Monthly Archives: August 2012

Australian Islamophobe smears Richard Bartholomew

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Winds of Jihad

Over at Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion Richard Bartholomew has been engaged in an argument with Joel Richardson, right-wing Christian fundamentalist author of various wacko books including The Islamic Antichrist. Richardson published an article at WorldNetDaily claiming that there is “epidemic of child brides throughout the Islamic world” and that there are today “approximately 51 million” such cases worldwide. Bartholomew does a good job of debunking these claims, much to Richardson’s annoyance.

In the course of this dispute the Australian blogger “Sheik Yer’Mami” – real name Werner Reimann and a deeply repellent individual even by the standards of the collection of racists, cranks and sociopaths that make up the “international counterjihad movement” – rallied to the support of Joel Richardson by posting a piece at his Winds of Jihad site in which he accuses Bartholomew of “whitewashing Mohammedan pedophilia”, and claims that it shows that Bartholomew himself “supports pedophilia”.

As it happens, Reimann himself has been accused by one of his critics of having had links to a paedophile ring in Australia. I’m sure Reimann would vehemently deny this allegation and argue that it is a vile slur on his character. So why does he think it’s acceptable to post a baseless charge of support for paedophilia against Richard Bartholomew?

Lars Vilks defends decision to join Geller’s hate fest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lars VilksSwedish artist Lars Vilks has defended his decision to speak at an anti-Islamic conference in New York on September 11th, claiming he would also accept an invitation from the Ku Klux Klan.

Vilks, the Swedish artist who enraged Muslim groups with his depictions of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, agreed earlier this month to speak at a conference organized by the anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of Nations (SION).

Last week, however, an art gallery in northern Sweden booted him from a planned group exhibition because of his decision to accept the SION invitation. Several of the other participating artists pulled out in solidarity with Vilks, stirring up a debate in Sweden this week about artistic freedom and Islamophobia. The art exhibition, which was due to open on September 30th, has since been cancelled.

In a lengthy interview published in the Aftonbladet newspaper on Thursday, Vilks defended his decision to speak at the SION event. “If the Ku Klux Klan had invited me, I would have gone,” he told the paper.

The Local, 31 August 2012

French writer Richard Millet says Anders Breivik gave Norway ‘what it deserved’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A French essayist, who claims to have read mass-murderer Anders Breivik’s 1,500 page manifesto, has said he believes Norway “got what it deserved.”

Richard Millet, a respected figure in French literature and journalism, made his claims in new 17-page attack on multiculturalism, entitled “The Literary Elegy of Anders Breivik”, described by French newspaper L’Express as a “vindictive text.”

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Man who left pig’s head with ‘Allah’ written on it at Cheltenham mosque is jailed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Simon Parkes (2)A former soldier who tied a pig’s head to the gates of a Cheltenham mosque has been jailed for four months.

Simon Parkes, 45, from Bishop’s Cleeve, Gloucestershire, also sprayed racist graffiti during the attack in November 2010, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

Parkes, who had admitted racially aggravated criminal damage, said he was angry that Muslim extremists had burnt poppies at a Remembrance Day service.

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Posted in UK

Yorkshire: £1.5m mosque to create jobs and act as community beacon – EDL not happy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

York mosque

A purpose-built mosque will promote religious integration and help to create jobs in Yorkshire by becoming a major community facility, according to a leading supporter of the project.

Shazad Hussain, who is overseeing the scheme to create a new mosque in York, said he hoped local material and labourers would be involved in the building work, at a time when many construction firms were struggling due to the slump caused by the global financial crisis.

The proposal for a £1.5m mosque has been backed by City of York Council, and the local Muslim community is raising funds to pay for the building costs. The mosque is due to be built in Bull Lane, York, after previous concerns over flooding at the site were addressed.

The project will see the existing mosque, which has been on the site for 27 years, replaced with a new building. The current facilities are struggling to cope with the growing numbers of people who are using them.

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Atheists ignore Islamophobia at their peril

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FatheistChris Stedman, author of the forthcoming book Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious, notes that “there are worrying indicators that public figures in the atheist movement are perpetuating and enabling a hostile stance toward Muslims – in many cases, above and beyond the criticisms they direct at other religious communities”.

He also criticises the failure of many of his fellow atheists to speak out when ethno-religious minorities are targeted, adding: “silence about the recent spike in bias and violence directed at Muslims, Sikhs, Arabs, and others isn’t a problem exclusive to the atheist community, but by neglecting to tackle it, the atheist movement is opting out of an important conversation about the mistreatment of certain minority groups in the United States”.

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Nashville Muslim sues over violation of religious rights

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim man is suing a security company, claiming his religious rights were violated when its guards demanded he remove his cap before entering Nashville’s Juvenile Justice Center.

Rashid al-Qadir claims security guards violated his First Amendment right to the free exercise of his religion by telling him he could not wear the small, brimless cap called a kufi. Al-Qadir says he offered to remove the kufi for inspection but then wanted to put it back on. The guards refused and demanded he leave the building.

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Preston: work starts on new mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid-e-SalaamWork is to start on controversial plans to build a multi-million pound mosque in a Preston conservation area.

Trustees at the Masjid-e-Salaam, on Watling Street Road, Fulwood, have also applied for permission to build a temporary mosque for worshippers just yards away. They want to build on land at Sharoe Green Lane, earmarked for a second large mosque, while building work gets underway in the Fulwood conservation area.

The mosque secured planning permission after a four-year battle which saw it accepted and then thrown out, before winning an appeal against the city council’s rejection.

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