The Patriots day, 15th April 2013 celebrates the first of American Revolutionary Wars, in lieu of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Every year Bostonians commemorate the Patriotism through a marathon that is labeled as The Boston Marathon. This year the Boston Marathon attended by thousands was greeted by a wretched plan by the hands of terrorists, whether Muslims or non-Muslims; they are wretched.

Two explosions went off on the Boylston Street with a little distance in between, and the marathon joined by children, women and elders alike was turned into an emergency zone. The explosions that were later identified as a pressure cooker bombs (made by placing explosives, bits of metal and bearing balls in black nylon duffel bags or backpacks inside the pressure cooker) were strong enough to injure 183 people and take the lives of 3 innocents who probably had nothing to do with terrorism, extremism, America, Al-Qaeda, secret agencies or war in general.

The Americans mourn the departed souls in deep sorrow, and the international community has also joined in the lamentation –we the Muslims seriously condemn the attack and pay our condolences to the innocent while vow complete quarantining of the world from the evil elements who do not want peace.

But at the same time as that another round of tension has started. Just like the 9/11 and its aftershocks were borne more by the innocent Muslims than the innocents who lost their loved ones; it is being feared that the Boston Marathon Bombings might reinvigorate the same prejudiced or rather skeptical behavior towards Muslims in the west and the US. Though in his speech, the American President Barrack Obama did not single out anything nor did he mention any links to the extremists groups, he did term them as senseless acts of violence and terrorism.

The pattern of reactions is similar to that of 9/11 attacks when despite having nothing to do with the terrorists and the attacks, many Muslims received ill treatment and prejudiced opinions were formed. Just because a group of people who were terrorists belonged to Islam, all the Muslims were labeled as such. As expected, some of the first in journalists and bloggers started the same array of bigotry that smelled of discrimination. For example, Pam Giller a famous anti-Muslim blogger and Eric Rush a regular guest commentator on Fox News sent quick tweets like Jihad in America and let’s kill them –a tweet that Eric later deleted.

Conservative host Glenn Beck opined that:

“No American citizen blows up a random person, that’s Middle Eastern scene, that’s not an American scene. When our crazies go off, they target the government, not streets that are crowded with people.”

Now is a time when we need to stop people from jumping to conclusion, and when we need to stop narrow minded bigots from playing their part in reinforcing the post 9/11 hatred that was unjustly creed based. It is now upon us and of course the logical and receptive minds of the west to ensure that the ordinary people get the true story or at least get both sides of the stories. This is so because it is eventually the ordinary public that holds the gun or the flag or whatever. It is the perception of the ordinary populace that lets the government take discriminatory measures –or hinder them.

About the author

Running an IT consultant company. Providing web development, social media marketing, SEO and content writing services.

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The Collectif contre l'Islamophobie en France reports that there has been yet another fascist graffiti attack on a French mosque, this time at Provins in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. On Saturday morning worshippers found six red swastikas sprayed on the walls and doors of the building. The CCIF points out that this follows a similar attack only a week ago at Ozoir-La-Ferrière.

French interior minister Manuel Valls has issued a statement condemning the incident and declaring his support for the Muslim community, but the CCIF dismisses this as just words, when what is needed is action. They add that Valls himself, with his expulsion of preachers, his talk of the Republic's "essential struggle" against the veil, and his treatment of French Muslims as the enemy within, has helped to legitimise Islamophobic acts.

See also "Swastikas daubed on mosque in latest attack", The Local, 11 February 2013

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Bremen is the third German state to recognize Islamic organizations as official religious bodies. Holidays, funerals and pastoral care will be regulated by state contracts. Other states will likely follow suit.

For Erol Pürlü, spokesman for the German Muslim coordination council, the signing of the contract with the city-state of Bremen marked a "day of joy". Three Muslim associations were officially recognized as religious bodies. "That sends a clear signal that Islam belongs to Germany," said Pürlü.

Bremen is the third German state to confer this status on Islamic organizations. Hamburg made a similar agreement last November, while Hesse officially recognized two Islamic organizations and allowed them to offer their own religious classes in schools in December.

Deutsche Welle, 29 January 2013

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The Commentator provides an update on its "Muslim patrol" report with a more recent video, also apparently from Tower Hamlets, in which the self-appointed mutaween target a man they take to be gay.

