Moments later, Gainesville Fire Rescue issued the church a citation for violating the city's fire ordinances.

Saturday's act of protest took place in spite of published reports that the Pentagon had urged Jones to reconsider, expressing concern that American soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere could be put at greater risk because of the act.

About 20 people gathered Saturday on church property at 5805 NW 37th Street about 5 p.m. for the planned burning. Several Gainesville police officers were stationed across the street from the church or were patrolling the area. A few people watched the scene, but there were no protesters.

Jones and another pastor demanded the release of the Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani from an Iranian prison. Jones said Nadarkhani faces execution.

Jones spoke at a podium that was far enough away that he could not be heard by people along 37th Street. The event was streamed live over the Internet.

After the speeches, copies of the Islamic holy book and an image depicting Muhammad were burned at about 5:50 p.m. in a portable fire pit. Shortly afterward, officers in two Gainesville Police Department cars drove onto the property. With them was a GFR official, who issued the citation.

Fire Chief Gene Prince, contacted by The Sun afterward, said Jones had approval for a burn but did not have the required authorization to burn books. Prince said Gainesville has restrictive fire ordinances, adding that books cannot be burned without authorization because of environmental concerns over the burning of glue and bindings in books.

The fine is $271, which includes court costs, Prince said.

Gainesville Sun, 29 April 2012

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Anti-Islam advocates from across the U.S. gathered Sunday in Dearborn for a conference to bring attention to what they say is a problem of Muslim honor killings.

About 150 gathered at the Hyatt in Dearborn for the Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference, named after a 20-year-old Arab-American Muslim woman who was killed by her stepfather last year in Warren.

But at another conference in Detroit, about 100 people gathered earlier in the day to oppose the anti-Islam conference, saying it was the latest attack on metro Detroit's Arab-American and Muslim communities. Dearborn has the highest concentration of Arab-Americans in the U.S., many of them Muslim.

"We stand for America," said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab-American News, at a panel at the DoubleTree hotel in Detroit. "And they (anti-Muslim activists) stand against America and against the American way of life."

Later, at the Hyatt, the message was the opposite. People gathered there said they are the ones who are standing up for the U.S. Constitution, freedom and justice. Islamic law "asserts authority over non-Muslims," said Pamela Geller, a blogger from New York City who often writes about Islamic extremism.

Robert Spencer, an author who also speaks out against Islamic extremism, said he and others have been unfairly labeled as bigots. "There is nothing hateful about saying we want everybody to be subjected to the same law," he said. Spencer said that Islam teaches Muslims to rule over non-Muslims and subject them to second-class status.

Geller said Mokdad's death was a honor killing based on Islam, but Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo told the Free Press on Friday it was not. The family of Mokdad is opposed to the anti-Islam conference and didn't want Mokdad's name on it, Cataldo said.

Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn said at the Arab-American conference in Detroit: "Honor killing has no religious roots in Islam."

Speakers also included U.S. Reps. John Conyers and Hansen Clarke, both Detroit Democrats, as well as Daniel Kirchbaum, executive director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. It was organized by the Arab American Institute, based in Washington, D.C.

Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the anti-Muslim activists are "against our true American values."

Detroit Free Press, 30 April 2012

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The Daily Telegraph draws our attention to an open letter to London Metropolitan University's vice chancellor Prof Malcolm Gillies from the university's Islamic and Shia Muslim societies in response to press reports that Gillies in considering a ban on alcohol on some parts of the campus.

Dear Professor Gillies,

We are responding to your recent comments regarding the proposed alcohol ban within the university on religious grounds.

London Met is a diverse and multicultural university with approximately 30,000 students representing over 150 different countries. We, as Muslim students, value democracy and respect diversity and multiculturalism and we also acknowledge that we are able to practice our faith more freely here in the UK than in many Muslim countries around the world. We find your recent comments regarding banning alcohol on university premises being based on religious grounds, as an attack not only on the values we hold, but also on the values of the wider non-Muslim community. Your comments clearly showed that the alcohol ban you proposed is based on gross generalisation about the views of Muslim students.

We hold the view  that such a proposal should have been put forward to all students regardless of whether they are Muslim or not. Your failure to consult the Students’ Union (a democratically elected body representing students’ views) and the two Islamic societies at the university raise the question of how you came to the conclusion that the Muslim population at London Metropolitan are calling for an alcohol-free campus. More importantly there has never been a demand for an alcohol ban on campus from Muslim or non-Muslim students. The Muslim population at London Met stands at approximately 20%, so assuming all Muslims at the campus were in favour of the ban, this could not be imposed as it would go against the fundamental principal of democracy i.e. imposing the will of minority on 80% of non-Muslim majority.

We are aware that the current leases for the student bar located at City Campus is due to expire in the near future. All indications show that the university does not have any plan to renew the lease or replace it with a permanent licensed bar. Muslim students are being used as a scapegoat because it is deemed an easier way out than to explain to those students who use the bar that to renew the lease would be costly, and having to face backlash from the students who are paying for their ultimate ‘university experience’. To use Muslim students to justify cuts is not acceptable and certainly immoral.  If the university finds that running the bars is not economically viable then you should put forward a ‘business case’ and not a ‘religious case’  to justify the closure of bars and the creation of an alcohol-free campus.

We find your argument to ban alcohol on religious grounds baseless, divisive and irresponsible and we are concerned about the welfare of the students.  Your stance has already had negative impacts both within the university and in the wider society.  Internally it has initiated the process of polarisation of the student body and creating resentments towards Muslim students.  For example, there has already been anti-Muslim remarks appearing on various social media websites and there have also been actual incidences of student confrontations which have been reported to the Student Union, and it is only a matter of time before a Muslim student is physically assaulted.

If you are sincerely concerned about the Muslim students’ experiences at the university then we like to know why you have removed the Muslim Imam from the chaplaincy, and have not even attempted to replace him.

The media has always portrayed Islam and Muslims negatively and they would use any excuse to escalate this further. Such an unreasonable proposal which clearly many non-Muslims view as an attack by Muslims against their way of life, is absolutely of no benefit to the Muslim students and the wider Muslim community at all. In fact it demonises them even more and it will be used as baseless evidence to show how Britain is becoming a ‘shariastate’, particularly by far right groups such as the EDL who have already capitalised upon this and added it to their campaign against minority groups.

Your remark to ban alcohol on religious ground does not only undermine community cohesion, which the Home Office, CLG and numerous non-governmental organisations work hard to build post 9/11, but it also adds to the growing hostility towards Muslims. This only gives rise to Islamophobia, and incites religious hatred towards vulnerable Muslim communities across the country.

Students look up to you as a role model and a learned scholar who regularly contributes to debates in the higher education sector. We did not expect such an intellectually dishonest stance from a person of such calibre. Your undemocratic, ill devised and misleading remarks have caused tension within the university campus and in the wider society; therefore we demand a retraction of your comments and an unreserved apology.

