Anti-Islam lawmaker loses legal challenge to stop hate speech trial in The Netherlands

Far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders yesterday lost a legal bid to stop his pending trial for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims. “The Attorney-General is of the opinion that there are no grounds” for a further appeal, the Dutch Supreme Court said in a statement.

Lawyers for Wilders had sought to overturn a ruling by the Amsterdam appeals court in January that he should be prosecuted for a series of public anti-Muslim statements, particularly for comparing Islam to Nazism.

“It is a political process,” Wilders responded in a statement on the website of his Freedom Party (PVV), which has nine out of 150 seats in parliament.

“I am being prosecuted for saying about Islam what millions of Dutch think. Freedom of expression is at risk of being offered at the altar of Islam.”

The January appeals court judgment had followed numerous complaints from citizens over the prosecution service’s initial refusal to press charges against Wilders.

Wilders, 45, is the maker of a 17-minute film, Fitna, which has been called “offensively anti-Islamic” by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The screening of the film in the Netherlands last year prompted protests in much of the Muslim world including Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran and Pakistan.

Wilders has called for the banning of the Holy Qur’an in the Netherlands, calling it “fascist.”

In June last year, the prosecutor’s office said Fitna, though offensive to Muslims, did not give rise to a punishable offence. It dismissed dozens of complaints received from around the country, saying Wilders’ utterances were made in the context of public debate.

But the appeals court ruled six months later that politicians, given their special responsibility, ought not to be permitted to make “statements which create hate and grief,” and ordered the prosecution to put Wilders on trial.

Source: AFP/ The Hague

Leaked list reveals BNP strongholds

Taken from the Independent, 19 November 2008

Lancashire was today revealed as a stronghold of BNP supporters with 861 people in the county on a leaked membership list.

West Yorkshire has the second highest rate of membership with 858 people from the county on the list.

And throughout Yorkshire as a whole the party counts more than 1,600 members.

The list, posted on an internet blog, contains 12,000 names including addresses, contact details and some members' jobs.

Some of the towns in Lancashire with the most BNP members include Oldham (78) and Burnley (73) which were the scene of violent race riots in 2001.

In Yorkshire, more than 240 members live in Leeds and 109 are in Bradford - where the 2001 rioting spread after igniting in Lancashire.

Essex has just over 670 members and the West Midlands more than 580. In Kent 417 people are signed up and in Leicestershire there are 409.

But there are hotspots of BNP membership across the country.

In Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, where there are nine BNP councillors on the city council, there are more than 100 members.

London has close to 500 members on the list and more than 230 members are listed as living in Manchester.

Burnley Council Labour Leader Julie Cooper said: "It doesn't surprise me that there are so many members in Lancashire and in Burnley. The BNP in Burnley have worked very hard to prey on vulnerable communities and appeal to the selfish side in all of us.

"Most of their support comes from traditional Labour areas where there is a lot of deprivation.

"But I think the tide is turning. We have four BNP members on the council now but we used to have seven and I believe that we can bring that down to three at the next election.

"It is such a shame because Burnley has got so much going for it and so many people here are doing a lot of good work."

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The publication of the list was inappropriate and put the lives of people “we disagree with” in danger. Although the original source of the list on Blogger has been taken down there are many websites still hosting the bnpmemberslist.

Whatever people say – groups like The BNP, National front, Combat 18 etc are all racist groups. The BNP may appear to be more mainstream and have a clean cut image but deep down it is another matter.

It has been alleged that hate groups like the above have set up websites that publish names and address of left wing politicians and ordinary people that stand up against fascism. Websites such as redwatch.org / redwatch.net (note: domain name keeps changing) is one prime example. here is a video report youtube.com

The majority of the members of hate groups have grown up in areas where there is a lot of deprivation but most of them have a disillusioned life. One of the highest profile BNP members was uncovered in 2006 – ballerina Simone Clarke. She joined the party to stand up against mass immigration (something unfamiliar to her that every party stands against).

The astonishing thing about Simone Clarke was that at that time she was in a relationship with fellow English National Ballet star Yat-Sen Chang, a Cuban immigrant of Chinese descent. They even have a five year old daughter, Olivia. The relationship didn’t last as Yat-Sen Chang, refused to back her politics. Simone Clarke is currently engaged to local BNP politician Richard Barnbrook who allegedly made the comment of Simone and Yat’s relationship "I'm not opposed to mixed marriages but their children are washing out the identity of this country's indigenous people." - Need I Say more!

Here are some points why many people consider the BNP to be a fascist party Click Here!

Stand up against fascism - for more info Click Here!

Holy war strikes India

35 Christians killed and 50,000 forced from their homes by Hindu mobs enraged at Swami's murder

Taken from The Independent, UK
By Andrew Buncombe in Phulbani, Orissa, Thursday, 9 October 2008

As she recalled her awful story, Puspanjali Panda made no attempt to halt the tears flooding down her face.

