Trained campus 'ambassadors' to promote conflict resolution, prevent heckling during lectures. Gerald Ronson: When Islamophobia hurts Muslims, it also hurts Jews
British campuses serve as fertile ground for heated political debates between Israelis and Arabs, but a new initiative sponsored by Gerald Ronson, one of the wealthiest Jews in the UK, aims to combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia at universities across the country.
As part of the Campus Ambassadors program, 20 Muslim and Jewish students with leadership skills underwent six months of training in conflict resolution, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported on Monday.
The 'ambassadors' for the Coexistence Trust are currently enrolled in 10 of the UK's leading universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and the University of Manchester.
Now that they have completed their training, the students will begin working on joint projects and promote "damage control" activities. For example, the students will make certain that those who are invited to speak at the universities, regardless of their politics, will be able to speak their minds and not be heckled by either Jews or Muslims.
One of the 'ambassadors', Yuval Yaakov, attends Imperial College in London. "My hope is that we will be able to prove that Jew and can coexist and promote productive dialogue," he says.
Coexistence Trust chairman Lord Mitchell, who hosted the launch, said, "Islamophobia is the same poison as anti-Semitism, coming from the same people, and both our communities have to work together to counter all this. Together we can be much stronger than if we try to do it separately."
Ronson added "when Islamophobia hurts Muslims, it also hurts Jews."
The launching of the program at the House of Lords was attended by Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, the first Muslim woman to serve in the British cabinet.
YNetNews
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Grampian Police complaints and race crime reports rise (UK)
Grampian Police has been told to take action after a large rise in complaints against officers and reports of racially-motivated crimes.
Complaints against officers increased by almost 70% from just under 300 in 2006/07 to almost 500 in 2009/10, according to a new report.
The number of reported racially-motivated crimes rose from 449 to 879.
However, detection rates improved from 59.9% in 2006/07 to 69.3%, above the the Scottish average.
The Accounts Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland compiled the report.
It said Grampian Police and the joint police board performed well, but that more progress could be made.
The report said that the force considers members of the public are more prepared to make complaints because they have confidence in its willingness to deal with them.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling”
End Quote Andrew Laing Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary
It said that evidence suggests that the force was meticulous in recording complaints and this, coupled with changes in recording processes, may have accounted for some of the increase.
The report revealed an overall reduction in recorded crimes since 2006/07 and crimes of violence, indecency, dishonesty and reckless behaviour were at their lowest level for seven years.
Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, Andrew Laing, said: "Grampian Police force is performing well and demonstrates many of the elements of best value.
"Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling.
"However, it is unclear why recorded instances of racially-motivated crime and complaints against the police have increased and the force should make further efforts to understand and explain this."
'Excellent report'
The force and the board are to produce an improvement plan to show how they intend to address the findings.
Chief Constable Colin McKerracher said: "This is an excellent report that acknowledges the tremendous effort that has gone into our strategy for delivering the highest quality of policing for the people of the north east of Scotland.
"Over the past few years we have seen our officer numbers rise, crime rates across the region fall to a seven-year low and with detection rates for violent crime at their highest level over the same period."
The force said it recognised and acknowledged the areas for improvement.
BBC News
Complaints against officers increased by almost 70% from just under 300 in 2006/07 to almost 500 in 2009/10, according to a new report.
The number of reported racially-motivated crimes rose from 449 to 879.
However, detection rates improved from 59.9% in 2006/07 to 69.3%, above the the Scottish average.
The Accounts Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland compiled the report.
It said Grampian Police and the joint police board performed well, but that more progress could be made.
The report said that the force considers members of the public are more prepared to make complaints because they have confidence in its willingness to deal with them.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling”
End Quote Andrew Laing Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary
It said that evidence suggests that the force was meticulous in recording complaints and this, coupled with changes in recording processes, may have accounted for some of the increase.
The report revealed an overall reduction in recorded crimes since 2006/07 and crimes of violence, indecency, dishonesty and reckless behaviour were at their lowest level for seven years.
Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, Andrew Laing, said: "Grampian Police force is performing well and demonstrates many of the elements of best value.
"Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling.
"However, it is unclear why recorded instances of racially-motivated crime and complaints against the police have increased and the force should make further efforts to understand and explain this."
