Year: 2010

White Christian Britons ‘unfairly targeted by draconian religious hate laws’

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By Gerri Peev
Last updated at 10:35 AM on 19th July 2010

Over-the-top ‘religious hate’ laws have fuelled a worrying trend of prosecutions for even mildly critical remarks, a think tank has warned.

Draconian hate laws have dragged disputes that would normally be settled in a healthy argument between people into the courts, it suggests.

The majority of those prosecuted are white men, it claims.

Prosecuted: Christian hoteliers Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were charged with religiously aggravated hate crimes after describing the prophet Mohammed as a 'warlord' to guest Ericka TaziProsecuted: Christian hoteliers Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were charged and then cleared of religiously aggravated hate crimes

A new report from the think tank Civitas ‘A New Inquisition: religious persecution in Britain today’, warns that people are being charged with serious offences for discussing religion.

It cites examples of over the top prosecutions including:

  • Christian hoteliers Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were charged with religiously aggravated hate crimes after describing the prophet Mohammed as a ‘warlord’ to guest Ericka Tazi. The couple pleaded their innocence and the charges were thrown out.
  • Atheist Harry Taylor put leaflets mocking Christianity and Islam in a prayer room at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. He was charged with causing religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress under the Public Order Act.
  • Tauriq Khalid was taken to court for a racially motivated ‘hate’ offence after he gave a two fingered gesture to BNP leader Nick Griffin. Mr Khalid was cleared. Although the blasphemy law – which only applied to Christians – was repealed in 2008, it has been overtaken with a much more virulent ‘anti hatred’ legislation.

People are being charged through the back door for causing ‘religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress’ under the Public Order Act.

This could destroy open and critical decision of religion, warns academic and author, Jon Gower Davies, formerly head of religious studies at Newcastle University.

He said: ‘The British people might be forgiven for thinking that their basic religious-cultural inheritance, the culture under which we have grown up, is not just out of control but under some insidious attack.’ Continue Reading →

UK Muslim group targets Pope’s visit

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From Sunday Mercury Net:

Pope’s Birmingham open air mass targeted by Muslim group

Jul 18 2010 by Adam Aspinall, Sunday Mercury

AN MP fears the Pope’s visit to Birmingham could be marred by violence after a fundamentalist Muslim group told followers to ‘convert’ Catholics attending an open air mass.

The sinister orders have appeared in an inflammatory article on a hardline website called the Islamic Standard – which also brands the Pontiff ‘evil’.

It is urging Muslims to disrupt Pope Benedict XVI’s appearance at Cofton Park in September when up to 80,000 Catholics will attend a live mass.

Last night, Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood called for a police probe into the Leicester-based website.

He said: “These supposed Muslims are doing all they can to incite violence. Sadly, if Muslims do turn up and preach at Catholics it could easily turn to violence. Continue Reading →

UK: Muslim bus drivers refuse to let guide dogs on board

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From The Daily Mail:

By ANDY DOLAN
Last updated at 4:14 AM on 19th July 2010

Blind passengers are being ordered off buses or refused taxi rides because Muslim drivers or passengers object to their ‘unclean’ guide dogs.

One pensioner, a cancer sufferer, told how had twice been confronted by drivers and asked to get off the bus because of his guide dog, and had also faced hostility at a hospital and in a supermarket over the animal.

The problem to carry guide dogs on religious grounds has become so widespread that the matter was raised in the House of Lords last week, prompting transport minister Norman Baker to warn that a religious objection was not a reason to eject a passenger with a well-behaved guide dog.

George Herridge and his guide dog‘Stunned’: George Herridge, 73, was twice asked by bus drivers to leave their vehicles because of his guide dog, a black labrador

While drivers can use their discretion to refuse to carry non-disabled passengers with dogs, they are compelled to accept guide dogs under disability discrimination law.

Yesterday both the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Federation of the Blind confirmed the problem was common, and, according to the latter organisation was ‘getting worse’. Continue Reading →

Iran to file international complaint over deadly mosque blasts

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FOXNEWS… TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday Iran will file a complaint to international bodies over the deadly mosque bombing by an insurgent group he says the U.S. supports.

The twin suicide bombings of a mosque in southeast Iran killed 28 people Thursday night, in an attack claimed by the Jundallah insurgent group as revenge for the execution of its leader by Iranian authorities in June.

