Neo-nazi link to 10 murders in Germany

German investigators say they can confirm evidence to link the murders of 10 people to far-right extremists.

Over the past seven years eight Turks and one Greek, all of them food vendors, have been shot in the face while at work, most on small kebab stalls. The tenth victim was a policewoman shot in 2007.

Last week two men were found dead during the search of a burnt-out house and caravan in the east German town of Zwickau. Two handguns believed to have been used in the murders were discovered. A woman at the scene was arrested. All three are known to have had previous links to far-right groups.

German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said: “What has been reported so far is alarming. We now need a comprehensive explanation and what needs to be the focus is whether or not the suspects belong to a right-wing extremist network.”

Some community representatives think the authorities have been slow to make the link to extremists. Ken Kolat, Chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany, said: “There is unfortunately no real discussion right now in Germany about racism or racist terror. This discussion has to start immediately.”

euronews

Neo-Nazi group hoodwinks state into selling it mansion

Officials in the former East Germany have been stung by revelations that they were hoodwinked into selling a listed 19th-century manor house to a neo-Nazi group which used a frontwoman posing as a practitioner of alternative medicine to complete the deal.

The disclosures in yesterday's Der Spiegel are a major embarrassment for the once communist state of Thuringia, which spends €2.6 million ($4.5 million) a year combating extremism in a region renowned for neo-Nazi politics and far-right violence. The neo-Nazi group plans to use the mansion as a centre for far-right extremists and Holocaust deniers.

Martina Renner, a spokeswoman for Thuringia's opposition Left Party, said the sale of the property was scandalous. "The state Government will have to explain how such a well-known building could be sold off to right-wing extremists without anyone realising what was going on," she said.

The manor in the small village of Guthmannshausen, 50km northeast of Weimar, is a neo-classical property containing a pillared banqueting hall, a sauna and numerous outbuildings. It was sold in May to a dubious neo-Nazi organisation called Gedachtnisstatte [Places of Remembrance], based in the western state of Lower Saxony. None of the officials involved realised that the buyer was a far-right group.

Yesterday, it emerged that Wolfram Schiedewitz, who is the president of Places of Remembrance, is an extremist with a track record of propagating pro-Nazi views and Holocaust denial which goes back two decades.

"We have finally found a new home," Schiedewitz declared in a message to his supporters. "We want to fill it with memory of our World War II civilians who were the victims of bombardment, expulsions and prison camps."

But experts said the group intended to set up a rallying point for the far right. The group's clandestine purchase fits a well-defined strategy which has enabled neo-Nazis to gradually increase their presence in the former communist East since Germany's reunification in 1990.

State security officials in Thuringia say the purchase of the house was most probably masterminded by a female neo-Nazi named only as "B". She posed as an alternative medicine practitioner and duped officials into believing she wanted to hold seminars in the building and rent it to other users.

However, the security officials, who insisted they were not consulted during the sale, said yesterday that "B" was not only a member of Places of Remembrance but also had close links to a Nazi group called the Society for Free Communication, the country's "largest far-right cultural organisation".

NZHerald

Muslim peace conference condemns terrorism

Thousands of Muslims have attended a peace conference in London which has condemned terrorism.

About 12,000 Muslims gathered at Wembley Arena for Islamic group Minhaj-ul-Quran's Peace for Humanity Conference. The conference launched a campaign to get one million people to sign an online declaration of peace by 2012.

Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said the conference would send a message that 10 years of extremist activity should end. Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri is the founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran and gave the keynote speech at the event, despite having received death threats after issuing a fatwa - or religious ruling - against terrorism last year. The cleric was repeatedly applauded during his address in which he said the "terrible" 9/11 attacks in the US had distorted perceptions of Islam over the past decade.

He told the audience: "In spite of statements and memorandum and condemnation of the terror, the voices of the 99% true, peace-loving Muslims have not been heard, they have been drowned out by the clamour and the noise of extremists. Islam has nothing to do with any act of terrorism. We reject every act of extremism and terrorism unconditionally."

The event, which took one year to organise, was attended by people from across the UK, many of whom arrived in coaches. Those who attended heard a series of lengthy and impassioned speeches, some in Arabic, from Islamic scholars denouncing terrorism and extremism.

Ghazala Hassan al-Qadri, president of the MQI Women's League, told attendees: "Islam teaches love, it teaches compassion, it teaches tolerance, it teaches mercy."

Another speaker - Egypt-based Islamic scholar Shaykh Hassan Mohi-ud-Din Qadri - told the conference: "Islam is a religion of justice, not a religion of injustice...is a religion of manners and co-operation, not a religion of extremism and radicalisation...is a religion of forgiveness and pardon, not a religion of brutality and revenge."

The audience heard pre-recorded messages of support from, amongst others, Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, opposition leader Ed Miliband, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. And there were prayers for peace from representatives from a number of different religions including the Bishop of Barking, the Rt Rev David Hawkins, Jewish rabbis and representatives from the Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh faiths.

