EDL protester in court for racist outburst

A protester who made racist remarks to a police officer and spat at another during last month's EDL and anti-fascist protests in Cambridge pleaded guilty yesterday.

Roy May, 56, of Elmfield Road, Cambridge, urinated outside a house in Emmanuel Street on February 23 when street closures for the protest were taking place. Pc Singh confronted May about what he was doing and received a torrent of racial abuse, city magistrates were told.

Delia Matthews, prosecuting, said: "He was swearing and his words were slurred because he was drunk." May then spat at police officers, catching Pc Helen Greenfield on the cheek.

May will appear in court again on March 18 for sentencing.

Cambridge News, 12 March 2013

San Francisco leaders denounce anti-Islam bus ads

San Francisco leaders have denounced a series of what they call anti-Islamic advertisements that began appearing on 10 city buses on Monday, calling them racist and offensive.

At least one of the ads contains a quote attributed to the militant Islamic group Hamas that reads: "Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah."

Mayor Ed Lee, District Attorney George Gascon and other elected officials joined Arab and Muslim community leaders to publicly condemn the ads on Monday. "These offensive ads serve no purpose than to denigrate our city's Arab and Muslim communities," Gascon said.

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A new insight into the EDL's support base?

Last week Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) launched a new study by Matthew Goodwin, a Nottingham University academic specialising in the far right, entitled The Roots of Extremism: The English Defence League and the Counter-Jihad Challenge. Claiming to debunk the assumptions usually made about the EDL attracting disproportionate support from the economically disadvantaged and the unemployed, Goodwin's paper produced headlines such as "Managers and skilled workers make up bulk of far right supporters" (Daily Telegraph) and "English Defence League supporters are mostly full-time workers, survey finds" (Huffington Post).

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Discrimination against Muslims 'too common' in Sweden

Swedish Muslims have slammed the government for failing to combat discrimination, submitting a report to the UN with a list of proposed measures, such as setting up an inquiry into the abuse of Somali migrants in the tiny town of Forserum.

"Forserum really showed what proportions Islamophobia as well as Afrophobia can take when an entire town looks on as people have their human rights violated," Kitimbwa Sabuni told The Local on Friday.

Sabuni edited the report submitted to the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) by the Network of Swedish Muslims (Nätverket Svenska Muslimer i Samarbete), a cooperation of several different associations, in which representatives said Sweden was failing to tackle discrimination against Muslims.

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Former EDL organiser jailed over firearms offence

EDL News and Hope Not Hate draw attention to a report in the Sunderland Echo that Paul Duffy, a former regional organiser for the English Defence League, has been jailed for five years after pleading guilty to possessing a prohibited firearm, live rounds of ammunition, a prohibited weapon and drugs.

Duffy was found in possession of a Webley 8mm pistol and two rounds of ammunition when police raided his house in December following a tip-off. He claimed he was looking after them as payment for a drug debt.

Duffy was the EDL's North-East organiser before he left to join the even more extreme breakaway group, the Infidels (who the EDL once denounced as Nazis but now hail as "great patriots"). He was one of five members of that group who were arrested by the North-East Counter Terrorism Unit in April last year on suspicion of posting race-hate material online. However, after consultation with the CPS it was decided not to press charges.

Dorset: Tory councillor who told equalities officer 'all Muslims are terrorists' breached code of conduct

A Sherborne councillor, who was accused of describing "all Muslims as terrorists" during an equality and diversity training session, has been found guilty of breaching the code of conduct.

Former mayor Marjorie Snowden, a town and district councillor, was sanctioned by West Dorset District Council's standards committee on Wednesday, when the panel unanimously decided she had failed to show a former council officer respect during the training session.

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UKIP battles to contain extreme elements

In today's Guardian Robert Booth and Rajeev Syal report that that the UK Independence Party and its leader Nigel Farage, who have been boosted by their candidate's second place in the Eastleigh by-election and are now installed in their new upmarket headquarters in Mayfair, have set themselves the task of reining in the extremists who are drawn to UKIP.

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Geller: CPAC has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and is 'enforcing the Sharia'

Pamela Geller has discovered the reason for her exclusion from the forthcoming Conservative Political Action Conference – CPAC has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

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EDL supporter admits racist graffiti near mosque

A teenager spray-painted racist graffiti near a mosque and daubed the names Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden on flats during a booze-fuelled spree.

Laura Woodward, 19 of Byron Road, Addlestone, admitted four counts of racially and religious aggravated criminal damage and two of criminal damage.

Woodward, appearing before Guildford magistrates last Thursday, also admitted racially aggravated damage to the front door of an Asian man whom she knew.

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Ontario: hate crimes unit called in to investigate graffiti on mosque

Guelph police have their hate crimes unit investigating after racial graffiti was discovered on a mosque.

Numerous spray-painted graffiti markings were discovered on the outside of the Guelph Muslim Society's mosque at 286 Water Street early Wednesday. The graffiti was painted between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 7 a.m. Wednesday. It contained derogatory references to Muslims along with inflammatory and threatening language.

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