Ahmadinejad did not specify if the complaint would be specifically against the U.S., but he did tell state TV that America supported the bombings.

“If (President Barack) Obama is not aware of actions by American forces, we tell him that American troops based in Afghanistan and Pakistan support these actions,” he said referring to the bombings. “Yet, the American president sends a condolence message.”

Obama and other U.S. officials condemned the bombings.

Ahmadinejad also held Pakistan responsible for allegedly harboring terrorists, saying Islamabad “must be answerable.”

Iran accuses the United States and Britain of supporting Jundallah in effort to weaken the clerical leadership, a claim both countries deny.

Pat Condell: The Enemy Within.

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Please watch this video. Please.

If you want sharia, Britain is the place for you. Don’t want it? Too bad.

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I for one, have never bought the notion that the wearing of the burqa is a benign expression of one’s religion and have long argued that it is in fact, only one tenet of sharia. As we can see, despite the fact that the majority of Britains polled do not support the wearing of the burqa, the government has no intention of supporting, nor defending their concerns against those Islamists who dream of Britain as an Islamic state, working diligently to realize this seemingly inevitable outcome.

Farooq Murad of the Muslim Council of Britain, pointed to the spread of mosques and sharia, or Islamic law, as positive signs of the greater freedom Muslims are given in this country. He says, ” There’s a great British sense of fairness and justice. We can have great pride in what a tolerant country Britain is, looking at the growth of mosques, and how nearly more people eat halal meat than don’t.”

He warned, ” any moves to restrict the expression of Islam by banning the veil or blocking the building of minarets would alienate the Muslim community and threaten social cohesion”.

From The Telegraph U.K.

Burka ban ruled out by immigration minister

Britain will not follow France by introducing a law banning women from wearing the burka, the immigration minister has ruled.

By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor
Published: 8:28PM BST 17 Jul 2010
A woman in a burka

YouGov: 67 per cent of voters wanted the wearing of full-face veils to be made illegal Photo: GETTY

Damian Green said such a move would be “rather un-British” and run contrary to the conventions of a “tolerant and mutually respectful society”.

He said it would be “undesirable” for Parliament to vote on a burka ban in Britain and that there was no prospect of the Coalition proposing it.

His comments will dismay the growing number of supporters of a ban. A YouGov survey last week found that 67 per cent of voters wanted the wearing of full-face veils to be made illegal. Continue Reading →

Iran issues veiled warning to US

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July 17, 2010 STRATFOR:
Senior Revolutionary Guards commander Massoud Jazayeri said the United States will face “fallout” from a rebel bomb attack in southeast Iran on July 15, Reuters reported July 17, citing a semi-official Iranian news agency. Jazayeri did not elaborate on what he meant by “fallout.” Iran has accused Washington of backing Jundollah, a Sunni Muslim rebel group that claimed responsibility for the blasts that killed 28 people and wounded 306, including members of the Guards.

Rioters exchanged gunfire with police in the French city of Grenoble

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Thanks to Bear for the rapid translation, we see more devastation wrought by the religion of peace in Grenoble France. The story is typical. Police shoot a fleeing armed and dangerous suspect, and the whole clan comes out and riots in protest.

More here at the BBC website

More specifically, from Gates of Vienna:

The “youths” of France are at it again, this time in Grenoble.

The other day some racist police officers had the temerity not only to catch a gang of young Muslim criminals, but actually to shoot one of them to death.

All right, so the late high-spirited lad had shot and wounded a policeman. But still — he didn’t deserve to die for it, did he? That’s a disproportionate response! The appropriate level of retaliation would be to wound him to the exact extent that he wounded the cop. That would be fair.

Anyway, in reaction the young rascals went on a bit of a spree. According to AFP:

The southeastern French town of Grenoble was hit by riots on early Saturday with shots fired and cars set alight after a man accused of robbing a casino was killed by police. Police spokeswoman Brigitte Jullien said, shots had been fired at police who returned fire four times. A youth was arrested at the scene of the riots, the working class district of La Villeneuve.

Thirty cars and several businesses were torched, while angry youths armed with baseball bats and iron bars attacked a tram and forced the passengers to get out.

The incidents started after a Muslim service for 27-year-old Karim Boudouda, who died 24 hours earlier in a shootout with police after the Uriage-les-Bains casino near Grenoble was held up.

Here’s more detailed information from the Beeb: Continue Reading →