Inside Story - What's Triggering Hate Crimes in the US?

What's triggering hate crimes in the US? The fatal stabbing of two men on a train – and serious injuries to another - has turned the spotlight on bigotry and intolerance in the United States. All three were standing up to a known white supremacist who was heard racially abusing two young women, one of them a Muslim wearing a headscarf. Their alleged attacker is facing trial for aggravated murder and other charges. Was the attack an isolated incident or evidence of a growing trend?

Madonna and Milk Cartons: Russia's War on Gays and Lesbians Intensifies

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Obscure conservative groups in Russia have intensified their fight against homosexuality, recently going after the pop-singer Madonna as well as an allegedly offensive milk carton label. The developments underscore a growing atmosphere of intolerance in the country.

Russia's self-proclaimed morality police have discovered a new danger to the people's health and values, and it is to be found in the country's supermarkets -- in the form of dairy products from the American company PepsiCo. Activists from the Orthodox group called the People's Council have even gotten Russia prosecutors involved.

"The packaging of these dairy products with the label 'Vesyoly Molochnik' have long been a thorn in my side," says Anatoly Artyuch, of the People's Council. The brand means "happy milkman" in English.

Pepsi uses the brand to sell all manner of dairy products, including milk, yoghurt and kefir. Packages portray a smiling, slightly rotund milkman wearing a chef's hat. Behind him is a green meadow with a rainbow stretching across the sky. Artyuch believes that the rainbow isn't quite as innocent as it might seem. He thinks it is "the global symbol of the sodomite movement." Russia's judiciary is currently looking into the claims. » | Benjamin Bidder in Moscow | Monday, October 22, 2012

Iraq Fears Repression and Intolerance
As change sweeps the Middle East, there are fears of a new crackdown in Iraq. After anti-government demonstrations last week, security forces beat and arrested hundreds of protestors. Although officials have since apologised, but protesters fear that further repressive measures may be on the way. Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reports from Baghdad

WIKI: Yazidi >>>

FREE ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA: Yazidi >>>

Gay Hate Wrapped in a Republican Embrace
TIMES ONLINE: The party once preached tolerance but is now getting ever whiter and straighter

I had the pleasure of accompanying Nick Herbert, the Tory shadow environment minister, on some of his tour of conservative and Republican circles in Washington last week. I felt bad for him in a way. Not only did he somehow break the bath plug in the British embassy, he was also in favour of action on climate change as a core Tory pledge.

The Republican party doesn’t really believe in baths (some super-charged showers do the trick) and it certainly doesn’t believe in that “snake-oil science”, as Sarah Palin recently called climate change. But the best was yet to come. Herbert came here to give a speech on why conservatism can and should be inclusive of gays and lesbians. The speech he gave was terrific, largely avoided domestic culture-war politics and focused on what he believed the Tories’ experience could teach their sister party in the US, today’s Republicans.

“I can tell you what happens to a party when it closes the door to sections of our society and is reduced to its core vote,” he told the wide-eyed audience at the libertarian Cato Institute. “It’s no fun being in opposition for 13 years. And I can tell you what happens when a party opens its doors again and broadens its appeal. A successful political party should be open to all and ought to look something like the country it seeks to govern.”

The same week, the most popular conservative activist conference — attended by Mitt Romney and Dick Cheney, among many others — was full of rousing speeches. It is a kind of informal party conference for the grassroots, and takes place early each year in DC. It was, shall we say, an interesting contrast with Herbert’s message. >>> Andrew Sullivan* | Sunday, February 21, 2010

* Andrew Sullivan is an author, academic and journalist. He holds a PhD from Harvard in political science, and is a former editor of The New Republic. His 1995 book, Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality, became one of the best-selling books on gay rights. He has been a regular columnist for The Sunday Times since the 1990s, and also writes for Time and other publications.

Britons Are Suspicious Towards Muslims, Study Finds
THE TELEGRAPH: The British public are concerned at the rise of Islam in the UK and fear that the country is deeply divided along religious lines, according to a major survey.

