EU to act against France on Roma

The European commissioner for justice has said that the European Union will begin infringement proceedings  against France over the expulsion of Roma citizens from its territory.

"As a guardian of the treaties, the European Commission must ensure that European legislation is applied and respected and that is true for all member states, big or small," Viviane Reding said on Wednesday.

"In the case we are faced with today, we note that in our judicial analysis France did not correctly transpose the rules on free movement of European citizens and, as a result, she has robbed these citizens of essential procedural guarantees.

"This must be corrected and that is why the commission has acted firmly," Reding told reporters at her office in Brussels.

The European Commission also said on Wednesday that it was sending an official letter to France for not transposing EU laws on freedom of movement but that it had until October 15 to launch a clear timetable to show when and how it would.

"It is of the utmost importance that we make sure that the procedural and the substantive safeguards laid down in the 2004 directive on free movement of citizens is properly transposed in its entirety," Pia Ahrenkilder Hansen, spokeswoman for the European Commission president, said.

"The commission currently believes that France has not transposed the directive on free movement into its national laws in such a way as to make its implementation properly effective and transparent.

Therefore the commission has taken a decision here today to send an official notification letter," she added.

France welcomes decision
In its response, the French foreign ministry said it would provide Brussels with whatever other information it requests, and welcomed what it said was the Commission's acceptance that Paris'
expulsion policy is not racist.

"The Commission accepted France's assurances that the measures taken have neither the aim nor the effect of targeting a specific 'minority' and that French authorities apply EU law in a non-discriminatory fashion," it said.

"France notes no procedure has been undertaken in terms of the application of EU free movement rules and in particular in terms of measures taken to move on EU citizens detained during the evacuation of illegal camps.

"France will, of course, provide all necessary additional information, as it has already done up until now," the statement, issued by Bernard Valero, the foreign ministry spokesman, read.

Reding caused a storm when she attacked France for expelling Roma migrants this summer saying it
contravened the EU's rules of integration.

More than 8,000 Roma were expelled earlier this year, mostly to Romania and Bulgaria, and Reding expressed concern that they were singled out over other ethnic groups.

France denied the accusation but faced widespread criticism form EU parliamentarians, human rights groups and the Catholic Church.

An EU government can expel citizens of another EU state from its territory if they pose a risk to public security or are a burden on social assistance but measures have to be proportional to the risks and a government cannot target a particular ethnic group.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, says the expulsions were part of a general crackdown on crime and vagrant camps which did not target the Roma specifically.

English Aljazeera

Hip Hop Group Confronts Rise of Islamophobia in Music Video (USA)

Native Deen, one of the most well-known and respected Muslim hip-hop groups in the international community, today released a music video in response to the rising tide of Islamophobia facing America, especially in the wake of the New York Islamic cultural center controversy.

The music video, released as part of the "My Faith My Voice" campaign from which it takes its title, highlights many of the concerns Muslims have regarding the vilification of Islam and the heavy-handed focus given to extremist voices.

"As American Muslims, we feel like our voices have been drowned out by the extremists on both sides," said Abdul Malik Ahmad, one of three young African-American Muslim men who comprise Native Deen. "We have always called to the middle path, but moderate voices like ours don't make headline news. As musicians, we know the power of music and hope to reach out to our fellow Americans through this song."

In the opening verse, Ahmad sings: "They're saying we are savages, uncivilized/ Me, my community we work hard, / Every opportunity to break walls, / The fight, the lunacy that they cause, …"

Later in the song, Ahmad adds: "Go use the same steam, for youth to stay clean,/ Our earth to stay green, we want the same thing,/ 'Stead of burning books, extinguish disease,/ Help spark the flame to help children in need."

Native Deen, a fusion hip-hop group, has inspired millions of people of all ages and ethnicities from around the world. It has toured more than 60 cities in America, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, promoting Islam and positive interfaith relations. Over 4 million people have viewed its videos on YouTube, and its album, "Not Afraid to Stand Alone" is ranked #2 in the DC area on independent music site cdbaby.com. In October 2010, Native Deen will release its newest album, "The Remedy." For more information, visit http://www.nativedeen.com/.