The declaration of peace included a call for democracy and good governance in the Muslim world, respect for human rights, and alleviation of poverty throughout the world.

BBC

Cash-strapped BNP 'turns to racist hardcore'

Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP which opponents say has suffered a split

The BNP was last night accused of turning to "a hardcore group of neo-Nazis and racists" to stand as candidates in next month's local elections.

The anti-BNP campaign group Hope not Hate said it had compiled a dossier of extremist postings of candidates standing on 5 May, either in council elections or those to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Among the postings the group collected from Facebook pages were:

• One BNP candidate in the North of England who posted on his Facebook page a mock advert for the gas Zyklon B – used in the Nazi extermination chambers of the Second World War – captioned, "Try Zyklon B. It's a gas!"
• One candidate urges his followers to "Stamp out diseases today. Spray pakis and poofs with hydrochloric acid".
• An activist in Wales, who has a photograph of his endorsement by BNP leader Nick Griffin on his Facebook page. Underneath it reads: "My grandfather was killed in Auschwitz. Apparently he got pissed and fell out of the watchtower!"

The candidate also posted, "Just popped round to see my Muslim neighbour's new baby. She asked me if I wanted to wind it but that seemed a bit extreme so I gave it a dead leg instead."

• A woman, describing herself as a "a big supporter of the BNP leader Nick Griffin", responded to a protest by Muslims Against The Crusades by saying: "They should all be burned."
• Another candidate posting about his arrest for "an out of date bus ticket", says: "They [police] have just made me hate them even more. From now on I will be celebrating the death of serving police officers when they are announced on the news. May sound a bit extreme but I hate them that much." He also posted that Labour's newly elected MP for Barnsley Central, Dan Jarvis, a former officer in the Parachute Regiment, "should have been shot from behind while facing the enemy".

Overall the BNP will be fielding just over 200 candidates in next month's elections – nearly 500 fewer than the in 2007. It said it "was having to cut its cloth" because of the amount of money it had had to spend defending a legal action against the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Hope not Hate said: "As his party crumbles, Nick Griffin has been forced to turn to what even by BNP standards, is a hard core of neo-Nazis and racists. These are not just activists, but people Griffin is putting forward as candidates for elected public office. They are literally the best the BNP now has to offer."

Hope not Hate, which is funded by the trades union movement, said the party had become hopelessly split – with many members defecting to the English Democrats and the breakaway party British Freedom Party.

The BNP has been engaged in a long-running court battle with the EHRC over its policy of restricting membership to "indigenous British people". It scrapped the rule but the Commission accused Mr Griffin of failing to comply with an order to remove potentially racist clauses from his party's constitution. In December Mr Griffin fought off an attempt to have him declared guilty of contempt of court at the High Court – which rejected the EHRC's attempt to seize the party's assets. Costs were awarded to the BNP but deputy leader Simon Darby said the battle had affected its ability to recruit members and had cost a huge amount in legal fees which had yet to be reimbursed.

Mr Darby said: "Unlike the Labour Party we cannot afford to be £19m in debt and we have had to cut our cloth accordingly." He said the unsavoury postings could be fakes to discredit the party.

'BNP postings' on Facebook

• "7/7 – keep trying ya raghead bastards. This is our country our England our rules. Time2 packup and get the fuck out of dodge."
• "Fly your flag! no excuses. We stock them. £5 to piss off your Muslim neigbours off big style. What a fucking bargain."
• "Going to the polling station was aday out for the lazy African population as they don't work."
• "Unless we stand up and are counted then it's bye bye England."

Independent

EDL’s rally fuels unrest fears

Residents are being urged to stay away from Dudley town centre on Easter Sunday, as far right group the English Defence League is set to descend on the town. The extremist [group] claims to be bringing around 3,000 supporters on April 4 to protest against the planned £18million mosque.

The demonstration has been opposed by all four party leaders of Dudley Council. Council leader and Tory councillor, Anne Millward, Labour party leader Cllr David Sparks, Liberal Democrat Cllr David Tyler and UKIP’s Malcolm Davis have put aside political differences to join forces and sign a statement in opposition to the march, which calls on the group to abandon its plans.

A spokesman for the English Defence League (EDL) claim they are coming to Dudley because “laws have been bypassed to promote one section of the community over the concerns of others”. But Cllr Malcolm Davis, who has vehemently led the protest against the mosque, said the EDL will be “most unwelcome”.

He said: “They have sent me an email and it seems to me they think I will support them, but I don’t. I think they are targeting Dudley because they think there is a problem, but there isn’t a problem as far as I’m concerned. I’m still opposed to the mosque, but we are dealing with this in our own way and we don’t need violent outsiders. There is going to be a lot of trouble and I hope people keep away and let the police deal with it.”

Council leader, Cllr Anne Millward, said she was angered that the EDL want to come to the “peaceful town”, as West Midlands Police confirm there will be a “robust police presence” on the day in case of trouble.