The Finsbury Park Mosque, London. Photo: The Telegraph
Is there any wonder? Who the hell wanted religious diversity anyway? Whoever thought up the idea must have been a naïve idiot! Muslims certainly don’t want diversity. In their eyes, everyone must submit to Allah, and call Muhammad the seal of prophets. What fools we have been to swallow this BS! There is but one possible result of this experiment: Bloodshed on the streets of the United Kingdom! – © Mark

More than half the population would be strongly opposed to a mosque being built in their neighbourhood, the study found.

A large proportion of the country believes that the multicultural experiment has failed, with 52 per cent considering that Britain is deeply divided along religious lines and 45 per cent saying that religious diversity has had a negative impact.

Only a quarter of Britons feel positive towards Muslims, while more than a third report feeling “cool” towards them.

The findings, to be published later this month in the respected British Social Attitudes Survey, show that far greater opposition to Islam than to any other faith and reveal that most people are willing to limit freedom of speech in an attempt to silence religious extremists.

David Voas, professor of population studies at Manchester University, who analysed the data, said that people were becoming intolerant towards all religions because of “the degree to which Islam is perceived as a threat to social cohesion”.

He said: “Muslims deserve to be the focus of policy on social cohesion, because no other group elicits so much disquiet.”

The “size and visibility” of Islamic communities has led to serious concerns about their impact on British society, Prof Voas concludes.

“This apparent threat to national identity (or even, some fear, to security) reduces the willingness to accommodate free expression.

“Opinion is divided, and many people remain tolerant of unpopular speech as well as distinctive dress and religious behaviour, but a large segment of the British population is unhappy about these subcultures.” >>> Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Saturday, January 09, 2010

People Must Be Free to Hold Intolerant Views about Homosexuality
THE TELEGRAPH: Ministers seem set on eroding yet another safeguard to our liberty, says Philip Johnston.

An important blow for free speech was struck in the dying hours of the last parliamentary session, despite a desperate rearguard action by the Government to quash it. Ministers wanted to remove a protection inserted into a law, passed only last year, which made it an offence to express hatred of homosexuals. But they were twice beaten back in the Lords and eventually ran out of time.

They may try again in the coming session that starts on Wednesday, the last before the general election.

This story encapsulates much that has been so pernicious about the 12 years of misrule to which the country has been subjected. No one can remember a government returning in the very next session to try to undo something to which it had agreed (albeit reluctantly) in the preceding parliamentary term. The free speech protection was proposed by Lord Waddington, a former Home Secretary. It stated: "For the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices, shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred."

This was done for a purpose. There are too many instances of people being questioned by the police under existing public order legislation for holding views that may be considered offensive or intolerant for yet another measure to be passed without setting out the circumstances in which it is meant to be used. These instances include a grandmother, Pauline Howe, who was visited by two constables because she wrote to her local council to complain about a gay rights march and what she considered a "public display of indecency". She was told she might have committed a "hate crime".

A similar experience befell Joe and Helen Roberts, a Christian couple lectured by Lancashire police on the evils of "homophobia" after criticising gay rights in a letter to Wyre Borough Council. A few years ago, Lynette Burrows, a family campaigner, was the target of a police inquiry after saying on the radio that she did not believe homosexuals should be allowed to adopt. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former head of the Muslim Council, had his collar felt, as did the Bishop of Chester for making remarks in a religious context that no sane person could have taken as stirring up hatred against homosexuals. The most preposterous example was the Oxford student who was arrested and threatened with prosecution for calling a police horse gay. >>> Philip Johnston | Monday, November 16, 2009

Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in 
the Middle East
AL BAB.com: Homosexuality is still taboo in the Arab countries. While clerics denounce it as a heinous sin, newspapers, reluctant to address it directly, talk cryptically of ‘shameful acts’ and ‘deviant behaviour’. Despite growing acceptance of sexual diversity in many parts of the world, attitudes in the Middle East have been hardening against it.

In this absorbing account, Guardian journalist Brian Whitaker paints a disturbing picture of people who live secretive, often fearful lives; of daughters and sons beaten and ostracised by their families or sent to be ‘cured’ by psychiatrists; of men imprisoned and flogged for ‘behaving like women’; of others who have been jailed simply for trying to find love on the Internet.