Link to the website. My Faith My Voice



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Bishop of Leicester leads a call for solidarity ahead of protest by EDL (UK)

The Bishop of Leicester has led a call for faith groups to stand together in "solidarity" ahead of a protest by the English Defence League.


Bishop Tim Stevens is a founder member of the Leicester Faith Leaders Forum, which yesterday issued a declaration condemning the English Defence League (EDL) in "the strongest terms".

The EDL – which says it campaigns against Islamic extremism – is planning a protest in the city on Saturday, October 9.

Police expect counter demonstrators, who accuse the EDL of using violent tactics, to swell the numbers involved to several thousand. The forum includes representatives of the Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths and other religious groups.

Bishop Tim said: "Over the years, the faith groups have said an attack on one is to be regarded an attack on us all. The EDL's tactic is to single out the Muslim community and we are clear that will not be allowed to happen in Leicester because we are all standing together in solidarity.

"The forum represents all the faiths and has been together since the 9/11 attacks in the US.

"It has seen us through that time, the Iraq war and the London bombings. I'm sure it will further strengthen the bonds between us after this latest attack on community relations in Leicester.

"The English Defence League has a right to express its views, no matter how distasteful they are.

"However, we hope they are rejected by the vast majority of people, people who live side by side and at peace with their neighbours.

"We shall all be saying to our congregations 'don't be drawn into this, let the EDL say what they have to say and we can then move on'."

The forum wants congregations to stay away from the protests on October 9.

Leicester City Council and the police have asked the Home Office to ban the march – and any march by its opponents. However, the authorities are powerless to prevent the EDL from staging a static protest. Its opponents, including Leicester Unite Against Fascism, are expected to stage counter protests.

Instead, people are being asked to support a peace vigil in the city centre on the Friday before the planned protest and a "celebration" of the city on the Sunday.

The Federation of Muslim Organisations, which represents almost 200 mosques and community groups, has also urged people not take part in counter demonstrations on the day.

Spokesman Suleman Nagdi said: "It is humbling to see the faith leaders speaking with one voice in their opposition to the English Defence League."

This is Leicestershire.

Neo-Nazism: Spirit of Hitler Still Alive in Germany

Some 65 years after the fall of Nazi Germany, there's growing concern that the spirit of Adolf Hitler still lives in the country.

It's not a widespread phenomenon, but the neo-Nazi movement continues to exist in small pockets across Germany.

"Young men are attracted because there are no alternatives in the village except this group who are aggressive, who are male, chauvinist and dominating the scene," explained Hajo Funke, a neo-Nazi expert at the Free University of Berlin.

A Cult-Like Movement
A recent report revealed one out of twenty 15-year-old German boys belong to a neo-Nazi group -- a number no other political party can claim.

Matthias Adrian was one of those teens. Now, he helps others leave the movement with a group called Exit Deutschland.

"I was a neo-Nazi, 24 hours a day," Adrian recalled, comparing the movement to a cult.

He said he was convinced that Jews were an evil force that controlled the world. He added that neo-Nazi groups have hidden weapons caches across Germany.

"Our movement, Exit Deutschland, helps people leave the right-wing extremist scene safely, because everybody who leaves the scene is a traitor in the eyes of neo-Nazis," Adrian said.

Lessons of Deception
The legal and political arm of the neo-Nazi movement is the National Democratic Party or NPD. The group didn't agree to an interview with CBN News, but a former NPD figure said its goal is the restoration of the Third Reich.

He also said members are trained to talk moderately in public, but privately praise Nazi Germany and the Holocaust -- something Adrian said he experienced.

"We had schoolings about it, how to give quotes in public, how to do interviews with the media," Adrian said. "(Neo Nazi's say) 'We are not violent, we are nationalists, but we are not violent. We are nice guys.' In public they denied the Holocaust, but in private they glorified it."

"If you take into account also their presentations, their speeches, and their texts and their newspaper articles, then they're outright anti-Semitic, anti-foreigner, racist. and in some cases against Muslim persons for living here," Funke added.

