Monthly Archives: September 2011

Dudley planning committee accused of ‘bigotry, racism and Islamophobia’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL anti-mosque protest DudleyPlans for a new mosque and community centre in the West Midlands have been turned down for the second time. Dudley Council refused permission on Monday for the buildings, which would feature a 35ft (10m) high minaret.

Dr Kurshid Ahmed, chairman of the town’s Muslim association, said the decision was “Islamophobic”. The council said its decision was based solely on planning reasons as the scale and design of the building would be out of keeping with buildings in the area.

The council originally refused outline planning permission for the Hall Street mosque in February 2007 on the basis the land had already been designated exclusively for employment use under the council’s unitary development plan. A planning inspectorate overturned the council’s reason for refusing outline planning approval in July 2008. The council fought the decision in the High Court in July 2009 and lost.

Full plans for a mosque and community centre went before Dudley planning committee on Monday night but were rejected.

Dr Ahmed said: “Obviously I am disappointed but certainly not surprised because decisions in Dudley planning committee are driven by the influence of bigotry, racism and Islamophobia.” Dr Ahmed said he was aware that the proposed buildings had been described by some councillors as “an alien feature” and “a blot on the landscape”.

He added: “There’s not really any planning consideration as the two comments that you’ve just referred to suggest, so it is a decision based on people’s prejudices against Islam. They don’t want to see a mosque or they see it as a blot, they see it as completely out of character, which means that they are still living in some historical context and don’t see the globalisation of today and Dudley as part of that.”

Dr Ahmed said it was evidence that council policy was being determined on the basis of anti-Muslim prejudices and described it as “institutional Islamophobia”.

BBC News, 21 September 2011

See also Dudley News, 20 September 2011

Update:  Kurshid Ahmed’s charge of Islamophobia is reinforced by the news that Gavin Boby of the far-right Law and Freedom Foundation (aka “Mosquebusters”) is involved in the anti-mosque campaign. For details see here, here and here.

‘Intelligence analyst’ tells FBI agents to go after Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Danger Room, which broke the story about the FBI teaching its agents that “mainstream” Muslims are linked to terrorism, Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman have a video of a lecture by FBI intelligence analyst William Gawthrop from June this year – which rather undermines the FBI’s claim that the notorious counterterrorism course was a “one time only” event that took place in April and was “quickly discontinued”. Ackerman and Shachtman write:

The best strategy for undermining militants, Gawthrop suggested, is to go after Islam itself. To undermine the validity of key Islamic scriptures and key Muslim leaders.

“If you remember Star Wars, that ventilation shaft that goes down to into the depths of the Death Star, they shot a torpedo down there. That’s a critical vulnerability,” Gawthrop told his audience. Then he waved a laser pointer at his projected PowerPoint slide, calling attention to the words “Holy Texts” and “Clerics”.

“We should be looking at, should be aiming at, these,” Gawthrop said.

There is some background information on Gawthrop in the original Danger Room report:

In 2006, before he joined the Bureau, he gave an interview to the website WorldNetDaily, and discussed some of the themes that made it into his briefings, years later. The Prophet “Muhammad’s mindset is a source for terrorism”, Gawthrop told the website, which would later distinguish itself as a leader of the “birther” movement, a conspiracy theory that denies President Obama’s American citizenship.

At the time, Gawthrop’s major suggestion for waging the war on terrorism was to attack what he called “soft spots” in Islamic faith that might “induce a deteriorating cascade effect upon the target”. That is, to discredit Islam itself and cause Muslims to abandon their religion. “Critical vulnerabilities of the Koran, for example, are that it was uttered by a mortal,” he said. Alas, he lamented, he faced the bureaucratic obstacle of official Washington’s “political taboo of linking Islamic violence to the religion of Islam,” according to the website.

For more on Gawthrop see Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion.

No such thing as good Islam, Baptist theologian argues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mark CoppengerIn his column for the Florida Baptist Witness newspaper, religion professor Mark Coppenger discusses the two schools of thought on Islam: one that contends that Islam is a “great religion with awesome accomplishments” and the other that it is a “false and dangerous ideology”.

Of those two schools, Coppenger argues, “I’m urging folks to matriculate in the later. In fact, I’m not convinced the former should be accredited.”

