Yearly Archives: 2011

Tennessee: Republican politician defends right to ‘confront a political-militaristic-religion responsible for 10 out of the last 11 terrorist attacks on Americans’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rick WomickDebate surrounding proposed state legislation that critics say unfairly targets Islam continues to spill beyond the halls of the state Capitol. In a fiery email response to a local Jewish man, state Rep. Rick Womick defended his confrontation with a Columbia Muslim after a House committee hearing this week.

Womick, a Rockvale Republican who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote an email Wednesday to Aaron Nuell of Murfreesboro stating that he sat “respectfully and politely” and listened to four people, including Daoud Abudiab of Columbia, accuse him and fellow legislators of denying them their constitutional rights, inflaming intolerance, making false accusations and being hate-mongers, racists and white supremacists such as the KKK.

“And you write me to scold me because I dare speak up and defend my character and confront a political-militaristic-religion responsible for 10 out of the last 11 terrorist attacks on Americans?” Womick wrote.

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Springfield: community backs Islamic Center against threats

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vandalism and threats aimed at a local Muslim community have inspired others in Springfield to stand with the Muslims and in opposition to bigotry. Representatives of faith groups, human rights advocates and city government will join members of the Islamic Center of Springfield on Saturday afternoon to speak against recent incidents at the center and for religious freedom.

Carl Haworth with the Interfaith Alliance, which organized the event, said “everyone who supports religious freedom” is invited to join. “We want to show that we feel everyone has the right to be here as long as they want to contribute to the Springfield community and make this their home,” said Haworth.

City Councilman Bob Stephens said representatives from the city will be on hand. “Because those acts of vandalism were so despicable, we felt there definitely needs to be some representation from the city,” he said. “Springfield is not like this.”

George Davis, president of the city’s Human Rights Commission, said Saturday’s event will “show unity in diversity”. “Our community has people of many faiths and cultures,” he said. “We want to make it clear bigotry will not be tolerated through displays of actions.”

Francine Pratt, president of the local chapter of the NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – said the civil rights organization will also be represented. “We want to show them that we love them and embrace them,” she said. “We have to stick up for what’s right.”

Members of the Islamic Center will be on hand to greet the community visitors.

“The wide range of response from the community at all levels … is very profound,” said Wafaa Kaf with the center and a member of the Interfaith Alliance. “All, from the ground up and from top down, agreed upon a call to action in response to hate crimes, burning the holy Quran, and the threatening letter against Islam and Muslim community of Springfield.

“The crowd wants to show that they, ‘average citizens,’ are united, and that such hatred actions against Islam are not welcome in our community, which promotes mutual respect and trust between interfaith groups. Every one of us is adding a hand toward shaping a better community.”

News-Leader, 22 April 2011

Vandals desecrate Muslim graves in High Wycombe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

High Wycombe Cemetery broken gravestone

Vandals have attacked 20 Muslim graves at a cemetery in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Headstones were pushed over and ornaments from the graves strewn around the cemetery in Hampden Road. The graves were vandalised between 2100 BST on Wednesday and 0800 BST on Thursday.

Thames Valley Police said it took the incident extremely seriously and was supporting families and the community as well as hunting the vandals. Supt Gilbert Houalla said:

“I am disgusted that these people could be so thoughtless and cowardly and cannot believe that anyone could do something so unbelievably shocking to the graves of loved ones. The community should feel reassured that we take incidents of this nature extremely seriously and will be doing all that we can to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.

“It appears that the vandals have specifically desecrated Muslim graves and I am at a loss as to what was going through the minds of those involved. This is not only an attack on the Muslim community but is an attack on us all. We must now all work together to find whoever has done this.”

BBC News, 22 April 2011

See also Bucks Free Press, 21 April 2011

For the likely inspiration behind the attack see here, here and here.

Update:  See “Community outcry after Muslim graves desecrated in High Wycombe”, Bucks Free press, 24 April 2011

Gang of schoolgirls attack Muslim woman wearing headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A gang of schoolgirls attacked a Muslim woman after mocking her for wearing a headscarf. Four teenage girls, two wearing school uniform, kicked and knocked the woman to the ground before trying to remove the item of religious dress during the incident in North Cheam between 7pm and 9pm on Wednesday, April 13.