'Excellent report'
The force and the board are to produce an improvement plan to show how they intend to address the findings.
Chief Constable Colin McKerracher said: "This is an excellent report that acknowledges the tremendous effort that has gone into our strategy for delivering the highest quality of policing for the people of the north east of Scotland.
"Over the past few years we have seen our officer numbers rise, crime rates across the region fall to a seven-year low and with detection rates for violent crime at their highest level over the same period."
The force said it recognised and acknowledged the areas for improvement.
BBC News
Court ruling pushes race-hate thugs underground (Russia)
The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office has suspended the activities of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) and will seek a court decision to declare it an extremist organization. The movement’s leaders warn that this will only force their members to go underground and that it risks sparking repeat riots on Manezh Square.
The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office investigated whether the Movement Against Illegal Immigration was within the law and concluded that “it is pursuing extremist goals and objectives.” Prosecutor Yury Semin personally signed the ruling suspending the group’s activity, his next move will be to seek a court ruling banning it.
Movement spokesmen told Gazeta.ru that they had only just received a copy of the ruling. “Plainclothes officers from the Moscow anti-extremism squad gave the document to movement leader Vladimir Yermolayev in Gostiny Dvor, where we had a news conference scheduled for today,” Alexander Belov (Potkin), DPNI’s informal leader, said. He believes the authorities chose not to warn them about the ban so as not to spark a protest.
Now Belov and his followers propose “taking all possible legal action.” But he is less than confident that the ruling will be in his favor. “There is no real court system here so the decision will be a formality,” Belov said. Even after the ban, which Belov describes as a done deal, the Dpni.org site and “public control centers” will stay in the open – units of the movement that render legal aid to “people in conflict situations,” i.e. nationalists facing extremism charges.
“The authorities have banned the largest nationalist organization and the need for a large-scale national-oriented political structure is now more pressing than ever before,” Belov argues. He is confident that a right-wing party will appear in Russia, though he is not going to register one formally. He has a stark warning for the authorities: the nationalists will call people out onto the streets.
Dmitry Demushkin, former leader of Slavic Union, said exactly that almost a year ago: “We will simply stop reining in the ‘autonomous’ gangs, who knife Tajiks and blow up markets.” However, when the Slavic Union was banned in April 2010, human rights activists did not observe any spike in the activity of neo-Nazi killers on Russian streets: legal nationalists and ‘autonomous’ cells essentially do not cooperate with each other, while autonomous radicals fill their blogs, forums and online communities with repeated calls to kill both Demushkin and Belov, deeming them traitors.”
No deadline has been set for examining the ban. The precedent is not encouraging: only a few days after the Slavic Union was banned, Demushkin set up a new nationalist organization registered under the name of Slavic Force.
RiaNovosti
The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office investigated whether the Movement Against Illegal Immigration was within the law and concluded that “it is pursuing extremist goals and objectives.” Prosecutor Yury Semin personally signed the ruling suspending the group’s activity, his next move will be to seek a court ruling banning it.
Movement spokesmen told Gazeta.ru that they had only just received a copy of the ruling. “Plainclothes officers from the Moscow anti-extremism squad gave the document to movement leader Vladimir Yermolayev in Gostiny Dvor, where we had a news conference scheduled for today,” Alexander Belov (Potkin), DPNI’s informal leader, said. He believes the authorities chose not to warn them about the ban so as not to spark a protest.
Now Belov and his followers propose “taking all possible legal action.” But he is less than confident that the ruling will be in his favor. “There is no real court system here so the decision will be a formality,” Belov said. Even after the ban, which Belov describes as a done deal, the Dpni.org site and “public control centers” will stay in the open – units of the movement that render legal aid to “people in conflict situations,” i.e. nationalists facing extremism charges.
“The authorities have banned the largest nationalist organization and the need for a large-scale national-oriented political structure is now more pressing than ever before,” Belov argues. He is confident that a right-wing party will appear in Russia, though he is not going to register one formally. He has a stark warning for the authorities: the nationalists will call people out onto the streets.
Dmitry Demushkin, former leader of Slavic Union, said exactly that almost a year ago: “We will simply stop reining in the ‘autonomous’ gangs, who knife Tajiks and blow up markets.” However, when the Slavic Union was banned in April 2010, human rights activists did not observe any spike in the activity of neo-Nazi killers on Russian streets: legal nationalists and ‘autonomous’ cells essentially do not cooperate with each other, while autonomous radicals fill their blogs, forums and online communities with repeated calls to kill both Demushkin and Belov, deeming them traitors.”
