French judge steps up Le Pen investigation over Islamic State tweets

March 3, 2018 Article

A judge placed France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen under formal investigation on Thursday on suspicion of disseminating violent images over tweets she posted of Islamic State executions, a move she indicated was politically motivated.

The investigation relates to three graphic images of Islamic State executions she posted on Twitter in December 2015, including the beheading of American journalist James Foley.

“If they are trying to silence me, they will not succeed,” Le Pen told news channel LCI. She had denounced an earlier stage of the investigation as “political interference”.

Under France’s legal system, being formally placed under investigation often – but not always – leads to a person being sent to trial.

The judge’s decision to step up the investigation comes a little over a week ahead of the National Front’s annual congress, where she is expected to lay out how she plans to rebuild the battered party after her thumping defeat at the hands of President Emmanuel Macron in last year’s election.

It is, though, unlikely to affect her popularity with party loyalists.

Other ongoing investigations, including one into allegations her party misused European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants and another into the financing of past election campaigns, have not dented her appeal among the National Front faithful. She has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.

Party stalwarts rallied around Le Pen on social media.

“@MLP_officiel placed under formal investigation for spreading photos of Islamic State executions. No, it’s no good telling the truth,” tweeted Bryan Masson, a National Front official from the southern Alpes-Maritimes region.

If the investigation proceeds to a trial, Le Pen could face a maximum sentence of several years in jail and a 75,000 euro fine if convicted.

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Categories: court, Far Right groups, Far Right leader, France, Front National, Islamic State, News, Prosecution, Tweets

Ogniwo – ‘The Link’ Is A Group That Should Concern Us All

March 1, 2018 Article

Ogniwo – ‘the Link’, is an organisation that describes itself as a ‘Patriotic Association’ and is active mainly in London but also has chapters in Cambridgeshire and the South of England. Some of their members and sympathisers are known to come from football hooligan circles and can be seen on social media photographs making fascist salutes and with far-right symbolism.

One of the real concerns that we have raised previously within Faith Matters has been that language barrier has created difficulties for UK based statutory agencies in understanding the risks and threats that there are to settled communities of Polish heritage in the United Kingdom and more so, to communities who arrived in the UK after the Accession of States like Poland into the European Union.

Whilst the vast and overwhelming majority of settled communities of Polish heritage in the UK get on with their lives with a view to building themselves a better life, a small number carry with them views and ideologies that directly clash with the pluralism that we take for granted in the UK. This pluralism needs to be defended by knowing and understanding the risks that such groups pose.

Supporters of Ogniwo

An example of this clash in values can be demonstrated through social media posts associated with such groups. For example, the banner on this photo, posted on Ogniwo’s Facebook page and deleted since, states that Europe must remain white. The exact translation reads as, “Europe will either be white or uninhabited”.

‘Europe Will be White or Uninhabited’

Ogniwo is linked to a Polish-based right-wing historian, Tomasz Panfil, who is their honorary member and visited them in the UK on several occasions. His next visit to the UK has just been announced, he is due to speak in Stafford and Southampton on the 10th and 11th of March. Panfil is a historian from the Lublin Institute of National Remembrance.

He is known in Poland for his attempts to destigmatise far right symbolism. For example, as an ‘expert’ witness, he claimed in a Polish court during the trial of a Polish neo-Nazi charged with using banned Nazi symbols, that the Swastika can have many different meanings and is not necessarily a Nazi symbol, depending on its orientation. The perpetrator in question was subsequently released.

Panfil also claimed a symbol of Celtic cross with the words ‘White Power’ had “patriotic intentions” behind it. He also claims the German Nazi party was in fact a left-wing party and that the situation of Polish Jews under Nazi occupation “did not look very bad”.

Association with Violent Football Hooliganism

Ogniwo is also associated with Polish neo-Nazis who were convicted of violent disorder at an anti-fascist rally in Liverpool. The leader of Ogniwo is one Mariusz Zawadski and individuals associated with Ogniwo include Lukasz Pietraszek who was recently jailed for violent disorder in Liverpool. The Judge stated the following around the violence in Liverpool, where a woman was scarred for life, a man suffered a broken nose and a police officer was knocked unconscious.

