To prevent new racist violence in Russia, the police have arrested more than 1,500 people. About 500 participants in a right-wing demonstration have been taken in custody in Moscow on Saturday, and a further 800 persons as a preventive measure, police said. In the last days have nationalists repeatedly attacked Russian citizens or immigrants from the Caucasus and other countries.
The police had prevented "unauthorized meetings" in Moscow and Moscow region, told Yevgenij Gildejov, spokesman for the regional police, to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. One of the preventive measures was the arrest of 808 people, he said. Gildejow did not tell how many nationalists and how people with Caucasian origin have been taken in the actions.
About 500 nationalists gathered on Saturday near the TV station Ostankino. They shouted slogans like "Russia for Russians". Hundreds of policemen were deployed there. Almost all participants in the demonstration were arrested, said Moscow police spokesman Viktor Birjukow. Most protesters were underage youth.
Also in southwestern Russia, nationalists were arrested. Russian media reported from Volgograd 150 arrests and 100 from the industrial city of Samara. Already on Wednesday, approximately one thousand people were arrested for fear of clashes between ultra-nationalists and immigrants.
In recent days, young Russian ultra-nationalists repeatedly took part in violent clashes with young pepole of Caucasian origin. The clashes were triggered by the death of a Russian football fan which was killed in a fight with a group of people from the Caucasus.
Last Sunday a man from a former Soviet Republic was murdered - investigators suspect three young Russian extremists, among them a 14-year-old boy. He has already confessed to having stabbed the victim, the news agency Interfax reports, citing sources within the security apparatus. According to media reports, in Moscow and Moscow region another man from a former Soviet Republic was stabbed on Saturday and a Vietnames citizen was brutally beaten.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the violence on Saturday on Russian television a "worrying sign" but stressed that the young ultra-nationalists were not a "lost generation." Putin said Thursday during a question program on television that authorities want to proceed "hard against any form of extremism". (Source: russland.RU - Internet Zeitung)
Russia Media RU
Monday, 20 December 2010
Church calls up ‘black St George’ to fight racism (UK)
Clergy at Manchester Cathedral believe the BNP and English Defence League have ‘hijacked’ the religious festival.
And they plan to fight back with a festival of puppets and poets on Sunday, May 8.
A Catalan-style procession will snake through the city, with jazz music and giant versions of George and the dragon, led by a puppet inspired by a painting in the cathedral by contemporary artist Mark Cazalet.
The altarpiece, created in 2001, depicts the saint as a young black man cutting free the restraints of a pitiful dragon.
The puppets are being built by homeless people who use the Booth Centre charity, linked to the cathedral.
The day will include a reading by Andrew Motion, the former Poet Laureate, of a specially-commissioned work.
The carnival is also inspired by epic Elizabethan poem The Faerie Queene, which re-tells St George’s legend.
Church leaders said the idea was to show English nationalism should be about ‘tolerance and opening up to people’ – and not stirring up racial division.
Canon Andrew Shanks, from the cathedral, said he and other churchmen wanted to help ‘rebrand’ St George’s Day.
He said: “I remember the BNP had a big rally in one of the squares in Manchester a couple of years ago.
“It felt very ugly. There were all these St George’s flags – and the same flag was on our tower.
“There is a war going on about the flag and the meaning of it and we are doing our damnedest to interpret it our way.”
Canon Shanks said the church’s ‘challenging’ painting of St George in a housing estate is about ‘unlocking passion for urban renewal’. He said: “We have taken that as inspiration.”
Anglican vicars face an unusual problem next year as St George’s Day – traditionally April 23 – will clash with Easter Saturday.
Many parishes are opting to mark St George’s Day in May instead.
An English hero with true global appeal
Despite being England’s patron saint, St George was actually born in Turkey and lived in Palestine.
Little is known for sure about his life, but according to myth he became a Roman soldier and was beheaded for his Christian beliefs in 303 AD.
Revered throughout the Christian church, he is also patron saint of Georgia, Malta and Portugal, as well as soldiers, farm workers, lepers and the modern Scout movement.
Although far-right English groups have attempted to adopt him as a symbol, it is thought he was black and of Middle Eastern descent.
The most famous myth about him - that he killed a dragon while riding a white horse - probably developed in the 14th Century.
Manchester Evening News
Graves vandal gets maximum prison term (USA)
A Nazi memorabilia collector was sentenced to seven years in prison for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti on headstones at a Jewish cemetery.
Polish national Mariusz Wdziekonski, 25, was given the maximum sentence in a Chicago court for desecrating 67 graves with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery in Chicago in January 2008. He was convicted earlier this month.
"You wanted to inflict your hatred. You wanted to inflict your pain. You brought shame to your family," Cook County Circuit Judge Larry Axelrood said Dec. 17 before handing down the sentence.
Wdziekonski, who entered the United States in 2004 and has admitted to being a collector of Nazi memorabilia, has been imprisoned for three years and could be eligible for early release in a few months. He also could be deported, according to reports.
