Monthly Archives: October 2007

Racist football fans get kicks from abusing Muslim players

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mido (2)Here are some sounds from the playing fields of Europe on an average Sunday: “Bin Laden! You know where he is!” “Have you got a first-aid kit or is that a suicide bomb?” No, it’s not what Italy’s Marco Materazzi told France’s Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup final. It’s what a Muslim football team in Luton, England hears all the time.

Yet Islamophobia is generally ignored. Nobody ever gets punished for it. After Newcastle supporters repeatedly chanted “Mido’s got a bomb” at Middlesbrough’s Egyptian striker in August, only one person was disciplined: Mido himself. He got a yellow card for running to the jeering fans with his finger to his lips after scoring.

Contrast this laxity with the multi-year ban on Blackburn fans caught abusing a black player, or with the anger in Britain when Chelsea manager Avram Grant experienced anti-Semitism, or when black England players were abused abroad. Piara Powar, head of the anti-racism group Kick It Out, believes people are more likely to “shrug” when Muslim players are abused than when blacks are. Powar says some think, “maybe they brought it on themselves”.

In all of Britain’s professional football, there are just a handful of British Muslims. Even Muslim spectators are so rare that when some north Africans and Iraqi Kurds bought tickets to watch Manchester United in 2004, it was assumed they wanted to blow up the stadium. Hundreds of police officers arrested the fans in dawn raids before the misunderstanding was cleared up.

Muslims are more common in amateur football, and so is Islamophobia. A study in west Yorkshire several years ago found that every Asian or black amateur interviewed had experienced racism. Just in case any religious Muslim women might want to play, Fifa recently banned them from doing so in hijab, supposedly for safety reasons, though so far no footballers have been killed by flying veils.

Financial Times, 13 October 2007

Amis wasn’t advocating oppression of Muslims, he was merely adumbrating

Posted on by Bob Pitt

martin amisIn a letter in today’s Guardian Martin Amis expresses indignation that Terry Eagleton should take exception to his remarks about Muslims.

(Just to remind you what these were: “There’s a definite urge – don’t you have it? – to say, ‘The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order’. What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation – further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they’re from the Middle East or from Pakistan … Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children.”)

As Mart explains: “I was not ‘advocating’ anything. I was conversationally describing an urge….” And in a letter to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in the Independent he offers a similar defence against Eagleton’s criticisms: “The anti-Muslim measures he says I ‘advocated’ I merely adumbrated….”

So that’s all right then.

For Osama Saeed’s comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 12 October 2007

Campaigns for ban on mosques across Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pro Koln demoFrom London’s docklands to the rolling hills of Tuscany, from southern Austria to Amsterdam and Cologne, the issue of Islamic architecture and its impact on citadels of “western civilisation” is increasingly contentious.

The far right is making capital from Islamophobia by focusing on the visible symbols of Islam in Europe. In Switzerland it is the far-right SVP that is setting the terms of the debate.

Next door in Austria the far right leader Jörg Haider is also calling for a ban in his province of Carinthia, even though there are few Muslims and no known plans for mosques. “Carinthia,” he said, “will be a pioneer in the battle against radical Islam for the protection of our dominant western culture.”

In Italy the mayors of Bologna and Genoa last month cancelled or delayed planning permission for mosques after a vociferous campaign by the far-right Northern League, one of whose leaders, Roberto Calderoli, threatened to stage a “day of pork” to offend Muslims and to take pigs to “defile” the site of the proposed mosque in Bologna.

While the far right makes the running, their noisy campaign is being supported more quietly by mainstream politicians and some Christian leaders. And on the left pro-secularist and anti-clericalist sentiment is also frequently ambivalent about Islamic building projects.

Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne has voiced his unease over a large new mosque being built for the city’s 120,000 Muslims in the Rhineland Roman Catholic stronghold. A similar scheme in Munich has also faced local protests.

The Bishop of Graz in Austria has been more emphatic. “Muslims should not build mosques which dominate town’s skylines in countries like ours,” said Bishop Egon Kapellari.