He discounts the fact that majority of Muslims are not aggressive and oppressive: “You don’t define a faith by the behavior of its slackers or its observants who lack the numbers and power to fully advance their agenda, as is currently the case with Muslims in the West.”

And then gives his own reasons why Islam is a bad religion doomed to ruin: “When you start with an adulterous warrior-profit, who is literally anti-Christ (though touting a non-biblical version of Jesus), mix in generous helpings of totalitarianism and the marginalization/persecution of women and non-Muslims, and cultivate tribalism, legalism, and victimism, you have a recipe for disaster.”

Coppenger, who is professor of Christian apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, makes no apologies for his condemnation of Islam: “… let’s not be cowed by charges of ‘Islamophobia’ when we rehearse the unmatched, bloody record of Muslim terrorist attacks… Such talk may not be our calling or your cup of tea, but it has its place if I read my Bible right.”

Orlando Sentinel, 19 September 2011

Brooklyn College professors condemn NYPD’s spying on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Professors at Brooklyn College have become the first city employees to publicly condemn the NYPD’s spying on local Muslims.

In a September 13th resolution, Brooklyn College’s Faculty Council denounced the spying on Islamic students, suggesting that the police department targeted them without any proof that they were engaging in terrorist activity.

“The Faculty Council opposes surveillance activities by the NYPD and affiliated agencies on our campus either directly or through the use of informants for the purposes of collecting information independent of a valid and specific criminal investigation,” the resolution read.

Meanwhile, the department has come up with a unique way to legally justify its spying. According to a former top police official, it has established its own internal review committee to determine whether prior evidence or indications existed that anyone under surveillance had been planning to break the law.

But this is hardly an independent committee. It reportedly consists of Police Intelligence head David Cohen, the former CIA spook and current NYPD spy mastermind; Chief Thomas Galati, the Intelligence Division’s commanding officer who at Cohen’s direction in 2007 violated diplomatic protocol by making the arriving Iranian delegation to the United Nations sit on the tarmac of at Kennedy airport for 40 minutes while he conducted a weapons check – to the chagrin of the waiting Secret Service, Port Authority Police and the State Department Security Service; Stu Parker, whom the official described as “of counsel” to Cohen, although he is not listed in the NYPD roster; and the department’s Deputy Commissioner of Legal Affairs, Andrew Schaffer.

This committee begs the question of whether there is any oversight over the NYPD’s domestic spying program outside the police department. Three of the committee’s four members belong to the Intelligence Division, which means they are monitoring themselves. The fourth, Schaffer, is not regarded as a department heavy hitter.

The Brooklyn College Faculty Council urged the college administration to issue its “own public statement outlining their opposition to on campus surveillance… as well as detailing their knowledge of or involvement in this surveillance and information gathering.

“We call on the administration to demand publicly that the NYPD inform those groups and individuals that have been the subject of this surveillance of the fact of the surveillance and the nature of the information gathered,” it said.

Huffington Post, 19 September 2011

US school bans ‘Kismet’ after complaints – because it’s about Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — A western Pennsylvania school district has decided not to stage a Tony Award-winning musical about a Muslim street poet after members of the community complained about the play on the heels of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The Tribune Democrat of Johnstown reports Richland School District had planned to stage “Kismet” in February but Superintendent Thomas Fleming says it was scrapped to avoid controversy. Fleming tells the newspaper that sensitivity is understandable in part because one of the hijacked planes crashed in nearby Shanksville.

Music director Scott Miller says the play has no inappropriate content but he and other members of the performing arts committee decided to switch to “Oklahoma!” after hearing complaints.

Associated Press, 20 September 2011

See also CNHI News Service, 20 September 2011

Posted in USA

Dudley council committee rejects plan for new mosque as ‘alien feature’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dudley mosque planPlans for a mosque and community centre on land in Hall Street, Dudley have been rejected by Dudley Council planners.

Members of the Development Control Committee unanimously refused the application for Dudley Muslim Association to build the mosque. Despite last minute alterations and changes to the design by the applicant, councillors still slammed the multi-million pound proposal, calling it “characterless”, “featureless”, “inappropriate” and an “alien feature”.

However councillors did agree to extend the time limit for the previous application, which means the DMA have a further three years to submit more plans.