Judge Andrew Menary QC, in sentencing the perpetrators said that the “self-styled Polish hooligans” wore “deliberately intimidating face masks” and tops that showed violent imagery. He went onto add:

“There was nothing benign about the hooded tops that those men were wearing. It was planned mob violence.”

The leader of Ogniwo’s views are pretty easy to ascertain when this photo of him came to light on social media. The top he is wearing states:

“Death to the enemies of the fatherland”

Mariusz Zawadski – wearing a top emblazoned with ‘Death to the enemies of the fatherland’

Zawadski’s views about Muslims are also evident through these Facebook postings. Interestingly, the use of a pig in the picture moves the post into one which is anti-Muslim, even though the person on the floor seems to be symbolised as an ISIS supporter. Instead of targeting IS supporters and sympathisers, Zawadski makes clear his disdain for Muslims.

Anti-Muslim Postings

 

 

Association with Marian Kowalski

Ogniwo have also hosted Marian Kowalski, who has been extensively written about by Faith Matters in the report entitled, ‘The Changing Face of Hate in Poland: From Anti-Semitism to Anti-Muslim Hate in Poland’. Kowalski’s anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim comments, allied to his provocative stunts which include support for white supremacist, Janusz Walus, highlight the nature of the associations that Ogniwo keep.

Kowalski was recently meant to speak at a Polish restaurant in Ealing and failed to attend after his views were publicly highlighted. 

Marian Kowalski and Mariusz Zawadski, Ogniwo

In line with sympathies that Marian Kowalski has around Janusz Walus, Ogniwo have praised Walus and run online campaigns for him. For example, they highlight campaigns outside the South African Embassy in London where they call for the release of the white supremacist.

Ogniwo and Postings About Janusz Walus

 

Ogniwo and Firearms Training Sessions

Worryingly, the group recently was the co-organiser of a training session in the use of firearms and military tactics in September 2017. The instructor, an ex-soldier from Polish special forces, is not known to have any far right sympathies and we would like to stress that his involvement in training members of Ogniwo, should not imply that he believes in far right ideology or groups. The firearms training session was marketed mainly in far-right circles.

Ogniwo and Military Training

These are some of the photographs that were passed to us around the military training. 

 

A follow up training session with the same instructor is due to take place in Evesham, West Midlands on the 9th-11th of March. ‘Ogniwo’ is not listed as an organiser this time but the organiser, a group of military enthusiasts calling themselves ‘Grom Legion JR 2305’ lists ‘Ogniwo’ as their “partners” on their website.

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Categories: Far Right groups, Grom Legion JR 2305, Janusz Walus, Judge Andrew Menary, Liverpool, Lukasz Pietraszek, Mariusz Zawadski, Nazi, Neo-Nazi, News, Tomasz Panfil

Closure of the Holy Sepulchre is a Dark Day for All

February 25, 2018 Article

The Holy Sepulchre holds a sacred meaning for Muslims as well as Christians. Many Jerusalemite Muslims light candles and revere both Mary and Jesus, in part hoping that they maybe blessed in some way by these holy figures. This is highlighted through this tweet from Ghanem Nuseibeh, whose family members were entrusted with the keys to the Holy Sepulchre, as a Jerusalemite Muslim family. They have symbolically held the keys to the Holy Sepulchre for generations.

A recent bill by lawmaker Rachel Azaria, who sponsored the legislation, would mean that the State could expropriate land in Jerusalem sold by churches to private real estate firms in recent years. This has caused concern since the Church is a major landowner in Jerusalem and opens up racial and religious fault lines as every inch of Jerusalem is historically contested and with ramifications globally for faith communities.

Such a move is even more startling since the closure of the Sepulchre places a focus on the bill and does nothing for the image of the State in the eyes of many Christians. In fact, it can be regarded as a retrograde move, playing on sensitivities at a time when the US Embassy move to Jerusalem has already inflamed tensions in some communities. More than ever, stable and calm heads are needed rather than inflammatory pieces of legislation and moves that irritate the fragile balance and peace that is within Jerusalem.

