MP rejects BNP claim after rant is published (UK)

THE British National Party is to make an official complaint against Gavin Barwell, after the MP publicised one of its candidate's rants about "violent immigrants" in New Addington.

The far-right party alleges Mr Barwell breached the Data Protection Act when he sent a questionnaire, filled in by Clifford Le May, to the Advertiser nearly a year and a half ago.

In the pamphlet, Mr Le May urged the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to "stop ruining our community by stuffing New Addington with violent immigrants who have no right to live among decent civilised white people".

He also referred to Mr Barwell, who he ran against for the Croydon Central seat in the general election last May, as a "traitor to his race and nation".

Now Mr Barwell has received a letter from the BNP threatening to take the matter to the Information Commissioner.

Mr Barwell told the Advertiser: "It's completely bizarre. I've never heard of anyone in a political party complain about their views being made public.

"Perhaps he is ashamed of what he said, as he should be."

In the letter, Tony Martin, the BNP's Croydon and Sutton branch organiser, wrote: "In mid 2009, Clifford Le May received a questionnaire sent out by your organisation.

"Cliff filled in and returned the completed questionnaire only for it to be printed in the Croydon Advertiser.

"Recently I have been looking into the legality of this leak and who is responsible.

"It looks illegal under the Data Protection Act 1998 and Gavin Barwell has confessed to this indiscretion on his blog.

"I contacted the Information Commissioner's Office and was told to contact you first before making any official complaint."

When the Advertiser contacted Mr Martin, who has replaced Charlotte Lewis as Croydon and Sutton branch organiser, he pointed out a promise made on www.croydonconservatives.com not to share information with third parties.

The disclaimer, under the heading Information Collection and Use, reads: "We never sell or share information to anyone outside the Conservative Party."

Mr Martin added: "I want to get the message across that we are not prepared to be trodden on.

"The Conservatives promise never to share information but this is exactly what they did.

"We're not looking for compensation, but an apology."

Mr Barwell admitted the privacy disclaimer existed but added: "Were it the response of a private individual I wouldn't have released it.

"But this was someone running for public office, so people have a right to know his views."

After giving Mr Barwell a deadline of seven days to respond to his concerns, Mr Martin says he now intends to submit an official complaint to the Information Commissioner.




This is Croydon

TERROR THREAT ACCUSED 'HAD AK-47' (South Africa)

Police found an AK-47 assault rifle and ammunition at the home of a South African terror suspect accused of  threatening Britain and the US, prosecutors said.

Brian Roach's lawyers told a bail hearing he would plead guilty to attempted extortion, but not to terror charges.

They also said the 64-year-old was no longer seeking bail.

Roach is accused of sending emails threatening to spread foot-and-mouth disease in the US and Britain unless the governments paid him four million dollars (£2.5 million).

Prosecutors have said police have not found evidence that Roach had the means to carry out his threats.

Roach, who owns an engineering firm outside Johannesburg and has business interests in Zimbabwe, is accused of saying in emails that he wanted the money to compensate white Zimbabwean farmers for land lost, and accusing the US and British governments of not doing enough to help the farmers.

About 4,000 white farmers have been forced from their farms since 2000 in what Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe calls a campaign to put more land in the hands of impoverished blacks.

Many of the beneficiaries, though, have been senior politicians who are close to Mugabe.

South African investigators worked with US and British officials on the case, and arrested Roach on February 12 after a seven-month investigation.

Daily Express

No more mister nice radical nationalist Jobbik (Hungary)

It seems that the decision by Gábor Vona to say nasty things about the Gypsies in Parliament while wearing the banned uniform of the Hungarian Guard on Monday wasn't the Jobbik chairman's way of celebrating Valentine's day. According to origo.hu, the leadership of the party has made a conscious decision to change their strategy, by spending more time at public forums focusing on the "harsher topics" they believe brought them success during the election campaign.

The portal notes that while Jobbik's leaders say the reason for their decision to start being naughtier again is dissatisfaction with the government's policies, it is probably also related to the fact that the party's popularity is falling. Imagine that.

Politics Hu

FRENCH FAR RIGHT POISED TO GAIN FROM WAVE OF TUNISIAN MIGRANTS

The wave of Tunisian immigrants that arrived in France last week shouldn't plan on getting too cozy. The new leader of the National Front is poised to capitalize on what she says is an immigration crisis. 

French police say they have arrested some 100 Tunisians who landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa last week as they tried to enter France. The arrested immigrants, each carrying a document provided by the Italian authorities, are being held in detention centers across southeastern France. Should these immigrants request political asylum, their demands would more than likely be turned down, and France would be under no obligation to allow them to stay. On Friday, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Laurent Wauquiez made it clear that immigrants from Tunisia should expect no special treatment. "The Interior Ministry will examine on a case by case basis those who qualify for the right to immigration. Those cases can only be very marginal," Wauquiez told a news conference.

Good news for the National Front
The government is taking a hard line on these immigrants - but that is not preventing Marine Le Pen, the new leader of the far right National Front party, from making political capital out of what she says is the beginning of a new immigration crisis. In an interview with French public radio on Friday, Le Pen said the "great wave of migrants" was one of the consequences of the revolutions taking place in the Arab world. "We have to reform our immigration policy and stop the system that's pumping immigrants into our country. That means revoking the automatic right of anyone born here to French nationality and stopping the insanely easy access to social security benefit, housing benefit, retirement pensions and free schooling," Le Pen said. According to an opinion poll published Friday, if presidential elections were held tomorrow, 26 percent would vote for Socialist hopeful Dominique Strauss-Khan, 23 percent for incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy and 21 percent for Le Pen, meaning France would be very close to selecting the far right leader to go to the second round head-to-head against the Socialist candidate.

DW-World

French journalist convicted on racism charge over drug dealer comment (France)

Self-styled enemy of political correctness Éric Zemmour found guilty after trial over remarks about police stopping minorities

The controversial French journalist Éric Zemmour has been found guilty of incitement to racial hatred after telling a TV chatshow that drug dealers were mostly "blacks and Arabs".

The Paris trial sparked a fierce debate over freedom of speech and the extent of France's racism problem, which is poisoning the republican ideal that all citizens are equal regardless of colour.

Zemmour, a well-known media commentator and columnist for Le Figaro, prides himself on his outspoken defiance of what he deems political correct, woolly liberals.

He appeared on a chatshow last year when the debate turned to the question of the French police's excessive use of stop and search powers against minorities. He said: "But why are they stopped 17 times? Why? Because most dealers are blacks and Arabs. That's a fact."

According to the French model, where everyone is theoretically equal under a state blind to race or religion, it is illegal to count ethnic minorities or race statistics. So there are no figures on the ethnic identity of criminals.

Zemmour was also fined for telling another TV channel that employers "had a right" to turn down black or Arab candidates. Job discrimination over race and ethnicity is thought to be widespread in France.

Zemmour, whose parents were Jewish Berbers who emigrated from Algeria in the 1950s, told the court he was not a "provocateur" but a faithful observer of reality who refused political correctness. He was backed by several centre-right politicians and some on the left.

The state prosecutor accused him of using the "old stereotype that linked immigration to crime".

The Zemmour case has reflected an increasingly uneasy debate over immigration in France as Nicolas Sarkozy tries to win over the far-right vote before his difficult re-election battle next year.

The Front National, led by its new, young, female face, Marine Le Pen, is scoring its highest ever ratings in the polls after exploiting mistrust of Islam by criticising Muslim street prayers and halal-only restaurants.

After what was attacked as a disastrous national debate on "immigration and national identity", Sarkozy is now seeking to outmanoeuvre the extreme right by launching a nationwide consultation on the role of Islam in the French secular state.

The debate, to be run by his ruling UMP party, will begin in April and will seek to impose rules on how Islam should work in France, which has the biggest Muslim population in western Europe. Sarkozy told party members it was crucial because "yesterday's racists are today's populists".

He said: "I don't want prayers in the streets, or calls to prayer." He said the decision to ban the niqab in public places from April was a good thing and now "we need to agree in principle about the place of religion".

The Guardian

White supremacist was early focus of police attack probe (Hemet, USA)

 Midway through the investigation into a series of attacks on Hemet police last year, detectives were focused on violent white supremacist gangs as suspects, according to newly released search warrants.

Police were serving search warrants to investigate several members of a prison-based neo-Nazi gang, including the alleged "shot caller" of the Hemet chapter, according to the documents police filed to obtain those warrants.

The documents were released this week after attorneys for The Press-Enterprise filed a request last year that multiple search warrants be unsealed.

Though several of those mentioned in the March and April search warrants were arrested as part of an April raid, police did not find evidence to link members of the gangs to any of the attacks.