JTA News
Polish national Mariusz Wdziekonski, 25, was given the maximum sentence in a Chicago court for desecrating 67 graves with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery in Chicago in January 2008. He was convicted earlier this month.
"You wanted to inflict your hatred. You wanted to inflict your pain. You brought shame to your family," Cook County Circuit Judge Larry Axelrood said Dec. 17 before handing down the sentence.
Wdziekonski, who entered the United States in 2004 and has admitted to being a collector of Nazi memorabilia, has been imprisoned for three years and could be eligible for early release in a few months. He also could be deported, according to reports.
JTA News
English Defence League donor details 'stolen' after database hacked (UK)
Supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) are facing potential embarrassment after a database containing their personal details was hacked into.
Police are believed to be investigating the security breach, which also included the far-Right groups’s payment system being illegally accessed.
Amid fears of violence toward members, the EDL said it will support vulnerable people. They also urged members to change their online shopping details after concerns were raised that they would be published on the internet.
Officials were forced to email supporters after the incident, which is understood to have occurred in recent days, apologising for the “attack”.
It remains unclear who was behind the hacking incident and whether it was a politically motivated attack or a party member with a grudge against the group. The EDL did not disclose to supporters which police force was investigating the breach.
In their email to supporters, officials confirmed that hackers had accessed their donor lists and the far right group’s payments systems, exposing customers who buy merchandise.
“As you may have become aware the English Defence League clothing site was recently attacked,” read the email, seen by The Daily Telegraph.
“This attack took two forms, firstly member’s names and addresses were stolen from the donation database (and) secondly the details of members purchasing items from the clothing site.
“The EDL would like to apologise for this security leak. The leadership is doing everything they can to understand how this occurred so it can never happen again.”
The email confirmed that officials had contacted police.
“If, as an affected member you are concerned for your safety, contact the police,” they said.
“With regards to the criminal action against the EDL, the leadership is working with the police and it is being taken extremely seriously.
“There is currently an on going investigation and evidence is being collected.”
The breach comes days after the party was embroiled in controversy after asking American preacher Pastor Terry Jones to attend a demonstration in Britain.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, had faced calls to bar Mr Jones from entering the country after he was reportedly invited to address the EDL at a rally in Luton in February.
The preacher sparked outrage when he announced plans by his Florida-based church to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America.
The preacher said he would fight moves to ban him from coming to Britain, insisting he would be bringing a ''positive message''.
But the EDL later claimed it had not invited Mr Jones to speak at the event but he had approached them and they agreed in principle.
The weekend’s incident is similar to a security breach involving the far-right BNP in 2008, where the names, addresses and contact details of some 10,000 of its members were published online.
The list, which included details of some members' jobs, was reported to include serving and former police officers as well as members of the armed forces.
A spokesman for the EDL did not respond to inquiries for comment.
The Telegraph
Police are believed to be investigating the security breach, which also included the far-Right groups’s payment system being illegally accessed.
Amid fears of violence toward members, the EDL said it will support vulnerable people. They also urged members to change their online shopping details after concerns were raised that they would be published on the internet.
Officials were forced to email supporters after the incident, which is understood to have occurred in recent days, apologising for the “attack”.
It remains unclear who was behind the hacking incident and whether it was a politically motivated attack or a party member with a grudge against the group. The EDL did not disclose to supporters which police force was investigating the breach.
In their email to supporters, officials confirmed that hackers had accessed their donor lists and the far right group’s payments systems, exposing customers who buy merchandise.
“As you may have become aware the English Defence League clothing site was recently attacked,” read the email, seen by The Daily Telegraph.
“This attack took two forms, firstly member’s names and addresses were stolen from the donation database (and) secondly the details of members purchasing items from the clothing site.
“The EDL would like to apologise for this security leak. The leadership is doing everything they can to understand how this occurred so it can never happen again.”
The email confirmed that officials had contacted police.
“If, as an affected member you are concerned for your safety, contact the police,” they said.
“With regards to the criminal action against the EDL, the leadership is working with the police and it is being taken extremely seriously.
“There is currently an on going investigation and evidence is being collected.”
The breach comes days after the party was embroiled in controversy after asking American preacher Pastor Terry Jones to attend a demonstration in Britain.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, had faced calls to bar Mr Jones from entering the country after he was reportedly invited to address the EDL at a rally in Luton in February.
The preacher sparked outrage when he announced plans by his Florida-based church to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America.
The preacher said he would fight moves to ban him from coming to Britain, insisting he would be bringing a ''positive message''.
But the EDL later claimed it had not invited Mr Jones to speak at the event but he had approached them and they agreed in principle.
The weekend’s incident is similar to a security breach involving the far-right BNP in 2008, where the names, addresses and contact details of some 10,000 of its members were published online.
The list, which included details of some members' jobs, was reported to include serving and former police officers as well as members of the armed forces.
A spokesman for the EDL did not respond to inquiries for comment.
The Telegraph
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