Further posts by Nuseibeh also reflect a change in the position of liberal and progressive Palestinian voices, which need to be heard if there is to be any form of peace in the future.

The Holy Sepulchre is a symbol of hope at a time when darkness seems to be taking over parts of the global political landscape. The longer is remains closed, the longer the damage to the reputation of Israel and in the eyes of both Christians and Muslims. No doubt, many Jews will also see this as a retrograde move by the State of Israel. However, we want to highlight the comments made by Nuseibeh:

“Israel’s action against churches harms Israel as much as the churches. Someone should tell Israeli politicians not to over-rely on Trump. They need Arab, Christian and Muslim (s), more than American Evangelicals”.

 

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Categories: Christians, Ghanem Nuseibeh, Israel, Jerusalemite, Keys, Opinions, Palestinians, Rachel Azaria

“France first”, far right’s Marechal-Le Pen says in comeback speech

February 24, 2018 Article

France should follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s lead and fight for “France first”, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, seen as a potential leader of France’s far right, told U.S conservatives on Thursday in her first public appearance in months.

The 28-year-old former lawmaker, granddaughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and niece of party leader Marine Le Pen, temporarily withdrew from politics after her aunt’s presidential election defeat last May.

But she has long been viewed in France as a possible future leader of the National Front, and the fact that she was a keynote speaker at a conference that both Trump and U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence were addressing was widely commented on in French media as posing a challenge for Marine Le Pen.

“I’m not offended when I hear President Donald Trump say ‘America first’. In fact, I want America first for the American people, I want Britain first for the British people and I want France first for the French people,” she said.

“I came here today to tell you there is a youth ready for this fight in Europe today,” she told thousands of activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

Marechal-Le Pen, who is more socially conservative and economically liberal than her aunt, did not say if or when she was planning to return to an active role in French politics, instead mentioning her plans to open a management and political science school, which she said should train tomorrow’s leaders.

But the reception for Marechal-Le Pen, who has been praised by right-wing U.S. media such as Breitbart, was in contrast to her aunt’s visit to Trump Tower in New York in January last year, during the French presidential campaign.

Marine Le Pen, who has long aimed to burnish her credentials with foreign appearances, did not meet either Trump or anyone from his team during that visit and was photographed having coffee in a public area of the building.

While Le Pen has over the past months softened her anti-EU, anti-euro comments, Marechal-Le Pen lambasted the bloc, which she said was “slowly killing” ancient nations.

Blaming immigration and political correctness, she said in a speech delivered in English: “France is in the process of passing the eldest daughter of the Catholic church to the little niece of Islam.”

Marine Le Pen is hoping that a National Front congress mid-March will help her reassert her authority.

But in the complicated Le Pen family, whose rows have made French headlines for years, another possible problem for her is her father, who she expelled from the party but who said he would gate-crash the congress.

Meanwhile her niece told the activists: “Let us build on what you have achieved here so that on both sides of the Atlantic, conservatism may prevail.”

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Categories: Breitbart, Donald Trump, France, France First, News

French PM vows to combat ‘slow-burn’ threat of radical Islam

February 24, 2018 Article

France’s prime minister on Friday announced steps including prison isolation zones and more stringent licensing rules for faith-based schools to combat what he called a slow-burning threat from Islamist radicalisation.

In a traditionally Catholic country that is home to Europe’s largest Muslim community, President Emmanuel Macron has already imposed tougher legislation after attacks by Islamist militants killed more than 230 people in the past three years.

But he is under pressure to address voter fears of broader radicalisation at mosques manned by radical preachers and prisons that offer fertile ground for proselytisers of a hardline Islam at odds with France’s secular foundations.

Among the measures promised by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe were the creation of isolation zones for Islamist militants in France’s prisons and more scrutiny on the licensing of faith-based schools that opt out of the state-funded system.

“We cannot ignore this slow-burn process,” he told a news conference in Lille, northern France.

“Islamist radicalisation is a threat to our society, and not just when it leads to violence. It’s a challenge every time the law of the state is respected only if compatible with religious tenets.”

