Monthly Archives: October 2008

Footballers support DVD campaign to combat Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ShowRacismRedCardShow Racism the Red Card will be launching their brand new DVD and education pack “Islamophobia” at Newcastle United FC grounds. The launch will take place on Monday at St James’ Park with over 100 teachers, head teachers, council officials and voluntary sector workers who are interested in educating against Islamophobia.

The video has been produced by Autonomi in conjunction with Show Racism the Red Card and features professional footballers and managers including Thierry Henry, Mido, Ryan Giggs, Frederic Kanoute, Gareth Southgate and Niall Quinn speaking out on the issue alongside the personal experiences of young people.

The National Union of Teachers, Northern Rock Foundation, and Newcastle City Council Unity Programme have sponsored the work which will also include a programme of workshops on the subject delivered by Show Racism the Red Card into local secondary schools.

Throughout the day there will be key speeches from funders and experts; during the morning there will be a carousel of workshops which will educate about the resources, provide an opportunity to ask members of the Islamic Diversity Centre in Newcastle questions about Islam and hear the experiences of some local young people.

During the afternoon the film will be screened and there will be an opportunity to ask questions about the resource.

Asian News, 10 October 2008

France bans immigrants wearing burqas in state language classes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In secular France, it is illegal for hotel owners to turn away women wearing Muslim headscarves but OK to ban those wearing head-to-toe burqas from state-sponsored French language classes.

Two recent decisions have demonstrated how tough and touchy it is to legislate religious expression in a country that has a long-standing separation between church and state – and an increasingly multicultural society with a growing Muslim population.

“Religious freedom is not absolute,” the head of France’s government anti-discrimination agency, Louis Schweitzer, said in an interview with the Catholic daily La Croix, published Thursday. He said authorities are trying to find “the most reasonable compromise.”

His agency ruled last month that it was acceptable to ban women wearing the burqa and niqab – billowing clothes that cover the body and face worn by pious Muslim women – from state-sponsored French language classes for immigrants.

Earlier this year, a national agency responsible for dealing with new immigrants complained that the presence of the veiled women “hinders the proper functioning” of the language classes and asked the anti-discimination agency, known as Halde, to examine the matter.

In its Sept. 15 decision, Halde called the burqa a symbol of “female submission that goes beyond its religious meaning” and said it is “not unreasonable, for public security requirements … or the protection of civil liberties” to bar it from the publicly funded language classrooms.

USA Today, 9 October 2008

Via Islam in Europe

‘Teenage Trotsky is Cabinet’s new adviser on radical Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A teenage Muslim enlisted to advise ministers on combating extremism is herself a member of a Trotskyist revolutionary party. Sabiha Iqbal, 18, the privately educated daughter of a civil servant, belongs to the Socialist Workers Party, which is dedicated to the overthrow of parliament, the state and capitalism.

The appointment of the law student from Bradford to the Young Muslim Advisory Group was greeted with incredulity by intelligence experts yesterday. Miss Iqbal herself described the decision to bring her in as a consultant to Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Families Secretary Ed Balls as “very odd”. But Mrs Blears said: “If you don’t want to change the world at 17, that’s a shame.”

Miss Iqbal insisted yesterday that she was not an extremist, saying “I am Left-wing about some things and Right-wing about others. I agree with the equality ideas of socialism.”

Professor Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, said: “Ministers should be picking democratic leaders and people with experience, not people they think will bring in the ‘yoof’ vote. To go for somebody like Miss Iqbal is appalling.”

Daily Mail, 9 October 2008

Tories’ assault on multiculturalism gathers pace

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sayeeda Warsi and CameronThe creation of a group of young Muslims to advise ministers on extremism and discrimination has been condemned as divisive and patronising by a leading Muslim peer.

Baroness Warsi, the shadow minister for community cohesion, claimed the move was another example of Labour’s discredited policy of state multiculturalism and would just drive communities in Britain further apart. She pointed out that Muslims face the same issues as young people from other backgrounds, and said it is wrong to chose advisory groups purely on the basis of faith.

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DCLG announces PVE funding

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Department of Communities and Local Government has published a list of organisations that will receive financial support from the Community Leadership Fund, under DCLG’s Preventing Violent Extremism initiative. No funding for the Muslim Council of Britain, of course, but £125,000 over the next two years for much smaller and far less representative British Muslim Forum. Which only serves to underline the accuracy of Salma Yaqoob’s criticisms of PVE.

