The nasty little hate monger, "Pastor" Terry Jones of Florida is seeing the comeback for his attempts to stur up Islamophobia by organizing Koran burning.
He had been invited to speak to a meeting organized by another hate group "England is Ours" which opposes the building of mosques and which appears to have a connection through Jones' son who lives in Britain. As with the groups in the USA, the actual number of members of this group seems to be tiny as he was expecting meetings of "up to 100 people".
Tonight it has been announced Jones has been banned from entering Britain on the grounds that his presence is "not condusive to the public good".
Jones had originally been invited to speak to a rally in Luton organized by the far-right group the "English Defence League" in February. These neo-Nazis use the veneer of "opposing the introduction of Sharia law" to promote hatred against Muslims. Their "demonstrations" often turn into excuses to run rampage on the streets physically attacking their opponents.
Luton is a town just north of London which was previously home to a big Vauxhall (General Motors) car and van plant. It's airport is the third largest serving London. The flights are mostly charter flights organized by vacation companies.
In an article in the Guardian last month, author and journalist Sarfraz Manzoor, who was raised in Luton, explained how three factors have come together to foster extremes in both the Islamic and white communities. One of the suicide bombers on 7/7 in London came from Luton and the station was the meeting point for the attackers.
The first has been the concentration of the Muslim minorities into compact areas with the result that schools have become increasingly mono-ethnic. The second was economic climate following the closure of the Vauxhall plant which had brought together workers from different ethnic groups. Those contacts and the higher incomes helped promote community cohesion.
Today the average workplace salary is £24,585 – below the national average – and those earning the best wages in the town tend not to live in Luton. Given such issues around poverty it is easy for persuasive extremists to win support by claiming that others are being offered preferential treatment or that the reasons for poverty are related to race and religion.
The last factor he identifies is political failure.
The final issue is one of representation. Here again Jones and Abdaly (the 7/7 bomber) are twin sides of the same dismal tale. The white working class in Luton have been ignored. Into that void stepped the EDL, helped by equally unrepresentative Muslims who took to the streets to scream at returning British soldiers. The fact was that the demonstration against the soldiers (by Muslims opposed to thhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/19/193423/373?new=truee wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) comprised only a few dozen young men and women – just as Jones's flock comprises only a few dozen gullible sheep. No matter: the headlines were secured and the only losers are those in the middle, the ordinary, moderate voices drowned out by the radicals.
A few days later, the EDL withdrew the invitation slating Jones' views as too racist and homophobic for them. (They maintain a pretence of being representative by including ethnic minorities from other religious groups opposed to Islam in other countries.) It is unclear whether "England is Ours" is a splinter group from the EDL or just a front name devised by a group of members from the nearby town of Milton Keynes.
Regardless of the origins of this new group, Jones has been banned from entering Britain and is now bleating about his "human rights" being violated (actually in a TV interview over the phone, he started by claimng a "Constitutional right"). The Home Office spokesman announcing the decision to exclude him made it it clear:
"The government opposes extremism in all its forms which is why we have excluded pastor Terry Jones from the UK.
"Numerous comments made by Pastor Jones are evidence of his unacceptable behaviour. Coming to the UK is a privilege, not a right, and we are not willing to allow entry to those whose presence is not conducive to the public good."
"The use of exclusion powers is very serious and no decision is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate."