Anti-terror police have refused to say whether two German men arrested at Dover Port are suspected of possessing hostile reconnaissance photography.
Christian David Erkart Heinz Emde, 28, and Robert Baum, 23, both from Germany, were arrested on 15 July.
They have been charged with 'collection or possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000'.
A spokeswoman for the South East Counter Terrorism Unit told Amateur Photographer that police were 'not able to comment on whether the materials seized include hostile reconnaissance photographs'.
The men appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday and have been remanded in custody to appear at the same court on 24 August.
Amateur Photographer
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Election of Jobbik mayor in Gyöngyöspata seen stoking tension with Fidesz (Hungary)
The radical nationalist Jobbik party’s newly elected mayor in Gyongyospata (N) has been given an opportunity to manage local issues without his party’s “extremist solutions”, the deputy head of the ruling Fidesz told MTI in a statement on Tuesday.
In his statement, Gergely Gulyas assured the new mayor, Oszkar Juhasz, of “unconditional” assistance from Fidesz’s MP for the region, once Juhasz leaves behind Jobbik’s policies which he suggested were motivated by anti-Roma and anti-Jewish sentiments.
Earlier in the day, Jobbik called for the resignation of Fidesz MP Jozsef Balazs saying that the MP had made coercive remarks to the mayor.
According to a recorded telephone call presented at a press conference in Budapest, Balazs told Juhasz that his village would receive no funding under his administration, Jobbik spokesman Adam Mirkoczki said.
“Towns will receive funds upon my approval. If I do not consent, funds will not be granted,” said the recording played at the press conference.
Juhasz, who won his position in an interim election in Gyongyospata on Sunday, has been receiving threatening signals from Fidesz circles since March, the spokesman said. In a statement sent to MTI, the green opposition LMP party shared Jobbik’s position that Balazs should return his mandate.
Talking to MTI, Balazs firmly rejected the allegations of coercion.
Gyongyospata came into the focus of public attention in March, when activists of a radical paramilitary organisation staged patrols for weeks in protest against what they saw as a rising crime rate.
The situation turned critical when Vedero, a similar group, organised a training camp near the village’s Roma neighbourhood late in April. The police dissolved the camp following a government decree that imposes stricter punishments to uniformed people who organise unauthorised patrols. Soon after, Juhasz’s predecessor tendered his resignation.
Politics Hu
In his statement, Gergely Gulyas assured the new mayor, Oszkar Juhasz, of “unconditional” assistance from Fidesz’s MP for the region, once Juhasz leaves behind Jobbik’s policies which he suggested were motivated by anti-Roma and anti-Jewish sentiments.
Earlier in the day, Jobbik called for the resignation of Fidesz MP Jozsef Balazs saying that the MP had made coercive remarks to the mayor.
According to a recorded telephone call presented at a press conference in Budapest, Balazs told Juhasz that his village would receive no funding under his administration, Jobbik spokesman Adam Mirkoczki said.
“Towns will receive funds upon my approval. If I do not consent, funds will not be granted,” said the recording played at the press conference.
Juhasz, who won his position in an interim election in Gyongyospata on Sunday, has been receiving threatening signals from Fidesz circles since March, the spokesman said. In a statement sent to MTI, the green opposition LMP party shared Jobbik’s position that Balazs should return his mandate.
Talking to MTI, Balazs firmly rejected the allegations of coercion.
Gyongyospata came into the focus of public attention in March, when activists of a radical paramilitary organisation staged patrols for weeks in protest against what they saw as a rising crime rate.
The situation turned critical when Vedero, a similar group, organised a training camp near the village’s Roma neighbourhood late in April. The police dissolved the camp following a government decree that imposes stricter punishments to uniformed people who organise unauthorised patrols. Soon after, Juhasz’s predecessor tendered his resignation.
Politics Hu
Wolverhampton Muslim extremist jailed (UK)
A Muslim extremist whose online rants inspired a fanatic to stab an MP has been caged.
Bilal Ahmad, 23, from Wolverhampton, called on Muslims to “raise the knife of Jihad” against MPs who supported the Iraq War.
His words were taken literally by Roshonara Choudhry, 21, who had visited Ahmad’s Revolution Muslim web page. She stabbed Labour MP Stephen Timms at his constituency surgery in May last year – knifing him twice in the stomach. He survived and Choudhry was jailed for attempted murder.
Ahmad said the MP had “got off lightly” and called for Choudhry to be freed and given a medal.
Ahmad admitted soliciting to murder members of Parliament, inciting religious hatred and three charges under the Terrorism Act.
Sentencing the IT graduate to 12 years at a hearing on Friday, a judge said: “You became a viper in our midst, willing to go as far as possible to strike at the heart of our system. Your views were corrosively dangerous.”
Sunday Mercury
Bilal Ahmad, 23, from Wolverhampton, called on Muslims to “raise the knife of Jihad” against MPs who supported the Iraq War.
His words were taken literally by Roshonara Choudhry, 21, who had visited Ahmad’s Revolution Muslim web page. She stabbed Labour MP Stephen Timms at his constituency surgery in May last year – knifing him twice in the stomach. He survived and Choudhry was jailed for attempted murder.
Ahmad said the MP had “got off lightly” and called for Choudhry to be freed and given a medal.
Ahmad admitted soliciting to murder members of Parliament, inciting religious hatred and three charges under the Terrorism Act.
Sentencing the IT graduate to 12 years at a hearing on Friday, a judge said: “You became a viper in our midst, willing to go as far as possible to strike at the heart of our system. Your views were corrosively dangerous.”
Sunday Mercury
TE-SAT 2011: EU Terrorism Situation & Trend Report
Here's a link to a PDF report about terrorism trends in the European Union that some of you might find interesting.
TE-SAT 2011: EU Terrorism Situation & Trend Report
TE-SAT 2011: EU Terrorism Situation & Trend Report
Norway attacks: How far right views created Anders Behring Breivik
Killer's opinions are part of a wider political and cultural shift as anti-Islamic and xenophobic groups take root across Europe.
At 9:31pm on 16 October 2008 a message appeared on the virulently anti-Muslim website Gates of Vienna. Under the user name Year2183, a reference to a manifesto he was writing, Anders Behring Breivik appears exasperated that his fellow far-right bloggers are too accommodating to Europe's Muslims.
Responding to Fjordman, the anonymous Norwegian "counterjihad" blogger, Breivik insists that only the forced deportation of Muslims will suffice. His stance, he realises, has become too extreme even for the anti-multicultural blogosphere.
For Breivik it was a defining moment, the point at which he moved to an ultra-radical position. Within months he had become immersed within the toxic nexus of increasingly extremist online forums.
Less than a year after his frustrated response to Fjordman, Breivik had begun preparing his devastating double attack of nine days ago: the bombing of the Oslo headquarters of Norway's centre-left government and the massacre of its youth wing on Utøya island.
To chart the evolution of Breivik from a child born to middle-class parents in the west of Oslo to perpetrator of the country's worst attack since the second world war, most experts recommend an initial look at mainstream politics. Last Wednesday Himanshu Gulati of the rightwing Progress Party was explaining its position as "not anti-immigration, but strict immigration".
Yet as the interview progressed, in an office a minute's walk from where rescuers were still searching for bodies from the bomb Breivik had detonated, familiar themes emerged. Immigrants, he said, were linked to "drugs and crime"; rejected asylum seekers from Somalia and Afghanistan were not being deported; tens of thousands of illegal immigrants were on the streets of Oslo and could not be "reintegrated" into society.
The interview became more focused. Gulati, 23, cited three major concerns: female genital mutilation, forced marriages and radicalisation. Although Gulati – whose Indian parents arrived in Oslo 30 years ago – never mentioned it directly, it was obvious that the Muslim community was a principal area of concern. Progress, Norway's second-largest party, commanded 23% of the vote in the last elections. A recent poll revealed that half of all Norwegians favour restricting immigration. Some experts on the far right believe Breivik is an extreme manifestation of the conservative mindset.
Breivik's teenage sympathy with the mainstream right wing is widely shared. "Many people were saying that immigration had gone too far – there is a group of people who think a bit like him," said factory worker Trygve Graff, 23, from Bergen.
The fact that Breivik chose the internet to disseminate his ideology is important. His journey to terrorism was forged within a network of blogs where violence is glorified and multiculturalism despised, along with those who embrace it.
One expert in European rightwing extremism, Andrea Mammone of Kingston University London, says the content of Breivik's hate was not new, only the manner in which it was fostered.
"The internet is extremely effective at formulating extremist ideals; killing for him was not so strange, it was about killing people who were not like him, who shared different values. He considered himself a new type of elite warrior."
A bleak scenario is that Breivik – one of thousands who regularly visit such sites – is merely the debutant warrior from a generation that is the first to witness the sociological upheaval caused by the arrival of mass immigration into Scandinavia's tightly knit, homogeneous communities. Equally crucially, it is the first generation that is internet-savvy.
Matthew Goodwin, rightwing extremism expert at the University of Nottingham, adds that Breivik was radicalised by the same online process as many of the jihadists he so loathed.
The same month Breivik responded to Fjordman, he also surfaces on another hardline blog, Stormfront, a white supremacist forum run by a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and popular among neo-Nazis across the world. Britain, Breivik warns, will be among the first western countries to face a "civil war due to Muslim immigration".
At the time, Breivik was living in Sweden, a country whose far right was rapidly gaining votes on a ticket that invited accusations of anti-Islamism and xenophobia and wanted immigration reduced by as much as 90%. It is now known that he had online contact with extremists in Sweden, whose far-right faction, perhaps more than any other country's, appears to have steered Breivik's hate-centered ideology towards his position now.
The next turning point in his journey to mass murderer can be traced to early 2009 when he registered as a member of Nordisk (Nordic), which has more than 22,000 members. The Nordisk forum was established in 2007 by the Nordiska Förbundet (Nordic League) organisation, which itself was founded in 2004 by the Nazi Swedish Resistance Movement.
Members of Nordisk openly incite violence. In March 2010 an anonymous poster delivered a seemingly eerie premonition of Breivik's Oslo attack. "Cars parked next to large buildings with fertiliser + diesel give a nice blast. Skyscrapers go down like the World Trade Centre towers."
Gradually the target of Breivik's fury moved from Muslims to the political establishment that, by promoting multiculturalism, had allowed Islam communities to flourish in western society.
But what of the now infamous reconstituted Knights Templar movement mentioned in the manifesto, which held its inaugural meeting in London in 2002, and of which Breivik said he was a founding member?
Many experts, including Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate, are sceptical a meeting ever took place. Nonetheless, the Knights Templar, with its Christian fundamentalist overtones, is described by Breivik as having a pan-European constituency. Of nine founders, two were English, one was French, one a German, one a Dutchman, one a Greek, one a Russian, one a Norwegian and a Serb. The main initiator was apparently the Serb, whom Breivik claims to have visited in Liberia.
Breivik's "mentor" was "Richard Lionheart". In reality, this might be Briton Paul Ray, 35, who lives in Malta and is author of the anti-Muslim Richard the Lionhearted blog. Ray was also an English Defence League activist and it is clear that Breivik viewed the EDL's anti-Islamic, often violent demonstrations as inspirational. He boasted of "regular contact" with many of its members, recommending strategies for its growth. Ray even suggested that Breivik's chief mentor was Alan Lake, widely described as the EDL's chief financier, a claim fiercely denied by Lake who did, in October 2009, travel to Malmö, Sweden, for a conference on Islamisation.
What is known is that Breivik emailed his manifesto to 250 British contacts shortly before beginning his attacks, among them BNP and EDL figures, along with many connected to Stop Islamification of Europe.
Another fiercely anti-Muslim figure who impressed Breivik, name-checked throughout his manifesto, is Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, who wants the constitution rewritten to outlaw the "fascist" Qur'an in theNetherlands.
Following the devastation wreaked by Breivik, it was a week of intensive damage limitation for the anti-Islam populists of Europe. Alarmed they might be tarred by association with the Utøya massacre, the New Populists, usually if inaccurately dubbed neo-fascist or extreme right, have been in a hurry to disavow the Norwegian mass murderer and condemn the violence.
Among the extreme parties in Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands, politicians have been fired, suspended, disciplined or rebuked by their leaders for voicing sympathy with Breivik's worldview – nostalgia for a conservative, traditionalist, whites-only Europe of a bygone age combined with blind fury at its dissolution in a globalised world.
If Breivik's anger erupted in mass murder, the populist politicians use words as their weapons, posters and images for their witch hunts and scapegoating.
"In a Norwegian Norway this tragedy would never have happened," blogged Erik Hellsborn of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party. "This was caused by multiculturalism." He was in trouble with the leadership of a party that campaigns to "keep Sweden Swedish" in the country that is the most open to immigrants in Europe.
Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom party, who has been tried and acquitted on hate speech charges for his calculated provocations, is a favourite of Breivik, notching up 30 references in the manifesto. Wilders said he was appalled by Breivik, fearing that such actions could damage his campaign. "This is a slap in the face for the worldwide anti-Islam movement," he said.
In Austria, Heinz-Christian Strache, the Freedom party leader who associated with neo-Nazis in his youth and who is now neck-and-neck with the governing social democrats at the top of opinion polls, fired a party official who responded to the atrocities by declaring that the real danger was Islam rather than Breivik. The same party used a computer game as a campaign tool last year. In Mosque Bye-bye, the players zapped Muslim prayer houses, only to be told that the southern Styria region of Austria is "full of mosques and minarets".
The idea for the game was imported from neighbouring Switzerland where the rightwing Swiss People's party has powered its anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant referendum campaigns with potent, inflammatory posters almost always in stark red, white, and black, recalling Third Reich propaganda – grasping black hands scooping up red-and-white Swiss passports, three white sheep kicking a black sheep off a red-and-white Swiss flag.
As outlined in Breivik's rambling manifesto, they largely dovetail with the views of the New Populists who combine a far-right outlook. Liberals and the left have been eager to seize on this, seeking to score political points by blaming figures such as Wilders or Strache for fostering a climate of hate, fear and prejudice that may not condone but nonetheless tacitly encourage violence.
A 10-minute walk from Oslo's city centre lies the Islamic Cultural Centre, built in 1974, eight months after the formation of the Progress party. Deputy imam Tayyib Mian, 40, from Pakistan, says the congregation is growing rapidly, including 1,500 indigenous Norwegians who have converted to Islam over the past decade: "Norway is a peaceful, open country; we do not want problems, only to be part of the community."
Outside, hope remains that Breivik's atrocities will unite a nation against intolerance, steering it away from the far-right politics that have fractured Sweden. Student Katerina Slettness, 27, from Oslo, said: "We are hoping the country will be stronger against racism as a result."
Experts, meanwhile, say Breivik may be considered neither insane nor a lone wolf. They warn that thousands throughout Europe are ingesting the same propaganda that galvanised him.
Lowles said: "Somewhere, in a front room or bedroom, other young men are probably dreaming up fantasies about saving western civilisation from the evils of communism and Islam. We ignore what motivated Breivik at our peril."
The Guardian
At 9:31pm on 16 October 2008 a message appeared on the virulently anti-Muslim website Gates of Vienna. Under the user name Year2183, a reference to a manifesto he was writing, Anders Behring Breivik appears exasperated that his fellow far-right bloggers are too accommodating to Europe's Muslims.
Responding to Fjordman, the anonymous Norwegian "counterjihad" blogger, Breivik insists that only the forced deportation of Muslims will suffice. His stance, he realises, has become too extreme even for the anti-multicultural blogosphere.