Holding her daughter close, she told how a baying Hindu mob dragged her husband – a Christian pastor – from his bed, beat him to death with stones and iron rods and then threw him into a river. She found his corpse two days later, washed up on the bank. When she went to the police, they told her to go away.

Mrs Panda and thousands of others like her are victims of the worst communal violence between Hindus and Christians that India has seen for decades. For a country that boasts of its mutual religious tolerance, the long-simmering tension that has erupted in the Kandhamal district of the state of Orissa – a nun being raped, churches being burned, at least 35 people killed and thousands forced from their villages – is both a belated wake-up call and a mounting embarrassment. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, called it a "national disgrace".

But for Mrs Panda, sheltering in a wretched relief camp in the state capital, Bhubaneswar, it is much worse than that. The 38-year-old said she had no idea what would now happen to her and her bewildered-looking child, Mona Lisa. "I do not want to go back. They have destroyed my home," she wailed.

The journey to the heart of the violence follows a bone-shaking road east from Bhubaneswar to the district capital, Phulbani. It was here in late August that thousands of Hindus armed with swords, sticks and primitive guns began taking matters into their own hands after the murder of an elderly religious leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.

The swami, a senior member of a right-wing Hindu organisation known as the Vishswa Hindu Parishad (VHP), had reportedly been working to prevent low-caste Hindus converting to Christianity. His followers claimed he had been murdered by local Christians, though police said there was no evidence of that. Either way, in the days that followed, groups of Hindus wrought a terrible revenge on Christian families whom they had lived alongside for decades. In addition to the deaths, 140 churches and prayer halls were attacked and up to 50,000 people forced to flee.

In instances the violence appears staggering in its cruelty. Rabindranath Pradhan, now a refugee, had to watch helplessly while a 300-strong mob doused his disabled brother with petrol and set him alight. "He was shouting 'Help me, Help me.' I could not help – there were so many of them," he said.

Local people are now forced to fly saffron-coloured flags outside their homes to identity themselves as Hindus and prevent attack. In the village of Pabinga a Catholic church lies in ruins, the cross pushed from the roof and the interior of the building badly damaged. Christian leaders say that families forced to flee have been told they can only return if they re-convert to Hinduism.

Raphael Cheenath, the Archbishop of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, traced the violence to the anger of upper-caste Hindus at the number of Dalits or so-called untouchables converting to Christianity. Previously, he said, the lower castes had lived the lives of slaves and now – liberated and better-educated – they represented a challenge. "It incites the upper castes," he said.

While conversion has been an issue, the conflict here is more complex than a religious disagreement. Many activists believe the fight is an economic dispute between two of India's poorest groups, complicated by the issue of caste and ethnicity. For decades there has been conflict over land and resources between the two groups at the bottom of India's complex social system – the indigenous people of the region officially listed as scheduled tribes (ST) and non-indigenous poor known as scheduled castes (SC).

While the ST are Hindu, increasing numbers of SC have converted to Christianity to escape the misery of the caste system, for perceived economic benefit and because of the efforts of missionaries. Many politicians have accused right-wing Hindu groups of agitating tension for political reasons.

Somewhat surprisingly given the number of churches that have been destroyed, the ST of Kandhamal also say their conflict with the SC communities is not a religious dispute. They too say the battle is over land and resources.

Lambahdhar Kanhari, a tribal leader, says he has received death-threats from Christians. At his house near Phulbani a guard with a pump-action shotgun stands outside. Mr Kanhari did not deny that tribal people were responsible for the flurry of attacks but said that while the recent violence had been triggered by the killing of Swami Saraswati, its roots went back decades.

"These SC came from outside the area. They are criminal by nature. They have taken our land, our crops, everything," he said. "When the Swami was killed by the Christians some of his followers went after the killers and some of our people have been involved in the fighting."

The authorities say 11 relief camps have been set up to help more than 23,000 people. The Indian government has belatedly dispatched hundreds of police and paramilitaries to Kandhamal to calm the situation. In Phulbani, there is now a 6pm-8am curfew.

On a recent evening, the curfew had just been called as Asis Mishra was chaining shut the gate in front of his home. One of a tiny number of Christians in Phulbani still daring to live in their homes, Mr Mishra had good reason to take special safety precautions.

During the worst of the violence his family had fled their home and lived in a guesthouse, provided with food and money by Hindu families. Mr Mishra explained that he was not a recent convert, his family having been Christians for five generations. He said he hoped the fact he was well known within the community would protect him. He tapped on his chest and said: "We have been here a long time, but there is still some fear... It is always here."

Religious intolerance: The flashpoint state
* Orissa, on the Bay of Bengal, is India's ninth-largest state. It is less densely populated than its coastal neighbours but it is still home to 36 million people.
* Hindus make up 94 per cent of the population; 2 per cent are Christians. Tensions mounted in 1999, when an Australian missionary and his sons were burnt alive by a Hindu mob.
* The state has one-fifth of India's coal reserves and a third of its bauxite, but many people live in chronic poverty.

Nun dies after Hindu hardliners torch Christian churches and an orphanage

Taken from Daily Mail, UK, 25th August 2008

A nun has been killed and a priest seriously injured after Hindu hardliners set fire to an orphanage run by Christian missionaries.

The attack occurred in the village of Khuntapali, in India’s Orissa state, during protests against the murder of a Hindu religious leader on Saturday.

Police say tensions between the two groups have been growing in recent weeks, with some Hindu groups accusing the missionaries of bribing villagers to convert to Christianity.

Yesterday the religious fanatics converged on the orphanage and asked nearly 20 residents to leave the complex.

They then set the orphanage on fire with the nun and the priest locked inside.

The priest suffered extensive burns and was last night in a serious condition in hospital.

Although India’s constitution is secular, 84 per cent of its 1.2billion population is Hindu.

Around 2.5 per cent of Indians are Christians.

In the past Hindu extremists in Orissa state have attacked other Christian missionaries.

In 1999 an Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two sons were killed by a Hindu mob that set their car on fire.

Churches have denied that residents have been pressured or bribed to change their religious beliefs.

Indian law accepts missionaries but bars forced conversions. Nevertheless, any missionary activity generally provokes controversy.

Orthodox Jewish youths burn New Testaments in Or Yehuda

Taken from Haaretz, Israel
By The Associated Press, 20/05/2008

Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land. Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon said missionaries recently entered a neighborhood in the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of New Testaments and missionary material.

After receiving complaints, Aharon said, he got into a loudspeaker car last Thursday and drove through the neighborhood, urging people to turn over the material to Jewish religious students who went door to door to collect it. "The books were dumped into a pile and set afire in a lot near a synagogue," he said.

The newspaper Maariv reported Tuesday that hundreds of yeshiva students took part in the book-burning. But Aharon told The Associated Press that only a few students were present, and that he was not there when the books were torched.

"Not all of the New Testaments that were collected were burned, but hundreds were," he said.

He said he regretted the burning of the books, but called it a commandment to burn materials that urge Jews to convert.

"I certainly don't denounce the burning of the booklets, he said. I denounce those who distributed the booklets."

Jews worship from the Old Testament, including the Five Books of Moses and the writings of the ancient prophets. Christians revere the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, which contains the ministry of Jesus.

Calev Myers, an attorney who represents Messianic Jews, or Jews who accept Jesus as their savior, demanded in an interview with Army Radio that all those involved be put on trial. He estimated there were 10,000 Messianic Jews, who are also known as Jews for Jesus, in Israel.

Police had no immediate comment.

Israeli authorities and Orthodox Jews frown on missionary activity aimed at Jews, though in most cases it is not illegal. Still, the concept of a Jew burning books is abhorrent to many in Israel because of the association with Nazis torching piles of Jewish books during the Holocaust of World War II.

Earlier this year, the teenage son of a prominent Christian missionary was seriously wounded when a package bomb delivered to the family's West Bank home went off in his hands.

Last year, arsonists burst into a Jerusalem church used by Messianic Jews and set the building on fire, raising suspicions that Jewish extremists were behind the attack. No one claimed responsibility, but the same church was burned down 25 years ago by ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremists.

Some examples of Jewish Hate against Christians & Muslims Caught on tape

Palestinians: Settlers hurling stones at us

Dozens of right-wing activists living in illegal West Bank outpost constantly harassing local residents, Palestinians say

Taken from YNetnews Israel, 13.10.07
By Amit Schneider

Dozens of settlers living in the illegal West Bank outpost of Shvut Ami have been harassing Palestinians and hurling stones at their cars, local residents told Ynet on Saturday.

Shvut Ami is one of the five outposts built by right-wing activists during the holiday of Sukkot. About 200 people arrived at the area on the day of construction, but most of them left.

The following day, IDF forces began evacuating the outposts, but the soldiers were forced to return to Shvut Ami the week later after a number of right-wing activists returned to the area.
It appears, however, that there are several settlers still living in the illegal outpost and disrupting the lives of the local residents traveling on nearby roads.

"The road goes under the outpost, and the settlers throw stones from 5 meters above, "said Zakaria Seda, a resident of the village of Jit, near Kedumim. "Palestinians from the Qalqilya and Nablus area who pass by are harassed by the settlers."

Seda said that many drivers were injured on the road as their car windows were shattered by the stones, and that a settler even caused a road accident this week by hurling a stone at a moving car.

"The driver had to suddenly brake, and was hit in the back by another car."

'Police looking into incident'
According to Seda, he filed four different complaints with the local District Coordination Office (DCO) this week, but was ignored.

"There were many complaints to the Israel Police and the DCO, and no solution was provided.

They told me they were working on it and that they would be evacuated, but unfortunately this has not happened. The Palestinians here live in fear. We seek a solution and wish to live in peace with the Israelis."

According to Seda, this was not the first time settlers disrupted Palestinians' lives in the area.

"The Palestinian residents are harassed, mainly by residents of the Havat Gilad outpost who uproot trees or set fire to their property," he claimed.

The Judea and Samaria police said in response that a report filed by a Palestinian claiming that stones were hurled at moving cars near the Jit junction was received on Friday through the DCO, and that the incident was being looked into by the police.

Efrat Weiss and Roee Nahmias contributed to this report

End olive harvest attacks

If understanding with PA to be reached, settler rioters at olive groves should be dealt with

Taken from Ynetnews, israel, 10.10.07
By Yehuda Litani

"A Palestinian farmer residing in the Tal village adjacent to Kedumim was stoned by settlers from the Gilad outpost while harvesting olives. The man was treated at the site and evacuated to hospital. The Rabbis for Human Rights organization lodged a complaint with the IDF and the Coordination and Liaison Authority."

This laconic report by the French news agency Tuesday is just the opening shot ahead of another season of trouble at West Bank olive groves.

Each year during this season the harsh events carried out by settlers attacking the Palestinian olive harvesters are repeated, and each year security officials repeatedly assure they will do their utmost to prevent such attacks. However, both the Palestinian farmers and the settlers know how "serious" these assurances are.

The olive tree was selected this year as Israel's "national tree." Some 8,800 Ynet surfers voted for it ahead of the Olympics in Beijing next year. However, similar to several other matters, the Olive tree is also the national tree of our Palestinian neighbors-enemies. They didn’t select it in an online competition ahead of the Olympics: Since the 1950s the majority of Palestinians have regarded the olive tree as their national emblem. Being torn from their olive trees is a motif that is repeated in Palestinian literature and poetry in the past 10 years.

Each year skirmishes between Jewish settlers and Palestinian farmers take place adjacent to these trees in the West Bank. The farmers blame the settlers for attempting to steal their "single prized possession" – the olive and oil yield on which the livelihood of tens of thousands of families are dependent throughout the long winter months.

In the eyes of the farmers, these attacks are the continuation of another harsh abuse: During the construction of the separation fence in recent years, construction contractors uprooted thousands of olive trees, the vast majority of which were sold to Israeli nurseries.

The attack on harvesters, the damage to the olive groves and the uprooting of trees are perceived by the Palestinian public as an attempt to uproot them from their land. Moreover, the security forces are exhibiting an unfathomable helplessness wherever protecting the Palestinian farmers and in warding off settler aggression is concerned.

The incumbent government is seeking to reach understandings with the Palestinian Authority regarding the West Bank and Jerusalem. The prime minister is seeking to strengthen the heads of the Authority so that the Hamas takeover of Gaza will not be repeated in the West Bank.

Yet while secret understandings are being reached at the covert meetings between Olmert and Abbas, life goes on as usual at the West Bank olive groves.

It is worth noting that this year very low yields are expected (last year there was an abundance of olives, and this year the opposite is expected due to the trees' biennial cycle), and each yield harvested is rare and its price set accordingly.

If this year the security establishment does not show some determination in its handling of the attacks, cabinet representatives will find it difficult to convince Palestinians that their intentions are indeed serious in more critical matters such as establishing a Palestinian state, transfer of land and reaching an agreement on Jerusalem.

Despite the matter being seemingly marginal, perhaps our cabinet leaders should remember that which is written in the bible: A good name is better than precious oil.

Israel shaken by troops' tales of brutality against Palestinians

A psychologist blames assaults on civilians in the 1990s on soldiers' bad training, boredom and poor supervision

Taken from The Observer (Guardian online), UK
By Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem

A study by an Israeli psychologist into the violent behaviour of the country's soldiers is provoking bitter controversy and has awakened urgent questions about the way the army conducts itself in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Nufar Yishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, interviewed 21 Israeli soldiers and heard confessions of frequent brutal assaults against Palestinians, aggravated by poor training and discipline. In her recently published report, co-authored by Professor Yoel Elizur, Yishai-Karin details a series of violent incidents, including the beating of a four-year-old boy by an officer.

The report, although dealing with the experience of soldiers in the 1990s, has triggered an impassioned debate in Israel, where it was published in an abbreviated form in the newspaper Haaretz last month. According to Yishai Karin: 'At one point or another of their service, the majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence. They enjoyed the violence because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction and the chaos. They also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence and the sense of danger.'

In the words of one soldier: 'The truth? When there is chaos, I like it. That's when I enjoy it. It's like a drug. If I don't go into Rafah, and if there isn't some kind of riot once in some weeks, I go nuts.'

Another explained: 'The most important thing is that it removes the burden of the law from you. You feel that you are the law. You are the law. You are the one who decides... As though from the moment you leave the place that is called Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and go through the Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law. You are God.'

The soldiers described dozens of incidents of extreme violence. One recalled an incident when a Palestinian was shot for no reason and left on the street. 'We were in a weapons carrier when this guy, around 25, passed by in the street and, just like that, for no reason - he didn't throw a stone, did nothing - bang, a bullet in the stomach, he shot him in the stomach and the guy is dying on the pavement and we keep going, apathetic. No one gave him a second look,' he said.