By June, suspicion turned to two other men, Nicholas Smit and Steven Hansen. Based on a tip to police and DNA evidence, they were arrested in July on suspicion of targeting Hemet Detective Chuck Johnson with attacks that started in December 2009. Authorities have said the motive was to stop Johnson from testifying against Smit in a marijuana case.

Smit has been charged in five attacks and Hansen is charged with assisting him in one attack -- aiming a rocket at the Hemet Police Department in June.

Police have not said whether either man had ties to any white supremacist gangs. The district attorney's office has not filed gang charges against them.

The initial suspect in the case was Joseph Matthew Zito, who police thought was "bent on revenge" against officers who had arrested him, detectives said in the unsealed documents.

Zito was sentenced last month to eight years in prison for a weapons charge related to the April raid but unrelated to the attacks.

In late 2009, Zito was released from prison after Johnson had arrested him for possession of tear gas. He went to the Hemet Police Department and told detectives that authorities in a previous weapons case against him "bore false witness" and that "he had a moral and religious right to 'bring sinners to justice,' " the warrants say.

Zito was described in the warrants as the leader or "shot caller" for the Hemet region of a white supremacist gang called Public Enemy No. 1. Formed in Orange County, it is a sect of the Aryan Brotherhood, police said.

Part of the reason Hemet police suspected white supremacist involvement was that an investigator found instructions on how to make some of the devices used in the attacks in an online white supremacist manual.

One such device was a homemade gun rigged to the gate around the Hemet-San Jacinto Gang Task Force building February 2010, which fired when an officer opened the gate, narrowly missing him.

The next day, as task force members moved out of the building, police found Zito staking out the building, according to the warrants.

Detectives began a surveillance operation in March on Zito and his gang associates. The warrants state Zito was never found at the scene of any of the attacks but was thought to have been orchestrating them.

Video surveillance was conducted on Johnson's home, where a similar homemade gun was attached to his car on March 4.

While the gun found on Johnson's car was being defused by the bomb squad, an associate of Zito's was seen staking out the officers.

When the Hemet police firing range was burned down April 12, police believed it was retribution for the arrest of another gang member hours earlier.

Detectives eventually ruled out Zito's involvement due to a lack of evidence.

PE.com

Neo-Nazis and leftists clash at assault trial (Germany)

Right-wing extremists and leftists clashed in a Nuremberg courtroom on Thursday, spurring the judge to clear the hall in order to continue a trial against a neo-Nazi charged with beating a teenage boy so severely that he remains permanently disabled.

As the trial began a group of leftists reportedly chanted “Antifa, Antifa, get out Nazis!” in attempt to keep the defendant’s supporters from entering the courtroom. Antifa in German refers to “anti-fascist” supporters.

The courtroom, number 600, was used to try Nazi war criminals after the Second World War, and the leftist demonstrators said they did not want it occupied by modern right-wing extremists.

Court officials' demands to keep apart were ignored and met with verbal sparring between the two sides, and the courtroom was cleared amid loud protests.

A 24-year-old man with admitted ties to the neo-Nazi scene in Fürth faces charges of attempted manslaughter and dangerous bodily harm after beating a 17-year-old student apprentice nearly to death in April 2010 in a Nuremberg U-Bahn metro.

The man became enraged when the teenager allegedly made a disparaging remark about a bum bag worn by his girlfriend from Thor Steinar, a well-known neo-Nazi clothing label.

The 24-year-old from Fürth denied he intended to maim or kill the teen before the court on Thursday, but did acknowledge beating the boy after he remarked “aggressively” on the bum bag. The defendant also said he regretted the incident, in particular the disabilities sustained by his victim.

The now 18-year-old was injured so severely that his heart stopped and he had to be repeatedly resuscitated by rescue workers. After a lengthy hospital stay he remains severely disabled and unable to work in his chosen field of carpentry.

Because he can’t remember the assault, the teen appeared in court as a joint plaintiff.

Though he has no memory of it, he told the court that he could certainly imagine making such a remark about the Thor Steinar bag.

“Because I think it’s wrong to wear this label that is used mainly by neo-Nazis,” he said, adding that he is an active supporter of the city's leftist scene.

Another four days have been reserved for the trial, with a verdict expected on March 3.

The Local Germany

Religious leaders join forces against violence (Denmark)

 Recent reports of violence and harassment against religious groups has inspired groups of Christians, Muslims and Jews to unite in the fight against intolerance, reports Berlingske newspaper.

An increase in religiously motivated violence has led the three main religious communities in Denmark to join forces to encourage mutual respect and tolerance.

“Judaism, Islam and Christianity all have common roots,” said Rev Peter Skov-Jacobsen, the bishop of Copenhagen. “And when the root is the same, it must be possible for them to live and prosper side by side.”

The bishop’s views are supported by Det Mosaiske Troessamfund (MT), an officially recognized Jewish society, and the Muslim Joint Council (MF).

“Islam does not warrant harassment,” said MF spokesperson Zubair Butt-Hussain. “Such harassment is horrible whether you are religious or not. Engaging in it would amount to abuse of the Koran.”

On March 21, the City Council will schedule a campaign against religious harassment in connection with the UN’s anti-racism day.

CH-Post

Norway rules to extradite mentally-ill Russian neo-Nazi

A Norwegian court in Oslo has ruled to extradite mentally-disturbed Russian neo-Nazi Vyacheslav Datsik, the local NRK television broadcasting corporation said on Wednesday.

Datsik, 33, was detained at an immigration office in Oslo where he appeared with a weapon seeking asylum on September 21. In late December, a local court sentenced him to eight months in prison for carrying a weapon.

Hearings on Datsik's extradition, which Russian prosecutors had been seeking since October 20, began in Oslo on February 14. Justice Minister Knut Storberget said in court that the Norwegian authorities were not interested in having Datsik on their territory.

Datsik, a former mixed martial arts fighter, was arrested in 2007 after a series of robberies in cell phone stores. But psychiatric examinations concluded that he was mentally ill and was therefore cleared of all criminal charges.

The martial arts fighter was involved in political activities as a member of the ultranationalist movement, Slavic Union, which was banned in Russia last year but had reportedly opened its office in Norway.

RIA Novosti

STUDENTS IN CZECH TOWN PREPARE TO FORM A HUMAN CHAIN AGAINST EXTREMISTS LIKE IN DRESDEN

Following the model used by activists in the German city of Dresden, a group of students from the Czech town of Nový Bydžov is planning to form a human chain on 12 March, the date right-wing radicals are scheduled to assemble there. One of the organizers has told news server Romea.cz the students plan to prevent the extremists from marching through the town. "Through this action, we want to non-violently express that we as citizens of Nový Bydžov and neighboring towns are able to resolve our problems ourselves and that we are under no circumstances in favor of a neo-Nazi party or organization exploiting these particular problems in order to gain publicity," one of the students told Romea.cz. "Our aim is ideally to form a human chain around the square as was done in Dresden." The students are aware of the problem that has occurred in the town but are convinced it should be resolved through dialogue and that the situation is not so oppressive as to deserve the media response it has been given. "For the time being we are a group of three students from Nový Bydžov and people from 'alternative' circles (the hard-core punk scene) in Hradec Králové are doing their best to help us.

We would love to have local residents of all ages come to this event as well as anti-racist people from all over the country. However, I must emphasize that the aim is a non-violent form of protest, such as creating a human chain around the square. Maybe we will even be lucky enough that the event will become an opportunity for discussing the situation with one another, exchanging experiences, finding some sort of solution. From my own experience I know that most of the local Roma people are dissatisfied with what has been going on in the town recently and they would also like to contribute to resolving the situation," the student told Romea.cz. The students want to properly announce the event to the town hall as required by law. "We will announce the event this week so someone else doesn't also claim the place for our meeting in U Památníku street," the organizer said. Organizers do not want to guess how many might participate, but success for them would be the presence of around 200-300 people. They are primarily counting on the young Roma people with whom they are in contact to participate. "We usually see them in town or at school. They have promised to participate," the organizer said.

Romea

Many cultures living beside each other in Wales give the lie to Cameron (Wales, UK)

When David Cameron attacked multiculturalism in Britain earlier this month he triggered a media storm.

Critics from the political Left accused the Prime Minister of “writing propaganda” for far right groups, while those on the Right argued his speech signalled the death knell for multiculturalism.

Nearly two weeks after he spoke at a security conference in Munich on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism, his comments are still rippling through society.

This week, Welsh politicians, faith leaders and racial equality champions entered the debate – each defending the importance of multiculturalism, not just in tackling terrorism but also in enriching lives.

