Lincoln yob denies being racist 'because he has a friend called nig-nog' (UK)

A man who stormed into a takeaway and threatened staff with a pizza shovel while shouting racial slurs, denied he was a racist because he had "lots of paki and coloured friends".

Neil Mitchell, 42, of Woodland Avenue in Skellingthorpe, has been found guilty of racially aggravated threatening behaviour and racially aggravated criminal damage.

Lincoln Magistrates' Court heard that Mitchell went to Caldo Pizza in Woodfield Avenue, Birchwood on Thursday, January 6 after he was given the wrong kebab by staff.

Mitchell slammed the chicken kebab on the counter before swearing at owner Hamid Banki.

The court heard he asked staff "Can't you understand English" and called them "f***ing foreigners" and "pakis" before picking up a pizza shovel and brandishing it at them.

A bowl was damaged during the altercation.

But in an interview with police, Mitchell claimed he was not a racist because he "had lots of paki and coloured friends" and a friend in his phone called "nig nog".

At an earlier hearing, Mitchell pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour and causing criminal damage but denied they were racially aggravated.

Lois Colley, prosecuting, asked Mitchell: "On a number of occasions during your police interview you mimicked the accents of staff at the shop. Do you find that offensive?"

Wearing a dark suit and standing defiantly in the dock Mitchell replied: "No. Is it offensive for a northerner to mimic a southerner?"

Ms Colley then put to Mitchell: "You said in interview you had lots of "paki" and "coloured" friends and that you had a friend in your phone called 'nig nog' ".

Mitchell replied: "Nig nog is a white guy, it was a name he had from the Army.

"He got the name because he was always dirty and would wear paint on his face."

Referring to the incident at Caldo Pizza, Mitchell then told magistrates: "I hadn't slept for three nights because my father is ill with Parkinson's disease.

"They had got my order wrong again, so I went back to demand my money back, and petrol money as well.

"The chef started getting a bit cocky and it escalated from there.

"I said 'Can't you understand English?', but it wasn't a racist remark.

"I grew up in the ghetto where life was tough. Where I came from, things were different and you could have a bit of banter.

"I never used racist words, I can't understand why they thought I did."

Richard Marshall, in mitigation, said: "Mr Mitchell comes from a different background, but it is clear he didn't use overtly racist language."

Adjourning sentencing for further reports, chairman of the bench Robert Cox said: "You have accepted threatening behaviour and criminal damage offences but we have come to the conclusion they were racially aggravated.

"Mr Mitchell's use of words in both interview and the witness box demonstrates an underlying hostility to racial minorities."

Sentencing was adjourned until Friday July 8 awaiting further reports.

 This is Lincolnshire

Vancouver man convicted in racist hate-crime attack at sports bar (Canada)

He’s one of three who yelled ‘White Power!’ and assaulted black man
A longtime white supremacist was convicted in federal court Wednesday for his role in a racially motivated hate-crime attack on a black man in a downtown Vancouver sports bar in January 2010.

Zachary Beck, 32, of Vancouver was convicted in a three-day bench trial of conspiracy to violate civil rights, interference with a federally protected right and witness tampering, according to a bulletin from U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan handed down the verdict in Tacoma.

The bulletin and The Columbian’s files say Beck was in the former bar at 115 E. Seventh St. when he saw the black man socializing with white friends and told the bartender, twice, that the lone black man “had to leave” or there would be trouble.

The black man, whose name hasn’t been released, stayed and Beck went outside and discussed attacking him with Kory Boyd, a Vancouver skinhead and self-described white supremacist, and a third man, Lawrence Silk.

Yelling “White Power!” “You’re dead!” and racist slurs, the three went inside and attacked the black man, shouting that he shouldn’t be kissing white women and threatening to stab him.

The African-American man defended himself by blocking Beck’s punch and grabbing him in a headlock. Meanwhile, Boyd and Silk threw bottles at the black man — and a friend of the victim intervened.

When the black man released Beck, the attackers fled, shouting more racial slurs and threatening to return.