No deadline has been set for examining the ban. The precedent is not encouraging: only a few days after the Slavic Union was banned, Demushkin set up a new nationalist organization registered under the name of Slavic Force.
RiaNovosti
Neo-Nazi worked at Zurich university (Switzerland)
The University of Zurich’s student newspaper revealed today that a neo-Nazi had been working in their philosophy department for four years.
In 1999 the unnamed man was convicted in Dortmund, Germany for spraying swastikas and slogans promoting labour camps on walls. He was seen as someone who could take the neo-Nazi scene in Dortmund forward and had founded a local arm of the German Nationalists party.
As subsequently reported by the 20 Minuten newspaper, the person did not have their contract renewed at the end of last year after colleagues found out about his past, and because there was not enough progress in his doctoral thesis.
The Dean of the Philosophy, Professor Bernd Roeck, said it was unfortunate that someone with such a past took the assistant position at the expense of others.
World Radio
In 1999 the unnamed man was convicted in Dortmund, Germany for spraying swastikas and slogans promoting labour camps on walls. He was seen as someone who could take the neo-Nazi scene in Dortmund forward and had founded a local arm of the German Nationalists party.
As subsequently reported by the 20 Minuten newspaper, the person did not have their contract renewed at the end of last year after colleagues found out about his past, and because there was not enough progress in his doctoral thesis.
The Dean of the Philosophy, Professor Bernd Roeck, said it was unfortunate that someone with such a past took the assistant position at the expense of others.
World Radio
Arlington man pleads guilty to federal hate crime at mosque (USA)
An Arlington man pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to a hate crime at an Arlington mosque this past summer when he set fire to playground equipment at the mosque.
Henry Glaspell, 34, faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
According to court documents, attorneys in the case are recommending a 14-month sentence, but the presiding judge is not bound by that recommendation.
During the plea hearing, Glaspell admitted that he set fire to playground equipment at the mosque in July as part of a series of ethnically motivated acts directed at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent associated with the mosque, a U.S. Justice Department news release said.
Glaspell also admitted that he stole and damaged mosque property, threw used cat litter at the front door of the mosque, and shouted racial or ethnic slurs at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent at the mosque on multiple occasions, according to the release.
This is the 50th prosecution of post-Sept. 11, 2001, backlash against Arab and Muslim Americans, the release said.
Jamal Qaddura, spokesman for the Tarrant County Islamic community, said surveillance cameras at the Dar El-Eman Islamic Center, 5511 Mansfield Road, caught Glaspell spray-painting graffiti and setting fire to playground equipment valued at more than $11,800.
Qaddura said he will ask people from the mosque to help him craft a victims' impact statement to deliver to the court prior to sentencing.
"I am praying for him and wish him all the best," Qaddura said. "I and the community have asked God to forgive him, but he has to pay his debt to society."
Star-Telegraph.com
Henry Glaspell, 34, faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
According to court documents, attorneys in the case are recommending a 14-month sentence, but the presiding judge is not bound by that recommendation.
During the plea hearing, Glaspell admitted that he set fire to playground equipment at the mosque in July as part of a series of ethnically motivated acts directed at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent associated with the mosque, a U.S. Justice Department news release said.
Glaspell also admitted that he stole and damaged mosque property, threw used cat litter at the front door of the mosque, and shouted racial or ethnic slurs at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent at the mosque on multiple occasions, according to the release.
This is the 50th prosecution of post-Sept. 11, 2001, backlash against Arab and Muslim Americans, the release said.
Jamal Qaddura, spokesman for the Tarrant County Islamic community, said surveillance cameras at the Dar El-Eman Islamic Center, 5511 Mansfield Road, caught Glaspell spray-painting graffiti and setting fire to playground equipment valued at more than $11,800.
Qaddura said he will ask people from the mosque to help him craft a victims' impact statement to deliver to the court prior to sentencing.
"I am praying for him and wish him all the best," Qaddura said. "I and the community have asked God to forgive him, but he has to pay his debt to society."
Star-Telegraph.com
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