California Employment at Record Low
The percentage of working-age Californians with jobs has fallen to a record low, and employment may not return to pre-recession levels until the second half of the decade, according to a research group.
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California’s 12 percent unemployment rate in July, the nation’s second-highest after Nevada, compared with 9.1 percent nationwide. The most-populous state lost 1.4 million jobs during the recession that began three years ago, and has gained back only 226,800, or about 17 percent, according to the report.
Alissa Anderson, deputy director of the research group, which concentrates on issues facing low- and middle-class Californians, said women have disproportionately trailed men in regaining jobs.
“Women represent nearly half of the workforce,” Anderson said in a telephone interview. “They gained just one of the 10 jobs added.”
Job losses in local government, health care and other industries where women make up a large portion of the workforce contributed to the weak employment picture. Women have lost jobs in industries such as retail and financial services, while men in those fields gained.
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Debt Crisis: Southern Europe at Critical Turning Point
La Tribune, 5 September 2011
“Moment of truth for Southern Europe,” headlines La Tribune, at a time when three of the ‘Club Med’ economies have come under increasing pressure. First up, Greece, which has been ordered by the experts of the troika formed by the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF to finalise its budget for 2012 in advance of any further aid payments. In the meantime, the troika has decided to suspend its observation mission to the country. Next up, Spain, where the parliament “has addressed a reassuring message” to Europe with its adoption on 2 September of the fiscal golden rule, which will introduce a constitutional obligation to balance public budgets.
The Spanish reform has now reached the penultimate stage of approval, and the daily points out that, “in the absence of unforeseen developments,” it should be ratified by a Senate vote scheduled for next week. Finally Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi has bowed to pressure from ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet and the Italian employers’ lobby to introduce an austerity plan to restore the country’s credibility. “In the wake of the departure on 2 September of the international troika from Athens, all the countries of Southern Europe will come under intense pressure to reinforce the credibility of the budget adjustment plans. If they do not succeed in this regard,” remarks La Tribune, “the governments in ‘creditor’ countries will be unable to secure approval for the European agreement in their national parliaments. The Eurozone democracies are now competing in a race against time to save the European economic and monetary union while the financial markets remain wholly sceptical about Greece’s ability to repay its debts.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Iceland PM on Trial for Role in Banking Crisis
Iceland’s former prime minister Geir Haarde became Monday the first political leader to be tried over the global financial crisis as proceedings began to decide if he can be held accountable for his country’s banking sector collapse.
Haarde, 60, who arrived minutes before proceedings began at 1000 GMT looking cheerful and accompanied by his wife, asked the court for a third time to dismiss the charges, which he has called a “farce.” Haarde was one of four former Icelandic government ministers blamed in a report last year for contributing to the country’s stunning financial sector collapse in late 2008, when all its major banks, which at the time held assets equal to 923 percent of gross domestic product, failed in a matter of weeks.
But parliament, now majority-held by Haarde’s left-leaning opponents, voted last September that he was the only one who should be charged with “gross neglect” and he will thus become the first person to go before the Landsdomur, a never-before used special court for current and ex-ministers.
Upon arriving at the Icelandic Culture House in Reykjavik, chosen because it is large enough to house the proceedings and considered neutral ground, Haarde, wearing a dark suit and blue tie, told AFP he had yet to decide whether he would make a statement after the day’s hearing.
“I’m thinking about it,” said Haarde, who headed the right-leaning Independence Party and held the reins of government from mid-2006 to early 2009 when his coalition was ousted amid public uproar over the crisis.
His legal team meanwhile sent AFP a document showing the former premier would present six grounds for dismissal Monday.
Firstly, he argued no proper probe had been conducted before the charges were brought against him, that the indictment was vague and unclear, and that there were no specific arguments to back up the indictment.
The document points out that the prosecutor in the case, Sigridur Fridjonsdottir, had acted as an advisor to the parliamentary committee that proposed the indictment and therefore had a conflict of interest.
It also insists the rules of the procedures in the special Landsdomur court were unclear, and finally claims the parliament “ignored the constitutional rule of equal treatment under the law” when it opted to only indict one of the four ministers a special parliamentary committee had suggested be held accountable.
In addition to Haarde, the so-called “Truth Report” published in April 2010 laid the blame for the crisis on the former ministers for finance and banking, as well as on David Oddsson, another former prime minister who was head of Iceland’s central bank at the time of the economic implosion.
The heads of the failed banks and the former head of the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority were also handed a large portion of the blame.
According to the report, Haarde and Oddsson had among other things in the spring of 2008 withheld information from relevant ministers and the government indicating that the country was headed for a major financial crisis.
In a July interview with AFP, Haarde insisted the whole trial was “a political farce motivated by some old political enemies who are cloaking this farce under the cover of a political trial.” Current Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson, one of Haarde’s toughest opponents, has meanwhile argued the case is important in principle.
“When it became clear we were heading towards catastrophe … the record shows very little was done to avoid it,” Sigfusson told AFP recently, explaining why he felt the trial was needed.
The bank failure plunged Iceland into a deep recession and sent the value of its krona spiralling.
The economy has gradually returned to growth and observers say it may not need to draw on the last installments of an International Monetary Fund bailout.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Papandreou Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Kathimerini, 5 September 2011
In spite of the sudden departure of the EU-IMF-ECB troika on 2 September, and the fact that Greece does not fulfill the conditions imposed for international aid, “Gov’t insists it is still in control,” headlines the English version of Athens daily Kathimerini. However, “The lies are over. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has to choose between a rock and a hard place — “that is to say between “a red card from Greece’s foreign lenders” and “the old guard of PASOK,” the socialist party that he currently leads.
“The EU and the IMF are asking for a clear sign that will demonstrate that Greece is doing everything it can to slash spending and this can be nothing less than mass sackings in the public sector,” notes the newspaper, which points out that Papandreou may be forced to take on the core of his party “which, of course, could spell the end of his rule.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Arrests Prominent Democratic Campaign Treasurer
A prominent Democratic campaign treasurer who works for federal, state and O.C. lawmakers including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Loretta Sanchez and state legislators Lou Correa and Jose Solorio has been arrested by the FBI on suspicion of mail fraud, The Orange County Register has learned.
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Thom Mrozek confirmed Saturday afternoon that Kinde Durkee of Burbank-based Durkee and Associates, was arrested by the FBI on a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento. Special Agent Steve Dupre of the bureau’s Sacramento office said she was arrested in connection with her position as a campaign treasurer.
[…]
Durkee has had enforcement actions taken against her four times by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, primarily for failing to report transactions or information. She has also received at least a half a dozen enforcement warning letters from the commission and stipulated to a violation before the City of San Diego Ethics Commission.
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The Robbins Report: Labor Day Special in California “Workman’s Comp for Babysitters”
If Californians want babysitters so they can have a night out they may have to fill out the proper state employment paperwork first. California Assembly Bill 889, known as the Domestic Work Employee Equality, Fairness, and Dignity Act, submitted by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, will require anyone employing a “domestic employee” to provide minimum wages, workmen’s compensation, rest and meal breaks and a variety of other benefits. The prospective law could apply to nannies, housekeepers, caregivers, even babysitters. House-sitters, dog-walkers and other people who provide services around the home may also be included. Given Democratic dominance in both California houses and utopian leftist Jerry Brown in the governor’s office, this latest nanny-state measure may soon be law.
The bill provides that “domestic employees” over the age of 18 be paid at least minimum wage, and that substitutes be provided every two hours for scheduled rest and meal breaks. Employees would also be entitled to overtime pay, and those employing them would be required to maintain time cards and other paperwork to meet state reporting requirements. The proposed law explicitly defines babysitters over age 18 as “personal attendants” covered by the act. The first draft of the legislation also required an hour of paid vacation time for every 30 hours worked. This provision was deleted, but it is no more absurd than the rest of this job-killing bill.
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The Slandering of the American Conservative Movement Has Begun
The slandering of the conservative movement has begun. For the past month, American newspapers have been awash with stories about the religion of various Republican presidential candidates. Michele Bachmann was portrayed in the New Yorker as a fanatical wingnut. Like Rick Perry, she has been labelled a follower of Dominionism — the belief that God gave Christians authority over all the Earth. Writing for the Daily Beast, Michelle Golberg compared Dominionism to fundamentalist Islam and warned that the GOP was engaged in an “all-out assault” on the separation of church and state. This Sunday, the liberal economist Paul Krugman’s grand thesis that the Republicans are now the “anti-science” party was republished in The Observer. By questioning evolution and global warming, Krugman says, the GOP has lost its right to rule.
