EDL plans for Luton protest raise fears of disorder (UK)

Police expected to mount biggest operation in town's history as councillor says vast majority reject extremism of any kind


The far-right English Defence League is due to stage the biggest demonstration in its 18-month history this weekend amid growing fears of widespread disorder.

Thousands of EDL activists from across England will descend on Luton, the Bedfordshire town where the organisation started, for the protest on Saturday.

The EDL has staged more than 30 protests in towns and cities across the UK since it was formed in March 2009, many of which have been marred by Islamophobia, racism and violence.

On Saturday, between 25 and 30 coaches packed with EDL supporters are expected to travel to Luton, including a number of activists from far-right groups in France, the Netherlands and Germany.

"This event is creating more fear than anything else, especially among the elderly who have seen the pictures of what has happened at these events in the past," said Luton councillor Mahmood Hussain.

"Everyone is very much concerned about what could happen because you only have to look at the record of this group to see what we face."

Bedfordshire police are planning the biggest operation in Luton's history with around 2,000 police expected to be on duty, with several hundred more on standby.

Community leaders and politicians have been working with different community groups in the town since the EDL announced it was going to stage the protest under the catchline "Back to where it all began".

"We had a very emotional meeting last week where the young people were very concerned with some of the awful things that were written on the internet by EDL people," said Hussain. "But we are trying to tell them not to be provoked because that is just what these people want."

The EDL was formed in Luton after a small number of protesters from an extremist Muslim group held up placards at the homecoming of the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment reading "Butchers of Basra" and "Anglian soldiers go to hell."

At a subsequent protest in the town scores of EDL supporters attacked Asian businesses, smashing cars and threatening passersby. The group has branches across the country and its leadership insists it is not violent or racist and is opposed only to what it describes as radical or militant Islam. However, many of its demonstrations have descended into violence and racist chanting. Some supporters are known far-right activists and football hooligans.

Nick Lowles from anti-racist group HOPE not hate said: "The EDL poses the biggest threat to community cohesion in Britain today. Its activities are designed to increase tensions in communities with a large Muslim population and especially in areas that have had problems in the past. By demonstrating in these areas they embolden local racists and seek a violent reaction from local Muslim youths, which in turn will lead to a new cycle of violence."

Luton has had links to Muslim extremism in the past. In December, it emerged that Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, an Iraqi-born Swede who set off a car bomb in the Swedish capital before killing himself with a second bomb, had spent time in Luton.

However, Lowles said the vast majority of people in Luton rejected extremism of any kind.

"The danger is that people will get the impression that there is only extremism in this town which is simply not true. What we want to do is mobilise mainstream opinion and give them a voice to oppose the EDL and any other extremists."

Hussain agreed that the vast majority of people in Luton were opposed to the EDL's message of hate and division.

"I have been here since 1969 and we have never had any race riots or anything like that," said Hussain. "This is a truly diverse place and we won't turn our back and let the EDL destroy all that is good about it."

The Guardian

Far right party expelled from HQ over unpaid debts (Romania)

Corneliu Vadim Tudor, president of extreme right wing Greater Romania Party (PRM) and 2000 presidentual run-off candidate has been evicted from his party’s headquarters on Strada Emile Zola in Sector 1 Bucharest. Ex-Communist propagandist poet Vadim and party members resisted the eviction, where the party head threw water in the face of the bailiff and complained of sickness due to the stress of the process. Prosecutors have launched criminal proceedings against Vadim Tudor for assaulting policemen and breaching a court order. The State Administration of Patrimony (RAAPPS) gave the building to the PRM in 2007, but the party accumulated debts from rent, utilities and penalities worth almost 66,000 Euro.

The Diplomat

Turks to stage protest against racist attacks in France

A rally to be held in Strasbourg on Wednesday will protest growing racist attacks against immigrants, including ethnic Turks living in France.

A rally to be held in Strasbourg on Wednesday will protest growing racist attacks against immigrants, including ethnic Turks living in France.

The French human rights associations and the Association of Solidarity with Turkish Workers (ASTTU) are among groups that are organizing the event. ASTTU representative Muharrem Koç said the French government's recent immigration policies had encouraged assailants, the Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.

Koç said there were more than 30 racist attacks against ethnic Turks and foreigners in Strasbourg and its vicinity in the past two years and that none of the perpetrators of these crimes had been captured yet.

Arsonists in Hoenheim, a suburb of Strasbourg, attacked two houses inhabited by families of Turkish origin on Thursday night but there were no casualties and the fire in the neighboring houses was put out by firefighters and did not spread. Swastikas were drawn on walls and on a van parked in a yard.

Noting that the immigrant community is concerned, Koç said it is time for the French government to seriously start thinking about the causes of these attacks and take necessary measures.

Meanwhile, the Strasbourg-based Turkish association COJEP has requested an appointment to meet with authorities from Strasbourg to express their concern over the latest incidents.