The soldiers developed a mentality in which they would use physical violence to deter Palestinians from abusing them. One described beating women. 'With women I have no problem. With women, one threw a clog at me and I kicked her here [pointing to the crotch], I broke everything there. She can't have children. Next time she won't throw clogs at me. When one of them [a woman] spat at me, I gave her the rifle butt in the face. She doesn't have what to spit with any more.'

Yishai-Karin found that the soldiers were exposed to violence against Palestinians from as early as their first weeks of basic training. On one occasion, the soldiers were escorting some arrested Palestinians. The arrested men were made to sit on the floor of the bus. They had been taken from their beds and were barely clothed, even though the temperature was below zero. The new recruits trampled on the Palestinians and then proceeded to beat them for the whole of the journey. They opened the bus windows and poured water on the arrested men.

The disclosure of the report in the Israeli media has occasioned a remarkable response. In letters responding to the recollections, writers have focused on both the present and past experience of Israeli soldiers to ask troubling questions that have probed the legitimacy of the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces.

The study and the reactions to it have marked a sharp change in the way Israelis regard their period of military service - particularly in the occupied territories - which has been reflected in the increasing levels of conscientious objection and draft-dodging.

The debate has contrasted sharply with an Israeli army where new recruits are taught that they are joining 'the most ethical army in the world' - a refrain that is echoed throughout Israeli society. In its doctrine, published on its website, the Israeli army emphasises human dignity.

'The Israeli army and its soldiers are obligated to protect human dignity. Every human being is of value regardless of his or her origin, religion, nationality, gender, status or position.'

However, the Israeli army, like other armies, has found it difficult to maintain these values beyond the classroom. The first intifada, which began in 1987, before the wave of suicide bombings, was markedly different to the violence of the second intifada, and its main events were popular demonstrations with stone-throwing.

Yishai-Karin, in an interview with Haaretz, described how her research came out of her own experience as a soldier at an army base in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. She interviewed 18 ordinary soldiers and three officers whom she had served with in Gaza. The soldiers described how the violence was encouraged by some commanders. One soldier recalled: 'After two months in Rafah, a [new] commanding officer arrived... So we do a first patrol with him. It's 6am, Rafah is under curfew, there isn't so much as a dog in the streets. Only a little boy of four playing in the sand. He is building a castle in his yard. He [the officer] suddenly starts running and we all run with him. He was from the combat engineers.

'He grabbed the boy. I am a degenerate if I am not telling you the truth. He broke his hand here at the wrist, broke his leg here. And started to stomp on his stomach, three times, and left. We are all there, jaws dropping, looking at him in shock...

'The next day I go out with him on another patrol, and the soldiers are already starting to do the same thing."

Yishai-Karin concluded that the main reason for the soldiers' violence was a lack of training. She found that the soldiers did not know what was expected of them and therefore were free to develop their own way of behaviour. The longer a unit was left in the field, the more violent it became. The Israeli soldiers, she concluded, had a level of violence which is universal across all nations and cultures. If they are allowed to operate in difficult circumstances, such as in Gaza and the West Bank, without training and proper supervision, the violence is bound to come out.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that, if a soldier deviates from the army's norms, they could be investigated by the military police or face criminal investigation.

She said: 'It should be noted that since the events described in Nufar Yishai-Karin's research the number of ethical violations by IDF soldiers involving the Palestinian population has consistently dropped. This trend has continued in the last few years.'

Blair's Farewell Shot At Muslims & Russia's Putin

Extracted from the BBC, 16.06.07

On Saturday, Britain announced the knighthood for the author the of "The Satanic Verses" in an honors list timed for the official celebration of the queen's 81st birthday.

Salman Rushdie, who went into hiding under threat of death after an Iranian fatwa, has been knighted by the Queen. His book The Satanic Verses offended Muslims worldwide and a bounty was placed on his head in 1989.



But since the Indian-born author returned to public life in 1999, he has not shied away from controversy. A devout secularist, he backed Commons Leader Jack Straw over comments on Muslim women and veils and has warned against Islamic "totalitarianism" after the publications of the Danish cartoons, which satirised the Prophet Muhammad. The son of a successful businessman, Salman was born into a Muslim family in Mumbai in 1947. It was immediately condemned by the Islamic world because of its blasphemous depiction of the prophet Muhammad. It was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities and in 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's spiritual leader, issued a fatwa, ordering Salman's execution. In 1998, the Iranian government said it would no longer support the fatwa, but some groups have said it is irrevocable.

Former KGB colonel Oleg Gordievsky, who became the highest-ranking Soviet spy to defect to the west, has also been honoured by the Queen. He has been appointed a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.



The recognition in the Birthday Honours Diplomatic List means he now holds the same title as book spook James Bond. And like 007, Mr Gordievsky operated in the murky world of secret assignments, assassinations and allegations.