Yours Sincerely,

LMU Islamic Society & Shia Muslim Society

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A far-right party on the campaign trial in Germany's most populous state is threatening to put caricatures of Mohammed outside mosques in a string of cities.

The "Pro NRW" party in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia has already shown anti-Islamic caricatures in Essen and Gelsenkirchen, though the police prevented demonstrations taking place directly outside mosques.

Police have also banned "Pro NRW", which is campaigning on an Islamophobic platform, from using the Danish cartoons that caused massive protests in the Islamic world in 2005.

But "Pro NRW" intends to send activists to 25 mosques throughout the state in the run-up to the election on May 13, staging protests in Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Aachen, Wuppertal and Solingen. A report in Die Welt newspaper on Sunday said the far-right party intended to post around 100 what it called "Islam-critical" drawings outside the mosques.

Interior Minister in state Ralf Jäger condemned the campaign and expressed support for planned counter-demonstrations. "Pro NRW is committing spiritual arson," he told the paper. "The party is consciously taking into account that Muslims will feel provoked and upset. The authorities will exhaust all legal avenues to prevent a xenophobic hate campaign."

The federal Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is reportedly worried about violent confrontations with the Salafists, the fundamentalist Muslims who began distributing free copies of the Koran in Germany three weeks ago. A report in Der Spiegel magazine over the weekend said his ministry had been in contact with the North Rhine-Westphalia state government in recent weeks to find a way to de-escalate the situation. The election there is on May 13.

"Pro NRW" campaign manager Lars Seidensticker says he did not understand the outrage over the campaign, and says his party would bear no responsibility for any violence.

"If the situation is so tense that you can't do a campaign like this against Islamist influences any more, then the politicians are responsible for doing away with Germany," he said, alluding to the title of a 2010 book by banker Thilo Sarrazin ("Germany Does Away with Itself"), which criticized Islamic immigrants in Germany.

"Mosques are potential centres of a new civil war that we have to prevent," said Seidensticker. "That's why we have to pull out the Islamist evil by its roots."

"Pro NRW", which boasts 250 members, is also planning to award a cash prize for the "best" anti-Islamic caricature, named after Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who was responsible for the 2005 images. Westergaard has distanced himself from the competition and is reportedly considering legal action against the party for using his name.

The Local, 30 April 2012

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The head of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, will be named deputy leader of the British Freedom party this week after proposing that the group adopt virulent anti-Islamic policies as its central strategy.

Confirmation that Robinson is to be offered a political platform within the BFP is contained in internal documents revealing that he has forwarded a number of "potential policy suggestions" that suggest the party will widen its attacks on Muslims.

The document suggests the BFP with Robinson would "focus on non-Islamic population, not white/black population", a move that critics describe as an attempt to antagonise relations between Muslims and other Britons. Other proposed areas of campaigning for the party, which will contest several seats in this week's local elections, include calls for regulation of all mosques and religious schools and the banning of the burqa and niqab.

The unveiling of Robinson as deputy leader of the British Freedom Party will take place in Luton ahead of an EDL demo in the town, during which supporters will be banned from its centre by police, following previous disturbances.

Last week, a BFP member tweeted his support for Norwegian killer Anders Breivik, while an EDL member defended the 34-year-old, currently on trial in Oslo after confessing to the murder of 77 people last July, and said that if he had "singled out the muslim filth" he would be viewed as a hero.

Internal notes of a meeting held in a Luton hotel between senior EDL and BFP figures on 14 April, which have been seen by the Observer, reveal that participants believe the alliance is a development that "will change the direction of British politics".

However Nick Lowles of campaign group Hope not Hate said: "Although this shows the new face of the far right, a move that further marginalises the BNP, their agenda is so hate-filled that it will remain a minority message."

Robinson and the BFP have yet to comment, but the documents show that he backs a ban on the building of mosques and madrassas, an end to mass immigration, withdrawal from the EU, and promotion of "Christian values".

Last week a report by Amnesty International warned of the rise of extremist political movements targeting Muslim practices in Europe, a development evidenced by the surprisingly strong showing of support for the French Front National, the far-right party led by Marine Le Pen, in France's presidential election. It also said that European laws on what girls and women could wear on their heads were encouraging discrimination against Muslims.

Observer, 29 April 2012

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The Conservative peer and party financier Lord Ashcroft has published a study titled Degrees of Separation: Ethnic minority voters and the Conservative Party. It can be consulted here, and has some interesting statistics concerning the attitudes of British Muslims towards the Tory Party.

In the last general election 37% of Muslim respondents voted Labour and only 12% Conservative. 35% said they would never under any circumstances vote for the Tories, whereas only 7% said they would never vote Labour.

One question was: "Do you identify with a political party – that is, do you think of one party as consistently representing people like you, and you feel an affinity towards that party beyond the question of how you vote. If so, which one?" 47% of Muslims said Labour and only 5% Conservative.

68% said that Labour shared their values, whereas only 26% thought the same about the Tories. 76% believed that Labour understands minorities compared with 32% for the Tories. Asked which parties believed in equal opportunity for all, 79% said Labour and 34% Conservative.

60% of Muslims agreed that "Conservative politicians look down on people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, more than politicians from other parties do". 50% thought that "Conservative policies have shown that they are hostile to people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds".

Degrees of Separation also reports the results of focus groups that formed part of the study:

"Several Muslims – and a number of Hindus and Sikhs – said they had suffered more abuse or hostility since September 11, 2001. Generally, participants did not feel they experienced direct prejudice on a regular basis. However, when participants were asked which of the three main parties people probably vote for who have unfriendly attitudes to minority voters, the Conservative Party was nearly always the answer."

"There was some debate among participants over how much, if at all, the Conservative Party had changed in recent years, or since their parents or grandparents came to Britain. Most thought it had changed somewhat, whether through necessity or principle.... However, for a number of black and Muslim participants in particular, any apparent change in the Conservatives had been cosmetic. They cited the lack of minority Conservative MPs and party members, the view that the Conservatives do not actively engage with minority communities, and a feeling that whatever they may say, Tories as a whole do not really like people like them."

Ashcroft argues that the tendency of minority communties to vote Labour is "primarily a matter of class and occupation rather than ethnicity". It is of course a psephological truism that voting behaviour is linked to income (although if you're Ken Livingstone you're not allowed to say that). However, as Ashcroft himself points out: "Many also felt that Labour supported them not only in class terms but as members of an ethnic minority. Labour was regarded as more engaged in their communities, more positive than others about the idea of immigration, and more committed to promoting equality and opportunity for ethnic minorities."

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Mayoral candidates Boris Johnson and Ken Livingston participated in a hustings in front of the Muslim community on Friday ahead of next Thursday's election. Both candidates were asked to cover issues ranging from Islamophobia to social deprivation within the Muslim community.

Muslim Voices was present at the hustings which was attended by representatives from Muslim organisations and activists. The event was chaired by Channel 4 news reporter Fatima Manji who allowed plenty of opportunities for both candidates to pitch their policy to the voters.

Boris was asked by the Chair to clarify if he thought "Islam is the problem" as he wrote in the Spectator in 2005. Boris also wrote the he found Islam "politically troublesome" in the Telegraph the same year.