Last month, the Student Congress Association's Strasbourg office was the target of a racist attack. Furthermore, two cars owned by Faruk Günaltay, the Turkish director of the Odyssey Cinema Club in Strasbourg, were destroyed in racially motivated arson attacks in September of last year. Attackers also drew swastikas on the door of Günaltay's house.

Muslim and Jewish prayer venues and cemeteries have previously been frequently attacked by racists in Strasbourg and regions surrounding it.

World Bulletin

Genocide witnesses may be added to Holocaust survivors database (Czech Rep)

The centre of Holocaust history Malach could be extended in future with testimonies on the genocides in Armenia, Cambodia and Rwanda, Martin Smok told journalists at a conference on the first anniversary of the centre Friday.

Smok cooperates with the Shoah Foundation of University of Southern California that has recorded the 52,000 interviews with survivors of concentration camps, particularly Jews, Romanies, German homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and others, since the 1990s.

The database is now accessible at the Mathematical-Physical Faculty of Charles University in Prague.

Smok said the survivors talk about their experience from extermination camps as well as about their fates, emigration and the communist totalitarian regime.

The database is visited mainly by students who need the information for their school works and by historians.

"In Europe the survivors are afraid," Smok said in reply to a question whether the database could be freely accessible on the Internet in the future.

Many of them fear that the data could be abused to persecute their descendants. Another obstacle are laws on personal data protection.

The recordings come from 56 countries of the world and they have been made in 32 languages.

The Malach centre offers for immediate access more than 500 interviews in Czech, further in Slovak and Polish.

The data are physically stored at the University of Southern California, USA.

Besides, they are accessible at another two centres in Europe, in Berlin and Budapest. The whole database is accessible at another 23 places in the world.

The Armenian genocide is blamed on Turks. The Armenians say the massacres and deportations in the years 1915-1917 cost 1.5 million lives. Turkey speaks about 300,000 to 500,000 people. However, it says it was not genocide, but that the Armenians fell victim to the chaos of the last years of the Osmanic Empire.

In Cambodia, the communist regime in the latter half of the 1970s murdered 1.7 million people during an attempt to create a class-free agrarian society not knowing money, the rule of law, personal freedom, family relations, independent thinking and technological achievements.

In Rwanda members of the Hutu majority tribe massacred some 800,000 minority Tutsis and dozens of thousands of members of their own ethnicity during a three-month ethnic conflict in 1994.

Prague Monitor

Student leader Aaron Porter barracked with anti-Semitic insults (UK)

The head of the National Union of Students had to be led to safety from a tuition fees rally he had been due to address after being surrounded by protesters chanting anti-semitic insults at him.

Aaron Porter was escorted by officers after being confronted as he made his way to offices in Manchester. Witnesses report that among the chants directed at him from a small number of demonstrators were "------- Tory Jew". Other protesters responded to the anti-semitic taunts aimed at Mr Porter by chanting: "No to racism, no to racism."

Following the confrontation, he pulled out of plans to address the rally on the advice of police, who have launched an investigation.

A small group of students had split off from the 3,000 strong march to barrack Mr Porter after spotting him close to the University of Manchester Students' Union building.

Mr Porter has faced growing opposition from more militant sections of the student protest movement, which have called on the NUS to take a more radical stance against Government education spending cuts and increases in tuition fees.

He said last night: "NUS sought to organise a protest with our union partners at which all individuals could take part without being subject to verbal and physical intimidation. It's very disappointing not to have had the opportunity to talk about the real issue of the Government's cuts to the next generation's future."

The general secretary of the UCU lecturers' union, Sally Hunt, addressing the rally in Manchester, accused the government of being at "war with young people".

"It is betraying an entire generation," she said. Fourteen people were arrested during the Manchester protests.

Thousands of students and trade unionists also staged a noisy protest march through Westminster, central London.

Protesters taking part used technology to avoid being held in a police "kettle" – where demonstrators are held in a confined area – with the launch of a mobile phone application designed to identify blocked routes. As a result a number of splinter groups fanned out across central London.

After a failed attempt to stage a repeat of last November's invasion of Tory HQ in Millbank, some of the students moved on the Egyptian Embassy, in Mayfair, to join those protesting against President Mubarak's regime.

"London, Cairo – unite and fight," they chanted on arrival.

At Topshop in the Strand students stopped to direct abuse at the store's owner Sir Philip Green, whose tax arrangements have attracted controversy. "Pay your tax, pay your tax," they chanted.

There were similar scenes outside the Vodafone store, in Oxford Street. The company has also targeted for its tax arrangements.

The store was guarded by a line of police, keeping protesters apart from the bemused shoppers trapped inside.

At Downing Street hundreds of protesters lit flares and chanted anti-Government slogans.

