Against the backdrop of citizens’ protests against the Socialists’ austerity package, the Right made significant gains in Catalonia by focusing on anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim themes. Liz Fekete reports.
Monthly Archives: May 2011
Bulgarian MPs condemn Ataka assault on Sofia mosque
Prayer carpet on fire outside the Banya Bashi mosque on 20 May
The Bulgarian Parliament has condemned the actions of Volen Siderov and members of his ultra-nationalist Ataka party outside the Sofia mosque on May 20 2011, Bulgarian media reported on May 27. MPs from all parties present in the parliamentary sitting, with the exception of Ataka MPs who abstained, voted in favour of the declaration condemning Ataka’s actions.
Wilders has encouraged discrimination and violence against Muslims, court hears
Statements and speeches by PVV leader Geert Wilders over the past few years have led to an increase in discrimination and violence against Muslims, the MP’s trial in Amsterdam was told on Friday.
Michiel Pestman, representing a number of ethnic minority organisations, told the court Moroccan and other minority groups felt attacked by Wilders. “The attitude towards the Moroccan community has become harder due to the defendant’s actions,” Pestman said.
Mohamed Rabbae, former leader of the left-wing green party GroenLinks, told the court the PVV political manifesto shows Wilders’ eventual aim is to “get rid” of all Muslims.
California mosque fire was arson
Federal investigators have determined a fire that destroyed a mosque in Stockton last month was arson.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced its findings Wednesday. The ATF had opened an investigation into the fire at the Masjid Al-Emaan Mosque after it was gutted on April 23.
The mosque was located in a strip mall. A church next door, Living Well Ministries and Christian Center, was also damaged in the blaze. Damage from the fire was estimated to be about $400,000. There were no injuries.
No arrests have been made, but authorities are hoping a $10,000 reward for information will lead them to a suspect, or suspects.
See also “Mosque fire called arson; surveillance images released”, KCRA, 25 May 2011
Masjid al-Emaan has launched an appeal to finance the rebuilding of their mosque. Details here.
University of California: Muslims and Jews unite to oppose David Horowitz
The announcement earlier this month by College Republicans at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) that they would be hosting as talk this evening by David Horowitz of FrontPage Magazine and Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week notoriety provoked the no doubt intended furore.
College Republicans applied for a grant of $1,770 from Associated Students Finance Board to subsidise the costs of the event. However, the AS rejected the application following objections from the newly-formed UCSB Respect Coalition, which brought together over 60 student groups including the Muslim Student Association, Students for Justice in Palestine, American Students for Israel and Queer Student Union (although the university’s Legislative Council did allocate $800 for the event’s security costs).
Predictably, Horowitz denounced the decision as an outrageous attack on free speech, although all that had really happened was that College Republicans had been denied the use of their fellow students’ money to finance Horowitz’s hatemongering.
UCSB American Students for Israel, UCSB Students for Justice in Palestine, UCSB Muslim Student Association and a UCSB Jewish community centre, Santa Barbara Hillel, have issued a joint statement replying to Horowitz’s complaints. They write:
David Horowitz has claimed that opposition to A.S. funding for his upcoming speech is rooted in a desire to silence him and curtail his right to free speech. The truth is that we merely oppose the use of student funds to subsidize bigotry and prejudice. Students must be exposed to a wide variety of intellectual perspectives on all issues, but Horowitz goes far beyond providing an alternative perspective.
We and many other students on this campus are deeply offended by his claim that “there is a movement for a second Holocaust of the Jews that is being supported [at UCSB] by the Muslim Student Association.” The UCSB MSA is an incredibly valuable member of our campus, has been involved in numerous interfaith dialogues and provides a cultural and religious home to a large segment of the UCSB Muslim community. The accusation that the UCSB MSA has ties to terrorism is not only baseless and inaccurate, but it also propagates stereotypes and misconceptions that far too often have led to deadly consequences.
We stand unified with our Muslim friends in repudiating these grossly inaccurate stereotypes and call upon the UCSB community at large to stand by their fellow students.
Rather than stage a protest against the Horowitz meeting, now billed as “Infantile Disorders at UC Santa Barbara: Why the Muslim Student Association is Afraid of David Horowitz”, the UCSB Respect Coalition have organised an alternative event under the title “The Alternative: Empowering Our Voices”.
EDL plans confrontation with Muslim community in Tower Hamlets … with help from local Labour MP
Following their protest against “Muslim paedophiles” in Blackpool next Saturday, the English Defence League have announced that their next demonstration will be in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, which they describe as “the heartland of Islamic terrorism” (see here and here).