Philippe also promised better screening of people hired as coaches sports centres.

The scale of the challenge was highlighted by a report for the Interior Ministry.

The report by a senior civil servant warned that sectarian sentiment or behaviour was rising in parts of France, notably in poor urban areas where Muslims more openly resented or challenged obligations of secular public life.

He cited examples of young Muslim girls being kept away from school swimming, sculpture classes and choir activities frowned upon by some of the country’s estimated 5 million Muslims.

The report also highlighted fears about the number of young people being taken out of secular state-funded schools to teach them at home or put them in strictly faith-based schools.

Philippe said some 74,000 pupils entered schools outside of state system last year, calling the trend worrying if small compared with 12 million in education. The report said the number concerned had doubled in five years.

Such opt-out schools need licensing and that would be made tougher by law shortly, Philippe said.

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Categories: Emmanuel Macron, Islamic Schools, News, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe

Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub Also Goes Into Anti-Shia Rants

February 12, 2018 Article

Yesterday we highlighted how this imam was involved in posting comments on his Facebook page that inflamed community divisions. A further observation shows how sometimes, hatred towards minorities spreads to anti-Shia hatred. Imam Ayub, who preaches in various mosques has also been highlighting his dislike of Shia Muslims through a series of postings on his Facebook page. These include the following:

Comments from Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub

The comments include:

“So many hidden evil filthy dirty disgusting Shias within the Ahl us Sunnah Wal Jama’ah, in our masjids…….”

Not to be outdone by these statements he continues to post the following:

“Why do so many Sunnis on Facebook, have so many dirty deviants in their friends list? Go through your friends list once in a while and remove all dirty non-Sunnis”.

Not happy with these comments, he then starts on ‘Western ideology of love’. 

 

The assumptions that he makes are crude, wide sweeping and play into a ‘them and us’ narrative. That they – ‘westerners’, are somehow crude and that their ‘love’ leads to “vulgarity, crudity and indecency.”

Given these postings, we would hope that mosques review this Imam’s preaching within them. Until he can show that he rejects these messages, there is no way that any mosque should allow such a preacher promoting these views to have access to a congregation.

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Categories: Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub, Khutba, Opinions, Preaching, Shias, Western

Anti-Ahmadi Rhetoric Rumbles On – With Terms Such As ‘Kafir’ Used

February 11, 2018 Article

In 2018 in modern day Britain, there are religious leaders who think that believers of their faith are so weak that different sects may ‘affect’ believers in their faith. Forget the fact that social media, access to the Internet, Daesh, unemployment and reduced life chances may affect the faith of the congregation, today, they are speaking about the ‘perils’ of a community that are so small and who feel so embattled, that such comments should concern us. 

Who are they speaking of? Well, here is Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub who is commenting about an open day which was held by the local Ahmadi community in Nottingham. Such is the concern around an open day held by a peaceful local community (which regards themselves as Muslim), that it led to this outburst by this Imam who has preached in several mosques and in places like Manchester.

Here are his comments on the 4th of February and made on this social media page: 

 

Comments by Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub

Calling another community group ‘Kafir’ in today’s context and putting their address up online, is potentially putting this community at risk. and is unacceptable. It also raises the issue about spiritual guidance and how easily it can be turned to attach to the political and social views of an individual, something that we have seen over history. What this has to do with Islam, can also be questioned, when Islam repeatedly asks for patience, introspection and for moderation. This is not to detract from other verses in scriptural texts, that within historical context were made at a time of instability that affected the first Muslims. So, in other words, since there is no physical threat to Muslims as a whole, why are such statements being made and which add to community tensions and fractures and being made by someone with a pastoral and spiritual responsibility. We stress the responsibility since turning people against another set of people is, we believe, hardly responsible.

We know that the vast majority of Imams in the UK may disagree with the Ahmadi movement. That is their right to do so and they disagree by listening, through dialogue and by ensuring that they do not play a role in inflaming tensions. However, there are some Imams who believe that if someone calls themselves a Muslim, then they should be treated as such. As said before, Ahmadis are a peaceful, well integrated and deeply introspective community. Not one of their community have been involved in extremism or terrorism and they work to raise large amounts of finance for charity work. They are a community who are an asset to our country who do not deserve such outbursts made in public.