The harassment recorded here is significantly more unpleasant and intimidatory than in the first video, and we can only hope that the people responsible are quickly identified, arrested and prosecuted. In fact the case underlines the need for new legislation to introduce specific homophobically aggravated offences, on a par with the racially and religiously aggravated offences already on the statute book.

However, it is almost certainly the same two individuals who are involved in this most recent video, one of whom carries out most of the actual harassment while the other records the victim's response on his mobile phone. This doesn't prevent The Commentator from referring to "Muslim Patrols" in the plural, in order to suggest that it is part of some wider and more frightening pattern.

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A mosque at Val-de-Reuil in Normandy in north-western France was sprayed with far-right graffiti last Wednesday night. Slogans included "Anti-Islam", "Long live the FN" and "France, love it or leave it". As the Collectif contre l'Islamophobie en France points out, these days every week brings new acts of Islamophobic vandalism.

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The Guardian reports that French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo will this week release a special edition illustrated biography of the prophet Muhammad.

Its editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, told Agence France-Presse that the Life of Muhammad would be "perfectly halal" because it was a compilation of all that had been written about the prophet in the past by Muslim writers and Charlie Hebdo had "simply put it into images".

As the Guardian points out: "Charlie Hebdo, which must sell 30,000 issues of its weekly magazine from news-stands to keep afloat, has routinely seen sales double or magazines sell out each time it has run controversial cartoons of Muhammad."

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The Collectif contre l'Islamophobie en France reports that on Thursday-Friday night four swastikas along with racist slogans riddled with misspellings were sprayed on the wall of the As-Salam de Tomblaine mosque in the Lorraine region of north-east France. (The slogan "Bougnoulle de mourt" would appear to mean something like "death to wogs".)

The CCIF notes that only a few months ago the mosque at Vandœuvre, five kilometres from Tomblaine, was also the target of a graffiti attack, although in that case the graffiti were of Kahanist rather than Nazi inspiration.

See also ICI-C-NANCY, 21 December 2012

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The English Defence League (EDL) is planning another march in Cambridge, according to campaigners. A "massive" counter demonstration has already been planned by Cambridge Unite Against Fascism (CUAF).

More than 670 officers policed an EDL march in the city in July, 2011.

Richard Rose, of CUAF, said: "Our head office has information that has been confirmed by the EDL that they will march in Cambridge on February 23. We have organised a counter demo opposing the EDL and what it stands for."

Richard Howitt MEP has released a rallying call to Cambridge residents to join the counter demonstration. He said: "I urge all the decent people of Cambridge to attend this counter demonstration to show their opposition to racism."

Tom Woodcock, secretary of Cambridge Trades Council, said: "The painful austerity measures that working people are facing are not caused by immigrants or by Muslims but by the government and their friends in big business and the banks."

Cllr Jeremy Benstead, who represents Coleridge on the city council, said: "18 months ago we showed the EDL that they are not welcome here – let's do it again."

Cambridge News, 14 December 2012

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Protestors again gathered at the site of a planned mosque in Millfield.

A proposal to convert a former council depot into a mosque has caused controversy since the decision was accepted in January. And on Saturday members from the National Patriotic Front turned up to the site with signs, including some that read "no more mosques."

Treasurer Paul Stephenson said: "We are a Christian country, we don't want to bring their ideas and practices into our country." Chairman Robert Patten added: "We come here every month and we are going to keep coming back until there is something done about this. We want to stop the spread of Islam as much as we can."

Tahir Khan, chairman of the Unity Multicultural Organisation, which was also at the protest, said: "It is a shame that a single group are making Britain look so uncivilised in front of the whole world. Everybody has a right to have a place to worship, according to law."

Many residents from Millfield were cautious about speaking to the press about a sensitive issue. But Millfield man John Watson, said: "I am in favour of the mosque because I believe in religious freedom. I don't think it is too much to ask that they have a mosque."

Marjorie Matthews, 79, from Aiskell Street, said: "This is not a racist issue. I am not racist. This is wrong because it is in the wrong area, on top of people's houses."

