China: Global Crisis Sinking Small- And Medium-Sized Business
Tighter bank lending and need for liquidity are forcing many businesses to borrow with interest rates as high as 180 per cent. The problem is clearly visible in Zhejiang but is expected to spread to Inner Mongolia and Guangdong.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The failure of a number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Wenzhou could mark the start of a much larger wave of corporate bankruptcies across China. The warning comes from Chinese economists who note that the recent liquidity problems encountered by such enterprises came after the authorities reigned in bank lending.
In the past three years, China’s government adopted aid packages worth some US$ 4 trillion to save the Chinese economy. Now, however, Beijing has stopped banks from easing lending, concerned about rising inflation and fearful that many institutions might be overexposed.
Since January, 19 medium-sized companies went bankrupt in Wenzhou. Although they are but a small fraction of the 4,000 or so companies in the southeastern seaboard city known for its entrepreneurial spirit, the market is concerned that the failures might be the beginning of a credit crisis among SMEs.
According to a report by Barclays Capital, SMEs are desperate for capital, and increasingly borrowing money from non-bank sources at interest rates ranging from 20 per cent to 180 per cent because of credit tightening by banks.
May Yan, the analyst who wrote the report, said corporate failures in Wenzhou would inevitably be contagious and spread to other parts of the mainland.
Some analysts who spoke to the South China Morning Post also expect more victims in Inner Mongolia and Guangdong. In the former, a mining boom has led to an overheated property market and active underground lending. The latter is China’s most industrialised region with legions of SMEs.
For analysts, China could save SMES by easing credit. In fact, last week, the Wenzhou government imposed a cap on the interest rates charged on loans by non-bank lenders to try to rein in the rampant underground-loan market.
However, “As property and commodity prices are likely to drop due to the global economic slowdown, it could lead to a reduction in collateral values, and the possible bankruptcy of SMEs,” said a mainland lawyer, who asked not to be named.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Eureca — The Secret Plan to Save Greece
La Tribune, 28 September 2011
Reducing the debt mountain of Greece without provoking default to get the country permanently out of recession and social unrest: this is the “secret German plan to save Greece”, La Tribune reveals. Baptised Project Eureca, it has been dreamt up by the influential Roland Berger consulting group in Germany, and “very likely not to have been designed outside the circle of Angela Merkel and the experts from the troika”. The idea is to create a common structure, “sort of equivalent to the Treuhandanstalt founded in 1990 by Germany to privatise some 8,500 East German companies.” Greece will put into this pot all of its public assets (banks, real estate, telephone, ports …) — or 125 billion euros. Purchased by a European institution, this structure will pilot the privatisation of assets before 2025.
The money released would allow Athens to redeem its obligations to the ECB and to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF). Its debt/GDP ratio would be cut from 145 to 88 percent. Interest rates on Greek debt would fall by 50 percent and Athens would be able to return to the markets. Such a plan “would wipe out the gains of speculators (…) who bet on a collapse of Greek bond prices as well as those of the Spanish, Italian and Irish governments,” the daily explains. But it would have to “count on the opposition of banks and financial markets, the former because they probably have their own ideas on the privatisation of Greek assets, and the latter because the current situation of uncertainty allows multiple games and rewards”. For now, Eureca is not on the table in the discussions among European leaders.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Forget Greece, It’s China
Should the world’s economic engine stall, the consequences would be much more serious than any problem emanating from Athens
While the world’s attention remains glued to the crisis in Greece (population 11 million), in China (population 1.34 billion) things are going on that we are mistakenly overlooking. Should the world’s economic engine stall, the consequences would be much more serious than any Greek problem, even taking into account its impact on the wider European economy. Here are a few boring facts about what is happening in China: manufacturing has fallen for the third consecutive month; the construction boom is about to bust; property prices are falling, and companies in the sector are finding it hard to access financing. Local government debt is now equivalent to 27 percent of the economy, and experts say that 80 of that debt cannot be recovered. Share prices of Chinese companies on the New York Stock Exchange fell on the news that regulators found serious faults in their accounts.
The Financial Times’ summary is a little less boring: “A sector that was until last year the darling of international investors is turning into a horror show […] a development that would send shockwaves through financial markets worldwide.”
Does this mean that China is headed for a crash? Not necessarily. But there is a strong possibility that China’s economic growth is set to be derailed. The accident could be financial, environmental, social, or international. A collapse on the stock exchange that would wipe out people’s savings, or some kind of infrastructure disaster that would prompt millions to take to the streets in protest, could be the spark that sets off a crisis that would eventually hit the economy. And that would then quickly spread around the world.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Households to Pay 30% More for Power in 2012
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 5 — Electricity bills in Greece will rise by an average rate of 18 to 19% next year, with households in particular forced to shoulder a hike of more than 30%. This unprecedented rise is due to the country’s commitment to its international creditors for the upgrade of electricity charges to levels that reflect the real cost of power production.
Next year will see the second stage of that rate adjustment, with the third set to follow in 2013. Next year’s rise in rates will affect all consumers, both domestic and commercial, as the tax hike on fuel has seen the cost of electricity production soar to the extent that any cuts to commercial rates have evaporated. The process for this adjustment, as daily Kathimerni reports, began on Tuesday with the Public Power Corporation submitting its updated cost data to the Regulatory Authority for Energy, according to estimates included in the PPC budget for 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
IMF Urges EU to Take Action
La Stampa, 23 September 2011
“IMF, Europe on trial”, headlines La Stampa. “The Fund’s annual assembly opens today [September 23] with the EU in the dock”, after markets crashed as latest growth estimates reveal that the ongoing debt crisis could drag the global economy back into recession. IMF director Christine Lagarde has urged Eurozone countries to “immediately enforce the agreements of the July 21 summit, because the time factor is crucial”, while US treasury secretary Tim Geithner warned that “preventing a default of Greece is more important than sustaining European growth”. “The situation can be described in one word: panic”, writes economist MarioDeaglio in the Turin daily. “None of the policies adopted since 2009 on both shores of the Atlantic have worked. […] The one thing citizens from crisis-hit countries should ask their leaders is to break free from the anonymous tyranny of global markets”, forcing banks to separate “speculative circuits from ordinary credit”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
IMF: Turkey GDP Crumbles in 2012, Balkans Doing Well
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 5 — The growth of Turkey’s GDP will be reduced by two thirds in 2012 compared to this year’s figure. This is one of the most significant estimates featured in the latest report on European economies by the International Monetary Fund. Prospects for development in the Western Balkans, however, are positive, while within the EU, Greece and Portugal will remain in recession until the start of 2013 and halfway through 2012 respectively.
According to IMF forecasts, the rise in Turkish GDP has slowed from 8.9% in 2010 to 6.6% in 2011 and will reach 2.2% in 2012. In the Balkans, there will be rises for Macedonia (+3% in 2011, +3.7% in 2012), Albania (+2.5% in 2011, +3.5% in 2012), Montenegro (+2% in 2011, +3.5% in 2012), Bosnia Herzegovina (+2.2% in 2011, +3% in 2012), Serbia (+2% in 2011, +3% in 2012), while Croatia is in greater difficulty (+0.8% in 2011, +1.8% in 2012). In the EU, Greece remains the country hardest hit, with a predicted fall of GDP of 5% this year and 2% of 2012. The other member state in difficulty is Portugal (-2.2% in 2011 and -1.8% in 2012). In terms of Mediterranean countries in the EU, Malta’s GDP is expected to grow by 2.4% in 2011 and by 2.2% next year, while Slovenia’s growth will rise from 1.9% of GDP this year to 2% next year. France’s figures are 1.4% in 2011 and 1.4% in 2012. IMF forecasts say that Spain will register a figure of +0.8% this year and +1.1% in 2012, while Italy posts +0.6% in 2011 and +0.3% next year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Markets Unruffled by Moody’s Downgrade
‘Largely expected’, analysts say
(ANSA) — Milan, October 5 — Italian markets remained unruffled Thursday by Moody’s triple-downgrade of Italy’s sovereign debt, its first such move since 1993.
The Milan bourse rose 1.1% as analysts said the downgrade had been largely expected, after Standard & Poor’s made a similar move on September 20.
Spreads between Italian bonds and benchmark German bonds — a measure of Italy’s premium on servicing its massive debt — held steady.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who has overseen two huge austerity packages in the last two months, said: “We’re moving forward, the European Union has approved of what we’re doing”.
Opposition leader Pierluigi Bersani disagreed, saying “the donwgrade is a huge blow”, and renewed a call for the premier to step down.
Moody’s lowered Italy’s rating three levels to A2 from Aa2, with a negative outlook. Italy was last cut by Moody’s in May 1993. The action comes after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Italy on September 20 for the first time in five years. Italy gave final approval last month to a 54-billion-euro austerity plan aimed at balancing the budget in 2013 that convinced the European Central Bank (ECB) to buy the nation’s bonds and reduce the risk of it being drawn into a Greece-style crisis. While the ECB buying initially brought down bond yields by about 100 basis points, Italy’s borrowing costs remain near record highs because of the eurozone debt crisis contagion fears.
In a statement accompanying its downgrade, New York-based Moody’s said: “The fragile market sentiment that continues to surround euro area sovereigns with high levels of debt implies materially increased financing costs and funding risks for Italy.
“Although future policy actions within the euro area could reduce investors’ concerns and stabilize funding markets, the opposite is also increasingly possible.” “Moody’s choice was expected,” Berlusconi said. “The Italian government is working with the maximum commitment to achieve its budget objectives,” he stressed.
The European Commission said Tuesday it “maintained its judgement on Italy”.
“The country has taken serious commitments towards fiscal consolidation which are in the right direction and which will enable it to arrive at a balanced budget in 2013,” an EC spokesman said.
In other reactions, government and opposition parties, the employers’ federation Confindustria and trades union said they were looking forward to the government’s plans to boost growth, which are expected to be unveiled in detail next week.
However, Confindustria chief Emma Marcegaglia, who has been increasingly critical of the government lately, said “Italy must change how it is responding to the crisis”.
“It must recover credibility, which is very low,” she claimed.
“The country does not deserve to be in this situation. It is a strong country which can rediscover the pride to make major reforms and give a better future to its young people,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Pension Funds Assets Fall to Below Legal Level
Dutch pension funds are failing to ensure they have enough assets to cover their pension obligations, according to new figures from the central bank.
The average coverage ratio fell to 101% by the end of August, well below the official requirement of 105%, the central bank said.
The average coverage ratio was 112% at the end of March. Funds which drop below 105% have to draw up a recovery plan and submit it for central bank approval.
The drop is largely due to stock market developments. The AEX has fallen almost 20% since the end of March.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
SMEs: Difficult 2011 for Greece, Good for France
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 04 — The year 2011 will be a difficult one for small and medium-sized enterprises in Greece, while France records a slight recovery. This emerged from a report on SMEs published today by the European Commission. According to the report, the number of SMEs in Greece will fall this year by 3.3%, employment by 2.8% and the produced added value will decrease by 3.9%. Turning to Spain the European Commission has announced a 0.4% decline in the number of SME in the country and a 0.6% in employment, while the produced added value will rise slightly by 0.9%. The number of SMEs in Italy is expected to fall by 0.6%, employment will not increase and the produced added value will decline by 2.9%. France on the other hand is expected to see a recovery: the 2011 forecasts made by Brussels mention a 2.1% increase in SMEs, a 3.4% rise in added value and a 0.4% growth of employment. Most jobs were lost between 2008 and 2010 in small and medium-sized companies in Spain: -14.1%. Looking at other countries in the Mediterranean area, Greece recorded a 5% decrease in the same period, France 4.5% and Italy 3.3%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
DuPage County Board Considers Church, Mosque Rules
DuPage County is considering a set of zoning law changes that would, in part, prohibit organizations from converting an existing single-family house into a place of assembly. However, none of the changes would apply to projects already being reviewed by the county, including Islamic Center of the Western Suburbs’ request to use a house near West Chicago, above, as a prayer center.
DuPage County Board members are expected to vote next week on a proposed set of zoning law changes geared toward reducing the impact of new religious facilities on unincorporated residential neighborhoods. The county board’s development committee on Tuesday recommended approval of the suggestions, which would address infrastructure, traffic and building size issues related to churches, mosques and other places of assembly in residential areas. A final vote by the full board is scheduled for Oct. 11.
If adopted, none of the new guidelines would apply to projects already being considered by the county, including several proposed mosques. “I think that this is needed in this county,” said county board member Dirk Enger, who also serves on the development panel. “It makes it more clear where (places of assembly) can locate.”
DuPage officials say the zoning changes are needed because unincorporated residential areas don’t have the infrastructure needed to support new places of assembly. Existing roads, sewers, and septic and well systems weren’t designed for the uses, they argue.
However, DuPage officials dropped a controversial idea to prohibit new places of assembly in residential neighborhoods. The existing proposal allows new places of assembly in residential areas as long as certain requirements are met.
County board member Grant Eckhoff said the goal is to balance the rights of property owners and their neighbors. The proposed regulations give groups the opportunity to seek construction projects while protecting “the essential character” neighborhoods, he said.
