Fagburn: Political Prisoner

Fagburn is proud to report he spent this afternoon detained at Hollingbury Police Station after being arrested protesting the racist EDL's March For England in Brighton this morning.
I was fined £80 as I - and I quote from my penalty notice - "USED WORDS "FUCK OFF YOU FAT NAZI" IN A PUBLIC PLACE AND IN THE PRESENCE OF PERSONS LIKELY TO BE CAUSED ALARM & DISTRESS".
I shall, but of course, be writing my prison diaries.
¡No Pasarán!

PS I heartily recommend their vegetarian chilli - and the "groin search", it's been a while since a good looking fella touched me down there - but was disappointed when I asked for something to read and all they had was Thursday's Metro which was all about that fucking funeral.
Actually, that's kinda the extent of my prison diaries - I just took the opportunity to have a nice nap.
My hopes for being this century's Jean Genet now seem to be cruelly dashed. 

EDL: I'm Against Fascism

The freedom of speech and the right of assembly means you let even these Nazi cunts march.
I hope they all fucking die - ideally drowning in a pool of gay Asian spunk - but freedom is indivisible.
So let them march.
The rest is paste.
Good day.

Stickergate: Some Elementary Comments

Someone has put a few crappy anti-gay stickers up in east London.
It's hardly the Reichstag fire, is it?
So what does this story feed into that's made it flare up?
It has exposed a faultline that reminds me of the trial of OJ Simpson - many made up their mind who did this the second they heard.
It's also brought a lot of gay racists out the woodwork/closet/dungheap.
If someone keeps mentioning that people are "brown-skinned", it's fairly safe to assume they have a problem with brown-skinned people.
Looking at messageboards it's clear that gay racists would be thrilled if this could be blamed on a Muslim.
And if "no-one's talking about Muslim homophobia", why do I keep reading articles about it - from the usual reactionary suspects?
Has even one article about gay Islamophobia been published in the wake of Stickergate?
At the time of typing we do not know who put the stickers up.
One thing we do now know as a result of Stickergate is that the English Defence League tried to exploit it as a way of picking up support from gay men.
If they weren't behind it the EDL would have welcomed it.
To stir up or celebrate division between oppressed groups is the morality and tactics of Charles Manson.
I wish I could end on an upbeat Pollyanna/Pangloss note, but I can't think of anything good that's come out of all this.

East End Gay Pride: Hate Against Hope/Cancelled Due To EDL Interest

Comment: Why Are Gay People Trying To Ban East End Pride?
"In a sad reminder of the prejudice that Prides face throughout the world, the event has been denounced as confrontational, with the organisers facing a flurry of baseless and deeply personal abuse..."
Paul Birrell, Pink News, yesterday.

'East End Pride Organiser Resigns After ‘English Defence League Past’ Is Revealed'
"One of the organisers of East London Gay Pride resigned today after it was revealed that he had been involved with the English Defence League.
"Raymond Berry helped found the far-right group and remains involved in groups including Stop the Islamification of Europe, it was claimed..."
Pink News, today...

• For the record Out East did not call for East End Pride to be "banned". In their open letter they wrote they have; "great concerns about this demonstration and we have decided neither to participate in the event nor to call our supporters to be part of it, and we think it important to express the reasons why...
"We call on you and the organisations supporting this event to cancel it with a view to working with the local communities of the East End to ensure active, inclusive responses are made to homophobia, which do not inadvertently contribute to community tensions."
The statement from LGBT Muslim Group Imaan that outed Raymond Berry's EDL connections.

UPDATE: Wednesday March 16th. Organisers have cancelled East End Gay Pride.
In a rather silly statement they blamed "personal vendettas" against them.

UPDATE2: The shamefully thick and lazy Peter Lloyd, Pink Paper news editor (!), does his usual trick of just cut and pasting a press release without getting a second opinion - thus missing the point of the story (the furore started over unproven assumptions the stickers/posters were put up by Islamists).
He even manages to spell "Defence" "Defense"; Mr Lloyd, (American) spellchecks are only useful if you yourself can spell. Jesus fucking wept.

