Muslim schoolgirl detention condemned

The arrest of a 16-year-old Muslim schoolgirl in the United States on charges of planning to be a suicide bomber drew fire from her teachers and classmates, reported a leading American daily on Saturday, April 9.

“She is, yes, an orthodox Muslim, but completely integrated into this school,” Jessica Siegel, an English teacher at Heritage High School in East Harlem, told The New York Times. “She’s a wonderful, wonderful girl.”

The Guinean tenth-grader has been described by the FBI as “an imminent threat to the security of the United States” on allegation of planning to be a suicide bomber, according to a government document provided to the daily by a federal official.

She is being held in an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania and her father is now in immigration jail facing deportation.

“She’s about the last person anyone could imagine being a suicide bomber,” said Ms. Siegel, who was profiled in Samuel G. Freedman’s book Small Victories as an unsentimental but fiercely committed teacher who provoked and delighted her students.

Ms. Carr, a speech pathologist, was no less furious. “They have painted this picture of her as this person that is trying to destroy our way of life, and I know in my heart of hearts that this is bogus,” she said.

“I feel like, how dare they? She’s a minor, and even if she’s not a citizen, she has rights as a human being,” said Ms. Carr, who welcomed the girl to her house daily and knows her family well.

Islam Online, 9 April, 2005

Reformation and Enlightenment

Over at Harry’s Place, David T has discovered a Muslim he’s prepared to do business with. It’s Abdel Nour Brado, Secretary of the Islamic Commission of Spain, who wants to open a discussion among Muslims about the possibility of recognising same-sex marriages. Brado and his co-thinkers are the sort of “religious political progressives within Islam” to whom the left can relate, David T argues.

Unfortunately, by this definition progressives probably amount to somewhat less that 1% of the Muslim world. The remaining 99% who would reject same-sex marriages are all categorised by David T as “religious and political conservatives”, and no distinctions are made between them.

Thus the reformist moderate Yusuf al-Qaradawi is described by David T as a “Qutbist”, i.e. a supporter of the Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb who was executed by Nasser in 1966. Qutb’s denunciation of the entire Muslim world as “jahiliyya” (pagan ignorance and barbarism), his call for armed struggle against every existing regime in the Islamic world and his condemnation of all those Muslims who decline to participate in this struggle as apostates have nothing in common with Qaradawi’s views whatsoever. Indeed, Qaradawi has accused Qutb of promoting an extremist ideology “which justified the takfir (excommunication) of (whole) societies … and the announcement of a destructive jihad against the whole of mankind”. Some Qutbist!

But this is the method adopted by “left” Islamophobes like those at Harry’s Place. They issue a formal declaration that Islam is not a monolithic bloc and proclaim their support for liberal, progressive Muslims – but they define this category so narrowly that only a minuscule minority of actually existing Muslims qualify, and they then dismiss the remainder as one reactionary, undifferentiated mass.

BNP: ‘Muslim extremists attack British freedom of speech’

“We can see that the Islamic religious hatred and intolerance of Western liberal values such as freedom of speech that led to the murder of Theo Van Gogh in Holland also has a growing power base in this country.”

The British National Party whinges about the cancellation of its contract with the Saudi-owned printing company Satellite Graphics.

BNP news article, 7 April 2005

It’s notable that the fascists, no doubt inspired by the example of Pim Fortuyn, are increasingly adopting the language of liberal Islamophobia. See also here.

Reformation and Enlightenment

David T over at Harry’s Place has discovered a Muslim he’s prepared to do business with. It’s Abdel Nour Brado, Secretary of the Islamic Commission of Spain, who wants to open a discussion among Muslims about the possibility of recognising same-sex marriages. Brado and his co-thinkers are the sort of “religious political progressives within Islam” to whom the left can relate, David T argues.

Harry’s Place, 7 April 2005

Unfortunately, by this definition progressives probably amount to somewhat less than 1% of the Muslim world. The remaining 99% who would reject same-sex marriages are all categorised by David T as “religious and political conservatives”, and no distinctions are made between them.

Thus the reformist Yusuf al-Qaradawi is described by David T as a “qutbist”, i.e. a supporter of the Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb who was executed by Nasser in 1966. Qutb’s denunciation of the entire Muslim world as “jahiliyya” (pagan ignorance and barbarism), his call for armed struggle against every existing regime in the Islamic world and his condemnation of all those Muslims who decline to participate in this struggle as apostates have nothing in common with Qaradawi’s views whatsoever. Indeed, Qaradawi has accused Qutb of promoting an extremist ideology “which justified the takfir (excommunication) of (whole) societies … and the announcement of a destructive jihad against the whole of mankind”. Some Qutbist!

But this is the method adopted by “left” Islamophobes like those at Harry’s Place. They issue a formal declaration that Islam is not a monolithic bloc and proclaim their support for progressive, reformist Muslims – but they define this category so narrowly that only a minuscule minority of actually existing Muslims qualify, and they then dismiss the remainder as one reactionary, undifferentiated mass.