Scotland Yard said: "The protests in London were largely peaceful with only a small number of arrests and no violence or disorder."

The Telegraph

Relief as gathering of English Defence League passes peacefully (UK)

The chairman of Derby's Pakistani Community said he was relieved that an English Defence League march in the city on Saturday was trouble-free.

But he said their presence "angered" him and he believed they had targeted the city because of a recent court case which saw eight Asian men and one white man jailed for targeting young white girls for sex.

About 50 members of the EDL gathered in Derby Market Place on Saturday afternoon before marching up St Peter's Street and East Street and gathering in the White Horse pub, in the Morledge.

No arrests were made and police said the protest was "peaceful".

Mr Lal said: "I think the main reason the EDL targeted Derby was Operation Retriever. We know that they highlighted the case on their website and online forums.

"And, of course, a number of EDL members turned up at Nottingham Crown Court for the sentencing of the men."

Operation Retriever was a covert police investigation to catch men using drink and drugs to lure vulnerable teenage girls. Ringleaders Abid Mohammed Saddique, 27, of Northumberland Street, Normanton, and Mohammed Romaan Liaqat, 28, of Briar Lea Close, Sinfin, were jailed indefinitely.

Derbyshire police has never said the case was in any way racially motivated.

On Saturday, EDL members from Leicester and the West Midlands were among the 50 who protested in the city.

Divisional Commander Andy Hough, of Derbyshire police, said: "We knew there was going to be something low key. We know there are a number of EDL members in Derby and that some of them associate themselves with Derby County, who did not have a match.

"We expected a few of them to meet for a drink and informal discussion but we did not think as many would come to the city as did."

Mr Lal said: "Derby enjoys excellent community relationships and Pakistani and Muslim people are all proud to call themselves Derbeians.

"It angers me when an organisation like the EDL comes into Derby to try to stir up animosity."

An EDL member, who did not give his name, said: "We are always portrayed as thugs but we came here for a peaceful protest and there have been no arrests. We are not racists."

This is Derbyshire

Hitler's headquarters in Ukraine to be made tourist attraction

Ukrainian officials have unveiled a plan to turn the remains of Hitler' Eastern Front military headquarters into a tourist attraction.

The museum will be established by May 9, the anniversary of the Victory Day over  Fascism.

The Wehrwolf headquarters, consisting of about 20 wooden cottages and barracks and three bunkers, are located some 12 km north of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine.

Construction started in September 1941 and was completed in April 1942. More than 10,000 Soviet war prisoners and some 1,000 local citizens participated in the works and some 2,000 of them died. Another 4,000 were shot dead.

The Nazis destroyed the site on abandoning the region. The underground parts of the complex were later sealed.

"It is time to make the Wehrwolf headquarters a tourist destination, a memorial to the victims of fascism," said Mykola Djiga, head of the local administration of Vinnytsia.

"This museum should remind us about the time that our people endured, their sacrifices and heroism. It should also show the face of the fascist enemy. We must show what enemy we had defeated," he said.

Times of India

Turkish families subject to racist attack in France

Two houses inhabited by families of Turkish origin were attacked by arsonists in Hoenheim, a suburb of Strasbourg, on Thursday night.


Two houses inhabited by families of Turkish origin were attacked by arsonists in Hoenheim, a suburb of Strasbourg, on Thursday night, the Anatolia news agency reported over the weekend.

There were no casualties and the fire in the neighboring houses was put out by firefighters and did not spread. Swastikas were drawn on walls and on a van parked in a yard. The families have two children each.

The mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, and the president of the Urban Community of Strasbourg, Jacques Bigot, issued a joint statement condemning the “criminal act."

In September, two cars owned by Faruk Günaltay, the Turkish director of the Odyssey Cinema Club in Strasbourg, were subject to racially motivated arson attacks. At the time, attackers also drew swastikas on the door of Günaltay's house.

Over the course of the past year, Muslim and Jewish cemeteries and places of worship in Strasbourg were targets of racist attacks. A Council of Europe report released last year said racial profiling and some the exploitation of racial and xenophobic stereotypes on the part of politicians persisted in France despite progress in fighting discrimination.

Many racial acts go unreported, and for those that are referred to authorities there is a low conviction rate, a report by European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) said.

“While there had been improvements in certain areas, some issues gave rise to concern, such as minorities' perception of the police, prejudice against Muslims and the tone of the immigration debate,” Nils Muiznieks, the chair of ECRI, the Council of Europe's independent human rights monitoring body, was quoted as saying at the time.