In his speech, Mr Cameron criticised what he called “state multiculturalism”, suggesting the policy had failed to provide a society which immigrants feel they belonged to.

Yet, Betty Campbell, Wales’ first black headteacher and a former councillor of Cardiff’s Butetown area – once known as Tiger Bay – said it was the arrival of immigrant merchant seaman looking for work in the early 1900s which helped define a society where different races, cultures and religions lived together in harmony.

Proof, she said, that multiculturalism has not only succeeded in Wales but has thrived for more than 100 years.

“When my father came over from Jamaica in 1921 looking for work in the coal industry there was already a large community of West Indians, Africans and Arabs,” she said. “Most of these immigrants came as single men and then inter-married with Welsh or English women.

“This is what made the area so special, the fact that we had different nationalities living side by side.

“We did not have any of the fuss that we have now – all the different religions, races and cultures were just accepted.”

The 77-year-old said she did not understand Mr Cameron’s suggestions that multiculturalism had not worked and insisted Butetown should be held up as an example.

Arguably the most contentious statement made by the Prime Minister blamed the idea of multiculturalism as being the cause of divisions in society.

He said: “Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives.

“We’ve failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We’ve even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values.”

Yet, in response, Mrs Campbell said: “We haven’t got the same diversity as we once had because many people have moved on.

“We used to have a large Spanish community and there were Jewish people and there was quite a number of people from Cape Verde and Sri Lanka; but it’s still like a melting pot.”

Mr Cameron also said there was a “hands-off tolerance” by white people in Britain to views of minority communities which would otherwise be condemned – such as forced marriages.

“Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism,” he said.

The debate has also been fuelled further by other world leaders, or ex-leaders, condemning multiculturalism.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australia’s former prime minister John Howard and former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar have all in recent months said multicultural policies had not worked.

But, according to Saleem Kidwai, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Wales, this “failure” is one which has not occurred in Wales.

“As far as we are concerned multiculturalism in Wales is alive and kicking,” he said.

“If you ask the majority of the Muslim community they are proud to be British and proud to be Welsh. It’s not an issue of whether it’s a success or a failure, it’s about whether people have made a contribution to society.”

Mr Kidwai rejected the idea put forward by Mr Cameron that many Muslim men find it hard to identify with Britain while he also likened the importance of multiculturalism to a well-stocked garden.

“We cannot deny we have differences but it is the fact that everyone is different which brings a richness into society.

“People’s values are all the same across the world and neither ethnicity nor faith play a part. It’s not about imposing your culture on someone else, it’s about complementing one another; and that’s what makes it beautiful.

“For example, if you have a garden with just one colour flower in it it doesn’t matter how bright it is you will still get bored. A garden full of colour is really beautiful.”

Taha Idris, chief executive of Swansea Bay Racial Equality Council, was another who felt the multicultural landscape in Wales was far brighter than Mr Cameron portrayed. “There are ghettos in places like London and Blackburn but we do not have anything of the sort in Wales because multiculturalism has worked,” he said.

“In terms of what has been tried and what hasn’t, there have been some failures; but on the whole there have been more successes.

“In West Wales, in particular, there’s been a lot of give and take to accept both sides of the fence, but really, in many ways, we haven’t even separated the fence.”

Both Mr Kidwai and Mr Idris were keen on promoting examples of effective multiculturalism. Mr Kidwai pointed to the council’s collaboration with both grass roots organisations and authorities, such as local councils, the police and the Assembly Government – particularly during a police operation before Christmas that led to men being charged in connection with alleged terror offences.

“The way police handled the situation in Cardiff was noticeably different to how they handled it in Stoke,” he said.

“In Cardiff they [the police] were very subdued whereas in Stoke there was a large police presence. This is because we have a very good relationship with the police and we have respect for each other.

“What gives me satisfaction is the way the community supported each other during that time.”

Mr Kidwai also spoke about the enthusiasm among the Muslim community for the forthcoming referendum on March 3.

“Muslims, like other faiths, are taking a civic responsibility to take active part in the political process and this is because of the values which we are sharing.

“In every mosque meeting we are talking about the referendum and there are very few who do not agree with voting yes.

“We have seen, since the Assembly Government has come into existence, we have got a voice in Wales and we have worked closely with them.

“Before that everything was done down in London and, although we were supposedly represented, we were always talking through a third party. Now we are talking direct to the Government and we are getting results.

“We are all working for one aim, to make Wales a more prosperous and thriving country by working together.”

Mr Idris gave the example of a recent BNP campaign which, by reaction, ultimately served to increase cohesion between white and ethnic minority groups in Swansea.

“There was a purchase of a disused church by a Muslim group which prompted the BNP to come down and campaign,” he said.

“They came to try to influence those who weren’t Muslim by handing out leaflets.

“But the white community supported the idea and supported the Muslim community. They agreed with what it was doing, which was trying to bring the church back into the community again.

“That togetherness is a great example of how multiculturalism has worked.”

Helen Mary Jones, the deputy leader of Plaid Cymru and Llanelli AM, also waded into the discussion.

She said: “I wish people like David Cameron would not muddy the waters when clearly work is being done to good effect.

“I thought his comments were unfortunate and unhelpful. I don’t know what he means by state multiculturalism and I don’t recognise the points that he makes.

“I cannot speak about the black and ethnic communities in England but it certainly doesn’t ring true in Wales.”

Ms Jones referred to the increasing demand for Welsh medium education as an example of how people from ethnic minority backgrounds wanted their children to grow up with a Welsh identity.

She also credited Llanelli Multicultural Network (LMCN) for its work in engaging people from all walks of life, such as groups from South Korea, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

“We know people from ethnic minority communities can feel a bit isolated but that’s exactly where LMCN comes in. It is reaching out to them and on the whole the response has been very positive.”

David Davies, Conservative MP for Monmouth, said it was important for the Prime Minister to speak up on sensitive issues which others may be too scared to raise, but added that Wales did not have a particular problem with people from minority communities integrating into society.

“We don’t have a large problem in Wales but there are parts of the UK were you walk down the street and you don’t ever hear English being spoken. These are the places that do not feel British and where there is a problem.”

All the different religions, races and cultures were just accepted

Fifty tongues in Tiger Bay
Immigration has played a vital role in the development of multicultural Wales since the end of the 19th century when the economic expansion and importance of its seaports and coal mines attracted workers from around the world.

One area in particular which benefited from the cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic and multi-religious makeup immigration brought with it is the small community in the south of Cardiff, formerly known as Tiger Bay.

Butetown, as it is now named, is internationally famous for its diverse mix of ethnic groups, including Somali, Bengali, Afro-Caribbean, Jamaican and Yemeni communities, among others. At the height of the coal boom the area boasted more than 50 different languages.

As they settled in the residential area around Cardiff’s docks in the early 1900s, these groups brought with them their cultural traditions and it was these traditions which soon mixed with existing Welsh traditions which made Butetown one of the UK’s first multicultural communities.

Fast-forward more than 100 years and Butetown still has the highest percentage of ethnic minorities in the Welsh capital – partly because it has recently become a haven for refugees from countries blighted by civil war, such as Somalia.

Wales Online

One-year-old child suffers racist abuse (UK)

Children as young as one have been the victims of racist abuse, new figures suggested today.
Police investigated 31 reports of hate crime targeted at youngsters aged under 11 in the Lothians last year, according to figures obtained by the Evening News under freedom of information.

Experts have said abuse or attacks at such a young age could cause psychological damage, while politicians have urged the Government to clamp down on racist thugs.

The reports detail one investigation into an incident in north Edinburgh, the worst area in the Lothians for hate crime against under 11s, where a 12-month-old child was listed as the victim.

Police also probed a race hate crime against a two-year-old in south Edinburgh, and a seven- year-old in the same area.

The figures also reveal that a ten-year-old child in Bathgate was targeted because the offenders thought the victim was homosexual.

Overall, hate crimes investigated in Lothian and Borders rose by 8.4 per cent from 1604 in 2008/09 to 1739 in 2009/10.

Labour's justice spokesman, Richard Baker MSP, said the rise was "deeply worrying".

He said that stricter sentences and robust policing in recent years may not have had the desired impact.

He said: "It's appalling that children have been subject to hate crimes and I'm sure this will be met with a huge amount of concern throughout the community.

"If it's adults committing these crimes against children, that is deeply worrying.

"They should be subject to the full force of the law and the courts should deal with them in an appropriately severe manner.

"However, if it is other children that are responsible for racist and homophobic crimes, that suggests deep-seated social problems that we need to deal with.