Boris stuttered and stumbled unable to find a way to explain how he was asking the Muslim community to vote for him to represent them whilst he thought that their belief in Islam was a problem and politically troublesome.

The Chair gave him a lifeline and acknowledged that the article was written in 2005 and if his views had changed since then but Boris seemed to completely dodge the question saying he thought there were certain misguided youth who are easily impressionable by radical imams around the world and to this end he maintained that this is still a problem. There were cries from the audience asking for an apology which Boris Johnson chose to ignore. At this point Boris said that if this is how this debate would go on then he had better leave now.

Ken in contrast showed he was more in touch with the Muslim community when he was asked about engagement Ken said "When speaking about engagement, you only need to look at the Final Sermon of the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him, where he says in the Quran it says that 'We have made you into nations and tribes so that you may get to know one another'." Ken then went on to say that this is what Muslims believe, that we should get to know one another, not create enmity, discord or terrorise one another, which falls in line with what he also believes.

At a time where the UK has fallen into a double dip recession both candidates pledged to increase jobs and reduce the cost of living in the capital. Ken championed the cause of lowering fares on public transport which will put more money in the pockets of Londoners while Boris pledged to lower council tax. When pressed on the numbers it transpired that lowering fares amounted to an estimate of £900 in savings over the year whilst lowering council tax amounted to an estimated saving of £30 - £100 per year.

The 'Prevent' strategy employed by the Home Office and the metropolitan police to counter terrorism was also discussed. Boris Johnson maintained that the stop and search tactic should remain but should should be intelligence led rather than on profiling. However Ken Livingstone went further by saying that the Prevent strategy should concentrate on terrorism rather then just on Muslims, and the biggest threat was from the far right.

There was one issue where both the candidates agreed at the hustings, they both said they would press the government to review the 2003 Terrorism Act so that British citizens would be tried before the British judicial systems rather then be extradited to the USA. In turn both Mayoral candidates supported the fact the case of Babar Ahmad should be heard in front of a British judge and jury.

It was clear that throughout the hustings, Boris was playing catch up to Ken, which is a reflection on how both have engaged with the Muslim community during their terms in office. Boris showed he had no understanding or connection with the Muslim community and under his own admission says he has not engaged with the Muslim community.

Ken on the other whilst in office commissioned reports looking at Muslims in London, set up initiatives which have helped recognise Islamophobia as a hate crime by the metropolitan police; and kept in touch with community issues regularly. London needs a mayor that understands its communities. In Ken we can have a Mayor who understands the Muslim community, the Jewish community, the Christian community and those of no faith. In Ken we can have a Mayor for all Londoners.

It is important you elect a Mayor on May 3rd who represents you, so make sure you get out and vote!

Vote Ken livingstone on Thursday May 3rd as your first choice for Mayor of London.

Further Reading:

Is voting permitted in Islam?

Answer by Mufti Ibn Adam Al kawthari (UK based scholar with ijaza and known for Ifta and one of the the Scholar of Contemporary Shariah Resource centre www.alqalam.org.uk

The current mayor of London doesn't care about ordinary Londoners. He's not interested in their lives or their livelihoods

An Article written in the Guardian by Mehdi Hassan.

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Happier times: Alan Lake and Roberta MooreRichard Bartholomew points out that the 4 Freedoms Community website run by former English Defence League financier and ideologist Alan Ayling ("Alan Lake") has updated its Code of Conduct.

Under the heading "Unlawful Killing" this now includes the following: "You must not endorse or encourage people to perform criminal executions. However, you can endorse enforcement of execution by the state (capital punishment) after application of due judicial process."

The latter qualification is to cover Ayling himself, who has in the past advocated the execution of political opponents like Rowan Williams, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Still, as long Ayling states that their killing should take place after "application of due judicial process" nobody could reasonably object to that, could they? Well, Ayling's employers, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, evidently did. At the end of last year they suspended him from his job after his identity was revealed.

The ban on endorsing or encouraging "criminal executions", as distinct from the sort of executions Ayling himself advocates, was imposed after he was contacted by the Norwegian paper Dagbladet in connection with a comment posted on the 4 Freedoms site by Roberta Moore, the former leader of the EDL Jewish division who now heads the Jewish Defence League UK.

Expressing her regret that Anders Breivik had failed to kill Eskil Pedersen, the leader of the Norwegian Labour Party's youth section who escaped from Utøya by boat, Moore wrote: "It seems Breivik missed one. This is precisely the coward that should have been killed. Cowards can run but eventually they meet their fate. May KARMA play its part now."

Five years ago four Muslim extremists were jailed for four to six years after being convicted of soliciting to murder because they chanted slogans such as "bomb, bomb, Denmark", "bomb, bomb the UK", "7/7 on its way" and "Europe, you will pay with your blood" at a protest in London against the Jyllands-Posten anti-Islam cartoons.

The Director of Public Prosecutions said at the time: "Terrorism attacks our way of life and incitement can make a very real contribution to it. We shall continue to take incitement very seriously and prosecute it robustly where there is enough evidence for us to do so."

Why, then, has Roberta Moore not been charged with the same offence?

Moore is not the only member of the Jewish Defence League UK to advocate terrorist violence against their political opponents. Another is Rob Sims, who posted the following comment on the EDL's official Facebook page in response to Breivik's trial:

"We should be supporting this guy, The lot he killed where a bunch of Anti-Semite scum, These left wing idiots and muslims are making europe resemble Germany under NSDAP rule, Whats it gonna take for people to realise that we need more people like Breivik who are willing to actually fight for what he believes in."

So far as we know no action has been taken against Sims either, even though Durham Constabulary has been notified.

If the police and Crown Prosecution Service can find the resources to prosecute a Muslim teenager for posting offensive online comments about British troops, why aren't the likes of Moore and Sims in court too?

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Unease is growing in French President Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party a week before a presidential election over his lurch to the right in pursuit of supporters of anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen.

Some mainstream conservatives have voiced public dismay at his embrace of the campaign themes, language and even some proposals of Le Pen's National Front. In private conversations, doubts are widespread about the morality and effectiveness of the strategy.

In the last week, Sarkozy has repeatedly declared that there are too many foreigners in France and vowed to reduce legal immigration. Echoing a Le Pen proposal, he has called for police to be given greater license to shoot fleeing crime suspects. He has accused his Socialist rival Francois Hollande of being backed by Islamists and said Le Pen's voters are respectable and her party compatible with the French Republic.

"Even though I will vote for Nicolas Sarkozy on the second round, it's clearly my duty to ring the alarm bell about this strategy," Etienne Pinte, a UMP lawmaker, told Reuters.

He said former prime ministers Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Alain Juppe, Sarkozy's foreign minister, had made clear in internal meetings their reticence about the rightward drift. "All through the campaign, we felt there were misgivings among a number of parliamentary colleagues and the two former prime ministers about the exploitation of these extreme-right themes," Pinte said.

