Abbreviation | SIOE |
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Formation | 2007 |
Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Website | Stop Islamisation of Europe |
Part of a series on |
Islamophobia |
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Part of a series on |
Conservatism in Europe |
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Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) is a pan-European counter-jihad [1] organisation with the stated goal of "preventing Islam from becoming a dominant political force in Europe". [2] It is a political interest group which has been active in Denmark and has conducted anti-Islamic protests in the United Kingdom. [3] The group originated out of the joining of the Danish group Stop Islamisation of Denmark with English anti-Islam activists. [4]
The group says that its aim is to oppose Islamic extremism; [5] they have the motto "Racism is the lowest form of human stupidity, but Islamophobia is the height of common sense". [6]
The group describes itself as an alliance "with the single aim of preventing Islam becoming a dominant political force in Europe." [2] The organisation calls for the total boycott of Muslim countries. [7] The group advises boycotts of companies including Fisher-Price, Asda, Kentucky Fried Chicken and The Radisson Hotel chain because of their marketing of products to Muslims. [7]
Stop the Islamisation of Europe was inspired by a Danish group of the same name who have held protests outside Danish mosques since the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. [8] The group has 6,600 supporters on its Facebook page. [8] Social networking sites have been used to plan protests. [8]
Affiliate organisations have been created in eleven European countries including Denmark, Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden, as well as the United States of America. [9]
Stephen Gash (born 1953) is the spokesman of SIOE in the UK, and stood in the 2007 Sedgefield by-election (triggered by the resignation of Prime Minister Tony Blair) for the English Democrats Party. Gash gained 177 votes (this represented 0.6% of the votes cast at the election) . [10] According to his election literature the main themes of his campaign were support for an English Parliament, resolving the West Lothian question and immigration control. [11] Gash has also contested local elections for Carlisle City Council. [11]
Anders Gravers Pedersen was born in Denmark and lives in the small town of Storvorde. [12] He contested municipal elections in Aalborg in 2005 and gained 383 votes and the group Stop the Islamisation of Denmark received a total of 1,172 votes. This represented less than 1% of the votes cast in the election. [13] At the 2007 Danish parliamentary election, Pedersen stood in Jutland and won 73 votes. [14]
In October 2007, the group staged a demonstration in central London. [15]
On 11 September 2009, SIOE co-sponsored a demonstration with the English Defence League (EDL) in Harrow which generated national and international media attention. The purpose of the demonstration was to campaign against the building of a five-storey mosque, Harrow Central Mosque, which was under construction. [16] The group had pledged to hold a peaceful protest after the EDL cancelled a planned protest on 29 August 2009. [17] [18]
In response to the protest, several Jewish community leaders condemned the group, after SIOE openly appealed to the Jewish community in an effort to encourage 1,000 Jews to carry the Israeli flag and support the protest. Rabbis Kathleen Middleton, Frank Smith, Aaron Goldstein, Hillel Robles and Mike Hilton sent a letter supporting the Harrow Mosque, saying SIOE use "outrageous lies" to try to divide Harrow's community, adding "As leaders of the Jewish community in Harrow, we are writing to express our support for our Muslim friends and neighbours, especially those at Harrow Central Mosque, who are under attack from those whose only purpose is to spread hatred and fear." [19] The protests were also condemned by Councillor Susan Hall and Tory councillors Anjana Patel and Jeremy Zeid (who are Hindu and Jewish respectively), [17] by The Jewish Chronicle newspaper, and the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors discrimination on behalf of the Jewish community in the UK. The CST asserted that SIOE "...provides the fuel for terrorism. British Jews should have no part of it." [20] Unite Against Fascism was present to oppose the demo, as well as Muslims there to defend the mosque. [21] [22] [23] [24] In all, over 1,000 people gathered outside the mosque. [5] Counterdemonstrators clashed with the police, throwing bricks, bottles and firecrackers. [21] [25] Ten arrests were made during the protests, including the organiser of the protest Stephen Gash. [5]
SIOE was originally a Danish anti-Islamist group which originated out of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. [26] The group was founded in 2007 by Anders Gravers Pedersen, the leader of a small Danish party called the Stop the Islamisation of Denmark (Danish : Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark). [4] On 11 September 2007, the group staged a demonstration in Brussels, Belgium.
SIOE established a branch in Norway in 2008, from a group that had originally been formed in 2000. The Norwegian branch, SIAN, however broke its ties to SIOE in 2012.
There has been a branch of SIOE in Germany that has been led by Michael Stürzenberger. [27] Udo Ulfkotte's former Pax Europa organisation was part of SIOE in the mid-late 2000s. [28]
A branch SIOE was established in 2007 in Poland. [29]
There was a branch of SIOE in Bulgaria that was formerly led by Pavel Chernev. [27]
In September 2009, John Denham, Labour's Communities Secretary, criticised the group and stated that it was "trying to provoke violence on Britain's streets" and called it "right-wing". [5] Unite Against Fascism have opposed the group. [5] [21] The British National Party has consistently denied any links with SIOE. [30]
The Arab European League is a Pan-Arabist political organisation active in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Quran desecration is the treatment of the Quran in a way that might be considered insulting.