Eckhoff pointed to the fact that the county already has adopted tighter parking restrictions. As a result, a future religious facility must provide one parking space for every two seats in its main worship area.
The new rules also place greater restrictions on the size of religious buildings. Another suggestion is to prohibit organizations from converting an existing single-family house into a place of worship. In addition, groups would need their structures to be connected to public sewer and water service. And to address concerns about traffic, places of assembly in residential areas might be allowed only along major roads.
Despite the development committee’s positive recommendation, some say the proposed zoning amendments need to be less restrictive and more welcoming of religious institutions to build in the county. Mark Daniel, an attorney who represents several religious groups with zoning requests, Tuesday asked county board members to reconsider several of the amendments, including the major road requirement and the water and public sewer requirement. “I am not saying don’t adopt the change,” Daniel said to the development committee. “It just needs some adjustment so that you are being less restrictive.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Dispute Divides Lilburn
High cost of litigation forced city to cut back in other areas
The zoning dispute between Lilburn and a local Muslim congregation started at the mostly nondescript corner of Lawrenceville Highway and Hood Road in 2009 and gradually made its way to Washington, D.C.
When it was finally over in mid-August, the Gwinnett town of 12,000 residents had spent tens of thousands of dollars defending itself in court, earned a reputation as a hotbed of religious intolerance and remained divided about whether the fight was worth the expense and trouble.As part of a public records request, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed hundreds of emails and city records related to the zoning dispute spanning more than two years. The documents reveal the pressure city leaders faced in and out of City Hall, from residents upset about the prospect of living next to a large mosque to Department of Justice attorneys who suspected discrimination in the process.
“I still get emails from outside of the state about it, from California, Wisconsin, all over,” Mayor Diana Preston said last week. “It’s like, ‘Good grief.’ This has been really unfortunate.”
Under pressure from the DOJ, the Lilburn City Council finally approved Dar-E-Abbas’ request to expand its worship center, on Aug. 16. The decision enables Dar-E-Abbas — which had its most recent request denied by the council in December — to build a 20,000-square-foot center. Dar-E-Abbas said it will take about five years to raise enough money for construction.
Lilburn also reached an agreement with the DOJ requiring that the city not impose different zoning and building requirements on other houses of worship; that city officials attend training on the requirements of the law; and that the city adopt new procedures that clarify its appeals process for religious groups. Lilburn officials also will report periodically to the agency.But the controversy won’t end there: Many city officials and residents expect the dispute to figure prominently in Lilburn’s municipal elections in November. A vocal group of residents has repeatedly suggested Preston and other council members who approved the application will pay a political price for settling the case. Many of them remain angry that the city settled with the DOJ rather than continue the court battle.
“They’re wasting our resources on other things,” longtime resident Myrna Caudill said. “So why not this? Why not spend and fight?” Preston is running for re-election against Johnny Crist, the City Council’s lone opposing vote to the Dar-E-Abbas application in August, and incumbent council member Scott Batterton is defending his seat against three challengers, including leading mosque opponent Angel Alonso. “I honestly believe Johnny Crist has a very good chance, based on that issue alone,” said Thor Johnson, a resident and former president of neighborhood organization SafetySmart Lilburn. “He’s been very talkative about that issue.”
Crist said voters are eager to hear candidates talk about the issue, pointing to the turnout at council meetings over the past two years. Hundreds of people regularly packed the chambers of City Hall for hearings on the zoning application, which once forced the council to move its meeting to the larger Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center in Lawrenceville. “In the history of the city of Lilburn, I don’t know that there’s ever been as much public interest and turnout for meetings over one issue,” Crist said. “Either you’re for it or against it. It’s important to the city.”
Preston, who recused herself from all mosque-related discussions and votes in the past because she owns a home adjacent to property sought by Dar-E-Abbas, hinted that Crist was using the controversy to stir interest in his campaign. She pointed out Dar-E-Abbas met all of the city’s zoning requirements when its application came before the council in August.
“I think he’s trying to make it an issue and that’s probably why he voted against” the application, she said. “Sometimes elected officials have to vote against the wishes of a vocal segment of the community because it is the right thing to do. Three council members did the right thing on Aug. 16 when they voted to approve the application.”
By dragging out the fight against Dar-E-Abbas, city records show, Lilburn spent nearly $63,000 in legal expenses on the case dating back to 2009. The money includes the cost of defending the city against lawsuits from Dar-E-Abbas and DOJ. Over the same time, Lilburn’s overall legal expenses climbed from about $95,000 in fiscal year 2008-09 to more than $122,000 in 2009-10. The city has spent more than $99,000 through this year, which is still more total than it spent from 2006-2008 ($96,337.76), according to information provided by the city.
That jump in legal expenses came amid an economic slump the lowered property values, forcing the city to cut back in other areas. City Manager Bill Johnsa said Lilburn shifted around money in the city’s general fund and had to put off purchases for small equipment. “It’s been costly,” Johnsa said. But residents will not have a tax increase because of the legal expenses, he said. Johnsa noted that the city felt it could have prevailed in the DOJ case, but decided against prolonging the legal battle.
Beyond the financial considerations, opponents of the mosque inundated the email inboxes of council members and city staffers with pleas to reject Dar-E-Abbas’ application. The AJC’s review of emails over two years revealed messages ranging from thoughtful ruminations on the zoning implications to concerns that Islamic terrorists were going to destroy the city. “Remember the World Trade Center and what these people stand for,” wrote one resident in December. “By letting these people having [sic] a Mosque built is only a stepping stone to possible future disasters.” Allan Owen, a Hood Road resident and persistent critic of the mosque, warned the council of buckling under the threat of a lawsuit.
“I remain concerned that the attorney … will be able to coerce the Council into approving this in order to settle the suit,” Owen wrote in November 2010. Preston, who said nothing publicly about the matter until after the August vote, responded at least a couple of times to residents who wrote to her complaining about Dar-E-Abbas’ attempt to buy four acres of her property on Hood Road. “We have many different groups here and I see a future Lilburn as being inclusive of its diversity,” she wrote. “We don’t have to believe as others believe, but a simple understanding and tolerance goes a long way to the success of a community.” Since receiving approval for the mosque, Dar-E-Abbas members said they’ve been focused on raising money for construction, which they estimate will cost at least $10 million. They also hope to rebuild relationships with their old neighbors. “We’re going to be here forever,” said Wasi Zaidi, a founding member of Dar-E-Abbas. “And we think it’s going to be good for the city.”
[JP note: Divide and rule.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Objects to Horn Lake’s License Removal
Aldermen don’t like Klan dig
Tedarrell Muhammad appeared before Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker and his Board of Aldermen Tuesday night to dispute the city’s pulling of a business license. He said he and his business partner, Degarrett Newson, who are Muslim, are victims of religious and racial discrimination. Muhammad and Newson originally sought to rent one-sixth of a 6,050-square foot building at 2400 W. Goodman Road for their business called Your Enterprise.
Their plan was to launch a car-detailing service in addition to a beauty and barber salon, Kut and Shine. However, Muhammad alleged that an effort among city officials, including Fire Inspector Mark Brown and Police Chief Darryl Whaley, unjustly prohibited the venture from moving forward. “I’m spending $1,000 a week on a business we can’t open,” said Muhammad, “and I’ve got a problem with that.”
City officials, on the other hand, say the business does not conform to code rules.
Officials are also upset with the language in a media alert sent out Tuesday by Muhammad. At the bottom of the release, it was stated that the reason for the appearance before the board was “to shed light on the racial and economic disparities that Black Americans are still facing in Mississippi as White leadership continue to work the ‘good ole boy’ system in a ‘Ku Klux Klan’ manner.” “It’s very offensive to me, because I have always tried to treat everyone the same,” Ward 3 Alderman Tim Smith said. “They were trying to put a business in there and they did not want to come up to code. We didn’t just write these codes yesterday.”
Prior to Muhammad approaching the podium, Baker informed him that three minutes was the standard time to address the board. The initial back-and-forth communication exceeded 20 minutes. Baker eventually used his gavel to end an exchange between Muhammad and Ward 6 Alderman John E. Jones Jr. “We discussed what you needed to do,” Baker said to Muhammad. “That’s the process of every business in this city. This board cannot allow you to divert around Design and Review. That would be a violation.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly Half a Million to Send Michelle to Africa
How much does it cost taxpayers to fly First Lady Michelle Obama, her two daughters and her mother, a niece and a nephew, a hairstylist and makeup artists to South Africa and Botswana to give a few speeches, meet Nelson Mandela, and enjoy a safari on a private game preserve?
Nearly half a million dollars, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) concerning Obama’s June 21-27 journey.
Judicial Watch said the U.S. Air Force provided a C-32 — a Boeing 757 modified by the military for the purpose of flying big-wigs around the world — to fly the First Lady and her entourage to and from Africa, at a cost of $424,142. Another $928.44 was listed as the cost of providing 192 meals for the 21 people who made the trip
The Obama daughters were listed on the manifest as “senior staff.”
“This trip was as much an opportunity for the Obama family to go on a safari as it was a trip to conduct government business,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This junket wasted tax dollars and the resources of our overextended military. No wonder we had to sue to pry loose this information.”
The documents made public by Judicial Watch do not include the total of all costs for the First Lady’s trip, such as expenses for security, transportation on the ground and so forth. For more information, go here.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Quinnipiac Names First Muslim Chaplain
HAMDEN, Conn.—A Muslim chaplain who has served at Mount Holyoke, Amherst and Hampshire colleges in western Massachusetts has been appointed as the first person to hold the newly created spot at Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University.
Shamshad Sheikh (pronounced Shahm-SHAHD’ SHAKE) says she will reach out to Muslim students and everyone else at the 7,900-student university. Sheikh was born in Pakistan and is a former associate university chaplain at Yale University. Quinnipiac officials say they appointed Sheikh to help better serve its Muslim students, many of whom come from overseas. Officials also she will help to expose others to eastern culture. The school also has Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faith leaders. Sheikh received a master’s degree from American International College in Springfield, Mass., and a graduate certificate in religious study from Hartford Seminary.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Shareef Allman on Kiling Spree
CUPERTINO, Calif. (KGO) — Police are searching a Sunnyvale neighborhood for a suspect wanted for killing three people and wounding seven in Cupertino.
The suspect is 45-year-old Shareef Allman. He was last seen at the HP campus in Cupertino where he tried to carjack a woman. He shot her and she is in the hospital in fair condition. He did not get her car. After the attempted carjacking, he ran into a Sunnyvale neighborhood at Homestead Road and Peacock Avenue. Police have been searching the area doing yard to yard searches with their guns drawn and their fingers on the trigger. Police are not totally sure he is in the neighborhood; a shelter-in-place has been ordered.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Soros Helping Islam ‘Look Less Radical’
A conservative media watchdog organization says left-wing billionaire George Soros is funding a course that teaches journalists how to downplay the negative aspects of Islam. The three-hour online course called “Covering Islam in America” is a project of The Poynter Institute, which claims the program is designed to “give a broad explanation of the religious, social, political, and geographical facts about Islam today.” That organization has partnered with the Social Science Research Council and Washington State University to strengthen “accurate” reporting and to enhance “the ability of the media to fairly report on a range of pressing issues.”
But Dan Gainor, vice president for business and culture at the Culture and Media Institute (CMI) of the Media Research Center, contends the course is nothing more than a guide on how to spin Islam in a positive light. “It teaches [journalists] to downplay Jihad, quite literally to put the deaths of the 3,000-plus people that died on 9/11 in context so that you compare it to the initiative on HIV and AIDS, or you compare it against how many Americans are killed in murder,” he explains. “So, instead of actually just telling the truth on this, they actually are teaching in a journalism program how to spin and make Islam look less radical.” Gainor points out that murder victims are generally killed in separate incidents, whereas victims of Islamic terrorism are usually killed in larger-scale attacks. He also points out that murder victims are not typically killed in the name of an ideological war against a country.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vets Call for Resignations, Impeachments in Washington
‘Call to action’ says purge of corruption required to restore constitutional republic
By Bob Unruh
Back quite a few years ago when the American people were suffering under a despot called King George III they drew up a list of his offenses and told him they were not going to allow his government by fiat to be “destructive” any longer.
In the Declaration of Independence, they cited such problems as his refusal to allow beneficial and necessary laws, his obstruction of justice by manipulating the judiciary, his erection of “a multitude of new offices,” his disruption of trade and his preventing the laws adopted by local legislatures from addressing problems.
The Revolutionary War resulted.
Now, the Veteran Defenders of America, a group that involves such luminaries as Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, is pointing out a similar list of offenses.
Only this document, “A Declaration to Restore the Constitutional Republic,” is addressed to the people..
It in, officials with Veteran Defenders note that the America people now have a strategic leader, President Obama, who “has questionable allegiance” and has “wreaked economic tyranny on the American people.” He also destroyed accepted administrative processes with 32 czars, doubled the national debt in one year, sided with Mexico against the American people, is demanding new taxes, subverted the nation’s immigration laws, forcibly took control of private economic interests, is targeting charities and churches for penalties and has advocated for a mosque “bankrolled by terrorist sympathizers” while refusing to defend the nation’s own laws.