World Bulletin

SERBIA COURT TO MULL BAN ON VIOLENT GROUPS

The exact date of hearing on the ban will not be known until a new president of the Constitutional Court is elected, which is expected by mid-February, Balkan Insight has learned from the Constitutional Court. "I doubt a final decision on extremist soccer fan groups will be made even after the president is elected," a court source warned Balkan Insight. The court has discussed the issue of violent groups several times since the Public Prosecutor called on it to ban them, but has failed to reach a decision. At the court's last meeting in December, judges reportedly claimed it was not in the court's jurisdiction to ban groups that are not registered. Not all the 14 groups mentioned by the State Prosecutor are registered. The Deputy State Prosecutor, Slobodan Radovanovic, said it was within the court's power to outlaw the groups, regardless of whether they are registered. "If the court's final decision is not to ban them, it will have to say under whose jurisdiction the banning of such groups comes, so we can get to that institution," he told Balkan Insight. According to the court source, the March session may end up simply with a request for a new report to be written on the issue. Serbia's domestic football league has been plagued with violence in recent years, with both clubs and the authorities seemingly powerless to control closely knit groups of hooligans. Many are alleged to have close links to organised crime and far-right nationalist organisations. The request to ban the groups followed a series of violent incidents, including the cancelation of a Belgrade Gay Pride parade and the murder of French football fan Brice Taton in September 2009.

Balkan Insight

French gay marriage ban upheld by constitutional court

The French constitutional court has upheld a ban on gay marriage, which was challenged by a lesbian couple with four children.

The court ruled that the ban, challenged by Corinne Cestino and Sophie Hasslauer, was in keeping with the constitution.

Activists had hoped France would join states like Spain and Belgium in legalising same-sex marriage.

An opinion poll suggests most French people are in favour.

The TNS Sofres survey of 950 people suggests that 58% of French people approve while 35% oppose gay marriage.
Fifteen years together

The court, or Constitutional Council as it is formally known, reached its decision through a panel of eight judges, six men and two women.

While many European states recognise homosexual civil unions, only Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and Iceland legally acknowledge same-sex marriage.

Ms Cestino and Ms Hasslauer have lived together 15 years, are raising four children together, and already benefit from a French law recognising their partnership, but they cannot marry.

"It is not so much about getting married but about having the right to get married," Ms Cestino, a paediatrician, told the Associated Press news agency.

"So, that is what we are asking for: just to be able, like anyone else, to choose to get married or not."

At issue for the court were two articles in the civil code stipulating that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

The couple's lawyer had been hoping that the court would force the conservative government to sponsor a bill on gay marriage to send to parliament.

After a Green Party mayor in the south-western town of Begles officiated over a wedding of two gay men in 2004, France's highest court annulled the marriage.

Under their civil union, the lesbian couple have tax benefits and other financial advantages, their lawyer Emmanuel Ludot explained.

But marriage, he added, confers "the responsibility to help each other in times of sickness or financial difficulty, inheritance rights and the joint custody of goods - and that's without talking about the benefit for children, who are what we call 'legitimised by marriage'".

BBC News

Muslims and Jews join forces to tackle religious hatred (UK)

Jewish and Muslim students are joining forces to tackle anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on university campuses - in a bid to spread a message of tolerance.

One of those with first-hand experience of religious hatred is Yassir, who as a student in 2004 was abused as he set off for his mosque in London. Four teenagers spat at him and called him "Bin Laden".

Shortly afterwards, he was beaten up, which left him in a coma for days. He is now paralysed on the left side of his body, and will need care for the rest of his life.

His story was recorded by the Islamic Human Rights Commission in a report in December 2006. It is not an isolated incident.
Ambassadors

Safia, 35, from London, was eating at a restaurant in 2004 when a man started to taunt her because she was wearing a jilbaab and scarf.

He then grabbed her, and started hitting her. Eventually a police officer intervened, and the attacker was arrested.

Safia has told researchers the physical scars have gone, but the mental ones are still with her.

The Muslim community is not alone in facing such attacks.

Two men wearing balaclavas threw eggs at some Jews walking to a synagogue in Manchester, according to a Jewish charity called the Community Security Trust.

In another incident reported to the charity a Jewish student was attacked in Leeds in 2009 by a group of men, who shouted "Get the Jew", before throwing snowballs at him.

In an effort to prevent more of these attacks, Jewish and Muslim students have come together to unveil Campus Ambassadors.

This team of Muslim and Jewish students will work on campuses around the country to try to improve relations between the two faiths.

The scheme has been put together by a charity called the Coexistence Trust.

One of the managers is 23-year-old Shahnaz Ahsan. She used to be a student at Oxford University, and believes there is a lot of tension between the two groups because of the Middle East conflict.

"What we are hoping to do through the Coexistence Trust is actually create a platform where Muslim and Jewish students can get a chance to interact with each other, get to know each other on the basis of students being students," she says.

Each of the ambassadors will undergo a one-year leadership development programme, and also get training in conflict resolution.
Bleak picture

Mark Robins, 20, went to a Jewish secondary school. He had virtually no contact with Muslim students while he was growing up.