Religious hatred incitement law: British Muslims let down again

The Muslim Council of Britain is deeply disappointed by yesterday’s announcement that the Government was dropping the Incitement to Religious Hatred section from the Serious and Organised Crime Bill due to opposition from the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party.

“Sadly, British Muslims will now continue to remain second-class citizens and denied the legal protection that is given to some racial and religious groups such as Jews and Sikhs under existing racial incitement laws. We deplore the position of the Liberal Democrats – who had proposed an amendment backed by the Tory Party – that would have regarded Muslims as a racial group, notwithstanding the fact that Muslims transcend racial boundaries. We regarded this as a vital piece of equality legislation that would have accorded Muslims and other faith groups protection from those who are deliberately inciting hatred against them,” said Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

MCB press release, 8 April 2005

For MAB’s response, see MAB news report, 6 April 2005 and Islam Online, 6 April 2005

Man gets 3 months jail for mosque arson

AMSTERDAM — A man, 18, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison, nine months of which was suspended, for setting fire to building materials near the Rahmann mosque in Breda. A court in the city also ordered the local man to do 120 hours of community service.

The prosecutor said the defendant and a 17-year-old acquaintance decided to “teach the Muslims a lesson” just days after filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam by a suspected Islamic militant. The judge said the defendant had contributed to the feeling of unrest in the Netherlands in the aftermath of Van Gogh’s killing.

The court ruled the arson attack was not a political crime, but was an act of profanity. The sentence conformed to the prosecutor’s demand.

Expatica, 7 April 2005

Muslims reject results of inquiry into stop and search

The Muslim Council of Britain rejected MPs’ claims yesterday that Asians were not being targeted by draconian police stop and search powers.

After an inquiry lasting five months, the home affairs select committee declared that “we do not believe that the Asian community is being unreasonably targeted by the police in their application of the Terrorism Act or of the other legislation enabling stops and searches”. However, it accepted that “there is a clear perception among all our Muslim witnesses that Muslims are being stigmatised” and called for “special efforts” by police and government to ensure that they are not singled out.

MCB secretary-general Iqbal Sacranie said that there was clear evidence that there was a disproportionate tendency to stop and search Muslims. “We believe that the problem is more than that of mere perception”, he said, accusing the committee’s report of being flawed because it only identified Muslims by race. Mr Sacranie said that a true picture could only be obtained if the statistics took account of non-Asian Muslims.

Morning Star, 7 April 2005

See also BLINK news report, 6 April 2005

Two girls held as US fears suicide bomb

Two 16-year-old girls from New York City were arrested last month and charged with immigration violations after the FBI asserted that they intended to become suicide bombers, according to a government document. A spokesman for one of their families, however, said the accusation was false and said the government had probably misinterpreted a school essay written by one of the girls.

New York Times, 7 April 2005

Catholics go soft on Islam, Robert Spencer complains

“We have to learn to live with Islam,” said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, speaking to reporters Tuesday in Rome. “We have to learn how to dialogue with Islam.”

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch is not impressed: “Sure. It’s all on us. If only we could learn to live with them, everything would be all right…. if we would just be nice to them, all our troubles would vanish.” Such views, Spencer observes, are “usually advanced by the most energetic proponents of multiculturalism”.

Dhimmi Watch, 6 April 2005

Defence of hijab ban is backward thinking

Letter in Morning Star, 6 April 2005

Peter Duffy’s defence of the reactionary French law on religious symbols (Morning Star, April 2) merely shows how backward many parts of the left have become in relation to the rights of Muslims and other minorities in Europe.

In particular, he argues that there are “progressives” who support the headscarf ban.

Just because some people who regard themselves as being on the left support the law – perhaps even a majority – does not actually make it progressive.

Many people who regard themselves as progressive argued that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a cause to celebrate. Being on the left did not stop them from being wrong.

One’s position must be judged on whether it really is progressive. There is nothing progressive about banning a child from school because of the crime of wearing an under-turban, a hijab or a skull-cap. It is merely the subordination of genuine secularism to intolerance and prejudice.

In his long letter, Peter Duffy mentions Muslims many times but omits to mention the plight of the Sikhs. What am I to tell Sikhs in London? “Don’t worry, Sikh kids are banned from their schools in France for wearing their under-turbans, but it’s OK because ‘progressives’ support it”? I somehow doubt that they will be convinced.

It is our obligation as progressive people to tell them that we firmly oppose this law.

If there is not a place for an Asian person in France to have a full state education and also to continue to hold their religious beliefs, including wearing their religious dress, then forgive me as an Asian person in Britain for saying as clearly as I can that this is a reactionary state of affairs, regardless of the sensibilities of some rather prickly parts of the left.

Yasmin Qureshi
Human rights advisor to the Mayor of London