"We have to ask why these attacks have taken place. If it's other children we have to ask how they would come to be driven by race and homophobia.

He added: "The trends overall are also concerning. We have taken action in parliament in terms of introducing legislation and stiffer penalties on hate crimes, so if despite that we are seeing an increase, then we need to see an appropriate response from the relevant agencies."

A police spokesman said: "Lothian and Borders Police will not tolerate hate crime of any nature and will robustly deal with anyone found to be responsible."

Scotsman

BNP councillor quits party in protest over assualt row (UK)

 The Welsh wing of the far-right British National Party is said to be in turmoil after a Llandybie community councillor tore up his membership following the Guardian's coverage of an assault carried out by a party member.

According to Cllr Kevin Edwards, the Guardian's reporting of BNP member Roger Phillips' attack on Adam Margetts in Cross Hands on December 20 has set the party back years in Wales.

The Llandybie councillor says he resigned after a meeting of party organisers went back on a pledge from BNP leader Nick Griffin to have Mr Phillips dismissed from the party.

Mr Griffin had sent Cllr Edwards an email regarding Mr Phillips' actions, stating: "He's got to go. I'm shocked that this was not dealt with in South Wales ages ago."

However, Cllr Edwards claims that the party's refusal to oust "thuggish" Mr Phillips, has left him no choice but to cut all links with the BNP.

"My mobile number never stopped with calls from distraught ex and current members who were deeply disturbed over this incident that has set the BNP back years in west Wales," said Cllr Edwards, who will continue to stand as a "Justice 4 Linda Lewis Campaign" councillor at Llandybie. Last year fellow Llandybie community councillor Meirion Bowen also resigned from the BNP.

Following his resignation, Cllr Edwards' blog was inundated with messages of support from party members.

"This is a very serious and major setback for the profile of the BNP in Wales," said one anonymous poster.

South Wales Guardian

'NaziLeaks' and the NPD: NPD STRUGGLING TO MOBILIZE SUPPORTERS

While the NPD in Saxony-Anhalt have their heads in the clouds, their colleagues in Baden-Württemberg are having a hard time mustering enough people on the ground. The NPD in the state is suffering from mobilization problems: The far-right party has to collect 150 valid signatures in each election district in order to be allowed to field their own candidates in the state parliamentary election on March 27. In December, Janus Nowak, a local party official from the town of Böblingen, wrote an e-mail with "ALARM" in its subject line. In the e-mail, he reported that, despite months of trying, party members were "apparently incapable" of even "getting merely a single signature per day." In order to increase the yield, the NPD official provided the would-be signature-gatherers with detailed suggestions on how they "could address people on the street and be successful." For example, he suggested that every pitch should begin with the words: "Hello, I'm not trying to sell anything. No vacuum cleaners or washing machines or anything." Once they had gotten that far, campaign workers were instructed to make sure "to look people in the eye," rather than looking at their clipboards, and to avoid saying anything too "complicated." The most important piece of advice regarded what came last: "Say 'Thank you' and don't talk too much." The idea of deploying professional signature collectors, such as an "NPD organizational wizard" from the town of Völklingen, was even considered. But the man in question appeared to lack selfless dedication to the party. Instead, as Nowak complained in an e-mail, he asked for "€1,000 a week" in addition to "meals + additional helpers + information kiosks + accommodation." Nowak also declined to comment on the e-mail exchanges.

'Capitalist' Scheme
Rudolf Schützinger, a member of the NPD's executive committee in Baden-Württemberg, also gave some thought to how to increase the number of signatures being collected. He suggested paying €1 to "each collector who turns in an acceptable, unauthenticated signature" and €2 for every authenticated signature. Schützinger also had another idea up his sleeve: attracting campaign donors with a sort of "profit-sharing" scheme. He suggested that, if the party succeeded in winning more than 1 percent of the vote, donors would get their "entire donation back within a set time frame + 30 percent." But, if the NPD could "not master" the 1 percent hurdle, donors would get back half of their contribution, while still being able to write the donation off against their taxes. In doing so, they would "have a loss of only 25%." According to Schützinger, this scenario offered the advantage that the party would not have to assume any "financial risk," while at the same time motivating "the gamblers among our sympathizers" to make donations. In an e-mail, the NPD official admitted that the scheme had "a capitalist aftertaste" and noted that it would need "legal validation" as far as party finance laws were concerned. In the end, the idea was apparently rejected. Schützinger also chose not to respond to SPIEGEL's inquiries.

Threat of Legal Action
NPD spokesman Klaus Beier has threatened legal action in response to the publication of the emails. According to Beier, the "e-mail traffic between both party officials and party members, which used encryption technology (was) copied in breach of (Germany's) communication secrecy law" and that "the texts, whose content was probably manipulated" were "provided to the compliant journalists." On Saturday, the news agency DPA reported that the NPD had filed a criminal complaint over the publication of the e-mails. In any case, Beier refused to say anything about who was behind the data leak or how it came about. He did say, however, that one had to assume that "the system has far-reaching means at its disposal for reading all of the NPD's e-mail communication." Beier's remarks are reminiscent of the stance that the party took back in 2008, when SPIEGEL published an earlier collection of internal NPD e-mails.

Spiegel

Billboards used to fight hate crime (Northern Ireland, UK)

Massive billboard posters are being unveiled in Northern Ireland to help fight hate crime.

More than 2,100 offences were committed against minority groups last year but authorities believe more than twice as many have gone unreported.

A series of 14 billboard posters and a mobile advertising unit will appear in Belfast and around Northern Ireland over the next fortnight urging people to report hate crime.

Eva Grosman, Unite Against Hate project manager, said: "Northern Ireland is not unique to suffer from these crimes. But they are deeply damaging not just to the victims and their families and friends, but also to the international reputation of the country as a place in which to visit and to invest.

"We all have a role to play in stamping out hate crime by reporting any incidents right away."

Celebrity backers of the campaign include boxing champion Paddy Barnes, model Gemma Garret and TV presenter Katie Larmour.

Justice Minister David Ford said: "The criminal justice system has come a long way in its understanding and handling of hate crime in recent years but more must be done. We need to improve our support to victims and bring those responsible for such crimes before the courts."

Evelyn Collins, chief executive of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, said hate crime was a serious form of discrimination.

"In recent years we have seen a rise in negative attitudes towards people with disabilities and those from different racial background and sexual orientations and we are all challenged to raise awareness of the importance of equality and respect for everyone in our community," she added.

The mobile billboard unit will visit six local councils, sporting events and other crowd-gathering locations.

Belfast Telegraph

New date for Wilders' trial (Netherlands)

The trial of PVV leader Geert Wilders on discrimination and inciting hatred charges will resume on March 14 when his lawyer Bram Moszkowicz will restate his opening remarks to the Amsterdam court, news agency ANP reports.

The public prosecutor will respond two days later.

During the original trial, prosecutors called for Wilders to be acquitted, but groups who forced the prosecution in the first place are pressing for the new trial to continue.

The court is expected to decide whether the case should continue or be abandoned on March 30, says ANP.

Dutch News

Simon Wiesenthal Centre's most-wanted Nazi charged

The man topping the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's most-wanted Nazi list has been charged by Hungarian prosecutors for war crimes related to the massacre of hundreds of people in wartime Yugoslavia.

Hungarian Sandor Kepiro, now 97, was charged with being "complicit in the execution of four innocent civilians in the town of Novi Sad between 21 and 23 January, 1942, as the commander of a patrol".

An estimated 1,200 Jews, gipsies and Serbs died in the massacre that was led by Nazi Germany's Hungarian allies in retaliation for operations carried out by Yugoslav partisans. Families were rounded up and shot on the banks of the River Danube or thrown alive into the frozen river after soldiers had fired into the ice to break it up.

The Wiesenthal Centre claims that Mr Kepiro helped organise the Novi Sad massacre, and the centre listed him in first place last year on its list of ten most-wanted Nazis.

In 1944 and 1946 Hungary's communist courts found him guilty of involvement in the slaughter, but by then he had fled to Argentina.

Mr Kepiro returned to Budapest in 1996, and has always protested his innocence. He claims that he worked as a policeman involved in rounding people up but never took part in executions.

The Telegraph

White Terrorist Ignored by MSM

Admin: Although we have reported previously on the attempted bombing of one America’s largest mosques that occurred in January 2011, this video report is well worth watching as it asks the valid question.


Why is White terrorism being ignored? 




Video originally posted by the You Tube user TheAlyonaShow

Fury as 'anti-Semitic' banker is invited to speak at LSE (UK)

A German banker who has said "all Jews share a certain gene" and described Muslims as "dunces" will speak tonight at the London School of Economics amid a row over free speech.

