Monthly Archives: May 2012

Leading vet criticises ritual slaughter of animals

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A leading vet has criticised the “unacceptable” rise in the number of animals killed in ritual slaughter.

Ritual slaughter is lawful in the UK and the EU to satisfy the dietary requirements of Jews and Muslims.

Prof Bill Reilly, former president of the British Veterinary Association, said estimates suggested more animals were slaughtered than was necessary.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said its own figures showed most animals were stunned before being killed. The FSA conducted a survey into animal welfare in slaughterhouses in September.

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Posted in UK

Muslim woman wins $5 million punitive damages from AT&T for discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Susann BashirA Kansas City woman who converted from Christianity to Islam has been awarded $5 million in punitive damages by a jury who found the telecommunications giant AT&T created a “hostile work environment” after her conversion, according to a judge’s order issued Friday.

Susann Bashir, a 41-year-old married mother, sued AT&T unit Southwestern Bell for what she said was a pattern of offensive and discriminatory conduct by her supervisors that began when she converted to Islam in 2005, six years after she started working for the company as a network technician.

After Bashir started wearing a religious head scarf known as a hijab, and attending Friday mosque services, her managers and co-workers called her names including “terrorist,” and told her she was going to hell, said her attorney Amy Coopman. A manager repeatedly told her to remove her hijab, insulted her for wearing it, and once physically grabbed Bashir and tried to rip the hijab off her head, according to the suit.

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Ex-BNP Islamophobe elected to Scottish council

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Colin Wyper

Spin Watch draws our attention to the fact that former British National Party member Colin Wyper has been elected as an independent to Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Wyper has written: “I was and still am terrified of Islam, of their gradual and steady takeover of the western world.”

There are reportedly 200 Muslims living in the region, out of a total population of 148,200. So anxieties about the Islamification of Dumfries and Galloway are perhaps slightly overstated.

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein honoured for campaign to overturn FIFA hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MWSF Awards 2FIFA’s youngest vice-president, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein has been honoured for his efforts to overturn the ban on the hijab in football at the inaugural Muslim Women’s Sport Foundation (MWSF) Ambassador Awards, held at Wembley Stadium last night.

Prince Ali, elected in January 2011 and FIFA’s youngest ever Executive Committee member, was given a Special Recognition Award for his achievements and contribution to Muslim women’s sport.

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Derby: workshops to tackle hatred and fear of Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Free training is being offered for Derby’s voluntary and public-sector workers on how to tackle Islamophobia.

The University of Derby’s multi-faith centre, in Kedleston Road, will be holding three workshops. They are each designed to identify and tackle Islamophobia, defined as prejudice against Muslims or the hatred or irrational fear of Islam.

Sessions will be held on Wednesday, May 23, for Derby’s voluntary sector; Wednesday, June 20, for the East Midlands voluntary sector; and Thursday, July 26, for Derby’s public sector. Each session will run from 9.30am to 4.30pm.

For a booking form, contact Yessenia Aguilera by e-mailing mfc@derby.ac.uk or visit the centre’s website at www.multifaithcentre.org.

Derby Telegraph, 3 May 2012

Now deal with Wilders has collapsed Dutch minister says ‘burqa ban’ law is no longer needed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Outgoing interior minister Liesbeth Spies says the burqa ban she helped prepare can be scrapped along with a proposed ban on holding dual citizenship.

Now that the cabinet has fallen, she says she “wouldn’t shed a tear” if parliament were to scrap the controversial Freedom Party-sponsored bill. “Now the cabinet has fallen, there’s no longer any payoff,” she told national daily de Volkskrant on Wednesday.

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Wilders calls on Muslims to leave Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders on Sean Hannity showPVV leader Geert Wilders has called on Muslims throughout the world to leave Islam. He made his call in a speech in New York, to promote his English-language book Marked for Death.

Wilders claims that his book explains that Islam is a “totalitarian ideology” and is an encouragement to freedom-loving Muslims to turn their back on Islam. “I support those who fight for freedom in the Islamic world completely. The Arab, Turkish, Iranian, Pakistani and Indonesian peoples have enormous potential. If they could free themselves of the yoke of Islam, if they could stop seeing Mohamed as their role model and if they could break away from the rancorous Koran, then they could achieve amazing things,” Wilders said in his speech.

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California: student senator’s Muslim costume causes controversy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ashton CohenLeaders of Muslim student groups at the University of California, San Diego, are upset after a photo of a student senator dressed in Muslim garb circulated on the Internet.

Student Senator Ashton Cohen took a photograph at a campus party dressed in a robe and head-covering, with three women whom a caption identified as his “three wives,” according to the UCSD Guardian. Now, leaders of the Muslim Student Union and Arab Student Union, and Students for Justice in Palestine are admonishing him for “Islamophobia.”

“I was offended and disgusted that someone would think that’s OK to wear to a party,” Students for Justice in Palestine and Arab Student Union President Noor El-Annan told the Guardian.

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Posted in USA