Comments about the Tower Hamlets protest on the EDL’s Facebook page have included a call to rip off Muslim women’s veils – from an individual currently on bail over charges arising from an attack on Kingston mosque – and even more explicit threats of violence such as this:
EDL abuses MEPs attending anti-racist meeting in Luton
A chorus of boos and chants greeted Euro MP Richard Howitt as he arrived at Luton Town Hall for extremism talks this afternoon.
A large group of English Defence League members had gathered at the Duke of Clarence pub after EDL leader Tommy Robinson accused the MEP of failing to tackle Islamic extremism.
With Mr Howitt were MEPs from five other European countries who have experienced far right extremism in their own countries.
Before the group arrived, EDL members emerged from the pub and lined the pavement, holding placards and chanting slogans including “Muslim bombers off our streets” and “No surrender to the Taliban”.
Emerging from the meeting to more booing, Mr Howitt said: “Not only are the EDL unrepresentative, they seek to prey upon the insecurities of normal people who are worried about their jobs and homes.”
A updated report adds that “MEPs from Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary and Slovakia arrived at the building for anti-extremism talks to booing and shouts of ‘scum’ from the EDL members.”
See photos by Mirrorimage at Demotix
Prosecutors again call for Wilders’ acquittal
Dutch prosecutors Wednesday again argued for anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’s acquittal on hate speech charges, saying that while his comments may have caused anxiety and insult, they were not criminal.
“In regards to this case, the public ministry has not changed its mind. We recommend an acquittal,” prosecutor Paul Velleman told the Amsterdam district court. Prosecutors previously called for the politician’s acquittal on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans.
Judge waits for medical report on racist who threatened Salma Yaqoob
The mental health of a racist extremist who harassed a Birmingham city councillor will be assessed before he is sentenced.
Stuart Peter John Collins, of Mill Lane, Bartley Green, targeted Respect councillor Salma Yaqoob, who later spoke of the distress it caused.
Collins, aged 50, made offensive phone calls about the councillor to the emergency services claiming she was spreading racial hatred. He pleaded guilty to making offensive phone calls. It puts him in breach of an 18-month suspended jail sentence after he previously bombarded Ms Yaqoob with a series of offensive and racist emails.
Judge Trevor Faber bailed him, after adjourning sentence for a mental health assessment. He told Collins: “I want to make it clear that I am not giving any indication of sentencing but I am prepared to make a short adjournment so that the psychiatric team can prepare a report for the benefit of the judge who will sentence you.”
In the latest attack, Ms Yaqoob was repeatedly targeted by Collins who said he was “sick of extremists in the UK”.
Ms Yaqoob said: “I am surprised that he is up in court again. I would have thought he would have learnt that it’s not a good idea to send abusive and racist messages, that’s why he was in court last time and having been on the receiving end, it’s not very pleasant.
“But part of me is also concerned that he has mental health issues and I don’t know whether that has been taken into account, but it does sound bizarre going on such rants. I hope he gets the help he needs.”
Hate message left on US Muslim family’s car
A hate message was left on the car of a Muslim family while they were inside a business in Redmond, the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) said Tuesday.
CAIR-WA said a Muslim mother reported that she found the message, which said, “We don’t [want] Muslims in America” in English and “We don’t want Muslims in our country, go away”, in Arabic, stuck to the family’s vehicle when she returned to it Monday afternoon after visiting a Redmond Starbucks.
“I can’t believe someone could hate me because of my religious beliefs,” the victim told KIRO 7. She asked us not to use her name or show her face.
The Muslim mother, who was with her 9-year-old daughter at the time of the incident, wears an Islamic head scarf.
Earlier this month, CAIR’s Michigan chapter called on state and national law enforcement authorities to investigate an incident in which a vehicle was vandalized and defaced with a racially-derogatory phrase and profanity.
CAIR-WA Executive Director Arsalan Bukhari said a coalition of some 60 interfaith and community leaders recently asked Everett Community College to drop an “Islamophobic” speaker scheduled to appear Thursday as part of an “Islam in America” lecture series.
Bukhari said that a growing number of hate incidents targeting American Muslims, those perceived to be Muslim and Muslim institutions have occurred in the days since the death of Osama bin Laden.
“Some of the issues we see happening are an increase in rhetoric against Muslims and an increase in mainstreaming of anti-Muslim speech,” Bukhari said.
CAIR-WA held a news conference Tuesday afternoon with the Muslim mother and her daughter to talk about the incident.
The victim said she isn’t angry about the note, but she’s shocked that it would happen in a community she’s grown to love. “We are just regular people, and I hope this person realizes that they can’t make us afraid to go out and live our lives regularly,” she said.