Far-right politics are a recurring phenomenon in the United Kingdom since the early 20th century, with the formation of Nazi, fascist and antisemitic movements. One of the earliest examples of fascism in the UK can be found as early as 1923 with the formation of British Fascisti by Rotha Lintorn-Orman. It went on to acquire more explicitly racial connotations, being dominated in the 1960s and 1970s by self-proclaimed white nationalist organisations that opposed non-white and Asian immigration. The idea stems from belief of white supremacy, the belief that white people are superior to all other races and should therefore dominate society. Examples of such groups in the UK are the National Front (NF), the British Movement (BM) and British National Party (BNP), or the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Since the 1980s, the term has mainly been used to describe those groups, such as the English Defence League, who express the wish to preserve what they perceive to be British culture, and those who campaign against the presence of non-indigenous ethnic minorities.
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were first published by Jyllands-Posten in late September 2005; approximately two weeks later, nearly 3,500 people demonstrated peacefully in Copenhagen. In November, several European newspapers re-published the images, triggering more protests.
Islam in Denmark, being the country's largest minority religion, plays a role in shaping its social and religious landscape. According to a 2020 analysis by Danish researcher Brian Arly Jacobsen, an estimated 256,000 people in Denmark — 4.4% of the population — were Muslim in January, 2020. The figure has been increasing for the last several decades due to multiple immigration waves involving economic migrants and asylum seekers. In 1980, an estimated 30,000 Muslims lived in Denmark, amounting to 0.6% of the population.
The 2006 Islamist demonstration outside the Embassy of Denmark in London took place on 3 February 2006, in response to controversy surrounding the publication of editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005. The extremist UK-based Islamist groups al Ghurabaa and The Saviour Sect staged a controversial protest march from London Central Mosque near Marylebone Station to the Danish Embassy near Knightsbridge Underground station.
The English Defence League (EDL) was a far-right, Islamophobic organisation active in England from 2009 until the mid-late 2010s. A social movement and pressure group that employed street demonstrations as its main tactic, the EDL presented itself as a single-issue movement opposed to Islamism and Islamic extremism, although its rhetoric and actions targeted Islam and Muslims more widely.
Stop Islamisation of Norway is a Norwegian anti-Muslim group that was originally established in 2000. Its stated aim is to work against Islam, which it defines as a totalitarian political ideology that violates the Norwegian Constitution as well as democratic and human values. The organisation was formerly led by Arne Tumyr, and is now led by Lars Thorsen.
Counter-jihad, also known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and so on linked by beliefs that view Islam not as a religion but as an ideology that constitutes an existential threat to Western civilization. Consequently, counter-jihadists consider all Muslims as a potential threat, especially when they are already living within Western boundaries. Western Muslims accordingly are portrayed as a "fifth column", collectively seeking to destabilize Western nations' identity and values for the benefit of an international Islamic movement intent on the establishment of a caliphate in Western countries. The counter-jihad movement has been variously described as anti-Islamic, Islamophobic, inciting hatred against Muslims, and far-right. Influential figures in the movement include the bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer in the US, and Geert Wilders and Tommy Robinson in Europe.
Anders Gravers Pedersen is a Danish anti-Islam activist. He is the chairman and founder of Stop Islamisation of Denmark (SIAD), and leader of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE). He also established transatlantic connections with Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and Stop Islamization of Nations (SION).
Stop Islamisation of Denmark is a Danish anti-Islam organisation founded in 2005. The group was founded by Anders Gravers Pedersen who began the development of the activist part of the counter-jihad movement.
Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is a British anti-fascist group.
Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, abbreviated Pegida, is a pan-European, anti-Islam, far-right extremist political movement. German Pegida believes that Germany is being increasingly Islamicised.
Islamophobia in Australia is highly speculative and affective distrust and hostility towards Muslims, Islam, and those perceived as following the religion. This social aversion and bias is often facilitated and perpetuated in the media through the stereotyping of Muslims as violent and uncivilised. Various Australian politicians and political commentators have capitalised on these negative stereotypes and this has contributed to the marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslim community.
Islamophobia in the United Kingdom refers to a set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam or Muslims in the United Kingdom. Islamophobia can manifest itself in a wide range of ways; including, discrimination in the workforce, negative coverage in the media, and violence against Muslims.
Islamophobia in Sweden refers to the set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam and/or Muslims in Sweden. Historically, attitudes towards Muslims in Sweden have been mixed with relations being largely negative in the early 16th century, improving in the 18th century, and declining once again with the rise of Swedish nationalism in the early 20th century. According to Jonas Otterbeck, a Swedish historian of religion, attitudes towards Islam and Muslims today have improved but "the level of prejudice was and is still high." Islamophobia can manifest itself through discrimination in the workforce, prejudiced coverage in the media, and violence against Muslims. The anti-immigration and anti-Islam Sweden Democrats is the second largest party in the Riksdag.
On 29 August 2020, riots broke out in the Swedish cities of Malmö and Ronneby. After Swedish police prevented Rasmus Paludan, a Danish politician, from entering the country, far-right anti-immigration activists held protests and burned a Quran. In response, a mob of 300 migrants, mostly Muslims gathered in counter-protest, burned tires, threw rocks and chunks of concrete at the police and smashed bus shelters.
The International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) is an international counter-jihad organization that was originally founded in 2006, and which has spanned over twenty countries. Central to the organization has been Edward S. May of the Gates of Vienna blog, Alain Wagner and Christine Brim.
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