The Daily Star: Tabloid Exposé

Richard Peppiatt, a journalist on The Daily Star, announced his resignation this evening - saying he can no longer write for the paper because of its gutter-low journalistic standards, its Islamophobia and tacit endorsement of the English Defence League.
This is something Charlie Brooker attacked brilliantly and savagely in The Guardian last month.
You can read Peppiatt's J'Accuse resignation letter to owner Richard Desmond here.
Peppiatt tells us of such lows as being told to go out wearing a burkha in public for a story, and having to write a story about how the Daily Star had stopped some "tax-payer funded Muslim-only loos" - which had never existed outside of another Star journalist's imagination.
"Not that my involvement in stirring up a bit of light-hearted Islamophobia stopped there. Many a morning I've hit my speed dial button to Muslim rent-a-rant Anjem Choudary to see if he fancied pulling together a few lines about whipping drunks or stoning homosexuals."
This is how the Daily Star works; invent stories, incite homophobia, whip up Islamophobia, and fuck the consequences.
Peppiatt tells Desmond; "You may have heard the phrase, 'The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas.' Well, try this: The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved in down an alley in Bradford."

East End Gay Pride: Not An EDL Free Zone

Blogger Latte Labour has been keeping watch on English Defence League support for East End Gay Pride - and how organisers of the event are happy to allow EDL supporters to join their Facebook group.
Oh dear...
We still don't know who is behind the "Gay Free Zone - Fear Allah" posters that have appeared in parts of London this year; Fagburn thinks it could just as easily be some of the gay cunts who support the English Defence League, or some hate-filled homophobic Islamist cunts.
But it's interesting to note how EDLeaguers are getting behind East End Gay Pride.
Time for East End Gay Pride to declare their event an EDL free zone.

• Johann Hari has added a correction after the online version of his article, 'Can We Talk About Muslim Homophobia Now?' "This article originally said Tower Hamlets had the single highest rise in homophobic violence in the UK, when in fact it merely had one of the highest rises over the past decade. Credit to Peter Lilley for emailing to point this out..."
This is a somewhat mendacious non-apology, if you read Lilley's letter again - it's posted in Comments here.
And Hari may have to print a Correction to this Correction: It was PATRICK Lilley who pointed this out.
Facts really aren't Hari's strong point.

Johann Hari: Can We Talk About Racism On The Gay Scene Now?

'Can we talk about Muslim homophobia now?' asks Johann Hari in his column in the latest issue of Attitude.
You can read the article on Hari's website.
As ever with Hari, it's an interesting piece, striving to be measured, but in this case not quite succeeding.
It's hardly a fucking secret that some Muslims are homophobic, is it love?
Can we talk about homophobia among non-Muslims?
Or about Islamophobia among gay men?
I'm a bit tired of gay journalists saying they're breaking some great taboo when they just vomit up tired and stupid cliches.
It also really frightens Fagburn how any mention of Muslims and homophobia makes some really dodgy gay scumbags come crawling out the woodwork.
Entirely coincidentally GMFA have launched a new campaign today - Switched On - to tackle racism on the gay scene.
Good timing, I think.

Update: Right-wing hack Andrew Gilligan blogs on the right-wing Daily Telegraph on Sunday about how he hates those homophobic Muslims.
He seems to be broadly in agreement with much of what Mr Hari said...

Edit: I can not recall hearing about the attack on The George & Dragon in January 2010, nor can I find any mention of it on the internet - can anyone send Fagburn a news report about it? It is known however that someone closely involved with the George & Dragon is a vocal supporter of the English Defence League...

"Gay Free Zone" Posters In London: Is EDL Behind Them?