For Breivik it was a defining moment, the point at which he moved to an ultra-radical position. Within months he had become immersed within the toxic nexus of increasingly extremist online forums.
Less than a year after his frustrated response to Fjordman, Breivik had begun preparing his devastating double attack of nine days ago: the bombing of the Oslo headquarters of Norway's centre-left government and the massacre of its youth wing on Utøya island.
To chart the evolution of Breivik from a child born to middle-class parents in the west of Oslo to perpetrator of the country's worst attack since the second world war, most experts recommend an initial look at mainstream politics. Last Wednesday Himanshu Gulati of the rightwing Progress Party was explaining its position as "not anti-immigration, but strict immigration".
Yet as the interview progressed, in an office a minute's walk from where rescuers were still searching for bodies from the bomb Breivik had detonated, familiar themes emerged. Immigrants, he said, were linked to "drugs and crime"; rejected asylum seekers from Somalia and Afghanistan were not being deported; tens of thousands of illegal immigrants were on the streets of Oslo and could not be "reintegrated" into society.
The interview became more focused. Gulati, 23, cited three major concerns: female genital mutilation, forced marriages and radicalisation. Although Gulati – whose Indian parents arrived in Oslo 30 years ago – never mentioned it directly, it was obvious that the Muslim community was a principal area of concern. Progress, Norway's second-largest party, commanded 23% of the vote in the last elections. A recent poll revealed that half of all Norwegians favour restricting immigration. Some experts on the far right believe Breivik is an extreme manifestation of the conservative mindset.
Breivik's teenage sympathy with the mainstream right wing is widely shared. "Many people were saying that immigration had gone too far – there is a group of people who think a bit like him," said factory worker Trygve Graff, 23, from Bergen.
The fact that Breivik chose the internet to disseminate his ideology is important. His journey to terrorism was forged within a network of blogs where violence is glorified and multiculturalism despised, along with those who embrace it.
One expert in European rightwing extremism, Andrea Mammone of Kingston University London, says the content of Breivik's hate was not new, only the manner in which it was fostered.
"The internet is extremely effective at formulating extremist ideals; killing for him was not so strange, it was about killing people who were not like him, who shared different values. He considered himself a new type of elite warrior."
A bleak scenario is that Breivik – one of thousands who regularly visit such sites – is merely the debutant warrior from a generation that is the first to witness the sociological upheaval caused by the arrival of mass immigration into Scandinavia's tightly knit, homogeneous communities. Equally crucially, it is the first generation that is internet-savvy.
Matthew Goodwin, rightwing extremism expert at the University of Nottingham, adds that Breivik was radicalised by the same online process as many of the jihadists he so loathed.
The same month Breivik responded to Fjordman, he also surfaces on another hardline blog, Stormfront, a white supremacist forum run by a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and popular among neo-Nazis across the world. Britain, Breivik warns, will be among the first western countries to face a "civil war due to Muslim immigration".
At the time, Breivik was living in Sweden, a country whose far right was rapidly gaining votes on a ticket that invited accusations of anti-Islamism and xenophobia and wanted immigration reduced by as much as 90%. It is now known that he had online contact with extremists in Sweden, whose far-right faction, perhaps more than any other country's, appears to have steered Breivik's hate-centered ideology towards his position now.
The next turning point in his journey to mass murderer can be traced to early 2009 when he registered as a member of Nordisk (Nordic), which has more than 22,000 members. The Nordisk forum was established in 2007 by the Nordiska Förbundet (Nordic League) organisation, which itself was founded in 2004 by the Nazi Swedish Resistance Movement.
Members of Nordisk openly incite violence. In March 2010 an anonymous poster delivered a seemingly eerie premonition of Breivik's Oslo attack. "Cars parked next to large buildings with fertiliser + diesel give a nice blast. Skyscrapers go down like the World Trade Centre towers."
Gradually the target of Breivik's fury moved from Muslims to the political establishment that, by promoting multiculturalism, had allowed Islam communities to flourish in western society.
But what of the now infamous reconstituted Knights Templar movement mentioned in the manifesto, which held its inaugural meeting in London in 2002, and of which Breivik said he was a founding member?
Many experts, including Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate, are sceptical a meeting ever took place. Nonetheless, the Knights Templar, with its Christian fundamentalist overtones, is described by Breivik as having a pan-European constituency. Of nine founders, two were English, one was French, one a German, one a Dutchman, one a Greek, one a Russian, one a Norwegian and a Serb. The main initiator was apparently the Serb, whom Breivik claims to have visited in Liberia.
Breivik's "mentor" was "Richard Lionheart". In reality, this might be Briton Paul Ray, 35, who lives in Malta and is author of the anti-Muslim Richard the Lionhearted blog. Ray was also an English Defence League activist and it is clear that Breivik viewed the EDL's anti-Islamic, often violent demonstrations as inspirational. He boasted of "regular contact" with many of its members, recommending strategies for its growth. Ray even suggested that Breivik's chief mentor was Alan Lake, widely described as the EDL's chief financier, a claim fiercely denied by Lake who did, in October 2009, travel to Malmö, Sweden, for a conference on Islamisation.
What is known is that Breivik emailed his manifesto to 250 British contacts shortly before beginning his attacks, among them BNP and EDL figures, along with many connected to Stop Islamification of Europe.
Another fiercely anti-Muslim figure who impressed Breivik, name-checked throughout his manifesto, is Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, who wants the constitution rewritten to outlaw the "fascist" Qur'an in theNetherlands.
Following the devastation wreaked by Breivik, it was a week of intensive damage limitation for the anti-Islam populists of Europe. Alarmed they might be tarred by association with the Utøya massacre, the New Populists, usually if inaccurately dubbed neo-fascist or extreme right, have been in a hurry to disavow the Norwegian mass murderer and condemn the violence.
Among the extreme parties in Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands, politicians have been fired, suspended, disciplined or rebuked by their leaders for voicing sympathy with Breivik's worldview – nostalgia for a conservative, traditionalist, whites-only Europe of a bygone age combined with blind fury at its dissolution in a globalised world.
If Breivik's anger erupted in mass murder, the populist politicians use words as their weapons, posters and images for their witch hunts and scapegoating.
"In a Norwegian Norway this tragedy would never have happened," blogged Erik Hellsborn of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party. "This was caused by multiculturalism." He was in trouble with the leadership of a party that campaigns to "keep Sweden Swedish" in the country that is the most open to immigrants in Europe.
Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom party, who has been tried and acquitted on hate speech charges for his calculated provocations, is a favourite of Breivik, notching up 30 references in the manifesto. Wilders said he was appalled by Breivik, fearing that such actions could damage his campaign. "This is a slap in the face for the worldwide anti-Islam movement," he said.
In Austria, Heinz-Christian Strache, the Freedom party leader who associated with neo-Nazis in his youth and who is now neck-and-neck with the governing social democrats at the top of opinion polls, fired a party official who responded to the atrocities by declaring that the real danger was Islam rather than Breivik. The same party used a computer game as a campaign tool last year. In Mosque Bye-bye, the players zapped Muslim prayer houses, only to be told that the southern Styria region of Austria is "full of mosques and minarets".
The idea for the game was imported from neighbouring Switzerland where the rightwing Swiss People's party has powered its anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant referendum campaigns with potent, inflammatory posters almost always in stark red, white, and black, recalling Third Reich propaganda – grasping black hands scooping up red-and-white Swiss passports, three white sheep kicking a black sheep off a red-and-white Swiss flag.
As outlined in Breivik's rambling manifesto, they largely dovetail with the views of the New Populists who combine a far-right outlook. Liberals and the left have been eager to seize on this, seeking to score political points by blaming figures such as Wilders or Strache for fostering a climate of hate, fear and prejudice that may not condone but nonetheless tacitly encourage violence.
A 10-minute walk from Oslo's city centre lies the Islamic Cultural Centre, built in 1974, eight months after the formation of the Progress party. Deputy imam Tayyib Mian, 40, from Pakistan, says the congregation is growing rapidly, including 1,500 indigenous Norwegians who have converted to Islam over the past decade: "Norway is a peaceful, open country; we do not want problems, only to be part of the community."
Outside, hope remains that Breivik's atrocities will unite a nation against intolerance, steering it away from the far-right politics that have fractured Sweden. Student Katerina Slettness, 27, from Oslo, said: "We are hoping the country will be stronger against racism as a result."
Experts, meanwhile, say Breivik may be considered neither insane nor a lone wolf. They warn that thousands throughout Europe are ingesting the same propaganda that galvanised him.
Lowles said: "Somewhere, in a front room or bedroom, other young men are probably dreaming up fantasies about saving western civilisation from the evils of communism and Islam. We ignore what motivated Breivik at our peril."
The Guardian
Hundreds mark Norway massacre with flowers in call to ban EDL march through East End (UK)
Hundreds of protesters stood in silence at a rally in East London last night with raised flowers to remember the 76 people killed in the Norway massacre by the self-confessed bomber Anders Behring.
The rally, calling for the Home Secretary to ban a proposed march by the English Defence League through Whitechapel, came at the end of a day when a delegation led by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and the new Bishop of Stepney met the Norwegian ambassador and signed the Book of Condolence.
“I know the dangers of extremism has been in your minds in the aftermath of the horrors committed in Norway,” Mayor Lutfur Rahman told the 300-strong rally.
“I know your heart will have been moved by the grieving of the Norwegian people.
“So I was proud and saddened to go to the Norwegian embassy with faith and community leaders to offer condolences and solidarity from the people of Tower Hamlets.”
He has written to Theresa May urging police to use their powers to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel, adding yet more weight to calls for a ban from MPs, councillors, London Assembly figures and church leaders.
Norwegian trade unionists flew to London from Oslo to speak at the rally staged at London Muslim Centre along the Whitechapel Road—where the EDL plan to march on September 3.
The Bishop of Stepney, the Rt Rev Adrian Newman, in his first public engagement since his inauguration last Friday—ironically on the day of the Oslo massacre—was cheered when he told the rally: “I’ve already been criticised for standing shoulder to shoulder against fascism.
“But I stand with the people of the East End—this is no place for hate.”
The East End United alliance which organised last night’s gathering plan their own march and rally on September 3 to counter the EDL march on the same day, to be staged at Weavers Field in Bethnal Green.
Tower Hamlets Interfaith Forum’s chairman Alan Green, parish priest at Bethnal Green, told the East London Advertiser: “It will have the language of protest to show the EDL they’re not wanted here.
“We don’t want others setting up a separate demo—we have to show solidarity, a united East End against fascism and hate.”
Last night’s packed gathering heard from 35 speakers from the Jewish, Muslim, Christian and other faith communities, as well as MP Jeremy Corbyn and former London mayor Ken Livingstone.
Speakers also included a veteran of the 1936 ‘Battle of Cable Street’, former Stepney councillor Max Levitas, now aged 96, who received a standing ovation when he spoke of how the East End came together to keep out Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts 75 years ago. History had called on the East End once again, he urged, to keep out fascists today.
London 24
The rally, calling for the Home Secretary to ban a proposed march by the English Defence League through Whitechapel, came at the end of a day when a delegation led by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and the new Bishop of Stepney met the Norwegian ambassador and signed the Book of Condolence.
“I know the dangers of extremism has been in your minds in the aftermath of the horrors committed in Norway,” Mayor Lutfur Rahman told the 300-strong rally.
“I know your heart will have been moved by the grieving of the Norwegian people.
“So I was proud and saddened to go to the Norwegian embassy with faith and community leaders to offer condolences and solidarity from the people of Tower Hamlets.”
He has written to Theresa May urging police to use their powers to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel, adding yet more weight to calls for a ban from MPs, councillors, London Assembly figures and church leaders.
Norwegian trade unionists flew to London from Oslo to speak at the rally staged at London Muslim Centre along the Whitechapel Road—where the EDL plan to march on September 3.
The Bishop of Stepney, the Rt Rev Adrian Newman, in his first public engagement since his inauguration last Friday—ironically on the day of the Oslo massacre—was cheered when he told the rally: “I’ve already been criticised for standing shoulder to shoulder against fascism.
“But I stand with the people of the East End—this is no place for hate.”
The East End United alliance which organised last night’s gathering plan their own march and rally on September 3 to counter the EDL march on the same day, to be staged at Weavers Field in Bethnal Green.
Tower Hamlets Interfaith Forum’s chairman Alan Green, parish priest at Bethnal Green, told the East London Advertiser: “It will have the language of protest to show the EDL they’re not wanted here.
“We don’t want others setting up a separate demo—we have to show solidarity, a united East End against fascism and hate.”
Last night’s packed gathering heard from 35 speakers from the Jewish, Muslim, Christian and other faith communities, as well as MP Jeremy Corbyn and former London mayor Ken Livingstone.
Speakers also included a veteran of the 1936 ‘Battle of Cable Street’, former Stepney councillor Max Levitas, now aged 96, who received a standing ovation when he spoke of how the East End came together to keep out Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts 75 years ago. History had called on the East End once again, he urged, to keep out fascists today.
London 24
Extremists flocking to Facebook for recruits
When the English Defense League sprang to life two years ago, it had fewer than 50 members — a rough-and-tumble bunch of mostly white guys shouting from a street corner about what they viewed as uncontrolled Muslim immigration.
Now, the far-right group mentioned by confessed Norway gunman Anders Behring Breivik as an inspiration says its ranks have swollen to more than 10,000 people, a spectacular rise its leaders attribute to the immense global power of Facebook and other social networking sites.
"I knew that social networking sites were the way to go," EDL leader Stephen Lennon told The Associated Press. "But to say that we inspired this lunatic to do what he did is wrong. We've never once told our supporters its alright to go out and be violent."
A Facebook page under Breivik's name was taken down shortly after the attacks last week. A Twitter account under his name had only one Tweet, on July 17, loosely citing English philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."
Norwegian investigators have pored through data on Breivik's computer and say they now believe he was acting alone. They have also said they haven't found any links of concern between Breivik and far right British groups such as the EDL.
In addition to Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, the Internet hosts thousands of forums for far-left, far-right and other extremist groups. In Germany alone, far-right groups ran some 1,000 websites and 38 online radio stations as of late last year with many aimed at recruiting followers. Social networking sites, complete with politically charged music, are particularly drawing younger audiences who increasingly get their information outside of traditional media.
Extremists "still favor online chat platforms — often with several hundred participants — but they are increasingly turning to social media," said Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which called the danger of recruitment "considerable."
Intelligence and law enforcement officials have mixed feelings about the sites. On one hand, they recognize the potential for recruiting groups or individuals into violent movements. On the other, the sites allow officials to track and catch perpetrators. Germany's interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, told local media this week that he's more worried about extremists who go underground and "radicalize in secret."
Most agree that the most violent criminals often give little to no clear warning of the deadly acts they are about to commit, and that sometimes it's difficult to know when a person is simply boasting or whether their online activity suggests they could become killers.
What's undeniable is the social media's power to bring together people with like-minded views.
"Fifty years ago, if you believed that the Earth was populated by spies from Jupiter, it would have taken you quite some time to find someone else who shared the same belief," said Bob Ayers, a London-based former U.S. intelligence official. "That's not the case today. Social networking sites have changed the mathematics of things, and with that change, comes both pros and cons."
Several of the email addresses to which Breivik sent his 1,516-page manifesto hours before the Oslo bombing matched Facebook profiles of people flaunting neo-Nazi or ultra-nationalist symbols.