Vicar could be disciplined for blog slurs against gays and Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter MullenA Church of England vicar could face disciplinary action for saying gay men should have “sodomy” warnings tattooed on their bodies. The Rev Peter Mullen, who is a parish priest and rector in the City of London, made the remarks on his blog, which has since been removed from the web under an agreement with diocesan officials.

Mullen, 66, wrote it was time for religious believers to recommend the discouragement of homosexual practices in the style of cigarette packet warnings. “Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan sodomy can seriously damage your health and their chins with fellatio kills.”

In a previous posting Mullen anticipated an “agreeable carnage” at the start of the annual Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. “They usually manage to stampede and slaughter quite a few hundred of their co-religionists. Just imagine for a moment what a field day the BBC and the leftwing press in England would have if anything even remotely as bad as that happened in Vatican Square at Christmas or Easter.”

Mullen criticised the lack of jokes about Islam in the media, remarking that adherents “certainly lend themselves to ridicule: sticking their arses in the air five times a day. How about a few little choruses, ‘Randy Muslims when they die/Find 70 virgins in the sky’?”

Guardian, 6 October 2008

Reading religious books, growing a beard – how to spot a potential terrorist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Look for inmates growing beards, reading religious books and not wanting to share showers with non-Muslims. That is the advice given by security officials from several European countries in a manual to help prison authorities spot potential terrorists.

The manual, developed by France, Germany and Austria, was released to help prevent prisons from becoming breeding grounds for Muslim extremists. The document was distributed at a two-day closed-door conference of European security experts this week. It will also be given to prison personnel.

Daily Mail, 3 October 2008

Ban Muslim headscarves, say [some] teachers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Teachers TVForty-six percent of primary and secondary school teachers suggested that allowing pupils to wear religious symbols went against British values. They also feared it would undermine the drive to promote religious and racial harmony in schools.

The findings, in a poll carried out by YouGov, will fuel the controversial debate about the wearing of religious symbols in schools.

Currently, individual schools are free to make their own decisions, but a string of recent court ruling said some policies amounted to “unlawful discrimination”. In July, a Sikh schoolgirl, won a discrimination case against her school after she was banned from wearing a religious bangle.

The poll, commissioned by Teachers TV, found that more than 70 per cent of teachers agreed that the promotion of British values was part of a teacher’s role.

Andrew Bethell, chief executive of Teachers TV, said that the results marked a “shift away from multiculturalism” in the “post 7/7 Britain”. He added: “There seems to be an increasing feeling among teachers that simply embracing difference is no longer enough. Pupils need a sense of common identity and ‘Britishness’ is a big part of this.”

Daily Telegraph, 3 October 2008

UK police accused of misusing terror laws against Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain’s police were accused Friday of misusing the country’s terrorism laws against Muslims after three men were charged under criminal law for firebombing a publisher in north London.

“What is surprising is that they were held under anti-terror legislation for almost a week and then charged under fire arm offences,” Muslim News editor Ahmed Versi said. “It seems anti-terror laws are being used as fishing expedition,” he said.

Ali Beheshti, Abrar Mirza and Abbas Taj, all from London, were due to appear in court Friday after being charged with conspiring to damage the home of a man publishing a controversial American novel about the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

The men, charged with conspiring without lawful excuse to damage the premises between September 8 and 27, could have only been held by police for a maximum of three days under criminal law.

Versi condemned the petrol bomb attack carried out last Saturday but said that the case was “another evidence that the police are misusing the anti terror legislation whenever Muslims are involved in committing criminal offences.” “When it is extremist white criminals who may have bombs and all kinds of weapons, they are still arrested under normal fire arm offences,” he said.

The police told the Muslim News that the arrests were the “culmination of investigation of the three trying to set fire to the property and other information received deemed to be suitable under Terrorism Act 2000 and it was intelligence led.” The police also confirmed that they wanted to catch the culprits “red-handed” following reports that they asked the publisher to leave the premises before the petrol bomb attack.

But Versi said it was “also of concern is that the police allowed the attack to take place before apprehending them thus putting the neighbours and other public under danger.” “Surely they could have been arrested with the bomb making equipment?” he asked.

IRNA, 3 October 2008