Cllr Millward said: “I think it is very important that the four political party leaders have all signed this statement. We are very concerned that the EDL say they welcome people from all creeds and colours and hold peaceful protests, but there has been violence and major disruption from their recent events in Birmingham and Stoke.”

She added: “They say they are coming to protest against the planned mosque, but we’ve had a mosque in Dudley for over 30 years. So what is the point of them coming? We don’t want them and for them to come on Easter Sunday, one of the most important days in the Christian calendar, I think is an absolute travesty. I just urge people to stay away”.

The council leader also confirmed town shops would already be closed for the day, because of Easter Sunday, but council and police officers are approaching all town licencees to voluntary close as well, adding “as they may not have a business on the Monday”.

Cllr Millward has also condemned plans announced by anti-fascist group Unite Against Fascism (UAF) who have confirmed they will be holding a counter-demonstration on the day, with fears that thousands of outsiders could angrily clash in the town centre. Cllr Millward said: “The plans for the anti-fascist group to outnumber the EDL I think is highly irresponsible. This group just need to be completely ignored.”

But UAF officials said they are organising the “largest peace protest to counteract” the EDL, whose protest will just be “thuggery and hatred”.

Martin Lynch, Black Country spokesman for Unite Against Fascism (UAF), said: “We don’t think people who believe in racism and hatred should be allowed to come to Dudley town centre or anywhere else for that matter. At a recent demonstration in Stoke they ran amok smashing property and hurting people. There is no way this is a legitimate protest of any kind. It will just be thuggery and hatred. If this does go ahead we will seek to call the largest peace protest to counteract theirs.”

Meanwhile, Jim Warner, spokesman for Dudley’s Trade Union Council (TUC) said members had passed a resolution supporting UAF’s counterprotest. Mr Warner said: “We are calling on all our local union branches to encourage members to turn out with their union banners for a peaceful protest. We have also put together a unity statement which has been signed by all our trade union branches, community and faith groups supporting this decision and calling for the protest to be abandoned.”

But an EDL spokesman said the protest “will take place” because of the belief that “many wrongs have been committed.”

Dudley News

US facing surge in rightwing extremist and militia groups

• Civil rights report shows 250% rise in extremist patriot groups
• Groups fuelled by economy and media conspiracy theories

The US is facing a surge in anti-government extremist groups and armed militias, driven by deepening hostility on the right to Barack Obama, anger over the economy, and the increasing propagation of conspiracy theories by parts of the mass media such as Fox News.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre, the US's most prominent civil rights group focused on hate organisations, said in a report that extremist "patriot" groups "came roaring back to life" last year as their number jumped nearly 250% to more than 500 with deepening ties to conservative mainstream politics.

The SPLC report, called Rage on the Right, said the rise in extremist groups was "a cause for grave concern" given their propensity to use violence during their heyday in the 90s, most notably with the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. It added that the issues driving support for such groups were increasingly populist and that "signs of growing radicalisation are everywhere".

"Patriot groups have been fuelled by anger over the changing demographics of the country, the soaring public debt, the troubled economy and an array of initiatives by President Obama that have been branded "socialist" or even "fascist" by his political opponents," the report said.

"Already there are signs of … violence emanating from the radical right. Since the installation of Barack Obama, rightwing extremists have murdered six law enforcement officers. Racist skinheads and others have been arrested in alleged plots to assassinate the nation's first black president. One man from Brockton, Massachusetts – who told police he had learned on white supremacist websites that a genocide was under way against whites – is charged with murdering two black people and planning to kill as many Jews as possible on the day after Obama's inauguration. Most recently, a rash of individuals with anti-government, survivalist or racist views have been arrested in a series of bomb cases."

The report says the patriot movement has "made significant inroads into the conservative political scene" in part driven by a growing view of the US administration "as part of a plot to impose 'one-world government' on liberty-loving Americans".

"The Tea Parties and similar groups that have sprung up in recent months cannot fairly be considered extremist groups, but they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism," the report says.

The SPLC notes that the rise comes as part of a deepening disillusionment with government in which just one quarter of Americans think government can be trusted. It said that a recent poll found that the anti-tax Tea Party movement is viewed in more positive terms than the Democratic or Republican parties.

"The signs of growing radicalisation are everywhere. Armed men have come to Obama speeches bearing signs suggesting that the 'tree of liberty' needs to be 'watered' with 'the blood of tyrants'. The Conservative Political Action Conference held this February was co-sponsored by groups like the John Birch Society, which believes President Eisenhower was a communist agent, and Oath Keepers, a patriot outfit formed last year that suggests, in thinly veiled language, that the government has secret plans to declare martial law and intern patriotic Americans in concentration camps," the SPLC said.

The report says that, unlike during the 1990s, the patriot movement's core ideas are more widely propagated and accepted by prominent politicians and some in the mass media, such as the Fox News presenter Glenn Beck.

"As the movement has exploded, so has the reach of its ideas, aided and abetted by commentators and politicians in the ostensible mainstream," said the report. "Beck, for instance, reinvigorated a key patriot conspiracy theory – the charge that the federal emergency management agency is secretly running concentration camps – before finally 'debunking' it."