This time, however, they just want his resignation, and those of his friends.
“This is not a call to overthrow our entire institutions of government, or subvert the Law of the Land, but rather to restore those institutions to their honorable constitutionally forms,” says the new declaration.
“As such, and under their oaths to the Constitution and the people whom they are sworn to protect and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic, it is incumbent upon every citizen, veteran, soldier, officer and agent to use the tools of the people to protect the people and return our government to a Constitutional Republic of, by and for the people.”
It continues, “May the Creator, who endowed each of us with certain unalienable rights, among them the right to Life, Liberty and the individual Pursuit of Happiness free from government tyranny, bless this mission of, by and for the people of the United States, and may the Lord let freedom ring in America, once again.
“We demand an end to government corruption, an end to despotic leadership in D.C., an end to the current assault on all decent and honest American taxpayers, businesses and honorable public servants of the people. We demand the peaceful return of the people’s government, and we will remain resolute in the defense of the Constitution and the United States of America until the people can once again, feel secure in their nation and government.”…
| — Hat tip: papa ray | [Return to headlines] |
“Visions of Belonging. Jews, Turks, And Other Germans” Anniversary Symposium [Jewish Museum Berlin]
In conversations, discussions, and brief talks, the symposium marking the museum’s 10th anniversary explores the state of the nation from a variety of perspectives. Identity and integration, exclusion and belonging, forced assimilation and parallel worlds: What is German in the 21st century? Social scientists and historians, writers and artists from Germany and other cultural spheres discuss the new social realities.
Concluding the Symposium (Saturday, 29 October):
Concert with Daniel Kahn & Psoy Korolenko: The Painted Bird & The Unternationale
Friday, 28 October 2011
The symposium begins on 28 October 2011 at 8 pm with a review of Germany’s cultural diversity entitled
“Eine kleine deutsche Volkskunde”
Today’s German society is colorful and diverse and clear minorities or majorities have long since been a thing of the past. We have invited young, international experts to talk about Germany from their own perspectives. This “look at home” will be moderated by Ijoma Mangold (DIE ZEIT).
Saturday, 29 October 2011
10.30 to 11 am
What Use is Identity?
Short Talk by Harald Welzer
“Different identity aspirations and expectations must not compromise people’s coexistence,” says the sociologist Harald Welzer — and elucidates in this short talk why people need a stable identity to function effectively.
2 to 3.30 pm
Panel 2: “Islam is Part of Germany”
Reactions against Islam and the Muslims have increased measurably and tangibly. Anti-Muslim resentment is seeping through broad sections of society and resulting in gradual poisoning. How did this come about? And can the idea of an open-minded society be saved?
Moderated by Ferdos Forudastan
Participants: Naika Foroutan (Humboldt University, Berlin), Hamed Abdel-Samad, Günter Piening (Commissioner for Integration and Migration, Berlin), Yasemin Shooman (Center for Research on Antisemitism), Marwan Abou Taam (State Office of Criminal Investigation, Rhineland Palatinate)
6 to 7.30 pm
Panel 3: Visions of Belonging: Jews and Muslims in Europe and the USA
The question of belonging in German society is discussed with varying intensity time and again. The Jews fulfilled the demanded and perceived obligations to Germany’s norms and values in the 19th century, a process that was brutally destroyed by Nazism. A lot more than a hundred years, two World Wars, genocides, and totalitarian regimes later, the problems concerned with the relationship between religion, state and belonging are faced anew. The panel will explore the role that Jews and Muslims can and should play in a secular Christian, multicultural and diverse society in Germany and the USA.
Moderated by Susan Neiman (requested)
Panel: Micha Brumlik (Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main), Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College), Riem Spielhaus (University of Copenhagen) (requested)
4 to 5.30 pm
Sayed Kashua: “Zweite Person Singular” (Second person singular)
Reading with the Author and Burghart Klaußner
The Israeli author Sayed Kashua’s new novel has met with great success. He tells the skillfully woven story of two Arab Israelis whose burning desire is to be part of Jewish Israel. They do everything in their power to lose not only their foreignness, but also their Arab culture which they see as backward. They seek their salvation in the promises of pop culture and Western individualism that make everything seem possible. The actor Burghart Klaußner will read the German text and interview the author.
Where: Old Building, second level, Great Hall
8 to 10 pm
Concluding the Symposium:
Concert with Daniel Kahn & Psoy Korolenko: The Painted Bird & The Unternationale
A performance by the music artist from Detroit, Daniel Kahn, and the avant-garde singer from Moscow, Psoy Korolenko, will round off the anniversary symposium. In their “distorted klezmer,” they mix klezmer, punk, and folklore — in English, Yiddish, and Russian!
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EconomyWatch Expose: Europe’s Far Right: Fuelled by Islamophobia?
Europe’s increasingly vocal and powerful Far Right parties have swapped a racist agenda for an Islamophobic one, moving them closer to the mainstream, where anti-Muslim views are commonplace among conservative commentators and politicians.
Islamophobia is “more widespread in Western Europe than any social prejudice since the anti-Semitism of the 1930s”, says a leading expert on the Far Right in Europe.
According to Professor Cas Mudde, a Dutch academic at DePauw University and the younger brother of prominent right-wing activist Tim Mudde, Islamophobic views have largely replaced racist ones on the Far Right. But anti-Muslim rhetoric is not just limited to the extreme fringe, says Professor Mudde; Mainstream European commentators and politicians also frequently denounce Muslim practices.
“The problem is that the vast majority of Muslims in Europe are born and raised there. By excluding them discursively, but also increasingly in government policies, such as putting limitations on building mosques, which you don’t have on churches and synagogues, or by banning the burqa, you marginalise and exclude a large part of the population which is growing.”
Mudde argues that Islamophobic ideas have become acceptable because a near majority of European citizens now consider Muslims to be alien to Western culture:
“Democratic societies are based on loyalty and solidarity. If Muslims are excluded and isolated, why should they feel solidarity with other populations? It’s important because there are increasingly cities in Europe with Muslim majorities.”
In addition, the demonization of the Islamic faith in popular culture has also led to a rise in Islamophobic hate crimes. Strong evidence of this came in a 2009 study of anti-Muslim prejudice by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency. They questioned 23,500 people from ethnic minority groups in all 27 EU Member States about their experience of prejudice.
The report found an extremely high level of intolerance: One in three Muslim respondents had been discriminated against in the previous 12 months, and 11 percent had experienced a racist, or anti-Islamic, crime.
Despite the high figures, most discrimination against Muslims goes unrecorded. Some 79 percent of Muslim respondents in the study had not reported their experiences; with 59 percent believing that “nothing would happen, or change by reporting it”, while 38 percent said that “it happens all the time”, and “cannot be stopped”.
Dr Robert Lambert, the co-director of the UK’s European Muslim Research Centre, has researched hate crimes against Muslims in the Tower Hamlets area of London. “I was a policeman in the area in the 1980s and 1990s, when the large Bangladeshi community was terrorised by Far Right groups like the National Front and Combat 18. It was a largely poor, new immigrant community and very intimidated. Violence and racism became regular and routine,” he said. “Then, eventually the threat receded because the local community stood up against it robustly.”
However, Lambert’s recent interviews with Muslims in Tower Hamlets now indicate that hate crimes have returned. “Some of the victims from the 80s and 90s thought it was all over, but they say they are victims a second time over. First, it was their ethnic identity and now they are targeted for their Muslim identity.”
The website Islamophobia Watch also lists thousands of acts of violence and prejudice, many of them carried out by members of the English Defence League (EDL) — an anti-Muslim street protest group formed in 2009. Last week, for example, EDL thugs in east London were jailed for smashing their way into a mosque in Redbridge and attacking the imam. The attack took place near Dagenham, where the EDL has staged anti-Muslim demonstrations outside another proposed mosque.
The EDL has also been trying to spread its malign influence overseas. An investigation by the left-leaning British newspaper The Observer established that the movement’s leaders have regular contact with anti-jihad groups in the Tea Party organisation, and invited Rabbi Nachum Shifren, a Tea Party activist, to speak about Sharia law and funding, in London.
The EDL has also elicited support from the notorious Pamela Geller, who was influential in the protests against plans to build an Islamic cultural centre near Ground Zero. Geller, darling of the Tea Party’s growing anti-Islamic wing, advocates an alliance with the EDL. She said on her blog: “I share the EDL’s goals… We need to encourage rational, reasonable groups that oppose the Islamisation of the west.”
The focus on Islamophobia distances the EDL from the racist outpourings of the discredited British National Party. It also moves the movement closer to the mainstream, where many right-wing commentators and politicians make anti-Islamic statements.
“Islamophobia pre-dated the main radical right parties and many of their arguments come from mainstream parties and journalists,” said Mudde. “In Britain, not many people read the National Front’s magazines, but millions read the Daily Mail, whose columnists like Melanie Phillips are Islamophobic. Her columns are way more influential than the EDL, or the BNP. They are often quoted on the EDL site and serve to legitimise some of the Far Right’s views.”
Melanie Phillips is one of Britain’s most strident right-wing commentators. She has written that Britain is “sleepwalking into Islamisation”, and “doesn’t grasp that it is facing a pincer attack from both terrorism and cultural infiltration and usurpation”. Europe’s Far Right also like to quote the hard-line views of major politicians, including British PM David Cameron, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, all of whom have branded multi-culturalism “a failure”.
Cameron was the first European leader to criticise “divided communities”. In February this year, he called for an end to “passive tolerance”, and told members of all faiths that they must integrate. His remarks were immediately picked up by Europe’s Far Right. French National Front leader Marine Le Pen, for instance, said that Cameron supported her party’s ideals. “I sense an evolution at European level, even in classic governments. I can only congratulate him,” she said. Elsewhere, Cameron’s speech was perceived as inflammatory, especially as it came on the same day as a large demonstration by the EDL. “Whatever the intention, the timing of this speech has played into the hands of those who wish to sow seeds of division and hatred,” Nick Lowles, director of anti-extremist group Hope Not Hate told The Guardian.
We should not be too surprised to find right-wing, and Islamophobic, rhetoric among Europe’s leaders. Most of the continent has been lurching to the right of the spectrum for some time. In 2001, 12 European states were under right-wing, or Conservative ruling parties and 14 states were governed by left-wing, or liberal parties. But by 2011, only five European states were ruled by left, or centre-left, politicians, with right-wing, or Conservatives, ruling 21 states.
There has also been a concomitant rise in the percentage of votes won by Far Right parties in some European countries. In the Netherlands, the Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) won 15.5 percent of the national vote in the 2010 elections (up from 5.9 percent in 2006). That gave them 24 seats out of 150 in the House of Representatives. The PVV also won 17 percent and four seats out of 25 in the European Parliament.
The Islamophobic Geert Wilders leads the PVV. Wilders has called for a ban on the Koran and new mosques, a tax on head scarves, and an end to immigration from Muslim countries.
In Norway the Progress Party, which was supported by mass murderer Anders Breivik, won 22.9 percent of the vote in the 2009 elections (up from 1.9 percent in 1977). And in Switzerland, the Swiss People’s Party (UDC) won 28.9 percent in the 2007 elections (up from 11.1 percent in 1971). Other parties with a significant stake in national politics include the Lega Nord (Northern League) in Italy (10.2 percent at the 2009 European elections), the Jobbik party in Hungary (14.7 percent at the 2009 European elections), the National Front in France, the Flemish Interest Party in Belgium, the Danish People’s Party, the Sweden Democrats and the True Finns.
The rise in paranoia about Muslims has also seen legal restrictions placed on Islamic practice. Five German states have banned female Muslim teachers from wearing the headscarf, but still allow teachers to wear Christian symbols. In April, France introduced a law against covering the face in public. Women in niqabs are now banned from walking down the street, or going to the shops. French politicians said they were acting to protect the “gender equality” and “dignity” of women. But Muslim groups reported an increase in discrimination and verbal and physical violence against women in veils. Belgium introduced a niqab ban this summer, punishable by seven days in prison. In Italy, the far-right Northern League has revived a 1975 law against face-covering to fine women in certain areas of the North. And Silvio Berlusconi’s party is now preparing an anti-niqab law. Denmark is preparing legislation to limit the wearing of niqabs; politicians in Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland are pushing for outright bans.
“The niqab ban allows the use of lofty liberal-democratic arguments to express prejudice,” said Mudde. “The right-wing politician can argue ‘I’m not saying it’s barbaric and a threat to the way I want to live, but I’m defending the right of women’. But those arguments depend on the motivations of those wearing it. If they are forced, that’s a bad thing, but if it’s their choice, the liberal will say it’s not right to limit freedom of expression.”
“The dominant discourse is that it’s not their choice, but many Muslim women say they want to be judged for whom they are, not their appearance. They argue that European women are completely sexualised. We end up with a slippery argument, with both sides saying ‘my culture is better than yours’.”