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Categories: Ahmaddiyas, Anti-Ahmadi rhetoric, Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub, Kafir, mosques, Opinions

Leaving Faith Behind: The journeys and perspectives of people who have chosen to leave Islam

February 10, 2018 Article

For over 20 years, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, the Director of Faith Matters has worked with faith communities. Having successfully set up national projects, like Tell MAMA, which he left in January 2017 after completing the set up and expansion of the project, he has been engaged in an area of work exploring the reasons why people leave the respective faiths that they were born into. He has also been exploring the fluidity of people’s identities and outlooks and how they can develop new identities. 

His latest book is entitled, ‘Leaving Faith behind: The Journeys and Perspectives of People Who Have Chosen to Leave Islam’. You can purchase the book through this LINK.

Fiyaz Mughal also stated the following in relation to the completion of the book:

“Why did I co-edit and put this book together? Well, part of my identity remains as a Muslim though being a Muslim does not mean that I feel defensive of my faith nor do I feel that people cannot and should not question any belief. People have the right to question belief and religion and sometimes vocally so, but they do not have the right to harass and intimidate people.

What is also a fact is that for numerous reasons, some people leave faith and reject it. This happens in every faith and the degree to which this happens is led by numerous reasons. This is also the case with Islam and these personal experiences are things that should be explored and the reasons why.

 

 

“Do I agree with people leaving Islam – well, people have a choice as to how to live their lives and they make their own decisions. Have I left Islam – no and I find much beauty in it but there are things that I think need to be interpreted in a modern context if the faith, like any other faith, is to remain relevant to a younger generation.

I also want to add that people who leave Islam do so because of a range of reasons and experiences and these experiences are their personal ones. Who am I to question or undermine them, but I can listen and reflect and ensure that I protect their right to speak up, just as I would expect other’s to protect my right to.

 

 

“With Aliyah Saleem, my co-editor, we have put these experiences of people who have left Islam in this book and which I hope you will reflect on when reading. I believe that by speaking, listening and reflecting, we can all learn from each other. For Muslims reading this post – I ask one thing. Let us reflect on some of these stories and they should not cause anger or fear. They are experiences that should make us, I hope, want to reach out, engage and talk about these issues with others. In fact, there is nothing to fear, and ignorance, which causes fear is the greatest facet that we must all challenge”.

 

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Categories: Aliyah Saleem, Book, Faith Communities, leaving Islam, non-believer, Opinions, Rejecting faith

Parisian eyes on Brussels court as Bataclan suspect goes on trial

February 4, 2018 Article

More than two years after Islamist militants killed 130 people in their city, Parisians will be hoping for some new insight into the carnage when the sole surviving suspect appears in public for the first time on Monday.

But Salah Abdeslam, who goes on trial under high security in his native Brussels in relation to a shooting that preceded his capture and Islamic State suicide bombings there in March 2016, has so far shown little inclination to talk.

Kept under 24-hour suicide watch near Paris, 28, the 28-year-old has been transferred to a high-security prison close to France’s northern border so that he can be ferried to the Belgian capital’s Palace of Justice daily. Hearings are scheduled to last all week in a case related to events four months after the Paris attacks of November 2015.

With a French trial not expected until next year, his Belgian appearance, along with alleged accomplice Sofien Ayari, a 24-year-old Tunisian, will be his first moment in public since his arrest on March 18, 2016, close to his family home in the poor, western Brussels borough of Molenbeek.

Both men face up to 40 years in prison for attempted murder linked to terrorism for shooting at Belgian and French police who raided a suspected hideout in the southern Brussels borough of Forest on March 15, 2016.

Prosecutors say Abdeslam and Ayari slipped away, leaving a third gunman holding out until he was killed by police marksmen.

Lawyers for Abdeslam, a French citizen born to and raised by Moroccan immigrant parents in Brussels, accept he was in Paris on Friday, Nov. 13, when gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 at a rock concert, near the national stadium and outside cafes.