The black man followed them out of the bar and pursued them while calling 911.

The victim suffered injuries including a cut arm, bruising on his forearms and a sore chin, officials said.

Vancouver police apprehended Silk and investigated, as did the FBI. Federal authorities arrested and charged Beck and Boyd in August 2010.

Beck was accused of witness tampering for asking a former girlfriend to provide an alibi for the night of the attack, according to Columbian files.

“There is no haven for hate crimes,” Durkan said in the bulletin issued after Beck’s conviction Wednesday. “I applaud the Vancouver residents that stood up for fairness and tried to stop Beck and his co-conspirators that night. Both the FBI and the Vancouver Police Department are to be commended for their work.”

Wednesday’s bulletin adds that Silk and Boyd “have already been convicted for their roles. Silk pleaded guilty to Washington State charges of malicious harassment and received a two-year sentence. Boyd pleaded guilty to a federal hate-crime charge and was sentenced in January 2011 to 34 months’ imprisonment.”

All three of the attackers have associated with white-supremacist groups, the bulletin said.

In 2003, Beck ran unsuccessfully for the city council in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, “under the Aryan Nations banner,” Wednesday’s bulletin said.

That same year, Beck was charged with punching a man in a parking lot after asking if he was Mexican, according to The Columbian’s files.

The Colombian

RECTOR AT MUSLIM UNIVERSITY IN RUSSIA IS SHOT TO DEATH

Gunmen on Tuesday killed the rector of a Muslim university in southern Russia who had been leading a government-sponsored effort to counter violence in the region by reviving the local traditions of Sufi Islam that he said were less likely to inspire suicide bombers. The rector, Maksud I. Sadikov, of the Islamic University of the North Caucasus, was shot to death in a car in Makhachkala, the capital of the Dagestan region, Russian prosecutors said. Mr. Sadikov’s bodyguard was also killed, they said. The prosecutors had not arrested or identified any potential suspects by late Tuesday, and no group immediately stepped forward to take responsibility for the attack. Mr. Sadikov was a proponent of the idea that state support for Sufism could diminish the threat of terrorism in Russia. Sufism was once widespread in the North Caucasus but faded after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the arrival of proselytizers from Middle East who sought to spread Sunni Islam. In an interview about his work in February, Mr. Sadikov said that no Sufi had committed a suicide bombing in Russia. “One of the best methods to resist the ideology of extremism is a good religious education,” Mr. Sadikov said. He said a moderate Islamic education was an “anti-venom” against terrorism.

The effort, and the government financing it received, had put him at odds with militants in the Islamic insurgency in Russia that began in Chechnya in the 1990s and has spread to other regions, including Dagestan. His university, a sprawling complex beside a mosque in Makhachkala, was involved in one of the few nonmilitary approaches that the Russian government has attempted to resolve the long-running rebellion. President Dmitri A. Medvedev has also tried to use economic aid to ease unemployment in the area. Militants have sent dozens of suicide bombers into central Russian cities, including Moscow, over the past decade. In the past 18 months, 76 people have died in attacks on the Moscow subway system and at its main airport. Those attacks led the police to put additional metal detectors in public spaces. Mr. Sadikov said his strategy was to prevent radical Islamic ideas from taking root in young men. In southern Russia, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, most suicide bombers are adherents of fundamentalist Sunni sects, including the Salafi tradition that is the state religion in Saudi Arabia. The Russian government latched onto Mr. Sadikov’s observations and threw official support behind other forms of Islam.

The United States tried a similar tactic in Iraq by introducing moderate imams at the prisons where insurgents were being held. Mr. Sadikov’s university was intended to educate elementary school teachers for a pilot project to teach Sufi Islam in public schools. This year, 1,300 students were enrolled, making it the largest effort of its kind in the North Caucasus. His university taught what he characterized as pacifist Sufi practices, like performing a ritual whirling dance or taking pilgrimages to holy sites. Critics countered that the Sufi monopoly of formal religious education in the North Caucasus only served to further alienate fundamentalist Sunni believers by compelling them to worship at home. The state’s support also made the university a target. In the February interview, Mr. Sadikov said that he was keenly aware of the dangers inherent in his project. “The radicals are saying, ‘You need to punish the impure Muslims,’ ” Mr. Sadikov said.