Ironically, the labelling of heterogeneous groups of people from Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria, or Morocco, and many other countries, “Muslims” has created a stronger group identity. Professor Terri Givens, from the Government Department at The University of Texas, said: “In the 1990s I didn’t hear much talk about Muslims, or veils, when I was researching racism in Europe. People from Turkey, or Pakistan, would refer to themselves as Pakistani or Turkish before they thought of themselves as Muslims.”
“But since 9/11, London’s 7/7 and the Madrid train bombing, the level of Islamophobic rhetoric has increased and we increasingly see a defensive reaction in these communities. Being Muslim is adopted as a political identity in response to Islamophobia. The response from Muslim women has been to wear the hijab more often.”
Muslim grievances against demonization also rarely find political voice. “Islamophobia is a serious problem in Europe,” said Professor Givens. “Studies in both France and Germany show well-educated Muslims are far less likely to be employed than white people, but the ability of Muslims to get engaged politically in order to fight discrimination is limited.” “The Netherlands is one of the best at getting Muslims on local and municipal councils, but in most European countries there are very few mechanisms they feel they can trust.”
David Smith,
EconomyWatch.com
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
French Feel Strangers in Paris Suburbs, Islam Dominates
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 4 — In the suburbs just a few dozen kilometres from Paris which seem as though they were a thousand miles away from the French capital, amid traffic, high-rise buildings and neglect, the rules of Islam dominate over the laws of the Republique, and whoever continues to live there feels as if they were in exile, forgotten by the state. This is the desolate picture painted by a study carried out by five French researchers in several small towns in the Parisian suburbs. In Clichy-sous-Bois and Montefermeil, the Republique is “a concept that is far away. Islam is present, first and foremost,” Le Monde wrote today, reporting the results of the study, headed by political affairs expert Gilles Kepel. For precision, these are the towns that exactly six years ago burned for weeks following the death of two youngsters of North African descent who were killed in a police chase. According to Kepel, a Political Science professor, in recent years these towns have seen an exponential increase in “halal”, and not just in the food sector: “Halal indicates what is permissible in private and social life, from behind closed doors for a husband and wife to the refusal to sign children up for school lunches,” the scholar told Le Monde. Islam is a refuge from a sense of abandonment, of “social, political and economic disgrace”. There are a dozen mosques which can accommodate 12,000 worshippers between Clichy and Montfermeil. Marriages between Muslims are the standard here. The traditions of Ramadan are practiced by the majority of men. All fast food establishments offer, and sometimes even exclusively sell halal meals and sandwiches. “These identity-based demands are a way to obtain integration into society,” Kepel explained. The researchers explained that in order to change the situation, it would not be sufficient to destroy the seedy buildings populated by immigrant families, whose children at this point are French, for all intents and purposes. Nor would it be enough to give them residential homes surrounded by nature, if in those places drug trafficking were still to continue, and, if in order to travel the 23km that separate Chene Pointu from Paris, it continues to take one hour and fifteen minutes, changing modes of transportation four times. Things will remain the same without work (in some suburbs, unemployment rates are among the highest in all of France) and if there are few young people who manage to complete their studies.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Bishops Will Not Appoint Single Sex Abuse Figure
(AGI) Vatican — The CEI will not, for now, appoint someone at the national level to deal with the church’s sex abuse scandal.
The CEI (Italian bishops’ conference) is taking a different approach to that of, for example, its German counterpart.
According to Mariano Crociata, “the issue naming someone to be responsible for the sex abuse problem also emerged in other circumstances, but the bishops believe there is no reason to do so, per se, even though others have acted otherwise”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: League TV Gives Recycling Lessons to Neapolitans
(AGI) Milan — North Leaguers explain how to make separate refuse collection to Neapolitans. It is the last provoking initiative by ‘Telepadania’, picking on the refuse collection management in Campania and, in particular, the Mayor of Naples, Luigi De Magistris (they called hin ‘Giggino’ in the documentary). “We are sending you this video that you can forward to your fellow citizens, to show you how easy it is to make the separate refuse collection” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Future — a Theme Park
By Spengler
Not a crisis, but a negotiation is underway among the debt-ridden countries of southern Europe. Greece and Italy illustrate Spengler’s Universal Law Number 15: Stick around long enough, and you turn into a theme park. As the descendants of the former masters of the Mediterranean fade into senescence, hordes of Asian tourists will keep them in business. That’s the Spartan model.
Sparta is the first world power to succumb to demographic suicide, and also the first former power to live on as a theme park. Aristotle reports that Sparta “sank under a single defeat; the want of men was their ruin”. Sparta once had 10,000 citizens, but by 371 BCE, when Thebes broke Spartan power at the Battle of Leuctra, had shrunk to barely 1,000.
Aristotle’s observation is doubly remarkable, as I report in my new book, How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam is Dying, Too). It is the first report in history of depopulation due to a reluctance to raise children. It is also the first time that the decline of a great power has been blamed on depopulation. Sparta lived on, though, as a theme park: the last remaining Spartans continued to oil their hair, don their red robes, play their flutes and train in a phalanx for gawking Roman visitors until the end of the 2nd century CE. “The prestige of the ‘revived’ training and the tourism which it generated helped this otherwise fairly typical provincial Greek city to maintain a place in the world and allowed the Spartans to feel that they were still ‘special’,” [1] according to two recent historians…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Young Woman Found Dead in Tuscany
Believed to be body of American tour guide
(ANSA) — San Giovanni Valdarno, October 5 — The body of a woman believed to be that of a missing American was recovered Wednesday outside the Tuscan city of Arezzo.
Police were still waiting for an official identification of the body, believed to be that of Allison Owens, 23, who went missing Sunday evening while visiting friends in the small town of San Giovanni Valdarno.
The mother, who was alerted immediately, has reportedly arrived at a nearby airport and was on her way to the scene.
Police found the body in a ditch behind a guard rail along the highway and are now investigating the cause of death.
According to investigators, she suffered a “violent blow” and was likely the victim of a hit-and-run.
Friends said Owen, a tour guide from Ohio, was last seen Sunday afternoon as she left the house for a jog. That evening, they reported her disappearance to the police who began issuing pictures of Owen throughout the community.
Friends said Owen’s boyfriend was on his way to meet her in the small town, about 45 kilometers from Florence.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Anti-Islamist Political Party’ To be Launched This Year, Says EDL Leader
has an article marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street which draws parallels with the threat from the far right today. The article closes with a quote from EDL leader Stephen Lennon: “There will be an anti-Islamist political party forming this year. Britain’s primed for it.” This confirms the Gates of Vienna report of discussions at the London “counterjihad” conference in September.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: CPS Office Worker ‘Sold Cannabis to His Colleagues’ While Working on Drug Smuggling Cases
A corrupt Crown Prosecution Service worker sold drugs to colleagues right under the noses of Britain’s top prosecutors, a court heard yesterday.
Michael Prince Jackson-Bailey, 31, allegedly peddled drugs at CPS headquarters, where he worked in a UK Border Agency team that deals with drugs cases.
The father-of-one is accused of supplying cannabis to staff who worked on drugs smuggling prosecutions.
In a hugely embarrassing case for the CPS, Jackson-Bailey was allegedly found to have secretly stashed seven bundles of cannabis in a rucksack under his desk at Rose Court, Southwark, South London, where some of the most important criminal cases in British history have been handled.
Inner London Crown Court also heard how he received text messages from colleagues asking him to bring in drugs.
Jackson-Bailey denies dealing drugs, claiming he has been framed in an extraordinary conspiracy by CPS prosecutors and management who wanted to sack him because they were racist.
Jackson-Bailey, who had previously worked for Revenue and Customs prosecution teams for eight years, was caught on February 3.
He was stopped by a routine police patrol on his lunch hour, after he was seen behaving suspiciously with another man down an alley in Brixton, South London.
The court heard that officers found two wraps of cannabis in his pocket and also searched his home, where they found ten bundles of cannabis worth around £250, scales and three mobile phones on which they recovered texts from his alleged clients.
The day after his arrest Jackson-Bailey is said to have confessed to his boss, senior prosecutor Tania November, that he had been dealing drugs to colleagues.
He told her that he had cannabis in his rucksack at his desk, and complained that he should not be the only one to face charges.
Miss November told the court: ‘He started by saying that he was upset about the decision because he was “taking the rap” for others.
‘In other words, in his account, others were involved.
‘He said that the cannabis he had had was in order to give to others in my office.
‘He said that he did not wish to give names. I asked him whether there was going to be some pretty nervous people in the office today and he said “yes”.’
Prosecuting, Benn Maguire told jurors: ‘The issue for you is whether Mr Jackson-Bailey intended to supply any of the drugs found in a rucksack at the CPS offices where Mr Jackson-Bailey was employed with the UK Border Agency team working on drugs importation.’
But Jonathan White, defending, claimed that CPS prosecutors had fabricated the confession.
Jackson-Bailey admits possessing class B drugs, but denies two counts of possession of a class B drug with intent to supply.
The case continues.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jamaat-e-Islam’s ‘Bangladesh in Crisis’ Rally
This is a guest post by Ashik
Last night I went along to a political rally organised by the Bangladesh Crisis Group which is an offshoot of the British Jamaat-e-Islam front, Islamic Forum Europe. I arrived at the Water Lily Centre which was the advertised venue to be told that the event had been moved to the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. It was later expressed in the rally that the meeting had been moved because of “political pressure”. My guess is that the Water Lily Centre, which is controlled by Awami League supporters, decided not to host any political lobby involving Toby Cadman in case it irritated their leaders in Awami League HQ in Dhaka.
I thought that it was fitting that the rally had been moved back to London Muslim Centre, the nerve centre of the Jamaat-e-Islam in the UK. After all, it was the DCLG which correctly observed that the ELM/LMC is the base for Jamaat-e-Islami in the UK. The attendance was very good, with more than 350 people in the “men’s section” alone and more upstairs in the “lady’s section” in the LMC. The rally kicked off just after the sunset prayer, with a reading of an apology from Kemal Helbawy, the chair of the Bangladesh Crisis Group, who excused himself for his absence because he was in Cairo. Helbawy is a member of the Egyptian franchise of the Muslim Brotherhood and has advocated the justification for killing children. It is, therefore, worthwhile to note that the Jamaat-Ikhwan alliance here and also the incongruity of having someone with his views proffering advice on human rights. There were a total of 17 speakers from the initial advertised roster of 21.
The first to speak was Bob Lambert of the European Muslim Research Centre. Lambert was good enough to confess at the onset that he had never been to Bangladesh and had limited knowledge of the facts in Bangladesh first hand. He used the opportunity to discuss the “failures of the War on Terror” and to plug his new book.
Next was Moazzam Begg, who needs no introduction to those concerned with counter-terrorism in this country, who had nothing specific to say about the situation in Bangladesh but instead spoke about his “work in Libya”. He set forth a polemical rant about “oppression of the Muslims” which had everyone in the room cheering enthusiastically.
“What you’re seeing happening in Bangladesh are the birth pangs. You can see that the most demonised organisations of the world are the Muslim organisations. Everywhere you go, east, west, Islamic countries or not. And here you see in Bangladesh, the Jamaat-e-Islami, that is being demonised, that its activists are being imprisoned. Why? The reason is the same reason why Ben Ali captured, tortured and beat the people from the An-Nahda party. The same reason why Ghaddafi captured and tortured the people from the Islamic groups there. The same reason why Hosni Mubarak tortured and imprisoned the people from the Islamic groups there. For fear of legitimate opposition that had tangible abilities to challenge the status quo, i.e. they are afraid.”
Next to speak was Toby Cadman, and it is his speech that I waited to hear with interest. Cadman is the British barrister representing the five leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islam charged by the War Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. I wanted to know why a barrister was appearing at a political rally with Islamists and the supporters of war criminals. He stressed early on that he was not opposed to the Tribunal but had deep misgivings that his clients may not be receiving a fair trial in Dhaka.
“As the other speakers have said, Bangladesh is entering a very, very dangerous period. It’s not just the Tribunal. Now I’m just here to speak about the wider political issues because that’s not what I’m instructed to do. My job is to represent those currently detained and those facing allegations and, as I said, I will continue to do that. But that also involves discussing the wider political issues. The complete breakdown in democracy, the barring of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
Now the wider political issues, that falls under the responsibility of a large number of international organisations. That’s not for me to get into as a lawyer. And what I’ve been doing is calling on these organisations to engage on a diplomatic level with Bangladesh to resolve these problems before it transcends into a humanitarian crisis. I think we’re on the brink of that right now. Some of the other speakers have already mentioned that. But as I say, those are the issues that need to be addressed by the international community. This government in particular, my government needs to step up and recognise that there is a serious problem.”
As Jamaat-e-Islam’s barrister, Toby Cadman is right to draw out any failures in due process and judicial norms by the War Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. However, here in London, he is sharing a platform with political groups who have been involved with crimes against humanity, sectarian violence, terrorism and human rights abuses of their own in Bangladesh and elsewhere. It is correct that people should speak out against the use of special security forces used by successive governments of Bangladesh which has led to various humanitarian abuses. But for an international barrister to point out these political and human rights abuses in Bangladesh, which are legion, and to conflate them with the due process obligations of the Tribunal is politicking and simply disgraceful.
