Gulf News profiles Rashid Gannoushi. See also “Tunisia’s Islamist party unveils manifesto” in the Financial Times.
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Dutch government to introduce veil ban backed by €380 fine as part of deal with Wilders
Women wearing the Islamic burqa (full body cloak) or niqab (face veil) in public will soon be subject to a maximum fine of 380 euros. The planned measure is to be discussed by the Dutch cabinet on Friday.
A “burqa ban” formed part of the minority Dutch government’s programme agreed with the populist Freedom Party (PVV) on whose parliamentary support the cabinet relies.
The senior partner in the coalition, the conservative VVD, is in favour of a general ban on people wearing clothes that cover the face including not only burqas but also balaclavas and helmets with opaque visors. On the VVD website, it is argued that people can find such clothing threatening.
The Christian Democrats are the smaller party in the coalition and say: “Clothing covering the face makes it harder to indentify people, hinders communication and makes people feel less safe.”
From 2007, the PVV has called for a “burqa ban” punishable by higher fines and even imprisonment. It describes the garment as “an expression of the rejection of the West’s core values”.
It is estimated that about 150 women in the Netherlands always wear the burqa or niqab when they go out in public. A maximum of a few hundred women wear the garments occasionally.
FBI teaches agents: ‘mainstream’ Muslims are ‘violent, radical’
The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.”
At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”
These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity.
“There may not be a ‘radical’ threat as much as it is simply a normal assertion of the orthodox ideology,” one FBI presentation notes. “The strategic themes animating these Islamic values are not fringe; they are main stream.”
JC talks to new EDL Jewish division leader
The new leader of the English Defence League’s Jewish division has encouraged British Jews to back the extreme right-wing group and “defend liberal democracy”. James Cohen, 52, who is based in Ottawa, Canada, said his dealings with EDL leaders had led him to believe they were “affable, intelligent, right-minded people” who had been “wrongly maligned” by the British media.
Mr Cohen, a writer and activist who previously lived in Israel, admitted he had “done some soul-searching” after being asked to lead the division following July’s departure of Roberta Moore. He said he hoped British Jews would join EDL members at protests and in campaigning.
But the Board of Deputies said it condemned the EDL “unreservedly”. A spokesman said: “It is clear for all to see that the EDL are solely intent on causing divisions and mistrust between different groups in British society. When they wave Israeli flags at a rally or demonstration, they do so only to goad the Muslim community and to stir communal tensions. This, and everything that the EDL stands for, is utterly abhorrent. All right-thinking people should be repulsed by extremism from any quarter.”
PVV politician describes Erdoğan as an ‘Islamic monkey’
Foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal has formally distanced himself from comments by PVV MP Raymond de Roon, who described the Turkish prime minister as an “Islamic monkey”.
The remark was made in the context of the Dutch saying daar komt de aap uit de mouw (here comes the monkey out of the sleeve) which means to reveal your true colours or intentions.
“Once again the Islamic monkey has shown himself,” De Roon said during parliamentary questions. “This time he is in Ankara and his name is Erdogan.” De Roon was refering to what he called Turkey’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
Alexander Pechtold, leader of the Liberal democrats D66, challenged Rosenthal to refute the statement. Rosenthal said De Roon had used a “misplaced metaphor”. MPs from the ruling VVD and CDA also condemned the statement.
Rizwaan Sabir wins compensation from police
A student who was arrested and held for seven days after downloading the al-Qaida training manual as part of his university research into terrorist tactics has received £20,000 in compensation and an apology from the police for being stopped and searched.
Rizwaan Sabir, 26, was studying for a master’s at the University of Nottingham in 2008 when he was detained under the Terrorism Act and accused of downloading the material for illegal use. He was arrested on 14 May after the document was found on an administrator’s computer by a member of staff.
Sabir had asked the administrator, Hisham Yezza, to print out the 140-page manual as they were collaborating on research. The university said it called the police after efforts to contact Yezza failed as it felt compelled to act by its duty of care to staff and students. However, Sabir and Yezza dispute this version of events.
As soon as he was made aware of the situation, one of Sabir’s supervisors confirmed that the manual – which he had downloaded from a US government website and which can be bought at WH Smith – was relevant to his research.
After seven days and six nights in custody, he was released without charge or apology. But his lawyers later discovered Nottinghamshire police were holding an intelligence file on him, which contained false information about him and wrongly claimed he had been convicted of a terrorist offence.
His legal team brought proceedings against Nottinghamshire police for false imprisonment and breaches of the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Human Rights Act 1998. The proceedings also included a claim under the Data Protection Act 1998 relating to the intelligence file.
The case was due to go to trial on Monday 19 September, but the force settled last week, paying Sabir £20,000 compensation and covering his legal fees. It apologised to Sabir for a stop and search on 4 February 2010 and agreed to delete the inaccurate intelligence information.
See also BBC News, 14 September 2011
Asbo for Hull EDL member who staged racist protest at world music festival
A protester with a far-right group hurled racist abuse at hundreds of people who had gathered for a world music festival.
Tony Thomsen wrapped an English flag around his head and shouted during the festival in Queens Gardens, city centre. He was part of an English Defence League (EDL) rally, a far-right group which opposes what it terms as “Muslim extremism”.
Thomsen, 40, of Rosedale Avenue, east Hull, has now been given an antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) after being convicted of being drunk and disorderly at the event on June 25.
The world music festival had been organised as part of Hull Refugee Week, which aims to challenge negative stereotypes, and attracted crowds of up to 2,000.