Guardian, 11 October 2007

‘Graves of 350,000 to make way for Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

That’s the headline to an Evening Standard story which reports the possible redevelopment of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in terms that echo the propaganda of the BNP:  “Officially it would be known as a ‘multi-faith’ cemetery but it is likely that it would principally answer calls for a Muslim graveyard in the largely-Asian East London borough. The local newspaper has been bombarded with letters from historians and nature lovers declaring: ‘There is no way we’ll allow them to dig up our ancestors’.”

‘Burqa’ allowed in Italy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rome, October 9 – The decision by a northern Italian city official to allow Muslim women to wear the burqa has sparked consternation in the country, even though at least one minister supported the move. “We have already said several times, and we reiterate it now, that the use of the burqa is unacceptable,” said a spokesman for Interior Minister Giulio Amato.

A 1975 law, introduced amid concern over homegrown terrorism in the country’s cities, forbids Italians from appearing in public wearing anything which covers their faces. Apart from this law, which appears to apply to the burqa, many politicians on both sides of parliament said the garment was also a humiliating imposition. “I am indignant. Covering up women’s faces is an offence to their dignity,” said Equal Opportunities Minister Barbara Pollastrini.

Vittorio Capocelli, the prefect of Treviso in the Veneto region, decided on October 5 that it was acceptable for Muslim women in the city to wear the garment as long as they were ready to remove it and identify themselves to police when required. A day later Family Minister Rosy Bindi, a prominent Catholic politician, indicated her agreement, saying that it was right to be “respectful of the veil” as long as women wore it of their own free will.

The apparent green light for the burqa drew a stinging editorial from Egyptian-born writer and journalist Magdi Allam in Tuesday’s edition of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s best-selling daily. “If the prefect’s decision sets a legal and administrative precedent on a national level, Islamic women could soon be going to school completely covered, be getting hired in workplaces and circulating freely all over Italy,” he wrote.

Muslim News, 10 October 2007

Bakersfield mosque attack investigated as hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Kern County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a mosque attack as a possible hate crime. Authorities say Saturday’s incident left windows broken, cars smashed and worshippers frightened.

Witnesses reported that two men entered the women’s section of the mosque early Saturday morning. When the women called for help, the suspects left, allegedly yelling slurs such as “Arab terrorists” and “terrorists go home” as they ran out.

Later that night, witnesses said about 10 people returned to the mosque. They allegedly smashed the windows and damaged the cars that remained in the parking lot.

A spokesman with the sheriff’s department says when deputies arrived, they saw some people throwing rocks at the mosque. No arrests have been made in the case.

Associated Press, 9 October 2007

Islamophobia began with end of Cold War, OSCE meeting hears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamophobia gathered pace in the West with the end of the Cold War, long before the September 11, 2001 attacks against the US, participants at a two-day OSCE conference that began in Spain Tuesday said.

“After the end of the Cold War, certain people took Muslims and Islam to be the new scapegoat and enemy,” Mustapha Cherif, an expert on Islam at the University of Algiers, told AFP on the sidelines of the gathering. “But after the senseless act of September 11, this has been amplified,” added Cherif, who is known for his commitment to battling religious hatred.

Delegations from the 56 nations that make up the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are taking part in the conference in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba on the topic of intolerance toward Muslims. Spain currently holds the rotating presidency of the OSCE, which promotes human rights, democracy and conflict prevention in Europe, North America and Central Asia.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa told the gathering that after the end of the Cold War, “conservative extremists in certain Western circles” needed to find a new enemy. “We can’t live in stability and security if some are perceived as first class citizens and others second class citizens. This has to disappear,” he added.

Studies by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia have found anti-Muslim behaviour and attitudes have risen since 2001, said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. “Without a doubt, international terrorism has fueled this phenomena,” added Moratinos who is chairing the gathering.

Muslims in Europe face discrimination when it comes to employment, education and housing, said Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, the head of research and data collection at the Vienna-based European Fundamental Rights Agency.