Sarkozy hardened his discourse as soon as the results of last Sunday's first round showed Le Pen, with nearly 18 percent, had won twice as many votes as centrist Francois Bayrou. The president needs to draw support from both sides to beat Hollande, the clear frontrunner in opinion polls, in the May 6 second-round runoff.

Raffarin hinted at his distaste in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde last week, saying: "If I were to express reservations today, it would weaken my own side ... but I remain attached to the humanitarian values of our program." Asked whether the strategy drawn up by Sarkozy's political guru Patrick Buisson, a former extreme-right newspaper editor, had not strengthened the far right, Raffarin said the time for analysis would come after May 6. "We are in a battle now, and in a battle, the honorable thing is to be loyal," he said.

Another former Gaullist prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, deplored what he called "crossing one republican red line after another (in a) shameless seduction of extremist votes". Without mentioning Sarkozy by name, Villepin warned the mainstream right in an article in Le Monde against betraying its own values.

"One would think there were only National Front voters in France," he wrote. "As if there were not more important issues than halal meat, legal immigration and (single-sex or mixed) bathing hours in public swimming pools." Sarkozy has played up each of those issues in his quest to win over Le Pen voters.

Reuters, 29 April 2012

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Dearborn, home to one of the nation's largest concentrations of Arab Americans, once again will become a focal point for debate over the practice and persecution of Islam in the west.

Pamela Geller, conservative activist and co-founder of Stop Islamization of America, is scheduled to host the "Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference" from the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn on Sunday at 5 p.m.

The event is named after a 20-year-old woman fatally shot by her stepfather last year in Warren. Initial reports suggested Rahim Alfetlawi shot Mokdad because he believed she had strayed from Islam, but prosecutors have since said that religion did not play a role.

Despite opposition from family members who say Mokdad's murder has nothing to do with Islam, Geller has refused to rename the conference, suggesting an attempt to cover up what she continues to call an "honor killing."

"Unlike those closest to her, we are going to honor Jessica's memory and stand up against the brutal practice that took her life," Geller said in a statement announcing the conference.

Local leaders say the conference is misleading and argue that Dearborn has become a convenient target for anti-Muslim groups, pointing to recent protests led by activist Pastor Terry Jones.

To counter Geller's conference, The Arab American Institute and partners have scheduled a competing town hall on Sunday titled "Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate." It is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel in Dearborn.

"This is clearly not the first time our community in Michigan has had to deal with a hate group," AAI President Jim Zogby said in a statement. "Despite repeated efforts to target Arab Americans and American Muslims, the community has remained resilient and poised, sometimes choosing to ignore the fervor.

"This group we cannot ignore and this is the time to stand up and make our voices loud and clear in opposition to the politics of division and bigotry."

MLive.com, 27 April 2012

See also "Rejecting Islamophobia: A community stand against hate", Arab American Institute press release, 25 April 2012

And Sheila Musaji, "Geller & Spencer's human rights conference another anti-Muslim hate fest", The American Muslim, 26 April 2012

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France's socialist presidential candidate says that, if elected, he won't seek to overturn a law banning face-covering Muslim veils enacted by President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservatives.

François Hollande, who leads Sarkozy in all polls, and most other Socialists abstained from the 2010 vote in the National Assembly to ban mesh-screen burqas and niqabs – which have slits for the eyes.

On RTL radio Friday, Hollande said he would keep the ban, but "have it applied in the best way." He did not elaborate.

Controversy surrounded the law that took effect last year. Muslim leaders say it unfairly stigmatizes Muslims. Supporters insist it helps defend France's secular state. Only a tiny number of women wear the veils.

The presidential election runoff is May 6.

Associated Press, 27 April 2012

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Jailed again: Martin PottleThree men who joined a hooded and masked gang to attack Kingston Mosque with sticks and bottles have been jailed today. Judge Geraldine Kent overturned their pleas for leniency after hearing that all three men still denied being involved in the attack on November 21, 2010.

David Morris, 21, bought the bacon later strewn over the mosque and was caught out when he photographed co-defendant Alfie Wallace holding a stick. He was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court to six months imprisonment for racially aggravated criminal damage.

Racist Alfie Wallace, 19, was sentenced to a total of 12 months in a Young Offenders Institution for religiously aggravated criminal damage and violent disorder. The court heard he had shouted out "I'm being arrested by a black man" in connection with another earlier offence.

Martin Pottle, 24, was sentenced to a total of 14 months in prison for religiously aggravated criminal damage and violent disorder. He had lied to police to try and pretend he was nowhere near the mosque before admitting during the trial that he was.

CCTV from a mosque camcorder identified him as among the fleeing gang by a distinctive streak in his hair. He was on bail for affray when he joined the attack.

Some of their acquitted former co-defendants in the trial, Paul Abley, Jordan Ellingham, Adam Khalfan and James Stacey watched from the public dock.

The court heard from Morris' defence counsel Mr Robertson that he was polite and helpful and said it was a borderline case for prison.

Wallace's counsel Miss Macatonia said he was only 17 when the attack took place and he had a scheme connected with the Olympics to help young people with right-wing views.

And Mr O'Toole representing Pottle said since he completed a six month prison sentence for affray he had a child with his girlfriend and wanted to turn his life around.

But delivering her verdict Judge Geraldine Kent said: "You had no legitimate reason to go to the mosque at all. This is not a case of a legitimate protest that spiralled out of control.

"The attack on the mosque was an unprovoked attack against innocent people inside the mosque and it frightened members of the public who should be able to go about their daily lives in a residential street without fear."

Kingston Guardian, 27 April 2012

As we have noted before, Pottle, Abley and Ellingham are all associates of former EDL youth leader Joel Titus. The six month sentence for affray that Pottle served was as a result of a fight between rival gangs of football hooligans in 2010 that also led to the jailing of Titus and Abley.

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Sarkozy told a French TV station this week that Tariq Ramadan, a controversial Muslim intellectual and Swiss national, supported Hollande. "This is a man who solicits votes for Hollande," Sarkozy told the TF1 TV station, before adding, "And I have never heard Hollande say it bothers him".

Not so, replied Hollande. "That is completely false," said the Socialist frontrunner in an interview with the France Info radio station. "Tariq Ramadan, who does not even vote in France, has never mentioned my name."

In a phone interview with FRANCE 24 Thursday, Ramadan denounced Sarkozy's latest allegation, calling it "a mean and unacceptable lie".

"The presidential candidate has been caught flagrantly lying," he said. "I only said that if I was a French citizen ... I would take a look at Sarkozy's track record over the past five years, and I would be very dissatisfied about it. The outgoing president is trying to poach supporters from the National Front. He's beginning to smell defeat and so he's pushing it even further."

Ramadan's comment came as Sarkozy, who has been lagging in the polls, is desperately trying to woo the 18 percent of the French electorate who voted for the far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen in the April 22 first round of the presidential poll.

In another interview earlier Thursday, the embattled French president insisted Ramadan had called on French Muslims to vote for Hollande "or a party that serves Islam" at a March 11 public meeting in the southern French city of Lyon.