That all changed when he arrived at Birmingham University. He hopes he can change opinions in his own community about Muslims.

"From time to time you'll talk to other Jews, and you'll talk about the Islamic Society and there'll be negative responses. I want to change all that," he says.

A survey produced in 2005 by Fosis, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, found that almost half of Muslim students had experienced Islamophobia, mostly defined as "direct and verbal".

It also found that a quarter of these incidents had taken place on university campuses.

It is in the process of putting together a new survey which will be out this year.

The Community Security Trust reported 97 incidents of anti-Semitism in higher education in 2009, up from 68 the previous year.

Of those, 79 were on campuses. There were four assaults and other incidents ranged from verbal abuse to attacks on property.

All of this seems to paint a pretty bleak picture for both communities.

Away from tensions around the Middle East, inviting speakers on to campuses is also leading to problems.

Carly MacKenzie from the Union Of Jewish Students (UJS) says: "Hate speakers that spout anti-Semitism invited on to UK campuses by Islamic societies are one of the biggest perpetual problems currently facing Jewish students and one that UJS is working with the higher education sector to alleviate."
Major effect

On the Muslim side, the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission believes the current set of anti-terror laws is fuelling Islamophobia.

Chairman Massoud Shadjareh says it is essential to separate security issues from the "politics of fear" and warned that Muslims were already more likely to be stopped by police than other communities.

Dressed in a black hijab, white blouse and black trousers, 20-year-old Aliya Din is a second-year student at King's College London.

She has decided to become a Campus Ambassador, and is in a positive mood at the launch of the scheme

"I'm not expecting the whole world to change, but even if you can change the perspective slightly of some people, it will make a major effect in their future lives, because that is what happens in history."

BBC News

Attack on EDL man's Luton home probed (UK)

Reports of an attack on the home of a leading English Defence League (EDL) member are being investigated by police in Bedfordshire.

Officers were called to Kevin Carroll's home in Bolingbroke Road, Luton, late on Thursday after reports an object was thrown against the window of the house.

Mr Carroll said he went to investigate and saw a man who appeared to be holding a shotgun. No shots were fired.

Officers carried out a search of the area, but no offender was found.

Police said they were trying to establish what happened and wanted to talk to anyone who saw anything suspicious.

BBC News

JEWISH GROUP COMPLAINS TO EU PRESIDENCY ABOUT HUNGARY'S FAR-RIGHT

Hungary's far-right party Jobbik was singled out for criticism at a meeting between a leading Jewish lobby group and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country holds the European Union presidency, officials said Wednesday. European Jewish Congress (EJC) president Moshe Kantor raised his concerns with Orban in Brussels on Tuesday, on the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day. 'Parties like Jobbik stand in direct opposition to the values of the European Union that Hungary now preside over,' Kantor said, according to an ECJ statement released Wednesday. 'The EU presidency could be utilized as a great opportunity for Hungary to lead the way against all manifestations of extremism and hatred.' The ECJ warned against 'a dramatic escalation in anti-Semitism in Europe,' claiming that Jews in Europe 'are feeling unsafe' and are 'leaving en masse' certain areas such as the Swedish town of Malmo, where there is a high concentration of Muslim migrants.

Jobbik, which gathered 16.7 per cent of votes in national elections last year and is currently in the opposition, refutes accusations of being anti-Jew as 'absurd,' but acknowledges its sympathy for the Palestinian cause in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Kantor said that calls for sanctions or a boycott on Israel over its settlement policy on occupied Palestinian land 'should be seen as unacceptable,' and official organizations supporting them 'should be outlawed.' He charged that such appeals amounted to a 'new anti-Semitism.' The EU's official policy is that Israel's continued settlement building is in breach of international law, but the bloc has stopped short of reacting with diplomatic sanctions. Last month, a group of ex-EU leaders, including the bloc's former foreign policy chief Javier Solana, called for a freeze in talks to upgrade EU-Israeli relations and for excluding Israeli produce from occupied Palestinian land from preferential trade treatment.

DPA

TORIES IN TURMOIL OVER EU FAR-RIGHT LAUNCH (Poland/uk)

 The Tories are in turmoil after the moderate leader of David Cameron's EU conservative grouping resigned yesterday in protest at a lurch to the far-Right within its Polish ranks.

Michal Kaminiski, a Polish MEP, sent a letter of resignation as chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group after accusing key Tory allies in Poland of driving him out as part of a "far-Right takeover" campaign.

Mr Kaminski has accused Poland's Law and Justice (PIS) party, the ECR's second biggest national section after the Tories, of subjecting him to "aggression" and "hatred" after he formed a moderate breakaway party last year.

"I want this to happen in as calm a way as possible. I underline that I do not want a Polish-Polish war and I think we shouldn't want one in the European Parliament either," he said.