Anti-facist campaigners vowed to demonstrate outside the LSE during Thilo Sarrazin's appearance in a debate on multiculturalism. The former executive member of the Bundesbank caused outrage in Germany last year with his comments, in which he also attacked Basques. He was removed from the country's central bank and raked down by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who called him "stupid".

Jewish groups in London warned yesterday that allowing Mr Sarrazin a platform in Britain would be "provocative and almost certain to stir further hatred and offence". He also labelled Germany's Middle Eastern population "dunces" and attacked Muslims for not integrating well. Mr Sarrazin is due to appear as a speaker in a debate as part of the German Symposium event organised by the German Society at LSE.

Sabby Dhalu, the joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, called for Mr Sarrazin to be banned from the UK. "There is grotesque double standards in the implementation of bans on people entering Britain. There is no doubt that a known Muslim spouting similar views would be denied entry," she said.

"LSE's German society's invitation to Thilo Sarrazin to address their 'Future of Germany' meeting is misguided and ill-judged. The title and invitation imply that Sarrazin is the future. I wonder how many Jewish and Muslim German people agree with him? Such vile, racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic views have no place in Britain, Germany or any other country."

The Symposium's organisers defended the decision to invite Mr Sarrazin, whose book, Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany does away with itself), has outraged many in Germany. Eva Gorenflo, a spokesman for the LSE German society, said: "Everybody should be allowed to express what they think and it is important that Mr Sarrazin be allowed to do that. "The speakers are going to have an open debate. It would be difficult to have a debate if everyone already agreed with each other. People will be given the opportunity to ask questions. I didn't know they were planning to protest. We are hoping that everything runs smoothly. Those people are allowed to express their opinions and they are welcome to join the debate as well. As Benjamin Franklin said: 'Without freedom of thought, there is no such thing as wisdom'."

The LSE supported the society's decision to invite Mr Sarrazin. A spokesman said: "LSE is committed to the principles of free speech and is, traditionally, a place where renowned speakers come to explain their thinking and answer questions. Students are free to hold and express their own views and this extends to organising events."

A Home Office spokesman refused to comment on any individual cases. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has the power to ban anyone from the country whose presence is not considered conducive to the public good but Mr Sarrazin's entry to Britain is not thought to have been barred.

The Independant

Heroin Smuggling Case Nets 5 Arrests (USA)

 Five members of a white supremacist gang based in Yuba County have been arrested in connection with a drug-smuggling case, Attorney General Kamala Harris said Monday.

Members of the New Order gang were smuggling heroin into Susanville State Prison in the glue strips of letters mailed to inmates with ties to the gang, according to drug agents.

Harris said the New Order gang was founded in the Yuba City area 30 years ago to promote white supremacy.

"One of the founders was George William Lancaster, considered the godfather of the white supremacist movement in Yuba County," Harris said in a news release.

Lancaster was arrested Monday in the case. In addition, Robert Harold Boyd, of Yuba County; Elissia Danielle Soito, of Marysville; Benjamin Leon Andrade, of Yuba City; and Mickey Ray Jeffrey, of Yuba City; were arrested and are being held in the Yuba County Jail.

Harris said a joint investigation was launched in November after a prison guard noticed a suspicious envelope sent to inmate Robin Conley Briggs, a member of the New Order gang. Investigators said analysis of the envelope's glue strip at a state Department of Justice laboratory confirmed that it was laced with heroin.

Investigators said they intercepted two more envelopes containing heroin sent to Briggs and inmate Scotty William Brendlin, a fellow New Order member, in late January.

Investigators said the glue strips contained almost a gram of heroin, which is worth about $500 inside prison -- or five times its street value.

"According to arrest documents, the drug shipments were used as barter or to curry favor with other white supremacist inmates from groups such as the Aryan Nation or Nazi Low Riders," Harris said in a news release.

KCRA

Judges Rule Case Against Dutch Anti-Islam MP To Continue (Netherlands)

A court in Amsterdam on Monday has ruled that the hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders will go on, with new judges listening to the defense’s preliminary objections to the case. Those objections were already heard by a different panel of judges last year, but a retrial was ordered because of possible judicial bias against Wilders. The populist politician is charged with inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and other non-Western groups.

If judges accept Mr. Wilders’ objections to the proceedings to be argued at a later date, then his case will be dismissed. If not, the trial will continue with Geert Wilders being allowed to question only some of the witnesses he wanted to call in his defense.

He told judges last week that he wanted to question radical Islamists,  what this court referred to as Islamic experts by experience, including convicted murderer Mohammed Bouyeri, who killed filmmaker Theo van Gogh seven years ago. Wilders argues that Bouyeri is living proof that Islam leads to violence.

But judges said the court already knows there’s a violent strain in some Islamic corners and limited Wilders’ witness list to a few Islamic experts and a controversial judge who the politician believes biased his case.

Wilders maintains it’s not Muslims but the Islamic religion and the Koran he’s taken on -- something allowed under Dutch regulations concerning freedom of speech.

In court last week, he continued his anti-Muslim rhetoric, calling Islam evil and the societies it dominates retarded. Such talk has made him a popular politician in the Netherlands, where his Freedom Party is a crucial ally of the right-wing government. Judges also ruled that the trial would remain in Amsterdam and not in The Hague where Wilders works and where he’s gearing up for March’s local elections.

Wilders said he wasn’t happy about that, but he’ll be back in court when it resumes at a later date.

VOANews

Jew-hatred in Holland

The Dutch government continues to refuse to pay for the security of its threatened Jewish citizens. The Jewish community has stated on various occasions that it is the only group in society which cannot organize activities without including guards or other security measures.

 The other week during a debate in a parliamentary commission on the current anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, several MPs asked the Dutch government to pay for the Jews’ security. However, Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten stuck to the position of his predecessors saying that security is the responsibility of the Jewish community itself and if necessary, of the local authorities. The latter are rarely willing to pay for these expenses.

 The Dutch Parliament has existed for almost 200 years. The first plenary meeting ever on contemporary anti-Semitism took place last June after a series of articles in the media about anti-Semitic incidents. One article in the prominent daily NRC Handelsblad was titled: “Anti-Semitism is more than an incident. It is normal.” The fact that a second parliamentary meeting was called for a few months later is a sign that nothing has been solved.

 The main targets of anti-Semitic harassment in public are a small number of Jews who are recognizably attired as such. In past weeks, several newspapers have reported that Rabbi Raph Evers, the head of the Dutch Jewish Seminary, no longer travels on public transportation because of the harassment he encounters there. He walks out on the street as little as possible. Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs is also frequently insulted in public. His home is fitted with an alarm system which links him directly to the police. Jacobs says 35 year ago, no one insulted him.

 What were not mentioned in the Dutch media are the experiences of those Jews who had been repeatedly harassed and now live elsewhere. One Dutch Jewish youngster living in Jerusalem told me that while he was a student at Amsterdam University, he earned a living working in a supermarket in the center of town. He wore a small yarmulke. He was insulted at work on the average twice a week with calls like: “cancer-Jew” of “Hamas Hamas, Jews to the gas.” All of this harassment came from customers of Moroccan ethnicity.

 I also interviewed another youngster now living in Jerusalem, who wears ultra-Orthodox garb. A few months ago he visited his parents in the Netherlands. When he changed trains after arriving from Belgium at the Dutch border station Rozendaal, he was immediately shouted at in English by a man with a heavy Dutch accent: “You killed Jesus.” At his arrival in Arnhem, where he exited the station through the back door, he was insulted as well. The same happened when he left from the same station. During his stay in The Netherlands he hardly left his parents’ home.

Non-selective immigration policy
Only limited parts of the Dutch Jewish community encounter substantial anti-Semitism. Besides the aforementioned harassment of recognizably dressed Jews, it impacts mainly on Jewish children in schools and through insults in the workplace. The Jewish community now explicitly blames the disproportionately large role in anti-Semitic incidents of Muslims who account for six percent of the population. The most problematic elements come from the Moroccan, and to a lesser extent, Turkish community.

 Over the past decades, Dutch governments have non-selectively allowed in 1.6 million non-Western immigrants, about 10% of the population. Of these, one million originate in Muslim countries where anti-Semitism is far stronger than in the Netherlands. It is thus not surprising that the percentage of anti-Semites among these immigrants is substantially higher than among the local Dutch population. One could put it differently: the Dutch government has for many years followed an anti-Semitism-promoting immigration policy.