How far such language is now part of the mainstream political discourse was confirmed by Politico today, which reported that it had obtained a Republican national committee document detailing plans to raise election funds with "an aggressive campaign capitalising on 'fear' of President Barack Obama" and a promise to "save the country from trending toward socialism".

In the presentation, the administration is portrayed as "the Evil Empire", and Obama as the Joker in Batman.

Patriot groups and militias are planning a march on Washington next month ostensibly in defence of the right to carry guns.

Guardian

BNP barred from holding meetings at Moonrakers

The British National Party has been forced out of its regular meeting place after the licensees of a Swindon pub realised they had been taking private bookings from the extremist group for more than four years.

Landlords Nick and Debbie Sharpe, who have run the Moonrakers in Cricklade Road, since 2005, were ‘horrified’ to learn they had been renting out their private function room, the Crossways Suite, to the far-right party. But since discovering the group, which has always paid three months in advance in cash, was holding monthly meetings at the pub, the couple told them they were no longer welcome.

The BNP held its last meeting at the pub three months ago before members were refused further bookings, including for a meeting last Monday. The meetings were kept so low-key that even brewery boss James Arkell did not know what was happening at the pub until Monday.

John Walker, press and media officer for the BNP, said he was disgusted by the pub’s reaction.

“I find it hard to believe that the pub landlords have not known it was hiring out the venue to the BNP for four years. I am sick and tired of this approach people have that the BNP is not allowed to carry on as a normal political party. If they don’t want our business then we shall just go elsewhere and I would urge all BNP members and voters to do the same.”

Swindon Advertiser

MP Malik slams protests and extremists

Veterans got together to mark the contribution of Dewsbury people in past conflicts and to show their support to serving troops.

MP Shahid Malik hosted the second annual veterans lunch at Dewsbury Town Hall, attended by more than 250 people. And the MP used the event to heavily criticise two organisations which demonstrated in Leeds and London during in recent weeks. He slammed Islam4UK who demonstrated in London and the English Defence League (EDL) who protested in Leeds. Mr Malik also attacked the extremists in Luton who disrupted a military parade and shouted abuse at soldiers.

In his speech Mr Malik said that the UK was a multi-faith society and that was part of what made the UK the best country in the world. Mr Malik concluded by saying that the true defenders of England were those present at the Town Hall event and veterans around the country were the true patriots.

The Dewsbury MP said: “It’s right that we celebrate the truly outstanding contribution that was made by so many local people both during past wars as well as current conflicts.”

During the event, guests were treated to refreshments and a light lunch while listening to a medley of wartime anthems from 40s singer Caroline Romley. After lunch guests heard contributions from Veterans Minister Kevan Jones MP and Major David Wroe.

Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Nothing British reports BNP front group to Charities Commission

“Soldiers off the Street“ (company number 07018818) is the latest and possibly most troublesome example of astroturfing (fake grassroots) by the BNP targeting veterans. SOTS aims to care for veterans and aims to clothe, feed and provide shelter for homeless ex-servicemen. A noble cause.

However, the story doesn’t stop there. SOTS is run by the BNP husband and wife team, Bill and Marie Murray. Mr Murray [pictured, left] is head of the BNP’s Welsh division and his wife is a seasoned activist for the extremist party. SOTS also works in association with FEBA (a Scottish veterans charity that accepted money from the BNP). Mr. Murray is, according to SOTS’s company records (available through companies house), Director and his wife is the Secretary.

Three weeks ago we reported SOTS to the Charities Commission and Trading Standards after we discovered it was claiming to seek charity status and for failing to mention its very close ties to the BNP.

In a letter to Dame Suzi Leather, Chair of the Charities Commission, we wrote that while, the objectives of SOTS were commendable, we were extremely concerned about its attempts to conceal its political connections and thus had the potential to solicit funds from the public under the false impression that it was an entirely unpolitical organisation with no associations to a political party.

In our letter we pressed for “urgent action” and for a thorough investigation. This week, we were informed by the Commission that it would be reporting back to us by October 10th. Trading Standards have acknowledged receipt of our letter but have not yet said whether they will be investigating.

As we have seen with Islamist “charities”, one concern is that members of the public are duped into donating money in good faith and that funds end up in the hands of extremists (in this case the BNP). Another concern is the propaganda value of this association to BNP recruitment teams. Lastly, we believe that fake organisations like SOTS that withhold information about their extremist links undermine the exceptional and genuinely selfless work of groups that are concerned for the welfare of our servicemen and women.

We hope that by reporting groups such as SOTS that socially-minded members of the public will be better protected from front organisations masquerading as authentic veteran groups.

Nothing British

Warning over BNP focus ‘undermining’ terror battle

Reforms to a multi-million pound scheme to prevent terrorism must not undermine attempts to fight extremism in Muslim communities, according to an MP.