Speaking about the decision following the meeting, DMA spokesman, Mushtaq Hussain, said he was “very disappointed” with the outcome. He said the DMA would now need to consider whether they would lodge an appeal against the decision, which he believed would be likely. But he added the architects would also be going back to the drawing board to look at further plans.

Dudley News, 19 September 2011

See also “Mosque plan refused amid wave of protest”, Express & Star, 20 September 2011

And “Plans for new mosque in Dudley rejected by council”, Birmingham Post, 20 September 2011

Update:  Needless to say, the English Defence League are chuffed to bits about this further setback for the DMA.

EDL Dudley mosque Facebook

Last year the EDL organised two demonstrations in Dudley against the proposed mosque – one of which ended in a riot, while the other resulted in an attack on a Hindu temple. In between, a rooftop protest at the intended mosque site was staged by two EDL members – UDA supporter Leon McCreery and raving antisemite John “Snowy” Shaw. Only a couple of months ago EDL supporters were posting comments on the EDL Facebook page threatening to bomb the mosque if construction went ahead. So you can see why the EDL are proud of their record.

Two EDL supporters jailed over attack on kebab shop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two English Defence League protesters “bit off more than they could chew” when they caused a racist scene in a kebab shop. Turkish staff armed themselves with long knives used to carve meat and chased brothers Wayne and Darren Edwards out into the street. Wayne Edwards came off the worst and needed five stitches in a wound to his head.

The 36-year-old former soldier and his brother, 34, were each jailed for 14 months after a judge told them such racist aggression would not be tolerated.

An Orange Order march in Gillingham on the of a match at Gillingham FC had passed peacefully when the brothers and other EDL supporters went into Town Kebab House in the High Street. Judge Philip Statman was shown CCTV film showing the drunk brothers banging on the counter and chanting “EDL”.

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Toronto: right-wing alliance tries to drown out supporters of Muslims’ right to school prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Toronto District School Board demonstrations September 2011

Tension was running high as two vocal groups, both for and against Muslim prayer service in schools, tried to out-shout each other. Toronto Police officers kept the groups apart and from protesting on the sidewalk outside the Toronto District School Board’s Yonge St. headquarters on Saturday because they didn’t have permits.

“I am here to support the board for letting us pray in school,” said Aayman Karin, 13, one of about 100 Muslim students who pray on certain Fridays in the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School, on Overlea Blvd. “It is a good thing for us because we don’t have to leave the school.”

Karin said students feel more comfortable praying in school with their classmates. “There is too much fuss being made about this issue,” Karin said. “We have the freedom to do this and we are not doing anything wrong.”

Organizer Chris Andrewsen said the event was in support of the TDSB and brought together students from a number of Toronto schools.

About three metres away, a coalition of protestors demonstrated against religion in schools using a bullhorn to drown out the TDSB supporters. They used the bullhorn to yell about Allah and suicide bombers as the Canadian anthem was played.

“We are here because religion has no place in our schools,” said Ron Banerjee, of Canadian Hindu Advocacy. “We want religion out of all our schools.” His group was joined by the Jewish Defence League Canada, Costas Christian Mission, Evangelical Asian Church, International Christian Voice, and Canadian Egyptian Congress. Rev. Tony Costa, of Costa Christ Mission, accused the TDSB of showing “preferential treatment to Muslims”.

An uproar erupted earlier in the summer when it surfaced that board officials were allowing Valley Park students to hold prayer sessions with an imam in the cafeteria during school hours. School board officials have said they plan to continue the practice despite opposition.

Toronto Sun, 17 September 2011

See also CBC News, 18 September 2011

A second anti-prayer protest against was held on Sunday, organised by the Canadian Secular Alliance, who waved placards with the slogan “Stop faith-based bigotry!” See the Toronto Sun, 18 September 2011

Looks like divisions have emerged within the anti-TDSB campaign. The appalling Muslim Canadian Congress seems to have steered clear of the Saturday protest and supported the secularist demonstration on Sunday instead. Perhaps even the MCC had become embarrassed by its public association with the far-right racist Jewish Defence League. The right-wing coalition that staged the Saturday protest is also having difficulty agreeing a common line, with Banerjee condemning all forms of religion in schools and the Christians demanding greater recognition for their own faith. The JDL, for its part, has no objection to Jewish prayers in schools but wants to deny Muslims the same right.