Those profiles, in turn, were set up to connect with like-minded people. One apparently Italian addressee — whose profile picture shows a swastika, the SS-symbol, and a skull — linked to Facebook groups representing "Fascist Music," the biography of former Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, as well as firearms.
His list of 462 "friends" showed several people with similar profiles, including some with the symbols or illustrations of the Knights Templar, a group that Breivik said he joined after meeting with a group of right-wing men in London.
Another addressee, showing off his pumped up torso and shaved head, lists the anti-immigration British National Party as his political views.
The British National Party, which won its first seat in European parliamentary elections last year, recently encouraged its members to use social media outlets. It even suggested that supporters use hashtags such as (hash)nationalist and (hash)BNP — techniques designed to capture a larger audience on a specific topic.
"Social networking is an important way of keeping in touch with the British National Party, and taking small, easy actions to promote our fight for our identity and culture," the BNP said on its site. "It's just one way you can make a difference and show you care about the cause we all believe in."
The group recommended its supporters post pro-nationalist quotes on Facebook to inspire friends to take action.
Some analysts say that although it's clear social media plays an important role in strengthening the far-right's sense of identity and solidarity, it's too early to say how much Facebook and Twitter have helped contribute to extremist violence.
"The fact that we have more blogs, more online forums, doesn't mean we have a greater risk of terrorism," said Matthew Goodwin, a politics lecturer who recently published a book on the far right in Britain. "Even if they hold radical, extreme views, it doesn't mean they're pro-violence."
Facebook says it relies on its community to police the site and usually only steps in when individuals or groups are inciting violence or hate. It would not comment on whether it was cooperating with law enforcement agencies looking into the Norway massacre.
"Facebook has a team of professionals that removes content that violates our policies, which includes content that's hateful, makes actionable threats, or includes nudity and/or pornography," said Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes.
Daniel Hodges, a spokesman for Searchlight, a UK magazine that campaigns against far-right extremism, said the Internet has allowed "all sorts of appalling viewpoints" to be read by anyone. "How many people over the world today have now read Breivik's manifesto?" he said.
The Internet often lets groups like the EDL come across as more powerful than they really are, he said.
"(The Internet) allows them to reach their membership relatively speedily, relatively anonymously. It enables them to give a perception of a significant critical mass. But many far right activists live online, not in the real world," Hodges said.
During a recent British election, the BNP suffered from a lack of grassroots support on the ground, even though its website received massive online traffic.
The definition of what counts as hate speech also varies from one country to another, and in the U.S. much of it is protected under the First Amendment. Denying the Holocaust, for example, is illegal in many European countries but not in the U.S.
U.S. laws also protect Internet companies from being held responsible for the content on their sites.
Rather than automatically take down pages that are in the gray area, some civil libertarians think it's better for social media sites to "err on the side of caution" and let the community handle it.
"Facebook and social media in general tend to be very self-correcting," said Jillian York, director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group in San Francisco.
"A lot of times you see people who oppose the hate speech taking over the (hate) groups. That tends to be more effective than taking the page down."
The Czech Republic's counterintelligence service called the Internet the "No. 1" propaganda tool for extremists in their terrorism report last year.
"There is a significant increase in activities of far right extremists in social networking sites, especially on Facebook. In connection with that, a relatively new phenomenon has appeared of groups which are joined, besides the extremists, also by common citizens ... As a result, the extremist views are becoming popular and spread among the public."
Germany viewed the threat in a similar way.
"The use of the Internet has become a fixture for German right-wing extremists in spreading their ideology, preparing their activities, campaigns and other events as well as the communication with their followers and sympathizers," Germany's domestic intelligence agency said in its latest report published earlier this month.
Lennon, meanwhile, may find himself spending even more time in the virtual far-right world. The 28-year-old newlywed with a handful of missing teeth is banned from going anywhere near protests. He also claims to have had his assets frozen pending a police investigation.
Despite the setbacks, Lennon said his group is growing — and even moving beyond the need for social media.
"We'll keep talking to people about what the EDL stands for, but we don't actually need places like Facebook anymore. We've already built our network and it's growing."
Associated Press
Now, the far-right group mentioned by confessed Norway gunman Anders Behring Breivik as an inspiration says its ranks have swollen to more than 10,000 people, a spectacular rise its leaders attribute to the immense global power of Facebook and other social networking sites.
"I knew that social networking sites were the way to go," EDL leader Stephen Lennon told The Associated Press. "But to say that we inspired this lunatic to do what he did is wrong. We've never once told our supporters its alright to go out and be violent."
A Facebook page under Breivik's name was taken down shortly after the attacks last week. A Twitter account under his name had only one Tweet, on July 17, loosely citing English philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."
Norwegian investigators have pored through data on Breivik's computer and say they now believe he was acting alone. They have also said they haven't found any links of concern between Breivik and far right British groups such as the EDL.
In addition to Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, the Internet hosts thousands of forums for far-left, far-right and other extremist groups. In Germany alone, far-right groups ran some 1,000 websites and 38 online radio stations as of late last year with many aimed at recruiting followers. Social networking sites, complete with politically charged music, are particularly drawing younger audiences who increasingly get their information outside of traditional media.
Extremists "still favor online chat platforms — often with several hundred participants — but they are increasingly turning to social media," said Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which called the danger of recruitment "considerable."
Intelligence and law enforcement officials have mixed feelings about the sites. On one hand, they recognize the potential for recruiting groups or individuals into violent movements. On the other, the sites allow officials to track and catch perpetrators. Germany's interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, told local media this week that he's more worried about extremists who go underground and "radicalize in secret."
Most agree that the most violent criminals often give little to no clear warning of the deadly acts they are about to commit, and that sometimes it's difficult to know when a person is simply boasting or whether their online activity suggests they could become killers.
What's undeniable is the social media's power to bring together people with like-minded views.
"Fifty years ago, if you believed that the Earth was populated by spies from Jupiter, it would have taken you quite some time to find someone else who shared the same belief," said Bob Ayers, a London-based former U.S. intelligence official. "That's not the case today. Social networking sites have changed the mathematics of things, and with that change, comes both pros and cons."
Several of the email addresses to which Breivik sent his 1,516-page manifesto hours before the Oslo bombing matched Facebook profiles of people flaunting neo-Nazi or ultra-nationalist symbols.
Those profiles, in turn, were set up to connect with like-minded people. One apparently Italian addressee — whose profile picture shows a swastika, the SS-symbol, and a skull — linked to Facebook groups representing "Fascist Music," the biography of former Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, as well as firearms.
His list of 462 "friends" showed several people with similar profiles, including some with the symbols or illustrations of the Knights Templar, a group that Breivik said he joined after meeting with a group of right-wing men in London.
Another addressee, showing off his pumped up torso and shaved head, lists the anti-immigration British National Party as his political views.
The British National Party, which won its first seat in European parliamentary elections last year, recently encouraged its members to use social media outlets. It even suggested that supporters use hashtags such as (hash)nationalist and (hash)BNP — techniques designed to capture a larger audience on a specific topic.
"Social networking is an important way of keeping in touch with the British National Party, and taking small, easy actions to promote our fight for our identity and culture," the BNP said on its site. "It's just one way you can make a difference and show you care about the cause we all believe in."
The group recommended its supporters post pro-nationalist quotes on Facebook to inspire friends to take action.
Some analysts say that although it's clear social media plays an important role in strengthening the far-right's sense of identity and solidarity, it's too early to say how much Facebook and Twitter have helped contribute to extremist violence.
"The fact that we have more blogs, more online forums, doesn't mean we have a greater risk of terrorism," said Matthew Goodwin, a politics lecturer who recently published a book on the far right in Britain. "Even if they hold radical, extreme views, it doesn't mean they're pro-violence."
Facebook says it relies on its community to police the site and usually only steps in when individuals or groups are inciting violence or hate. It would not comment on whether it was cooperating with law enforcement agencies looking into the Norway massacre.
"Facebook has a team of professionals that removes content that violates our policies, which includes content that's hateful, makes actionable threats, or includes nudity and/or pornography," said Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes.
Daniel Hodges, a spokesman for Searchlight, a UK magazine that campaigns against far-right extremism, said the Internet has allowed "all sorts of appalling viewpoints" to be read by anyone. "How many people over the world today have now read Breivik's manifesto?" he said.
The Internet often lets groups like the EDL come across as more powerful than they really are, he said.
"(The Internet) allows them to reach their membership relatively speedily, relatively anonymously. It enables them to give a perception of a significant critical mass. But many far right activists live online, not in the real world," Hodges said.
During a recent British election, the BNP suffered from a lack of grassroots support on the ground, even though its website received massive online traffic.
The definition of what counts as hate speech also varies from one country to another, and in the U.S. much of it is protected under the First Amendment. Denying the Holocaust, for example, is illegal in many European countries but not in the U.S.
U.S. laws also protect Internet companies from being held responsible for the content on their sites.
Rather than automatically take down pages that are in the gray area, some civil libertarians think it's better for social media sites to "err on the side of caution" and let the community handle it.
"Facebook and social media in general tend to be very self-correcting," said Jillian York, director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group in San Francisco.
"A lot of times you see people who oppose the hate speech taking over the (hate) groups. That tends to be more effective than taking the page down."
The Czech Republic's counterintelligence service called the Internet the "No. 1" propaganda tool for extremists in their terrorism report last year.
"There is a significant increase in activities of far right extremists in social networking sites, especially on Facebook. In connection with that, a relatively new phenomenon has appeared of groups which are joined, besides the extremists, also by common citizens ... As a result, the extremist views are becoming popular and spread among the public."
Germany viewed the threat in a similar way.
"The use of the Internet has become a fixture for German right-wing extremists in spreading their ideology, preparing their activities, campaigns and other events as well as the communication with their followers and sympathizers," Germany's domestic intelligence agency said in its latest report published earlier this month.
Lennon, meanwhile, may find himself spending even more time in the virtual far-right world. The 28-year-old newlywed with a handful of missing teeth is banned from going anywhere near protests. He also claims to have had his assets frozen pending a police investigation.
Despite the setbacks, Lennon said his group is growing — and even moving beyond the need for social media.
"We'll keep talking to people about what the EDL stands for, but we don't actually need places like Facebook anymore. We've already built our network and it's growing."
Associated Press
Friday, 29 July 2011
FACEBOOK FIRM ON HOLOCAUST DENIAL PAGES, DESPITE SURVIVORS’ LETTER
Facebook, citing free speech, has rejected a request by Holocaust survivors to remove some pages that espouse Holocaust denial. “We think it's important to maintain consistency in our policies, which don't generally prohibit people from making statements about historical events, no matter how ignorant the statement or how awful the event,” the popular social networking site said in response to a letter from Holocaust survivors dated July 8. Survivors and relatives of Holocaust victims wrote Facebook asking that the site change its policies permitting Holocaust denial before their aging generation is gone. The 21 survivors who signed the letter listed their concentration camps, ghettos and other Holocaust experiences below their names. “We, the undersigned, are Holocaust Survivors who saw our parents, children and loved ones brutally murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust,” the letter begins. “We are writing to you to protest Facebook’s policy that categorizes Holocaust denial as 'free speech,' rather than the shameless, cynical, and hateful propaganda that it is.”
The letter goes on to point out that not only are the Holocaust-denial sites offensive and hateful, but also could negatively influence scores of people due to Facebook’s popularity and accessibility. “By allowing this hate propaganda on Facebook, you are exposing the public and, in particular, youth to the anti-Semitism which fueled the Holocaust,” it says. The survivors who signed the letter are volunteers at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles who speak there and at its Museum of Tolerance. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's associate dean, criticized Facebook’s policy on Holocaust denial. "A review of denial sites currently active on Facebook confirms that it is not mere speech but that it constitutes at its core a platform for bigotry and hatred of Jews, dead and alive," said Cooper, who briefs online companies such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo on digital hate and terrorism. He added, “We will continue to urge Facebook officials to reflect on the pain and suffering their policy is causing victims of the Shoah. For these ageing heroes, every posting by deniers labels them, not victims of history's greatest crime, but liars and thieves.”
JTA
The letter goes on to point out that not only are the Holocaust-denial sites offensive and hateful, but also could negatively influence scores of people due to Facebook’s popularity and accessibility. “By allowing this hate propaganda on Facebook, you are exposing the public and, in particular, youth to the anti-Semitism which fueled the Holocaust,” it says. The survivors who signed the letter are volunteers at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles who speak there and at its Museum of Tolerance. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's associate dean, criticized Facebook’s policy on Holocaust denial. "A review of denial sites currently active on Facebook confirms that it is not mere speech but that it constitutes at its core a platform for bigotry and hatred of Jews, dead and alive," said Cooper, who briefs online companies such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo on digital hate and terrorism. He added, “We will continue to urge Facebook officials to reflect on the pain and suffering their policy is causing victims of the Shoah. For these ageing heroes, every posting by deniers labels them, not victims of history's greatest crime, but liars and thieves.”
JTA
SWEDISH NAZIS HOLD TOWN FAIR RECRUITMENT DRIVE
A Swedish neo-Nazi movement conducted a recruitment drive at Kivik's annual fair in southern Sweden last week. "Unacceptable" according to the organizers, who have promised to tighten security for next year.
"This is absolutely not something we want to be associated with," Kivik fair organizer Tony Andreasson told The Local on Wednesday. The Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska motståndsrörelsen - SMR) spent around three hours at the market, dealing out flyers and selling its newspaper "Nationellt Motstånd" (National Resistance). "They must have registered under another name. That is the only explanation. We have had trouble with groups like this before," Andreasson said. The group, which has been classified by the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) as "Sweden's greatest internal threat", boasts of the success of its recruitment drive on its homepage saying that "several debates" were held with fairgoers. "The activists... made contact with one person who wanted to join the freedom fight," the group wrote. Kivik fair is an annual event with a fairground and arund 1,000 market stalls selling produce from the region and elsewhere.
The fair attracts more than 100,000 visitors per year. Andreasson told The Local that two guards will be employed before next year's fair to ensure that the occasion is kept free from neo-Nazi groups. "We are the people who decide over Kivik fair. We want to have a serious family market just as we have done for the past 25 years," he said. The Local reported last week that SMR's newspaper had been reported for hate speech after it allowed a reader comment containing racial slurs to remain on the site.
The Local Sweden
"This is absolutely not something we want to be associated with," Kivik fair organizer Tony Andreasson told The Local on Wednesday. The Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska motståndsrörelsen - SMR) spent around three hours at the market, dealing out flyers and selling its newspaper "Nationellt Motstånd" (National Resistance). "They must have registered under another name. That is the only explanation. We have had trouble with groups like this before," Andreasson said. The group, which has been classified by the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) as "Sweden's greatest internal threat", boasts of the success of its recruitment drive on its homepage saying that "several debates" were held with fairgoers. "The activists... made contact with one person who wanted to join the freedom fight," the group wrote. Kivik fair is an annual event with a fairground and arund 1,000 market stalls selling produce from the region and elsewhere.
The fair attracts more than 100,000 visitors per year. Andreasson told The Local that two guards will be employed before next year's fair to ensure that the occasion is kept free from neo-Nazi groups. "We are the people who decide over Kivik fair. We want to have a serious family market just as we have done for the past 25 years," he said. The Local reported last week that SMR's newspaper had been reported for hate speech after it allowed a reader comment containing racial slurs to remain on the site.
The Local Sweden
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Police to probe Facebook death threat to Galloway (UK)
A DEATH threat to George Galloway is being investigated by police in London.
Mr Galloway asked the Metropolitan Police to investigate after a threat was posted online by a member of the far-right English Defence League (EDL).
He contacted the police at Streatham near his south London home after a senior EDL member Daryl Hobson, who has boasted of the group’s links with Norwegian killer Anders Breivik, posted a message reading “Kill George Galloway” on his own Facebook page.
Herald Scotland
Mr Galloway asked the Metropolitan Police to investigate after a threat was posted online by a member of the far-right English Defence League (EDL).
He contacted the police at Streatham near his south London home after a senior EDL member Daryl Hobson, who has boasted of the group’s links with Norwegian killer Anders Breivik, posted a message reading “Kill George Galloway” on his own Facebook page.
Herald Scotland
CZECH NEO-NAZIS CELEBRATE NORWEGIAN MASS MURDERER
Anders Behring Breivik, the man who has confessed to committing Friday's massacres in Oslo and the island of Ut?ya, news server Lidovky.cz reports. News server Aktuálnì.cz has reported that police are analyzing the article celebrating the man who by all accounts has murdered a total of 76 people. According to the article, entitled "In Defense of Anders Breivik", the assassin's crime is more than understandable and has inspired many other people fighting against multiculturalism. News server Lidovky.cz reports that police do not yet know the identity of the author of the declaration but have long been following the extremist website. "Praising of a crime is naturally prosecutable," said Karel Kuchaøík, head of the group for the detection of cybercrime.
"We are aware of the article. At this moment our cybercrime department is analyzing it in detail," Pavla Kopecká, spokesperson for the Police Presidium, told Aktuálnì.cz. She was not yet able to say whether the text itself violates the law. According to terrorism expert Marian Brzybohatý, however, the author has committed several obvious crimes, violating three sections of the Penal Code - support and promotion of a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms, expressing sympathy for such a movement, and denying, doubting, approving of and justifying genocide. Breivik, a 32-year-old right-wing extremist, has confessed to setting off a bomb in the government quarter of Oslo on Friday and then shooting at least 68 people on the nearby island of Ut?ya, most of them participants in a Social Democratic Youth camp. The most recent reports say he is responsible for the deaths of at least 76 people. Breivik claims his crime was motivated by his desire to protect Europe from "Muslim colonization". The killings are the greatest single act of bloodshed to have been committed in Norway since the Second World War.
Romea
"We are aware of the article. At this moment our cybercrime department is analyzing it in detail," Pavla Kopecká, spokesperson for the Police Presidium, told Aktuálnì.cz. She was not yet able to say whether the text itself violates the law. According to terrorism expert Marian Brzybohatý, however, the author has committed several obvious crimes, violating three sections of the Penal Code - support and promotion of a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms, expressing sympathy for such a movement, and denying, doubting, approving of and justifying genocide. Breivik, a 32-year-old right-wing extremist, has confessed to setting off a bomb in the government quarter of Oslo on Friday and then shooting at least 68 people on the nearby island of Ut?ya, most of them participants in a Social Democratic Youth camp. The most recent reports say he is responsible for the deaths of at least 76 people. Breivik claims his crime was motivated by his desire to protect Europe from "Muslim colonization". The killings are the greatest single act of bloodshed to have been committed in Norway since the Second World War.
Romea
Norway shooting: Anders Breivik sent 'manifesto' to supporters of BNP, English Defence League and Combat 18
The Daily Telegraph has learned at least 250 British-based contacts were sent Breivik's manifesto, in which he explains his extensive links to far-right groups in the UK, less than two hours before he killed 76 people in Norway's worst terrorist atrocity.
Already it has emerged that Breivik had made online contact with members of the English Defence League (EDL), chatting to members on Facebook and posting on the group's official website under an assumed name.
Now the Daily Telegraph has obtained a list of 1,003 email addresses which Breivik sent his manifesto to. The document was sent at 2.08pm Norwegian time on Friday, shortly before the bomb in Oslo was detonated at about 3.30pm.
While many of the addresses do not give away the identity of the recipient, some hint at membership or support of far-Right groups in the UK.
Three addresses include reference to the British National Party, while one is addressed to Combat 18, the neo-Nazi organisation. Individuals linked to the EDL are also included.
Daryl Hobson, the EDL supporter who claimed on Facebook that Breivik had attended an EDL demonstration in the UK in 2010, is on the list.
The document is also emailed to a C Donnellan. Clive Donnellan is an EDL supporter who has also spoken of his support for the BNP.
Many of the addresses contain clear right-wing references. Some include the number 88. Column 88 was a UK-based neo-nazi organisation.
The manifesto is also sent to a group calling itself the East Midlands National Alliance.
The list has been forwarded to the police by Tanguys Veys, a Belgian MP for the far-right, anti-Muslim Vlaams-Belang party. Mr Veys is on the list of recipients as are a numbers of his party activists.
Yesterday he said he was surprised to be on the list, adding: "I was connected with a terrorist act and I didn't want to be connected with a terrorist act."
Scotland Yard is believed to have been handed a copy of the list. It is thought that the force will examine whether any of the recipients had links with Breivik.
There is no suggestion that any of the British-based recipients knew Breivik or had any contact with him prior to receiving his manifesto unsolicited.
But in the document he claimed to have 600 EDL supporters as friends on Facebook.
Recently it emerged that he had posted on the group's official website earlier this year where he was told he would be welcome to attend a demonstration in Britain.
One EDL supporter said that Breivik, 32, had attended a demo in support of far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders in London in March 2010. Breivik's solicitor confirmed that he had visited London in the past.
Stephen Lennon, the EDL leader, said the group had no association with Breivik.
The Telegraph
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Police probe neo-Nazi link to Roma arson attack
Police investigating an arson attack on an apartment housing Roma and Sinti families in Leverkusen were continuing Tuesday morning to probe the possibility that neo-Nazis may have been behind the attack.
Police and state prosecutors in nearby Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia are investigating a xenophobic motive to the attack, in which nine people had to flee a ground-floor apartment after assailants hurled several fire bombs through the windows around 12:25 am Monday.
All nine people in the apartment escaped unharmed but the apartment was totally burnt out by the blaze and only the intervention of the fire brigade stopped it destroying the rest of the building.
The attack came amid a heightened atmosphere surrounding far-right violence in the wake of the massacre of at least 76 people on Friday by a Norwegian nationalist.
Witnesses saw two young men wearing dark clothing fleeing the scene in a dark Volkwagen car, possibly a Golf or Polo, with number plates from the NRW city of Neuss, police reported. Daily Bild reported that the fleeing suspected had shaved heads.
A police spokesman confirmed to The Local on Tuesday morning that investigators were continuing to probe the possibility that right-wing extremists were behind the attack, though all avenues were being examined.
Twenty-one officers from the Cologne police, including members of the arson squad, were investigating.
The Local Germany
Police and state prosecutors in nearby Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia are investigating a xenophobic motive to the attack, in which nine people had to flee a ground-floor apartment after assailants hurled several fire bombs through the windows around 12:25 am Monday.
All nine people in the apartment escaped unharmed but the apartment was totally burnt out by the blaze and only the intervention of the fire brigade stopped it destroying the rest of the building.
The attack came amid a heightened atmosphere surrounding far-right violence in the wake of the massacre of at least 76 people on Friday by a Norwegian nationalist.
Witnesses saw two young men wearing dark clothing fleeing the scene in a dark Volkwagen car, possibly a Golf or Polo, with number plates from the NRW city of Neuss, police reported. Daily Bild reported that the fleeing suspected had shaved heads.
A police spokesman confirmed to The Local on Tuesday morning that investigators were continuing to probe the possibility that right-wing extremists were behind the attack, though all avenues were being examined.
Twenty-one officers from the Cologne police, including members of the arson squad, were investigating.
The Local Germany
Call to ban EDL march through East End after Norway bomber alleged link (UK)
The Searchlight campaign is supporting Tower Hamlets MPs, councillors, mayor and London Assembly figures calling on the Home Secretary to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel on September 3.
The groundswell culminates in a public meeting on Friday at the London Muslim Centre, which is being addressed by the new Bishop of Stepney in his first public role.
Searchlight claims EDL members exchanged emails with the self-confessed Norwegian killer before he went off to prepare for last week’s bombing and shootings in which 76 people died.
“It’s clear the proposed march in Tower Hamlets cannot be allowed,” said Searchlight editor Nick Lowles.
“The Home Office must now formally classify the EDL as an extremist organisation and let police use the same resources to monitor their activity as with other extremist groups.”
The events in Norway have created an atmosphere in East London that Poplar & Limehouse MP Jim Fitzpatrick says makes a ban urgent.
The MP said: “The march will affect public order. It’s better if the EDL didn’t come to the East End—they should keep out.”
He joined Bethnal Green & Bow MP Rushanara Ali in discussions with Home Office minister James Brockenshire last Friday, before the events in Norway, and since written to Home Secretary Theresa May.
The new Bishop of Stepney, The Rt Rev Adrian Newman, addresses Friday evening’s meeting in Whitechapel in which he pledges to support a ban if there’s groundswell demand.
“I am with the people of the East End,” he told the Advertiser. “If the community says it doesn’t want the EDL to spread their message of hate, I stand with them and nail my colours to the mast.”
Mayor Lutfur Rahman has called for the EDL itself to be prescribed as a banned organisation in the light of events in Norway.
“If the Bishop of Stepney has come out against the EDL, we’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with him,” the mayor said.
“The EDL has a history of advocating violence—enough to list them as a prescribed organisation.”
He wrote to the Mayor of Oslo yesterday (Tues) offering “the sympathies of the people of Tower Hamlets in Norway’s time of crisis.”
Tower Hamlets Labour group leader Joshua Peck and London Assembly’s budget chairman John Biggs have also urged the Home Secretary to stop the EDL march.
Cllr Peck said: “Their presence creates a ripple effect of fear and tension which will encourage people onto the streets. We don’t want running battles or the community being whipped up.”
But the EDL said yesterday (Tues) it was determined to go ahead with the march through Whitechapel.
Its spokesman Tommy Robinson insisted: “We are just using our democratic rights for a peaceful protest and free assembly.
“Those streets are English streets on English soil—we go where we want. Tower Hamlets is part of London, our capital.”
He denied any links with the Norwegian bomber and pointed out that Breivik’s 1,500-page ‘manifesto’ described the EDL as “naive fools” who believed in the democratic process.
Yet Breivik boasted of having 600 EDL members as Facebook friends.
London24
The groundswell culminates in a public meeting on Friday at the London Muslim Centre, which is being addressed by the new Bishop of Stepney in his first public role.
Searchlight claims EDL members exchanged emails with the self-confessed Norwegian killer before he went off to prepare for last week’s bombing and shootings in which 76 people died.
“It’s clear the proposed march in Tower Hamlets cannot be allowed,” said Searchlight editor Nick Lowles.
“The Home Office must now formally classify the EDL as an extremist organisation and let police use the same resources to monitor their activity as with other extremist groups.”
The events in Norway have created an atmosphere in East London that Poplar & Limehouse MP Jim Fitzpatrick says makes a ban urgent.
The MP said: “The march will affect public order. It’s better if the EDL didn’t come to the East End—they should keep out.”
He joined Bethnal Green & Bow MP Rushanara Ali in discussions with Home Office minister James Brockenshire last Friday, before the events in Norway, and since written to Home Secretary Theresa May.
The new Bishop of Stepney, The Rt Rev Adrian Newman, addresses Friday evening’s meeting in Whitechapel in which he pledges to support a ban if there’s groundswell demand.
“I am with the people of the East End,” he told the Advertiser. “If the community says it doesn’t want the EDL to spread their message of hate, I stand with them and nail my colours to the mast.”
Mayor Lutfur Rahman has called for the EDL itself to be prescribed as a banned organisation in the light of events in Norway.
“If the Bishop of Stepney has come out against the EDL, we’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with him,” the mayor said.
“The EDL has a history of advocating violence—enough to list them as a prescribed organisation.”
He wrote to the Mayor of Oslo yesterday (Tues) offering “the sympathies of the people of Tower Hamlets in Norway’s time of crisis.”
Tower Hamlets Labour group leader Joshua Peck and London Assembly’s budget chairman John Biggs have also urged the Home Secretary to stop the EDL march.
Cllr Peck said: “Their presence creates a ripple effect of fear and tension which will encourage people onto the streets. We don’t want running battles or the community being whipped up.”
But the EDL said yesterday (Tues) it was determined to go ahead with the march through Whitechapel.
Its spokesman Tommy Robinson insisted: “We are just using our democratic rights for a peaceful protest and free assembly.
“Those streets are English streets on English soil—we go where we want. Tower Hamlets is part of London, our capital.”
He denied any links with the Norwegian bomber and pointed out that Breivik’s 1,500-page ‘manifesto’ described the EDL as “naive fools” who believed in the democratic process.
Yet Breivik boasted of having 600 EDL members as Facebook friends.
London24
Breivik sent 'manifesto' to 250 UK contacts hours before Norway killings
The man responsible for the mass killing in Norway emailed his 1,500-page document to 250 British contacts less than 90 minutes before he began his attack, according to a Belgian MP.
Anders Behring Breivik sent his manifesto to 1,003 email addresses at 2.09pm on Friday – less than an hour and a half before he detonated a bomb in Oslo.
According to Tanguy Veys MP for the rightwing anti-Muslim party Vlaams Belang, – and one of those who received the document – approximately a quarter of those on the email list were UK-based.
"I think the UK was the biggest group [of recipients]," he told the Guardian last night. "There were people from Italy, France Germany … but the UK was the biggest number."
Using the name Andrew Berwick, Breivik emailed his manifesto and a link to a YouTube video and addressed each recipient "Western Europe patriot" and wrote: "It is a gift to you … I ask you to distribute it to everyone you know."
It has been reported that Scotland Yard's domestic extremism unit, which is investigating Breivik's British links, has been sent a list of UK-based email addresses although the Met refused to confirm that.
Veys said he had not had any contact with Breivik and condemned his actions.
"Looking through this it seems very difficult to find a criteria for who he sent it to … it is very strange and I am cross I have been associated with him in any way."
The news of the emails came as anti-racism campaigners in the UK said they believed Breivik may have been in touch with activists from the far-right English Defence League as recently as March.
Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine, said the 32-year-old used the pseudonym of a 12th-century Norwegian king who led one of the Crusades to communicate with people on an English Defence League forum.
In one posting, on 9 March, the author called on rightwing activists in the UK to "keep up the good work". The message said: "Hello. To you all good English men and women, just wanted to say that you're a blessing to all in Europe, in these dark times all of Europe are looking to you in such [sic] of inspiration, courage and even hope that we might turn this evil trend with islamisation all across our continent. Well, just wanted to say keep up the good work it's good to see others that care about their country and heritage. All the best to you all. Sigurd."
Breivik boasted about his links to the UK far-right group in his manifesto. He also wrote that he was given the codename "Sigurd (the Crusader)" at a founding meeting of a group called the Knights Templar Europe in London in 2002. There is no confirmation that the author is Breivik. Sigurd is a common name in Norway.
In other messages, "Sigurd" says he attended a football ground in the UK and expressed his admiration for the EDL.
"I've seen with my own eyes what has happened to england, i was in bradford some years ago, me and a friend walked down to the football stadium of bradford, real 'nice' neighborhood, same thing in the suburbs of london. well thinking about taking a little trip over the sea and join you in a demo. would be nice with a norwegian flag alongside with union jack or the english flag, that is if a norwegian would be welcome offcourse?"