Official membership in neo-Nazi groups is relatively small, but the number of Germans who agree with some neo-Nazi ideas is much larger. Some recent reports revealed that neo-Nazis in eastern Germany are trying to run their own kindergartens.

Turmoil in the Richest Nation?
After recent gains in state elections by the NPD, there have been new calls that the party be banned.

The neo-Nazi movement is also trying to cash in on the new bestselling book "Germany Eliminates Itself" by Thilo Sarrazin, an official at Germany's central bank.

Sarrazin writes that Muslim and Turkish immigration is wrecking Germany. The far right has seized on the popularity of the book, saying Sarrazin is right.

But how can the neo-Nazi movement persist in the richest, most successful nation in Europe -- once wrecked by Nazi ideas?

Jörg Drieselman, a former political prisoner in the old East Germany, says overall, Germans in the East -- once under the boot of communism -- resent the results of unification and feel controlled by what he describes as a politically correct nanny state.

"(The movement continues) because of the fragility of the democratic culture in eastern Germany," Funke explained. "The movement continues because of some economic miseries. But there won't be a big success (with the neo-Nazi movement). It's on the sidelines. It's subculture."

Adrian grew up in the wealthy American sector of West Germany and doesn't believe poverty has anything to do with neo-Nazi growth.

But the movement is still around in Germany -- meaning everyone is not happy living in Europe's wealthiest nation.

CBN News

Police called in by Letcombe Regis bed and breakfast owners over alleged online 'racist slur' (UK)

The owners of a five-star bed and breakfast establishment have complained to the police and threatened legal action after being branded racist in a review on an Internet site.

Sarah-Jane Ashman, 51, who runs the Brook Barn Country House at Letcombe Regis, said she was devastated after the posting on tripadvisor.com claimed she did not welcome ‘ethnics’.

The website, which promotes itself as the world’s most trusted, dismissed her original complaint, she said, but had taken down the posting because the reviewer had not actually stayed at Brook Barn.

The reviewer, ‘Ferdi’, posted on the internet site: “I think I will be staying away and would recommend to any other ‘ethnics’ to do the same. I do not think they like our sort around there.”

Mrs Ashman said: “I could be called a lot of things and not respond, but to be called a racist was absolutely appalling.

“A couple of Sundays ago, this man turned up totally out of the blue asking to be shown around. I told him I could not do that as I had guests. At which point he left and I did not think anything of it.

“Then on the following Friday, we happened to look at our reviews on tripadvisor and saw this new one saying something along the lines of ethnics are not welcome, which is just shocking.

“I was hugely upset by it, which is why I rang the police.”

She added: “But I feel much more strongly about tripadvisor than this guy.

“They should not have put this comment on the website — not only is it untrue, but it is libellous. What they have done is put this guy in a position where he could be sued for defamation.

“Everyone gets bad reviews, but defamation is not on.”

She is taking action through an online reputation management company, KwikChex.

It is gathering a set of the most serious cases to present to tripadvisor in a bid to get it to change the way it polices its reviews.

Co-founder Chris Emmins said Mrs Ashman contacted the firm after tripadvisor refused to remove the review as it fell within its guidelines.

He said: “She had the usual experience, which was there was an allegation against the business which she completely refuted.”

Mrs Ashman added: “I am not after money but an apology and an acknowledgement from tripadvisor and him that it was defamation.”

Tripadvisor spokesman Emma O’Boyle said the review was taken down as investigation revealed the guest had not stayed in the hotel and was not qualified to comment.

Police spokesman David Staines said: “We have received a complaint about the review and we are investigating the matter.”

The Oxford Times

Report shows racism in Montreal police ranks (Canada)

For the second time in as many months, a damning internal report has outlined the breakdown of policing in   Montreal’s most troubled neighbourhood, going so far as to accuse officers of “racism.”

The Montreal Police Service had intended to keep the newest report secret and the city is facing accusations that it was trying to suppress the study.
But the coroner heading up the ongoing inquest into the death of 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva is weighing whether to allow it into evidence, something the police union and city oppose.

Written by a psychologist with expertise in conflict and crisis management, it’s blunt in its assessment of policing in Montreal North, site of the 2008 riots sparked by the death of an unarmed Villanueva at the hands of a young officer.

