Ex-BNP Member Fights Race Hate

A FORMER BNP organiser turned anti-racism campaigner has been in Coventry promoting the fight against hate crime.

Andy Sykes spent a week in the city leading anti-racism training for police, youth workers, Youth Offending Services staff, Victim Support officers and firefighters.

The aim of the training was to promote awareness of racism and give people confidence to challenge it when they see it.

It is also hoped they will feed their training back to other people in their organisations and the communities in which they work.

As part of the training, participants had DNA samples analysed to reveal their ethnic background.

Alison Quigley, Coventry City Council's hate crime reduction officer, who organised the training, found she is genetically linked to people in Russia, Iran and Romania.

She said: "One of the key points of the training is to make clear that there is no such thing as people being biologically British.

"The anti-racism training drives home the importance of not just challenging racist behaviour but also having the background knowledge to pinpoint the factual inaccuracies that lie behind many racist beliefs."

Andy Sykes joined the BNP in 2001, thinking it was a progressive party concerned for the future of the nation.

He quickly became disillusioned and worked as a mole, passing information to the Trades Union Congress.

In 2004, he worked with an undercover BBC reporter on a documentary that provoked national debate about the far-right party.

ICCOVENTRY.CO.UK

Drive to combat Islamophobia

LONDON, April 10

Muslims and trade unionists in the UK are to hold a seminar on improving the job prospects of Muslim workers and combating Islamophobia, it was announced here Tuesday.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella organization of British trade unions, will hold the event this Thursday.

The two groups will discuss not only job prospects for Muslims but how to combat the effects of Islamophobia and far right-wing activity in parts of the UK, they said.

The event comes after the TUC and the MCB issued a joint statement last year pledging to work together to encourage more Muslims to join trade unions.

The statement also backed efforts to improve community relations both at work and in society.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said in a statement "We do not under-estimate the scale of the challenge facing us today".

"Islamophobia is a real and present threat, fuelled by prejudice and misunderstandings, and the rise of the far right and electoral success of the British National Party (BNP) are alarming features of recent years".

"Local elections are approaching once again, and by working together, the TUC and the MCB can expose the far right for what they really are and work towards a better deal for everyone in the workplace", he added.

For his part, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, MCB Secretary General, said "We believe in social justice and equal rights for all".

"The Muslim community is facing real problems of discrimination and poverty, a third of Muslims are living in the 10 percent most deprived neighborhoods of the country, but we have a tremendous amount to offer the UK workplace in terms of skills, optimism and energy", Dr Bari added.

(KUNA - Kuwait News Agency)

Link to TUC-MCB seminar details.