Islamophobia Watch

By a guest contributor

This is a crosspost from Socialist Unity

Under the headline "'Neo-Nazi gran' hired as aide to BNP member on London Assembly", the London Evening Standard has exposed the fact that the notorious far-right activist Tess Culnane is working at City Hall as a PA to Richard Barnbrook. There is also good coverage of the case by Adam Bienkov at Liberal Conspiracy. It is however worth examining Culnane's political record in more detail, since the employment of such an individual in the office of the BNP's most prominent London politician tells us a lot about the BNP's claim that it is now a mainstream party that has put its neo-Nazi past behind it.

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The three men arrested last November after attacks on City University Muslim students will not face court proceedings. According to a police spokesperson, charges have been dropped "due to insufficient evidence and a lack of witnesses coming forward."

The three men, aged 17, 18 and 19, were arrested and released on bail until 4 January. The conditions of bail, stating the men were not to go within 100 metres of the university or to contact any City students or prosecution witnesses, are no longer enforceable as they have expired.

At the time the police said that they were treating the attacks against members of the university's Islamic Society as racially aggravated.

It remains unclear whether the police continue to carry out extra patrols around campus. The incident on 5 November started near the university's Gloucester Building which houses the Muslim prayer room. Fighting then continued on St John Street where the students were attacked with sticks and poles by a group of 30 white and black males.

Although the security services at the university were unaware of this development, Richard Mansfield, Security Services Manager, said that "there is no intelligence to suggest" that whoever was responsible for the attack would try to seek revenge. He added that he did not believe there was added threat to students.

The Inquirer, 7 February 2010

For details of the November attacks, see Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: a London Case Study by Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Bob Lambert.

The English Defence League has announced that it has postponed its planned demonstration in Bolton on 6 March, supposedly because it would clash with a Hindu festival. According to the EDL:

"We have received information that far-left groups were planning to attack Hindus whilst dressed in EDL clothing, which may be purchased freely from our internet shop. This cowardly attack, had it taken place, was to be blamed on our organisation with the intent of discrediting our stated aim of peacefully protesting against radical Islam. Due to the respect we have for the peace loving Hindu community, we deemed it only right and proper that we cancel our own plans to ensure their safety."

Yeah, sure. A more likely explanation for the cancellation of the Bolton protest is that the EDL leaders recognise that the gangs of thick racists who are drawn to their intimidatory demonstrations would be unable or unwilling to make a distinction between Muslims and other brown-skinned minority communities. And the suggestion that "far-left groups" were intending to disguise themselves as EDL supporters is laughable. The left has little need to discredit the EDL's "stated aim of peacefully protesting" when the EDL's violent hooligans are quite capable of doing that for themselves.

Update:  See Stephen Hall's comments at Socialist Unity, 8 February 2010

And the UAF statement here