International Herald Tribune

Second protest for day of English Defence League demonstration in Dewsbury (UK)

An anti-fascist organisation will lead a counter-protest to the English Defence League’s demonstration in Dewsbury this weekend.

But police have ruled that neither group will be allowed to hold events in the heart of the town centre.

The EDL had originally planned to hold speeches outside Dewsbury Town Hall on Saturday afternoon.

Now its demonstration will be limited to the car park outside the town’s train station between 2pm and 3pm.

Chf Supt John Robins said: “After discussions with local businesses, the council, the community and the EDL organiser, we have decided that the venue of the planned EDL peaceful static protest should now be on the public car park outside the railway station.

“This decision was made to ensure that any possible disruption to people visiting and working in Dewsbury on Saturday is kept to an absolute minimum.”

Kirklees Unite Against Fascism is planning an event of its own from noon on Saturday to celebrate the “unity of multicultural Dewsbury”.

Chf Supt Robins said: “We are speaking with the organiser, but it is likely that this counter-protest will be on Wellington Road East, further along the ring road.

“As we have stated previously, our main aim is to ensure it is ‘business as usual’ for the traders, businesses and the people of Dewsbury on Saturday.”

Dewsbury Reporter

Former BNP Councillor Paul Golding heads Britain First nationalist movement (UK)

A former BNP councillor who was accused of “doing nothing” for his constituents is launching his own nationalist party.

Paul Golding, who stepped down as a Sevenoaks District councillor for the Swanley St Mary’s ward in February, is now director of Britain First.

Mr Golding, whose latest venture is run from a Swanley postal address, told News Shopper he left his position as councillor because he had moved out of the area.

Mr Golding said in February: “I’ve moved out of the area. I didn’t think it was morally justified to keep getting the allowance. It’s as simple as that, no drama involved.”

In a campaign for Britain First, Mr Golding makes a swipe at other nationalist parties, asking: “Are you, like me, fed up of enduring the constant bickering, moaning, whinging and name-calling that is at present consuming what is left of the British patriotic movement?”

Mr Golding also accuses other parties of creating: “a constant stream of self inflicted media scandals and embarrassing gaffes that make all of us look ridiculous”.

The group also uses slogans including “if voting changed anything, it would be illegal” and “the voice of the silent majority”.

Mr Golding, who calls the movement “a modern political phenomenon” also says: “Now it is time for all patriots of stout heart to join forces, so that we can, once again, achieve progress and make an impact against the despicable traitors ruining our once green and pleasant land.

“We want our country back and we shall not rest until our land is free.”

Labour Councillor John Underwood, who still represents the Swanley St Mary’s ward for Sevenoaks District Council, said: “He can do what he likes as far as I’m concerned.

“I’m just glad he’s gone and out of my way.”
Paul Golding’s timeline of gaffes

February 2009 - Paul Golding is elected, beating Labour candidate Michael Hogg by 408 votes to 332.

August 2009 - He attends a BNP Red White and Blue family festival in Derbyshire - where an undercover News of the World reporter records a 12-year-old burning a gollywog. Mr Golding condemned these actions.

August 2009 - As part of the BNP’s anti-media campaign, Operation Fightback, he made a video to prove that a woman convicted of intimidating an Asian mother was not a BNP member. Later investigations confirmed that Helen Forster was a member, but had registered under a different name.

September 2009 - St Mary’s constituents accuse Mr Golding of “doing nothing” for them since his election.

October 2009 - The BNP threatens to boycott three News Shopper advertisers unless they pull their adverts, calling the paper “a particularly venomous anti-British left-wing propaganda outlet”.

February 2011 - Steps down as a Sevenoaks District Councillor.

News Shopper