Next to speak was Oliver McTernan, who spoke about the human rights abuses in Bangladesh in the most abstract terms and admitted that he had only educated himself on the issues prior to attending the rally, from the internet.
Farooq Murad of the MCB spoke next. Murad’s father, Khurram Murad, was the vice-Amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and, as you would expect from the MCB, used arresting phrases to suggest that the whole matter was an international religious struggle against the oppression of Muslims:
“What is happening in Bangladesh now is an insult to the Ummah”
Imam Hazim Fazlic who is from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and is an imam in Birmingham, was next to speak. One of the points he made was that he hoped that Bangladesh would be the subject of some kind of humanitarian intervention by the international community, similar to Bosnia. This was not met with a very enthusiastic response from the audience.
Walid Saffour, of the Syrian Human Rights Committee, ended his speech with these words:
“May God protect our Maulana Delwar Hussein Sayeedi!”
This caused a full-throated cheer from the ELM audience, a response which made me sick to my stomach. Delwar Hussein Sayeedi stands accused in Bangladesh charged with looting, plundering, arson and rape of members of the Hindu minority. A full account of his crimes and the evidence brought to the Tribunal can be found here.
Other speakers who also addressed the LMC last night were Jonathan Fryer and Dr Noureddin Meladi. Fryer mentioned the human rights abuses in Bangladesh perpetrated by the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite crime force which has been responsible for many extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh.
Next to speak was Mahidur Rahman, who is the ‘Chief Coordinator’ of the UK chapter of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) in the UK. For some reason, Mahidur Rahman failed to mention that it was his party, the BNP, which was responsible for the creation of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). It was under the BNP government that RAB had become a “government death squad” in 2006, which a US human rights group accused of being responsible for killing 350 suspects in custody. Mahidur Rahman made no mention of this, choosing instead to lay the blame of the RAB’s human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings firmly and in gross partisan manner on the Awami League instead. We next had Noureddin Miladi, a Tunisian who suggested this little Islamist nugget of wisdom:
“[Democracy] as has been going for the last forty years on Bangladesh, has been something imposed from above. And all the rulers have, in a way, sustained by western powers because they serve their agenda of the western powers”
Musleh Faradhi the leader of the IFE spoke next. In addition to suggesting that the War Crimes Tribunal is some kind of Neocon conspiracy ordained by George Bush, he dishonestly mangled an historical fact:
“They found something special for Bangladesh and that is war crimes and war criminals. Because they know, because their gurus told them the bigger the issue that you raise, the young people of Bangladesh will become very emotional. They would think ‘How can these people be the enemy of the country, how can a group of people work against the independence of the country?’ Therefore they have found an issue and they have tried to make an issue of something that was not an issue. Because Bangladesh reconciled with what happened in 1971. People who were criminals, they were tried and the people who were not criminals were forgiven by the founder of the nation. But why it has come up after forty years? Only because they want to suppress opposition”
This is a blatant lie made here by Faradhi. It is his assertion that criminals were tried in 1971. But war criminals have not faced judicial proceedings until now. Perhaps he should have listened to his colleage, Toby Cadman, who had just previously said on the same platform:
“It’s important that Bangladesh, as a nation, brings an end to this particular chapter and brings an end to impunity. It has an obligation under international law to do this. It also has an obligation under international law to do it properly.”
And that is exactly what should be done. And it would be advisable that the Jamaat-e-Islami activists of the East London Mosque and the Islamic Forum Europe and their various friends who all spoke at the meeting yesterday accept that justice be served by supporting the judicial processes in Bangladesh under the War Crimes Tribunal. It is also imperative that the War Crimes Tribunal itself comply to all international judicial process and norms so that the accused can get a fair trial.
[JP note: For more on the dirty secrets at the heart of East London’s Muslim community see here http://hurryupharry.org/2011/05/31/east-london-mosque-favourite-delwar-hossein-sayeedi-to-face-criminal-charges/ 31 May 2011 and here for the Foreign Office position in 2010 on the Bangladesh war crimes tribunal http://www.spectator.co.uk/martinbright/6489248/the-foreign-office-responds.thtml . This should be referred to again and again whenever the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre attempt to portray themselves either as defenders of democratic values or as representatives of a fictitious, cross-communal consensus. It won’t wash.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Poster Dauber Given Community Sentence
A Cairo-born man who scrawled graffiti on posters featuring Jews will not face a custodial sentence or have to pay compensation. Yacoub Osman, who daubed angry comments such as “F*** Israel” and a swastika symbol on posters of Lord Sugar and Jewish film director Steven Spielberg at Chalk Farm tube station, was ordered to complete 50 hours of community service. The convicted sex attacker will also have to pay £85 costs but has been let off compensating for the damage and cleaning, which cost more than £5,000.
Roger Daniells-Smith, prosecuting, said during the case that the theme of his campaign was “antisemitic” and noted that Osman, of Ladbroke Grove, had repeatedly come to a Northern Line station near a large Jewish community to vandalise the posters. However , Osman claimed his actions were politically motivated and last month a jury at Blackfriars Crown Court cleared him of having a racially or religiously aggravated motive. He was given the community service order after admitting seven counts of criminal damage. The judge said his actions were “offensive to many people” and not legitimate.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pure Political Viagra
Just heard Boris at the Tory party conference in Manchester display what appears to be wholly absent from anyone else on the platform at this so far lacklustre event — the wow factor. How they love him here. Hundreds of people streamed into the hall to hear what they expected to be the event of the day. They gave him a standing ovation when he arrived and when he left; when he spoke they lapped up every word, laughing and applauding in equal measure.
The Prime Minister was in the audience. Presumably it was not lost on him that this was a double electioneering address — for a second term as Mayor, but also for David Cameron’s own job. You can see why the grass-roots love Boris. It’s not just that he is so entertaining. He also goes straight for what they most want to hear, these grass-roots Tories. No pandering to political correctness for Boris. It was all about crime and getting to grips with the root causes of the summer riots. It was about more police on the streets — the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe’s ‘Capone principle’ (aka Bill Bratton’s ‘broken windows’ strategy) in dealing with low-level infractions in order to send the message that crime just would not be tolerated.
They cheered when Boris said that anyone who swore at the police could expect to be arrested. They laughed and applauded when he saluted the ‘broom brigade of Clapham’ which stood up to the rioters. They clapped again when he boasted of having banned alcohol ‘from day one’ on the London Tube and made it the safest underground system in the whole of Europe.
When you think how the traditional Tory conference message of uncompromising treatment of crime and criminals used to be regarded as pandering to the blue-rinsed knuckle-draggers of the shires — the ‘nasty party’ image that the Cameroons have invested everything in destroying — you realise the extent of Boris’s achievement.
Then he was into all the positives that he was delivering — 4232 desk jobs saved from Transport for London, the Victoria Line running three miles per hour faster, wheels for new Tube rolling stock being manufactured in Manchester — ‘you supply the wheels, we supply the locomotive of the UK’. And this comically barnstorming list delivered with witticisms acknowledging such transparent electioneering — thus managing to deprecate himself as a politician, perhaps the most potent political skill of all in dealing with today’s terminally disillusioned voters.
Then the riff that touched his audience in its heart when he said:
‘The future of the world lies in cities… But people yearn for the village, for the Eden from which we have been excluded. So everything we do in City Hall is about putting the village back into the city’.
And finally the celebration of the Olympic village, providing work for the towns around the country producing the materials going into its creation, even (absurdly) down to English rhubarb:
‘The Velodrome is rubbed with English rhubarb! So there’s a job for growers and rubbers of English rhubarb in the Olympic park!’
There are certain things that deeply alarm me about Boris’s views and his approach to life, which are for another discussion. Suffice it to say here that the core of his appeal is how he effortlessly conveys infectious joy, an infinitely can-do approach — above all an optimism about the future not just of London but of the UK. For at least five minutes until reality kicks in, he makes people feel so much better.
Pure political Viagra.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Six Charged With Sexual Assault of 15-Year-Old
Six men are appearing in court today charged with a series of serious sexual offences against a teenage girl, in West Yorkshire.
The incidents took place in Many last year, and involved a 15-year-old girl who was found by police at an address in Ravensthorpe.
It followed a lengthy investigation into child exploitation by Dewsbury CID.
Ali Rehman and Faifar Younis are both charged with rape. Wahid Hussain and Hasan Rehman have been charged with attempted rape; Larasab Hussain and Saqib Hussain is charged with sexual assault.
All are appearing before Dewsbury Magistrates.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Spirit of Cable Street
Today is the 75th anniversary of the ‘Battle of Cable Street’, when an attempted march by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF), through largely-Jewish areas of the East End of London in October 1936, was prevented by huge numbers of anti-fascist protestors, who engaged in violent clashes with the BUF and the police. The event has a mythical place in anti-fascist folklore, representing popular opposition to fascism in the face of official complacency and/or complicity, of a sort that required admirable physical courage. It has also come to assume a foundational role in the history of Jewish self-defence in this country, as Mosley’s target was the large Jewish community in East London, and many of the protestors who opposed him were themselves Jewish.
[…]
The nature of antisemitism and the physical threats faced by British Jews have changed considerably since 1936. The legacy of WW2 and the Holocaust mean that Mosleyite fascism has lost any mainstream respectability it once had, while the growth of international terrorism (pdf) since the late 1960s means that the physical defence of Jewish communities has shifted from street battles to security measures at Jewish buildings. CST only employs legal measures to oppose antisemitism, unlike our forebears in the 62 Group and beyond. But some things remain constant, despite these changing circumstances. Firstly, the cross-communal nature of the opposition to Mosley at Cable Street is reflected in CST’s consistent, active opposition to the British National Party and the English Defence League, despite the fact that neither group predominantly targets Jews. And secondly, that antisemitism can never be tolerated or ignored, whoever it comes from, and whatever the context.
[Reader comment by QM on 4 October 2011 at 10:38 pm to the cross-posted article at http://hurryupharry.org/2011/10/04/the-spirit-of-cable-street/#comments ]
Such a shame that so many of the East End and the left would be marching in lockstep with the BUF these days. Oddly enough despite the idiocy of the CST, most members of the EDL would have been standing shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish people as the EDL’s support for Israel has always been constant.
[JP note: Fails to mention either the virulent anti-semitism of the East London Mosque/London Muslim Centre or EDL’s support for Jews and Israel. Dave Rich might well, therefore, be usefully described as a fedrayte nebbisch.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Understanding the EDL
by Bob Pitt
When far right groups try to downplay their reputation for violent extremism and present a more respectable face to the public they always face a credibility problem. Claims that an organisation is merely expressing the concerns of ordinary patriotic British citizens are rather undermined when there is clear evidence that the organisation’s leadership and a large section of its membership consist of hooligans, racists and neo-Nazis.
Nick Griffin’s “modernisation” strategy for the British National Party repeatedly ran up against this obstacle and the English Defence League faces the same difficulty. In the EDL’s case the challenge of acquiring a cover of respectability is possibly even greater, as its leaders have rejected Griffin’s “suits not boots” approach in favour of a revival of the aggressive “march and grow” street politics of the ‘70s National Front. As a result, the picture of the EDL lodged in popular consciousness is of a mob of lager-fuelled louts swaggering down the road chanting “Allah is a paedo” while throwing the occasional Nazi salute. Still, that hasn’t prevented the EDL from making a bid for political legitimacy.
One of the stunts the EDL is currently preparing is a march to parliament on 8 October under the slogan “Sick? Explain Why Mr Cameron?”. This is in protest at the prime minister’s condemnation of the EDL in the House of Commons last month, when he stated that “I have described some parts of our society as sick, and there is none sicker than the EDL”. The EDL’s response was to demand indignantly of Cameron: “Have you read our Mission Statement lately? We suspect not. No sane person could say it is sick to oppose terrorism, sexism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism whilst standing for integration and equality.”
No doubt reasoning that it wouldn’t exactly strengthen their claim to be pursuing this progressive agenda if they turned up at Westminster on 8 October with the usual gang of drunken football hooligans shouting racist abuse, the leadership has decided that the demonstration will be organised by the EDL’s women members, known bizarrely as “Angels”, who are collecting names for a petition (“EDL Angels are not sick”) that they intend to hand in at Downing Street.
But the EDL’s attempt cultivate a more moderate public image by placing women at the forefront of its campaign against Cameron is hardly assisted when the first name to appear on the petition is that of Hel Gower, PA to the EDL’s leaders and head of its admin team. In addition to holding the view that “Muslims are total scum bags” Gower is well known for her fascist sympathies, having declared her political support both for the BNP and for an openly Nazi groupuscule called the British First Party. And the record of other “Angels” is no better.