In another message, he goes on to discuss the situation in Norway.
"The biggest problem in Norway is that there is no real free press, there is a left-wing angle on all the political topics so most people are going around like idiots. And offcourse with our norwegian labour party beeing in power for most of the last 50 years dont help. but i i think there is an awakening now at least i hope so."
In his manifesto, Breivik repeatedly refers to the EDL, stating at one point: "I used to have more than 600 EDL members as Facebook friends and have spoken with tens of EDL members and leaders."
"In fact, I was one of the individuals who supplied them with processed ideological material (including rhetorical strategies) in the very beginning."
"There also appears to be a growing dispute among some figures associated with the EDL over who Breivik's "mentor" Richard may be. In his manifesto, the Norwegian said he met "Richard" at the Knights Templar meeting in 2002 and says the pair became "close."
The EDL – which has staged a series of street demonstrations, many of which have turned violent, denies any links to Breivik and has condemned the killings, stating it is a peaceful organisation that rejects all forms of extremism.
Last night the EDL said in an emailed statement that it was "not aware of any contact between Breivik and EDL leadership … of anyone using the name Sigurd and the forum".
"You must realise anyone on the EDL Forum or EDL Facebook can join and make up any name that they may choose."
Since the killings there have been unconfirmed reports that Breivik attended EDL demonstrations in the UK last year – possibly in London and Newcastle
The Guardian
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
"MAKE HASTE WITH COMMITTING RESOURCES TO COUNTER CYBER HATE AND EXTREMISM" (International Network Against Cyber Hate)
The International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH) is appalled and saddened by the terrorist acts that took place last Friday in Norway, committed by an ultra-nationalist/populist who appears to have radicalised under the influence of online hate and who used the internet to spread his ideas and incited to hatred. We express our sympathies to the victims and their families of this tragedy.
Many governments worldwide, including in Europe, have been ignoring the extreme right, ultra-nationalism and populism and their growth on and through the internet. Some have even stated that Neo-Nazism and right wing extremism had become 'insignificant’. The atrocities in Norway should at least teach that we need to focus on all forms of hate and bigotry.
Over the last 10 years, our network and other NGOs and experts have been trying to sensitize governments worldwide to pay attention and take action on the relationship between online incitement to hatred and the resulting hate crime in real life. Philippe Schmidt, Chair of the INACH network and LICRA Vice-President for International Affairs: “We urge all governments and international institutions like the EU, Council of Europe and the OSCE to make haste with committing resources to counter cyber hate and extremism”.
The International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), is an organisation with members in 19 countries, working on countering cyber hate by removal, education and monitoring.
INACH
Many governments worldwide, including in Europe, have been ignoring the extreme right, ultra-nationalism and populism and their growth on and through the internet. Some have even stated that Neo-Nazism and right wing extremism had become 'insignificant’. The atrocities in Norway should at least teach that we need to focus on all forms of hate and bigotry.
Over the last 10 years, our network and other NGOs and experts have been trying to sensitize governments worldwide to pay attention and take action on the relationship between online incitement to hatred and the resulting hate crime in real life. Philippe Schmidt, Chair of the INACH network and LICRA Vice-President for International Affairs: “We urge all governments and international institutions like the EU, Council of Europe and the OSCE to make haste with committing resources to counter cyber hate and extremism”.
The International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), is an organisation with members in 19 countries, working on countering cyber hate by removal, education and monitoring.
INACH
EDL founder Stephen Lennon guilty over football brawl (UK)
The founder of the English Defence League has been convicted of leading a brawl involving 100 football fans.
Stephen Lennon, 28, led Luton Town supporters and chanted "EDL till I die", as they clashed with Newport County fans in Luton, a court heard.
Lennon, from Luton, was found guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour on 24 August last year.
He was given a 12-month community rehabilitation order and a three-year ban from football by Luton magistrates.
He must also carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £650 in costs.
He denied the charges but was convicted after a trial.
Outside court he said he was being persecuted for his right wing beliefs.
"I am being done for what I am saying rather than what I am doing," he said.
"In the last 12 months I've been banned from protesting, going to the football and my assets have been frozen. It is a police state."
Lennon, a father-of-three who got married on Saturday, was arrested by officers who told him he was being taken into custody for suspected actual bodily harm from an outstanding allegation, which was later discontinued.
The court heard the defendant was "egging on" and "upping the ante" as the two sets of fans fought.
'Incredibly intimidating'
Luton Magistrates' Court was told he had been at the front of the group of Luton fans and gesticulated "come on then" at his opponents.
Timothy North, prosecuting, said two groups of opposing fans appeared close to Luton Town's Kenilworth Road ground five minutes before the evening kick-off.
"Officers noticed the presence of Mr Lennon in the group, at the head of the Luton Town supporters," he said.
"The impression was he was egging them on. At one stage he was alleged to have shouted the words 'EDL'."
Mr North said "there would have been a substantial degree of fighting" if police had not intervened.
However, a brawl involving about 100 fans did erupt, with only seven officers present to deal with it.
'Looking for trouble'
PC Robert Field, who was an acting sergeant in charge of six colleagues, said the officers wielded their batons in a bid to stop the men fighting.
He described the situation as "incredibly intimidating" to the public and said it was "clearly going to get out of control".
PC Field said: "[Lennon] was a prominent person at the front of the group, giving a 'come on then' gesture.
"I could see he was being looked at; he was holding the line of the Luton fans.
"He was being looked at to say: 'Do we go now?'."
Lennon was the only person charged over the incident.
District Judge Carolyn Mellanby told him: "I am entirely satisfied you were at the front of this group of angry Luton supporters looking for trouble when you were confronted by the group of Newport supporters who were also angry and fired up looking for trouble."
BBC News
Stephen Lennon, 28, led Luton Town supporters and chanted "EDL till I die", as they clashed with Newport County fans in Luton, a court heard.
Lennon, from Luton, was found guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour on 24 August last year.
He was given a 12-month community rehabilitation order and a three-year ban from football by Luton magistrates.
He must also carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £650 in costs.
He denied the charges but was convicted after a trial.
Outside court he said he was being persecuted for his right wing beliefs.
"I am being done for what I am saying rather than what I am doing," he said.
"In the last 12 months I've been banned from protesting, going to the football and my assets have been frozen. It is a police state."
Lennon, a father-of-three who got married on Saturday, was arrested by officers who told him he was being taken into custody for suspected actual bodily harm from an outstanding allegation, which was later discontinued.
The court heard the defendant was "egging on" and "upping the ante" as the two sets of fans fought.
'Incredibly intimidating'
Luton Magistrates' Court was told he had been at the front of the group of Luton fans and gesticulated "come on then" at his opponents.
Timothy North, prosecuting, said two groups of opposing fans appeared close to Luton Town's Kenilworth Road ground five minutes before the evening kick-off.
"Officers noticed the presence of Mr Lennon in the group, at the head of the Luton Town supporters," he said.
"The impression was he was egging them on. At one stage he was alleged to have shouted the words 'EDL'."
Mr North said "there would have been a substantial degree of fighting" if police had not intervened.
However, a brawl involving about 100 fans did erupt, with only seven officers present to deal with it.
'Looking for trouble'
PC Robert Field, who was an acting sergeant in charge of six colleagues, said the officers wielded their batons in a bid to stop the men fighting.
He described the situation as "incredibly intimidating" to the public and said it was "clearly going to get out of control".
PC Field said: "[Lennon] was a prominent person at the front of the group, giving a 'come on then' gesture.
"I could see he was being looked at; he was holding the line of the Luton fans.
"He was being looked at to say: 'Do we go now?'."
Lennon was the only person charged over the incident.
District Judge Carolyn Mellanby told him: "I am entirely satisfied you were at the front of this group of angry Luton supporters looking for trouble when you were confronted by the group of Newport supporters who were also angry and fired up looking for trouble."
BBC News
Goodspeed Analysis: Extreme right rising throughout Europe
Norwegian police and intelligence agencies across Europe are trying to determine whether confessed mass murderer Anders Breivik had any accomplices.
Fears he might send coded messages to associates, if he appeared in open court, may have played a role in Monday’s decision to close his arraignment to the media and public. The possibility of an international conspiracy has riveted attention on far-right extremists, who have surged to prominence across Europe in the past decade.
Far-right parties have made electoral breakthroughs in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, Austria, France and Italy.
They have also driven heated debates across the continent over immigration, Islam and integration, and influenced the policies of mainstream parties and governments, pushing Europe into a new era of doubt and division.
France has banned the burqa and launched a campaign to deport illegally settled gypsies (Roma); Swiss voters voted to ban the construction of minarets on mosques; and the government in the Netherlands relies on the support of the Dutch Freedom Party, led by Geert Wilders, who compares the Koran with Mein Kampf and campaigned to have the book banned.
Austria’s xenophobic Freedom Party recently won 27% of the vote in Vienna’s local elections and is poised to make gains in national elections in 2013. In Sweden, a party with neo-Nazi roots, the Sweden Democrats, came out of nowhere to win 20 seats in national elections last September. In Finland, the True Finns, a populist nationalist party, became the third largest party in parliament when it got 19% of the vote in elections in April.
And in Norway, the Progress Party, which Breivik belonged to for nine years before he quit in 2006, came within a whisker of seizing power in 2009 and is the second-largest in the country.
Appealing to a sense of grievance and lost national identity, exacerbated by economic recession, far-right parties lash out against immigrants, globalization, the European Union and multiculturalism.
“Parties on the radical right have been major players in Europe for at least a decade,” said David Art, a political scientist at Tufts University, near Boston, who wrote a book on the development of anti-immigrant parties in Western Europe.
“They have been growing since the 1980s, when you first started getting complaints about immigrants taking jobs and filling up public housing. But by the 1990s, you saw the rise of cultural issues. Not only are immigrants taking over jobs, they are seen as changing the complexion of society. People would say, ‘I no longer feel at home in Oslo or Stockholm or Berlin,’ ” he said.
“Since 9/11 you have the anti-Islam element as a defining issue. The debate becomes whether [Muslim] values are compatible with ours.”
Breivik, a gun-loving extremist who was obsessed with what he called the “Islamic colonization of Europe,” boasted in his online manifesto of ties with other European right-wing radicals. He advocated the creation of a Norwegian version of the English Defence League, which campaigns against what it perceives to be the spread of Islam, sharia law and Islamic extremism in Britain. He also contributed to a host of neo-Nazi Internet forums.
“People like Breivik may act in isolation, but they represent a set of ideas that are shared by many,” said Matthew Goodwin, an expert on far-right politics at the University of Nottingham in Britain.
The man’s Internet postings “reveal an obsession with issues that are of concern to many within the broader right-wing subculture,” Prof. Goodwin said.
These include “a preoccupation with the effects of multiculturalism; the perceived cultural threat posed by immigration and Muslim communities; criticism of a lack of effective responses to these threats from established main parties; and strong emphasis on the need to take radical and urgent action.”
What set Breivik apart, says Hagai Segal, a security specialist at New York University in London, was his choice of targets.
“If he had blown up the Prime Minister in his office and then gone on to attack a mosque, it would have played into the far-right,” he said.
“But the fact he killed people who were the kind of people the far-right wants to recruit, means a lot of far-right groups are going to be actively trying to distance themselves from this act.”
Still, Breivik may have his share of sympathizers and possible copycats.
Last year, Terrance Gavan, a former soldier and British National Party member who shared many of his concerns, was sentenced to 11 years in jail for manufacturing 54 nail bombs and possessing a staggering supply of weapons and explosives.
In an echo of the Norwegian’s Internet postings, Gavan kept a handwritten journal in which he declared, “Patriots must always be ready to defend his country against enemies and their governments.”
National Post
Fears he might send coded messages to associates, if he appeared in open court, may have played a role in Monday’s decision to close his arraignment to the media and public. The possibility of an international conspiracy has riveted attention on far-right extremists, who have surged to prominence across Europe in the past decade.
Far-right parties have made electoral breakthroughs in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, Austria, France and Italy.
They have also driven heated debates across the continent over immigration, Islam and integration, and influenced the policies of mainstream parties and governments, pushing Europe into a new era of doubt and division.
France has banned the burqa and launched a campaign to deport illegally settled gypsies (Roma); Swiss voters voted to ban the construction of minarets on mosques; and the government in the Netherlands relies on the support of the Dutch Freedom Party, led by Geert Wilders, who compares the Koran with Mein Kampf and campaigned to have the book banned.
Austria’s xenophobic Freedom Party recently won 27% of the vote in Vienna’s local elections and is poised to make gains in national elections in 2013. In Sweden, a party with neo-Nazi roots, the Sweden Democrats, came out of nowhere to win 20 seats in national elections last September. In Finland, the True Finns, a populist nationalist party, became the third largest party in parliament when it got 19% of the vote in elections in April.
And in Norway, the Progress Party, which Breivik belonged to for nine years before he quit in 2006, came within a whisker of seizing power in 2009 and is the second-largest in the country.
Appealing to a sense of grievance and lost national identity, exacerbated by economic recession, far-right parties lash out against immigrants, globalization, the European Union and multiculturalism.
“Parties on the radical right have been major players in Europe for at least a decade,” said David Art, a political scientist at Tufts University, near Boston, who wrote a book on the development of anti-immigrant parties in Western Europe.
“They have been growing since the 1980s, when you first started getting complaints about immigrants taking jobs and filling up public housing. But by the 1990s, you saw the rise of cultural issues. Not only are immigrants taking over jobs, they are seen as changing the complexion of society. People would say, ‘I no longer feel at home in Oslo or Stockholm or Berlin,’ ” he said.
“Since 9/11 you have the anti-Islam element as a defining issue. The debate becomes whether [Muslim] values are compatible with ours.”
Breivik, a gun-loving extremist who was obsessed with what he called the “Islamic colonization of Europe,” boasted in his online manifesto of ties with other European right-wing radicals. He advocated the creation of a Norwegian version of the English Defence League, which campaigns against what it perceives to be the spread of Islam, sharia law and Islamic extremism in Britain. He also contributed to a host of neo-Nazi Internet forums.
“People like Breivik may act in isolation, but they represent a set of ideas that are shared by many,” said Matthew Goodwin, an expert on far-right politics at the University of Nottingham in Britain.
The man’s Internet postings “reveal an obsession with issues that are of concern to many within the broader right-wing subculture,” Prof. Goodwin said.
These include “a preoccupation with the effects of multiculturalism; the perceived cultural threat posed by immigration and Muslim communities; criticism of a lack of effective responses to these threats from established main parties; and strong emphasis on the need to take radical and urgent action.”
What set Breivik apart, says Hagai Segal, a security specialist at New York University in London, was his choice of targets.
“If he had blown up the Prime Minister in his office and then gone on to attack a mosque, it would have played into the far-right,” he said.
“But the fact he killed people who were the kind of people the far-right wants to recruit, means a lot of far-right groups are going to be actively trying to distance themselves from this act.”
Still, Breivik may have his share of sympathizers and possible copycats.
Last year, Terrance Gavan, a former soldier and British National Party member who shared many of his concerns, was sentenced to 11 years in jail for manufacturing 54 nail bombs and possessing a staggering supply of weapons and explosives.
In an echo of the Norwegian’s Internet postings, Gavan kept a handwritten journal in which he declared, “Patriots must always be ready to defend his country against enemies and their governments.”
National Post
Nick Griffin re-elected BNP leader ahead of Andrew Brons (UK)
Nick Griffin has been re-elected as leader of the British National Party, according to the party's website.