But in his interview with FRANCE 24, Ramadan categorically denied the allegation. "I remember that meeting well. I never made any such comment, because I never address the community vote," he said. "When I attack Nicolas Sarkozy, I'm taking on the government, the establishment. As for the Socialist Party, I also regret that it has abandoned its ideals. I hold both the mainstream French political parties responsible for the rise of the National Front."

Ramadan is dismissive about the incumbent candidate. "I have no lessons to learn from Nicolas Sarkozy, who sang the praises of a 'moderate and progressive' Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, when he visited the country in 2008," he said. But he insists his criticism does not constitute support for Hollande, a claim Sarkozy finds difficult to swallow.

France 24, 27 April 2012

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London Assembly member Murad Qureshi has written to complain about the election address from the British National Party that appears in the booklet distributed by London Elects to inform voters about the 3 May elections for the London Mayor and Assembly.

The BNP's appeal to voters features a quote from their phoney non-Reverend Robert West which reads: "I'm backing the British National Party because they support our traditional Christian faith. We need strong leadership to protect our national identity from the threat of Islam."

The booklet is sent to every household in Greater London. It is quite disgraceful that London Elects has allowed the BNP to include in it an outrageous slur on one of the major faiths in London, where 8% of the electorate is Muslim.

Does anyone imagine that the BNP would be allowed to include an equivalent attack on the Jewish community in its election address? But bigotry is apparently considered acceptable when it is directed against Muslims. It is a measure of how Islamophobia has entered the mainstream and is now widely regarded as legitimate.

It is too late to withdraw the booklet, but London Elects should issue a public apology to London's Muslim community along with an assurance that this will never happen again.

Update:  The quote from Robert West can also be found on the London Elects website, where the booklet itself is available for download. You can email them at info@londonelects.org.uk or phone 020 7983 4444 to complain.

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EDL protestors outside Sajjad Karim's homeA politician's eight-year-old daughter was "petrified" when anti-Islamic protesters marched into the garden of their home with banners and banged on the window.

Lancashire MEP Sajjad Karim's home was targeted by the English Defence League (EDL) as part of a day of protests against "radical Islam" in the county on July 2 last year. Speaking from Brussels, Mr Karim, who was due to give evidence, said: "It is not the sort of thing any child should ever have to be prepared for."

Twelve admitted public order offences at Preston Crown Court and will be sentenced on May 25.

Bernard Holmes, 26, of Bolton Road; Leonard Hawley, 47, of Worcester Road; David Wilson, 47, of Devon Road, all Blackburn, and Jason Smith, 43, of Torquay Avenue, Burnley pleaded guilty to racially aggravated provocation of violence while David Garrett, 45, of Beckett Street, Darwen, admitted having an offensive weapon.

Leanne Thornton, 26, of Oak Avenue, Todmorden; Graham Smith, 48, of Draperfield, Chorley; Paul Blundell, 45, of Lee Street, Longridge, John English, 24, of Shorrock Lane, Blackburn; Martin Corner, 31, of Corporation Street, Chorley; Jordan Lonsdale, 20, of Ribble Lane, Clitheroe, and Paul Jackson, 41, of Spring Bank Terrace, Blackburn, pleaded not guilty to violent disorder but admitted using threatening behaviour.

Sajjad Karim added: "To be afraid to leave ones house as a mob fuelled by hate protests outside is as frightening as it gets. They showed no regard to the fact my wife and daughter were at home. It left me hoping and praying that our four walls would keep us safe and you can’t begin to imagine how my young daughter felt.

"There were many more innocent people caught up in their violence that day and I am thankful this eleventh hour change of plea means they won’t have to relive their ordeal in a courtroom. We have not and will not allow such mobs to use their threatening ways to hound people in our society."

Lancashire Evening Post, 26 April 2012

See also "Twelve people admit part in disorder after EDL protest in East Lancashire", Lancashire Telegraph, 26 April 2012

And "Men admit anti-Muslim protest", Chorley Guardian, 26 April 2012

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An Islamic community center in Riverview was vandalized in an act that Baltimore County police have classified as a hate crime.

According to police, between 7:30 p.m. on April 20 and noon the following day, someone tossed a rock through a rear window of the Bab E Mustafa Community Center on the 4300 block of Hollins Ferry Road. No other businesses or buildings were damaged in the incident, police said.

The community center includes a mosque where daily prayers are held, as well as a child care center. According to former Imam Raja Khan, the community center has been located in Riverview for more than two years and primarily serves Muslims of Indian and Pakistani origin.

Members of the community center report being routinely taunted by juveniles in the neighborhood, according to police.

Arbutus Patch, 25 April 2012

See also "FBI asked to investigate possible Islamic center hate crime", Arbutus Patch, 26 April 2012

And CAIR press release, 26 April 2012

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A lecture by a controversial Muslim speaker has been called off at the last minute by Sheffield Hallam University – the second cancellation in a month.

Jalal Ibn Saeed had originally been asked to speak at an event titled The Pursuit of Paradise organised by the Sheffield Hallam Islamic Society but pulled out at short notice. The society booked another speaker, Murtaza Khan, claimed by opponents to be an anti-Semitic extremist.

But university authorities stepped in and told the society to cancel the meeting as the speaker had been changed at a late stage. A spokesman said: "Changing the speaker invalidated the conditions of the booking and therefore event due to take place last night had to be cancelled. The society were advised of this."

Last month a talk by preacher Assim Al Hakeem was also cancelled at the last minute after pressure from campus authorities and protests from students. Al Hakeem had been invited by the Islamic society to speak on the position of women in Islam.

Students planned to picket and said Al Hakeem was an opponent of homosexuality and favoured the subjugation of women in marriage. Similar concerns were raised about Khan, also said by opponents to be homophobic and anti-Semitic.

Pressure group Student Rights said the situation was worrying. Spokesman Rupert Sutton said: "The ease with which the Islamic Society at Sheffield Hallam University tried to replace one extremist speaker with another shows the sheer scale of a problem which too many people seek to downplay – as well as demonstrating a worrying lack of judgement by the society committee."

The Star, 26 April 2012

The university authorities obviously employ double standards when it comes to free speech. They had no objection to the student atheist society holding a meeting last month on the question "Is it racist to criticise Islam?", which was advertised with a flyer featuring an illustration (taken from the film Persepolis) of two Muslim women abusing a child. The leaflet accused Islam of making "demands for undue power & privileges" and held the faith responsible for "assaults upon RE teachers, riots over plays & cartoons, suicide bombings".

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Thick bigot: Stephen Tweed of the BFPITV Anglia News has covered the controversy over the proposed conversion of a disused pub in King's Lynn into an Islamic community centre. They interview Stephen Tweed of the British Freedom Party who has been campaigning against the centre.

I'm generally against the media giving a platform to the far right – particularly to a man like Tweed who openly describes Muslims as "bearded scum" and whose profile picture on his Facebook page is a photograph of a burning mosque. However, he comes over as such a thick bigot – particularly in comparison with the personable and articulate Jahangir Azam of the West Norfolk Islamic Association – that in Tweed's case providing him with publicity almost seems justifiable.

