The home secretary has banned an English Defence League (EDL) march through a Shropshire town amid fears of disorder.
Theresa May she had stopped the march in Telford to protect "communities and properties".
She said the ban would not stop an EDL presence in Telford on Saturday.
Telford and Wrekin Council had made the request under the Public Order Act on the advice of West Mercia Police.
Mrs May said: "I have given my consent to a ban on marches in Telford this weekend. It is clear that a ban is needed to ensure communities and properties are protected."
'Remain peaceful'
However, she said there would be a "significant number" of police deployed on Saturday.
"I encourage all local people to work with the police to ensure community relations are not undermined," she said.
Church Street in Wellington is to be the location of any protest by the EDL.
The council welcomed the ban but said security measures would remain in place.
Councillor Shaun Davies said: "People can be reassured that both organisations (police and the council) have the resources available and the experience to deal with any incidents on the day."
Chief Inspector Keith Gee of West Mercia Police said the ban did "not prevent any static assemblies taking place, which are still lawful provided they remain peaceful and we have no legal powers to prevent them".
He added: "We shall do everything possible to ensure that any assembly on Saturday remains peaceful and poses the least amount of disruption possible for those not involved in the assembly."
The EDL said it was going to Telford because "local people's voices deserve to be heard".
"We are not coming to Telford to inconvenience anyone, and we certainly do not intend to cause any trouble," a spokesman said.
BBC News
Friday, 12 August 2011
UK Muslims Use Prayer, Not Revenge in Response to Hate Crime
The three victims had been standing with other local residents in an effort to protect their property from looters when a car plowed through the line of defense.
An estimated 300 Muslim and Sikh men gathered near the site of the killings, according to Guardian News. Some of the men were seeking revenge. As the crowd considered their options, Tariq Jahan, whose son was among those dead, appealed to the crowd not to avenge the crime.
Mustafa Khalili, a Guardian editor, said the deaths had “heightened” tensions, and people began calling for revenge. The father appealed for calm several times since.
The crowd of Muslims and Sikhs decided not to hold a march, which could have led to further violence. Instead, the father and other members of the community led an ethnically-mixed candlelight vigil for the three young men killed. Khalili says the vigil was calm and that those who assembled reflected in their grief.
Basharat Nazir, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the United Kingdom, said the father’s response was in “the true spirit of Islam.” He said the father’s calm demeanor let “common sense” prevail. He added Islam teaches in “the face of atrocity” and "excesses done against us, we should respond back in a thoughtful manner and should rely on the authorities to take the necessary measures.”
Police said they have a suspect in custody and have begun an investigation of possible murder charges.
Nasser Khan, vice president of the Ahmadiyya Association in the United Kingdom, stressed that the deaths were a tragic crime and that they should not be considered “sectarian or religious” incidents. “They were purely defending their communities and their country, which is what Islam teaches you.”
Khan said a handful of Muslim extremists might sometimes catch the media spotlight, but incidents like this prayer vigil should be publicly recognized.
Nazir said, “Responsible people within all the communities should stand up and hold hands and stand up against the extremists.” He said that those who bring violence to society should know that no community will tolerate people that create disorder in this world.
“It goes against all religious teachings. And the Muslim community should be no different to any other,” said Nazir.
Voice of America
'Drop racism from Swiss elections' demand
Swiss human rights groups have called on political parties to avoid racist campaigning during the upcoming October elections.
The head of the Independent Federal Commission Against Racism, Georg Kreis, told AFP that Swiss elections were usually periods of racist and xenophobic agitation.
"There is a certain seductiveness during elections in using xenophobia or defamation as a political tool", he said.
The commission is spearheading the 'Fairplay in Elections' campaign, which is backed by nearly 30 organizations, including human rights group Amnesty International.
During election campaigns, controversial themes should be brought to the table, he conceded, but debates should stick to the facts.
Kreis's call has received press backing: “Those Swiss who are against smear campaigns, exclusion and the ’concept of the enemy’, have gained a voice. With an online signature, they can speak out“, the NZZ newspaper writes.
Switzerland's biggest political party, the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) has consistently sparked controversy with its campaigns.
The SVP, which already holds around a quarter of the seats in the federal assembly, is expected to make further gains during the October elections.
“Parties and politicians are not the focus of the campaign, rather the general public“, Kreis, explained to the media in Bern. “The iniative should show that in Switzerland there is a solid base of decent people. And there are more of them than one would assume from media reports.“
"The 'Fairplay in election campaigns' (Fairplay im Wahlkampf) project should alleviate their feeling of helplessness“, he said.
The campaign calls for parties to avoid racist and defamatory language against immigrants, asylum seekers, the socially disadvantaged and those who think differently.
“An open dialogue is a pre-condition for a democracy. That does not mean that everything should be allowed“, said Emine Sariaslan, president of the Forum for the Integration of Immigrants (FIMM), one of the organizations involved in the campaign. “People should not be made responsible for problems that have totally different cause because of their origin, religion or lifestyle.“
“The campaign is about the protection of different strands of society living alongside one another. Damage occurs when individual groups are shut out and defamed. “Those who really stand up for for Switzerland should sign the iniative,“ said Kreis.
The Local Switzerland
The head of the Independent Federal Commission Against Racism, Georg Kreis, told AFP that Swiss elections were usually periods of racist and xenophobic agitation.
"There is a certain seductiveness during elections in using xenophobia or defamation as a political tool", he said.
The commission is spearheading the 'Fairplay in Elections' campaign, which is backed by nearly 30 organizations, including human rights group Amnesty International.