Disillusioned with the political situation in his homeland, he operated as a double agent during the Cold War. He passed on an unprecedented amount of information to British security while serving as KGB bureau chief in London. His help led to the expulsion of 25 Soviet agents working undercover in the UK. At the time, his defection was hailed by then British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe as "a very substantial coup for our security forces".

Mr Gordievsky was MI5's greatest asset between 1982 and 1985, when his cover was blown and he was ordered back to Moscow. He was eventually smuggled back to the West and has since written a number of books about the operations of the KGB. Fictional superspy James Bond was made a CMG in Ian Fleming's novel From Russia With Love. Mr Gordievsky's honour is for services to the security of the UK.

--------------------------------------------------
Well, what can i say? A kick in the teeth for Muslims around the world and for Putin. How could an author become a knight? what has he done to deserve such an accolade? Yes, he has written a few books but has severed relationships between the UK and many Muslim countries. He is no role model nor has he bought any success to the UK. This knighthood was a delibrate ploy against the Muslims and in particulr Iran for thier condemnation for the recent captur of UK sailors. I wonder if Tony Blair will still have his hero status in Albania and Seria Leon? I wonder if he will be able to live a normal life in the UK. He is most likey to emigrate to the US where he is still popular. As for the knighthood for the former KGB spy - well it had to happen didn't it? after the death of former Russian agent Andrei Lugovoi in the UK this seems to be the ideal way for Blair to upset his friend Putin. The UK is very dependant on foreign Gas supplies, I wonder if the UK will be receiving any Gas supplies from Russia? The only good news for the people of Britain is that Blair is leaving office very soon.

'Dead' Klansman On Trial Over 1964 Deaths

Taken from The Guardian, UK, May 29, 2007
Ewen MacAskill in Jackson, Mississippi

Thomas Moore is looking forward to finally confronting face-to-face James Ford Seale, a Ku Klux Klansman who came back from the dead.

"I want to look at him," he said. "I want to tell him about the pain he caused me and my family."

Moore, 63, a retired sergeant major, today recalled the day he found out that Seale was still alive. "I was so happy. We thought the guy was dead and so did everyone else."


A US marshal escorts James Ford Seale, 71, from the federal courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi. Photograph: Rogelio V Solis/AP

The trial opens tomorrow in the Mississippi state capital, Jackson, of Seale, 71, a former worker in a paper plant, crop duster and police officer, accused of kidnapping and conspiracy in relation to the murder of two black teenagers in 1964, one of them Moore's brother.

According to the indictment, the two 19-year-olds, Moore and Henry Dee, were kidnapped by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, tortured and dumped in the Mississippi river, Moore tied to a Jeep engine block, and, according to an FBI informant at the time, still breathing.

The killings marked the beginning of a summer of madness, as the KKK responded to the civil rights movement with the fiery crosses, church bombings and murders depicted in Alan Parker's 1988 film, Mississippi Burning.

The Seale prosecution could be among the last of the KKK trials. Although the justice department has promised to reopen cases, witnesses are dying off and files have been lost.
Now living in Colorado, Moore had been brought up in Franklin County, one of the strongholds of the White Knights. He returned in 2005 with a Canadian filmmaker, David Ridgen, to investigate the murders.

Pulling up at a petrol station for an egg and sausage sandwich, he met by chance a distant cousin, Kenny Byrd. Moore explained why they were in Franklin County and said it was a pity that Seale, who had been one of the main suspects, was dead. His family had been saying so since 2000. The local Clarion-Ledger had reported it as fact: so too had the Los Angeles Times. Byrd replied: "Hell no, he lives over there."

Moore, tracing lost files, speaking to potential witnesses, harrassing former Klansmen and mobilising the African-American community, successfully campaigned to have the FBI reopen the case.

Seale is expected to plead not guilty, in a trial expected to last about a fortnight. If found guilty, he faces life in prison.

The discovery of the bodies was depicted in Mississippi Burning. The FBI had been hunting for three missing civil rights activists - two white, one black - and when a fisherman found Moore's body, the agents, the government and media were initially excited. That passed quickly when it was realised, as a CBC report at the time put it, they had the "wrong body".

It was this that caught the interest of Ridgen, who works for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "How can it be a wrong body?," he said, adding that the contrast between the interest in the two cases was simply down to the fact that whites were involved in one and only blacks in the other.

"The difference was stark. When whites were involved, the world went crazy."

Mississippi is different these days, at least on the surface. It is evident to anyone arriving at the airport at Jackson, now called Jackson-Evers International in recognition of the civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, who was assassinated in 1963. It is evident too in the fact that the judge who will try the case, Henry Wingate, is African-American.

But Heidi Beirich, the deputy director of intelligence at a Jackson-based civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which investigates hate crimes, cautioned that though the Ku Klux Klan and institutionalised racism is mainly a thing of the past, Mississippi still has problems.