The EDL recently promoted a woman member named Joanne Dickens as a heroine of the counterjihadist movement after she was assaulted by anti-EDL protestors in Tower Hamlets, only to be seriously embarrassed by the revelation that Dickens displays a white supremacist tattoo on her chest and has posted vile racist comments on her Facebook page. A few weeks ago the EDL’s former South West deputy regional organiser, Hayley Wells, appeared in court along with another “Angel”, charged with racially aggravated assault following a violent attack on a Plymouth kebab shop. Last month an EDL supporter named Charlotte Davies pleaded guilty to a charge of racially aggravated criminal damage after racist slogans were daubed on a mosque and other buildings in Hartlepool. And another woman, Tracy Manning from Halifax, was jailed for nine months after glassing a pub landlord who asked her and her friends to leave because they were drunkenly chanting support for the EDL and BNP. Clearly, there is no guarantee that EDL members will be any less attracted to racism, fascism and violence just because they possess two X chromosomes.
An article posted on the EDL’s website last week continued their fraudulent efforts to rebrand the organisation as a voice of reason and moderation. It took the form of a polemic against a “nationalist demonstration”, which is to be held in West Yorkshire on the same date as the Angels’ Westminster protest with the objective of “Defending our culture against multiculturalism, immigration and Islamic invasion”. At the centre of the coalition of far rightists behind this initiative are the North West Infidels, a group made up mainly of disillusioned former EDL members, who unlike the EDL leaders do not try to hide their racist views, fascist sympathies and propensity for violence.
In its polemic against the NWI and their allies the EDL expresses concern that “the far Right may be looking to emulate the success of the EDL by adopting our strategies for their own use, and by enticing EDL members to attend their demonstrations”. It warns that “an association with the far Right would undo much of the hard work that EDL supporters up and down the country have contributed to the struggle against radical Islam”. The article asserts: “The English Defence League will continue to peacefully protest against the extremism that threatens the England we know and love — not the England that the far Right would like to see…”
The EDL’s public position, therefore, is that it has nothing in common with and is vigorously opposed to the far right. The article goes on to state that a notorious Nazi who inexplicably got to participate in the EDL’s 9/11 demonstration outside the US embassy in company with their Essex organiser is now persona non grata: “Eddie Stamton, and any other neo-Nazis, are not welcome at EDL demonstrations, and will be ejected whenever they are identified.” Nor is the EDL racist, apparently. “We believe that it doesn’t matter where you are from, or the colour of your skin”, the article piously declares, “as long as you subscribe to a common set of values — values that make this country what it is.” Indeed, we are told that the EDL’s supporters have intervened on the Facebook page advertising the West Yorkshire demonstration “asking for racist comments to be removed”, only to have their requests ignored by the NWI admins.
The double-talk and hypocrisy on display here make your jaw drop. The far right background of prominent figures in the EDL is well established. We know that EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) joined the British National Party in 2004, and he was photographed in 2007 at a Luton BNP meeting where the speaker was the veteran fascist Richard Edmonds. That same year EDL co-leader Kevin Carroll reportedly had to be dissuaded by his partner from standing for the BNP in the local elections in Luton. He did however sign the nomination papers of BNP candidate Robert Sheddock/Sherratt, who Searchlight have identified as a supporter of the November 9th Society, the neo-Nazi group behind the British First Party that is so admired by Hel Gower. Nor have the publicly expressed fascist sympathies of Gower herself prevented her from occupying a position at the head of the EDL’s administrative apparatus.
As for the EDL’s supposed rejection of racism, the same day that the EDL published the claim that its members had criticised the NWI for its racist views, the admins at the EDL’s own Facebook page posted a link to a report that a Muslim free school in Blackburn had been accused of encouraging segregation. This immediately provoked a spate of abusive comments from EDL supporters that rivalled anything by the NWI. Some took the view that it was perhaps better that Muslim children were educated separately (“i wouldn’t want my kids going to school with the dirty scum”). Others emphasised the danger posed by such an all-Muslim institution (“The school will no doubt become a breeding ground for future terrorists, as they preach Islams evil doctrine of hate”). And this was accompanied by increasingly vicious threats against the Muslim community (“there is no future for the English as long as one Muslim continues to live on British soil. There is a war going on”, “it will be just be a matter of time b4 people in the UK start taking things into their own hands to fix this muslim infestation problem”, “BURN THE DIRTY SKIN BASTARDS ALIVE!!!”).
EDL members do not stop at posting racist comments on Facebook — many of them have proceeded to put their violent Islamophobic rhetoric into practice. In contradiction to the EDL’s lying claim to be “peacefully protesting against extremism”, over the past couple of weeks alone a number of its supporters have received prison sentences after being convicted of offences involving anti-Muslim violence. Two of them, Darren and Wayne Edwards, got 14 months each for an attack on a kebab shop in Gillingham, while another EDL supporter, Daniel Parker, was sentenced to 8 months for religiously aggravated harassment after admitting to his involvement in an EDL gang that threw stones at the Muslim Community Centre in Barnsley and shouted racist insults at its imam. Earlier this week four yobs were jailed for a total of over 12 years, having been convicted of a violent assault on Redbridge Islamic Centre in which they smashed windows, threw a brick at the imam and racially abused worshippers — while one of the attackers, Harry Deluca, repeatedly screamed “EDL”.
Up to now EDL supporters have restricted themselves to engaging in this sort of basic thuggery, along with the occasional arson attack, and so far thankfully no one has been killed. However, given that Hope not Hate recently posted photographs of EDL supporters posing Anders Breivik-style with guns, you can only wonder how long it will be before one of them follows the Norwegian terrorist’s example and decides to translate their own murderous fantasies into reality. In view of the gulf between the EDL’s bogus claims to respectability and the glaring reality that it is an organisation full of violent racists, led by people with a background in organised fascism, you might think that nobody would buy the argument that the EDL is anything other than a component part of the far right, and a particularly dangerous one at that. But you would be wrong.
Detective Chief Superintendent Adrian Tudway, the National Coordinator for Domestic Extremism, has persistently refused to accept that the EDL is a far right movement. On his appointment to his post in November 2010 Tudway insisted that the EDL and its associated groups are “most certainly not extreme right organisations”. In an email to a Muslim organisation in April this year Tudway wrote:
“In terms of the position with EDL, the original stance stands, they are not extreme right wing as a group, indeed if you look at their published material on their web-site, they are actively moving away from the right and violence with their mission statement etc. As we discussed last time we met, I really think you need to open a direct line of dialogue with them, that might be the best way to engage them and re-direct their activity?”
The influence of such views at Scotland Yard certainly helps to explain the response of the Metropolitan Police to the EDL’s intended march through Tower Hamlets earlier this month. The Met showed extreme reluctance to apply for a ban under the Public Order Act and only did so after an extended campaign by Mayor Lutfur Rahman and others. And when the EDL announced they would hold a static protest instead, the Met went out of their way to facilitate this attempt to intimidate the East End’s Muslim community. The Met’s original plan was for the EDL to muster at Hainault station and then be transported by special non-stop trains to Liverpool Street, where they would assemble before being escorted by the police to a protest point in the centre of Tower Hamlets. It was only firm action by the RMT and the mobilisation of the local community against the EDL that prevented the Met from implementing that plan.
A new study published by the University of Northampton, The EDL: Britain’s ‘New Far Right’ Social Movement, situates the EDL within a “new far right” that formally repudiates neo-Nazism, justifies the targeting of minority communities on the basis of culture rather than race, publicly renounces antisemitism in favour of Islamophobia, and “combines an extremist ultra-patriotism with a tendency to present mainstream politics as in a critical state of decay and disorder”. Whether there is a clear distinction to be made between the actual practice of “new far right” formations and that of more traditional organisations which have evolved directly from fascism seems to me questionable (Paul Jackson, the main author of the study, accepts that “boundaries here are fuzzy”). However, the authors’ unhesitating categorisation of the EDL as part of the far right, in contrast to the much more equivocal position adopted by Nigel Copsey in his earlier study, does provide the basis for an accurate assessment of the movement.
From that standpoint, the most effective chapter in the University of Northampton’s publication is by Mark Pitchford. Entitled “The English Defence League’s leaders and followers”, it profiles dozens of EDL members, from the leadership down to the rank and file, examining their links with fascism and their record of racism and violent criminal behaviour, all of which stands in stark opposition to the EDL’s own claims about the character of their organisation. On the basis of this detailed analysis, Pitchford concludes:
“First, the EDL is unarguably connected to the BNP and other far right groups, whether by previous association or by shared interest. Secondly, some of these far right individuals have possessed significant weaponry that identifies them as potential ‘lone wolf’ terrorists. Thirdly, EDL leaders and followers have engaged in criminality, especially racially aggravated incidents. Fourthly, the EDL engages in double-speak that powerfully questions their claim to be a single-issue, non-racist movement.”
It might be an idea for someone to send a copy of that chapter to DCS Tudway.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Yobs Jailed for Mosque Attack
TWO men who daubed racist graffiti on a mosque have been slammed as “ignorant” after being locked up for a year. The Nasir Mosque, in Brougham Terrace, Hartlepool, suffered an Islamophobic paint attack in November last year. English Defence League (EDL) members Anthony Smith, 24, and Steven Vasey, 32, were responsible for the act and were sentenced to a year behind bars at Durham Crown Court yesterday. Smith, of Neptune Way, Easington Colliery, and Vasey, of Prior’s Grange, Pittington, near Durham City, had both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racially-aggravated criminal damage in August.
Bilal Atkinson, regional president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which erected Hartlepool’s first purpose-built mosque in 2005, said he believed the damage was done because of a flashpoint in London. That saw people calling themselves Muslims burning poppies, a symbol of the Royal British Legion and Armistice Day, in the capital. Mr Atkinson, who also revealed the incident happened on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, said: “They had climbed over the fence and painted what looked like a Christian cross on the door and a big, red poppy.”There had been some people calling themselves Muslims burning poppies in London and I believe this was a reaction to that. What they did not realise is our community used to raise money for the poppy appeal. It is only in pure ignorance that they have done this and it is unfortunate that they will now spend time in prison. But you have to obey the laws of where you live. I don’t think they will have even realised the significance of the day they did this.”
Charlotte Davies, 19, who pleaded guilty to the same charge earlier in the year, was given a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for a year. Davies, from Irving Path, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, is said to have sent text messages suggesting that the mosque should be vandalised, but pleaded on the basis that whatever she suggested was not carried out.
Durham Police said all three were members of the English Defence League (EDL) at the time when the offences were committed. Mr Atkinson added: “When the mosque first opened there were minor problems, but we have not had many issues in Hartlepool. It is a good community.”
[JP note: See also news item above about the poster dauber in London who only received a community sentence for scrawling anti-semitic graffitti. One might get the impression that the law is being applied indiscriminately.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Political Coma of Bosnia
It has been a year since the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), but the republic of former Yugoslavia is still living without a government. This has to do with the inability of the three communities in the country — the Muslims, Serbs and Croats — to agree.
The organization called “civil government” announced its presence on the backdrop of the ongoing government crisis in Sarajevo. Its activists tried to break into a government building, but were pushed back by the police. The protesters demanded to form a government as soon as possible and implement reforms necessary for the entry of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the EU. Lithuania that is currently presiding in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) made a similar statement.
However, so far the leaders of the three communities in the country have not been able to agree. Theoretically, this situation may continue until the fall of 2014, when Bosnia will hold the next parliamentary elections. The local constitution does not contain any provisions as to how to get out of this crisis. If this happens, the former republic of Yugoslavia will set the absolute world record for anarchy. So far, Belgium holds this record with nearly 500 days. However, on October 11 Belgians are to receive a long-awaited government.
The anarchy in both Bosnia and Belgium is rooted in one thing: ethnic differences. However, the Belgian Flemings and Walloons have never been at war with each other, and their standards of living are admirable. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the situation is quite different. In 1992-1995 there was the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War. Nearly 200 thousand people fell victims to this war. Despite all efforts, the wounds of that war have not healed yet.
Modern Bosnia and Herzegovina is the successor of a republic with the same name in Socialist Yugoslavia. When the country began to disintegrate, there were barely any chances to avoid a conflict. Muslims (43 percent of the population) wanted to establish their own state within the borders of the republic. Serbs and Croats wanted to join their national states. Since there were no ethnically pure areas in Bosnia, the war that broke out in 1992 quickly spread throughout its entire territory.
The main villain in the eyes of the West are the Bosnian Serbs, whose leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are now at the Hague Tribunal. NATO aircraft have repeatedly bombed their positions. Croats were forced into an alliance with the Muslims, although until 1994 they were fiercely fighting with each other. The war was ended by the Dayton Agreement signed in late 1995. The republic nearly completely destroyed by the war forcibly retained its integrity.
However, the attempts to create a solid entity in its place have failed. Bosnia is a confederation of two entities: the Muslim-Croat Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska. Each of them has its own president, parliament and government. Formally, the main nation-wide body is the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina that includes one representative from each of the three communities. Muslims, Serbs and Croats take turns to serve as interim presidents of the country. Nearly all parties in Bosnia are formed along ethnic lines.
However, this picture is not complete. In fact, the real power belongs to the international high commissioner (now — the representative of Austria, Valentin Inzko) appointed with the consent of the UN. He has the authority to resolve disputes between the communities and oversee the elections. He constantly has to intervene. In addition, Brcko District of Bosnia with mixed population located in the north is openly under international control.
