The English Defence League (EDL) has made bizarre accusations that counter demonstrators used "violent language" and "terrified children".

Leaders of the anti-Islamic group also claim 85 of its members turned up at a rally in Cambridge's Christ's Pieces and not the 30 estimated by Cambridgeshire police. They also turned on members of Cambridge Unite Against Fascism (CUAF) for holding a counter-demonstration on Saturday, February 23.

The group says it has now formed a Cambridgeshire Division after the rally claiming they had increased support from residents.

A spokesman said: "After speaking to residents on the day, we had many members of the public showing their support for us being there and have had many Cambridgeshire residents wishing to join in our campaign since visiting and have since set up a new EDL Cambridgeshire Facebook page for them to join. It was a local demo, of which, despite contrary reports we had 85 members who arrived and protested peacefully."

He criticised the CUAF for its "long march around the city centre causing streets to be closed off with a huge police presence throughout". The spokesman claimed he had received "many reports" of people being unhappy about the CUAF and of "children being terrified by them and the disruption they caused".

Cambridge News, 6 March 2013

It is of course likely that more EDL supporters turned up in Cambridge than actually joined the rally. Some of them reportedly stayed in the pub, embarrassed by the low turnout – and also no doubt by the antics of the few dozen drunken idiots who did participate in the protest.

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Last week the Camden New Journal reported that a proposal by the British Humanist Association to erect a statue of the late Chrstopher Hitchens at Red Lion Square in Holborn had received a less than enthusiastic response from local Labour councillors. This week's issue includes a range of letters on the controversy.

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Yesterday's Daily Mail carried a report which began:

Not everyone at the Paralympics has been bowled over by the presence of Kate Middleton.

The Duchess of Cambridge was embarrassingly snubbed by an Iranian athlete who refused to shake her hand after she presented him with his discus silver medal on Sunday for "cultural reasons".

The royal was warmly received on the podium by Team GB's gold medal winner Aled Davies and Chinese bronze medallist Lezheng Wang – but when it was Mehrdad Karam Zadeh's turn to step up, the 40-year-old failed to offer a hand to the Duchess, clutching them close to his chest.

The snub threatened to overshadow a glittering night for Paralympics GB, which enjoyed its most successful day of the Games so far with seven gold medals.

You only have to read a bit further down the report to find that this is just not true:

A spokesman for St. James's Palace has revealed the Duchess was briefed beforehand and warned not to offer her hand to Zadeh.

"Many male athletes from Islamic countries do not shake hands in public with women they are not related for cultural and religious reasons," the palace representative said.

"The Duchess was informed in advance and was happy to accept his wishes. She considered it an honour to present the medals."

So, in reality, there was no "snub" at all, embarrassing or otherwise. Even the comments section following the report – and people who post their views at MailOnline are not generally known for their progressive sympathies – is full of readers pointing this out.

Without any acknowledgement that they misrepresented the situation, the Mail has now rewritten the report omitting the claim about a snub – though the headline has been beefed up to emphasise the message of Muslim misogyny. It now reads: "Iranian Paralympic athlete refuses to shake Duchess of Cambridge's hand 'for cultural reasons because she's a woman' at medal ceremony."

This isn't the only recent example of the right-wing press publishing nonsense about Iran. See also "The Daily Telegraph and a 'fundamentalist' Iranian MP", Bartholomew's Notes on Religion, 31 August 2012

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France's war on Muslim women's hijab has led to an increase in the rate of hate crimes against Muslims in the country, an activist tell Press TV.

In an interview with Press TV, Marwan Muhammad from the Collective Against Islamophobia said that the hate crimes against Muslims increased "because some of the perpetrators feel empowered. In last few years we have seen a huge increase in hate crimes. On these cases 92 percent of the victims are women".

"Whenever a Muslim woman tries to practice her religion and engage with the rest of the society, French ideology is to ban her from doing so and we claim that we do this for the sake of women's freedom… which is not the real definition of freedom," he added.

Press TV, 13 July 2012

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