Sikh Community issues Ultimatum to Guramit Singh, denounce EDL by Vaisakhi or face excommunication (UK)

Sikhs opposed to the English Defence League (EDL) have issued an ultimatum to Guramit Singh, spokesperson for the EDL who claims to be of Sikh heritage.

The ultimatum calls for Guramit Singh from Nottingham to publically denounce and distance himself from the EDL by the end of the Vaisakhi festival.

Vaisakhi is a Sikh religious festival that falls on April 13 and it is one of the most significant occasions for the Sikhs, commemorating the establishment of the Khalsa (martial Sikhism) in 1699 by the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh ji. This year will mark the 312th anniversary of this auspicious occasion and will be celebrated globally with recitals of religious hymns and prayers for world peace.

Should he (Guramit Singh) fail to do so the community will appeal to the highest political authority of the Sikhs, the Akal Takht in the holy city of Amritsar, Punjab, India to formally request excommunication orders for him to be permanently expelling from the Sikh faith for bringing it into disrepute.

The excommunication order, if passed could mean the EDL member being permanently shunned from all aspects of the Sikh community, although that would be an ultimate sanction.

It comes after the release of a joint statement condemning the EDL and its supporters from Sikh backgrounds. The joint statement which is supported by some of the UK’s largest Sikh Organisations and groups include Singh Sabha Gurdwara Southall (London) and Guru Nanak Nishkam Sevak Jatha (Birmingham).

It also follows recordings of Guramit Singh quoting Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs whilst delivering an offensive speech against the Muslim community.

Varinder Singh, an organiser of the ‘Sikhs Against the EDL’ campaign said:

“The Sikh Community has clearly condemned Guramit Singh’s public actions which are being used as a political stunt by the EDL and thereby bringing the Sikh faith into disrepute. His actions do not reflect the Sikh faith or the community and must be stopped to prevent further damage to inter-faith relations.

We believe because of his influence they carry the Sikh flag on their marches, use Sikh emblem and insignia in their propaganda and make on-sided and inflammatory statements about any past divisions between Sikhs and Muslims, including the partition.

We will be raising the concerns of our community leaders and will look to appeal to the Jathedar (Leader) of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, for him to formally issue excommunication orders should Guramit Singh decide not to denounce and distance himself from the EDL immediately.”

Balwinder Singh Rana, originator of the joint statement condemning the EDL said:

”Some of the largest Sikh and Hindu organisation in this country have signed our statement. We also have the full support of most of the Gurdwara’s (Sikh temples) and Mandirs (Hindu temples) in West London as well as East London.

In addition to this six Gurdwara’s in Birmingham, including the largest one, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha, have pledged their support on our initiative.

Together with support from members of the wider community including Claude Moraes MEP, some MPs, a number of councillors and other prominent people as well as University Sikh Student Societies – we can confidently say that the tide is by far in our favour.”

He further added:”Guramit Singh claimed in the BBC program ‘Who’s Afraid of the EDL?’, that Sikhs have been trying to ‘protect the world from Islam for 300-400 years.’

However, anyone with the rudimentary knowledge of the Sikh religion would know that the Sikhs actually never fought against Islam. They only fought against the oppression and intolerance from some of the Mogul rulers.”

“The tenth and last living Guru of the Sikhs, Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji, himself made it very clear in the Akal Ustat:

‘Someone calls himself a Hindu, another a Turk, someone a Shia, another a Sunni. Recognise the whole of humanity as one race.’

‘The temple or the mosque is the same, the Hindu worship or the Muslim prayer are the same; all humans are the same, it is through error they appear different. It is the one God who created all.’

‘The Hindu God and the Muslim God are the same; let no man even by mistake suppose there is a difference.’ ”

The Turban Campaign

No terrorist link to packages in lake (UK)

Police say there is no terrorism link to two suspicious packages found floating in a lake at a beauty spot.

The packages, found at the boating lake, in Cottingham Road, Corby, on Monday, sparked a full-scale investigation involving an RAF bomb disposal unit and the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit.

However, police said yesterday they are no longer treating them as suspicious.

Road blocks were set up and a large area around the lake was cordoned off by police after the discovery of the packages by two young anglers.

At one point police were considering using divers to search the lake.

Read more of this news item at the Evening Telegraph

Wilders' inciting hatred court case will go ahead, judges say (Netherlands)

The court case against anti-Islam campaigner and MP Geert Wilders will go ahead as planned, the three judges hearing the case said on Monday.

Wilders’ legal team had tried to have the case dropped on a number of legal grounds.

But while agreeing the case, based on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination will continue, Wilders should not be charged with comparing Islam to fascism, the judges said.

Dutch News

EDL rally police help for colleagues (UK)

Lancashire authorities are taking advice from awardwinning police in Bolton ahead of this weekend’s planned English Defence League rally in Blackburn.