By and large, this state of affairs did not suit anyone. Muslims who account for nearly half of the population of Bosnia insist on maximum centralization of the country. Time is working for them — the birth rate among Muslims is higher than that among the Serbs and Croats and they do not have another ethnic homeland but Bosnia. The West, unwilling to split Bosnia, is also helping them. Under its pressure the Serb Republic has repeatedly shared the power with the center and Muslims and Croats became its vice-presidents. There has not been a separate Croatian unit in the post-war Bosnia.
As for the Bosnian Serbs, they do their best to not strengthen the central power. The president of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik spoke strongly against the decision of the international administration to create a single court and prosecutor’s office in Bosnia and is even determined to hold a referendum on this subject. He also demanded that the Muslim-Croat Federation of BiH returns 53 million marks obtained in the form of taxes.
Dodik openly speaks about the reluctance of his people to live in such a state. Back in 2008 he condemned the decision of the West to recognize the independence of Kosovo and argued in favor of a referendum on secession of Republika Srpska. Later he openly said that Bosnia was “falling apart” and he considered it “irrevocably divided country” that was impossible to unite. However, due to the international pressure, a referendum on independence of Republika Srpska has not been held. Yet, the desire of the Bosnian Serbs is obvious.
This year has shown that the Croats who make up 14 percent of BiH and twenty percent of the Muslim-Croat federation are unhappy with the situation in Bosnia. Their party gathered last spring at the Croatian National Assembly and adopted a declaration where it refused to enter into a coalition with the Muslim parties and asked to create their separate Croatian national unit within Bosnia. It is the unwillingness of the Croatian Democratic Union (CDU) that impedes the creation of the centralized Bosnian government.
The position of the Croats is understandable as they were united with Muslims against their will. Staying within the amorphous BiH is hardly more attractive than the entry into Croatia that will become an EU member on July 1, 2013. Incidentally, the requests for a separate Croat unit were supported by the president of Croatia Ivo Josipovic, who also expressed the need for a reform of BiH.
A messy situation in the domestic affairs is reflected in foreign policy as well. Bosnia became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, but has not been able to make a decision on the recognition of Palestine. Muslims are pro recognition, the Serbs are against it, and as a result there is no unified decision. The inability of the representatives of the three communities to agree among themselves is a serious obstacle to their membership in the EU and NATO. Membership in each of these organizations requires internal unity, but it is not anywhere near. On the contrary, there is a drift of a new conflict in the air.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina could have been more robust, but the West has built it in a wrong way. The U.S. and the EU should have provided support and attention to all three communities, but they were biased towards Muslims. Republika Srpska’s autonomy has been constantly slashed while it made 78 concessions with regard to all-Bosnia authorities.
Today, the Bosnian Serbs are not willing to give in and request a number of their powers back. As is evident from the current story, the formation is no longer agreeable to Croatia either. The Croats have not received their own unit, and therefore they consider themselves offended,” Elena Guskova, head of the Center for the Study of Modern Balkan crisis of the Institute of Slavic Studies, RAS, commented on the situation for Pravda.ru. Bosnia and Herzegovina has all the prerequisites to break the world record of anarchy. The state in its present form does not suit anyone, and it can legitimately be considered the “sick man of Europe”. Is it time to begin its “controlled euthanasia”?
Vadim Trukhachev
Pravda.Ru
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Nahr El Bared Canal Rehabilitated With EU Funds
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 5 — The Nahr el Bared canal, in Northern Lebanon, has recently been rehabilitated through an EU grant amounting to 755.000 euros. According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), this is the main source of irrigation for farmers in several municipalities, benefiting nearly 35.000 people.
“The EU — said the Head of UE delegation Angelina Eichhorst — always followed a dual strategy: the implementation of high impact local development projects, and the institutional strengthening of relevant authorities. In this regard, the partnership with Water Company in Northern Lebanon is promising”. “The Water Company in Northern Lebanon — said the Director of the Water Company in Northern Lebanon, Jamal Krayem — and its team were able to acquire new expertise in the design, management and execution of a contract concluded with the EU, according to its conditions and criteria. This is a first experience for us”.
Furthermore, Eichhorst met the team of the Council for Development and Reconstruction and the Economic and Social Fund for Development, responsible for the implementation of the “Programme to support local development in Northern Lebanon”.
Through a grant of 18 million euros, this programme will fund agricultural rural infrastructure and support local initiatives implemented by municipalities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Another Church in Egypt Attacked by Muslims
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — On Monday, October 3, Muslims surrounded St. Mary’s Church in the Upper Egyptian village of Elmadmar, Tema district, Sohag province, in an effort to demolish it. The Muslims blocked the road to the church and hurled bricks at the building. Church personnel contacted the authorities. “For the first time, security came and in big numbers,” said activist George Bouchra.
None of the assailants were arrested.
According to the priest of the church, Muslims came early before 8 AM and held banners with “No to the Church” and demanded that no prayers be held. He described the assailants as young people under the leadership of some village Muslims, “whom I know by name.”
The Muslims insisted that it was never a church but a house that was turned into a church. This was refuted by the priest, who said the church was built eight years ago, to be used as a church and belongs to the Coptic Diocese. “It has state security approval to operate, but its license is still pending.” The church was used once a month and a mass has been held every Saturday for five months. Muslims claim that we hold a mass every day at 4 PM, and we ring the church bell, which the church does not have, besides singing hymns, which they claim disturbs them.”
Although, Elmadmar is inhabited by 15,000 Christians, it has only one other church on the other side of the village, which also serves neighboring villages.
“The problem in Elmadmar village has been brewing for some time,” said Bouchra. “We have been watching it for some time now.” He added that in spite of the current calm and the presence of the security forces one cannot be optimistic, because the Muslims are still insisting that the church should be closed.
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
German Giants Arrive in Algeria
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, OCTOBER 5 — Algeria has opened the doors of its car market to German giants with the partnership accords signed by Algerian state companies allowing Daimler, Deutz and MTU to set up their own production facilities in the country. The first manufacturing facilities will be built in Tiaret for the production of light 4x4s and utility vehicles, The second, in Oued Hamimime, will make engines. The promoter of the partnership accord is Aabar Investments.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Head of Secret Services ‘Is Not in Algeria’
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, OCTOBER 5 — Abdallah Senoussi, powerful head of Libyan secret services, is not in Algeria. The unequivocal denial was from the Algerian Foreign Ministry, and concerns reports which appeared yesterday in some media. “This news,” ministry spokesman Amar Belani was quoted by APS as saying, “is entirely baseless and I have already denied it in the most categorical manner, along with other ‘tales’ of Gaddafi being on Algerian territory.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Negotiations: Blair Must Go, Palestinians to Quartet
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, OCTOBER 5 — The number of people in Palestinian leadership who want to see Tony Blair dismissed as envoy of the Quartet, the international mediation forum (USA, Russia, EU and UN) that was formed years ago as guarantor of the Middle East peace process, is rising. Today Mohammed Shatyyeh, diplomat of the PNA (Palestinian National Authority) and member of the central committee of Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), said that Blair is no longer an impartial mediator in the eyes of the Arabs, who have lost faith in him. “We cannot expect much of the Quartet because we are not pleased with the actions of its envoy, mister Tony Blair”, Shatyyeh said today in a radio interview in which he specified that the work of the former British Premier “has become completely useless.” Blair, he continued, “has developed a large bias in favour of the Israeli side and he has lost a lot of his credibility. We hope the Quartet will reconsider the appointment of this person,” he concluded. Appointed to play a mediating role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 2007, Blair recently stepped up his effort without succeeding in breaking the ongoing deadlock in negotiations. He has irritated the Palestinians with several statements that were essentially the same as the statements made by the USA on the sidelines of the recent request made by the PNA to the United Nations to have the Palestinian State recognised within 1967 borders (a move that has been criticised by Washington and Israel).
Blair has also come under fire in the British newspapers, and was attacked several days ago by one of the members of the PNA negotiation team, Nabil Shaath, who called him a biased negotiator and asked for his dismissal.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Arab Spring’ Hurts Turkey’s Exports of Cement
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 5 — The “Arab Spring” taking place in Arabic countries have had a negative impact on Turkey’s exports of cement in the first half of 2011, as Anatolia news agency reports. Turkey’s exports of cement went down 27% in the first half of 2011 when compared to the same period last year.
Cement production in Turkey went up 1.11% in the first half of 2011 when compared to the same term last year and reached 30,624,205 tonnes. Out of this figure, 24.7 million tonnes were sold in Turkey. Turkey’s exports of cement in the first half of 2011 was recorded as 5.9 million tonnes. Domestic sale of cement went up 11.6% in the first half of 2011 when compared to the same term last year. The Turkish region in which cement sales went up most in the first half of 2011 was the Mediterranean region with an increase of 19%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Pro-US on Syria and Pro-Iranian on Gaza
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 5 — In one day, the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to appear both pro-American in confirming impending sanctions against Syria and pro-Iranian in pointing the finger at Israel’s secret nuclear bomb.
Speaking in South Africa, where he is on an official visit, Erdogan said that he would “gradually” begin announcing next week what sanctions will be issued by Turkey to the regime of the Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad, despite the recent move by Russia and China to block UN censure of the crackdown in the country, which shares a border with Turkey some 900 kilometres long. “This veto will not stop us taking steps and imposing sanctions. We will apply a package of sanctions,” Erdogan said from Pretoria, saying that measures would be announced after the Prime Minister’s scheduled inspection on Sunday of the refugee camp in the southern province of Hatay, on the Syrian border, which is currently home to 7,500 refugees fleeing the crackdown.
The visit will take place while, a few kilometres further down the coast, in Iskenderun, Turkish armed forces will be involved in military training which has begun today, and which the Turkish press says is in reaction to the deterioration of relations between Turkey and Syria. Military drills on the border remains a classic tactic in Turkish diplomatic and military language. The Vatan newspaper says that a similar move by Ankara led to Damascus banishing Kurdish PKK terrorists in 1998.
Erdogan had initially announced his intention to impose sanctions on his former friend Assad last month after a bilateral meeting with the US President, Barack Obama, during which, among other issues, the crisis between Turkey and Israel was discussed. Following the twin direction down which Turkish foreign policy appears to be moving, Erdogan again criticised Israel, with whom he is close to breaking off all diplomatic relations, through a combination of nationalist pride (the demand for an apology for the bloody Israeli storming of the Mavi Marmara ship) and his representation of a flashpoint in the Middle Eastern crisis (the blockade on Gaza that Turkey wants to see lifted).
As predicted by the Turkish press, Erdogan set about one of the most popular issues in the Middle East, over which he wants to broaden Turkish influence, namely Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal. “Israel is a threat to the area, because it has a nuclear bomb,” the Turkish Prime Minister said, adding that Israelis are practicing “state terrorism” against the Palestinians, having, amongst other things, dropped “phosphorous bombs” on Gaza.
On the topic of nuclear weapons, the Prime Minister, not for the first time, broke a lance in support of another awkward neighbour, Iran, with whom warm relations have been strained by Turkey’s loyalty to NATO, a faithfulness that will see a missile shield radar installed in the country, which Tehran considers a threat. While Israel “has the bomb”, Iran “is attacked from all sides” for its civilian nuclear programme. “What kind of justice is this?” Erdogan asked rhetorically.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Clashes in East; Riyadh Sees Foreign Interference
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 4 — Four people were injured today in clashes in the east of Saudi Arabia in the city of Qatif, which houses a substantial Shiite minority. The news is reported by sources in the Saudi Interior Ministry, quoted by pan-Arab television networks Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.
The Saudi Interior Ministry has accused a “foreign State” of trying to “create confusion” in the country. Today Saudi newspaper Al Sharq Al Awsat, published in London, mentioned that Iran is involved in a complot aimed at provoking clashes between Sunnis and Shiites in Qatif.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Escalates in Turkey
Kurds Fear New Civil War May Be Brewing
The violence between the Kurdish PKK and Turkish security forces continues to escalate. Each day there are new victims and the risk of a civil war is rising. The future hinges on Prime Minister Erdogan — and whether he chooses diplomacy over military confrontation.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Madrassa Student Arrested on Charges of Blasphemy in Pakistan
A madrassa student has been arrested on charges of blasphemy in Pakistan’s Punjab province for allegedly burning pages of the Quran to save them from desecration on Wednesday, according to a media report. Junaid Ahmed, 20, a student of a seminary attached to Imdadia Mosque in Chakwal, was disposing of the pages by burning them on Monday when he was seen by some people, who severely tortured him and got a case of blasphemy registered against him. Ahmed, who belongs to Attock district, was studying at the madrassa run by Mufti Jameelur Rahman of Tehrik Khuddam Ahl-e-Sunnat.
He got permission from a teacher to take the torn pages of the Quran to a well built for the purpose of preserving such sacred items, the Dawn newspaper reported. When Ahmed reached the well, he found that it was already filled and some torn pages of Quran were lying scattered there. Ahmed’s fellow students said they had learnt that torn pages of the Quran could be burnt if burying them or consigning them to the river or sea was not possible. A man named Akhtar Nisar saw Ahmed burning the pages and alerted the public.