It said he received 1,157 votes and his opponent, Andrew Brons MEP, received 1,148. Eleven papers were spoiled.
The website quoted Mr Griffin as saying the "time for division and disruption is over" and urging members of his party to "go forward together".
In May, the BNP, which has been hit by divisions, lost many of the seats it held on local councils in England.
BBC News
It said he received 1,157 votes and his opponent, Andrew Brons MEP, received 1,148. Eleven papers were spoiled.
The website quoted Mr Griffin as saying the "time for division and disruption is over" and urging members of his party to "go forward together".
In May, the BNP, which has been hit by divisions, lost many of the seats it held on local councils in England.
BBC News
Monday, 25 July 2011
Outcry over role of English Defence League (UK)
The comments come amid increased scrutiny of links between the man arrested for the attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, and the EDL. Breivik, a right-wing Christian-fundamentalist, had previously written that he had been “impressed” by the EDL and advocated the creation of a Norwegian version of the group, which campaigns against what it perceives as the spread of Islam and Sharia Law in Britain.
In a manifesto titled “2083”, put online before the attacks, Breivik writes: "I used to have more than 600 EDL members as Facebook friends and have spoken with tens of EDL members and leaders. In fact; I was one of the individuals who supplied them with processed ideological material (including rhetorical strategies) in the very beginning."
Since the attacks, campaigners have called for the EDL to be formally classified by the government as a far-right organisation, rather than a legitimate political entity. Nick Lowles, director of anti-extremist campaign group Hope Not Hate, said yesterday that the decision not to classify the EDL as an extremist right-wing group “severely limits the capacity of the police to gather intelligence on the EDL, its members and its activities”. “Given the mounting evidence of connections between the EDL and alleged violent extremists like Anders Behring Breivik, we don't see how this situation is sustainable,” he said.
The Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has said Norwegian officials are working with foreign intelligence agencies to see if there was any international involvement in the attacks.
A statement from the EDL denied that it had any official contact with Breivik and condemned the attacks. But comments made by EDL supporters on the organisation’s forum and Facebook page are likely to increase pressure on the group.
Amid many condemnations of the massacre by EDL supporters on the forum, a number of people argued that the Norwegian government’s immigration policies were to blame for the attack. One user of the forum said: “They may blame this on the right wing but it’s most certainly caused by the left wing politicians and the injustices they serve up on a daily basis.” They added: “Maybe this guy is very well focused on his cause and created this situation in an attempt to alert the world about the islamification problems.”
One person posting on the group’s Facebook page wrote of Breivik yesterday: “I would have supported him 100% if he had just stuck to bombs instead of killing them poor brainwashed children.”
In response to the Norway attacks, the government has announced that the National Security Council, chaired by David Cameron, will meet today to discuss what lessons Britain can learn from the killings.
When questioned yesterday on whether Britain had focused too much on Islamist terrorism and not enough on right-wing terrorism, the Foreign Secretary William Hague said al-Qa’ida inspired terrorism remained “the single biggest terrorist threat to the United Kingdom and our allies.”
Europe's extreme right
Sweden
A country with a reputation for being open-minded, Sweden has become increasingly dissatisfied with immigration policies and is susceptible to the far right. Last year, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party won its first seats in parliament. Its leader, Jimmie Akesson, has described Islam as un-Swedish but denies accusations of racism.
The Netherlands
The views of far-right politician Geert Wilders, who described Islam as fascist, are now more mainstream in a country once known for being tolerant. His anti-immigration, Euro-sceptic Freedom party won 24 seats in last year's election, making it the country's third-largest party.
Finland
The right-wing True Finns party has risen from obscurity to win 19.1 per cent of the vote in the recent election, making it the third-largest force in parliament with 39 seats. The success of a party that had just 4 per cent of the vote four years earlier was described as "shocking" by the Finnish media.
France
France's National Front (FN) has long been one of the most prominent far-right parties in Europe, largely because of vitriolic outbursts by its former leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was convicted several times for racist and anti-Semitic statements. Since taking over from her father earlier this year, Marine Le Pen has attempted to take the party – the third-largest political force in France – more mainstream, but continues to warn against radical Islam and globalisation.
Germany
Rudolf Hess's remains were dug up for cremation recently to stop pilgrimages by Neo-Nazis to Hitler's deputy's last resting place in a country that has long had problems with far-right youth protest movements and hate crimes. Germany's Federal Intelligence Service estimated this year that there are 25,000 right-wing extremists in Germany, including 5,600 Neo-Nazis.
Denmark
The xenophobic Danish People's Party has propped up the country's centre-right coalition for the past decade and ensured that its immigration policies are among Europe's tightest.
The Independent
Sunday, 24 July 2011
HOW ISLAMOPHOBIC FEVER AMONG WESTERN MEDIA AND ANTI-TERROR EXPERTS CAME TO SURFACE - ONCE AGAIN?
By Bashy Quraishy, Secretary General - EMISCO -European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion - Strasbourg/Copenhagen
At 3.26 p.m on Friday, the 22 July 2011, a hefty explosion ripped through the centre of Oslo, the capital of Norway, causing heavy material damage, dozens of severely injured, 7 people killed and many still missing. The bomb caused heavy destruction to the offices of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and a number of other official buildings. Neighboring offices - including those housing some of Norway's leading newspapers and news agency NTB were evacuated. Oil ministry was among the other government buildings hit, while the headquarters of tabloid newspaper VG were also damaged. From TV pictures, one can see the extensive damage in the shape of rubble. Glass from shattered windows littered the streets and smoke from the fires drifting across the city could be seen from the devastated government quarter. One must condemn such cowardly and brutal carnage as strongly as possible. There should be no buts and ifs on the issue violence and terror. Soon after the first news flash on Danish TV 2, I zapped at least 5 TV Channels - Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, BBC World and CNN, to see, what was being discussed and how anti-terror experts and media pundits were analyzing the situation and who was being signaled out or even blamed for this hideous crime. They even announced that there were many signs pointing to Islamist terror.
I was not surprised, how quickly; all commentators started pointing the finger towards Islamic terrorists, Al-Qaeeda, Jihadi movements, Islamic militants, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, and even the possibility of converted Islamist Norwegians was brought in the discussion. This serious charge and inflammatory connotation was dished out to public, even if no one had taken responsibility, no arrests took place, no investigation was launched and none of the persons wounded or otherwise even mentioned any thing remotely close to what media and anti-terror experts were irresponsibly launching. For example, the Swedish terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp said to News Agency Ritzau among other things that he thought it could be Al Qaida's work. His position changed when the shooting accrued but his inner intentions came to light when he told news agency T T: “ Had it just been a bombing, it would be natural to connect it to Islamic terror. Now we have also seen an attack against the Labor Party's youth, and it changes the whole picture”. Later the New York Times even went as far as to say; “Terrorism specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled out Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks”.
This tone and undocumented finger pointing towards “Islamic Connection” however changed a bit after a short while, when a young blond Norwegian man was arrested after he shot and killed 84 young political activists from the ruling Labor Party’s youth wing, who were gathered on the close by Island of Utøya for a seminar. Unfortunately, the Prime Minster of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg also went on Norwegian TV and indirectly hinted that terror attacks were the work of non-Norwegian forces. Mark his words; “"No one will bomb us to silence, no one will shoot us to silence, no one will ever scare us from being Norway. We should never compromise on our values and democracy". He did not wait for the police or his Justice Minster to give him some sort of hint and a sound advice. The only balanced remark came from the Norwegian Foreign Minister when he was talking to CNN. He said: “ we do not want to jump to conclusions, let the police do its job”. When CNN pushed him with its own opinion, the minster once again reiterated; "We do not want to commit the same mistake like other countries by jumping to conclusions. We are waiting for the findings of the police."
Police authorities were all along saying that it was premature to say, who can be responsible for this action. When the situation became a little clearer, the Norwegian Justice Minster Knut Storberget issued a statement that the arrested man responsible for bombing the Oslo Centre and shooting at Utøya Island is a native Norwegian. It also emerged that police were aware of the identity of the man who was under interrogation in Oslo as well as it was familiar with the environment in which he moved around. After that the police clearly mentioned that there was no question of international terrorism. The Norwegian intelligence agency is co-operating with the Oslo police district to investigate the matter and to interrogate the detainee to clarify whether he acted on his own or have a wider support among far right movement in Norway. Following his apprehension, Breivik was characterized by officials as being a conservative right-wing extremist. Deputy police chief Roger Andresen described the suspect as a "Christian fundamentalist". Until 2000, he was member of far right Progressive Party. He has also identified himself in a multitude of social media services as an admirer of, among others, anti-Nazi World War II hero Max Manus and anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders.
According to the Norwegian Minster of Foreign Minster, all freedom loving and peaceful people in the world have shown the greatest sadness on this carnage and expressed profound solidarity with the families of the victims, Norwegian government and citizens. This is a very heartwarming news. I just hope that in future, the politicians, the media, the anti-terror experts would let the police do their job of gathering the evidence, collect the information, shifting through the material and finding the culprits. Guessing, supposing and finger pointing only creates panic among the citizens, throw suspicion on innocent groups and even destroy good relations between the Islamic world and the West. It is also very harmful and dangerous for ethnic and religious minorities, especially Muslim communities who live in all western societies – peacefully, in harmony and are part of the societies. There are many progressive people in the West who wish to have pleasant relations with Muslim minorities, but such irrational, irresponsible and knee jerk behavior on the part of opinion makers in the West makes the process of integration difficult if not impossible. Media has a special duty in this respect. Journalists have a great deal of power in shaping public opinion and thus media must be extra careful when it is covering sensitive issues like terrorism and violence.
I-Care
At 3.26 p.m on Friday, the 22 July 2011, a hefty explosion ripped through the centre of Oslo, the capital of Norway, causing heavy material damage, dozens of severely injured, 7 people killed and many still missing. The bomb caused heavy destruction to the offices of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and a number of other official buildings. Neighboring offices - including those housing some of Norway's leading newspapers and news agency NTB were evacuated. Oil ministry was among the other government buildings hit, while the headquarters of tabloid newspaper VG were also damaged. From TV pictures, one can see the extensive damage in the shape of rubble. Glass from shattered windows littered the streets and smoke from the fires drifting across the city could be seen from the devastated government quarter. One must condemn such cowardly and brutal carnage as strongly as possible. There should be no buts and ifs on the issue violence and terror. Soon after the first news flash on Danish TV 2, I zapped at least 5 TV Channels - Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, BBC World and CNN, to see, what was being discussed and how anti-terror experts and media pundits were analyzing the situation and who was being signaled out or even blamed for this hideous crime. They even announced that there were many signs pointing to Islamist terror.
I was not surprised, how quickly; all commentators started pointing the finger towards Islamic terrorists, Al-Qaeeda, Jihadi movements, Islamic militants, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, and even the possibility of converted Islamist Norwegians was brought in the discussion. This serious charge and inflammatory connotation was dished out to public, even if no one had taken responsibility, no arrests took place, no investigation was launched and none of the persons wounded or otherwise even mentioned any thing remotely close to what media and anti-terror experts were irresponsibly launching. For example, the Swedish terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp said to News Agency Ritzau among other things that he thought it could be Al Qaida's work. His position changed when the shooting accrued but his inner intentions came to light when he told news agency T T: “ Had it just been a bombing, it would be natural to connect it to Islamic terror. Now we have also seen an attack against the Labor Party's youth, and it changes the whole picture”. Later the New York Times even went as far as to say; “Terrorism specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled out Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks”.
This tone and undocumented finger pointing towards “Islamic Connection” however changed a bit after a short while, when a young blond Norwegian man was arrested after he shot and killed 84 young political activists from the ruling Labor Party’s youth wing, who were gathered on the close by Island of Utøya for a seminar. Unfortunately, the Prime Minster of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg also went on Norwegian TV and indirectly hinted that terror attacks were the work of non-Norwegian forces. Mark his words; “"No one will bomb us to silence, no one will shoot us to silence, no one will ever scare us from being Norway. We should never compromise on our values and democracy". He did not wait for the police or his Justice Minster to give him some sort of hint and a sound advice. The only balanced remark came from the Norwegian Foreign Minister when he was talking to CNN. He said: “ we do not want to jump to conclusions, let the police do its job”. When CNN pushed him with its own opinion, the minster once again reiterated; "We do not want to commit the same mistake like other countries by jumping to conclusions. We are waiting for the findings of the police."
Police authorities were all along saying that it was premature to say, who can be responsible for this action. When the situation became a little clearer, the Norwegian Justice Minster Knut Storberget issued a statement that the arrested man responsible for bombing the Oslo Centre and shooting at Utøya Island is a native Norwegian. It also emerged that police were aware of the identity of the man who was under interrogation in Oslo as well as it was familiar with the environment in which he moved around. After that the police clearly mentioned that there was no question of international terrorism. The Norwegian intelligence agency is co-operating with the Oslo police district to investigate the matter and to interrogate the detainee to clarify whether he acted on his own or have a wider support among far right movement in Norway. Following his apprehension, Breivik was characterized by officials as being a conservative right-wing extremist. Deputy police chief Roger Andresen described the suspect as a "Christian fundamentalist". Until 2000, he was member of far right Progressive Party. He has also identified himself in a multitude of social media services as an admirer of, among others, anti-Nazi World War II hero Max Manus and anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders.
According to the Norwegian Minster of Foreign Minster, all freedom loving and peaceful people in the world have shown the greatest sadness on this carnage and expressed profound solidarity with the families of the victims, Norwegian government and citizens. This is a very heartwarming news. I just hope that in future, the politicians, the media, the anti-terror experts would let the police do their job of gathering the evidence, collect the information, shifting through the material and finding the culprits. Guessing, supposing and finger pointing only creates panic among the citizens, throw suspicion on innocent groups and even destroy good relations between the Islamic world and the West. It is also very harmful and dangerous for ethnic and religious minorities, especially Muslim communities who live in all western societies – peacefully, in harmony and are part of the societies. There are many progressive people in the West who wish to have pleasant relations with Muslim minorities, but such irrational, irresponsible and knee jerk behavior on the part of opinion makers in the West makes the process of integration difficult if not impossible. Media has a special duty in this respect. Journalists have a great deal of power in shaping public opinion and thus media must be extra careful when it is covering sensitive issues like terrorism and violence.
I-Care
ATTACKS IN SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES SINCE 1999
Twin bomb and shooting attacks on Norway's government and ruling party left at least 92 people dead and several wounded Friday. Here is a list of attacks in Scandinavian countries since 1999:
- June 28, 1999: Two journalists and their eight-year-old son are wounded when their car explodes in a Stockholm suburb after they had received death threats from neo-Nazi groups. The couple had published a report in Swedish newspaper Expressen about a Milan record company that had released music hailing the "white race". Three days after the attack, two police officers are seriously wounded in a car bomb explosion in Malmoe in the south while conducting a routine inspection of the vehicle.
- Oct 11, 2002: Seven people including the attacker are killed and more than 80 injured in a suicide bombing attack on a shopping mall in Vantaa, north of the Finnish capital Helsinki. The motives of the bomber, 19-year-old chemistry student Petri Gerdt, remain unknown.
- Sept 17, 2006: Automatic gunfire is aimed at the facade of a synagogue in Oslo, without claiming any casualties. Three men are arrested, suspected of also having planned attacks on the US and Israeli embassies in the Norwegian capital.