Up to 4,500 people are expected to turn up to the demonstration on Saturday which would make it even bigger than Bolton’s rally in March last year.

The Victoria Square demonstration was one of the biggest EDL rallies in the country and Bolton police are now seen as experts in dealing with the challenges that such events present.

A team of Bolton police won the Karen Mulligan Award for Diversity in Action at the Greater Manchester Police excellence awards this year for their work ahead of the rally.

Now Lancashire police have been taking advice from Bolton police to ensure that the demonstration passes peacefully.

Representatives from Blackburn with Darwen Council have also been speaking to Bolton Council chiefs.

Sgt Steve Baldam, who played a key role in preparations ahead of Bolton’s protests, said: “The fact that the systems and protocols we were able to produce were such that they can now be taken on by the rest of the North West certainly makes us feel very proud.”

Blackburn police expect about 2,500 EDL protesters and about 2,000 counter protesters from Unite Against Fascism and the Muslim Defence League to show up on Saturday afternoon.

Bolton EDL supporters are planning to travel to Blackburn by train for the demonstration.

Lancashire police Ch Supt Bob Eastwood said: “Our role is to facilitate peaceful protest. If anyone commits a criminal offence they will be dealt with fairly but firmly.

“The police will not tolerate damage to the town or acts of violence and I would urge anyone thinking of coming to Blackburn to attend either demonstration to bear this in mind.”

This Lancashire

German teenager admits throwing banana during Brazil v Scotland match

The mystery of who tossed a banana onto the field during Sunday's friendly meeting between Brazil and Scotland has been solved, with confirmation that the object was thrown by a German tourist with no racist intent.

A racism debate overshadowed Brazil's 2-0 win over the Scots, after the banana appeared on the field shortly after Neymar's second goal of the game. Amid fears the banana had been thrown as a racist act towards the striker, the player also mistakenly believed he had been jeered by Scotland supporters at the Emirates on grounds of his skin colour.

 Read more at  The Guardian

BOSNIA FOOTBALL TO BE SUSPENDED FROM INTERNATIONAL PLAY

Bosnia’s Soccer Federation has failed to end its ethnically selected presidency, and is now expected to be suspended from international competition.

At its meeting on Tuesday, Bosnia's Football Federation, NSBiH, failed to adopt a statute required by international football's governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA, to change its football management structure. FIFA and UEFA had demanded that Bosnian football replace its three-member presidency - made up of a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb - with a single president by March 31 or face exclusion from the bodies. Because the new statute was not adopted by the deadline, Bosnia will be automatically suspended from international competitions, effective April 1, according to a previous FIFA and UEFA decision. The bodies also have the right to introduce a trustee who would set up a new Football Association in the country. In effect, Bosnia could receive an international administrator for football, much like the High Representative in the political sphere. Balkan Insight’s source in UEFA believes that Bosnia’s national team will not be suspended for a long period, despite the Federation's failure to adopt the statute. According to the source, the suspension might last for ten days, until a decision on temporary administration is declared by UEFA on April 10. FIFA and UEFA have not yet responded to Bosnia's decision on Tuesday not to adopt the statue.

Bosnia's soccer federation currently reflects the country’s political and ethnic divisions after the war of the 1990s. The NSBiH is made up of two associations, representing Bosnia’s two entities – the predominantly Serb Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation – which are together headed by the three-member presidency. The Bosnian Serb representatives oppose the one-president concept imposed by FIFA, as they fear this might jeopardize their autonomy. “We believe that preserving the tripartite presidency is a must… the only thing we can accept is that the Presidency rotates [between the three ethnic groups] every 16 months,” the vice-president of the Republika Srpska football association, Stasa Kosarac, told Balkan Insight. Changes to the football federation's structure are also opposed by Croat representatives. Josip Bevanda, secretary general of SC Siroki Brijeg and a member of the Bosnia Soccer Federation’s Executive Board, told Balkan Insight that the FIFA and UEFA rules are unfair. He said most of the delegates had voted against the changes to the federation structure demanded by UEFA. “What kind of democracy is that?" he asked. “Why do they insist on such rules, if we decided differently in a democratic fashion?”

Bogdan Ceko, a celebrated former Bosnian footballer and the Serb member of the NSBiH's presidency, advocates adopting FIFA's demands. He told Balkan Insight before Tuesday's vote that he hopes reason will prevail over what is widely recognised as a political problem. “Last week, I attended the UEFA Congress in Paris, and my friends from UEFA told me that we won't see anything nice if the required statute is not adopted,” Ceko said. “But still,” he added, “I am going to the session as an optimist. If the Olympic Committee three months ago did the same thing, I do not see any reason why it won't be done by NSBiH.” The effects of the NSBiH's suspension will likely be felt throughout Bosnia, where international funding currently makes up between 70 and 80 per cent of the NSBiH budget. In addition, Bosnian clubs often cannot pay their players regularly, so participation in international competitions is of vital importance for footballers. The best example is FC Borac from Banja Luka, which is expected to win the Bosnian club championships this year, and thus play qualifications for Europe’s Champions League. Even participation in the qualifications brings substantial revenue, and to small clubs like Borac it is essential to survival. Bosnia's national football team, however, arguably has the most to lose from a suspension, as it fights for first place in its qualifying group for Euro 2012. If Bosnia faces international exile, a great performance on Saturday against Romania could be the team's last for some time.