In a move that will deeply embarrass the Prime Minister, he is expected to quit the Eurosceptic grouping to join the pro-EU, mainstream centre-right European People's Party, which Mr Cameron ordered Tory MEPs to leave before creating the ECR in 2009.

The Conservative exit from the EPP provoked controversy and led to the expulsion of a senior Tory MEP who accused the Poles of harbouring racists and anti-Semites.

The Polish split has triggered fierce infighting within the ECR because Mr Kaminski clung on to leadership for three months, with the support of senior Conservatives before he stepped because the row threatened to break up the group.

Conservative MEPs said that Mr Kaminski was expected to seek refuge in the EPP. "He's most likely to join the EPP. It's a bit embarrassing but not as damaging as the backbiting has been," said a senior MEP. "With a new leader as early as next week, we hope this negative chapter will be closed."

The row, and likely departure of Mr Kaminski will put PIS under increased scrutiny after claims that the party, led by Jarolslaw Kaczynski, the brother of the late Polish president killed in an air crash last year, is careering to the far-Right.

Marek Migalski, a Polish MEP aligned with Mr Kaminski, has warned that Mr Cameron's Polish allies in Europe have fallen under the control of the owner of a controversial radio station, infamous for its anti-Semitic and xenophobic outbursts.

Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, the owner of Radio Maryja, has struck a deal with PIS in which his supporters make up 50 per cent of all the party's candidates in Poland's general election, which is due this year, in return for his backing.

Radio Maryja, just one arm of Father Rydzyk's media empire that includes a television station and a national newspaper, has been condemned by the Council of Europe and the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for anti-Semitism.

Glenis Willmott, Labour's leader in the European Parliament, said: "It is deeply disturbing that the Conservative's Polish allies are seen to be moving even further to the extreme with Kaminski's departure."

An ECR spokesman said the resignation letter had not yet been received.

"Our understanding is that Mr Kaminski will propose a solution to the tensions caused by the Polish domestic situation. Until he does so, no decisions on the matter will be taken by the Conservative delegation," he said.

The Telegraph

FBI will consider recent neo-Nazi activity in Spokane bomb discovery (USA)

The FBI will consider recent local neo-Nazi activity in its investigation of a backpack bomb found this week along a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route in Spokane, Washington, but it has no evidence of any connections, the agency told CNN on Thursday.

Frank Harrill, special agent in charge of the FBI's Spokane field office, said authorities know of no link to "any specific group or individuals" and called reports linking the bomb to recent neo-Nazi activity in a nearby Idaho town "premature."

The bureau is looking into the incident as "an act of domestic terrorism," Harrill said.

"Every square millimeter of the backpack will be subjected to every kind of analysis, every component will be taken apart. It will be a laborious process, taking days if not longer," Harrill told CNN.

"It is too early to announce that we have a link to any specific group or individuals. We continue to investigate all possibilities, all avenues. There is no focus yet. Reports of a link are premature," he said.

Authorities are awaiting an analysis of the backpack and bomb materials at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, Harrill said.

Tony Stewart, one of the founders of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, told CNN he found the timing of the planted bomb and two recent neo-Nazi activities in Coeur d'Alene "just too overwhelming" and suggested hatred was also behind the Spokane bomb. Coeur d'Alene is 35 miles east of Spokane.

But Stewart had no evidence tying the Spokane bomb to the two activities in Coeur d' Alene. On Friday, a handful of neo-Nazis protested two Mexican restaurants with signs saying, "This is white land" and "We want you out of here," he said. His group held a King holiday activity with 1,400 fifth-graders that day, he said.

During the evening of Monday's King holiday, about 15 neo-Nazis demonstrated outside the Human Rights Education Institute in downtown Coeur d'Alene, Stewart said. The same evening, his group held a holiday gala at another location, he said.

About the Spokane bomb discovery, Stewart said: "It's clear that it was an attempt to end the march and attack human rights advocates.

"All three events were going on when there was a reaction by the white supremacists or hate groups in some way," specifically at the two Coeur d'Alene events, Stewart said. "We don't know who did it, but there was certainly a reaction to human right events. They were individuals who didn't like what we were doing."

The Coeur d'Alene area had been a hotbed of neo-Nazi activity through the Aryan Nations and Order II hate groups since at least the 1970s, though the groups were disbanded through criminal convictions and civil lawsuits by 2000, Stewart said.

Several bombings in Coeur d'Alene in the 1980s, including at the home of a Catholic pastor and priest who was also serving as president of the human relations task force, were blamed on the Order II, Stewart said. The priest wasn't injured in that bombing, he said.

The gray backpack was found Monday on a bench at the northeast corner of North Washington Street and West Main Avenue in downtown Spokane.

No threat was received before the device was found, nor was a note found with the backpack, Harrill said.

"Clearly it's not coincidence that it's placed along the march route," he said. "But it's too early to ascribe a motive, whether it's racial or political or something else."