Krugman’s article is a good example of what’s wrong with this hogwash reporting. It is true that Rick Perry called evolution “just a theory”, but who cares? He’s running to be President of the United States, not an eighth grade biology teacher. He will have no influence over what textbooks schools buy or what is taught in classrooms. His views on evolution are as relevant to the presidential race as the price of petrol in Timbuktu. The fact that they are shared by millions of Americans has done nothing to dent the country’s advances in science and technology. Nor are they any more irrational than the belief that Jesus walked on water or turned water into wine. Gospel stories are not only believed by many religious liberals, they are frequently quoted by Democratic presidential candidates. By the way, evolution is a theory. It is a theory constructed from individual scraps of evidence — a way of amalgamating observations into a grand design. Ergo: whenever the US deficit goes up, Paul Krugman calls for more spending — therefore we might theorise that he’s a drooling idiot. Remember: that’s just a theory, not a fact.
The assault on Dominionism is equally pernicious. In an expose piece in the New York Times, Bill Keller tells us that “I care a lot if a candidate is going to be a Trojan horse for a sect that believes it has divine instructions on how we should be governed.” He trots out the usual innuendos about evangelical Christians (they love slavery and hate evolution, and every church picnic climaxes in the ritual beheading of a transvestite). But he sneakily adds, “Neither Bachmann nor Perry has, as far as I know, pledged allegiance to the Dominionists.” Exactly. But doesn’t it make life more interesting to infer that they have?
Let’s imagine for a moment that Bachmann and Perry are Dominionists. Compare that wild and crazy faith with those held by two Democrats. Hank Johnson is the congressman from DeKalb County in Georgia and he’s a Buddhist. Specifically, he’s a follower of Daishonin Buddhism. Adherents gather regularly in large groups to sit cross-legged and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo at a portable shrine. The idea is that if they say these divine words while visualising their deepest desires, they’ll get what they’ve always wanted. Like evolution, it’s just a theory — but it’s much, much more cool.
Harry Reid, leader of the Senate Democrats, is a Mormon. Many readers probably won’t know that because the mainstream media oddly doesn’t talk about it. It’s okay to call Mitt Romney a polytheist with twelve wives, but Reid is untouchable because he’s a Democrat. And yet it’s reasonable to theorise that the leader of the Senate wears the magic underwear associated with Mormonism. Is his belief that Jesus walked on American soil, anti-science? Geographers and historians would probably object.
Democratic presidential candidates regularly visit black churches, Nancy Pelosi has invoked her Catholicism so many times you might think she was a nun, and Barack Obama was married by a pastor who actively hates America. Yet Krugman suggests that only the GOP uses and abuses religion every election. More sickening is the innuendo that there is a uniquely violent subtext to conservative faith, as if every Right-winger wants to shoot an abortionist. There is no comparison between fundamentalist Islam and Dominionism: one kills and the other doesn’t. The conflation of the two is ugly and deceitful.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Why Muslims Are Still Mad at America
By Steven Kull, Special to CNN
On the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, many Americans are wondering whether the risk of a terrorist attack against America has been reduced. The picture is mixed. With the death of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda is weaker. With revolutions in several Arab countries, frustrations with unpopular autocratic governments — a recruiting theme for terrorist groups — have been mitigated. But one important contributing factor has not improved — widespread anger at America in the Muslim world. While views have improved in Indonesia, throughout the Middle East and South Asia, hostility toward the United States persists unabated.
This does not mean that most Muslims support terrorist attacks on America. On the contrary, overwhelming majorities reject terrorism, including the 9/11 attacks, as morally wrong. Al Qaeda is quite unpopular.
However, anger at America does contribute to an environment in which it is easier for anti-American terrorist groups to recruit jihadists, to generate funding and to generally operate with little government interference — witness how bin Laden operated in Pakistan and the widespread anger there when the Pakistani military failed to prevent the United States from taking him out.
Trying to understand Muslims’ feelings toward America has been the focus of a five-year study I recently completed that included conducting focus groups and surveys throughout the Muslim world. I sat for many hours trying to understand as Muslims explained to me why they are so mad at America…..
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Study Contradicts Stereotypes of True Finns Supporters
The survey suggests that the eurozone crisis and economic uncertainty are likely to increase the party’s support further. Rahkonen believes that Soini calculated that Europe’s economic situation will not improve in the near future, making it more expedient to remain in opposition.
“There’s no need to sit in the back seat of a minister’s Audi, sweating over how to deal with the decisions on collateral. All he has to do is to say that they won’t work, thereby establishing a reputation as a truth-teller”, Rahkonen says.
Soini denies any such calculations. “We would have gone into the government if Finland’s EU policy could have been changed.”
Rahkonen says that the euro crisis works in favour of the party. “The True Finns are preparing for a democratic coup in the next municipal elections”, he says.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Friedrich: 1,000 Potential Terrorists in Germany
He said that around 20 of those had received training in camps associated with terror groups and that these individuals were under surveillance by the country’s security services.
Friedrich added that he thought there was little chance of a repetition of the scale of the terror attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 that brought down the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center.
“We dispose of a wide range of modern security methods and we are investigating at the very heart of extremist networks,” he said.
The al-Qaida network, blamed for the New York attacks, has been diminished by the recent death of its leader Osama bin Laden but it still represented a threat, he added.
However, Friedrich estimated that the major danger was posed by individuals acting alone because they are more difficult to identify and track.
He was speaking after the opening in Germany last week of the trial of a 21-year-old man from Kosovo who said he was acting alone under the influence of Islamist propaganda when he killed two US soldiers who were heading to Afghanistan by way of Germany in March.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Geographical Oddity Squeezed by Strong Franc
They pay their taxes in euros but go shopping with francs — the inhabitants of Büsingen, a German enclave near Schaffhausen, are being doubly hit by the strong franc.
This leafy village of 1,400 on the banks of the River Rhine is enjoying a late-summer’s afternoon. A group of day-trippers are sitting by the open-air pool. Sausages, bread and beer — all from Switzerland — are ordered in Swiss German and paid for with francs.
Yet for the residents of Büsingen, which belongs to Germany but is surrounded by Switzerland, the record-strong Swiss franc is generating even more heat than the summer sun.
One pensioner mutters to his friend that he’s heard the mountain railway in Davos is feeling the pinch because of the strong franc — “if this continues, the Germans will no longer be able to go on holiday in Switzerland”.
But the currency markets are having an effect closer to home than the railways of Davos: the two pensioners get paid in euros, and as a result of the euro crisis their purchasing power has been reduced. Not only everyday items but also their rent is paid in francs.
“The euro’s loss of value will be the end of us,” they say and order another beer.
Official currency
Around 90 per cent of people from Büsingen work in Switzerland, in other words their wages and social insurance are in hard francs.
The problem is that the German taxman wants euros, and the greater the value of the franc, the more their income in euros drops. In addition, the tax progression in Germany is particularly distinctive.
Gunnar Lang — along with the priest, teachers, bank and post office workers — is an exception. As mayor of Büsingen, he is paid in euros.
“My wife looks after all the money and when she goes shopping she has to change into francs. She’s not happy at all about the high franc,” he said.
“The currency is not covered in the treaty between Germany and Switzerland. Therefore German law counts and the euro is therefore the official currency in Büsingen. In everyday life, however, that’s certainly not the case — the franc is dominant. Büsingen belongs to the Swiss customs area and the businesses and restaurants have to sell Swiss goods. To offer these in euros — that just isn’t done.”
Whether the locals earn euros — like a small minority — isn’t important. The strong franc upsets everyone: most when it comes to taxes, some for everyday expenses.
Shopping tourism
In addition, the few shops in the village — like all villages along the Swiss border — are faced with the phenomenon of shopping tourism.
The euro has never been cheaper — and neither has the discount store in the neighbouring German village.
“We notice the amount of traffic passing through to do their shopping in Gallingen. Sundays are quiet. Shopping tourism is very intensive — and it’s increased,” Lang said.
The lucky ones, according to Lang, are the farmers. “Agriculture in Büsingen is largely covered by Swiss law. Our farmers are allowed to sell their produce in Switzerland and receive direct payments from Switzerland. Although those [payments] are only 80 per cent compared with their Swiss colleagues, farmers have a better deal here than in ‘normal Germany’.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islam in a Secular Europe
Venue: Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL
Date: 16th September 2011
Time: 6:30pm for 7:00pm start — 9:30pm
- Does the religious freedom of Muslims in Europe depend on secularism?
- Are veil and burkha bans secularist or counter-secularist?
- What should the relationship be between sharia rules and secular law?
- Should the state fund Islamic schools if it funds Christian ones?
- Can secularism admit any limitations on freedom of expression in religious matters?
- Is there a clash of cultures between European values and Islamic ones?
British Humanist Association and Central London Humanists in association with Conway Hall present this panel discussion which aims to bring together key speakers to explore the effect of secular democracy in Europe.
Tickets
Member and students’ tickets: £5 for members of the BHA, AHS, South Place Ethical Society, or Central London Humanist Group.