“The youth say that the police officers say things they wouldn’t dare say in any other sector of the city,” writes the psychologist, Martin Courcy, who met with about 60 young people from the area and observed police operations there following the riots.

Some examples cited in the report: To a youth from North Africa, an officer allegedly said, “Why don’t you blow yourself up?” To another, “If you’re not happy, why not go back to your country?”

And even this: “We prefer to be colonizers than slaves.”

This isn’t racial profiling, Courcy explains, “but racism pure and simple.”

The Courcy report comes on the heels of another damning internal report, by researcher Mathieu Charest, outlining racial profiling by Montreal police, namely an “alarming” increase in identity checks of visible minorities. The police disavowed that report, calling the methodology biased.

The latest data, leaked to La Presse and Le Devoir, must lead the city to act, said Fo Niemi, executive director of Montreal’s Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations.

“These reports confirm what people have come to experience on the ground in the last 10 years,” Niemi said. “And the city, still to this day, is trying to use all sorts of tactics and procedures to deny the problem exists.”

He said the city continues to stall at human rights commission reviews and battle to keep these reports confidential.

“These are Nixon-like tactics to hide the Watergate tapes,” he ventured.

One civil liberties group, La Ligue des droits et des libertés, said in a statement it was “outraged” to learn the police has had in hand for two years a report outlining racist attitudes in the force. They kept it secret, even as city brass denied a systemic problem at human and youth rights commission hearings into racial profiling last spring.

“Enough hypocrisy and inaction,” said the league’s president, Dominique Peschard, calling on the mayor to act.

Courcy, for his part, said in an interview that he wasn’t sure why the department didn’t want the report made public. He was to give officers training following the report’s publication, but neither did that come to pass, he said.

Following Villanueva’s death, Courcy was given the mandate to determine how police interventions might avoid the same result, he explained.

The psychologist’s report concludes that the force’s anti-gang squads, prioritized under the previous chief, ended up alienating minority youth in general, who felt provoked by the police.

“They are often scared of being arrested without reason,” the report states. “This fear is shared by the majority.”

In this context, “it’s not surprising” that a riot broke out.

Anger over Villanueva’s death led to the August, 2008 riot, during which cars were burned and dozens of stores looted.

A spokesperson for the Montreal police said the force wouldn’t comment on the report since it’s under debate at the inquest.

However, Sgt. Ian Lafrenière said the public should know the service has been training officers on racial profiling. “We’ve always been clear,” he offered, “it’s not a practice the Montreal Police Service condones.”

Courcy took pains to note that the department isn’t entirely racist. The racism was seen among a few officers — “exceptions” — he told the Star.

Courcy, who has worked with police forces in the past, added that the new police chief, Marc Parent, who was sworn in earlier this month, wants to improve relations with the youth of Montreal North.

Indeed, during his swearing in ceremony, Parent said he wants the police to be closer to cultural communities, more “inclusive.”

Mayor Gérald Tremblay urged him to deal with discriminatory practices, including racial profiling.

Niemi is also optimistic about Parent. “I think the chief recognizes the problems and the need to solve them,” Niemi said.

“But there is more than the chief. What is city council doing to ask for answers about this?”

The Star

UpRise Anti-racism festival comes to Finsbury Park (London, UK)

UpRise is a new FREE festival born out of the ashes of the former Rise festival.


Taking on the spirit and ideals of Rise, the UpRise Anti-racism festival will use the universal language of music and the arts to celebrate the commonalities of London's rich cultures and at the last count, the 250 languages spoken in the capital.

Come and celebrate - be part of the first UpRise ever!! We'll have live music, yummy food, thought provoking art and inspirational speakers, what more could you ask for?

The UpRise musical lineup promises to be sweeter than strawberries and cream and have more kick than a bombay mix. Some of the artists performing at UpRise 2010. are Ty, United Vibrations, Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee, & Wandan, Natty, Jally Kebba Susso, Jimmy Screech, Aruba Red Soothsayers and Yaaba Funk Shri .

UpRise

3/10/10
12.30 ' 7.30pm
Finsbury Park, London


For more details about this event please click UPrise