The ITV report also features a few vox pops with local residents, who are entirely relaxed about the prospect of an Islamic community centre in the town.

(BBC Norfolk also has a report.)

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His name is Rob Sims and he's the man wearing the black EDL t‑shirt in the centre of the picture. (It is taken from his Facebook page, as is this photo which gives a clearer view of his face – and Zionist sympathies – and this one which illustrates his disturbing paramilitary inclinations.)

As we pointed out last week, Sims was responsible for posting the following comment on the EDL's official Facebook page in response to the trial of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik:

"We should be supporting this guy, The lot he killed where a bunch of Anti-Semite scum, These left wing idiots and muslims are making europe resemble Germany under NSDAP rule, Whats it gonna take for people to realise that we need more people like Breivik who are willing to actually fight for what he believes in."

That was posted last Wednesday and the EDL admins still haven't seen fit to remove it, even though it clearly comes into the category of soliciting to murder.

Who is "Rob Heldane Sims"? It isn't difficult to discover his personal and political details. He lives in Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, his date of birth is 13 September 1987, and – after failing to build a career as a singer in a black metal band – he is now employed by the outdoor power products company Husqvarna which has its headquarters in Aycliffe. He is a longtime active supporter of the EDL.

Back in June 2010 Sims set up a Facebook group to win backing for his "sponsered [sic] walk to Newcastle for the Dudley 2" – i.e. for the two EDL members, Leon McCreery and John "Snowy" Shaw, who had been charged with burglary and inciting religious hatred after staging a rooftop protest at a site where Dudley Muslim Association proposed to build a mosque.

A few months earlier Sims had launched a blog called Heldane EDL to which he contributed a single post, titled "Islam – the religion of peace?", where he outlined the views that have now resulted in his public support for Breivik's terrorist killings:

"The muslims claim that we interfered with 'Adolf Hitlers glorious work of exterminating the Zionist scum from the world' and that 'Allah demands the destruction of the Jewish race'. Are we expected to tolerate these people immigrating into our lands, with their beliefs of mass genocide in the name of their so called god!"

Sims' Facebook page shows that he is also a supporter of a group called Task Force Europa Ultras, which describes itself as "a Militant counter Jihadist movement which stands firm against the rapid Islamization of the European continent. We are strongly in support of Israel and many of the anti-Islamic movements and politicians in Europe today".

Unsurprisingly, given his sympathies for militant counterjihadism and extremist Zionism, Sims is a strong supporter of Roberta Moore's EDL Jewish Division and its parallel organisation the Jewish Defence League UK. Indeed he has borrowed the J‑Div/JDL's logo for his profile picture on his Facebook page. He shares Moore's Kahanist views, and last month posted an appeal on Facebook for help in distributing EDL Jewish Division leaflets in Gateshead.

Moore's wing of J‑Div is officially no longer part of the EDL. However, as her appearance alongside EDL leader Stephen Lennon at the Tower Hamlets demonstration last September indicated, this formal separation, while allowing the EDL leadership to distance itself from Moore's politically embarrassing views, doesn't necessarily mean much on the ground. As for Sims, his Facebook page shows that he manages to combine his involvement in Moore's outfit with support for the EDL and its Gateshead Division.

Moore's decision to separate from the EDL arose from a dispute over her links with the Jewish Task Force, an extremist US group headed by a convicted terrorist. She has described the Breivik trial as a "kangaroo court" and announced that she has no sympathy for his victims. So it is hardly surprising that one of her followers has gone a step further and become an advocate of Breivik's position on terrorist violence.

When you bear in mind that the JDL UK website currently features a long post declaring that Respect leader Salma Yaqoob is "a Jew hating, intolerable Islamofascist fanatic who preaches violence and incites hatred against Israelis and Jews" – in other words, that she is exactly the sort of "Anti-Semite scum" who Sims believes deserves to die – this begins to look seriously worrying.

In the past Islamophobia Watch has sharply criticised the failure of the police to take action against EDL supporters who incite hatred and violence online. However, the recent arrests of members of the EDL splinter group the Infidels indicate a welcome change of policy. Hopefully Durham Constabulary can be persuaded to give Sims' incitement to murder the urgent attention it deserves.

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Mass murderer Anders Breivik has received letters of support from sicko fans in the UK.

The Norwegian racist, who slaughtered 77 people last summer, has had more than 100 messages from warped well-wishers around the globe. Several of his penpals said they were "inspired" by the far-right nut. Breivik, 33, has been so overwhelmed by the volume of notes that he has been unable to reply to them all.

Knut Bjarkeid, director of the Norway's Ila Prison, which has been holding Breivik for the past nine months, confirmed the killer received letters every day. And in a psychological report, jail psychiatrist Terje Tørrissen revealed they had been sent from Britain, Sweden, Russia and Germany, among others.

He said: "These letters are full of support and they contain the same political views held by the defendant. There are political cronies who have written. They use the same language and terminology as him. Some say they have been inspired by him and have become more extreme as a result of seeing his actions."

Tørrissen quoted Breivik as saying: "I welcome these letters from people who share the same opinion and with whom I can work together in the future."

The case is being screened on television and there are fears it is inspiring other ­far-right activists in the UK and around the world.

The killer has spoken of his links to UK groups and claimed a meeting in ­London with a Brit called "Richard the ­Lionheart" laid the foundations for his ­rampage. Breivik had been in regular contact with members of the anti-Islam group the English Defence League and has 600 EDL members as ­Facebook friends.

UK security services have taken these British links "extremely seriously" and there are concerns a UK supporter of Breivik could carry out a copycat killing spree here.

Daily Star on Sunday, 22 April 2012

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An English Defence League member was arrested last night for assault and being in possession of racially inflammatory material after posts were made on Facebook allegedly threatening the Muslim community with a bomb attack "Oslo style".

In the week where far right extremist, Anders Behring Breivik is on trial for the murder of 77 young people, the English Defence League have been very quiet on the subject.

There is plenty of evidence out there that Breivik was partly inspired by the English Defence League, in fact before he went on his murderous campaign, he emailed his manifesto to a large number of EDL members who he had been in contact with.

Leadership claim time and time again that their far right organisation does not breed extremism.  South Shield's Division member, Kenny Holden, seems to prove the opposite when he states his intention to set a pipe bomb off in Ocean Road, a predominantly Asian area in the City.

Holden, states that he has a pipe bomb ready for Ocean Road and he is going to do it "Oslo style".

A spokesman for Northumbria Police said "a 29 year old man was arrested on Saturday night on suspicion of assault and possessing racially inflammatory material. He is currently in custody and is helping police with their enquiries."

EDL News, 21 April 2012

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Al Jazeera (via Islam in Europe) has an interesting interview by Yasmine Ryan with M'hammed Henniche, general secretary of the Union of Muslim Associations of Seine-Saint-Denis (UAM93).