General ticket: £10
About the chair
Rashad Ali is a former leading counter-Secular propagandist for Hizb Ut Tahrir and has lectured and taught in Saudi Arabia. After being indoctrinated by Hizb ut-Tahrir and involved with non-violent extreme political parties for several years he subsequently renounced Islamist extreme political ideas for a more traditional version of Islam that he believes promotes harmony and tolerance. Rashad Ali is currently a consultant at CENTRI (Counter Extremism Consultancy, Training, Research and Interventions).
About the panel
Yahya Birt is the Commissioning Editor at Kube Publishing, which publishes books on Muslim history, current affairs, biography, poetry, books for young people as well as on religious topics. He has written over a dozen academic articles on aspects of Muslim life in Britain. He recently co-edited British Secularism and Religion: Islam, Society and the State.
Sir David Blatherwick, Diplomat, writer and distinguished supporter of Humanism. Sir David joined the Foreign Office in 1964 and served in London, Kuwait, Dublin, Cairo, Belfast, UK Mission to the UN, and New York. He has also held the post of Principal Finance Officer and Chief Inspector, Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, and Ambassador to Egypt, and is currently a Trustee for the British University in Egypt.
Humeira Iqtidar, lecturer at King’s College London and author of Secularising Islamists? Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Pakistan, University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Maleiha Malik, Professor in Law at King’s College London. She currently teaches courses in Jurisprudence and Legal Theory, Discrimination Law and European Law.
Maryam Namazie is a well-known and vociferous critic of political Islam and commentator on women’s rights, violence against women, cultural relativism, secularism, Humanism, religion, and Islam. In 2005 she was the National Secular Society’s Secularist of the Year
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tarantini Journalist Removed From Register
(AGI) Rome — The journalist Walter Lavitola, editor of Avanti, has been taken off the professional register. The Lazio Order of Journalists explained that Lavitola’s name had been taken off in accordance with Art. 39 of the Law on Orders (No.
69/1963), which rules that when a journalist is the subject of an arrest warrant or arrest, his name must be taken off the register until the arrest warrant is no longer valid.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tourist Took Colosseum Marble Fragment in Rome, Arrested
(AGI) Rome — A tourist who took a small marble fragment from the Colosseum has been arrested in Rome. The tourist, a 20-year-old man of US descent, was caught by police officers digging near a colonnade in the Colosseum. He was eventually taken to the Celio police station where officers found another small fragment in his pockets. It is still unclear whether or not this second fragment was taken from the Colosseum or some other monument in the capital.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Malmö Police to Learn ‘Polite’ Arabic
[Comment from FF: Instead of immigrants learning Swedish the Leftists who run Malmö want the police to learn Arabic and Islam instead.]
Police who patrol Malmö’s Rosengaard district are being offered a special Arabic language class to help them better understand and communicate with local residents in the predominantly immigrant area.
So far 45 officers have signed up for voluntary twelve-week class, which will provide training on a number of common greetings and pleasantries in Arabic, the local Skanska Dagbladet newspaper reports.
“It’s about dealing with immigrants in a more dignified and little more civil manner,” local police chief Bengt Hersler told the newspaper.
According to Hersler, the course was arranged at the request of officers who have pushed the department to provide them with the tools to better communicate with Rosengaard’s residents, many of whom are immigrants and have Swedish as a second language.
In addition to teachings in basic Arabic, the tailor-made course will also offer lessons on Muslim culture and traditions to help officers better understand some of the cultural differences that can lead to misunderstandings in dealings with local residents.
“We’re looking to broaden our knowledge, Said Hersler.
“Ever time we speak, we express ourselves from within our own culture. Even if you speak the same language, there’s no guarantee that people understand each other.”
The tailor-made course, arranged by studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, will be held during participants’ free time and will focus on phrases that officers would likely be able to use in their everyday work.
“They obviously aren’t going to learn the whole language,” Lena Gustafsson from Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan told the newspaper.
While no follow up course is currently planned, Hersler told the newspaper that, if the Arabic language and culture class proves successful, a follow-on may be arranged.
| — Hat tip: Freedom Fighter | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Foreigner Voting Right Initiative is Rejected
Canton Vaud residents have turned down a move to give foreign residents the right to vote in cantonal issues.
The initiative to “live and vote here” was rejected by 68.9 per cent of cantonal voters, with 31 per cent in favour. Turn-out for the vote was 40 per cent.
If the initiative had passed, canton Vaud would have been the first to endow full cantonal voting rights on foreign residents, as well as the chance to be elected for cantonal senate seats.
The initiative would have applied to foreigners who had lived in the country for more than ten years and three years in canton Vaud. Already since 2003, around 85,000 people fulfilling these requirements have been able to vote on communal level issues and to be elected for communal positions.
Leftwing and centre parties supported the initiative but it was opposed by the right.
Initiative supporters had said it was unfair that people who had lived in Switzerland for a long time and who paid taxes, could not have their say in cantonal matters. After the result, Green Party politician Raphaël Mahaim said the initiative was “ahead of its time, but I am sure the debate will not stop there”.
Opponents said foreigners wanting to take part in civil activities should become naturalised citizens.
Philippe Leuba, head of the Vaud cantonal interior office, said the vote could not be interpreted as a rejection of foreigners.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tony Blair is Godfather to Rupert Murdoch’s Daughter
(AGI) London — Tony Blair became godfather to Grace, one of Rupert Murdoch’s daughters, at her baptism last March. The Australian tycoon’s wife, Wendy, revealed this in an interview with Vogue magazine. The ceremony took place on the banks of the Jordan, with the participation of the likes of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Anti-Fascists’: Part of the Problem
The EDL is an organisation that promotes bigotry towards Muslims and apparently thinks the best way to oppose Islamism is to get large numbers of drunken football hooligans to wander round city centres chanting ‘Allah, Allah, who the is Allah?’ and other similar slogans. I want nothing to do with them. But, what of the EDL’s most vocal opponents? What of the self-described ‘anti-fascist’ groups that organise ‘mobilisations’ to try to stop the EDL holding what are in most cases legally organised ‘protests’, obnoxious though they invariably turn out to be?
‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’ is a very bad approach to adopt. It’s bad when a handful of Jews, gay people, and others do this by lending their support to the EDL. But it’s also bad when people genuinely opposed to bigotry across the board make common cause with dubious groups or individuals solely because they also oppose the EDL. I am strongly opposed to the EDL, but looking at those behind this weekend’s anti-EDL protests, I see a collection of people who are (to varying degrees) a part of the problem, not the solution.
Hope Not Hate were present at the anti-EDL protests, with Nick Lowles providing live blog updates from the demo all day. In the past, I’ve been very supportive of their campaigns, especially so when Nick Lowles made some very sensible comments on Islamism last year, stating:
It is time to speak out against those who preach hate, from whichever quarter it comes … [It is] important to criticise both groups publicly. Criticising one group but remaining silent about another leads, correctly, to charges of hypocrisy and double standards.
That was great stuff, yet in reality we have seen precious little campaigning against Islamism from Hope Not Hate in the intervening period. On numerous occasions, hate prachers and hate conferences have been highlighted by Harry’s Place and by other writers and websites, yet not a whisper has been heard about this from Hope Not Hate. Hope Not Hate, it seems, will support the mobilisation of large numbers of people to protest against the EDL coming to London, but when Islamist fascists and hate mongers organise events in London such as this one, the silence is deafening.
Then there’s the question of Hope Not Hate’s relationship with the extremist ‘Socialist Unity’ blog, one of only 5 blogs linked to on Hope Not Hate’s website. Socialist Unity is a blog which routinely smears opponents of Islamism as ‘Islamophobes’ or ‘racists’. It is a website whose writers include John Wight, a man who has linked approvingly to a Holocaust denial website (an easy mistake to make, right?) and makes statements such as this:
The state of Israel is a hydra-headed monster, comprising Zionist ethnic cleansers, US imperialists, and Arab collaborationist regimes. Arrayed against this monster are the forces of human progress. As soon as the scales fall from the eyes of international Jewry with regard to the racist and fascist ideology that is Zionism, the world will begin to emerge from the iron heel of war and brutality in the Middle East.
Socialist Unity is a website that has featured posts praising the late Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdul Nasser as ‘the Greatest Arab’. That’s the same Nasser who gave shelter to, and even employed, Nazi war criminals, and the same Nasser who facilitated the dissemination of Arabic translations of Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Unite Against Fascism, essentially a Socialist Workers Party front group, was heavily involved in the anti-EDL protests. The website of the SWP’s ‘Socialist Worker’ rag proudly reports:
Weyman Bennett of UAF told the crowd that the EDL said they’d come to Tower Hamlets-but the movement stopped them meeting at Sainsbury’s and the RMT union stopped them gathering at a station. “And if they ever manage to get here, there are thousands here to stop them,” he said.
But Weyman Bennett has said other things too. At a demonstration against Operation Cast Lead, he reportedly demanded that Israeli Jews ‘should go back to where they came from … New York or wherever’. In June 2005, Searchlight Magazine broke off relations with UAF, explaining:
[T]here was only ever so long that we could participate in an organisation which had leading figures conduct a whispering campaign about Searchlight being ‘Zionists’.