Khalid Mahmood (Lab Perry Barr) issued the warning after the Government announced plans to focus more on threats from the far-right, including the BNP.

The £45 million “preventing violent extremism” programme was set up in 2006 to prevent young Muslims turning to terrorism. But local government minister Shahid Malik has announced that it will now work in deprived “white areas” as well. And it will be re-branded, following reports that some Muslims found the name offensive.

Think tank The New Local Government Network has published a report warning the scheme risked backfiring as some Muslim communities felt stigmatised by it.

Mr Mahmood said: “There is an issue with the BNP. They are extremists as well. But they do take part in the political system. I deplore them, but they are trying to get a democratic remit. What we need to do is to focus on those people who are acting outside the limits of the political system. We know that they exist and it doesn’t make sense to lump them in with the BNP.”

Although al Qaida-inspired terror remains the UK’s main concern, Scotland Yard has switched some officers to monitor a recent surge in the number of suspected far-right plotters.

More than 30 people were arrested over the weekend in Birmingham after violent clashes between Union flag-waving anti-Islamic fundamentalist protesters and Unite Against Fascism marchers.

The NLGN report was written by its deputy director Anna Turley, a former special adviser to David Blunkett, who said the Prevent scheme had enjoyed some notable success in its work with mosques. But she said its unique focus on Muslim communities had fostered resentment in some areas.

Birmingham Post

Don't play BNP's game, warns peer

Government told it must defend foreign workers

Politicians must start defending foreign workers to prevent extremist parties gaining sway during the recession, Britain's new European commissioner says today, in what will be seen as a veiled warning to the British government not to whip up nationalist sentiment.

Lady Ashton, who was until last autumn leader of the Lords under Gordon Brown, acknowledged in an interview with the Observer that there was a risk of significant advances in this spring's European elections for extremists in the present economic climate. She said mainstream politicians must be careful not to fan the flames: "In any kind of economic downturn, it is incumbent on us all to be putting across exactly the same message about the value and importance of having... diversity in communities; about the value and benefit of people from different countries coming and creating wealth.

"There are reasons we have to support that and not to get trapped into what the extremists would like, which would be to take their simplistic approach and fit it into a very complicated situation. So I hope that people will just reject as nonsense the idea that the solution lies in some kind of xenophobic attitude to people who live, work, study or travel in our country, because they bring the economy far more than they take out. The extremists have always relied on economic downturns ... as a way of recruiting people to what can be seen as a simple message, but actually is just hatred."

Her intervention comes amid warnings that the British National party could snatch a seat in the European parliament in June's elections, when Labour MEPs are privately predicting losses of up to three or four seats as voters respond angrily to job losses. The BNP took a council seat in Swanley, Kent, last week from Labour in a shock victory, suggesting it has begun to penetrate the southern English counties. It could profit in June both from a collapsing Labour vote in working-class areas hit by unemployment and the implosion of the hard-right Ukip, which took 16% of the vote at the last EU election.

Brown has been accused of fanning tensions by talking of "British jobs for British workers", a slogan promptly adopted by the BNP, despite the UK's obligation as an EU member to allow EU citizens free access to Britain to work.

The home secretary is expected to announce next week a reduction in permits for non-EU citizens to work in the UK. Brown's approach has caused private distaste in Brussels, but Ashton insisted it had been taken out of context and her former boss had been misunderstood. But in a warning to leaders tempted to pull up the drawbridge in a bid to protect jobs, she said Britain had traditionally benefited from bringing in workers to fill skill shortages, from Caribbean immigrants in the 1950s to Polish plumbers in the last decade.

Governing parties across Europe are braced for a backlash in June because of the economic crisis, and Labour MPs are concerned that in the UK the campaign for the local and European elections - being overseen by Harriet Harman, the deputy leader - needs a tougher strategy to combat attempts by the BNP to capitalise on the new nationalistic sentiment.

Yesterday the former cabinet minister Peter Hain warned that rising unemployment was a "heaven-made" scenario for extremists.

Observer

Extremists’ target vows to speak out

A Sheffield councillor says she was left "sick and frightened" after far-right extremists threatened her children and grandchildren.

Labour councillor Jackie Drayton says she was bombarded with abusive emails after she criticised a British National Party meeting in Sheffield. Her name appeared on the BNP's national website - and within hours her inbox was full of angry emails. Today Coun Drayton said although she was scared, she refused to be bullied.

"Despite the threats I believe in democracy and free speech so I'm going to stand up and keep saying what I think. They are not going to quieten me with their bully boy tactics."

The BNP's national website claimed "Labour Party thugs" forced the meeting to be cancelled and Jackie was quoted as saying this was one battle which had been won. Her email address was posted on the BNP's website along with a link to The Star's website.

Coun Drayton was travelling home from a London meeting when the emails started flooding her handheld computer. Within a couple of hours she had 25 emails, some signed.

The former Lord Mayor said: "There was one which was particularly bad and I felt sick and frightened. I started getting more and more emails and when one mentioned my family I started to panic. Then I had a telephone message from a friend saying I was on the BNP website."