M'hammed Henniche states: "We did a survey on our website, which Le Parisien wrote about, that showed Muslims prefer Mélenchon. Each time the far right sets the agenda, its ideas then gets picked up by the UMP, which turns the ideas into laws. The Socialists say next to nothing against this. The only ones to strongly condemn against these ideas are Mélenchon and the Green Party."

To which Yasmine Ryan responds: "Mélenchon comes from a political family that, after all, advocates strict secularism. Isn't it contradictory for Muslim voters to support him?"

Henniche replies: "Melenchon is one of the most secular of all the candidates. We didn't anticipate that we would end up supporting him, and he didn't anticipate reaching out to us. The Socialists expect Muslims to vote for them, without doing anything to win them over. It wasn't necessarily his [Mélenchon's] aim to win the Muslim vote, in the beginning, but he soon realised it was an electorate that could support him.

"Melenchon is someone who is fierce. And when the right has been fierce, he's the only one who was able to respond. After Toulouse, when the right reacted by pointing the finger at all Muslims, the Socialists said nothing. Melenchon, meanwhile, came out and said: 'Stop hassling Muslims!' You can't be nuanced when someone is attacking you.

"Recently, L'Humanité [a French daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party] invited Muslim representatives to visit them. Never before would we even have considered going to the organ of the Communist Party. But we went, because we have the same interests. The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

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The Pentagon is appealing to Florida pastor Terry Jones against repeating last year's burning of the Qur'ran and images of Muhammad that led to widespread rioting and deaths round the world.

US officials are monitoring the situation and the military is fearful for the lives of American soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere if Jones goes ahead with his plan, announced on his website, to set fire to the Qur'an next week.

Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida and self-appointed scourge of Islam, has set a deadline of 5pm on Saturday April 28 for his demands to be met for the release of a Christian religious leader in Iran. If the Iranian cleric Youcef Nadarkhani is still imprisoned, Jones says he will set fire to a Qur'an and multiple images of Muhammad.

The threat from Jones comes on top of a row over the publication this week by the Los Angeles Times of pictures showing US troops with dismembered bodies in Afghanistan in 2010 and the apparently accidental burning of Qur'ans and Islamic religious documents by US troops at Bagram airport in Afghanistan in February that left 41 dead and more than 200 injured.

The last time Jones organised such a spectacle was on March 20 last year when he burned a Qur'an dressed in a judicial robe in the grounds of his church. The act prompted attacks on a UN compound in Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan in which seven UN employees died, and there were other fatal protests around the region.

Asked by the Guardian whether the cost in terms of lives lost of his previous escapade did not make him pause, Jones said that the impact of his Qur'an burning was not his responsibility. "What happened last time and what could happen this time is not our responsibility. All we did was burn a book. It posed no threat to anyone else, yet riots broke out several thousand miles away – which just proves how extreme Islam is."

Guardian, 20 April 2012

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Over at FrontPage Magazine Bruce Bawer is having a go at Hope Not Hate and their recently published study The 'Counter-Jihad' movement: Anti-Muslim hatred and the ideas that inspired Anders Behring Breivik. 

The "lies" in the HNH study – Bawer denounces the publication as "a full-frontal assault on truth" – consist in pointing out that the ideology which motivated Breivik was drawn from from a wider "counter-jihad" movement.

You can understand why Bawer – author of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within and Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom – might feel a bit sensitive about this. Breivik's notorious 2083 manifesto cited Bawer's name no less than 22 times.

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That's the headline to an article in today's Daily Mail, reporting on the conviction of a group of men for abducting, assaulting and raping two girls, aged 15 and 16.

The article quotes one of the convicted men as claiming that sex with the two girls was consensual: "It was Eid. We treated them as our guests. OK, so they gave us [sex] but we were buying them food and drink."

And that single quote is the sole the basis for an inflammatory headline that plays to the poisonous far-right racist myth that Muslims are directed by their faith to sexually molest young girls.

It's worth noting that the report is written by Katherine Faulkner, who last year co-authored the equally irresponsible and misleading report of a drunken assault in Leicester, which led to an EDL protest against so-called "anti-white racism" in the town.

It is no accident that the Mail was one of Anders Breivik's favourite English-language newspapers. It is cited numerous times in the manifesto he published to justify his terrorist killings and an article by Melanie Phillips is reproduced in its entirety.

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A new book by Geert Wilders aimed at the American market is not due to be officially launched until May 1, but details gleaned from advance and review copies are already doing the rounds.

The book is entitled Marked for Death, Islam's war against the West and me and according to Wilders' own website 'tells the story of Geert Wilders' fight for the right to speak what he believes: namely that Islam is not just a religion but primarily a dangerous ideology which is a threat to Western freedoms.'

The book will be officially presented at an as-yet secret location in the US, and is regarded by some as Wilders' calling card to America. The Dutch MP has made no secret of his international ambitions and is keen to launch and International Freedom Alliance, he said last year.

Magazine HP/De Tijd looks at one incident in the book in which Wilders writes how he was robbed by "three Arab youths" in the Utrecht district of Kanaleneiland – an area of poor housing and high unemployment.

In fact, the robbery took place in a more upmarket part of town several kilometres away the magazine says, citing references to the incident in a biography of Wilders published several years ago.

Tom Kleijn, Washington correspondent for television show Nieuwsuur says the book is a dry, almost academic recount of "how Wilders has become what he is". The book even contains an index and sources, he points out. "Wilders has a small, rich and fanatical group of followers in America," Kleijn said. "But it remains to be seen if this book will boost Wilders' popularity."

Current Dutch president Mark Rutte is not mentioned once, but Wilders states five times that he and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch Somali Muslim critic who now works for a US think-tank, are of the same opinion, Kleijn points out.

Nos correspondent Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal describes how Wilders emphasises his admiration for former US president Ronald Reagan and states current president Barack Obama is a dhimmi – a submissive non-Muslim in a Muslim state.

Dutch News, 21 April 2012

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The mayor of  Molenbeek, Philippe Moureaux (Parti Socialiste), has made some very harsh remarks about the RTBF [Radio Télévision Belge Francophone] journalists who made the "Questions à la Une" programme broadcast last Wednesday and titled "Should we fear Islam?", speaking of "manipulation of information" and going so far as to characterise the authors as "racists" and "Islamophobes".

"This is a totally outrageous programme", he said in a telephone interview broadcast on Maghreb TV, saying that he was "absolutely furious" that his contribution has been censored, "in order to maliciously show only unpleasant images and provide a platform for well-known Islamophobes".

"Not a single positive image was chosen", added the mayor of Molenbeek, the town where a large part of the programme was filmed. "To present that [the fact that some women wear the veil in the town despite a long-established ban] as an image that shows the rise of Islamism is straightforward manipulation", he continued.

Molenbeek has some 94,000 inhabitants, of whom a large part are of North African origin. "It is a community who deserve the greatest respect. And just because there are some people whose behaviour we don't like that is no reason to condemn the whole community."