Sunderland Echo, 10 December 2012

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To their bewilderment and bitterness, on the morning of Saturday, November 24, Muslim worshippers at Villefontaine in northern Isère discovered racist graffiti on the walls of their mosque.

When they arrived at the mosque for their morning prayer, the Muslim faithful of Villefontaine found that the walls of their religious enclosure were covered with graffiti. The clearly Islamic slogans "Islam out of Europe" and "This is our home" had been written in black spray paint.

The public prosecutor in Vienne has just ordered an inquiry to be opened into criminal damage aggravated by its anti-Muslim character. This was assigned to the police force at Bourgoin-Jallieu.

In parallel, other slogans were discovered on the walls of the Sainte Marie Catholic boarding school, opposite the train station at Verpillière. These similarly involved Celtic crosses, which are often used by far-right movements.

France 3, 24 November 2012

The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) has issued a statement condemning the attack. Pointing out that this is just the latest in a long list of such attacks that have taken place since the beginning of 2012, the CFCM calls on the government to devote more resources to finding the perpetrators.

AFP reports that on Sunday afternoon some 300 people gathered in front of the Villefontaine mosque to express their support for the Muslim community. They included representatives of other faiths and political leaders. In his speech the rector of the Lyon Mosque, Kamel Kabtane, repeated the call made by the CFCM for a parliamentary inquiry into the rise of anti-Muslim hatred in France.

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A Far Right group is to stage a further demonstration over the proposed opening of a new mosque.

The Northern Patriotic Front, formed in Newcastle by ex-members of the National Front in August, is to stage what it insists will be a peaceful hour-long protest in the Millfield area of Sunderland at noon on Saturday (November 17).

Police say they expect a counter demonstration by anti-fascist groups and have warned that anyone causing trouble will be dealt with.

Saturday's demonstration will be the fourth this year staged by Far Right groups over plans by the Pakistan Islamic Centre to open a mosque in St Mark's Road. The last, organised by the North-East Infidels, ended in violence and 13 arrests.

Earlier this year, Sunderland City Council has granted planning permission for the conversion of a former transport depot into a mosque.

Simon Biggs, spokesman for the Northern Patriotic Front, said he expected "30 to 40" demonstrators and added: "We will be holding banners and placards and trying to get our message across – it will be a peaceful protest".

Northern Echo, 14 November 2012

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The Scottish Defence League (SDL) held a static protest outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, while Unite Against Fascism organised its own counter-protest. Police said that around 60 people attended the SDL event, which lasted for around 45 minutes. The majority arrived by coach.

Meanwhile Unite Against Fascism said its march from the City Chambers on the Royal Mile to the Parliament attracted over 300 people. Police put the figure at around 250.

Lothian and Borders Police created a "sterile" area outside Holyrood, with the two groups separated by barriers and accompanied by police officers. Members of the public were kept away from the area.

Speaking after the event, Luke Henderson, co-ordinator for Unite Against Fascism, said: "The march was absolutely fantastic and we were very happy that we had a great turn out. Our march had representatives from the many diverse communities that make Edinburgh a vibrant and open city."

Press Association, 29 September 2012

Update:  See also "Scotland and Islam", Sunday Herald, 30 September 2012

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A French satirical magazine published nude cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed Wednesday, a move that could further inflame tensions after violent protests in the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film.

The cover of Charlie Hebdo shows a Muslim in a wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew under the title "Intouchables 2", referring to an award-winning French film about a poor black man who helps an aristocratic quadriplegic.

Another cartoon on the back page of the weekly magazine show a naked turbaned Mohammed exposing his posterior to a film director, a scene inspired by a 1963 film starring French film star Brigitte Bardot.

AFP, 19 September 2012

Presumably the message contained in the Charlie Hebdo cover cartoon is that satirists should have the right to abuse Jews as well as Muslims. I suppose this does at least have the merit of avoiding the hypocritical argument that Islamophobia is more acceptable than antisemitism.

Update:  See "Muslims decry French Mohammad cartoons as new insult", Reuters, 19 September 2012

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Vandals sprayed right-wing slogans on a mosque near Hebron on Tuesday night.

The graffiti included the words "Price Tag Migron" spray-painted on the outside wall of the Salman al-Farisi mosque in Imreish, southwest of Hebron, in reference to the West Bank outpost the government evacuated on September 2.

