Islamophobia Watch

Welsh anti-fascist campaigners challenged a Carmarthenshire BNP candidate to justify the "extraordinary" claims in his election propaganda or resign on Wednesday. Far-right fantasist Carmarthenshire County Council Penygroes ward British National Party candidate Kevin Edwards claimed in his election leaflets that soldiers at Birmingham hospitals had had to remove their uniforms to avoid offending Muslim staff and visitors.

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Katherine Jenkins's representatives last night confirmed they had started legal action to remove the singer's image from an online video produced in support of the extremist British National Party. In a four-minute video posted on website YouTube on March 8, by a user calling himself "Egbert Saxon King", the Welsh mezzo-soprano's image is used in a bid to stir up opposition to plans to build Wales' largest mosque in Cardiff.

Featuring designs apparently lifted from the website of the Madina Mosque in the Cathays area of the capital, the video claims the mosque would lead to the "Islamification of Wales" and uses a series of dramatic images to contrast stereotypical images of Muslims with stereotypical images of Wales. An image of riots in Bradford, for instance, is contrasted with a tranquil North Wales street market scene.

Viewers are then shown a picture of a woman in traditional Islamic dress, and a picture of Miss Jenkins wearing a Welsh rugby shirt. They are then asked which they would prefer. The video ends with an image of a BNP badge and the text "vote BNP".

A member of Miss Jenkins's management team said, "Katherine wants to have absolutely nothing to do with these people. We are trying to trace how someone got the picture. It was not passed on by the photographer or his agent. It is just stirring things up and we are striving to have the image removed."

Western Mail, 4 April 2008

A woman felt "violated" when a man pulled off her religious headscarf – hijab – as she walked along a north Wales street pushing a pushchair.

BBC News report

Racist graffiti has been daubed all over a problem-plagued Neath family park.Messages of hate – which included "blacks and Muslims out" – were scrawled on walls and floors at Gnoll Country Park. Local councillor and racial equality champion Peter Rees said: "Gnoll Country Park is a place where many families and nationalities go. So, to have racist graffiti sprayed there is totally unacceptable."

South Wales Evening Post, 17 August 2007

"... we know that the Islamification of Europe was planned back as early as the 1950's by people who wished to create a Eurabia, prior to the creation of a one world government. Their plans are now well advanced.... In Our Country, The Cult of the Dead Paedophile have created, whilst the British People slept an Islamic Government with its own Parliament and Judiciary and is now starting to act as a nation within a nation....

"They have their own communication channels and carefully select their areas for colonisation. Once firmly embedded they then seek to change their environment to suit them. The original inhabitants are then 'encouraged' to move. They can then control the political process in that area with their block votes and their casual attitude towards electoral fraud.... But no one can say that we were not warned. What parts of "Islam will rule the World" or them saying "This is our country now" and "The flag of Islam will fly over England" do we not understand? ...

"Our only chance is for a British National Party government. These Assembly and local elections are our launchpad. We must succeed. I leave you to imagine the alternative."

Home of the Green Arrow, 1 May 2007

And you thought fascists were just hate-filled bigots? Not at all. In reality they're sensitive animal-lovers who are brought to tears by the sufferings of our furry friends at the hands of barbaric Muslim butchers. The Welsh section of the British National Party proudly declares that their election manifesto includes the commitment to "ban the horrific practice of Halal ritual slaughter anywhere in Wales".

BNP news article, 18 April 2007

Politicians from all parties have put their differences aside in a bid to oppose the far-right British National Party. Sitting Assembly Members abandoned their campaigning and joined candidates and community members to discuss the BNP. The group is putting up a record 20 candidates in the National Assembly election, with the most high profile bid for power coming from leader Nick Griffin in the South Wales West constituency.

At a meeting in the Glamorgan Muslim Community Centre, Aberkenfig, near Bridgend, on Saturday, politicians including Environment Minister and Bridgend AM Carwyn Jones and Plaid Cymru candidate Bethan Jenkins pledged their commitment to tackling discrimination against ethnic minorities.

The Bridgend Unite Against Fascism Group, which organised the gathering, believes the BNP is a racist party which poses a threat to democracy and freedom. Unite spokesman Jeff Hurford said: "The highlight of the day was being able to get all of the parties together and a commitment to showing unity against the BNP. This all bodes well for future co-operation between the parties ahead of next year's council elections."

icWales, 4 April 2007

A Muslim couple are threatening to take action against the police after they were held by Special Branch detectives at Cardiff Airport – missing their flight as their luggage and identities were checked. Aisha Pritchard and her Palestinian husband Sadi Eihaloul claim their detention was racist and are now considering bringing a test case against South Wales Police.

The couple, from Pentwyn, Cardiff, were due to fly to Dubai via Amsterdam for a four-day break on December 14 but they never made the trip after being stopped by security at the boarding gate. Ms Pritchard, 40, said: "We understand that there have to be security measures at all airports. It is the way we were treated we cannot accept. We feel we were deliberately stopped from boarding the plane, that it was racist and because we are Muslims."

By the time they had been given the all-clear by the detectives, the couple's flight had already left. And because their tickets were non-transferable, they were faced with having to pay out £1,500 if they wanted the next flight. Instead, they caught a taxi home.

icWales, 28 December 2006

See also the Independent, 29 December 2006

The four main parties in Wales have united to condemn the racist British National Party for its comments attacking the National Museum of Wales over the staging of two exhibitions on Islamic culture.

icWales, 24 November 2006

The Welsh-based former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord George Carey says Muslim women, particularly teachers, should not be permitted to wear the veil in the workplace. The 70-year-old former head of the Church of England who now has a home in Llanrhidian, Gower, was speaking ahead of a lecture he will give at Swansea University next week. "The face is an important medium of communication," he said. "We all need to see a full face, to see the smile and hear the voice clearly.... I personally do not like to see fully veiled women, but then again I don't like to see middle aged British men with ugly beer guts in shorts and no tops!"

icWales, 20 November 2006