendency in the 1980s.

At the same time, the area's other MP, George Galloway, was quoted – albeit on a secretly recorded tape – as saying that the IFE played a "decisive role" in his election victory, and admitting that he owes them "more than it would be wise… for me to say". Lutfur Rahman, the council leader in Tower Hamlets, repeatedly refused to deny that the IFE helped him win the leadership. And the reports also pointed out that a great deal of public money has been channelled to IFE-linked projects, causing council officers major concerns.

The IFE, based at the hardline East London mosque, claims to be an "open and tolerant" social welfare institution. In fact, as undercover reporters for Channel 4's Dispatches found, it is working, in its own words, to change the "very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed… from ignorance to Islam". It may not manage that – but it has already won significant political power over a multiracial community through democratic, secular parties whose values are diametrically opposed to its own.
 
I admit an interest – I made the programme, and wrote The Sunday Telegraph report. But I think I know why others are reluctant to address the issues we raised. That reason is fear. In six months of research, we spoke to dozens of people in the Tower Hamlets Labour Party. Almost everyone who talked to us said exactly the same thing – but no one, save Mr Fitzpatrick, was brave enough to say it on the record.

Graham Taylor, the chairman of the party, has been forced to make a grovelling apology for suggesting that the town hall was a "centre of Islamic fundamentalism" (he says the comment was meant ironically). Rushanara Ali, the Labour candidate in Mr Galloway's Bethnal Green & Bow constituency, is a secular moderate. But she issued a weaselly statement which can be read, as it was no doubt intended, as an attack on Mr Fitzpatrick, who represents the neighbouring constituency of Poplar and Canning Town.

In the back of every politician's mind lurks the fear that taking on the IFE will cost them votes. In the back of every journalist's mind is the knowledge that writing anything even faintly questioning of the East London mosque will incur tedious correspondence with its hair-trigger libel lawyers. In the back of every white person's mind lurks the fear of the IFE's favoured charge, "Islamophobia".

Dispatches's answer to that charge is that 70 per cent of our interviewees were Muslim. The most important people in the film are the locals of the area – Harmuz Ali, the vice-chairman of the Brick Lane mosque, Badrul Islam, the chief executive of the Ethnic Minority Enterprise Project, and many others. They reject the IFE, knowing better than anyone that it does not represent their community. They dismiss as nonsense the claim that any attack on it is an attack on Islam itself.

Interestingly, too, the IFE's and the mosque's response to the reports has so far been rather more muted than their pre-publication threats would suggest. The Muslim community of East London is calling the IFE's bluff. Given the importance of this issue, it is time for others to find similar courage.

telegraph

DEATH LEAP OF GIRL, 15, BULLIED ON FACEBOOK

A TORMENTED public schoolgirl plunged to her death from a bridge after classmates bullied her on Facebook, an inquest heard yesterday.

In the latest of a series of conflicts, Holly Grogan, 15, was upset by allegations that she had slept with another girl’s brother.
Hours later she was found dead beneath the bridge of the busy A40 dual carriageway.
Her father Steve told the coroner the events of ­September 16 last year “tipped Holly over the edge”.
It was the culmination of more than six months of bullying by girls from £11,000-a-year St Edward’s School, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

At one point, one of her friends told the inquest, the Facebook taunting took the form of open discussions about an invented medical condition, HGS, or “Holly Grogan Syndrome”.
Mr Grogan, 45, of Cheltenham, told the hearing in Gloucester that the girls’ accusations upset his daughter and made her cry.
They warned her not to come to a party she had been excited to have been invited to.
He said: “Later that day she received a text from the party host saying it might be better if she didn’t go to the party.”
Holly denied to her father that she had slept with the boy.

Still upset later, she asked if she could get into her parents’ bed for a cuddle at 9.45pm.
In the morning, Mr Grogan said he went to have a shower, adding: “My wife Anita went to wake Holly and noticed her bed hadn’t been slept in.

“There was a note on the desk. She wrote, ‘I don’t want to name names but I just wish people could learn to forgive and forget and be more ­considerate to people and let people move on’.”

Mr Grogan admitted his daughter’s problems began after she had lied to get attention. She told classmates her brother had died and her parents were splitting up. The results were devastating. He said: “You cannot ­underestimate how important friendships are when you are 15.”
He broke down as he told how much he regretted never having raised the issue of bullying with the school.

“Holly certainly didn’t want us to but, in hindsight, we wish we had,” he said.

“It was the wrong decision.”

One of her friends said later: “She was being bullied – they didn’t understand how much it affected Holly.”
St Edward’s headmaster Dr Andrew Nash said: “Facebook is something we worry about because it is so completely outside of our control.”
Recording a verdict of suicide, deputy Gloucestershire coroner David Dooley said: “It was clear she craved forgiveness for the lies she told and the desperate position she put herself in, and didn’t see a way out of that.”

dailyexpress

"God bless the Muslims. They'll need it when they're burning in f-ing hell."

This item originally appeared on the 5th March in the New Statesmen

 If you were still in any doubt about the character of the English Defence League, today's march on the Houses of Parliament should make things clear.

 The group, which claims to be non-racist and pro-freedom of speech, but whose followers have been filmed shouting racist slogans and chanting support for the far-right British National Party, has mounted a series of anti-Muslim demonstrations around Britain since March last year. In January, the EDL rioted in Stoke-on-Trent, where Asian residents and their white neighbours (described as "race traitors", according to Unite Against Fascism) were attacked.
Today's rally was in support of the far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Having been banned from entering the UK on a previous occasion, he was at the House of Lords today (at the invitation of the UK Independence Party leader, Lord Pearson) to screen his anti-Islam film Fitna.

This afternoon, several hundred EDL supporters assembled outside Tate Britain, downriver from parliament. When the march at first failed to get going, police allowed them to wander off to the pub for an hour or so. (By comparison, a smaller crowd of anti-racist protesters, organised by Unite Against Fascism, had been kept tightly corralled by police outside parliament's St Stephen's Gate since morning.)

Before marching towards parliament, the crowd was addressed by Guramit Singh -- virtually the only non-white EDL supporter present -- who claimed to be one of the "12 leaders" of the EDL. He called "on all religions" to "eradicate militant Islam".
Although Singh and a subsequent speaker at the rally occasionally made a distinction between "moderate" Muslims and "extremists", the crowd's biggest cheer was reserved for Singh's closing words:

"God bless the Christians, Jews, Sikhs, even God bless the Muslims -- they'll need it when they're burning in fucking hell."

Earlier, the Welsh Secretary and veteran anti-racist campaigner Peter Hain said: "The English Defence league, together with their allies the BNP, represent a racist and fascist threat -- not just to Muslims but to [all] black, Asian and Jewish citizens, too."
This was illustrated by the EDL supporters (including a couple dressed in fetching his'n'hers -- black for him, pink for her -- sweatshirts that bore the legend "EDL -- Derby division") I witnessed threatening a frightened mixed-race group of teenagers as they crossed paths on a sidestreet near Pimlico Station

newstatesman