B'Tselem – The Israel Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories said on Tuesday that residents of the nearby village of Avda said they chased off a group of settlers who tried to set cars on fire late Tuesday night.

On Monday, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch announced that police plan to create a unit that will focus on investigating price-tag incidents, the name given to acts of right-wing vandalism or violence perpetrated against Palestinians to protest government policy toward the settlements.

Jerusalem Post, 12 September 2012

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Where does the similarity lay? In fact, 9/11 was not the corollary of just jihad in Afghanistan, ‎though it provided a fertile guide to young minds. Palestinian issue contributed a lot and it ‎added rather fuel to the fire that the United States not only supported the Israeli expansion to ‎Gaza, but also vetoed any resolution that came up or was presented in the UN General ‎Assembly or Security Council, leaving Muslims to lick their wounds. Some other important ‎issues where gross injustice was committed against Muslims also added insult to the injury. ‎The issues of Chechnya, Bosnia, Kashmir and others further augmented this thinking. The ‎major feeling was injustice against the Muslims that still continue.‎

Now that the US backed Arab Spring has taken hold of the entire Middle East, it is not a new ‎thing. It is same New World Order that Bush Senior envisaged though it has backfired in some ‎countries such as Egypt, leading to worries in Israel and the United States and other is to break ‎up the “axis of resistance”. Recently Syrian Foreign Minister has said it during his interview ‎with a journalist of The Independent that the US officials asked them to renounce their backing ‎up to Iran and they would have peace in Syria that they spurned. The world that is backing ‎resistance, insurgency or revolution in Syria is turning a blind eye to the same Arab Spring and ‎Revolution in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain where majority is deprived of basic human rights such ‎as freedom of expression and peaceful protests.‎

As far as US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan is concerned, democracy has not taken any form ‎over there in these countries. Iraq is witnessing unprecedented Al-Qa’ida attacks that were ‎nonexistent during Saddam regime and Afghanistan is witnessing rising attacks in the coalition ‎forces. Mayhem in Pakistan is also the handiwork of the same forces, leading to estranged ‎feelings among some fanatic factions and large-scale suicide attacks, originally intended to be ‎launched against the western targets. ‎

If all these developments in the Middle East and Muslim countries are jotted down together, ‎they lead to a world scenario that is ripening toward another 9/11. In fact, if seen with an ‎analytic mind, the situations that caused 9/11 are very much here. The difference is only that ‎the anti-US and anti-western forces are not much coordinated and embedded in the western ‎world. ‎
Now the question is will these be coordinated enough to cause another such tragedy? The ‎answer to this question is very big yes. The Muslims over there are now going through a wave ‎of anti-Muslim propaganda and even some moves that are totally against the western norms as ‎well. For example, ban of veil in France, Muslim targeting in the United States, permission of ‎caricatures of the Holy Prophet [PBUH] in Germany, anti-Muslim resentment in other western ‎countries are making the Muslim community living over there to feel separated from the ‎mainstream politics and this is highly precarious development.‎

About the author

Mazhar Abbas Bhatti

Professor of English Language and Literature, professional Urdu-English Translator, writer and editor, Mazhar Abbas Bhatti has a deep understanding of international affairs and US role on the global chessboard. He teaches in ICB, the oldest and premier institution in Islamabad, Pakistan.

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Richard Edmonds in front of the Baitul Futuh Mosque in MordenNo doubt flushed with the "success" of its recent protest at the site of a proposed mosque in Sunderland, the National Front has belatedly latched on to the plan to convert a vacant building in Worcester Park in South London into an Islamic centre, which has already been the subject of local opposition.

The NF reports that fully seven of its supporters (probably almost the entire London membership) leafleted the area on Saturday in order to warn the non-Muslim population of Sutton of the fate that awaits them if the conversion goes ahead. The NF contingent was headed by veteran neo-Nazi Richard Edmonds (who, you may recall, has served as an inspiration to English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon).

In an accompanying video filmed in front of the mosque's intended premises Edmonds declares: "The locals are absolutely correct to oppose this proposal. A mosque located here, close to the centre of the town, would change the character of Worcester Park irrevocably, and would be the thin edge of the alien wedge Enoch Powell warned us against."