"Antisemitism once achieved success by these sort of methods. This is also how Goebbels tried to attack Jews, just as some people now attack Muslims," the senator-mayor declared. "I realise that I have only served as a foil to racists and Islamophobes", M. Moureaux concluded in the interview which was posted on YouTube on Thursday.

Le Vif, 17 April 2012

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Having succeeded in convincing the AFL [Australian Football League] to introduce prayer rooms at all venues, Bachar Houli was unfazed last night by a stinging backlash sparked by former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, who called the idea "stupid" and "political correctness gone mad".

Football fans took to websites to condemn and ridicule the move, but at his home in Melbourne the AFL's first Muslim player told The Australian: "The main thing is we've got what we want, and you can't change that. At the end of the day, people want to go and enjoy the footy as well as continue with their beliefs, and if it means they have to pray once a day at the footy, we're not asking for much."

Mr Kennett said the move was "ridiculous" and complained that political correctness had replaced "the great days" of football, when there were few stands, mud on the ground, meat pies sold for sixpence and fans braved "the smell of the urinal".

Describing Australia as "a Christian society of many faiths", the former Liberal premier and former Hawthorn club president said communities should not have to change their "very fibre" to accommodate multiculturalism.

"To put prayer rooms into sporting venues is not part of the Australian lexicon, it's not the way in which we've behaved," he said. "I think it's an overreaction, I think it's political correctness, I think it's absolute rubbish. It's not practical, it's stupid, it's political correctness gone mad."

Houli, who plays at Richmond, where he prays before and after games, pressed for prayer rooms to be introduced at grounds in his capacity as the league's multicultural ambassador. He said devout Muslims, who pray five times a day, were forced to pray in carparks or stairwells during games, and said more Muslims would come to the football if they had a place to pray.

Multi-faith prayer rooms have been introduced at the MCG and Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, and Sydney's ANZ Stadium. The AFL intends to press for prayer rooms at all other venues, including the SCG.

The Australian, 20 April 2012

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One of the established clichés of the Islamophobia industry is the claim that Muslims can't be trusted because they all practise taqiyya, which is characterised as a licence to lie to non-Muslims.

Robert Naiman takes up a recent article in New York Times in which the paper's intelligence correspondent James Risen assessed the public statements of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on his country's nuclear programme. Risen wrote:

".... some analysts say that Ayatollah Khamenei's denial of Iranian nuclear ambitions has to be seen as part of a Shiite historical concept called taqiyya, or religious dissembling. For centuries an oppressed minority within Islam, Shiites learned to conceal their sectarian identity to survive, and so there is a precedent for lying to protect the Shiite community."

Naiman notes that on his blog Informed Comment Juan Cole points out that taqiyya has been "widely misrepresented by Muslim-haters and does not apply in Khamenei's case", describing the taqiyya argument in relation to Iran as "just some weird form of Islamophobia".

On top of that, the Risen article misrepresented Khamenei as stating that it was "a mistake for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya to give up his nuclear weapons program", when in reality Khamenei referred only to nuclear facilities.

Naiman concludes: "Some have characterized the Risen piece as an example of the general tendency of Fox-like arguments to penetrate liberal discourse. If that's true, then we ought to be able to do something about it. We can't stop Fox from spewing out garbage, at least in the short run. But the New York Times has a different reputation, and therefore can be called to account. You can help do so by asking the New York Times to correct its reporting, and to report these issues fairly, accurately, and with balance in the future."

Common Dreams, 19 April 2012

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The British National Party have announced that they are selling a "great new book on the Muslim tide, and how to turn it". The book is titled Inch'Allah? The Islamization of Europe, its author is Vlaams Belang leader Filip Dewinter, and the English version is translated and edited by none other than the BNP's own would-be führer Nick Griffin. Indeed, it would appear that Griffin's role in the production of the book went even further than that – he is now boasting about the new sections he introduced to improve Dewinter's original text.

Enthusiasm for Inch'Allah? evidently transcends the deep divisions within the BNP itself. Griffin's leading political opponent in the party, Andrew Brons, has published a glowing review of the book on his own Nationalist Unity Forum, hailing it as "one of the most comprehensive and well-researched works on the Islamic colonisation of Europe yet published on the continent". Mind you, that may have been before Brons realised Griffin had a hand in writing it.

Some of us will recall that the US Islamophobic bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer were sharply criticised by their former ally Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs for their participation at the Counterjihad Brussels 2007 conference alongside Filip Dewinter. Johnson accused Vlaams Belang of being white nationalists with fascist links.

Geller and Spencer indignantly denied this. Geller argued that "Vlaams Belang is the only party that has gone out of its way to support Israel. No political party in Belgium has supported Israel. Vlaams Belang has been the only party staunchly behind Israel for the past 10 years." Spencer agreed that VB are "the only ones in Flanders standing against the jihad and for Israel".

Given these expressions of support for Vlaams Belang, and their shared views on the threatened "Islamization" of the West, will Geller and Spencer be promoting the English edition of Dewinter/Griffin's book in the US? And if not, why not? I think we should be told.

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Well, that the title to an article in the East London Advertiser reporting that the independent candidate Gulam Robbani won a council by-election in Tower Hamlets yesterday. Harry's Place prefers the headline "Lutfur Rahman's Islamists beat Labour, again".

But then, Harry's Place is a blog whose commitment to political balance and accuracy is illustrated by a recent post describing the Guardian newspaper as "The UK's leading publisher of Jew-haters". You do wonder why Harry's Place and CifWatch don't effect a merger. This would provide internet users with a convenient one stop shop for frothing-at-the-mouth Zionist rants.

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She calls herself the "voice of the people," the anti-system candidate who will ensure social justice for the have-nots and purify a France she says is losing its voice to Europe and threatened by massive immigration and rampant Islamization.

She wants to drastically reduce the number of immigrants – to 10,000 a year – and, a top theme, to crack down for good on what she claims is the growing footprint of Islamic fundamentalists in France. "They are advancing in the neighborhoods. They are putting pressure on the population. They are recruiting young boys" to train for jihad, she said.

Le Pen insisted that fighting so-called Islamization won't breed a mass killer such as Anders Behring Breivik, the anti-Muslim extremist who is now on trial in Norway after confessing to killing 77 people. The fight must not stop "out of fear of a crazy man," she said.

Le Pen cites as proof of the Islamist threat in France the case of Mohamed Merah, a young Frenchman of Algerian origin who last month killed three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren before he was shot dead by police trying to capture him.

She also refuses to be categorized as extreme right, saying that her party is populist.

The image Marine Le Pen projects is less linked to the extreme-right than that of her father, said Nonna Meyer, an expert on the extreme-right vote at the prestigious university Sciences Po.

"She's younger, she's a woman, she condemns anti-Semitism. She often says things differently than her father," Meyer said. "She says she is tolerant, it is Islam that is intolerant ... She upends the discourse. But the foundation of the program is the same. If you look at the values her party defends, it is a system at once authoritarian and rejecting of others, rejecting the difference."

Associated Press, 18 April 2012

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