Ben Butler, project co-ordinator at the Asylum Seekers and Refugees Kingston Upon Hull (ARKH) group, said: “It was quite intimidating. The event was all about community cohesion and families and it was intimidating for the people who were present. What confuses me is the EDL claims to be a single-issue group, against Islamic fundamentalism.
“I can’t understand why members would turn up at a family event celebrating world music that had no religious connections and start shouting racist abuse. I get the feeling the EDL focus on Islamic fundamentalism as a bit of a smokescreen for general hatred.”
Thomsen, who recently changed his name from Tony Handley, was convicted in 2003 of daubing racist abuse on a private property in Spring Bank, city centre.
Under the Asbo, which lasts for two years, Thomsen is banned from drinking alcohol in a public place and causing harassment, alarm or distress to others. If he breaches the order, he could be jailed for up to five years. Thomsen was also fined £100 and made to pay £250 court costs after being sentenced at Hull Magistrates’ Court.
Paris: Muslims banned from praying in the street
Praying in the streets of Paris is against the law starting Friday, after the interior minister warned that police will use force if Muslims, and those of any other faith, disobey the new rule to keep the French capital’s public spaces secular.
Claude Guéant said that ban could later be extended to the rest of France, in particular to the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Marseilles, where “the problem persists”. He promised the new legislation would be followed to the letter as it “hurts the sensitivities of many of our fellow citizens”.
“My vigilance will be unflinching for the law to be applied. Praying in the street is not dignified for religious practice and violates the principles of secularism, the minister told Le Figaro newspaper. “All Muslim leaders are in agreement,” he insisted.
In December when Marine Le Pen, then leader-in-waiting of the far-Right National Front, sparked outrage by likening the practice to the Nazi occupation of Paris in the Second World War “without the tanks or soldiers”. She said it was a “political act of fundamentalists”.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s party denounced the comments, but the President called for a debate on Islam and secularism and went on to say that multiculturalism had failed in France. Following the debate, Mr Guéant promised a countrywide ban “within months”, saying the “street is for driving in, not praying”.
Under an agreement signed this week, believers will be able to use the premises of a vast nearby fire station while awaiting the construction of a bigger mosque. “We could go as far as using force if necessary (to impose the ban), but it’s a scenario I don’t believe will happen, as dialogue (with local religious leaders) has born fruit,” he said.
Sheikh Mohamed salah Hamza, in charge of one of the Parisian mosques which regularly overflows, said he would obey the new law, but complained: “We are not cattle” and that he was “not entirely satisfied” with the new location. He said he feared many believers would continue to prefer going to the smaller mosque.
Daily Telegraph, 15 September 2011
See also “Ban on praying on street draws ire of Muslims in France”, Today’s Zaman, 15 September 2011
TUC expresses solidarity with journalists attacked by EDL
TUC affiliates expressed maximum solidarity with journalists who came under attack by the English Defence League (EDL) on September 3.
Moving an emergency motion on Tuesday National Union of Journalists (NUJ) executive member Anita Halpin explained how journalists going about their jobs had been abused and assaulted by members of the far-right organisation.
One journalist was sexually assaulted while another had lighter fuel poured over him and was set alight, suffering minor injuries. “We don’t want to have to add a British journalist’s death to the already too long list of colleagues abroad,” she said to a sombre hall.
Ms Halpin highlighted how NUJ activists had been identified by fascist website Redwatch. “We ask affiliates to call on police to prosecute those who attacked our members,” she said. “We won that fight against fascism and we will win this one.”
Seconding the motion RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that transport workers had refused to carry EDL members across the city on the day of the planned rally. “Our members felt threatened and we warned that members would walk out without a ballot if instructed to carry EDL members on public transport.”
“We won’t go to work if these people are there. And we won’t even use a ballot and we ask you to support us,” he said to huge applause from the conference hall. “The EDL need to be wiped out. They don’t stand for what decent human beings stand for.”
Work on Murfreesboro Islamic Center delayed as construction companies show reluctance to bid
Leaders of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro said this summer that breaking ground on their mosque would bring relief after a tumultuous year.
But an August target date slipped past, and a lack of contractor interest led to an extended deadline – still open – for construction companies to offer bids to build the new center.
“It’s not a secret that we could not get the bids that we would hope to get,” said Saleh Sbenaty, a member of the mosque planning committee. “That can be for various reasons. Some contractors are busy … and sometimes you find a contractor who really would like to get the job who is feeling some pressure from the community.”
While contractors remain fiercely competitive when most projects crop up, mosque leaders are left wondering why some companies backed out and never returned calls. It’s their latest frustration after a year of protests and court hearings over the mosque plans.
Sbenaty and fellow board member Essam Fathy said they extended the bidding deadline and have accepted bids from a wider area, including outside of Tennessee.
Going into the bidding process, mosque leaders believed construction companies would be eager to find work amid the economic downturn – and that is the case on most projects, said contractors in Rutherford County.
But market conditions are not the only factor in play. Fathy said one local contractor backed out of the mosque bidding process after describing pressure inside his church. “He was interested and then he actually said, ‘You know what, it’s going to be tough for me to do this job…. The pastor is talking about your outfit almost every week, and it would be very hard for me to take the job’,” Fathy said.
Contractors may also worry about equipment vandalism at the mosque site on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike, where in August 2010 police investigated a suspicious fire that scorched construction gear. Fathy said security cameras will be installed. “Of course, every (contractor) talked about that,” he said. “We need to secure the place.”
Since CNN re-aired a documentary about the mosque this month, Fathy has received emails and calls from across the country, including some contractors interested in the project, he said.