A BBC article on another group protesting against the EDL states the following:
The EDL, which says it is protesting against Islamic extremism in the UK, had earlier held a protest in Aldgate after a planned march through east London was banned by the government. Shafiur Rahman had organised stewards for a rival demonstration earlier in the day… Mr Rahman is a member of the Islamic Forum of Europe.
The idea that the IFE is somehow ‘anti-fascist’ is ludicrous. The IFE’s own literature sets out its intention to change the ‘very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed … from ignorance to Islam.’
Azad Ali, the IFE’s community affairs coordinator, has stated:
Democracy, if it means at the expense of not implementing the sharia, of course no one agrees with that.
The ‘anti-fascist’ movement is a gift to the EDL. Not only does it endlessly give them the attention they seek, but its ‘leadership’ confirms the very things the EDL’s more eloquent supporters have to say about Islamism and the Left.
Note: I have written this post in a personal capacity and it should not be taken as a Harry’s Place group statement.
habibi adds: for “Socialist Unity”, racist rallies and thuggery are just fine, nay, they should be promoted. Provided the targets are “Zionists” and the haters are far left losers and Islamists.
[JP note: The dhimmis at Harry’s Place getting their knickers in a twist about their so-called allies, Hope Not Hate and Searchlight.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘You Ain’t Seen Me, Right!’ High Street Gaddafi Dummy Cheers Shoppers… But Police Fail to See the Funny Side and Order Owner to Take it Down
When a party shop owner put a mannequin dressed as Colonel Gaddafi on the run in his doorway, he thought passers-by would see the funny side of it.
But two heavy-handed PCSOs marched into the store — and told staff to take down because it was ‘offensive’.
The mock-Gaddafi — dressed in bright pink tights and clutching a sign which read ‘you ain’t seen me right’ — was meant as a light-hearted prank.
Owner Peter Tooley never dreamed that his store would be accused of stirring up tensions.
Staff at the store in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said today they were surprised by the police over-reaction because no one had complained about the stunt.
Shop assistant Cath Jewitt, 68, said that she took the mannequin down immediately after being ‘advised’ it was inappropriate.
A police spokesman confirmed the PCSOs had acted even though nobody had complained.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Alternative Action Anti-Sharia Protest in London
Patriotic groups formerly allied to the EDL held an ‘Alternative Action’ march in London, and were disgusted when their letter to Downing St calling for one system of law in the UK and an end to Sharia courts was refused. UK. 3rd September 2011
This small protest was in marked contrast to the events taking place in the City of London, where later police arrested around 60 of the EDL. Here the protesters made their protest in a quiet and generally dignified manner, apart from one small incident where English Nationalist Alliance leader Bill Baker got out his megaphone to shout at the Syrians demonstrating opposite Downing St against the repression of dissent in Syria. Apparently under the misconception that they were Islamic extremists he told them to go back to Syria and make their protests in their own country.
After a couple of minutes, one of the leaders of another of the groups involved in Alternative Action (AA) pulled him to one side and reminded him that they were not there to do that kind of thing, and the protest continued in its earlier more dignified manner. AA brings together a number of “patriot activist groups” which have previously demonstrated with the EDL but now want to dissociate themselves from the loutish behaviour, violence and racism that has attended many EDL protests. They include the English Nationalist Alliance, the British Patriotic Alliance, the Combined Ex Forces, the Ex EDL Association and the National League of Infidels.
Their peaceful protest march and rally in Central London was organised to take place at the same time as the EDL were planning an inflammatory incursion into Tower Hamlets and was deliberately held well away from areas with a significant Muslim population. Previous events organised by groups including the ENA and March For England have been marred by the bad behaviour of EDL supporters, and EDL leader Tommy Robinson was reported as telling a meeting in Luton last week that the EDL would try to disrupt their peaceful march, but they did not turn up.
The setting up of AA also reflects various bitter disputes that have emerged on the web over the leadership and policies of the EDL, in particular over the lack of accountability in the organisation and the behaviour of some of its self-appointed leaders, including Robinson and the ‘Jewish division’ of the EDL. The met at St James’s Station and from their marched to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph. From there they went to Downing Street where they had arranged to hand in a letter before going on to hold a short rally in Waterloo Place.
The protest turned out to be considerably smaller than the organisers had expected, and I was told a few of those on their way to it were stopped and turned back by the police. Only around 20 people arrived, although well over a hundred had signed up as definitely attending the event on Facebook. At 1.30pm they set off to march on the pavement to the Cenotaph, where one of the women present laid a wreath, watched closely by three former members of the Kings Regiment and a former Grenadier Guard from Combined Ex Forces, with the rest of the group observing in silence a few yards back. The ex-servicemen saluted, after which all of the group observed a minute’s silence in memory of the soldiers who have given their life for their country.
The march then moved on to Downing St, where they attempted to deliver a letter, following arrangements that had been made earlier in the week with the Downing St police liaison officer, but the police on duty there refused to take it. James Devine, second in command of the Combined Ex Forces, made a lengthy statement in which he expressed the disgust of the protesters. By refusing to take the letter today, the Prime Minister has shown he has no respect for servicemen”. It showed “a total disrespect for the armed forces.” He went on to say that the government “work for the British people” and should be ready to listen to them, and that “they are traitors.”
The letter, which should be available on the web shortly, demanded that the British government takes action to ensure that everyone in Britain came under the same law, and that there should be no Sharia courts (or other religious courts) in this country. Before the election, David Cameron had expressed his agreement with this but in power had done nothing about it. This is the latest in a series of similar letters delivered by previous marches, and the civil servants who had replied to these had failed to answer any of the points in them.
The ENA banner also made clear the views of the protesters, calling for no Sharia Law, the deportation of foreign criminals, withdrawal from membership of the EU, and an English Parliament and the statement ‘Immigrants Pay Their Way’, perhaps curious as several studies have shown the net contribution they have made to our economy.
Opposite Downing Street there were a group of Syrians protesting against the continuing repression of protests in their country. The AA protesters lined up beside their banner facing them across the road. At least some of those taking part felt that it was inappropriate to allow protests involving foreign flags so close to the Cenotaph with its flags honouring our military dead, although the Syrians and many others who regularly protest in the area opposite Downing St do so because it is the closest the police allow protests to Downing St, and certainly they intended no disrespect to British armed forces.
I left the AA protest at this point, as, after the incident mentioned above, it continued to protest peacefully on the pavement just part Downing St for some minutes before continuing on its way to Waterloo Place. From there some at least of those present were intending to go on pay their respects at the grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Although making clear the views of those taking part, the atmosphere was about as different to an EDL march as could be imagined.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Angry Gang Attacks Broken Down EDL Bus
A COACHLOAD of English Defence League supporters was pelted with missiles after a breakdown on the way back from a violent rally. About 100 Asian youths attacked the stricken vehicle with bricks and 200 police officers used a double-decker bus to escort the 44 passengers to safety. The EDL supporters were arrested for suspected public order offences.
A video on YouTube showed men surrounding the coach then throwing sticks and road signs, smashing all of the windows on one side. BBC reporter Paraic O’Brien said at the scene: “It was very tense. If the officers had not arrived, it could have been a major incident.” There were scuffles earlier on Saturday when the bus tried to drop off passengers in Whitechapel, East London, after the protest in Aldgate. They got back on and it pulled away, only to break down outside nearby Stepney Green Tube station.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Day Out With the EDL
I am very intersted in organisations that polite society refer to as “Extremist Groups”. What makes an extremist group? Is it their stated goals, or is it the fact that they have opinions that most of us do not agree understand or cannot dope with? It is quite easy to sit amongst our educated peers and discuss the plight of indigenous groups in far away exotic places. It makes many of us feel good to discuss the evils of corporate and government imperialism and how these entities destroy the lives and cultures of people. What if those people are not in a far off exotic land? What if they are here? What if they look and talk like us? What if they are English?
I recently spent a day with the English Defense League. This group has been demonised by the press. Their recent planned march was outlawed by the police and they were forced to have a static demonstration on an otherwise deserted street. The EDL are ridiculed and mocked by many educated Britons.. This is not without reason. In the EDL there are “foot soldiers” who, for the most part, loud thuggish and intimidating beer swilling hooligans. They are the “S.A.” of the movement. What I wanted to find out is what happens when one peels back this veneer of football hooligans and looks at the real EDL.
I arrived at the gathering point just outside of Liverpool Street Station on a nice Saturday afternoon. I new I was in the right place as soon as I got off of the tube. The station was crawling with police. Several hundred members of the EDL were gathering outside of the pub. If we took away the t-shirts and banners, the crowd looked like any other gathering before a football match. Old friends were meeting. People were joking with each other and it seemed like any other day at the pub. However as the crowd grew the energy changed.