During election campaigns, controversial themes should be brought to the table, he conceded, but debates should stick to the facts.
Kreis's call has received press backing: “Those Swiss who are against smear campaigns, exclusion and the ’concept of the enemy’, have gained a voice. With an online signature, they can speak out“, the NZZ newspaper writes.
Switzerland's biggest political party, the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) has consistently sparked controversy with its campaigns.
The SVP, which already holds around a quarter of the seats in the federal assembly, is expected to make further gains during the October elections.
“Parties and politicians are not the focus of the campaign, rather the general public“, Kreis, explained to the media in Bern. “The iniative should show that in Switzerland there is a solid base of decent people. And there are more of them than one would assume from media reports.“
"The 'Fairplay in election campaigns' (Fairplay im Wahlkampf) project should alleviate their feeling of helplessness“, he said.
The campaign calls for parties to avoid racist and defamatory language against immigrants, asylum seekers, the socially disadvantaged and those who think differently.
“An open dialogue is a pre-condition for a democracy. That does not mean that everything should be allowed“, said Emine Sariaslan, president of the Forum for the Integration of Immigrants (FIMM), one of the organizations involved in the campaign. “People should not be made responsible for problems that have totally different cause because of their origin, religion or lifestyle.“
“The campaign is about the protection of different strands of society living alongside one another. Damage occurs when individual groups are shut out and defamed. “Those who really stand up for for Switzerland should sign the iniative,“ said Kreis.
The Local Switzerland
DANISH RIGHT-WING INFILTRATED
A secret network called ORG , which has sought to ‘clean’ Denmark of immigrants and have a showdown with ‘traitors’ who have made immigration possible, has been active in infiltrating political and right-wing organisations, according to documents Politiken has obtained. ORG, which has some 100 members, was started by a small group of men, several of whom have held leading positions in the Danish People’s Party, or been candidates for the party, while at the same time taking part in Ku Klux Klan-type events and exerting influence on extreme right-wing organisations. Several ORG members have said they are willing to use violence against immigrants, and have praised the Hells Angels support group AK81 for ‘beating provocative wogs’. Jesper Nielsen, who is the head of ORG, has refused to be interviewed about the organisation. “ORG has not wanted the publicity concerned as we assume that the non-public character of the association will be misconstrued and misused to ascribe surreptitious motives to its closed nature,” ORG’s Board says in a message.
Confronted with Politiken’s information, Danish People’s Party’s Party Secretary Poul Lindholm Jensen says that ORG’s Chairman Jesper Nielsen has been part of the party leadership in Aarhus and that another ORG member has been a parliamentary candidate for the Danish People’s Party. “I have not heard of ORG before. But I can see that neither of the two are with us anymore. They both solved the problem by withdrawing from the party,” Lindholm Jensen says. While ORG has managed to keep the organisation secret for more than 20 years, Politiken has obtained internal ORG documents. The documents include ORG’s organisational setup and tasks, several years of communication between the network’s leading members on a closed Internet forum as well as examples of the network’s extensive ‘traitor archive’, which is called ‘The Great Memory’. The documents show that ORG monitored political opponents, certainly until 2009, and was ready to share its information with the Den Danske Forening association, which is vehemently opposed to immigration.
The secret network’s Copenhagen leader, known as PUJ, received a suspended sentence in 2009 for having abused his position as a policeman to gather information on political adversaries. A search of his home turned up correspondence with ORG’s Leader Jesper Nielsen, but the lead was not developed during his court case. “Our view was that he had contacts with other people who shared his views,” says Copenhagen Public Prosecutor Liselotte Nilas. This particular aspect of the case was handed over to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service PET, whose chief Jakob Scharf says in a written response: “PET has been involved in investigating this case, which led to a police employee being sentenced for illegally collecting personal information from police registers. The fact that the information was seemingly collected for an extreme right network was, and remains, the object of PET’s attention,” Scharf says.
Politiken.dk
Confronted with Politiken’s information, Danish People’s Party’s Party Secretary Poul Lindholm Jensen says that ORG’s Chairman Jesper Nielsen has been part of the party leadership in Aarhus and that another ORG member has been a parliamentary candidate for the Danish People’s Party. “I have not heard of ORG before. But I can see that neither of the two are with us anymore. They both solved the problem by withdrawing from the party,” Lindholm Jensen says. While ORG has managed to keep the organisation secret for more than 20 years, Politiken has obtained internal ORG documents. The documents include ORG’s organisational setup and tasks, several years of communication between the network’s leading members on a closed Internet forum as well as examples of the network’s extensive ‘traitor archive’, which is called ‘The Great Memory’. The documents show that ORG monitored political opponents, certainly until 2009, and was ready to share its information with the Den Danske Forening association, which is vehemently opposed to immigration.
The secret network’s Copenhagen leader, known as PUJ, received a suspended sentence in 2009 for having abused his position as a policeman to gather information on political adversaries. A search of his home turned up correspondence with ORG’s Leader Jesper Nielsen, but the lead was not developed during his court case. “Our view was that he had contacts with other people who shared his views,” says Copenhagen Public Prosecutor Liselotte Nilas. This particular aspect of the case was handed over to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service PET, whose chief Jakob Scharf says in a written response: “PET has been involved in investigating this case, which led to a police employee being sentenced for illegally collecting personal information from police registers. The fact that the information was seemingly collected for an extreme right network was, and remains, the object of PET’s attention,” Scharf says.
Politiken.dk
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