She noted that when the state voted in 2002 to retain the Confederate flag, a symbol of hate for African-Americans, the divide was on racial grounds. In addition, African-Americans in the state continue to live in the poorest areas, with the worst schools.

"As far as the Klan is concerned, its heyday is definitely in the past. It hit its peak in the 1920s at 4 million. The number of Klansmen is way down: we estimate 5,000 - 6,000. It is not a cohesive organisation any longer: it is fragmented. They are no longer capable of the kind of terror they rained down on the south in the 1950s and 1960s," Ms Beirich said.

But the sense of dread inspired by he KKK has not gone completely. Ridgen, who put together a documentary, Mississippi Cold Case, said: "The psychological threat was always there. There was fear every time in Franklin County. We never took the same route. We never told anyone in advance about coming."

At the trial, the key witness is likely to be a former Klansman, Charles Edwards, a suspect at the time, who is expected to give evidence against Seale in return for immunity.

Former FBI agents who carried out a fairly thorough investigation at the time are also scheduled to testify. After their investigation in 1964, they handed over the case to the local justice department that, as was not unusual at the time, quickly dropped it.

No real explanation has been given for the killings. Klansmen at the time told the FBI that Dee had been peeping at one of their wives while others alleged gun smuggling into a black church.
The indictment suggests otherwise: "The White Knights... targeted for violence African-Americans they believed were involved in civil rights activity in order to intimidate and retaliate against such individuals."

Dee's sister, Thelma Collins, who now lives in Louisiana, said today she could not remember him being involved in any civil rights activity. "He was quiet, never said much," she recalled.

She is saddened that the case took 43 years to come to court: "It is pitiful that those boys were killed and no one did anything about it. If it had been me, they would have brought me to trial."
She will be given an opportunity at the trial to make a victim's statement and will speak about her brother. She is dreading seeing Seale, but promised: "I am not going to say anything harsh." Moore will also get a chance to make a victim's statement. He intends to tell Seale about his younger brother, a student at a technical college.

Moore was in the army at the time: "We never had a chance to talk about what he wanted to be. He would have gone further than me. He had more ambition than me."

He will look directly at Seale. "I want to tell how it is to go without a brother, my son without an uncle, how Charles never had the opportunity to make mistakes, to live his life."

Background
# The reopening of racist killing cases from the 1960s in the south began in 1990 when a white supremicist, Byron La Beckwith, was indicted and eventually jailed for the assassination in 1963 of Medgar Evers, who was chairman of the Mississippi of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.
# This encouraged the FBI and local justice departments to look again at unsolved cases. Since then, there has been six prosecutions in Mississippi, including Seale's tomorrow.
Authorities in seven states have re-examined a total of 29 killings and made 29 arrests, leading to 22 convictions.
# One of the most prominent was the trial and jailing in 2001 of Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry for the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four young girls.
# The revulsion created by the bombing helped turn public opinion behind the civil rights movement.
# In 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, 80, was jailed for the murder of the three civil rights activists depicted in Mississippi Burning. But the reality is there may not be many more: witnesses are dying off and records have been lost.

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If you havn't seen Mississippi Burning then I would highly recommend you do. It is a very powerful film and is probably my favourite film of all time.

UK: City Analyst 'Fired For Exposing Racism'

Taken from The London Metro, Tuesday, April 17, 2007

A City analyst who claims he was fired for exposing racist bullying at the world's largest financial services company is suing for £500,000 damages.

Stephen Webster said he was axed from a £108,000-a-year post as head of AIG's European equities research team after complaining about fellow manager Chantal Brennan.

He told an employment tribunal Ms Brennan reduced a black woman to tears and routinely taunted junior analyst Fadil Dookhy about his Muslim faith.

Ms Brennan, who is Irish, accused Mr Dookhy of being a 'major freak' for his halal diet and mocked him for not drinking alcohol, Mr Webster alleged.

She also asked one Asian colleague if he was going to start a jihad and referred to another as 'Taliban' as well as talking about 'Paki shopkeepers', he added.

Mr Webster said he reported Ms Brennan to senior managers in May 2003 for racist bullying but they fired Mr Dookhy for gross misconduct.

After Mr Dookhy's dismissal, executives turned their attention to Mr Webster and sacked him last year.

The 43-year-old, of St Albans, Hertfordshire, is claiming £500,000 damages for racial victimisation.

AIG insists he was 'rightly dismissed for poor performance' and says his sacking was unconnected to his complaints of racism. The case continues at Stratford, London.

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Banking & Finance is a male dominated industry and have a habit of bullying against employees from small minorities. In the past The City of London has paid out huge amounts of money in compensation to some of their employees that include women (who are underpaid compared to men, or paid less bonuses) or discriminated because they had babies, black people, Muslims because they were different and had a different culture from the laddish culture of "city" workers. Lets hope justice is done in this case.