The 26-year-old was walking along Stonecot Hill towards London Road, near the territorial army centre, when she noticed she was being followed by the girls, who were teasing her about her headscarf. One of the girls kicked her, before she crossed the road in an attempt to get away. The girls caught up with the victim, kicked her again, and during a struggle to remove the victim’s headscarf, kicked her again after she fell to the ground.

The attackers fled after a car pulled over to help the woman. The driver then took the woman home.

Police are now appealing for information to catch those responsible. One of the girls is described as 5ft 7in tall, of medium build with long blonde hair extending to her mid-back, and wearing a white shirt and navy skirt school uniform. Another wearing the same uniform was 5ft 6in tall, with dyed red hair. A third is described as Eastern European in appearance with small eyes.

Anyone with information should call Sutton Police Station on 0300 123 1212 and ask for the Community Safety Unit quoting reference number 4004250/11.

Sutton Guardian, 21 April 2011

Attacks on multiculturalism linked to economic crisis, IRR study finds

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) publishes today Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalism – a detailed analysis by Executive Director, Liz Fekete, of key speeches made over the past six months by leading centre-right politicians from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.

These speeches attack multiculturalism and immigration and link them to the economic crisis. The IRR finds that:

  • In singling out multiculturalism as a threat to national identity, the leaders of Europe’s centre-right parties are using the same kind of rhetoric and specious arguments as Enoch Powell did forty years ago. Only this time, it is not one rogue European politician carrying the flag, but the leaders of centre-right parties now replacing race and immigration with culture and religion as the watch words.
  • As multiculturalism becomes code for discussing the ‘Muslim problem’, the language, terms and metaphors used by centre-right politicians subtly (and in some cases crudely) convey a sense of national victimhood, of a majority culture under threat from Muslim minorities and new migrants who demand special privileges and group rights and refuse to learn the language.

In Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalismthe IRR warns that:

  • The attacks on multiculturalism are taking place at a time of economic crisis and swingeing cuts, when politicians are desperate to deflect public anger and explain societal break down. The centre Right is establishing a narrative, with some centre-left parties following suit, to justify the biggest round of spending cuts since the 1920s, blaming the current economic crisis not on the bankers and global financial crisis, but on immigration, and on Muslims.
  • As the extreme Right increasingly enters national parliaments, sometimes holding the balance of power, there are dangerous signs that the centre Right is preparing for future power-sharing with the extreme Right, as well as nativist anti-immigration parties. The fact that mainstream politicians are now speaking to the fear and hatred promoted by the extremists’ anti-multicultural platform, is giving legitimacy to conspiracy theories about Muslims and to anti-Muslim hatred.

Read the IRR’s research Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalism here.

IRR press release, 21 April 2011

Pope ‘plotter’ still traumatised after arrest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim plot to kill popeA street cleaner arrested on suspicion of plotting against the Pope last year has told the BBC he is still traumatised by his ordeal.

Last September, when the Pope was visiting London, Sami, who has asked the BBC not to use his full name for fear of reprisals, was one of six men arrested under anti-terrorism laws. The 26-year-old from Algeria was the youngest.

The men, all street cleaners for Westminster Council, were detained after a tip-off to police. All were released without charge less than two days later – police said they posed “no credible threat” to the Pope.

Sami is now considering legal action against the police for false imprisonment. He accepts the police had a duty to protect the public from any potential threat but says the affair has had a profound affect on him.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme through an interpreter, Sami said that when police first detained him he had no lawyer or interpreter and did not really understand what was happening.

“The first interview – yes, it was me alone,” he said. “I was there and was being subjected to all sorts of questioning. At one stage the person interrogating me started saying ‘If anything happens to the Pope, anything at all, then you will be held responsible.’ Until now I am still traumatised by what I was subjected to.

“I felt my entire world crumbling around me. And I felt this is the end of my life. I would be lying to you if I didn’t say that I started thinking about Guantanamo Bay – you know, being transported over there.”

Earlier this year, BBC Radio 4’s Face the Facts programme reported on concerns that many negative newspaper stories about Muslims turn out to be untrue. Sami says he is shocked at the way one newspaper in particular distorted the facts.

