Greece: Police clash with anti-immigrant mob

Greece: Police clash with anti-immigrant mob

Greece : Rise of far right worries mainstream

Greece : Rise of far right worries mainstream

Via AP:

Firmly on the fringe of the right since it first appeared 20 years ago, Golden Dawn garnered a meager 0.23 percent in the 2009 elections. Now, it looks set to easily win more than the 3 percent threshold needed to enter Parliament, with recent opinion polls showing support at about 5 percent.

The party has a barely veiled sinister side, and has been blamed for vicious attacks on immigrants. Members skirt questions about violence, saying they have no knowledge of such incidents.

"We don't do anything, we protect the Greeks," said Epaminondas Anyfantis, a mild-mannered, 59-year-old candidate who looks the antithesis of many of the young, muscled and shaven-headed members. "Now, if in protecting the Greeks, a foreigner might get a slap or a kick or something, I think that's in the framework of the protection of the Greeks. ... Because unfortunately the Greeks at the moment have come to the point of asking Golden Dawn for protection."

(...)

Immigrants are increasingly concerned.

"We are worried very much," said Javed Aslam, the head of the Pakistani community in Greece, during a recent anti-racist demonstration. "This is very bad. You can imagine one political party with weapons, with knives, they are going out in the roads, and this is politics? This is not politics!"

(source)

Athens: Immigrants squeak out living as scrap metal mongers

Athens: Immigrants squeak out living as scrap metal mongers

Greece: Police Beating Immigrant Caught on Tape

Greece: Police Beating Immigrant Caught on Tape

 

As seen in the video, unidentified policemen stopped an immigrant in the middle of the road, he raised his hands up high, and they attacked him, throwing him on the ground and beating him. The man is said to be Algerian. (source)

Greece: Immigrant detention centers

Greece: Immigrant detention centers

Via DW:

As elections approach in Greece, politicians argue that immigrants are behind higher crime rates and public health problems. But rights groups say the campaign rhetoric is a cheap ploy to win votes.

The so-called Integration Law, proposed by Minister for Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisohoidis, raised a furor by calling for illegal immigrants to be held in former military bases until deportation.

(source)

Greece: Most Greeks Support Clampdown on Illegal Immigration

Greece: Most Greeks Support Clampdown on Illegal Immigration

Via GreekReporter:

Ahead of May elections, more than six in 10 Greeks, or 61.7 percent, agree with recent government moves to clamp down on illegal immigration in the country, a poll showed.

A survey of 1,610 Greeks over the age of 18 by Kapa Research SA for To Vima newspaper published today found that 83.4 percent of interviewees believe illegal immigration is a major problem for Greece while 48.3 percent said that the main priority of any immigration policy should be to gradually remove all immigrants from the country, up from 19.5 percent in a similar poll in 2009.

(source)

EU: Ministers warn Greece to tighten border controls

EU: Ministers warn Greece to tighten border controls

Via Reuters:

EU countries have become increasingly critical of Greece's lax control of its border with Turkey, as the number of immigrants crossing it has risen due to political unrest in the Middle East.

A group of seven EU ministers of justice and home affairs urged Greece to improve border controls using available EU funds.

The asylum process in Greece proceeds slowly, if at all. Many refugees are leaving Greece and heading for other EU countries; something the interior ministers of Germany, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, France, the UK and the Netherlands want to prevent.

(source)

EU: Police bust Afghan migrant smuggling ring

EU: Police bust Afghan migrant smuggling ring

Via AFP:

Police have arrested six members of a ring suspected of transporting thousands of illegal migrants from Afghanistan to Europe via Greece, making millions of euros, the EU justice agency said Friday.

Police from Belgium, Britain, France and Greece took part in "Operation Pakoul", named after a traditional hat worn in Afghanistan, against the ring which smuggled an estimated 5,000 illegal immigrants over the last 10 months.

"The main organiser in Greece is estimated to have smuggled between 120 and 160 migrants each week into various member states," Eurojust said in a statement issued in The Hague.

(source)

Greece: Immigrants targeted by far-right groups

Greece: Immigrants targeted by far-right groups

Via France24:

Far-right groups in Athens have been patrolling certain neighbourhoods and beating up immigrants they accuse of taking work away from Greeks. Police have so far been reluctant to pursue the attackers.

Reza Jholam is a 16-year-old from Afghanistan living in Athens. In October, he was walking home alone when he had the misfortune of crossing paths with a far-right group called “Chryssi Avyi” (“Golden Dawn”) terrorising certain neighbourhoods in the Greek capital. Their target: immigrants.

“There were twelve of them. First, someone threw a bottle of water at my back, so I started running. But I couldn’t get away,” Reza said. “They grabbed me and hit me in the head with a bat. When I was on the ground, they continued to hit me until I was no longer moving.”