Some persons gathered at the spot and started torturing Ahmed, who said he was burning the pages to protect them from desecration. Nisar later informed police, who arrested Ahmed.
When police produced Ahmed in the court of Magistrate Aitasham Muqarab on Tuesday, he told the judge that he was a devout Muslim and could never think of blaspheming the Quran. “Had I known that this act could be considered as blasphemy, I would never have done it,” the frightened youth told the judge. The court remanded him to judicial custody and sent him to Jhelum prison. Police will submit the ‘chalan’ or chargesheet against the youth in a few days. Ahmed’s counsel Qazi Umar said: “This is sheer injustice on the part of police who acted is haste to register an FIR and produce the boy in the court.”
The head of Ahmed’s madrassa defended his actions and pledged to fight his case in court. “Junaid could not even think of blaspheming the holy book which he used to recite passionately and devotedly,” Mufti Jameelur Rehman said. Sharia or Islamic law permitted burning the torn pages of the Quran to save them from desecration but this was “not acceptable in our society”, he said. “There are three ways to dispose of the torn copies of Quran: bury them in flowing water, bury them in the earth or burn them if the first two options are not possible,” he said. There was no sin if Ahmed had chosen the third option, he contended. “We will fight the case in the court and I hope we will get justice,” he said. Complainant Akhtar Nisar claimed he had heard from a cleric who did his religious education in India that burning the torn pages of the Quran amounted to blasphemy.
[JP note: All sounds like a bit of a muddle to me.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Australia to Get First Islamic Equity Fund
CAIRO — Putting Australia on the path to join the booming Islamic finance, a Muslim wealth manager is planning to establish the country’s first Shari’ah-compliant equity fund. “As the market grows we’ll have more and more companies to invest in,” said Talal Yassime, managing director of Crescent Wealth, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Wednesday, October 5. Yassime plans to launch a Shari’ah-compliant equity fund early next year.
The Crescent Australian Equity Fund (CAEF) is aimed at allowing Australians to tap into the $1.4 billion Islamic investment market.
“As Australians we have zero of that market,” said Yassime. He believes that there was a lot of “pent-up demand” for Islamic investment opportunities. The Islamic equity fund is the first in a number of Shari’ah-compliant products the wealth manager plans to produce.
It plans to launch property and international equity funds by the end of this year. A fixed income fund is also planned for early next year as well as a superannuation retail product. Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.7 percent of its 20-million population.
Bonanza
Yassime hopes that the Shari’ah-compliant fund will help put Australia on right path to get a share of the booming Islamic banking.
“At least 40 percent of the investment universe is not included in our investment universe,” he said. “We are hopefully giving birth to an elephant.”
Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global financial industry. The Islamic banking industry, which began almost three decades ago, has made substantial growth and attracted the attention of investors and bankers across the world. Currently, there are nearly 300 Islamic banks and financial institutions worldwide with assets predicted to grow to $1 trillion by 2013. Western financial institutions, including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and UBS, are increasingly offering Islamic products. Islamic banking operates by sharing profit or loss between the bank and its clients, instead of interest, which is forbidden. Islam forbids Muslims from usury, receiving or paying interest on loans. Islamic banks and finance institutions cannot receive or provide funds for anything involving alcohol, gambling, pornography, tobacco, weapons or pork.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Network Smuggling Migrants to Italy Busted
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 5 — A migrant-trafficking ring using boats to smuggle illegal migrants from Greece to Italy was busted by police and coast guard on Tuesday, leading to the arrest of four suspected migrant traffickers and 34 illegals in Messolonghi, western Greece. Acting on a tip-off, as ANA reports, police spotted a vessel in the region of Kryoneri that they considered a likely means for transporting migrants and started following it. At some point, they sighted four vehicles approaching the craft from the beach at Kryoneri carrying migrants, who later boarded the vessel. As soon as the boat set sail, the coast guard stepped in and set up an operation to locate it. It was sighted a short while later by coast guard vessels from Patras and Messolonghi near the island Oxia and then led ashore and searched. On board, authorities found a 25-year-old Ukrainian captain, a 24-year-old Iraqi accomplice and 44 foreign nationals. Of these, 34 were arrested for illegal entry and residence in Greece. A police investigation revealed that the 44 foreigners had been transported to Kryoneri from Athens in order to board a boat bound for Italy, each paying 2,500 euro for their passage.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iacolino (PdL): EP-Frontex Mission to Sicily
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 4 — A mission of MEPs and FRONTEX will travel to Sicily in November to assess possible framework agreements and measures involving compensation for the fishing and tourism industries following the large numbers of migrants arriving from North Africa, explained MEP Salvatore Iacolino (PdL) in a statement. “The relentless arrival of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa,” said Iacolino, “requires an in-depth evaluation by European Parliament, which will send a delegation to Lampedusa, Agrigento, Porto Empedocle and Palermo from November 24 to 28.” According to Iacolino, who promoted the mission, “listening to the real needs of those who with infinite generosity have accommodated migrants and refugees arriving in Europe would allow us to enact a change in EU cooperation strategy with non-EU countries and to the resulting neighbourhood policy, establishing framework agreements that are in line with the protection of the fundamental rights of migrants and actual needs of the labour markets of EU member states”. The EP delegation will also assess the commitment undertaken by the European Commission regarding measures involving compensation for the damage suffered in the tourism and fishing industries in Sicily. The delegation will consist of at least 12 MEPs as well as representatives from the European Commission and FRONTEX.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Refugees Occupy Piazzas in Milan Protest
‘Govt has not kept its promises’, says mayor
(ANSA) — Milan, October 5 — Refugees occupied piazzas and blocked buses in a southern suburb of Milan on Wednesday to protest against their living conditions.
Refugees housed at a residence in Pieve Emanuele, south of the city, are believed to have led the revolt.
Around 400 migrants have arrived at the Ripamonti residence in Pieve Emanuele from Libya since May and the mayor of the town Rocco Pinto threatened to resign if the refugees were not transferred to other centres in the local region of Lombardy by the end of June.
Ettore Fusco, mayor of the neighbouring town of Opera, said the protest was inevitable because the government had not kept its promises. “Our country has shown itself once again to be weak and inconclusive,” Fusco said.
“Living in the area and knowing the reality in south Milan we had fully expected this revolt which is the product of abandonment and the lack of care that the central government has failed to give local authorities”.
Dozens of people were injured in clashes between migrants and residents on the southern island of Lampedusa in September.
Tension erupted on the island when migrants set fire to the migrant reception centre on the island to protest against plans for their forced repatriation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Taking the ‘Cat-Flap’ Seriously
Today’s ‘cat-flap’ between Ken Clarke and Theresa May exposes one of the largest divides in the Conservative party today. May, along with most Tory MPs, wants to get rid of the human rights act, while Clarke and the attorney general Dominic Grieve want to keep it. May, to the surprise of her colleagues, used a pre-conference interview with the Sunday Telegraph to make clear her desire to get rid of the act. After this, there was always going to be a reaction from Clarke & Co. One ally of the Justice Secretary tells me that his comments today were spurred, in part, by an irritation that he hadn’t seen the text of the Home Secretary’s speech before she delivered it. It was also the kind of populism that drives Ken, with his haughty disdain for what he calls the ‘right-wing press’, mad.
[Reader comment Leo McKinstry on 4 October 2011 at 8:35 pm — note McKinstry is a Daily Express columnist and it is unusual, though not unheard of, to find one commenting below the line.]
Theresa May should come out on the offensive over so-called “Catgate”. There was absolutely nothing wrong with what she said. The cat was cited by the Bolivian’s lawyer as evidence of the strength of his relationship with his girlfriend, and thereby grounds to thwart his deportation. Morever, the pet was twice referred to by judges, so it is not an irrelevance. What is happening here is a classic diversionary tactic by the left, the human rights industry and parts of the media. They are making a great fuss over this issue in order to distract attention from the outrage of the Human Rights Act, which has made a complete mockery of all concepts of morality and justice. Every year, it is estimated that 3200 foreign criminals, bogus asylum seekers and benefit tourists evade deportation because of the HRA. The decade-long fiasco over Dale Farm is another example of the Act’s baleful influence. Even Jack Straw, who piloted the 1998 Act through Parliament admitted recently that it has become “in a sense a villain’s charter.” It is also ridiculous to hear human rights lawyers and self-styled experts cited today as if they are impartial sources. In truth they are desperate to protect their lucrative industry. Theresa May should ignore the hysterical propaganda from this self-serving brigade and get the Act changed.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Theresa May’s Immigration Plan is a Dead Duck
Another own goal from Theresa May, the scourge of the Human Rights Act. She wants to alter immigration rules to make it easier to deport foreign nationals who have started families in the UK. Sorry, Home Secretary. Can”t be done. The right to family life, guaranteed under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights can’t be arbitrarily watered down. The courts already maintain a clear balance between that right and the interests of the community, in order to protect citizens from threats such as criminal behaviour.
Rewriting the Immigration Rules is in clear breach of our obligations under the ECHR. This policy should be marked DOA. It is a non-starter. More broadly, the assault on the HRA looks like a blatant attempt to appease the Tory Right. In fact, the electorate may be far more sophisticated than the PM thinks. last night my colleague Peter Oborne and I were on the panel of a packed Liberty fringe event at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, with Shami Chakrabarti, Attorney General Dominic Grieve, and two distinguished Tory MPs.
All of those speakers made the case for human rights before an audience that was generous, broad-minded and open to the idea that it would be utterly barmy to end up in the position (inevitable if Britain were to water down the HRA) where British citizens have to put their cases not before British judges but before the Strasbourg court of human rights.
The HRA, devised by British Conservatives, is to protect the individual against the overbearing state. How is that not in line with Conservative thinking? Ms May and David Cameron risk giving the impression that their anti-rights crusade is a smokescreen disguising the lack of policies that could really help the victims of crime and of recession.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Occupy Wall Street Organizers Look for Minorities
Though a few representatives of minority groups have appeared among the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters in New York City, photos and videos of the left-wing mini-throngs indicate they suffer from a serious lack of diversity. And the protesters themselves told The Daily Caller on Tuesday that they are conscious of the issue, if not the inconsistency it demonstrates.
A 40-photo Washington Post slideshow showing hundreds of angry protesters in New York and other cities includes no more than 15 clearly identifiable minority protesters, and just six African-Americans. The rest of the protesters shown are white, and most are male.
Even the “unofficial” organizers of the protest events admit this is — or at least appears to be — problematic.
“That’s an interesting question, and it comes up often,” OccupyWallSt.org’s Patrick Bruner said in an email to TheDC. “Unfortunately, we have a very high turnover rate, and nobody as of yet has come up with official diversity related statistics for us. From observation, I can tell you that we’re not all white, and that we also have a huge LGBT [Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender] population.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Political Correctness Continues to Stifle Debate on Multiculturalism’ Claims Mail Writer
The Daily Mail provides a platform for UKIP Islamophobe Abhijit Pandya to defend his support for Geert Wilders and his view that Islam is “morally flawed and degenerate”. The article also features an ignorant attack on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia. Pandya is evidently unaware that this initiative has been sabotaged by supporters of Policy Exchange, who packed the APPG’s last meeting and ousted its secretariat. The Mail is obviously very enthusiastic about Pandya, this being the third article by him it has published in the past week (in its “Right Minds” section, edited by Simon Heffer). The first was entitled “Uncontrolled immigration is destroying Britain’s literacy” and the second “Labour’s two-faced immigration apology still makes too many excuses”. As the EDL and BNP have already discovered, it’s very useful to have a right-wing bigot with brown skin making the kind of arguments usually associated with white racists.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Starkey Cleared Over ‘Racist’ Newsnight Remarks
David Starkey, the historian, has been cleared by the broadcasting watchdog over comments he made on newsnight that led to complaints he had been racist.
Ofcom will take no action over the comments made about the August riots on BBC2’s Newsnight.
The BBC came under pressure to apologise after Starkey claimed that “whites have become blacks.”
He blamed black culture for starting the riots and said that culture had spread into other parts of society.
Ofcom received 103 complaints claiming the comments breached rules about race discrimination or racial offence.
But Ofcom decided that the programme had been balanced and the discussion well-handled by presenter Emily Maitlis.
It said the programme was well-known as a forum for strong opinions and it would not be taking the matter further.
A spokesman said : “The presenter moderated the discussion and Mr Starkey’s comments were countered by other guests on the programme.”
After the late-night programme went out, hundreds of people joined an online petititon calling on Ofcom to punish the BBC and for Mr Starkey to apologise for his comments — which they claimed were racist.
The BBC has denied claims that Mr Starkey wasn’t properly confronted, saying that the presenter Emily Maitlis “robustly challenged” the historian.
Mr Starkey has denied that he said anything racist and says he stands by his comments.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Daniel Shechtman of Israel is Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for his discovery of quasicrystals.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said his discovery in 1982 fundamentally changed the way chemists look at solid matter.
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