Being a thoroughly modern kinda guy I was chatting to people on Facebook last night.
A friend had posted about some anti-gay posters that have appeared in Hoxton, near the gay pub The George & Dragon;
"Loads of these posters have been seen around London. Who is behind them?"
There's been a lot of chatter about these "Gay Free Zone" posters this week.
They were first noted by blogger, Trial By Jeory, Extremists declare Tower Hamlets “gay free zone”, on February 2nd. A friend of his had seen some stickers [both posters and stickers have appeared] in Spitalfields, in East London.
On Thursday, The Daily Star picked up the story.
They're not usually known for getting angry about homophobia - but boy do they love any excuse to demonise Muslims.
FURY AS ISLAM FANATICS DECLARE GAY-FREE ZONE
"MUSLIM extremists have declared a “Gay Free Zone” by launching a hate campaign at homosexuals.
"They have plastered an inner-city area with posters warning gays they will be “severely punished” by Allah.
"Angry locals in Tower Hamlets, east London, say the messages have been placed near schools and are aimed at children.
"One resident, who helped take down 20 posters, said: “They are an incitement to violence, an incitement to kill gay people.
“To put them opposite a school is shocking. There were also kids in a playground in the park where I found one. It’s a campaign of hate.”
Hmmm...
On Monday, the great Charlie Brooker devoted his column in The Guardian to a much praised attack on The Daily Star, and its rampant Islamophobia;
'Q: When does a tabloid become crude propaganda? A: When it starts printing it'
"...the Daily Star is either grossly irresponsible in its sloppy representation of the facts, or engaging in overt anti-Muslim propaganda.
"Who can blame a reader who, after reading such a skewed version of events, is gripped with anti- Muslim fervour?
"On the same page was a phone poll: DO YOU AGREE WITH THE EDL POLICIES? 98% of the respondents did. If I read the Star every day, and believed it, I'd join the EDL too."
Do you know my first thought when I heard about the anti-gay stickers? It's what I posted on Facebook last night;
"I think it's probably the English Defence League doing this, in all seriousness."
My friend replied; "Yeah, i agree that this may not be what it first appears. I made that point a few days ago and think it's really important to establish who's behind it. Quite easily a far-right tactic to create tensions."
Several people commented that they had suspected the same thing.
The EDL is often banging on about homophobia and Islam - and appear keen to attract gay supporters; they even claimed in December to have dis-invited Koran-burning Pastor Terry Jones to adddress a rally, in part because of his homophobia.
Of course, there is a strong homophobic current among Islamists.
Last month five Muslim men were arrested in Derby for distributing a leaflet that called for the execution of gay men.
So we shouldn't be surprised if some hate-filled Islamic fuckwits have been plastering east London with these posters.
But equally I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out the EDL were behind it.
Here's how Charlie Brooker concluded his column on Monday;
"I believe this is a wonderful country. All of it. The people are inherently decent and fair-minded. All of them. We should resist crude attempts at division, wherever they come from. Because we deserve better. All of us."

David Cameron: Butching Up Liberalism

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and a much more active, muscular liberalism. A passively tolerant society says to its citizens, as long as you obey the law we will just leave you alone. It stands neutral between different values. But I believe a genuinely liberal country does much more; it believes in certain values and actively promotes them. Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, democracy, the rule of law, equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality. It says to its citizens, this is what defines us as a society: to belong here is to believe in these things..."

David Cameron gave his speech at the Munich Security Conference today.
Wooh! - he said "or sexuality".
His tilting at "state multiculturalism" is a well-rehearsed riff of the Right.
Fagburn wonders if this "Muscular Liberalism" is meant to be analagous with Muscular Christianity - a new Victorian value?
Who knew what liberalism needed was a little butching up?
Much of Cameron's Munich speech would have gone down well if Cameron was addressing the English Defence League rally in Luton today.
It's been lauded on the BNP's website; 'Cameron’s ‘War on Multiculturalism’ Speech – Another Milestone in the ‘Griffinisation’ of British Politics'
Nick Griffin called it; "A further huge leap for our ideas into the political mainstream.”
Indeed, Cameron's "assimilate or else" message echoes the ideology of Europe's new far right anti-immigration parties, such as dead gay cunt Pim Fortuyn's List in the Netherlands.
Islamism has replaced homosexuality as the chief cultural bogeyman of the Conservative Party; further, respecting gay rights appears to be a new Cricket Test.
Not in my name, "Dave".