The FBI released photos of the Swiss Army-brand backpack and two T-shirts found in it. One shirt says "Treasure Island 2009" and the other reads "Stevens County Relay For Life June 25th-26th 2010."

The device was discovered Monday morning by three parade workers before the event, Harrill said.

According to local media reports, the bomb was designed to be detonated by remote control and was packed with shrapnel.

"We won't comment or try to rate the device," Harrill said, declining to provide details on the components or how it was constructed. "But preliminary analysis reveals this device had the potential to be pretty lethal."

March organizer Ivan Bush said he didn't want to envision what would have happened had the backpack not been found.

"We have 2,000 people that participated in the march," Bush said. "Right on the front lines are kids. One of our high school drum lines was leading the march. We had preschoolers holding banners with 'Happy birthday, Dr. King' on it.

"Again, we are talking about folks' lives; we are talking about kids' lives," he said.

Bush said city leaders in Spokane had taken steps to improve the city's image by recently naming a street in honor of King.

Agents have leads in the case, Harrill said, but he would not provide details on the investigation.

A $20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. The FBI is asking the public for information on who might have been seen with the backpack from about 8 to 9:25 a.m. Monday. It also is asking for photos or videos taken in the area.

One of this week's march observers, Lindsey Resiwig, told CNN that authorities used a robot to investigate the backpack.

"We were standing on the balcony up there and watching with little binoculars and they came and started messing with the package and started pulling things out, and this took a very long time," Resiwig told CNN. "The robot came and went three or four times. It took hours."

Janet Hutchinson, who works next to where bomb was found, said FBI agents interviewed her "to see if I had seen anything strange or suspicious -- people coming in with backpacks which they do in a store all the time," she told CNN.

"But it had been a really quiet morning so I had nothing to report to them," Hutchinson said.

kaj18

Anti-racism group demands ban on far right demonstration (UK)

An anti-racism group has called on the British Government to ban the proposed far-right English Defence League (EDL) demonstration in Luton on February 5.The group known as ‘One Society Many Cultures’ in a media release said it is deeply concerned for the safety of the community, as the EDL have indicated they intend to march into the heart of the Muslim locality.Previous EDL demonstrations have led to attacks on mosques and other places of worship in Asian and other minority communities.

At a demonstration in Preston, north west England, in November 2010, the EDL were caught on camera chanting ‘burn down a mosque’.

The group said the demonstration goes against the Public Order Act and incitement to racial and religious hatred legislation.

Luton Council has also called for the EDL march to be banned.

The EDL, made up of self proclaimed football hooligans, has previously held demonstrations in Luton which escalated into clashes with protestors from anti-fascist groups.

ftpapp

Celtic midfielder Ki Sung-Yueng ignites racism row with 'monkey' celebration for South Korea in Asian Cup semi-final with Japan

Celtic midfielder   has courted controversy following a provocative celebration after scoring for South Korea against arch-rivals Japan in the semi-final of the Asian Cup.

The 21-year-old scored the opening goal from the spot and then sprinted towards a camera and proceeded to pull at and scratch his face in a monkey-like fashion.

The incident caused considerable offence in Japan, where it has been perceived as a racist taunt, although South Korean officials have claimed that it was in retaliation to alleged taunting by St Johnstone fans during a Scottish Premier League game in October.

A Japanese military flag – an inflammatory item in many former Japanese colonies – was held aloft in Doha during the semi-final match, and Ki stated after the game that he has cried in his his mind when he saw it, leading to speculation that his celebration was deliberately offensive.

Goal.com Korea's Yonghun Lee describes why Japanese viewers would have seen Ki's reaction as offensive.

"It's not racial, as Korean and Japanese people are both Asian," says Lee, "but it is a historical celebration."

He added that the flag is viewed as a symbol of Japanese fascism and militarism: "So he did that celebration to Japan supporters who held that flag."

Controversy has engulfed Ki in Korea, with many believing that he had wrongly reacted to the flag, although some have expressed sympathy for how the player felt, according to Lee, who believes that the player should not behaved as he did, but the offending flag should not have been in the stadium.

"I think the flag of the army should not be allowed in [a] football stadium in the first place," Lee said.

"And I also think that Ki's celebration was not proper either. He should have acted more maturely."

The Korean football association quickly denied that the celebration was a racial taunt aimed at Japanese viewers, and instead officially told English-speaking media that the Celtic player's celebration was in retaliation to racial abuse endured in the SPL.

An official said: "The treatment he got in the Scottish league, especially from the away fans, the people who made noises like the sounds of the monkey in Scotland while he played away games, is something he wanted to highlight.

"They call him a 'monkey' as an Asian – he wanted to show how strong they are in Asia and that was the main attention."

Ki himself claimed in the aftermath of the game that he is first a footballer "but more importantly, I'm Korean".

