Racist party stirs up anti Muslim hatred
By Maeve Connolly - Irish News February 19th 2003
A White supremacist group has posted a leaflet on its website berating the planned construction of a Mosque in Craigavon. The leaflet, entitled This is Ulster, not Islamabad. No Mosques here has been designed by the White Nationalist Party and suggests the Mosque could become an asylum for 'Islamic terrorists'.
It has also been reported that the party will draft members into Northern Ireland in the coming weeks for the mass distribution of leaflets in Craigavon.
The proposal to build a Mosque for the 200-strong Muslim community in the Bleary area of Craigavon is before council but has been opposed by several unionist councillors.
The White Nationalist Party claims the leaflet is part of its campaign against the spread of Islamic militancy and other non-British sects across our country.
We are proud of our British culture, land and our nation. We do not need Mosques, temples or Islamic terrorists here in Ulster, the pamphlet reads.
However, Muslim Chaplain at Queens University of Belfast Dr Mamoun Mobayed said such ridiculous behaviour resulted from ignorance about minority faiths such as Islam. It is symptomatic of a lack of information and understanding and the negative image of other faiths, Dr Mobayed said.
The former president of the Islamic Centre in Belfast said such negative attitudes and feelings could be resolved through dialogue. The presence of a minority faith indirectly helps bring the two sections of the community together in Northern Ireland. People from either side will have wider horizons and realise there is more than just Protestant and Catholic.
Dr Mobayed said Muslims in Northern Ireland were active members of the community. We are contributing culturally, socially and economically to life in Northern Ireland and part of our faith is to practice our faith. We don't worship in churches or synagogues. We pray in Mosques and they should be available to us, he added.
Craigavon Sinn Fein councillor John O'Dowd, who backs the Mosque proposal, said WNP members were not welcome in the area. He also called on Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble to meet members of the Muslim community. They have the right to a place of worship in the community, Mr O'Dowd added.
Nazis goose-step into mosque row
By Stephanie Bell
ULSTER Nazis have goose-stepped into the controversy over the opening of the province's first mosque. The far-right activists are to target householders in what they describe as "an intensive campaign" against the planned place of worship in Bleary, Co Armagh.
The planning application has already been the subject of a political row at Craigavon Council, with opposition from unionists.
Now the extreme White Nationalist Party has vowed to carry out a fascist campaign in the area, claiming it is opposed to "mass migration into our homelands, the integration of races, and the multi-racial society".
Within the next fortnight, the WNP plans to distribute thousands of leaflets in the Portadown area. The party, which hopes to field election candidates in the next few years, also sees it as a recruitment opportunity.
WNP Ulster branch spokesman, Gary Allen, said: "We are deeply opposed to plans by the Muslim community to build a mosque in Bleary. Since this issue was first raised, we've received a lot of calls from people in Portadown concerned the mosque will be built in their area, and the implications of that. We in the WNP do not see the mosque as being a religious centre. As far as we're concerned, it's an occupation centre for the continued Asian invasion of our country. That's why we are opposed to it."
The leaflets are to be posted through letterboxes and handed out in the streets.
Mr Allen added: "Mainstream politicians are too scared to speak out against the mosque, for fear of being called racist. But we aren't frightened of that."
The mosque has received outline planning permission, and a final decision is due this month.
Sunday Life - 16th February 2003
More tabloid articles on WNP Here
Unionist Party opposes Mosque Here
Young Nazis attack foreign nurses homes
By Anne Madden Health Correspondent
Two Filipino nurses have had their Co Antrim homes attacked for the second time in six months by a gang of young Nazis. The nurses, who care for sick and elderly people in residential homes, fled previous addresses in Ballymena, but were targeted again last week.
Police said it was an orchestrated attack in which windows were smashed in both houses and the women were subjected to racist abuse. Stickers with British Nazi Party slogans were stuck to their doors in each of the attacks.
PSNI Sergeant Michael Graham appealed for the community to support the nurses who, he said, were an asset to the town. These are hardworking people who are providing a much-needed service caring for the sick and elderly, he said. They should not be perceived as sponging off the state.
He said there had been a number of racist incidents in the town, mainly verbal abuse against the Chinese community in recent months. We believe those responsible for the attacks are local teenagers who are getting Nazi material from across the water, Sergeant Graham said. He added that detectives are working to establish the identities of the gang.
The Royal College of Nursing, RCN, condemned the attack and stressed that such incidents were rare. While the RCN has had few reports of racist abuse aimed at internationally recruited nurses coming to work in Northern Ireland, we are very concerned at this latest development, assistant officer Stephen McSherry said. We have been warning about the shortage of nurses in Northern Ireland for some time and without these international nurses coming here to fill the gap, our health services would not be able to cope.
Nearly 2,000 nurses have left the NHS in Northern Ireland during the last three years which means many health trusts rely on nurses from overseas. Mr McSherry urged any overseas nurses who have been subject to racist abuse to contact the nursing union. All nurses, regardless of their race or religion, should be able to live and work free from fear, he said.
SDLP assembly member Sean Farren condemned the incident which he blamed on a small minority of fascist-minded people.
Irish News - 14th February 2003
Far right to tour North Belfast Whitewell part of English loyalists Education
A group of far right English loyalists has been warned to stay away from North Belfast. The British Ulster Alliance is taking an educational tour of North Belfast at the end of February. Part of their educational tour will take in the flash point Whitewell Road, but Whitewell community worker Paul McKernan says the far right gang should stay at home. The Whitewell has been relatively peaceful for the past while and we don't want this group coming over.
They arent welcome and have no reason coming here parading around and increasing tensions.
We have enough to deal with in the Whitewell area without this sort of thing.
This group is obviously dedicated to far right policies and has no intentions of educating itself about North Belfast.
The only effect these people will have will be a negative one.
North Belfast has become a mecca for far right groups over the past two years, because of sectarian riots.
When a combat 18 group came over last year they were involved in riots on the Limestone Road.
The British Ulster Alliance website expresses far right rhetoric, calling for an end to immigration to Ulster, while praising the UDA.
The leader of the North Belfast UDA is the son of an Egyptian sailor who came to Ireland in the 1960s.
And while many members of the group are fiercely anti-Semetic they will be staying in loyalist areas bedecked with Israeli flags.
Paul McKernon says North Belfast shouldnt become a rallying point for extremists.
Past events have shown us that when groups like this come over to North Belfast it ends up in trouble.
Tensions increase and instead of people being allowed to get on with their lives we are back to the old routine of sectarian trouble.
People in the Whitewell have worked hard to bring calm to the area after a UDA campaign which drove dozens of families from their homes. We want to rebuild the community and events like this are only keeping us from doing that.
North Belfast News - 14th February 2003
