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Veteran heavy metal singer condemns antisemitism after man performing Nazi salute is ejected at Vancouver, BC show

Journeyman Productions, a Vancouver-based promotions company, has announced a zero tolerance policy towards racism and antisemitism at its shows, after one fan from ejected from the band Death Preacher’s show for performing a Nazi salute.

Nikki Gould, the company’s social media manager, was alerted by a friend that someone had performed the gesture at the show on December 8th and promptly had the man in question ejected from the venue.

Gould commented “I think I kind of let him off easy by kicking him out of the show and telling him to go. Had he stayed longer and got in a fight, that could have been really bad. Nazis and things like that don’t represent the metal scene. We want everyone to feel safe and included, and have fun. Nazis aren’t fun”.

The singer of Death Preacher reportedly said “no Nazis at my show” when he discovered what was happening.

Commenting on the incident, the legendary frontman of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, commented:

“Nazi salutes have no place whatsoever in any kind of music community I want to belong to”

“I think people need a little bit more of a lesson in history, rather than a lesson in ignorance, which seems to be dished out far too often”

“People in this country — across the USA, Canada, the U.K.— fathers and grandfathers, fought and died to build a world in which this kind of thing doesn’t go on”

Two years ago when Phil Anselmo, the former singer of Pantera performed a Nazi salute on stage, he faced derision from across the heavy metal community. Rob Flynn of the band Machine Head denounced him in an eleven minute video as a “big bully” and a racist, whereas Anthrax’s Scott Ian, who is Jewish, invited Anselmo to make a donation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, calling his actions “vile”. Anselmo’s band Down were forced to cancel a tour as a result of the backlash from fans.

Last year we reported that an antisemitic band were forced to cancel a show after staff at the venue refused to provide a platform to racists, in another display of solidarity against racism and antisemitism from the heavy metal community.

We commend Journeyman Productions, Death Preacher and Bruce Dickinson for taking a stand against antisemitism in heavy metal.

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Dutch-Moroccan rapper says “sits on money like a Jew” lyric is a compliment

Ali Bouali, a Dutch rapper of Moroccan descent has been accused of antisemitism, after a lyric in his new song played on the canard of Jews being miserly.

His new song “That is money” includes the lyric that he “sits on money like a Jew” and that he “deports” greedy women.

Dutch Jewish Newspaper Jonet featured a piece on the song, in which the writer lamented the fact that Bouali used his position to spread an antisemitic lie, as opposed to speak out against the antisemitism amongst Dutch Muslims.

However, Bouali rejected the criticism, claiming that he is just saying Jews are “good businesspeople”. Bouali added that “they want to take every word that a Moroccan ever says and turn it into something anti-Semitic”. Whilst being good with money is obviously not a bad thing, claiming that Jews are particularly good with money in itself plays upon antisemitic ideas that Jews have an unusual preoccupation with pursuing money. However, saying that Jews “sit on money” is not merely saying Jews are good businesspeople, but instead evokes images of miserly Jews holding onto their money, and is inherently antisemitic.

Bouali was described by the Economist as a racial “bridge-builder” who has “probably done more to promote Dutch acceptance of Muslims than any policy could have achieved”, whilst simultaneously managing to avoid becoming embroiled in political controversies, which has occasionally exasperated his fans who have called for him to take a stand against Geert Wilders and his right-wing PVV party. Unfortunately, this progressive figure within the Dutch Muslim community has still failed to steer himself away from the antisemitism which has increasingly characterised European Muslim communities.

His music video has now been viewed over a million times on YouTube.

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Rapper Lupe Fiasco accuses “dirty Jewish execs” of stealing his money, quits music industry after backlash

Rapped Lupe Fiasco has apparently decided to quit music after having released an antisemitic track.

The Chicago-born rapper, 34, released a track on his Soundcloud earlier this week, which included the line “Artists gettin’ robbed for their publishing / By dirty Jewish execs who think that it’s alms from the covenant”.

The idea that Jews are obsessed with money and exercise undue influence over various areas of business is an inherently antisemitic one, yet is an idea which is very common.

However, media coverage has tended to focus on the first line about “dirty Jewish execs”, whilst ignoring the accusation that such behaviour is “alms from the covenant”. The idea that Jews are led to extract money from others due to a perceived sense of religious superiority is clearly antisemitic, and is in fact a common theme found in the antisemitism of white nationalists.  Here two antisemitic stereotypes co-exist; the idea of Jews as baseless cosmopolitans, influencing, dominating and exploiting the world of business; and the idea of Jews as backwards religious traditionalists, who allow everything to be directed by religious precepts, many of which are painted as supremacist in nature.

He faced a backlash from fans after releasing the freestyle track, and fired back against accusations of antisemitism in a series of tweets, saying “I’ve walked inside the ovens of Auschwitz” and “I’ve studied the Hebrew bible”. However, clearly studying the Bible and visiting Auschwitz does not exclude one from being antisemitic, particularly when one makes blatantly antisemitic comments such as these without apology.

Instead of apologising for his comments, he instead claimed he was “getting beat up for telling the truth”.

He went on to say that he would not release any more music.

 

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Rock star condemned for Nazi salute and “white power” remark

Metal band frontman Phil Anselmo, who apologised after shouting "white power" and giving a Nazi salute. Credit: Shadowgate.