Edmonds then announces dramatically: "We will now show you what the townsfolk can expect if planning permission is granted. Let the good folk of Worcester Park and elsewhere take heed."

The video then shifts to Edmonds gesticulating in front of the Baitul Futuh Mosque at Morden in the neighbouring South London borough of Merton. Possibly the largest mosque in western Europe, the complex serves as the UK headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. It covers an area of 5.2 acres and can hold up to 10,000 worshippers.

If you consult the Planning & Design and Access Statement submitted to the London Borough of Sutton in support of the Worcester Park proposal, you'll find the following: "It is expected that maximum 10-15 persons will attend for any one prayer session on a daily basis. Occasionally, the building can accommodate up to its maximum capacity of 140 persons."

So the parallel Edmonds wishes to draw is, shall we say, just ever so slightly exaggerated.

Denouncing the earlier decision to allow the Baitul Futuh Mosque planning permission, Edmonds announces portentously: "This country is Great Britain. It is not Saudi Arabia." Indeed it isn't, and if Edmonds requires confirmation of this he might like to investigate how the Saudi monarchy would respond to a request to build an Ahmadiyya mosque there. Britain, by contrast, is a society where, despite the best efforts of Edmonds and his kind, all major faiths have the right to build places of worship free from state oppression. Edmonds clearly has more in common with the Saudi Wahhabi regime than he realises.

Meanwhile, we have pleasure in reporting some bad news for Edmonds and the NF leadership (via Expose). It appears that the North East National Front, who organised the protest against the proposed Sunderland mosque, have now split from the parent body, citing objections to "red tape and false dictators telling us what can and cant be done", and have formed a new organisation, the Northern Patriotic Front.

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The Conservative Party says its co-chairman Baroness Warsi has been cleared of allegations she wrongly claimed Parliamentary expenses.

Baroness Warsi's claims were probed by the Lord Commissioner for Standards. It was alleged that in 2008 she claimed overnight expenses for staying in London while living rent-free.

Last month she was cleared of a breach of the ministerial code after being accompanied by a business associate on an official visit to Pakistan.

In a statement, Lady Warsi said she was "delighted" to draw a line under the matter.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "pleased" the allegations had been dismissed and it cleared the way for Lady Warsi to lead the Tory campaign for the election of police and crime commissioners later this year.

Lady Warsi said: "I believe that being a member of the House of Lords is a privilege and I take that privilege seriously.

"I have always maintained that the allegations surrounding my expenses were untrue and I am delighted that Paul Kernaghan has dismissed them.

"His report and the report by Sir Alex Allan – two independent inquiries – have now drawn a line under these matters and my only focus now will be to get on with my job."

BBC News, 26 July 2012

This decision won't please anti-Warsi elements on the Tory right, who have been waging a campaign to undermine her and force Cameron to remove her from her position as party co-chairman (see here, here, here and here). Michael Dugher, the Labour Party shadow minister who has endorsed this disgraceful campaign against Warsi and helped to give it credibility, won't be too happy either.

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Pat Condell, the National Secular Society's favourite comedian (he has been repeatedly nominated for their Secularist of the Year award, although he has yet to win it) has long had a fan base among the Islamophobic right in the United States. He has recently acquired a new admirer. It's none other than Bonni Benstock-Intall of the hate site Bare Naked Islam, which achieved notoriety last year for its promotion of violence against Muslims and attacks on mosques. Over the past year or so Bare Naked Islam has repeatedly posted Condell's videos and hailed him as a fellow anti-Muslim bigot.

I get the impression that even the National Secular Society has begun to find Condell a bit of an embarrassment. The NSS no longer loudly proclaims Condell as a member, urging everyone to watch his Islamophobic videos and pouring scorn on critics who characterised his anti-Muslim diatribes as hate speech. Given Condell's repeated rants against immigrant rapists, that is hardly surprising. By any standards the material Condell produces these days can't be characterised as anything other than hate speech, as his enthusiastic endorsement by Bare Naked Islam makes clear. But we've yet to hear any leading figure in the NSS dissociate the organisation from Condell or withdraw its earlier declarations of support for him.

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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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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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