Pastor Terry Jones: The Wrong Kind Of Bigot

Bigoted nutter magnet, the English Defence League, claim they have now withdrawn their invitation to bigoted American Christian nutter, pastor Terry Jones, to speak at a rally in Luton.
'A far-right group has shelved plans for the US preacher who ­threatened to burn copies of the Koran to speak at their rally – as he is “too racist and homophobic”' according to the Mirror.
Fagburn is loving that "too..."
It seems to be an invention of the Mirror though, and the "homophobic and racist" quote that appears in most papers today, such as The Guardian, does not appear in the EDL's public statement on their website.
The relevant passage is a bit less direct; "...we still have some reservations about Pastor Jones and we do not agree with all of his opinions or indeed all he stands for.
"The EDL is extremely proud of its diverse support base including it’s primary base of geographical divisions from all across England encompassing much ethnic diversity. In addition we have specific divisions drawn from groups particularly threatened by encroaching Sharia: a Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Division [There is no evidence of such a "division" existing - Fagburn]; a Jewish Division and recently a Pakistani Christian Division. The EDL also enjoys the active participation and support of many former members of the Armed Forces. In light of our strong commitment to these groups and some of the Pastor’s statements and associations, we feel it inappropriate to offer Pastor Terry Jones an invitation to attend an EDL demonstration."
The admirable anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate point out; "Of course this is all complete nonsense. The original EDL posting last week claimed they were “proud to announce” his visit. In interviews over the weekend it was clear that Pastor Jones knew very little about the EDL and that he had accepted their invitation to come over.
"In truth, the EDL was forced to backtrack because the media took up our campaign and shone the spotlight onto his cranky and extremist views. Under pressure from some of its own members, the EDL leadership eventually realised that the crazy Pastor was even too extreme for them and would quickly become an embarrassment."
And if the EDL think you're embarrassing...

English Defence League: EDLLGBTOD

There's an article by Gary Younge in today's Guardian on "the far right's use of homophobia as a stick with which to beat Islam."
He's right that non-Islamic cultures like our own beloved country are hardly free from homophobia, and that our homo tolerance (never mind acceptance) is a relatively recent phenomenon, and one that is still contended and is far from stable.
But Younge tries to conflate too many issues together, something summed up in his own summary; "Why we cannot allow an issue as important as gay rights to be snatched by the right as a stick with which to beat Islam, immigration and the left" [Emphasis added].
Eh?
Yes, Islamophobes often cite examples of its homophobia, but I don't get how left-bashing fits into this.
He also argues that; "Given fascism's history of violent and outspoken homophobia, the news that the EDL [English Defence League] would have a 115-strong lesbian, gay and transgender wing would appear, at the very least, incongruous."
This figure comes from another article in The Guardian in May.
Gay men and fascism have often got into bed together, but there is no EDL LGBT "wing", just a Facebook group.
Whilst it's flattering that Gary Younge had presumably previously thought that lesbians and gay men were the only social groups in the entire history of the world to be entirely free from bigotry - or to show such ideological dissonance - any Facebook group should surely be seen by journalists as serious a political barometer as the one "Jeremy Clarkson should be Prime Minister", which currently has over half-a-million "members".

English Defence League: In League With the Devil

The Guardian has claimed at least twice that the in-no-way racist and Islamophobic English Defence League has a "gay section" or a "gay wing".
There isn't.
Someone has started a group on Facebook for LGBT supporters of EDL - which is something quite different, and perhaps should be taken as seriously as the Facebook groups backing 'Jeremy Clarkson for PM'.
Mind you, when do gay critiques of Islam become racist?