One message said: "How would you like yourself and your family to be intimidated in a similar fashion? Maybe you might like death threats like Salman Rushdie got? Take some advice, stay away from gangster style tactics as it may come and bite you back! It's not democratic and will lead to the rule of the gun. YOU WILL LOSE. You say you won this battle but you will lose the war, that's a promise and I never break promises. YOU will pay one day very soon. The writing is on the wall. May god have mercy on your soul, I will pray for your deliverance from evil."

Coun Drayton has passed the emails to the police and the council's legal department.

She spoke out against a BNP meeting planned for Wednesday night at Southey Social Club. The club cancelled the meeting after consultation with councillors, MPs, police and members of the public. It went ahead at a secret location.

John Winston Beatson, of the BNP, said the party had a lot of support in the north of the city: "The Labour Party brought in their big guns to scupper our meeting with threats and intimidation. The Labour Party is stifling free speech and everyone's right to change our society by peaceful means."

Sheffield Council leader Coun Paul Scriven condemned the emails and said differences of opinion were vital in a democracy so people had choices.

"Elected representatives have a duty in a free and open democracy to raise their views without fear of intimidation or threats. Those who do threaten or intimidate people undermine the very democracy they say they support."

South Yorkshire Star

Far-right given election boost by Greek fires

Concerns are mounting that the political fallout from devastating wildfires in Greece could open the door to far-right extremists in elections to be held a week on Sunday. Public anger at the response to the fires is fuelling discontent within the country's two main political parties and pushing many voters into the arms of fringe groups who could enter parliament for the first time.

Among those seeing a significant bounce in opinion polls is the extreme-right Orthodox Rally (Laos) party who are expected to break the 3 per cent threshold needed to gain seats at the 16 September elections.

"These fires have seen the popularity of the smaller parties rise," said Dimitris Sotiropoulos, a senior analyst at the regional think-tank Eliamep. "This is as a result of the incapability of the state to prevent the fires, then to deal with them and finally to resolve the situation."

Greece is set for one of its tightest elections in recent memory with as many as 20 per cent of voters undecided and a legal blackout on opinion polling in the closing fortnight of the campaign. The final surveys before the blackout gave Laos 4 per cent of the projected vote, narrowly ahead of the left-wing Syriza party. The two main parties, conservative New Democracy and socialist Pasok, both polled less than 40 per cent, with neither claiming a substantial advantage. The uncertainty has raised the prospect of a coalition government, which could hand a key role to a minority party able to gain even a few parliamentary seats.

The far right has traditionally struggled to get an electoral foothold in a country that has suffered under a military dictatorship as recently as the 1970s. But Laos with its mix of xenophobia, nationalism and Orthodox Christianity, may have struck a chord with a country shocked both by the scale of the destruction and the torpid response of mainstream parties.

In the past fortnight, Greece has been plunged into a state of emergency as the worst wildfires for a century decimated forests and farmland, consumed villages and killed more than 60 people. Several smaller fires were still burning yesterday when the first rain fell in after a scorching summer of record-breaking temperatures.

The ruling conservatives have been roundly condemned for their lethargic response to the crisis but Pasok, their perennial opponents, do not appear to be attracting disgruntled voters either.

In a bid to avoid accusations of profiting from the fires, both parties suspended campaigning during the crisis but that has afforded precious breathing space to the fringe parties who have festooned Athens with aggressive election posters.

Taking centre stage in the battle of the minnows has been the Laos party leader George Karatzaferis who is to be seen all over the city wielding a boxing glove and calling for all Greece to become "one fist".

The country has been gripped by conspiracy theories and Mr Karatzaferis' aggressive and simplistic campaign featuring a scantily-clad bleach blonde nightclub performer, Effi Sarri, singing a party anthem about Christ and country has gained unexpected traction. The increasingly rattled government has sought to deflect critics by placing the blame for the wildfires on arsonists but it has done little to help its own cause by making confusing statements about "asymmetrical terrorist threats" and an "organised plan" to destabilise the country.

Independent

No room for the BNP racists

The party’s local election disaster is a credit to student activism

Despite fielding a total of nine candidates for election to York City Council, far-right party the BNP managed to gain only 3582 votes and failed to win a single seat. To put this result in context, the anti-BNP organisation Unite Against Fascism has reported that the BNP fielded a record 750 candidates in the recent council elections with Yorkshire and the Humber being a major target area. After large increases for the party in both votes and council seats won in the past couple of years, the most recent elections have yielded the BNP only one extra council seat.

The failure to gain popular support in our local area is highly encouraging given efforts by the BNP and associated fascist website Redwatch to make their presence known. Attempts by members of both these organisations to intimidate York University staff and students have been reported recently by Nouse. It’s therefore good to see these bullying tactics are gaining all the success they deserve.