I walked up to the first person that looked interesting to me and started asking questions. I explained without pretense that I was there to find out what the EDL was about. I told him that I was there to ask questions, learn and listen without bias to what they had to say. I was able to talk to a few people before I was spotted by one of their leaders who took (at first a very suspicious) interest into my inquiries.
I asked people why they were there. To a person, there answer was that they were worried that their culture was disappearing. That outside cultures were coming into this country and changing the traditional English way of life. Folks I spoke to were saddened by new “foreign” people moving into their traditional homelands and pushing out people who have lived there for centuries. Tower Hamlets was the focus of their frustration this day. I had little difficulty asking people questions and getting heartfelt honest responses from EDL members and supporters. It seemed that they were happy to be listened to.
Many of the peole I spoke with felt that the EDL was not given fair play by the mainstream media. However, I feel that is not the fault of the mainstream media. The commercial media is biased. Their goal is to sell advertising by showing sensational topics. “If it bleeds, it leads”. Too many EDL members and supporters only add fuel to the fire. While I was in the pub updating my notes, a group of EDL members took a keen interest in what I was doing. A large shaved head guy who described himself as a foot soldier for the EDL came to my table, invaded my personal space and asked what I was writing. I explained to him what I was doing, told him that he was welcome to look at my notes and that he didn’t need to get so close to me to ask questions and perhaps he forgot his reading glasses (I have doubts to his literacy however). He explained to me that some of the people at his table thought that I might be a spy for and anti fascist organisation and he wanted to make sure that I wasn’t. His mission was that of intimidation.
Outside of the pub two drunken young men in pig masks were dancing, drinking and playing up. Several people had EDL shirts that said “f*** Islam”. Songs were sung accusing the Prophet Mohamed of being a paedophile. These are the kinds of displays the that media feeds upon. If the EDL has a cogent message that they want to get across, this type of dunked idiocy has to be stopped by their leaders. In fairness to the people who organised the event there were several people in high viz vests that were there to control there own members’ behaviour. These people liaised with the police and encourage the crowd to behave. They had their work cut out for them but, to their credit, they did do a good job.
The only problems at the gathering point started when counter demonstrators showed up and started throwing flash bang bombs and missiles into the crowd. Once again, the organisers worked hard to keep the crowd from devouring the small group of counter demonstrators. The police decided to kettle the EDL. For the most part the EDL behaved well at the rally point. It was the outsiders who caused any trouble there. The crowd was allowed to go to the protest area. Along the path, more organisers stood along side the police and helped to keep the order. The route to the demonstration, and the point itself, was along largely deserted commercial streets. No counter demonstrators where seen. Again the crowd behaved.
When EDL founder Stephen Lennon spoke, he spoke of democracy, free elections and safe streets.The EDL supporters stated that they were disgusted that arranged marriages and female genital mutilation were being practised by foreigners in “our country”. Any sane person is disgusted by this happening anywhere in the world. I heard no racist chants. In fact, I saw Star of David flag, a Gay Rights flag and more that one person of non white heritage supporting the EDL in the crowd. There were a couple of trouble makers at the demonstration point who threw missiles and flash bang bombs at the police and press corps. By this time I was standing with the press corps and the majority of them were wearing helmets. After the protest the crowd was led to the Tower Bridge and once again kettled by police for about 40 minutes bt police before they were allowed to leave. I think the majority of arrests occured when a bus carryng EDL members broke down outside Stepney Green Tube station.
When I talked with supporters of the EDL, many of them wanted their idea of a “Traditional England” back. Than England is gone. They wanted people who come here to abide by British Laws and customs. They were offended by the possibility of areas in England having Shar’ia courts. I myself have read Islamist literature advocating Shar’ia courts in primarily Islamic areas such as Tower Hamlets and I am offended my it. I wanted answers to questions when I decided to write this. I wanted to give a voice to people who’s oppinions are drowned out by thugs in their own organisations and a biased self serving commercial media who only want to sell papers. I wanted to steer the polite educated, self serving public away from comfortable opinions and sound bites. What I think I have done is create more questions for myself. I want to continue studying and writing about this subject. One cannot tidy up social change into a blog and then say “my work is done”. It isn’t. I would like to continue studying and writing about groups like the EDL. I promised to give them fair play. If I have offended people on both sides of this debate, then I have done my job. I will attend the next EDL protest and speak with and listen to the people who are the focus of the EDL’s anger and frustration.
[JP note: See also this post about an EDL protest in Luton, February 2011 inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/student-protesters-can-behave-if-they-want-to/ ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dale Farm Travellers Get Jewish Backing
Rabbi compares ‘vilification’ of Travellers to the discrimination Jews faced in the first half of the 20th century
Members of the Jewish community were due to visit Dale Farm Travellers’ camp on Sunday to offer their support to 400 people facing eviction from the green belt site in Essex.
On Friday a UN committee called on the government to suspend the “immature and unwise” eviction, saying it would “disproportionately affect the lives of the Gypsy and Traveller families, particularly women, children and older people”.
The camp has also received support from Franciscan monks, who last week blessed the site, as well as Anglican and Catholic bishops. Rabbi Janet Burden said: “People may not be aware that the Travellers, along with the Gypsies and a limited number of other groups with similar lifestyle patterns, are officially recognised as ethnic minorities, just like our own Jewish community. As such, they deserve protection under European human rights law.” Burden compared the “vilification” of Travellers to the discrimination Jews faced in the first half of the 20th century. “The language used clearly echoes the rhetoric of antisemitism,” she said. “If you don’t believe this, have a look at the website jewify.org for examples of newspaper articles which substitute the word Jew for Gypsy or Traveller. The results are quite chilling. I believe that the obligation to protect this ethnic minority’s way of life is a human rights issue that, in this particular and unusual case, may need to trump the planning law designed to protect the green belt.”
Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, warned last week that there was a great risk of human rights violations if the eviction went ahead.
“If they go ahead with the eviction that would be very immature and unwise,” Hammarberg said. “The only way to do this is for the government or the authority in Basildon to appoint people who have trust on both sides to find an agreed solution.” Tony Ball, leader of Basildon council, has repeatedly defended the eviction saying the proposals have been tested through the courts. “Everyone is entitled to their views,” he said last week. “I’m clear that the overwhelming majority of residents of Basildon and in the country support what Basildon council are doing. Local authorities are expected to uphold the law.” Camp residents said representatives from the UN would be visiting the site on 14 September. Jenny Clapham said the growing support for the campaign had given people a boost, but residents were aware they faced an uphill battle to remain on the site. “There is a very serious mood in the camp about the challenges we face if we are going to win this and overturn the eviction decision,” she said.
[JP note: Obviously, a good case for the despatch of a UN peace-keeping force to the UK. Perhaps it could take a look at Tower Hamlets as well, suffering as it is from a surfeit of Sharia.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: English Defence League Coach Attacked in East London
A coach full of English Defence League supporters was pelted with missiles after it broke down in east London. The coach was carrying 44 EDL members when it stopped in Mile End Road, Tower Hamlets. About 100 Asian teenagers then pelted it with bricks and stones, according to a BBC reporter at the scene. Police arrested all 44 EDL supporters, who were travelling from a protest in Aldgate earlier on Saturday. A double decker bus was used to evacuate them. Police said there had already been one altercation with local youths after the vehicle stopped in Whitechapel Road and some passengers got off the coach. They got back on board and the coach pulled away — but it later suffered a failure and ground to a halt.
BBC reporter Paraic O’ Brien, who was on the scene, said nearly 100 local teenagers then attacked it with missiles. He said the police were on the scene extremely quickly.
‘Extremely tense’
The reporter said within a short space of time there were a number of riot vans and 200 police officers in the vicinity. O’Brien said: “It was extremely tense and if that number of officers had not arrived it could have gone the other way and become a major incident.” The police commandeered a London bus and moved the EDL supporters onto it before escorting the bus east. But a group of youths subsequently sat down in the middle of Mile End Road, blocking the bus and forcing it to stop. At this point a large number of Asian men began arriving from a nearby estate. The reporter said by then the situation had become very scary. The police charged the youths and scuffles broke out. Another group standing on a footbridge over the road threw bricks at the bus. Police managed to clear the road and the bus left the area.
The EDL, which says it is protesting against Islamic extremism in the UK, had earlier held a protest in Aldgate after a planned march through east London was banned by the government. Shafiur Rahman had organised stewards for a rival demonstration earlier in the day. He said that allowing the bus through Tower Hamlets was a major security error that could have ended in disaster.
Investigation ongoing
Mr Rahman is a member of the Islamic Forum of Europe. A Met spokeswoman said: “A coach containing individuals believed to have participated in the EDL demonstration stopped in Whitechapel Road — some passengers got off and an altercation took place with some local youths who had gathered. Shortly after, the coach broke down outside Stepney Green Underground Station, and a further disturbance took place. Officers commandeered a double decker bus before transferring the passengers and escorting them off the borough.” She added: “All those on the coach were arrested for public order offences and an investigation is ongoing to identify others outside the bus who participated in the disorder.”