A former singer with rock group Pantera has been condemned by fellow musicians after giving a Nazi salute and shouting “white power”.

Philip Anselmo was filmed by a fan at an event on 22nd January held in tribute to Pantera’s late guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. Anselmo initially claimed he had been making a joke about the white wine served to performers at the event, who included Dave Grohl and members of Metallica, and said he would not apologise.

Among those to criticise him were the band All Shall Perish, who stated: “Seeing Phil’s actions and his cowardly justification is not only disgusting and inexcusable but antithetical to the punk, metal, underground ethos to which we subscribe.”

Anselmo has been reported as making racist remarks in the past. Speaking on MTV in 1994 he refused to condemn fans shouting “white power” at Pantera gigs, and the following year he described rap artists as “pissing all over white culture”. Pantera disbanded in 2003, since when he has performed with various other groups.

In February, Anselmo changed his position regarding the tribute night and issued a lengthy apology on Housecore Records’ YouTube channel, saying that he was “so sorry”, “a thousand percent apologetic” and deserved criticism for his “uncalled-for” behaviour.

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Neo-Nazi band makes UK debut

On February 13th, Finnish band Satanic Warmasters made its UK debut in Glasgow. The band has links to neo-Nazis and has been criticised for songs like “Seig Heil” and “Gas Chamber”, which refers to “torching the Jewish creation”.

The band has performed National Socialist Black Metal, including music by Germany’s Absurd, and issued releases with Aryan Blood. One member broke parole terms upon release from prison by giving the Nazi salute.

Glasgow rock venue Audio was originally scheduled to hold the event, but backed out after Satanic Warmasters were linked to the far-right. The 200-capacity event took place at Ivory Blacks instead.

A member of the Glasgow Anti-Fascists said: “If they’re not fascists, they’re certainly fellow travelers – they have worked with racist bands, they have shared stages with them and they have released records on labels that only release racist records. Where do you draw the line? There’s plenty of black metal bands who have no connection to fascist music or will not share stages with these kinds of bands.”

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Chart-topping US rapper releases new song promoting Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy myth

Famous US rapper, Bobby Ray Simmons Jr, known as B.o.B, has released a new song in which he seeks to convince fans to believe conspiracy theories that the Earth is flat, the Holocaust was exaggerated and Jews control US politics.

Despite extensive media coverage of the outlandish claim that the Earth is flat, very few articles made a mention of the antisemitic lyrics.

At one point in the song, the rapper instructs fans to “do your research on David Irving”, referring to the notorious Holocaust-denying antisemite who has been deported from countries around the world and was jailed in Austria in 2006.

Another lyric states: “Stalin was way worse than Hitler, that’s why the POTUS [President of the United States] gotta wear a kippah [Jewish skullcap].”

https://twitter.com/bobatl/status/691439089543880704

https://twitter.com/bobatl/status/691422284205178880

Source: JP Updates

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Hungarian rapper Mr Busta claims that world is run by twelve Jews on Wall Street

In an interview with Hungarian website 444.hu, rapper “Mr Busta” claimed that the world is governed by twelve Jewish businessmen on Wall Street and that six or seven of the twelve are Hungarian Jews.

Source: Fórum az antiszemitizmus ellen

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Dutch court rules “I hate those f***ing Jews more than the Nazis” rap lyric not hate speech

Image source: YouTube

The prosecution of Dutch rapper Ismo (Ismael Houllich) has come to a halt. A court criminal court in Breda acquitted him because the judge felt that the rapper’s lyrics were “artistic expression” rather than hate speech, even though they “are of an offensive nature.”

Filmed in Breda, the video for Ismo’s first single, “Eenmans” (or “One Man’s”), shows Ismo singing: “I hate those f***ing Jews more than the Nazis” and “don’t shake hands with faggots”.

The prosecution had sought a fine of €1,000 euros and a further suspended fine of another €500. The prosecution also requested the removal of Ismo’s video clip from YouTube.

The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel and an umbrella group of gay organisations in the Netherlands issued a joint statement calling on the prosecution to appeal the “disquieting sentence, which appears to be a carte blanche for discriminative statements as long as they are made in a rap song.”

Source: Forward

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Czech rock group may be axed over neo-Nazi leanings

The Czech Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) will examine the participation of the Ortel rock band associated with extreme right at the Saturday live transmission of the Czech Nightingale award-giving ceremony at the Nova television station, Czech Television said today.

Ortel finished in the second place in the Czech Nightingale and its singer Tomas Ortel, who had performed for the neo-Nazi group Conflict 88, was third in the category of male singers.

The founder of Ortel, who calls himself Tomáš Ortel, is also the founder of the neo-Nazi cult band Conflict 88. The number 88 is a neo-Nazi cryptogram for the Nazi greeting “Heil Hitler”.

Jan Chvojka, a deputy for the Social Democrats (CSSD), has filed a complaint about the performance of the group whose texts are often targeted against minorities. “The band is already moving beyond the edge of law,” Chvojka said.

“It provokes xenophobic moods, having an antisemite and chauvinistic background. I am of the view that such a group has no place at the prime time on the channel of the most watched commercial television station,” he added.

The Nova television station that broadcasts the programme said it could not see anything bad in the participation of the group and its singer.

Source: CTK National News Wire