- Dec 31, 2008: Two Israelis are shot and injured in a shopping centre in Odense in central Denmark. A Palestinian who said he was expressing anger about the ongoing Middle East conflict, is jailed for 10 years in January 2010.
- September 10, 2010: Lors Dukayev, a Belgian of Chechen origin, plans to attack the Jyllands-Posten paper in revenge for its publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, but the device explodes while he prepares it in a Copenhagen hotel. He is jailed for 12 years.
- December 11, 2010: Taymour Abdulwahab, a 29-year-old whose family fled from Iraq to Sweden in 1991, blows himself up in an empty side-street off Stockholm's busiest pedestrian thoroughfare, injuring two people. An Islamist website, Shumukh al-Islam, posts a purported will by Abdulwahab in which he says he is fulfilling a threat by Al-Qaeda in Iraq to attack Sweden for what he terms its war on Islam, notably in Afghanistan.
AFP
- June 28, 1999: Two journalists and their eight-year-old son are wounded when their car explodes in a Stockholm suburb after they had received death threats from neo-Nazi groups. The couple had published a report in Swedish newspaper Expressen about a Milan record company that had released music hailing the "white race". Three days after the attack, two police officers are seriously wounded in a car bomb explosion in Malmoe in the south while conducting a routine inspection of the vehicle.
- Oct 11, 2002: Seven people including the attacker are killed and more than 80 injured in a suicide bombing attack on a shopping mall in Vantaa, north of the Finnish capital Helsinki. The motives of the bomber, 19-year-old chemistry student Petri Gerdt, remain unknown.
- Sept 17, 2006: Automatic gunfire is aimed at the facade of a synagogue in Oslo, without claiming any casualties. Three men are arrested, suspected of also having planned attacks on the US and Israeli embassies in the Norwegian capital.
- Dec 31, 2008: Two Israelis are shot and injured in a shopping centre in Odense in central Denmark. A Palestinian who said he was expressing anger about the ongoing Middle East conflict, is jailed for 10 years in January 2010.
- September 10, 2010: Lors Dukayev, a Belgian of Chechen origin, plans to attack the Jyllands-Posten paper in revenge for its publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, but the device explodes while he prepares it in a Copenhagen hotel. He is jailed for 12 years.
- December 11, 2010: Taymour Abdulwahab, a 29-year-old whose family fled from Iraq to Sweden in 1991, blows himself up in an empty side-street off Stockholm's busiest pedestrian thoroughfare, injuring two people. An Islamist website, Shumukh al-Islam, posts a purported will by Abdulwahab in which he says he is fulfilling a threat by Al-Qaeda in Iraq to attack Sweden for what he terms its war on Islam, notably in Afghanistan.
AFP
Exclusive: Racist attack on Luton mosque (UK)
Imam Shahid Ahmed from the Madinah mosque in Luton spoke to Socialist Worker about the attack.
“We locked up the mosque at 11.30pm on Thursday night, everything was fine. When I returned at 4am for morning prayers I found the windows smashed. The words ‘EDL’ were painted on both sides of the mosque and a symbol [swastika] was also painted on one wall.”
Bedfordshire police attended the scene and the council immediately removed the racist graffiti.
Shahid said that the racists who attacked the mosque are ignorant. “They have no understanding or respect for any religion,” he told Socialist Worker. “This is a place of worship. We live in a multicultural society. We have to respect each other.”
Dave Barnes from Unite Against Fascism in Luton went to the mosque to offer solidarity.
“The attack on the Medina mosque was exactly the same form of attack we saw on homes in Bury Park the night after the EDL protest in February – windows smashed and EDL painted on the walls. It is clear who is behind the attack.
“We have to stand united against racism. This attack has made us even more determined to organise to get as many people as possible to Tower Hamlets on 3 September to take part in the national protest to stop the EDL marching through the heart of London’s Muslim community.”
Socialistworker
Norway attacks draws comparison to Oklahoma bomber
The right-wing, anti-government mindset attributed to the Norwegian rampage suspect has observers recalling US extremist Timothy McVeigh, behind the devastating Oklahoma City bombing.
McVeigh, then just 26, blew up a van he had packed with explosives and parked outside a large federal building in the Oklahoman state capital, on April 19, 1995.
The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children and babies, injured more than 800, in the deadliest ever domestic attack in US history, and brought into sharp focus the threat of homegrown terrorism.
Arrested shortly afterwards, McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, was found to have been a figure in neo-Nazi groups and even claimed to have acted for the "common good" of Americans, as he railed against what he thought was the dictatorship of the federal government.
After six years he was executed on June 11, 2001, but while on death row, McVeigh spoke openly of his part in the bombing and the anti-government hatred that motivated him.
In the case of the murderous rampage in Norway that has killed at least 91 people and shocked the normally peaceful northern European nation, a portrait of the lone attacker has emerged as a "Christian fundamentalist," and links have been made with right-groups.
Widely named by local media as Anders Behring Breivik, he identifies himself as "ethnically Norwegian," and has posted writings at length on his dismay with the Norwegian government and the ruling liberal political party.
On his Facebook page -- since deleted -- Breivik also said he was a director of an organic farming business, which gave him access to nitrate chemicals apparently used in the Oslo explosion that kicked off Norway's own worst ever homegrown attack on Friday.
An agricultural firm has indicated Breivik purchased some six tons of chemical fertilizer in early May.
The Oklahoma City bombing in the United States drew wide attention and even acclaim from some far-right militias.
"Timothy McVeigh is still seen by some groups in the US as a hero," said Matthew Goodwin, politics lecturer at the University of Nottingham in central England.
"Whether this attack (in Norway) will inspire copycat attacks itself remains to be seen. There is certainly the potential for it."
According to data compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in the United States, the number of dedicated militias with a racist, extremist agenda has increased 60 percent since 2000, from 602 then to over 1,000 recorded last year.
The SPLC estimated in 2009 that such movements were further emboldened with the election of the first black president, Barack Obama in 2008.
Swedishwire
McVeigh, then just 26, blew up a van he had packed with explosives and parked outside a large federal building in the Oklahoman state capital, on April 19, 1995.
The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children and babies, injured more than 800, in the deadliest ever domestic attack in US history, and brought into sharp focus the threat of homegrown terrorism.
Arrested shortly afterwards, McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, was found to have been a figure in neo-Nazi groups and even claimed to have acted for the "common good" of Americans, as he railed against what he thought was the dictatorship of the federal government.
After six years he was executed on June 11, 2001, but while on death row, McVeigh spoke openly of his part in the bombing and the anti-government hatred that motivated him.
In the case of the murderous rampage in Norway that has killed at least 91 people and shocked the normally peaceful northern European nation, a portrait of the lone attacker has emerged as a "Christian fundamentalist," and links have been made with right-groups.
Widely named by local media as Anders Behring Breivik, he identifies himself as "ethnically Norwegian," and has posted writings at length on his dismay with the Norwegian government and the ruling liberal political party.
On his Facebook page -- since deleted -- Breivik also said he was a director of an organic farming business, which gave him access to nitrate chemicals apparently used in the Oslo explosion that kicked off Norway's own worst ever homegrown attack on Friday.
An agricultural firm has indicated Breivik purchased some six tons of chemical fertilizer in early May.
The Oklahoma City bombing in the United States drew wide attention and even acclaim from some far-right militias.
"Timothy McVeigh is still seen by some groups in the US as a hero," said Matthew Goodwin, politics lecturer at the University of Nottingham in central England.
"Whether this attack (in Norway) will inspire copycat attacks itself remains to be seen. There is certainly the potential for it."
According to data compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in the United States, the number of dedicated militias with a racist, extremist agenda has increased 60 percent since 2000, from 602 then to over 1,000 recorded last year.
The SPLC estimated in 2009 that such movements were further emboldened with the election of the first black president, Barack Obama in 2008.
Swedishwire
Norway suspect member of Nazi web forum: advocacy group
The suspect in the twin attacks that killed at least 92 people in Norway was a member of a Swedish neo-Nazi Internet forum, a group monitoring far-right activity said Saturday.
"He created a profile in 2009, with a pseudonym that can be traced back to his email address," Mikael Ekman, a researcher with the Stockholm-based Expo foundation, told AFP.
It was not possible however to determine when the suspect, named by Norwegian media as Anders Behring Breivik, was last active on the forum, which counts some 22,000 members from across the region, he said.
Nordisk a web forum founded in 2007, describes itself as a portal on the theme of "the Nordic identity, culture and traditions."
It hosts discussions on "everything from white power music to political strategies to crush democracy," Ekman wrote in an article published Saturday on the Expo magazine's website.
Nordisk's members range from Swedish members of parliament for the far-right Sweden Democrats party to Nazi leaders, the article explained.
"What united the members is a critical attitude to the current refugee policy and immigration," it said.
Some contributors to the forum have posted comments inciting violence.
"Cars parked next to high buildings with fertilising powder + diesel gives a nice effects," one anonymous user said last year on the forum.
"The buildings go down like the World Trade Center."
"I think it's a but too bad that people do not see this is a war we must wage," the contributor, who Ekman said was not Behring Breivik, added.
"Those ... in government, who do not live close to or don't have to experience immigrants' threat in their nice neighbourhoods ... in my world there is no dishonest act one can commit against these monsters," the user wrote.
At least 85 people were killed when a gunman dressed as a policeman opened fire at a youth camp hosted by the ruling Labour party's youth wing at an island near Oslo.
Earlier Friday, seven people were killed when a bomb ripped through the government quarter in the Norwegian capital.
My Sinchew.com
"He created a profile in 2009, with a pseudonym that can be traced back to his email address," Mikael Ekman, a researcher with the Stockholm-based Expo foundation, told AFP.
It was not possible however to determine when the suspect, named by Norwegian media as Anders Behring Breivik, was last active on the forum, which counts some 22,000 members from across the region, he said.
Nordisk a web forum founded in 2007, describes itself as a portal on the theme of "the Nordic identity, culture and traditions."
It hosts discussions on "everything from white power music to political strategies to crush democracy," Ekman wrote in an article published Saturday on the Expo magazine's website.
Nordisk's members range from Swedish members of parliament for the far-right Sweden Democrats party to Nazi leaders, the article explained.
"What united the members is a critical attitude to the current refugee policy and immigration," it said.
Some contributors to the forum have posted comments inciting violence.
"Cars parked next to high buildings with fertilising powder + diesel gives a nice effects," one anonymous user said last year on the forum.
"The buildings go down like the World Trade Center."
"I think it's a but too bad that people do not see this is a war we must wage," the contributor, who Ekman said was not Behring Breivik, added.
"Those ... in government, who do not live close to or don't have to experience immigrants' threat in their nice neighbourhoods ... in my world there is no dishonest act one can commit against these monsters," the user wrote.
At least 85 people were killed when a gunman dressed as a policeman opened fire at a youth camp hosted by the ruling Labour party's youth wing at an island near Oslo.
Earlier Friday, seven people were killed when a bomb ripped through the government quarter in the Norwegian capital.
My Sinchew.com
Norway attacks: Utøya gunman boasted of links to UK far right
Anders Behring Breivik, the man accused of the murder of at least 92 Norwegians in a bomb and gun massacre, boasted online about his discussions with the far-right English Defence League and other anti-Islamic European organisations.
The Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said Norwegian officials were working with foreign intelligence agencies to see if there was any international involvement in the slaughter. "We have running contact with other countries' intelligence services," he said.
Breivik was arrested on Utøya island where he shot and killed at least 85 people, mostly teenagers, at a youth summer camp for supporters of Norway's Labour party after bombing Oslo's government district just hours before. Dressed as a police officer, he ordered the teenagers to gather round him before opening fire. Survivors described how dozens of people were mown down. The massacre led to the largest death toll ever recorded by a single gunman on the rampage.
Ida Knudsen, 16, said she had been in a group of 100 who had initially run from the killer, but that was reduced to about 60 as the gunman pursued them. Eventually she was one of 12 who climbed into a boat and escaped.
Another survivor, 15-year-old Mattori Anson, described how he fled into a cabin with 40 other teenagers. They blocked the door and the killer tried to get inside. "Then he began shooting at the door." Eventually he gave up and the occupants all survived.
With the entire island a crime scene, officers were still combing the shoreline on Saturday and boats were searching the water for more bodies amid fears the toll could rise further. Police were continuing to investigate whether there had been a second gunman on the island.
The disclosure of Breivik's claimed links with far-right organisations came as details continued to emerge about the rightwing Christian fundamentalist and Freemason behind Norway's worst postwar act of violence.
It was revealed that the 32-year-old former member of the country's conservative Progress party – who had become ever more extreme in his hatred of Muslims, leftwingers and the country's political establishment – had ordered six tonnes of fertiliser in May to be used in the bombing. While police continued to interrogate Breivik, who was charged with the mass killings, evidence of his increasingly far-right world-view emerged from an article he had posted on several Scandinavian websites, including Nordisk, a site frequented by neo-Nazis, far-right radicals and Islamophobes since 2009.
The Norwegian daily VG quoted one of Breivik's friends, saying that he had become a rightwing extremist in his late 20s and was now a strong opponent of multiculturalism, expressing strong nationalistic views in online debates.
Breivik had talked admiringly online about conversations he had had with unnamed English Defence League members and the organisation Stop the Islamification of Europe (SIOE) over the success of provocative street actions leading to violence.
"I have on some occasions had discussions with SIOE and EDL and recommended them to use certain strategies," he wrote two years ago. "The tactics of the EDL are now to 'lure' an overreaction from the Jihad Youth/Extreme-Marxists, something they have succeeded in doing several times already."
Contacted by email, the EDL had not answered.
The latest disclosures came as the Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, flew by helicopter to a hotel in the town of Sundvollen – close to the island of Utøya – where many survivors were taken and where relatives converged to reunite with loved ones or identify their dead.
"A whole world is thinking of them," Stoltenberg said, his voice cracking with emotion. He said the twin attack made Friday the deadliest day in Norway's peacetime history. "This is beyond comprehension. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends."
Buildings around the capital lowered their flags to half-mast while people streamed to Oslo cathedral to light candles and lay flowers. Outside, mourners began building a makeshift altar from dug-up cobblestones. On Saturday the Queen wrote to Norway's King Harald to offer her condolences and express her shock and sadness.
Breivik's Facebook page was blocked, but a cached version describes a conservative Christian from Oslo. The profile veers between references to lofty political philosophers and gory popular films, television shows and video games. The account appears to have been set up on 17 July. The site lists no "friends" or social connections.
The Guardian
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Expert says white supremacist ideology primary reason California teen killed gay classmate (USA)
A prosecution expert says a California teenager’s white supremacist ideology is the primary reason the murder defendant shot to death a 15-year-old gay classmate.
Simi Valley police Detective Dan Swanson, a white supremacy expert, testified Thursday that now-17-year-old Brandon McInerney embraces white supremacy and that led him to hate Larry King and kill the gay student in 2008.
McInerney is being tried as an adult for murder and hate crime allegations.
King was shot in the head at E.O. Green School in Oxnard. The trial was moved to Los Angeles County because of pretrial publicity.
The Ventura County Star reports Swanson testified that McInerney is a violent member of a criminal street gang and his white supremacist ideology is the primary motivating influence for shooting King.
Washington post
Simi Valley police Detective Dan Swanson, a white supremacy expert, testified Thursday that now-17-year-old Brandon McInerney embraces white supremacy and that led him to hate Larry King and kill the gay student in 2008.
McInerney is being tried as an adult for murder and hate crime allegations.
King was shot in the head at E.O. Green School in Oxnard. The trial was moved to Los Angeles County because of pretrial publicity.
The Ventura County Star reports Swanson testified that McInerney is a violent member of a criminal street gang and his white supremacist ideology is the primary motivating influence for shooting King.
Washington post
Swedish neo-Nazi site charged with hate speech
Charges have been filed against the publisher of a website affiliated with a Swedish neo-Nazi movement for allowing a reader comment containing racial slurs to remain on the site.
The site is the online version of Nationellt Motstånd (‘National Resistance’), a quarterly print magazine put out by the Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska motståndsrörelsen), one of Sweden’s most active neo-Nazi groups.
The comment was in connection to an article published in April on the subject of global finance. The comment, which was entitled "time is running out for the finance Jew", described the Jews as parasites, among other things.
As "Nationellt Motstånd" reviews reader comments before publishing them, the comment falls under the jurisdiction of Sweden’s libel laws.
Following a preliminary investigation, the Chancellor of Justice (Justitiekanslern – JK), has now concluded that the comment amounts to agitation against ethnic groups (hets mot folkgrupp), and has filed charges against the site’s publisher Emil Hagberg for violating Sweden’s press freedom laws.
Pär Öberg, the site's owner and author of the article in question, told The Local that "Nationellt Motstånd" regards the law as a "means to suppress dissenting opinion".
"Just like in North Korea it is unclear what is a breach of the law. Not even JK knows where the line goes," he said.
Öberg explained that the charge, which follows a similar charge against Hagberg filed in November 2010, will have no effect on the site's policy of monitoring comments on its articles.
"No because we would then have all sort of irresponsible comments," Öberg said.
"This comment concerned the financial power of Jews and we would very much like to see a discussion of the concentration of power maintained by Jews in the finance world," he said.
The Local Sweden
The site is the online version of Nationellt Motstånd (‘National Resistance’), a quarterly print magazine put out by the Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska motståndsrörelsen), one of Sweden’s most active neo-Nazi groups.
The comment was in connection to an article published in April on the subject of global finance. The comment, which was entitled "time is running out for the finance Jew", described the Jews as parasites, among other things.
As "Nationellt Motstånd" reviews reader comments before publishing them, the comment falls under the jurisdiction of Sweden’s libel laws.
Following a preliminary investigation, the Chancellor of Justice (Justitiekanslern – JK), has now concluded that the comment amounts to agitation against ethnic groups (hets mot folkgrupp), and has filed charges against the site’s publisher Emil Hagberg for violating Sweden’s press freedom laws.
Pär Öberg, the site's owner and author of the article in question, told The Local that "Nationellt Motstånd" regards the law as a "means to suppress dissenting opinion".
"Just like in North Korea it is unclear what is a breach of the law. Not even JK knows where the line goes," he said.
Öberg explained that the charge, which follows a similar charge against Hagberg filed in November 2010, will have no effect on the site's policy of monitoring comments on its articles.
"No because we would then have all sort of irresponsible comments," Öberg said.
"This comment concerned the financial power of Jews and we would very much like to see a discussion of the concentration of power maintained by Jews in the finance world," he said.
The Local Sweden
Plea delayed for boy accused in neo-Nazi dad death (USA)
A plea has been delayed for a 10-year-old boy charged with murdering his neo-Nazi father in the family's Southern California home.
The Press-Enterprise reports the boy appeared in Riverside Juvenile Court on Friday but a hearing on the case was delayed until Sept. 12 for further psychiatric evaluation.
Authorities say the boy pulled a gun from his father's room and shot 32-year-old white supremacist Jeff Hall while he was sleeping on May 1.The boy's stepmother Krista McCary has pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment and criminal storage of a gun.
Hall's rallies outside a day labor site and synagogue and his candidacy for a seat on the local water board last year disturbed many residents in the suburbs east of Los Angeles.
Sacbee
The Press-Enterprise reports the boy appeared in Riverside Juvenile Court on Friday but a hearing on the case was delayed until Sept. 12 for further psychiatric evaluation.
Authorities say the boy pulled a gun from his father's room and shot 32-year-old white supremacist Jeff Hall while he was sleeping on May 1.The boy's stepmother Krista McCary has pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment and criminal storage of a gun.
Hall's rallies outside a day labor site and synagogue and his candidacy for a seat on the local water board last year disturbed many residents in the suburbs east of Los Angeles.
Sacbee
Work order for EDL fans armed with pool balls (UK)
Two English Defence League supporters who armed themselves with pool balls stolen from a pub have been ordered to do unpaid work.
Michael Riley, 23, and Peter Craven, 28, travelled to Halifax from their homes in Hull for the far-right group’s town-centre demo in April.
They were arrested after the landlady of the Beehive and Cross Keys pub reported the balls stolen from the premises.
Prosecutor Niall Carlin told Bradford Crown Court the men were part of a group that had gone into the King Cross Street pub, near the predominantly Asian Park ward.
They were chanting racial slurs and breaking pool cues, making the licensee and regulars nervous, he said.
The men were stopped and searched after leaving the pub, and Riley and Craven were found with the missing pool balls.
Riley, of Binbrook Garth, and Craven, of St Aidan’s Way, both admitted theft and possessing an offensive weapon.
Ian Brook, mitigating, stressed they were supporters of the EDL, but not members, and there was no evidence they had been involved in any public disorder or breaking of pool cues.
Mr Brook said a group of Asian males had come towards a police cordon near the pub but neither group had made any attempt to get to the other. He said: “The defendants and their group were moving away from them, and it would appear they had wrongly stolen the pool balls and taken them up as weapons in case they needed to use them.
“There was no suggestion they were going to use them offensively against any of the Asian youths.”
Recorder Amanda Rippon said: “Nonetheless it was theft, first of all, and you armed yourself with a potentially dangerous weapon.”
The men, who have no previous convictions, were each sentenced to a 12-month community order with supervision, and must complete 80 hours of unpaid work.
Halifax Courier
Michael Riley, 23, and Peter Craven, 28, travelled to Halifax from their homes in Hull for the far-right group’s town-centre demo in April.
They were arrested after the landlady of the Beehive and Cross Keys pub reported the balls stolen from the premises.
Prosecutor Niall Carlin told Bradford Crown Court the men were part of a group that had gone into the King Cross Street pub, near the predominantly Asian Park ward.
They were chanting racial slurs and breaking pool cues, making the licensee and regulars nervous, he said.
The men were stopped and searched after leaving the pub, and Riley and Craven were found with the missing pool balls.
Riley, of Binbrook Garth, and Craven, of St Aidan’s Way, both admitted theft and possessing an offensive weapon.
Ian Brook, mitigating, stressed they were supporters of the EDL, but not members, and there was no evidence they had been involved in any public disorder or breaking of pool cues.
Mr Brook said a group of Asian males had come towards a police cordon near the pub but neither group had made any attempt to get to the other. He said: “The defendants and their group were moving away from them, and it would appear they had wrongly stolen the pool balls and taken them up as weapons in case they needed to use them.
“There was no suggestion they were going to use them offensively against any of the Asian youths.”
Recorder Amanda Rippon said: “Nonetheless it was theft, first of all, and you armed yourself with a potentially dangerous weapon.”
The men, who have no previous convictions, were each sentenced to a 12-month community order with supervision, and must complete 80 hours of unpaid work.
Halifax Courier
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Nazi Rudolf Hess exhumed from 'pilgrimage' grave
Hess's bones were exhumed at the graveyard in the small town of Wunsiedel, southern Germany, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The remains will be cremated and then scattered at sea.
Hess was captured in 1941 and sentenced to life in prison. He killed himself in jail in 1987 at the age of 93.
As he requested in his will, he was buried in the Bavarian town of Wunsiedel, where his family had a holiday home and where his parents were already interred.
The local Lutheran church which supervises the cemetery gave its permission for the burial at the time, ruling that the wishes of the deceased could not be ignored, the Suddeutsche Zeitung reports.
But they and local people have since become concerned by the number of far-right groups visiting the grave. Each year on the anniversary of his death, neo-Nazis have attempted to staged a march to the cemetery, saluting the grave, with its epitaph "I dared" and laying floral wreaths.
A 2005 court order banning such gatherings had little effect so the church decided to terminate the family's lease on the grave as of October 2011.
A granddaughter of Hess objected to the decision, the paper reports. She filed a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent it going ahead, but was eventually persuaded by the parish council to drop the case and allow the exhumation to go ahead.
Hess was one of Hitler's closest aides, but in 1941 he parachuted into Scotland in an apparently authorised solo peace mission, which was later denounced by the fuhrer.
He was imprisoned by the British for the duration of the war, and jailed for life at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. He spent 40 years in Spandau Prison in Berlin before being found hanged in his cell.
BBC News
British Public Most Likely to Blame the Media for Islamophobia
A new ComRes survey on Islamophobia - the fear of the Muslim faith - reveals that people think that the media is most to blame for whipping up a climate of fear of Islam in the UK.
People are twice as likely to say the media is to blame for Islamophobia (29%) than far-right groups (13%), or indeed Muslims themselves either abroad (14%) or in the UK (11%).
Conservative Party Chairman, Sayeeda Warsi, recently said Islamophobia had 'passed the dinner table test', becoming a social norm. Indeed, just 1% of people do not think that Islamophobia exists in the UK.
The poll was commissioned by one of the UK's oldest Muslim groups, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, in order to inform its plans to counter the tide of prejudice against Islam and highlight strategies to promote better community relations.
The poll comes on the eve of Britain's biggest annual Islamic convention which will see 30,000 members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community gathering at a 220-acre site in Hampshire. Foremost on the agenda will be ways to build bridges between communities and spread the word that Islam means peace.
Ahmadiyya Muslims recently launched a 'Muslims for Loyalty, Freedom & Peace' campaign with bus adverts, door-to-door pamphleting, fundraising for UK charities, blood donor sessions, inter-faith sessions, peace symposiums and more across the UK.
Now, at the annual convention between July 22-24, community members will reassert their ethos Love for All, Hatred for None, by pledging to counter hatemongers and extremism through a commitment to peace and amity.
Rafiq Hayat, National President Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said:
"The results of the survey reveal that more needs to be done to refocus media attention on the valuable contributions Muslims make to Britain and rather than excessively focusing on the troublemakers who scream at us through media headlines but have nothing to do with Islam. Their nefarious activities do a disservice to this country and are an affront to our faith.
"The poll shows quite clearly that there needs to be greater positive engagement between the media and Muslims in order to address Islamophobia in the UK."
Following the furore over the Pastor Jones controversy in the US, the ComRes survey also investigated perceptions over the Islamic scripture, the Holy Quran. Just 14% of the British public agree that the Quran justifies the use of violence against others.
"It is heartening to learn that the vast majority of people realise that there is no religious justification for terror and violence and the Holy Quran does not sanction hatred or discrimination. It states clearly that there is no compulsion in matters of religion."
The survey does throw up other interesting results:
* Muslims abroad (14%) are deemed to be more responsible than far right political groups (13%) and UK Muslims (11%) for contributing to Islamophobia.
* Younger people are more likely to think that the media is responsible for Islamophobia than older people - 40% of 18-24 years olds think this, compared to just 18% of people 65 and over.
* People who say that they do not belong to any religion (33%) are more likely to say that the media is responsible for Islamophobia than people who say that they are Christian (27%).
* Just 7% of people from social group C1 agree that the Quran justifies the use of violence against non-Muslims - this compares to 17% of people from group AB, 16% from group C2 and 15% from group DE.
Andrew Hawkins, ComRes Chairman, said:
"Two-thirds of the public do not believe the Quran justifies the use of violence against non-Muslims, providing evidence of the public's predominantly tolerant, liberal view of religious minorities. British Muslims should also be encouraged that only one in ten of the British public believe they are to blame for Islamophobia. Instead, more than four in ten British people say the media or the far-right are principally to blame for it."
Methodology: ComRes interviewed 1004 GB adults by telephone between the 8th and 10th July 2011. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abide by its rules. Full data tables available at http://www.comres.co.uk
Contact
Basharat Nazir media@ahmadiyya.org.uk , Tel +44(0)7703-483-384
http://www.loveforallhatredfornone.org
http://www.alislam.org
PR Newswire
People are twice as likely to say the media is to blame for Islamophobia (29%) than far-right groups (13%), or indeed Muslims themselves either abroad (14%) or in the UK (11%).
Conservative Party Chairman, Sayeeda Warsi, recently said Islamophobia had 'passed the dinner table test', becoming a social norm. Indeed, just 1% of people do not think that Islamophobia exists in the UK.
The poll was commissioned by one of the UK's oldest Muslim groups, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, in order to inform its plans to counter the tide of prejudice against Islam and highlight strategies to promote better community relations.
The poll comes on the eve of Britain's biggest annual Islamic convention which will see 30,000 members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community gathering at a 220-acre site in Hampshire. Foremost on the agenda will be ways to build bridges between communities and spread the word that Islam means peace.
Ahmadiyya Muslims recently launched a 'Muslims for Loyalty, Freedom & Peace' campaign with bus adverts, door-to-door pamphleting, fundraising for UK charities, blood donor sessions, inter-faith sessions, peace symposiums and more across the UK.
Now, at the annual convention between July 22-24, community members will reassert their ethos Love for All, Hatred for None, by pledging to counter hatemongers and extremism through a commitment to peace and amity.
Rafiq Hayat, National President Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said:
"The results of the survey reveal that more needs to be done to refocus media attention on the valuable contributions Muslims make to Britain and rather than excessively focusing on the troublemakers who scream at us through media headlines but have nothing to do with Islam. Their nefarious activities do a disservice to this country and are an affront to our faith.
"The poll shows quite clearly that there needs to be greater positive engagement between the media and Muslims in order to address Islamophobia in the UK."
Following the furore over the Pastor Jones controversy in the US, the ComRes survey also investigated perceptions over the Islamic scripture, the Holy Quran. Just 14% of the British public agree that the Quran justifies the use of violence against others.
"It is heartening to learn that the vast majority of people realise that there is no religious justification for terror and violence and the Holy Quran does not sanction hatred or discrimination. It states clearly that there is no compulsion in matters of religion."
The survey does throw up other interesting results:
* Muslims abroad (14%) are deemed to be more responsible than far right political groups (13%) and UK Muslims (11%) for contributing to Islamophobia.
* Younger people are more likely to think that the media is responsible for Islamophobia than older people - 40% of 18-24 years olds think this, compared to just 18% of people 65 and over.
* People who say that they do not belong to any religion (33%) are more likely to say that the media is responsible for Islamophobia than people who say that they are Christian (27%).
* Just 7% of people from social group C1 agree that the Quran justifies the use of violence against non-Muslims - this compares to 17% of people from group AB, 16% from group C2 and 15% from group DE.
Andrew Hawkins, ComRes Chairman, said:
"Two-thirds of the public do not believe the Quran justifies the use of violence against non-Muslims, providing evidence of the public's predominantly tolerant, liberal view of religious minorities. British Muslims should also be encouraged that only one in ten of the British public believe they are to blame for Islamophobia. Instead, more than four in ten British people say the media or the far-right are principally to blame for it."
Methodology: ComRes interviewed 1004 GB adults by telephone between the 8th and 10th July 2011. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abide by its rules. Full data tables available at http://www.comres.co.uk
Contact
Basharat Nazir media@ahmadiyya.org.uk , Tel +44(0)7703-483-384
http://www.loveforallhatredfornone.org
http://www.alislam.org
PR Newswire
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