The Asian Football Confederation confirmed that Fifa had not contacted them over the incident, and tournament director Tokuaki Suzuki admitted no legal action would take playing, saying that the respective national associations had already discussed the matter.

South Korea were knocked out on penalties by Japan, who will face Australia in Saturday's final, after the game finished 2-2 in extra-time.

Goal.Com

European leader calls for 'zero-tolerance' for antisemitism

 Europe should have "zero tolerance" for far-right parties that spew antisemitism, European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor said in a press conference here today, ahead of ceremonies marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Mr Kantor and other Jewish leaders met today with right-populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who now holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, to discuss problems with the antisemitic far-right Jobbik party and to urge him to overturn his controversial new media law, which subjects news reporting to a litmus test. Mr Orban has come in for severe criticism over the law, which critics consider anti-democratic.

"To some developments we should show zero tolerance in Europe," said Mr Kantor, who was joined in the press conference by Israeli Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein.

According to a press release following the private meeting with Mr Orban, Mr Kantor described the meeting as positive. He reported that Mr Orban agreed that some verbal attacks on Israel are comparable to classic antisemitism, and that both are unacceptable. He expressed opposition to what Mr Kantor described as a campaign assaulting Israel's legitimacy.

The EU parliament and its president, Jerzy Buzek, former prime minister of Poland, hosted tonight's Holocaust memorial ceremony organised by the EJC, marking the 66th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by Red Army soldiers on January 27 1945.

Several survivors, and the son of a rescuer, were among those who lit candles in honor of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

The event featured an exhibition on Auschwitz presented by Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, and addresses by Rabbi Lau, Mr Buzek, Mr Kantor and Mr Edelstein.

World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald Lauder said that his family's visit to the Auschwitz camp memorial in Poland more than 20 years ago changed all of their lives.

"I saw the ruins, and the human hair and shoes. Everything was deteriorating," he said. "And I realized that someday there would not only be no more survivors, but also nothing remaining" as proof of history.

He subsequently raised $40 million from governments and private individuals, together with Holocaust survivors Ernest Michel, WJC senior vice president, and Kalman Sultanik, honorary WJC vice president, to help ensure the preservation of the infamous site for posterity.

The Jewish Chronicle

Amren White supremacist gathering in NC in limbo (USA)

A planned gathering in Charlotte of a group known for its white supremacist and anti-immigrant views is in limbo after a hotel canceled the group's reservations.

The Charlotte Observer reports that the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel cited guest safety in making the decision.

The white nationalist magazine sponsoring the gathering next week, American Renaissance, says it's had no luck so far finding other accommodations in Charlotte.

Editor Jared Taylor says Charlotte City Councilman Patrick Cannon violated the group's First Amendment rights by contacting hotels about the upcoming conference.

Cannon says he was just finding information in response to a question from a constituent.

Anti-racist groups have said they plan to protest the conference on Feb. 5.

News Observer

Admitted Ridgewood Neo-Nazi Arrested for Threatening New York Anti-Defamation League Head (USA)

A former history professor who has publicly admitted being a neo-Nazi was arrested Wednesday morning at his Heights Road apartment for making multiple threats against the director of the Anti-Defamation League in New York, New Jersey State Police have confirmed.

Jacques Pluss, 57, an ex-adjunct history professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University and other universities, has ties to neo-Nazi organizations and is known to frequent neo-Nazi websites, New Jersey State Police say.

Pluss was fired from FDU in 2005 after it had been made public that he was a leader of the American Nazi Party, according to reports. He admitted his status as a neo-Nazi in 2007 to the History News Network and has called the unversity a "Jewish plutocracy" to the Associated Press shortly after being fired. The University said Pluss was fired not because of his political views but because he was absent for classes.

Pluss is alleged to have sent multiple threatening e-mails to the head of the Anti-Defamation League in New York, which were handed over to the New Jersey State Police, Acting Lieutenant Stephen Jones of the agency's Public Information Office said.

"At 6:30 this morning, State Police detectives with the assistance of our TEAMS Unit, Cyber Crimes Unit and K-9 Unit executed a search warrant at Heights Road," Jones said.

In addition to Pluss being taken into custody, "several" rifles were confiscated during the search of the apartment, Jones said.

The former history professor has been charged with bias intimidation, harassment, contempt of court and weapons possession. Because of a prior court action, Pluss was not allowed to possess weapons, State Police say.

Bail was set at $25,000 with a 10-percent option and Pluss was taken to Bergen County Jail.

Multiple agencies aided in the investigation, led by the NJ State Police's Central Security Unit, which handles threats made against public figures. The Division of Criminal Justice, State Police Crime Scene Investigators and the Ridgewood Police Department were involved in the investigation and arrest of Pluss, Jones said.

The New Jersey Attorney General's Office will likely be handling prosecution, Jones said.

Ridgewood Patch