(source)

Greece: Court set to review fines levied against Turkish papers

Greece: Court set to review fines levied against Turkish papers

Via Today's Zaman:

The case concerns a case filed against the two dailies by Greek teacher Hara Nikopoulou, who worked between 2005 and 2010 in a Turkish minority primary school in the village of Büyük Derbent (Megalo Derio). Nikopoulou allegedly asked the children to draw pictures of God. Both weeklies published a story about the incident, reporting that several of the children were Muslim and refused to comply with the teacher’s request and complained to their parents as Islam prohibits depictions of God.

The teacher subsequently sued both newspapers.

(source)

Greece: Turkish TV shows dominate ratings

Greece: Turkish TV shows dominate ratings

Athens: Appeal against plans to build mosque

Athens: Appeal against plans to build mosque

Via Today's Zaman (h/t Qalam)

A group of Greeks that includes bishops, academics and military officers have appealed against a parliamentary bill that will allow the construction of a mosque in the Greek capital.

According to the Greek press, a petition submitted to the Council of State in December was signed by Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, as well as a university professor, naval officers and five residents of the area in which the mosque is planned to be built. The appeal argues that the construction of a mosque would be in violation of the constitution and harmful for national unity. It also cites the high cost of the building project in the face of Greece's financial crisis.

Known for his far-right views, Seraphim said the bill constituted an anti-Christian action and described it as disrespectful to Christian martyrs. He went on to condemn the Greek parliament for approving such a bill.

(source)

Thessaloniki: Mayor Launches Initiative to Build a Mosque

Thessaloniki: Mayor Launches Initiative to Build a Mosque

Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris said that his city launched initiatives to build a mosque. Nearly 5,000 Muslims are living in Thessaloniki. (photo).

Greece: Radical Islam Passing through

Greece: Radical Islam Passing through

Via Defence Greece (h/t Jan Simonsens blogg):

Until now Greece does not seem to have a particular issue of Islamic fundamentalism. Nevertheless, as aptly described in a 2009 U.S. State Department report on terrorism, “Greece is increasingly an E.U. entry point for illegal immigrants coming from the Middle East and South Asia, and there was concern that it could be used as a transit route for terrorists travelling to Europe and the United States. The number of illegal immigrants entering Greece, especially through the Aegean Sea, increased dramatically in 2008 and 2009, with more than 100,000 illegal immigrants, nearly half of whom originated from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, arrested each year.”

Presently in Greece, there seems to be activity within radical Islamic elements as well as gradual projection of Islamic political entities through the use of Greek nationals.

(source)

Greece: Anti-Immigrant Barrier to be Put Up Along Evros Borders

Greece: Anti-Immigrant Barrier to be Put Up Along Evros Borders

Via GreekReporter:

“Problems with illegal immigrants are well known, but I must stress that this is the first time a comprehensive plan is being forwarded, aiming at restraining and managing their flow” said Deputy Minister for Citizen Protection Mr. Michalis Othonas.

The plan has been approved and will be co-founded by the European Commission in an attempt of controlling the delicate issues of illegal immigration and human trafficking flowing into the EU from the Greek-Turkish borders along the Evros River, in Northeastern Greece.

(source)

Athens: Parliament approves mosque plans

Athens: Parliament approves mosque plans

(An extreme rightwing party poster, which reads ‘Mosque in Athens: Nowhere and Never,’
in front of Muslims attending outdoor prayers at Attiki square in Athens)

Greece: Shariah law to be abolished

Greece: Shariah law to be abolished

Via the Greek Reporter (h/t europenews):

According to an article of the Greek newspaper “Eleftherotypia”, under the scope of reforms in the Greek Family Law, the Shariah will be abolished for Greek Muslims.

This Muslim law establishes among others the right of polygamy and gives only to men the right to divorce their wives which constitutes a problem for the women in Thraki, Northern Greece. Even in Turkey, this law was abolished in 1926.

(source)

Athens: Mosque firebombed

Athens: Mosque firebombed

Via Kathimerini:

Unidentified vandals targeted a makeshift mosque in the neighborhood of Kallithea, southern Athens, early on [ed: last] Sunday, smashing the windows before dousing the interior with gasoline and setting it alight. The attack caused no injuries as there had been no one at the site of worship at the time but the damage caused to the premises was significant.

The arsonists also spray-painted swastika symbols on the walls of the mosque.

(source)

Athens: Immigrants attacked in revenge for stabbing death

Athens: Immigrants attacked in revenge for stabbing death

Greece: PM visits Muslim minority village, promises to settle problems

Greece: PM visits Muslim minority village, promises to settle problems

Via ANA:

Prime Minister George Papandreou, who arrived for a tour of the extreme northeastern province of Thrace on Friday, pledged to settle the problems faced by the local Muslim minority.

On Friday he visited the village of Dimario near the Greek-Bulgarian borders, where he met with local people. This is the first time a Greek prime minister has visited the specific region.

The premier stressed that the government adheres to the principle of equality before the law, underlining that "red tape is the oppressor of Christians and Muslims alike". He also stressed that the government is struggling against discrimination and "old perceptions" as regards the minority. (ANA-MPA)

(source)