Meanwhile the EDL’s second in command, Kevin Carroll, has told the BBC its founder Stephen Lennon will hand himself in to police. Lennon, who was convicted in July of leading a street brawl with 100 football fans, breached bail conditions by taking part in the demonstration. On Saturday an EDL regional organiser had claimed Lennon had already been arrested — but this proved to be untrue. A total of 60 people — including the 44 involved in the bus incident — were arrested in connection with the EDL protest. Offences included assault on a police officer, common assault, drunk and disorderly behaviour and affray. Police estimated 1,000 EDL supporters and 1,500 counter-protesters had gathered.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Leader ‘On Hunger Strike’ In Custody
THE leader of the English Defence League, Stephen Lennon, is on hunger strike and is claiming to be a “political prisoner of the state”, following his arrest after a protest in London on Saturday.
Mr Lennon, who also calls himself Tommy Robinson, was remanded in custody at Luton Magistrates Court this morning (Monday, September 5) after appearing charged with breaching bail conditions imposed on him by Blackburn Magistrates Court, where he is due to go on trial on September 29.
The trial relates to an EDL protest in the Lancashire town on April 2, during which it is alleged he assaulted a man, a charge he denies.
In response to an enquiry from Luton Today, EDL spokesperson Helen Gower said: “Tommy is on a hunger strike and will only be accepting water.”
She added: “He is now a ‘political prisoner’ of the state and isn’t prison food halal, something which Tommy feels very strongly about and campaigns against.”
Mr Lennon addressed EDL members in London on Saturday after travelling to the event disguised in a beard and hat, which the Jewish Chronicle website said was intended to make him look like a rabbi.
A Bedfordshire Police spokesman said he was arrested yesterday afternoon after going to Luton police station by appointment.
The EDL had been banned from marching through Tower Hamlets by Home Secretary Theresa May, and instead held a protest near Aldgate Tube station.
A counter-protest took place in Whitechapel Road, and the Metropolitan Police said a total of 60 people were arrested during the day. There were 16 people initially arrested for a variety of offences including affray, drunk and disorderly and assault on a police officer, and 44 people on a coach were later arrested on suspicion of violent disorder. The vehicle first stopped in Whitechapel Road and it is alleged passengers were involved in an altercation with local youths. Shortly after, the coach broke down outside Stepney Green Underground Station, and a further disturbance took place, a Met Police spokesman said.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Husband ‘Stabs Mother-in-Law and His New Wife Before Snatching a Baby Boy’third Woman, 19, In Serious Condition in Hospital
A man said to have stabbed his new bride and mother-in-law to death before snatching a baby boy was being questioned by police last night.
A third woman aged 19 was also said to have been stabbed in the neck. She was in a serious condition last night.
The suspect is said to have carried the child in his arms into a town centre a few minutes’ walk away, while still clutching a bloody knife.
Last night police were questioning a 21-year-old man arrested in the centre of Thame, Oxfordshire, on suspicion of murdering the two women.
Police were called to a cul-de-sac nearby just after 2am yesterday. Neighbours said they were woken by the sound of screaming after a row broke out between the man and his new wife, who had married only two months ago.
The husband is alleged to have stabbed his 28-year-old wife, known as Mihaela, and her 49-year-old mother, named locally as Julie Sahin, in the neck and the heart.
Paramedics tried to resuscitate both victims, but they died at the scene. Both women are thought to be British, although they married Turkish men.
The suspect is then said to have left the house carrying an unidentified child in his arms.
A man was found 40 minutes later wandering around the town centre with the child, who was taken into care yesterday. It was not known yesterday whether the man was related to the child.
The couple had married only two months ago and his mother-in-law had recently asked her landlord for permission for her new Turkish son-in-law to move into the modest two-storey terrace house which she shared with her husband and daughter.
Mark Field, the family’s landlord, said: ‘Julie and her husband, her daughter and the two young kids (lived there). Recently they asked permission because the daughter had just got married and could they move the husband in. I’ve not met him.’
‘I went there this morning in disbelief and found police there and it all cordoned off,’ he said. ‘I could not go inside but I saw where police had marked bloodstains on the doorstep.’
Mr Field said he did not know the identity of the 19-year-old woman, who did not live there.
He said: ‘I have been over there a couple of times to do some maintenance, there have always been lots of other people in the house — their girlfriends or relatives who would bring their kids around for tea or something.
‘For the past year it was the five of them and only in the last month did the boyfriend move in.
‘They were good tenants and from what I saw they seemed like nice people, I didn’t have any trouble with them. No one in the street really knows them.’
Neighbours said the 28-year-old victim was often seen taking her children, aged three and 18 months, who were from a previous relationship, to a local park.
She is believed to have worked at Burger King while her mother worked at Little Chef in Thame.
Yesterday the two restaurants, which are housed in the same building, were closed ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’.
Neighbours said the arrested man also worked in a restaurant in Thame. Judy Rogers, 46, said: ‘You would always see the younger woman pushing a pram around. She had a long blonde hair and was always with her children.
‘One of the ladies who also works at the Little Chef picked the two children up this morning and drove them away. There’s a boy who’s 18 months and a girl who’s three.’
Last night the cul-de-sac was sealed off as police and forensic science officers combed the scene.
A post-mortem examination is due to be carried out today.
Detective Chief Inspector Joe Kidman of Thames Valley Police said: ‘We are in the early stages of our investigation. We have arrested a man on suspicion of murder.
‘At this time it appears that all parties are known to each other and we are not seeking anyone else in connection with this case.
‘We are working hard to establish the full circumstances of this incident and what led to the tragic deaths of these two women.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jewish Leaders Support Dale Farm Travellers
Jewish leaders have thrown their support behind the Dale Farm illegal campsite, claiming that the planned eviction has echoes of anti-Semitism.
As the authorities prepare to remove travellers from the Essex site after a High Court ruling, members of the Jewish community joined Roman Catholics and Anglican clergy opposed to the eviction. Their protest comes after the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on the Government to suspend the planned eviction, saying it would “disproportionately affect … women, children and older people”. Alongside Jews, gipsies were widely persecuted by Hitler during the Second World War. Rabbi Janet Burden, who has visited Dale Farm, said that as members of an ethnic minority gipsies deserved protection under human rights law. “Travellers are vilified just as Jews were in this country in the early part of the 20th century,” she said. “The language used clearly echoes the rhetoric of anti-Semitism. I believe that the obligation to protect this ethnic minority’s way of life is a human rights issue that, in this particular and unusual case, may need to ‘trump’ the planning law designed to protect the Green Belt.”
Dan Glass, a Jewish supporter of the travellers, said that despite the council’s argument that it was a planning issue in reality it was “ethnic cleansing”. Last week the local Church of England and Roman Catholic bishops visited the six-acre site. In a statement they urged council chiefs to postpone the eviction until an alternative permanent home could be found. Opposition to the eviction of residents has now been articulated by the UN, the EU and the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission. Supporters have devised an alternative plan, which they say could save taxpayers the £18 million eviction cost and stop 100 children from leaving their school. It is understood that up to 100 political activists have entered the site to give training in non-violent action to deter the bailiffs. The move comes days after the travellers’ appeal to stay on the site was rejected by the High Court. The former scrapyard was bought by the community three decades ago. Half of the site does not have planning permission. Residents accept that they will have to leave but many will be homeless unless alternative sites are found first, they claim.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Laughing About Street Violence
At the beginning of the month Ted Jeory reported:
After leading the campaign to ban the EDL marching through Tower Hamlets, the East End’s Labour politicians have now called for counter demonstrations to be called off […] The Home Secretary banned the EDL from marching in Tower Hamlets after a successful local campaign, led by Labour, including delivering a 25,000 strong petition to the Metropolitan Police and Cllr Joshua Peck, Rushanara Ali and Jim Fitzpatrick MP’s and John Biggs AM writing to her to personally to ask for an intervention.
UAF, a Socialist Workers Party front group, had no intention of calling off their demonstration, wedded as they are to violent street fighting. EDLRaw is a pro-EDL Youtube channel, which provided the video of Tommy Robinson dressed as a Rabbi on yesterday’s cross post. Today it has two other videos up. In one, a woman EDL supporter is pulled off a bus, which, according to the BBC, had broken down.
The second video appears to have been made by two “anti fascists” called “Ben and Anthony”. They laugh as they recount how a woman EDL supporter was beaten up. I suspect it is the same incident.
Apparently, what makes it particularly funny that this woman is beaten up is that she is ugly. As the “anti fascists” put it:
“Never hit a woman — but DO kick a dog”
This clip has been playing in my mind all night. I find it horrifying. Thanks EDL. Thanks UAF.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Landowners Have to Fend Off Dale Farm Travellers Themselves
PRIVATE landowners will be left to fend for themselves if travellers move on to their land after the eviction. Basildon Council says its officers and police will only get involved if there is a risk of people being hurt or the makeshift camps cause major disruption. This is the usual case when travellers set up on people’s land, but the council will be putting no special measures in place, despite the high risk of unauthorised occupation this month’s evictions will bring. However, Dawn French, council head of corporate services, said the authority would focus on protecting its own land from occupation. She said: “Security of privately-owned land is a matter for individual land owners. Basildon Council is responsible for 80 open spaces across the borough and aims to ensure they are as secure as possible in general, and during any potential Dale Farm site clearance, while balancing the right of public access.
There are a number of plans in place to protect our open spaces from unauthorised occupation. However, it is not appropriate to provide specific details.”
At Gloucester Park, Basildon, boulders are blocking entry on to a land owned by the council, but it denies placing them there to stop travellers. Mick Kirby, from Corner Road, Crays Hill, said he was concerned about a large area of farmland known as Pond Farm, near his home. Travellers from Dale Farm already own the front part of the field. Residents fear the site is vulnerable. Mr Kirby said: “That field is the first place the travellers might go. We have been on to the council to improve security, but they say it is down to the private landowner to deal with. “So if travellers own it and move on to the land, what will happen?” Mr Kirby said the council told him an injunction against any occupation was still in place, so they could not move there. He said: “That may be the case, but physically, there is only a flimsy gate, which a five-year-old could force open.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Parents of Seven Told: Your Children Are Too Fat, So You Will Never See Them Again
Four obese children are on the brink of being permanently removed from their family by social workers after their parents failed to bring their weight under control.
In the first case of its kind, their mother and father now face what they call the ‘unbearable’ likelihood of never seeing them again.
Their three daughters, aged 11, seven and one, and five-year-old son, will either be ‘fostered without contact’ or adopted.
To have a social worker stand and watch you eat is intolerable. I want other families to know what can happen once social workers become involved. We will fight them to the end to get our beloved children back.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two Weeks to Man the Barricades: Dale Farm Travellers Given Eviction Date as Anarchists ‘Plot Rock Ambush for Police’
Travellers living on the Europe’s largest illegal settlement today were today given two weeks to leave or face forced eviction. Residents of Dale Farm in Crays Hill, Essex, were warned they will be cleared out on September 19 if they still haven’t moved. But travellers and other protesters are determined to ignore the threat and are feared to be planning a deadline day assault on police and bailiffs. Anarchists yesterday used a wire basket to haul lumps of masonry on to a 50ft gantry above the main entrance of Dale Farm yesterday. The heavily fortified entrance sits on the only road into the camp and is the likely route bulldozers will take on eviction day.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Terrror Suspect in London Ban ‘Vows to Come Back and Plot’
A terror suspect banned from London told how he wants to resume plotting when he returns to the capital, once anti-terror laws are watered down. Known as BM, he could be back in London months before the Olympics under the Government’s decision to drop powers to relocate individuals deemed a national danger. He has appealed against his ban from the capital, though his lawyers admitted at the High Court that he is “committed to terrorism, in particular to terrorism in Pakistan”.
The court heard that he wants to go to Pakistan “to take part in, or assist others to take part in, terrorist acts”. He was also said to want to help finance terrorism there, or go under cover in the UK in order to do so. Labour attacked Home Secretary Theresa May after tabling an amendment to block the reforms in the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Bill, which was being debated by MPs today.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mrs May was “playing Londoners for fools”, adding: “She is still persisting with dangerous weakening of counter-terrorism measures which will allow more serious suspected terrorists to remain in the capital.”
She highlighted the case of BM, a 38-year-old British national. Born in Sheffield and father of five young children, he had been living in Ilford but was banned from London, on the orders of Mrs May, to stop him allegedly channelling funds to his brothers in Pakistan.
BM is said to maintain contacts through his family with individuals in Pakistan who “represent a threat to UK national security”. Seeking to overturn the ban, he highlighted the Government’s plans to ditch relocation powers as lending weight to his claim that his forced relocation was excessive.
The security services and police are understood to have concerns over the change to anti-terror laws. Mrs May has responded to a backlash by proposing a new Bill which will allow relocation powers to be used in exceptional circumstances. A Home Office spokesman said: “National security is the primary duty of government and we will not put the public at risk. Our absolute priority is to prosecute and convict suspected terrorists in open court. The new system will provide effective powers for dealing with the risk posed by individuals we can neither prosecute nor deport. We have always said there may be exceptional circumstances where it could be necessary to seek parliamentary approval for additional restrictive measures.” Anti-terrorism experts say suspects will need far greater, costly surveillance which will not fully eliminate the additional risk they pose from not being relocated.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Cairo Embassy Surrounded by Protective Wall
(AGI) Cairo — The governor of Cairo’s Giza district informs that protective barriers at the Israeli embassy have been completed. Tel Aviv’s representation in Cairo has been completely surrounded by a 2.5m high protective wall. The work was completed within the space of a week.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Gadhafi’s Son Was Ready to Sign Peace Treaty With Israel After Libya Fighting
According to Austrian politician David Lasar, Seif al-Islam was also willing to act as middleman to secure the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
An Austrian politician says one of Muammar Gadhafi’s sons told him Libya was ready to sign a peace treaty with Israel once the fighting in his country ended.
David Lasar also said Thursday that Seif al-Islam, Gadhafi’s longtime heir apparent, also told him he was ready to act as a middleman to secure the release of an Israel soldier held for more than four years by Hamas, the Palestinian faction controlling Gaza.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Over 400 Thousand Israeli ‘Indignados’ In Protest
(AGI) Tel Aviv — Over 400 thousand Israeli “indignados” have taken to the streets to protest against the high cost of living. Organisers had hoped to rally a million people, but some say the number is more like 450 thousand. They are emulating the Spanish demonstrators who have held their sixth protest running against the cost of living in Spain. The scale of the demonstration is unprecedented, and the number of protestors marks a record high, compared with 6th August’s 300,000 demonstrators.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Forty Israelis Held for Questioning at Istanbul Airport
(AGI) Jerusalem — A party of forty Israeli citizens onboard a flight to Istanbul were held for questioning by Turkish police.
Travelling onboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Tel Aviv, the group were separated from other passengers upon arrival and questioned by customs officials. News of the incident was reported by Ha’aretz online, based on reports by Israeli foreign ministry spokeswoman Ilana Stein. The Israeli foreign ministry is currently looking into the incident.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kazakhstan: Protestants Fear Restrictions With the New Kazakh Law on Religious Freedom
The changes expected within a few months. The Constitutional Court has declared the previous Act illegal. The country says it wants to combat Islamic terrorism, but punishes any unauthorized activity and pursues the small Christian groups.
Astana (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Protestant communities and groups for the protection of rights are alarmed by amendments to the Law on religious freedom currently before Kazakhstan’s Parliament. Meanwhile, the authorities have expelled Leonid Pan, a Russian citizen residing in Kazakhstan for 15 years, after he became leader of a Protestant church.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev addressing Parliament on September 1, said that the amendment must be approved “by this session”, which ends in June 2012. In his speech he criticized the mosques that operate “without authorization” and concluded that “we need to restore order at home.” From the little information that has emerged, it is known that new rules for registration of religious communities will be introduced.
Lama Sharif, president of the State Agency for Religious Affairs (ARA) said on 1 September that under the new law all religious groups must apply for recognition again, even those who have already received it, noting that many of them received recognition before the independence of Kazakhstan in 1991. This raises concerns about the criteria to be used, because in June, Sharif said he wanted greater control of religious groups according to the “One nation, one religion” principal.
Protestant groups express concern to Forum 18 agency that in reality the law will propose once again “the same restrictive rules that the Constitutional Council of Kazakhstan had already declared unconstitutional in 2009 and before that in 2002.
F18 notes that the bill has not yet had any publicity or been subjected to public scrutiny and debate and that the government has not sought the opinion of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who had already criticized the 2009 law, declaring it unconstitutional.
The Constitution declares that the country is open to all religions in a position of equality. But since 1991 all the amendments have been restrictive on the rights of groups and individuals in the name of “national security” and “Islamic terrorism”, even if it is unclear how they relate to small Protestant churches. In fact all “unauthorized” religious activities, even prayer meetings are now prohibited and punishable with fines
Meanwhile, the authorities of Arkalyk, in the northern region of Kostanai, have refused to renew the residence permit to Leonid Pan, a Russian citizen who has lived there for 15 years, with his wife Kazakh whom he married in 2005, and 2 year old daughter. On 29 August, the order came to leave the country. F18 denounces that the grounds for refusal are that in his application for renewal he gave unspecified “false information” and did not state he was “the leader of the religious group Grace Light of Love”.
On August 18 Gennady Tsyba, a follower of a small unregistered Baptist church in the western region of Aktobe in Martuk, was sentenced to pay 75,600 tenge (361 euros, which are about 5 months minimum salary) for “participation in unauthorized religious activities” after attending a Sunday service. The Baptist Churches refuses to apply for registration.