The BNP’s spectacular failure to perform at the ballot box shows that vigilance pays off. We should be proud that students at our University are willing to make it be known that we are not impressed by underhand tactics and thinly veiled threats, nor will we stand by as racists and extremists try to spread their pernicious political views by masquerading as a voice from the mainstream.

A national press officer for the BNP has compared YUSU to the Marxist Communists of the Soviet Union “who stifled debate and free speech”. This rather bizarre characterisation comes from an organisation which is still free to speak, free to contest elections, but has failed to win the debate and persuade people that it is right. That they are railing against student organisations shows that we, as students, must be doing something right in combating their rhetoric. The same press officer also expressed frustration that students are too ready to accept the idea that diversity is a wonderful thing. Enough said.

With overall turnout at only 41.8% and even lower at 37.2% in the overwhelmingly student-based electorate of Heslington ward, there is a clear lack of interest in local politics among students, and very little desire to turn out in support of the major political parties. Such a high level of apathy is definitely a worrying trend that needs to be addressed, but it is good to see that, in York at least, this is not translating into a protest vote for parties like the BNP.

Student politics currently has a problem in working out [what] it ought to fight for, but at the very least the politics of intolerance is something we can all agree that we must fight against. There was no room on York Council for the BNP this time around. Let’s make sure it stays that way in the future.

Nouse

Could candidate apathy allow in the extremists?

Widespread disinterest in standing for parish council seats could leave the door open for extremists to take them, it was warned this week.

In 43 of the parish wards in East Herts, electors will not get to vote for a local representative on May 3. Too few people have been nominated for a poll in 22 of them and the exact quota has come forward in another 14, which also negates the need for a vote. Only seven wards - Aston, Brickendon Liberty, Cottered, Little Berkhamsted, Walkern, Westmill and Widford - will require an actual vote.

And while town councils generally attract electoral interest, this time there are only five candidates for 12 Sawbridgeworth Town Council seats.

The situation has prompted former Bishop's Stortford mayor Keith Barnes, whose four-seat town Central ward has four British National Party candidates standing among a list of 13, to say: "You could have had an extreme group get in without a vote being cast or someone from the Monster Raving Loony Party."

In Albury, where six seats are up for grabs, only Paul Cole has put his name forward. The situation is similar in Standon, where Henry Davies stands alone for the three spots. In Braughing, the trio of Andrew Peat, David Williamson and Peter Boylan know they already form half of the council.

The new parish councils will have to co-opt new members after May 3 to get up to full strength. If the field of candidates number less than a third of the seats available, a re-election is necessary. If the same happens again, the district council can appoint people.

By comparison, the number of independents standing this year for East Herts Council is on the rise to five - and a former Tory has changed allegiance.

Deborah Clark is a former Conservative who has switched to being an independent in the same Hunsdon, Eastwick and Gilston ward. She said she had tried fighting for change from within but found it difficult to speak out on important matters as a member of a political party, stating: "The resistance to change was frustrating."

Also seeking election in Sawbridgeworth for the district council is her husband Nigel Clark, better known as secretary of Stop Harlow North campaign. He said there was a lot of support to take party politics away from providing basic local services at district level, although at a national level his personal values were Conservative.

Keith Barnes has been an independent in Central for 24 years and former Ratepayers' Association mayor Eric Marshall is back in the fray in Stortford All Saints after more than a decade.

Retired social worker Mary Wilkinson, of Westland Green, is contesting Little Hadham for East Herts as an independent.

Herts and Essex News

White supremacists blame immigration and Asians for Virginia Tech tragedy

In the wake of the tragic shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, extremists and white supremacists and conspiracy-oriented Internet forums and Web sites have focused on the ethnicity of the killer in an attempt to blame Asians, immigrants and other minorities for the deaths and to spread a message of hate, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

"Extremists are using the Virginia Tech shootings to spread a message of hate against immigrants, particularly Asians," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "They are using the shooter's Asian ethnicity as an excuse to pile on hate against Asians, Blacks, Jews and immigrants. It is yet another example of how the neo-Nazis and haters are seeking to create an atmosphere of divisiveness around the immigration debate and to engender fear of minority groups living in America."

Some white supremacists groups have posted virulently anti-immigrant, racist and anti-Semitic videos on YouTube, the popular mainstream video sharing site, with deceptive titles such as "Virginia Tech Shooting Update" that make them appear as if they were legitimate news clips dealing with the aftermath of the shooting.

Some examples of the types of chatter taking place on extremist sites follow.

• Anti-Asian Rhetoric: Some of the terms used to describe Asians include: "cold, calculating and cruel" and "worthless dirtbags" who "have infected and overpopulated too many parts in America…" One poster on a white supremacist Internet forum wrote that Asians should "Stay in China!" Others refer to Asians with racially derogatory names such as "chop chop," "po chop," and "gook."

• Anti-Diversity Rhetoric: "This is one example of a tragedy that simply would not have happened in a WN [White Nationalist] country. That Asian man wouldn't have been here in the first place," reads a post on a white supremacist site. A post on another virulently anti-Semitic site read: "Guns don't kill people. Niggers, spics and gooks kill people."