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Denmark: rightwing populists incite rise in xenophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Denmark: rightwing populists incite rise in xenophobia

From Anne Jessen for Demos and Antifa-Net in Copenhagen

Searchlight, October 2007

INTOLERANCE TOWARDS Muslims in Denmark is growing according to several recent reports that strongly criticise the government’s policies towards immigrants, refugees and ethnic minorities.

At the beginning of 2006 Denmark’s image took a battering as Muslim protests against the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of Muhammad dominated the international news. Since then the media spotlight has turned away and the Danish government’s hard line on ethnic minorities has resumed. Although the country is governed by a liberal-conservative coalition, the rightwing populist Danish People’s Party (DFP) wields decisive influence over immigration policy.

Amnesty International’s annual report published this summer emphasises that ethnic minority groups suffer discrimination, especially Muslims, and points out that since the cartoons controversy the number of politically motivated attacks on Muslims has increased but this has not been matched by charges brought for violating anti-racism laws.

Amnesty’s report confirmed the findings of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which commented in a report issued in March this year that the Danish jobs market discriminates against foreigners. It said that Denmark has the lowest proportion of employed immigrants out of all the OECD’s 30 member states and that the education system has failed the younger generation of immigrants.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe also censured the Danish government over the situation of Muslims in Denmark in a report prepared in July 2006 but only reported in the Danish media in April. The report’s author, Ömür Orhun, pointed out that the situation of Muslims in Denmark has worsened over the past five years. He criticised the radical aliens legislation, which limits the access of Muslims to the social security system, and blamed the government for the absence of legal mosques and Muslim cemeteries, the requirement for newborn Muslim children to be registered with the Christian church and the fact that anti-racism legislation is rarely enforced.

In May last year the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) expressed its anxiety at increasing xenophobia and intolerance towards Muslims in Denmark. ECRI’s report pointed out that DFP members are able to make shockingly racist statements in public without political or legal consequences.

Both the Danish government and the DFP consistently reject criticism of their positions. Mogens Camre, a DFP Member of the European Parliament, unhesitatingly spells out his agenda: “We must quit the refugee convention of the UN, we must block the civil rights embodied by the European Union charter which are directed against Europeans and we must amend the legal and penal codes to make it possible to defend democracy and throw political-religious leaders, criminals and parasites out of the country.”

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Quebec – political courage needed on accommodation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Quebecers strongly oppose almost any cultural or religious accommodation of immigrants and other minority Quebecers, according to survey findings published yesterday in La Presse. The findings are a sobering measure of the size of the problem Quebec faces and a clear indication that some political courage is going to be needed.

“The poll results are dramatic: A hijab on the soccer pitch? 70 per cent of respondents are against. Turbans for Sikh Mounties? Nearly 80 per cent against. The kirpan? Female-only swimming? Male-only driving testers for Hasidic Jews? No, no, and no, by large margins. People of common sense and goodwill can certainly disagree on many of these issues. But in Quebec’s current happy social context these strikingly one-sided results – if not the entire debate – seem to us somewhat irrational….

“So why all this opposition? One figure offers a hint: 58 per cent object to providing prayer spaces in public buildings. That’s far fewer naysayers than on most such issues.

“This leads us to suspect that the less visible a practice, the more acceptable it’s deemed. Praying to Allah or anyone else is bothersome to fewer old-stock Quebecers if done in private; but Heaven (so to speak) help the 13-year-old girl who wears a scarf to play soccer. Even the Quebec Council on the Status of Women, an organization dedicated to social equality, is campaigning to forbid public-sector employees from displaying any overt signs of culture or religion.

“It’s doing this in the name of a secular state, but the subtext is far different. If an SAAQ clerk or a teacher is barred by law from wearing a hijab, a turban or a kippa, what is the message? What is retained – by adults and kids – is that there’s something wrong with these symbols – and, by extension, their wearers.

“There is some good news in the survey. Younger Quebecers revealed themselves to be far more accommodating than their elders. That openness bodes well for the long term.”

Leader in the Montreal Gazette, 10 October 2007