Meanwhile, the authorities of Arkalyk, in the northern region of Kostanai, have refused to renew the residence permit to Leonid Pan, a Russian citizen who has lived here for 15 years, with his wife married in 2005, Kazakh and 2 year old daughter. On 29 August, the order came to leave the country. F18 complaint that the refusal reasons that he gave in the application for renewal of “false news” on unspecified and not stated to be “the leader of the religious group Grace Light of Love”.
Gennady Tsyba, a follower of a small Baptist church is not recorded in the western region of Aktobe in Martuk, August 18 was sentenced to pay 75,600 tenge (361 euros, which are about 5 months the minimum monthly salary) for “participation in religious activities unauthorized “attended the Sunday service. The Baptist Churches refuse to apply for registration.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Family Massacred in Nigeria
(AGI) Abuja — A Christian family of eight people has been massacred in the Plateau State in central Nigeria.The attack took place yesterday in the village of Tatu, where the bodies of a father, mother and six children were found, killed with machetes presumably used by a group of Muslims. This massacre is the last dramatic events in one of Nigeria’s darkest weeks, involving three terrorist attacks, a cholera epidemic and floods .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sectarian Violence in Nigeria’s Jos Claims Lives of Fifty
(AGI) Jos — At least 11 people died today as sectarian violence escalated in in central Nigeria’s federal state of Plateau. As of Tuesday, casualties in Plateaus capital, Jos, are reported as totalling fifty. The violence was sparked by Christian attacks on Muslims in conjunction with end of Ramadan celebrations.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
9/11: What Have We Learnt?
More Britons were killed on September 11, 2001 than in any other terrorist atrocity, and the past decade has been characterised by uncertainty in a changed world. Yet, says Charles Moore, we are far wiser for the lessons taught us
On a lazy summer’s day in 2002, it came home to me. I was mink-hunting (then a legal activity) by a river on the Kent/Sussex border, and a cockney foundry worker called Vince was there with his terrier. We chatted, and eventually it came out that his sister had been killed in the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001. She had been helping to organise a conference there, Vince said. More British people were killed on September 11, 2001 than in any other terrorist incident ever, including 7/7 and the Lockerbie bombing. Sixty-seven out of the 2,996 people who died in the attacks on the United States that day were British citizens. The figure is relevant as the 10th anniversary approaches because it is a reminder that the argument that “it was nothing to do with us” was never, from the very first moment, true. We were in it from the start. The death toll of Americans was 40 times higher. The sheer “lethality” of the event, as well as its spectacular, filmic quality, proved that terrorism works: it achieves the “propaganda of the deed” which it seeks.
It lives up to its name. No democratic government which did not try to defeat the perpetrators could hope or deserve to survive. On this basis, the governments which agreed to hit back at al-Qaeda have done better than is usually acknowledged. The United States has successfully protected the homeland from further attack. In Britain, scores of plots have been foiled, and no successful outrage has been carried out since 2005. Even more important, al-Qaeda has achieved very few of its aims. Two months before September 11, 2001, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who today leads the organisation, wrote: “The mujahid Islamic movement will not achieve victory against the global infidel alliance unless it possesses a base in the heart of the Muslim world.” At that time, thanks to the Taliban, it had Afghanistan. Within months it had lost it. The word “al-Qaeda” means “the base”, but since 2001, it has not had a base where it can be secure. In the following year, its terror campaign in Saudi Arabia failed. So, after some short-lived successes, did its jihad in Iraq, which many of its more strategic leaders opposed as being the wrong place to build the true Islamic state of which it dreams. Its behaviour in Iraq was so revolting that tribal leaders united their populations against it. The eventual, post-invasion elections were fraught, but people voted in large numbers. Al-Qaeda, rejecting elections because they were not taking place in a proper “Islamic” context, ruled itself out of the next bit.
Nobody yet knows what the Arab Spring may mean, but everyone knows that it was not sprung by al-Qaeda. The faces on the celebratory posters in Tripoli depict David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy, not Osama bin Laden. And he, in case you had forgotten, is dead. Al-Qaeda is now so beset by electronic surveillance that it has to send its secret communications by hand. A very high percentage of its best (ie worst) people have been killed by US drones. Its followers seek martyrdom, but they have got more of it than they bargained for. Its ambition to shape the Muslim world has been thwarted.
If you look at Western politics 10 years on, you will see that the successor governments have repudiated much less of the Bush-Blair policies than their rhetoric suggests. America’s anti-war, anti-Bush President, Barack Obama, ordered the death of bin Laden and the surge in Afghanistan. Mr Cameron is more robust than any other British leader about how to deal with Muslim extremism at home, and in Libya has just executed a spot of “liberal interventionism” with an adroitness which Tony Blair must envy. It is a curious fact that the three most important leaders who supported and prosecuted the war in Iraq — Bush, Blair and John Howard in Australia — were all re-elected after it. Iraq goes down as the great overwhelming disaster in history-as-written-by-the-BBC, but most voters have never seen it so unequivocally.
Nevertheless, if Mr Blair had known and said on September 12, 2001 that, 10 years later, we would have lost 179 servicemen in Iraq and 200 more than that in Afghanistan, and that we would still be in the latter until at least 2014, one presumes that British participation in the invasions would not have got off the ground. If George W Bush had said that the United States would spend $1.3 trillion on the ensuing wars, there might have been a similar reluctance in his country. In the last 10 years, there has been a series of agonies — about the death of brave men and women, about lying, civil liberties, torture, equipment, cost, community cohesion, religion and immigration. The great institutions of this nation have been strained. The intelligence services have been accused of compromising truth and bowing to political pressure. The domestic civil service and the police have made a series of mistakes about how to treat with Muslims and which ones to treat with. The universities have harboured Muslim students who preached murder. The judges have upheld continental versions of human rights with scant regard to the real threats posed by the prisoners in question. Cabinet government has looked shaky.
Even the Armed Forces, though rightly praised for courage, have not been seen as very successful: it is hard to remember a time when their future role has been less clear.
And if one looks at the state of the world, one cannot claim that stability has been achieved. Ten years ago, Afghanistan was called a “failed state”. Today, it has not conclusively shed that title, and the description also fits the far more important and dangerous Pakistan. Lots more people hate America; and America feels, almost certainly rightly, that it can do much less in the world than it could at the end of the Cold War. The problem of Israel/Palestine feels no nearer solution.
So the charge-sheet is formidable. But I come back to where I began. It is not imaginable that the West could have failed to respond violently to the attacks of September 11. Over time, that response has had some good effects. The first has been what the Left calls consciousness-raising. We British love to praise Winston Churchill, but until 1940, most of us thought he was a wretched nuisance. With Neville Chamberlain, we confused the proper desire for peace with the less admirable longing for a quiet life. In relation to Islamist extremism, we behaved similarly. We looked away. We elevated our extreme boredom with the whole subject into a policy of inactivity, and even cowardice. I don’t think that is nearly so true today. We have learnt that some of our fellow citizens wish for the destruction of our society. We have become much more realistic and better-informed about who believes what. It came as a surprise, for example, to find that the Muslim Council of Britain, which we thought was the representative body, includes admirers of the extremist teachings of people like Abul Ala Maududi, the godfather of Islamist extremism. We have gradually learnt more about whom we are dealing with.
Next, unpopular though we are, we have not united the Muslim world, as critics predicted, to turn against us. Despite all the mistakes in Iraq, the overthrow and death of Saddam Hussein did send a message about the fate of tyrants which resonated through the region, causing even Colonel Gaddafi to sue for peace. Iraq has not fallen apart, or been taken over by Iran, and its current politics is one in which different groups and parties bargain constantly. This is no new model nation, but neither is it the spearhead of jihad. President Bush, of course, was mercilessly mocked in Europe for saying, in his second inaugural address in 2005: “The survival of liberty in our land depends on the success of liberty in other lands.” But was he so wrong to identify the desire for liberty in many Muslim lands, even if few of them wanted to thank an American for saying so?
The Arab revolts in Egypt and Syria, Tunisia and Libya could each turn out badly for Western interests, but all of them look like the sort of rebellions we recognise. Young people, using modern media, see freedom and want more of it. You don’t have to believe that technology cures human sinfulness to think that the scales are now more heavily weighted against tyrants than they were. Of the many dangers which remain, two could be singled out. The first is that our very success in bearing down on the ultra-extremists may make us too tender to the slightly less extreme ones who believe very much the same things. The dominant Western official doctrine is that we should find the “moderates” among the nasty ones, rather than assist real moderates who never had any truck with terror. This is the doctrine behind the Northern Ireland peace process, and it is more dangerous than we yet understand. Watch out for praise being showered on the increasingly Islamist policies of Turkey. The second is that this huge struggle which America has led could drain away the very power it tries to preserve, so that victory becomes pyrrhic, and the West’s rivals become its successors. This can be stated statistically. In 2001 US indebtedness to China stood at $78 billion. In 2011, it is more than $1.1 trillion.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
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