It would be desirable to undertake a detailed poll on anti-Semitism among Muslim immigrants as compared to the autochthonous population. One could then also analyze to what extent this anti-Semitism is fueled by families, mosques, schools, friends, or foreign incitement. This would be very useful in the battle against one of the main sources of anti-Semitism. Such an investigation would be, however, far too big a betrayal of Dutch taboos.

 Last week’s parliamentary debate had its origin in the media discussion engendered by my book “The Decay: Jews in a Rudderless Netherlands.” It quoted senior Dutch politician and former EU commissioner Frits Bolkestein stating that recognizable Jews should advise their children to leave for the United States or Israel.

However, the book did not focus on anti-Semitism. It had two major themes. The first one, that Jews have a symbolic importance in the Netherlands which goes far beyond the real importance of the community, and the second was that by watching the interaction of the Jewish community and Dutch society at large, one obtains a prism on many aspects of the functioning and problems of Dutch society.

The recent discussions and debates have borne these two points out once more. Minister Opstelten stated that there would be zero tolerance for anti-Semitic incidents and registration of incidents at school. However, the Dutch police are unlikely to be able to become more efficient in the coming months. It is also unlikely that recognizable Jews can soon walk unhindered in certain parts of the country in the near future.

Approximately 10 years ago, there were major inquiries and debates in Dutch society about government failures of post-war restitution of Jewish assets looted in the Holocaust. One of the many criticisms about the Dutch government’s handling of the situation was that it had wrongly charged the surviving Jews for the administrative services involved in returning what was looted from them because the Dutch government could not protect them during the occupation.

A commission of inquiry said that this was a public duty and thus needed to be provided free of charge.

One wonders whether in the future, investigators will conclude that the Dutch government has misbehaved against the Jews once again by failing to pay for their protection and that of their institutions, which is also, clearly, a public duty.

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld has published nineteen books, several of which deal with European anti-Semitism.

Ynet News 

Wilders angry about Nazi cartoon (Netherlands)

 Freedom party leader Geert Wilders is angry at Dutch public broadcaster VARA for publishing a cartoon on its website Joop.nl which compares a Freedom Party (PVV) plan to Nazi practices. The party recently proposed building so-called ‘scum villages’ for anti-social people. In the cartoon, the residents of such a village are being led to a shower, the same way the prisoners of Nazi destruction camps were led to ‘showers’ where they were gassed.

Mr Wilders said on Saturday it was “a disgusting cartoon. It must be removed from that website immediately, or the PVV will not attend the VARA provincial elections debate scheduled for next Wednesday." Mr Wilders spoke of “sick minds” at the VARA.

The Joop.nl website is funded by VARA, but has full editorial independence. Francisco van Jole, the website’s editor-in-chief, said Mr Wilders remarks were tantamount to blackmail and that the programme which the Freedom Party was scheduled to attend had nothing to do with Joop.nl. He said he would not remove the cartoon: “This is the opinion of an opinion maker who we are offering a platform. This does not mean we necessarily always share his opinion. It is simply intended to spark debate.''

Mr van Jole said he found it odd that a politician would seek to ban this cartoon. “I understand he is upset … but it forms part of the social debate.” He said Mr Wilders was trying to smother the debate. A VARA spokesperson said the organisation did not necessarily share the opinions presented on Joop.nl and would very much like the Freedom Party to attend Wednesday’s provincial elections debate, but had no intention of ordering Joop.nl to remove the cartoon.

 Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Admin comment. 

Here’s another cartoon that Mr Wilders won’t be so happy about.

 

RACE-HATE CRIMINALS MUST BE BANNED FROM STATE SERVICE - MEDVEDEV (Russia)

Those convicted of ethnic hate crimes must be restricted from state service positions, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday. Speaking at the State Council meeting in Ufa, the capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, Medvedev said he would also submit a bill to the State Duma that restricts people charged with incitement of ethnic hatred from holding teaching positions in educational centers. "They must not teach children or the youth at all," the president said. Interethnic problems came to the foreground in mid-December when a Moscow football fan was shot dead in a brawl with migrants from Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus region.

The incident sparked race-hate riots and ethnic clashes across Russia, including a brawl between over 5,000 nationalists and police outside the Kremlin walls on December 11. Medvedev ordered the government to investigate the cases of ethnically-motivated restrictions in government administration circles. "It is no secret that there are restrictions to certain nationalities during the formation of administrative organs in some republics and individual regions," Medvedev said, adding that such "lopsidedness should be eradicated."

RIA.Novosti

Leaked e-mails embarrass German far-right party

The leak of thousands of confidential e-mails from members of Germany's far-right National Democratic Party shows the group is soaked in racist and neo-Nazi ideology.

Thousands of leaked private e-mails have embarrassed the German far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). The data, which were leaked to several German media organizations, reveal some of the inner workings of the xenophobic, nationalist fringe party.

One example of the prevalence of neo-Nazi ideology among party members was revealed in their use of the code "88" - popular among neo-Nazis as an abbreviation of the Nazi-era slogan "Heil Hitler." "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet and "88" is taken to stand for "HH."

The e-mails also reveal extensive infighting around the recent merger of the NPD with the like-minded German People's Union (DVU).

The leaked correspondence, made up of some 60,000 e-mails, reveals a strong adherence to neo-Nazi ideology and betrays the party's attempts to present itself as a more moderate political group on the right wooing voters disgruntled with the country's main conservative Christian Democrats.

Misuse of party funds

Besides being a public-relations disaster for a party already viewed with extreme suspicion by most of the population, the data release could have legal consequences for the party.

The e-mails from end of 2010 to early 2011 suggest that the election campaign in the state of Saxony-Anhalt have partly been paid for by NPD money from the neighboring state of Saxony.

Such cross-state financing with party funds is illegal.

The NPD has said it will file a criminal complaint about the leaked e-mails. It is, however, unclear who was behind the release.

The anti-immigration party is considered the political arm of the neo-Nazi movement in Germany. It is often involved in far-right extremist marches.

The attempt by the party to give itself a more mainstream image is aimed at cracking the crucial five percent threshold that any party must attain to be represented in local or federal parliaments. The fringe group has no federal-level representation, but seats in two of Germany's 16 state parliaments.

DW-World

Mississippi ponders putting KKK leader and Confederate hero Nathan Bedford Forrest on license plates (USA)

A new civil war is brewing in Mississippi over a proposal to put a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard on state license plates.

Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, notorious for leading a massacre of black Union soldiers and leading the KKK in its early days, would appear on the plates in 2014 if the group Sons of Confederate Veterans gets its way.

The organization is sponsoring a series of specialty plates over the next four years to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

This year's plate features the last home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

The state's chapter of the NAACP strongly criticized the call to honor Forrest, who led several battles in Mississippi during the war.

"He should be viewed in the same light that we view Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden," Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP in Mississippi, told The Associated Press, adding that the Klan was a "terrorist group."

"The state of Mississippi should deny any vanity tags which would highlight racial hatred in this state," he said.

Forrest was born in Tennessee and joined his home state's KKK shortly after the war. Klan members were notorious for beating and killing blacks in the South, as well as intimidating black voters during elections.

The general has been hailed as a military hero and disgraced as a butcher leading a slaughter of black troops who had surrendered during a battle at Fort Pillow, Tenn. in 1864.

However, before his death in 1877, some historians claim Forrest softened his views on racial relations.

"If Christian redemption means anything - and we all want redemption, I think - he redeemed himself in his own time, in his own actions, in his own words," Greg Stewart, a Sons of Confederate Veterans member, told the AP. "We should respect that."

At least one black state lawmaker isn't bothered by the group's push to remember Forrest.

"I don't have a problem with it," Rep. Willie Bailey said. "They have that right. We'll look at it. As long as it's not offensive to anybody, then they have the same rights as anybody else has."

 NY Daily News

SERBIAN EXTREMISTS MAY ESCAPE BAN AS PARTY

The Serbian National Movement 1389, one of a plethora of far-right groups in the country, has announced a decision to register as a political party, in what is seen as a move to evade a future court ban on far-right groups with a record of violence. The citizens' group said it was determined not to remain "a silent spectator of political life in Serbia... We are going to present the party's programme on Sretenje [Serbia's national day, February 15], and start collecting the signatures we need to register as a party," Misa Vacic told Balkan Insight. Movements in Serbia are obliged to collect 10,000 signatures before they can register as political parties. 1389, named after the date of a revered historic battle against the Ottoman army in Kosovo, advocates the unification of all those territories it considers Serbian into a single state. Vacic was one of 35 persons detained for violating a ban on gatherings in public places in 2009, as a result of which courts sentenced him to 30 days' jail.