Amid all the talk of reform in the Middle East, homosexuality is one issue that almost everyone in the region would prefer to ignore, and yet there are pockets of change and tolerance. Deeply informed and engagingly written, Unspeakable Love draws long overdue attention to this crucial subject. >>> Brian Whitaker | Sunday, June 07, 2009 (Last revision)

Amazon.co.uk >>>
Saqi Books >>>
University of California Press >>>
Amazon.com >>>
Arabic translation >>>

Russia to Gays: Get Back into the Closet
Police detain Russian gay-rights leader Nikolai Alexeyev during an unsanctioned gay-rights protest in Moscow on May 16, 2009. Photo courtesy of Time
TIME: Being gay is not supposed to be a crime in Russia. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993; six years later, the law that sent gays and lesbians to psychiatric wards was annulled. But Russia would still rather have its homosexual citizenry invisible — and silent. Nikolai Alexeyev knows that very well. He's just been released from jail for trying to organize a gay-rights demonstration in Moscow.

Alexeyev, 31, had decided to stage a gay-pride march to take advantage of the spotlight Moscow was enjoying for playing host to the Eurovision finals over the weekend. "We want equal rights. We don't want to be discriminated against," the director of Gayrussia.ru said a couple of days before the parade. "Many Eurovision fans are gay, and they will be watching what happens to us." Wary of the government of Moscow's openly homophobic mayor Yuri Luzhkov (a similar March two years ago had somehow ended in violence as neo-Nazis and religious groups attacked demonstrators), Alexeyev used guerrilla tactics and, at the last minute, moved the parade from Moscow's center, farther north to Sparrow Hills. (Read about the results of the 2009 Eurovision finals.)

At the same time, an anti-gay demonstration sanctioned by Moscow's government was taking place near a metro station in the central part of the Russian capital. Protesters held up signs saying, "Moscow is not Sodom." Vladimir Terechenko, a refrigerator repairman, said he tells his sons repeatedly that if they come out as homosexuals he will kill them.

"Homosexuality is the end of civilization. They are pale, they are sickly, and they smell," he said. He echoes the opinions of Luzhkov, who has said homosexuality is a disease that needs to be treated, has called gays satanic and has vowed that there will never be a gay parade in Moscow. Despite the violent beliefs and the hateful messages of the anti-gay protesters, they were left untouched by Russian riot police, who sat meekly in their vans during the demonstration. (See pictures of Russia celebrating its military might.)

Not so at Alexeyev's march. There, an estimated 30 protesters unwrapped rainbow banners and chanted for less than half a minute before Moscow riot police rounded up and arrested everyone involved. Alexeyev, who came to the parade accompanied by a man in a bride's dress, was swiftly carried off by riot police. One woman, who was surrounded by cameras, was grabbed by riot police as she was giving interviews, her shirt torn on the way to the police bus. Peter Tatchell, a British gay-rights activist, flew to Moscow for the event. He was speaking to reporters before he too was arrested. "This shows Russian people are not free," he told reporters. >>> By Marina Kamenev, Moscow | Monday, May 18, 2009

TIME:
Picture gallery: Fashions of the Russian Czars: The lavish taste and grandeur of Imperial Russia seen through the ceremonial dress and uniforms of Emperors and court officials in a new show at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. >>>

Tolerating Intolerance
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: THE involvement of Britons among the terrorists responsible for the murders of more than 150 people in Mumbai last week signals another milestone in the march of multiculturalism and the failure of Western and democratised nations to deal with Islamists.

In the mosques of London, leaders like Anjem Choudary, right-hand man to the hate-filled cleric Omar Bakri, were praising the killers, saying any Britons or Americans among the dead were targeted legitimately because they should not have gone to India.

"Muslims are being killed in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan every day through acts of atrocity against them.

But the media only report events like Mumbai,'' he told The Daily Mail as Indian police revealed that at least two terrorists they had captured were British-born Pakistanis.

In the UK, as in many European nations and in Australia, governments have permitted Muslim migrants to create their own enclaves and ghettos and preach their own interpretations of their religion, unhindered by the cultures of their host nations and often in contempt of the laws of the society of their host country.

Aided by the powerful civil rights lobbies and squadrons of lawyers, Islamists are waging a successful war to prevent further assimilation of Muslims into Western society, forcing women to wear traditional Islamic garb to emphasise their separateness, urging the introduction of Islamic sharia law into local courts.