Balkans Insight

NEO-NAZI ORGANIZATION BLOOD AND HONOUR LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

A new website has been launched in the Czech Republic endorsing the international neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honour (BH) and the militant terrorist group Combat 18 (C18). The last website run by the Czech promoters of BH, calling themselves Blood and Honour Division Bohemia, was reportedly blocked by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI) three years ago.

The designers of the new website have posted the information that C18 is doing its best to "destabilize the system and unleash race war" in the Czech Republic. C18 is said to have been behind several actions in recent months "and will commit many others again soon." The section entitled "Who we are against and how to fight" includes the following statement: "The communists have their headquarters in the center of Prague off of Wenceslas Square, and what could be easier than driving by and throwing a grenade or an improvised bomb through the gateway?"

Communist Party (KSČM) spokesperson Věra Žežulková says the party will be seeking legal advice regarding the call for violence on the neo-Nazi website. "If the threats are specific, we will turn to the Czech Police," Žežulková told the Czech Press Agency. She said the KSČM unequivocally condemns racism, violence, xenophobia and similar phenomena and that the party is not surprised by the "hate of these extreme-right groups."

Jan Šubert, spokesperson for the Security Information Services (Bezpečnostní informační služby - BIS) did not want to comment on the activities or the website of the BH and C18 promoters. He told the Czech Press Agency that the civilian counter-intelligence services have no information that the neo-Nazis would, in recent months, have been behind some sort of organized, sophisticated, subversive action or that something of the sort might occur in the near future. "Of course, violent action by an individual can never be ruled out," Šubert said, adding that the neo-Nazi scene in the Czech Republic is currently fractured into small groups which operate in isolation without central leadership.

"Naturally, we know about the website. We monitor those pages just like all the other things that turn up on the internet and are somehow related to the extremist scene in this country," Pavel Hanták, spokesperson for the Organized Crime Detection Unit (Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu - ÚOOZ) told the Czech Press Agency. However, he did not want to comment on the website. "We of course do not publicize our operational activities," he said.

In one of the texts on the site, the authors praise the arson attack on a home occupied by Roma people in Vítkov, which the courts found to be a case of the attempted murder of eight people. At the same time, the authors distance themselves from groups such as the Autonomous Nationalists, National Resistance and the Workers' Social Justice Party, labeling them all "half left-wing".

A website devoted to the BH and C18 is nothing new for the Czech Republic. Czech daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) reported in May 2008 that the FBI had blocked the most recent one. "Our American colleagues acted at the instigation of British police officers who followed the website and labeled it terrorist," the daily quoted Karel Kuchařík, then head of the computer crimes division at the Police Presidium, as saying. HN reported that the Czech Police had tried on their own to have the website banned but had not succeeded.

The Blood and Honour organization was founded in the 1980s in Britain by Ian Stuart Donaldson, the singer with the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver. It takes its name from the battle cry of the Hitler Youth. The organization endorses the legacy of the Third Reich and its main activity is organizing concerts and rallies and publishing and distributing music, magazines and clothing patches. BH divisions have been set up in many other countries.

The number 18 in Combat 18 stands for the initials of Adolf Hitler. The militant group openly calls for attacks on immigrants, Jewish people and Roma people. Political scientist Miroslav Mareš wrote in his handbook for the Czech Police on this issue that C18 was founded at the start of the 1990s in Britain and that divisions and sections of the organization have gradually been founded in other countries as well. Mareš says members of C18 have carried out a number of violent terrorist actions.

Romea.CZ

Racist incidents in Scotland fall by 4% in a year (UK)

The number of racist incidents recorded by police in Scotland fell by 4% over a one-year period, official figures show.

The chief statistician's report said 4,952 racist incidents were recorded in 2009-10, compared to 5,143 in 2008-09.

However, two police forces - Strathclyde and Lothian and Borders - recorded an increase.

Between 2004-10, reported racist incidents in Scotland increased by 10%, but the figures have been falling since 2006-07.

In 2009-10, about 48% of victims for whom ethnicity was recorded were of Asian origin and about 96% of perpetrators were white.

The most frequently recorded racist crime in 2009-10 was racially aggravated conduct, accounting for 65% of cases.

BBC News