The day after the men were arrested, under the headline “Muslim plot to kill the pope“, the front page of the Daily Express accused them of being “Islamic terrorists… with links to al-Qaeda”, plotting a “double blow to the infidel” by assassinating the head of the Roman Catholic Church and slaughtering hundreds of pilgrims and well wishers.

The Press Complaints Commission received numerous complaints about the paper’s coverage. But it is powerless to act because the Express group has withdrawn from the PCC. So Sami would have to go directly to the newspaper itself – and he is not confident of success.

“Of course I would like to make a complaint and the end goal for me would be like they alleged this against us – and me personally – on the front page: I would like them to reprint another front page saying ‘We got it wrong and we apologise’. I don’t think they will be fair.”

A report is due out in the next few weeks over whether the Metropolitan Police were justified in arresting the men. It is being carried out by the new independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC.

The Daily Express and Scotland Yard declined to comment.

BBC News, 19 April 2011

The ‘Islamification’ of Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scaremongering about the threat of “Islamification” facing the east London borough of Tower Hamlets has been popular in the right-wing press since Andrew Gilligan’s witch-hunting Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Islamic Republic was broadcast last year. Several papers this week have published articles on that theme.

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Carlisle United starts inquiry into claim that club stewards supported EDL protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Carlisle United have launched an investigation following reports that Brunton Park stewards were among supporters of the man jailed for burning the Koran.

Andrew Ryan, 32, of Summerhill, London Road, Carlisle, was sentenced to 70 days in prison for intentional religious/racial harassment on Monday. He arrived at the city magistrates’ court flanked by men waving the St George’s Cross and shouting nationalist chants.

The English Defence League Carlisle Division had put out a call for members to support Ryan. A group gathered to parade through the city centre with him, carrying a flag with “EDL” written on it. It also bore the scrawled message: “It’s our country, we are taking it back.”

Yesterday the News & Star received reports that some of the men were stewards at Brunton Park. The club has now launched an investigation into their identity. United spokesman Andy Hall said:

“We would like to thank the News & Star for bringing this to our attention. Having just received the images we now have to carry out a full investigation and we will, in due course, be able to comment further on our findings.

“As has been shown recently the club will not tolerate any form of racist behaviour and, in conjunction with the FA and Football League ‘Kick it Out’ campaign, we are working strenuously to ensure that this issue does not arise at the ground.

“However, it would be wrong of us to make any further comment on this specific incident until a full and thorough investigation has been completed.”

News & Star, 20 April 2011

CAIR: Georgia mosque targeted by hate vandalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today called on state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate two apparently bias-motivated attacks on a Georgia mosque as hate crimes.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says vandals twice this month shattered doors and windows of the Islamic Center of Cartersville with rocks, one of which was reportedly painted with “Muslim murderers”. Local police are investigating the incidents and the FBI has been “asked to determine if the attacks fall under federal hate crime laws”.

“The hate message on a rock used to damage this mosque is a clear indication of a bias motive,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “State law enforcement authorities and the FBI should take whatever actions are necessary to protect the congregation’s right to worship without fear of attack.”

CAIR press release, 19 April 2011

Tennessee Muslims gather at state Capitol for hearing on anti-sharia bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hundreds of Muslims thronged the state Capitol Tuesday morning for a hearing on a bill that once targeted adherents to Islamic law.

Muslims from across the state packed a committee room and corridors to hear testimony a bill that supporters say would help Tennessee law enforcement stop terrorist plots but opponents believe targets Muslims by targeting their beliefs. The bill has since been amended to remove any references to Islam and Shariah, the basic set of Muslim religious laws that covers everything from the rules of warfare to inheritance.

But opponents said in brief testimony that the bill is inherently flawed because it was written by an Arizona organization that has been described as a hate group. They urged the House Judiciary Committee and the measure’s sponsors, House Speaker Pro Tempore Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, and state Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, to withdraw the bill.

“If a bill was written by the KKK, would you consider it even if it was amended?” said Sabina Mohyuddin, a youth coordinator at a Nashville mosque, who testified. “The intent of the bill remains the same.”

The Tennessean, 19 April 2011