From the shores of Somalia to the cells of Guantanamo, the West is in confused retreat, its politicians too concerned about appearing to be in breach of international civil rights covenants than they are about the safety of their citizens.

India, with its 150-million strong Muslim population - the largest outside Indonesia - is no different.

Though the vast majority of its Muslims are peaceable and law abiding, it has not been able to develop a coherent policy to deal with the terrorists, despite continuing attacks in which more than 4000 people have been murdered in the past four years.

Lying between two backward, Islamic-loving nations, Pakistan and Bangladesh, India is a forward-looking country with a vibrant economy that is seeking to take advantage of its assets, its large English-speaking population, its legacy of British laws.

The Indian Islamic community is isolated within the greater population, its members attuned to the cults of victimhood and hate which spew from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, across the Gulf from Mumbai.

Fearful, perhaps, of an Islamic uprising supported by the jihadist groups allowed shelter by Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Indian government has moved to appease, rather than challenge, Islamist supporters. >>> By Piers Akerman | November 30, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Australia) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Australia) >>>

Anti-Semitism, Islam & the Growing Problem in Europe
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Though most Muslims reject Islamism and its propaganda, anti-Semitic messages from satellite channels like the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa are helping to bring a message of hate and intolerance to Europe. The effects of such hate preaching can already be felt in Germany.

"Sanabel, what do you want to do to help the Al-Aqsa Mosque?" Farfur asks on the children's program of Hamas's Al-Aqsa television station. "We want to fight." "And what else?" "Wipe out the Jews." Now Farfur, the cartoon character on Hamas's children's television program, is satisfied. Farfur is a carbon copy of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, but the Hamas version does something that Mickey would never do: He entertains children while propagating the murder of Jews.

International protests forced Hamas to take its Disney clone out of circulation. Al-Aqsa complied, but promptly turned Farfur's departure into an anti-Semitic statement: Farfur was clubbed to death by an Israeli official. Then the girl hosting the program turned to the camera and said: "You've seen how the Jews killed Farfur as a martyr. What do you want to say to the Jews?" A three-year-old girl named Shaima called into the show to say: "We don't like Jews, because they are dogs! We will fight them!" "Oh, Shaima, you're right," the girl in the studio replied, "the Jews are criminals and our enemies."

Farfur's appearances are typical of Hamas's anti-Semitic propaganda, which the organization also exports to Germany via satellite, hoping to breed new generations of fanatical anti-Semites and suicide bombers.

The Hamas station, founded in 2006, is modeled on the Hezbollah station in neighboring Lebanon, al-Manar. Al-Manar's children's program shows children wearing explosive belts and images of dying Israeli soldiers, with triumphant chants as background music. Cartoons depict scenes like that of a child blowing himself up near Israeli soldiers, or of a smiling boy flying toward Israel on a missile. Adult viewers can enjoy video clips that use inspirational graphics and rousing music to glorify the act of committing a suicide bombing, while the evening lineup offers family entertainment with a series of films based on the classic anti-Semitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

In late 2004, France banned the broadcasting of al-Manar through the European Eutelsat satellite system, citing the station's anti-Semitic content. Nevertheless, messages of hate were still being broadcast into the living rooms of Muslims in Germany via satellites controlled by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, ArabSat and NileSat. Exposure to this programming was apparently not without consequences.

Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch was wearing a traditional black robe when he left his synagogue in Frankfurt's Westend neighborhood on Sept. 7, 2007. It was the Sabbath. According to the police report, he encountered a 22-year-old German of Afghan descent "spontaneously and coincidentally" a short time later. It was early evening and the man, shouting "You shit Jew, I'm going to kill you," plunged a knife into the rabbi's abdomen. Gurevitch was recognizable as a Jew. He survived, thanks to luck and emergency surgery. Anti-Semitic Hate Speech in the Name of Islam >>> By Matthias Küntzel | May 16, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe)

Turkey, a country that has regressed in issues of pluralism and tolerance, should have no place in the EU
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Turkish converts to Christianity fear for their lives after the brutal murder of three people at a Christian publisher. Angela Merkel has called for Ankara to promote religious tolerance, while secular intellectuals ask why the 99-percent Muslim country can't put up with a few Christians. Christian Converts Live In Fear in Intolerant Turkey (Read on) by Annette Grossbongardt

Mark Alexander