His elder brother, with whom he ran a bar in Brussels, was among those who blew himself up. Prosecutors believe the younger Abdeslam, whom they accuse of running logistics for the attack including ferrying fighters from Syria across Europe, would have met the same fate had his explosive vest not malfunctioned.

How the pair, from a broadly secular background with a history of petty crime, were transformed into alleged cogs within extensive Islamic State cells operating in Belgium and France is unclear. A third brother, who has visited Abdeslam in prison, told a Belgian newspaper in December that he might be preparing to talk, inspired by a devout religious faith.

The trial had been due to start in late December but was delayed after Abdeslam belatedly reappointed a defence counsel, who then requested more time to prepare the case. Lawyers do not rule out that there could be further adjournments this week.

The trial has triggered a high alert in a city where 32 people were killed in suicide bombings at its airport and on its metro system by members of the same Islamic State-inspired group on March 22, 2016. That came four days after Abdeslam’s arrest and was prompted, officials believe, by fears among the Brussels cell that he might betray their plan under interrogation.

More than 100 police are expected to be deployed in and around Brussels’ mammoth 19th-century Palace of Justice, which dominates the skyline over the Renaissance city centre.

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Categories: Brussels, France, Islamic State, News, Parisians, Salam Abdeslam, terrorism

Driver who targeted London mosque was angered by Islamist attacks, TV show-prosecutor

January 22, 2018 Article

A man who drove a van into Muslim worshippers outside a mosque last June was motivated by deadly Islamist attacks in Britain and an obsession with a television account of Muslim men who targeted white girls, a London court heard on Monday.

Darren Osborne, 48, also lambasted politicians, calling London Mayor Sadiq Khan a disgrace and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn a “terrorist sympathiser”, prosecutor Jonathan Rees said, quoting from a note he said Osborne left in the van.

The note described Muslim men as rapists, “feral” and “in-bred” and when he was detained after the attack, Osborne said: “At least I had a go”, Rees told Woolwich Crown Court.

Osborne is accused of murdering Makram Ali, 51, a father of six who came to Britain from Bangladesh aged 10, and the attempted murder of other worshippers as they left a mosque in Finsbury Park in north London after late-night Ramadan prayers.

Osborne has denied the accusations.

“The evidence establishes that the defendant was trying to kill as many of the group as possible,” Rees told jurors. “The prosecution say that the note and the comments he made after his detention establish that this act of extreme violence was, indeed, an act of terrorism, designed to influence government and intimidate the Muslim community.”

The incident occurred just weeks after three Islamists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before going on a knife rampage, killing eight.

That attack came the month after a suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester killed 22 people. In March another Islamic State-inspired attacker killed five people by driving a car into passers-by on London’s Westminster Bridge and then stabbing to death a police officer in the grounds of parliament.

Rees said Osborne hired a van and drove to London from his home in Cardiff. After a plan to attack an anti-Israel march failed, Osborne drove around seeking alternative targets.

He is accused of ramming the crowd at Finsbury Park as worshippers helped Ali who he had earlier become unwell.

The court was told Osborne, who had never previously openly expressed racist opinions, had become obsessed with Muslims in the weeks before the attack after watching a BBC television drama “Three Girls”, based on true stories of victims of child sex gangs comprised mainly of British Pakistani men.

Rees said Osborne searched online for material related to the show, some of which was connected to far-right groups and Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Britain First.

One of Fransen’s messages was re-tweeted by U.S. President Donald Trump in November.

Two days before the attack, Osborne told a serving soldier in a pub in Cardiff: “I’m going to kill all the Muslims”, the jurors were told.

Rees said Osborne’s former partner Sarah Andrews described the father of four as a loner and a functioning alcoholic with an unpredictable temperament who took medication for depression.

“With the benefit of hindsight, she describes him as a ticking time-bomb,” the prosecutor said.

The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.

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Categories: Darren Osborne, Far Right groups, Finsbury Park, Grooming Cases, Jayda Fransen, mosque, News, Rotherham, Sadiq Khan, Tommy Robinson