The decision to register as a party comes after a president was appointed to the Constitutional Court last week. Now fully constituted, the court can rule on official calls to outlaw 14 allegedly violent far-right groups, one of which is 1389. But if 1389 collects the 10,000 signatures it needs to register as a party, no court ban on far-right groups will apply to it. For a political party to be banned, it has to be convicted of publicly spreading hatred, which has never happened in Serbia. The official request for the court to ban the 14 groups follows a series of violent incidents. These include the cancelation of a Belgrade Gay Pride parade and the murder by thugs of French football fan Brice Taton in Belgrade in September 2009. The court has discussed the issue of banning violent groups several times before but failed to reach a decision. The issue will be back on the table by the end of March, Balkan Insight has learned from sources in the Constitutional Court.

Another far-right group, Dveri Srpske, which does not face a ban, says it is also mulling becoming politically active in order to take part in general elections in March 2012. However, it does not want to become a formal, registered party. Meaning "doors of Serbia", this citizens' organisation advocates a programme based on "svetosavlje", a blend of Serbian Orthodox piety and nationalism, named after Serbia's patron saint, St Sava. Bosko Obradovic, from the organisation, says they are ready to assume political responsibility but will not form a party, as they oppose what they call the existing "party-parasite system". The organisation has been active in staging "pro-life" [anti-abortion] lectures and staging rallies against gays, the independence of Kosovo and other hot topics of the Serbian far right - but its protests and events have been peaceful.


Balkan Insight

Liberal CChristian portal turns to police over threats from Jobbik supporters (Hungary)

Liberal Christian portal mindennapi.hu has turned to police over threats from supporters of radical nationalist party Jobbik.

Nationalist readers had written vulgar messages and made threats to Editor-in-Chief György Balavány in response to an article in which he harshly criticized Jobbik Chairman Gábor Vona's recent year-end speech and defended Hungary's Gypsy minority.

In his speech, Vona had said one of the problems facing Hungary is that the Roma minority is reproducing too fast, and this reproduction should be stopped. Balavány wrote that the Gypsies were probably casting curses on Vona now, and he agreed with them.

Politics.Hu

Capital has most anti-semitic cases (UK)

London had the most recorded incidents of anti-semitism in the country last year, a Jewish security charity has said.

A total of 219 anti-semitic incidents took place in the capital during the year, according to the Community Security Trust.

More than 639 reports of bigoted violence and abuse were received in total by the charity. They included street attacks, hate mail, threats, and the vandalism and desecration of Jewish property.

The charity, which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, said the figures marked the second worst year since records began in 1984.

They were a significant fall on 2009, when 926 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded, fuelled by the ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces.

But researchers said they continued a long-term trend of rising numbers of physical and verbal attacks against Jews.

Mark Gardner, of the CST, said: "Anti-Semitism is not the most important thing in British Jewish life, but there is clearly a significant problem. The CST, police, politicians and Government will keep working in close partnership to tackle anti-Semitism and its wider causes of bigotry and extremism."

John Mann MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism, said the figures were a "sad and timely reminder".

He said: "Our focus is absolute and we will continue to do all we can to ensure these numbers go down over the coming years."

There were 216 incidents in Manchester as well as 40 in Hertfordshire and 21 in Leeds.

Google Hosted News

UK calls on Lithuania to tackle anti-Semitism

Parliamentarians and scholars are calling on Lithuania to combat anti-Semitism and distortion of the Holocaust as its London embassy begins a series of Jewish cultural events this week.

A delegation led by MP Denis Mac- Shane and Lord Greville Janner, both leading campaigners in the UK against anti-Semitism, handed in a letter to the embassy on Monday. It was signed by 20 MPs and academics, and called on Lithuania to crack down on anti-Semitism and reverse a court decision declaring the swastika part of the country’s “historic legacy,” thereby allowing its use by anti-Semites at political rallies.

The letter also highlights that while the Lithuanian government is sponsoring events abroad that promote Jewish life, it is engaged in an increasingly energetic campaign to stop the full the truth about the Holocaust and events of the Second World War from being discussed.

It expresses concern about “the irony of the Lithuanian Embassy in London hosting an exhibition about pre-World War Two Jewish life, titled ‘The Sounds of Silence,’ when debate about the Holocaust is being silenced and distorted in Lithuania.”

The signatories call on the government in Vilnius to tackle anti-Semitism in the media, following headlines accusing “the Jews” of expropriating money from the country, and castigate it for failing to investigate and prosecute those responsible for anti-Semitic acts.

Last year, a pig’s head was left outside the Kaunas synagogue during a Sabbath service.

Lithuania is at the forefront of a right-wing European campaign saying that the Holocaust was no different from the crimes of communism. The signatories said this “double genocide” campaign was aimed at devaluing the centrality of the Holocaust and was supported by “anti-Jewish political groups in the Middle East and other anti-Semitic politicians.”

The letter also accused the country of failing to prosecute a single Lithuanian Nazi war criminal since 1991 while instead threatening war crime prosecutions against Lithuanian Jewish resistance fighters who fought the Nazis.

“Sadly, Lithuania is not alone in East European and Baltic states, where nationalist populist politicians have made anti-Jewish themes part of contemporary political discourse,” said MacShane, former minister for Europe and former chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Enquiry into Anti-Semitism.

“In Poland, politicians like Michal Kaminski, who recently resigned as chairman of the Conservatives for European Reform group in the European Parliament because he said it was too extremist, are notorious for refusing the apologize for attacks on Jews by Poles in wartime Poland,” MacShane said. “In Hungary, the openly anti-Semitic Jobbik Party got 15 percent of votes in the last election.”

The letter called on the Lithuanian government to take a number of steps to correct the situation and help repair Jewish-Lithuanian relations. This included ending without delay the pretrial “war crime” investigations against Jewish resistance fighters and recognizing the role that Lithuanian organizations played in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry.

“The Jewish community in Lithuania is being humiliated and the atmosphere of free speech eroded. Jewish history, particularly that of the Holocaust, is being untruthfully rewritten, and anti- Semitism is espoused,” said British academic Danny Ben-Moshe, a signatory of the letter.

“The Lithuanian government may think they can have it both ways – intimidating Jewish life in Lithuanian while maintaining a philo-Semitic image elsewhere – but this letter puts them on notice that the charade is over,” Ben-Moshe said. “As the Lithuanian government seeks to export their policies across the EU, it is clear that this is not just a Jewish concern, but a concern for all those who cherish freedom of debate and oppose ultra- Nationalism.”

Other signatories of the letter included Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office; Joseph Melamed, chairman of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel; Uri Chanoch, a board member of the Claims Conference; and descendents of Lithuanian Jews killed in the Holocaust.

JPost

Set up special villages away from normal folk for 'scum', says Wilders (Netherlands)

Persistent troublemakers should be kept away from the rest of the population in special ‘scum villages’, Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam PVV says in an interview with the Telegraaf on Thursday.

‘Repeat offenders should be forcibly removed from their neighbourhood and sent to a village for scum,’ Wilders said. ‘They will then be put into converted containers as homes. If juveniles are involved, their families should be moved too. Put all the trash together.’

They would only be allowed to return after working or studying for at least a year, Wilders said.

According to the Telegraaf, the idea comes from Denmark, where several cities have set up ‘skaeve huse’ to house people who cause a public nuisance.

There have already been several small-scale experiments in the Netherlands, including in Amsterdam, where several shipping container homes were set aside for persistent offenders.

Dutch News

Church edges nearer to ban on clergy joining right-wing BNP (UK)

A ban on clergy joining the British National Party has moved a step closer after receiving the support of the Church of England despite warnings that the move could create “martyrs” to free speech.

Calls for members of the Church to be barred from joining the right-wing political party have escalated during the last two years, and the General Synod yesterday gave a clear indication that the proposals will become a reality.

Members of the General Synod, the Church’s national assembly, voted to press ahead with an amendment to discipline procedures making it “unbecoming” or “inappropriate” conduct for clergy to be members of a political party with policies and activities declared “incompatible” with Church teaching on race equality.

Under the proposals, Church of England bishops would make a declaration on parties or organisations deemed incompatible with Christian teaching.

The move came as the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, claimed the economic crisis gripping the nation was eroding faith in the Church. He also called on the Christian community to help provide support to the most vulnerable members of society as the welfare state is under threat from the Government’s cuts.

Giving his presidential address to the General Synod, Dr Sentamu stressed that there were “worryingly” high levels of unemployment and a gulf between “those who have and those who don’t” and are struggling to make ends meet. He said there were deep cuts in public expenditure and rising levels of student and trade union unrest.

Dr Sentamu said: “We live in fractious and uncertain times, in which the role of the national church, like other elements in the social fabric, is constantly questioned and often attacked.”