Limit Muslim Migration, Australia Warned

Taken from The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, February 16, 2007
Barney Zwartz

LIFE can become untenable when the Muslim population of a non-Muslim country reaches about 10 per cent, as shown by France, a Jewish expert on Islam says.

The Australian Jewish News yesterday quoted Raphael Israeli as saying Australia should cap Muslim immigration or risk being swamped by Indonesians.

Professor Israeli told the Herald that was a misunderstanding. But he said: "When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia."

Professor Israeli, an expert on Islamic history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has been brought to Australia by the Shalom Institute of the University of NSW. The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council is co-hosting many of his activities.

He said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of Western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance.

"Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence. There is no Italian or Jewish Hilaly [a reference to the controversial cleric Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly of Lakemba mosque]. Why?"

Professor Israeli said that when the Muslim population increased, so did the risk of violence.

"Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble.

If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it - they don't have the backing of big communities. They know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved."

In Australia, Muslims account for about 1.5 per cent of the population.

Professor Israeli said that in France, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Europe at about 10 per cent, it was already too late. There were regions even the police were scared to enter, and militant Muslims were changing the country's political, economic and cultural fabric, and demanding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies.

"French people say they are strangers in their own country. This is a point of no return.

"If you are on a collision course, what can you do? You can't put them all in prison, and anyway they are not all violent. You can't send them all back. You are really in trouble. It's irreversible."

Professor Israeli said that in Australia a few imams had preached violence. "You should not let fundamentalist imams come here. Screen them 1000 times before they are admitted, and after they are admitted screen what they say in the mosque."

He said some Muslims wanted to impose sharia (Islamic law) in their adopted countries, and when propaganda did not work they turned to intimidation.

Professor Israeli said his task was to describe, not prescribe. He also said his warning did not include immigrants, including Muslims, who simply wanted to improve their lot. As long as they respected the law and democracy, their numbers — Buddhist, Muslim or Jew — were immaterial. It became material when a group accepted violence.

"The trains in London and Madrid were not blown up by Christians or Buddhists but by Muslims, so it is them we have to beware," he said.

Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said "Not only religious clerics need to be screened before entering Ausralia but also academics … this type of academic does nothing but create hatred, suspicion and division … We should review not only what the man has said but also those who have sponsored him, to see if they endorse those comments."

KKK Becoming Increasingly Popular In The US

Taken from The Jerusalem Post, 07 Feb 2007

By YANIV SALAMA-SCHEER

The Ku Klux Klan has experienced a worrying resurgence in popularity in the United States due to the "hot-button issues including immigration, gay marriage and urban crime" the Anti-Defamation League has said.

The ADL, which monitors the activities of the KKK as well as other racist groups and relays their findings to law enforcement and policymakers, views the recent increase in Klan activity in the US as troublesome, since the Klan has been relatively under the radar in recent years.

"If any one single issue or trend can be credited with reenergizing the Klan, it is the debate over immigration in America," said ADL Civil Rights Director Deborah M. Lauter. "Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has in turn helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity."

The KKK has exploited Americans's fear of Muslim and Arab immigrants, as well as the growing anti-immigrant feeling in the South stemming from the overwhelming influx of illegal Mexican workers, said ADL Israel office director Arieh O'Sullivan. New hate groups have emerged, and have manifested themselves by holding anti-immigration rallies and recruitment drives. These groups have also been active in distributing racist literature with a new emphasis on the immigration issue and Hispanics, and have effectively communicated with their supporters and publicized events through KKK- sponsored sites on the Internet, he said.

According to the ADL, the KKK believes that "America is drowning in a tide of non-white immigration, controlled and orchestrated by Jews, and is vigorously trying to bring this message to Americans concerned or fearful about immigration."

While certain Klan "strongholds" such as Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee have rapidly expanded in size, the emergence of new activity in Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania has created racial issues inside of communities that had until now been untroubled by such activity. The KKK has also been cooperating with neo-Nazi groups based in the National Socialist Movement.

"Although some Klansmen may still hold cross-burnings dressed in robes and hoods, today's young Klansmen are more likely to look virtually indistinguishable from racist skinheads or neo-Nazis," Lauter added. "Today's Klansmen may be as likely to gather at white power music concerts or socialize at so-called 'unity rallies' with other white supremacists as to participate in ritualistic cross burnings in the rural wilderness." The ADL has noted that Klan groups have become "Nazified" over recent years, with members choosing to engross themselves in the neo-Nazi subculture.

Between 2000 and 2005, hate groups mushroomed 33 percent and Klan chapters by 63%, according to Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes. Precise data is difficult to pinpoint, but Potok's group counts as many as 150 Klan chapters with up to 8,000 members nationwide. More than 800 hate groups exist around the country, Southern Poverty research shows.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which monitors hate crimes throughout the US, has substantiated the ADL's claim based on their findings of an increase of hate crimes since 2004. According to the FBI study released in October 2006, 54% of hate crime violence is racially-motivated, while 17% was motivated by religious bias and 13% was due to national origin.