• Anti-Semitic Rhetoric: Extremists are discussing the shootings in the context of a variety of anti-Semitic stereotypes, including Jewish control of the media and of the U.S. government, and a Jewish "conspiracy" to repeal the Second Amendment.

• Holocaust Denial Rhetoric: Several posts have engaged in Holocaust denial in referring to the slaying of Liviu Librescu, the Jewish professor and Holocaust survivor who was reportedly killed while attempting to protect his students, claiming that the Holocaust was a "hoax."

• Videos: In an attempt to spread their message of white supremacy and anti-Semitism, neo-Nazis associated with the Vanguard News Network have created over a dozen videos with titles including "Virginia Tech Shooting Update," and posting them on YouTube in an apparent attempt to deceive viewers into thinking they are getting legitimate news stories, when in fact the videos contain virulently racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant messages.

• Protests at Funerals: The virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church has plans to protest at the funerals of the victims, claiming the shooting was God's vengeance for homosexuality in America.

ADL

From race riots to civil war: What is the BNP preparing for?

“Welcome to Oldham, the front line of the race war,” a BNP officer told a party rally a few weeks before rioting broke out in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in summer 2001. After the riots the cover of BNP’s magazine Identity sported a map of Britain with flames indicating towns where BNP-instigated race riots had already taken place and those where the BNP was still working on it.

Since those days there has been a growing belief that the BNP was working to a secret agenda as well as its public one. Even party members are concerned at the build-up of the BNP’s private army of security guards and the large sums of money spent on their training.

After the European elections in 2004 when the BNP got 800,000 votes but no MEPs, Nick Griffin said that the party might have to consider alternatives to the ballot box. At the time this attracted no more than a ripple of interest. Clearly the BNP leader was harking back to his days running the National Front Political Soldiers faction, when he was happy to rub shoulders with extremists including terrorists of many political hues.

More recent developments add to the evidence about where the BNP might be heading if it fails to make any real breakthrough at the ballot box.

Last autumn the BNP organised its first clay pigeon shoot in Yorkshire, attended by Griffin and BNP councillor Richard Barnbrook as a fundraising and social event but also to build up a core of party members who know how to handle guns.

Then Matthew Single, a regular BNP election candidate in Essex, boasted to the local press that he had been promoted to third in Griffin’s personal security detail and claimed that he had undergone “intensive training”. He has also started training BNP activists in “anti-hijack evasive driving”. Single has twice escaped justice in the courts and was in hot water over a false entry on his election papers last May.

And last month Griffin made an interesting remark as an aside in his blog about his speaking tour of East Anglia, writing: “During the English Civil War (in due course, it will of course have to be called the First English Civil War, in order to differentiate it from the one to come) …”. Was it Griffin who inspired Robert Cottage to stockpile explosives for what he told Manchester Crown Court in February were preparation for the coming race war?

Finally, why has the BNP stated that it is especially keen to recruit serving and recently retired police and army officers?

Searchlight

Truth is clear - BNP just want to stir up hatred

by Gordon Brown

I want to congratulate Searchlight and the Daily Mirror for organising this fantastic Hope Not Hate nationwide tour.

Celebrities including the Sugababes, actors from Coronation Street and The Bill, Amir Khan and Corinne Bailey Rae have rallied to support the campaign and stand against the bigotry and racism of the BNP.

More important, thousands of people in towns and cities right across Britain have backed the campaign too.

Just a few days ago 50,000 Searchlight newsletters were delivered in Sandwell in the West Midlands Black Country. Another 20,000 were put through doors in Dudley a few days earlier.

The story has been the same across the country - ordinary people from all races and religions, from all ages and backgrounds, coming together to celebrate what's best about modern Britain and tell people the truth about the BNP. And that truth is clear. The BNP are not a mainstream political party but a group of extremists trying to stir up division and hatred in those communities they are targeting.

WE all know there are problems in Britain. Our country is not perfect and we've still got a lot of work to do but the BNP don't have the answers. The vast majority of the British people know that support for the BNP is completely incompatible with the true nature of Britishness and the great British values of democracy and decency, freedom and fairness, tolerance and equality that the rest of us stand for.

Where we want to unite our country around the great British beliefs we all share of liberty for all, responsibility by all and fairness to all, the BNP want to divide our communities on the basis of the colour of your skin, where you were born or what you look like. They oppose any racial integration and even mixed marriages. They want to create a country where ethnic minorities are second under the law. They believe that people should be given preference in the jobs and housing market, and even in choice of schools on the basis of the colour of their skin, regardless of their ability, talents or contribution.

That is not what the vast majority of British people believe. We don't care what you look like or what colour you are - if you work hard and do your best, you can be part of our community. That's what matters to me. We're in it together and we work for each other. To me, that's what's best about Britain. That's what living in Britain is all about. And May 3 gives us all the opportunity to speak up for the great British values we all share, to make a stand against the BNP, to vote for hope - not hate.

Mirror