He added: “For me, and I’m sure for many others, a major concern is the extent to which the social compact which the welfare state represented is now under threat.

“There is an urgent need for the Church once more to rise to the challenge and to lead reflection on how the social compact can be re-fashioned in ways that make sense in the light of today’s serious social and economic realities.”

The Archbishop also warned the General Synod that in a world focused on power, success and celebrity, the “entirely counter- cultural” Christian vision would not be universally welcomed, and said: “Those who adopt this vision as their own are not promised a life of ease but of criticism, even persecution.”

He added: “As we try to re-articulate in today’s circumstances how the moral order should be reflected in the compact underlying our society, we cannot expect to be universally welcomed or applauded.

“But to do these things is, quite simply, our God-given duty and our particular calling. For we must reconnect and refresh the wellsprings of solidarity in England.”

Metropolitan Police civilian worker Vasantha Gnanadoss, a General Synod member who first won backing for the BNP ban two years ago, welcomed the amendment and a new statement on race equality.

This put the Church’s mission to “resist racism” on a firm footing, she told the Synod.

“It is very important when the English Defence League and others are posing a fresh threat to the well-being of our diverse society. I hope that this statement will be used widely,” she added.

Dr Philip Giddings, a General Synod member from Reading, said he “deplored” racism, but warned that such groups could “re-form” to get round the ban.

“Even worse, is the ability of these kinds of proceedings to create martyrs who do more damage to the cause which we are seeking to fight, because we appear to be invading their right to free speech, a very important human right which is now well entrenched in British and European law,” he added.

The BNP’s spokesman on Christian affairs, Robert West, who said he was a minister in an independent church, predicted that the ban would be found to be illegal. He said: “It is not for the bishops to interfere with what is a fundamental right – that is the freedom of political association and freedom of politics.”

Yorkshire Post

Police prepare for right-wing 'ban the burka' demonstration in city centre (UK)

Devon and Cornwall Police are preparing for a potential flash point with the right-wing English Defence League and anti-fascist campaigners set to converge on Exeter at the weekend.

The controversial group is understood to be taking part in a "ban the burka" protest in the city centre on Saturday while there is expected to be a counter rally by anti-racist campaigners, including the group Unite Against Fascism.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said officers did not anticipate any major disruption.

"Police are aware of the intended EDL protest on Saturday and will police it appropriately to ensure the safety of the public," a spokesman said.

"Similar previous protest meetings held within the force area have not caused major disruption or public disorder."

English Defence League supporter Jim Myers, from Exeter, said the protest was not being organised by EDL.

"We haven't organised it, we're just supporting it," he said. "It has been organised by another group, the United People of Britain."

Mr Myers said the event would be a "peaceful protest" and that police were aware of their plans.

Supporters of the group, which claims to be non-racially or politically motivated, say they will be wearing balaclavas and burkas to emphasise their message.

Meanwhile, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is planning to meet at Bedford Square, in the city centre, between 11am and 2pm.

Liz Allnatt, of UAF, said: "People of Exeter are more concerned about jobs and pay and what is going to happen to their local services.

"Exeter is a beautiful city and people of all different beliefs and backgrounds usually get along here.

"The Muslim community has added to the city. The annual Respect Festival is a huge, well-attended celebration of Exeter's diversity."

This is Cornwall

FBI investigating possible link between racist pamphlet and Spokane backpack bomb (USA)

A new discovery in Downtown Spokane has peaked the FBI's interest in their backpack bomb investigation.  Auntie's Bookstore employees came across a raciest pamphlet hidden inside a book.

While tidying up the current affairs section of Auntie's Bookstore, Melissa Opel made the disturbing discovery.  She said she was scanning the shelf and found the pamphlet in the front portion of a book.  The pamphlet had a list of printed, anti-Semitic, anti-African American words on it.  Opel said an old date was crossed out and another written in.  She said she could not recall the dates.

At first she did not think much of it.  Then her thoughts turned to the bomb left across the street last month.  She called the FBI.

The pamphlet was found in a book titled "Battle for America" which is about the 2008 presidential election.  Opel wondered if that was part of the message someone wanted to convey.

"Anything with President Obama at his point in time is controversial for folks who would put that kind of literature in a book.  So it didn't surprise me, it was an Obama based book," said Opel.

The FBI picked up the pamphlet Friday and interviewed Opel.  She said talk about the bomb among customers is fading away.  But FBI agents continue to stop in weekly looking for any new information.

The Seattle Times reports that an unnamed source close to the investigation said progress analyzing the bomb at Quantico is slow.  That is because it was wrapped in a lot of duct tape.  Lab technicians are reportedly peeling the tape back a fraction of an inch at a time looking for hairs, fibers or fingerprints.

NWCN

BRITISH NEO-NAZIS PLOTTED TO KILL SPANISH JUDGE BALTASAR GARZÓN (Spain)

A British based neo-Nazi group allegedly plotted to assassinate one of Spain's leading judges over his attempt to investigate the crimes of Spanish dictator Gen Francisco Franco, it has emerged.

Judge Baltasar Garzón, best known for attempting to extradite the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet from Britain in 1998, revealed the alleged plot against his life in a new documentary film. Members of the violent far-right group allegedly planned to murder the magistrate last summer in The Hague where he took up a temporary post at the International Criminal Court after being suspended from Spain's National Court. The 54-year-old judge was suspended from his high profile job pending trial for abuse of power after he opened a probe into the disappearance of tens of thousands of people during Spain's 1936-39 Civil War and ensuing 36 year fascist dictatorship. The case follows a complaint by far-right groups in Spain who claim the investigation violates an amnesty law passed in 1977, two years after Franco's death, for crimes committed under the dictator's rule. The judge has revealed that he was notified last July of the threat to his life after emails between members of the group were intercepted by the FBI. He was told that one message ordered British members of the group to coordinate with their Dutch counterparts. "We must liquidate the judge investigating the crimes of the Franco regime," were the orders reportedly given.

The details of the assassination plot emerge in the film, Listening to Judge Garzón, which premiers next week at the Berlinale film festival. In it, the judge describes how it took two months to neutralise the threat following co-operation between the FBI, Scotland Yard and Spanish and Dutch police. It is just the latest in a long series of failed attempts to kill the crusading judge, who has battled against Basque terrorist group ETA as well as tackled political corruption in Spain's right wing Popular Party. Two years ago it emerged that ETA had attempted to send Garzón a bottle of French brandy laced with poison. And in 2000 an ETA sniper was discovered setting up a rifle in a flat opposite his Madrid office.

The Telegraph

Marine Le Pen praises Cameron stance on multiculturalism (UK)

 The leader of France's National Front has praised David Cameron for what she says is an endorsement of her party's far-right views on multiculturalism and immigration.

Marine Le Pen was elected to lead the National Front last month. She claimed the prime minister's speech on the failures of multiculturalism showed he was taking Britain's Conservatives towards her stance on the issue. "It is exactly this type of statement that has barred us from public life [in France] for 30 years," she told the Financial Times. "I sense an evolution at European level, even in classic governments. I can only congratulate him."

Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, was among European leaders listening to Cameron's speech in Munich at the weekend. He is accused of having played into the hands of rightwing extremists by talking of the failings of multiculturalism within hours of one of the biggest anti-Islam rallies ever staged in Britain.

Cameron called for a new "muscular liberalism", promoting British values and national identity. A policy of "passive tolerance" had only served to encourage Islamist extremism, he argued.

Marine Le Pen is daughter of the former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. She told the FT it was "indisputable" Cameron was moving the Conservatives closer to the traditional positions held by her party. A Conservative spokesman said she had "clearly failed to understand the prime minister's speech".

Cameron told the Munich Security Conference, attended by world leaders, that state multiculturalism had failed in this country and pledged to cut funding for Muslim groups that failed to respect basic British values.

He warned other European leaders that they needed to "wake up" to the threat of Islamist extremism and the radicalisation of Muslims inside their nations' borders.

He blamed the radicalisation of Muslim youths and the phenomenon of home-grown terrorism on the sense of alienation that builds among young people living in separate communities and the "hands-off tolerance" of groups that peddle separatist ideology.

Muslim and anti-fascist groups questioned the prime minister's judgment and sensitivity to the issues, saying he had handed a propaganda coup to the hard-right English Defence League as 3,000 of its supporters marched through Luton chanting anti-Islamic slogans.

In opposition the Tories began considering the policy on Muslims, which critics say risks branding many as extremists even though they do not espouse violence.

Critics say it is based on flawed neo-Conservative thinking and risks backfiring, while supporters say it is necessary to tackle those who are fellow travellers with violent extremists.

The Guardian