Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman reports.
Monthly Archives: August 2012
CAIR denounces PQ proposal to ban hijab
A national Muslim civil rights advocacy organization today condemned a proposal by Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Pauline Marois to ban the Muslim headscarf and other religious-based attire in provincial government offices if the PQ forms government after upcoming September elections.
The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) decried the remarks made Tuesday by Madame Marois at a campaign stop in Trois Riviere that, under a PQ government, Muslim women who wear the hijab would be barred from participating in the Quebec civil service. The PQ says other “overt religious symbols” would likewise be banned, while the Catholic crucifix would remain in Quebec’s National Assembly.
“Many Muslim women regard the hijab as an important and mandatory practice in their faith. The proposed exclusion of a targeted minority of women from the Quebec civil service under a PQ government undermines religious freedom and the democratic values of both Quebec and Canada. The PQ is once again using populist rhetoric and parochial ideas to advance their electoral strategy,” said CAIR-CAN Human Rights Officer Julia Williams.
Michigan: planning commission accused of Islamophobia
The sale of the former Eagle Elementary School in West Bloomfield Township continues to be a contentious issue following a Tuesday meeting of the West Bloomfield Planning Commission.
Citing “inappropriate questioning” by a West Bloomfield Trustee during the meeting, the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Michigan contacted the Department of Justice on Wednesday.
Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-MI, said the sentiment at the meeting matched the sentiment displayed when the school was initially sold to the Islamic Cultural Association.
“I witnessed the tension in the air and the amount of Islamophobic comments that were made (when the school was sold by Farmington Public Schools in November),” Walid said. “(Tuesday’s) meeting in West Bloomfield basically rehashed a lot of the sentiment I saw in Farmington.”
Leicester: protests over Islamic community centre plans for disused scout hut continue
It’s an unlikely setting for an ongoing night-after-night street protest.
However, hundreds of people have been gathering in Thurncourt Road, on Leicester’s Thurnby Lodge estate, for some weeks now to protest against an Islamic charity’s plan to turn a disused Scout hut into a community centre and prayer room.
On Friday, the number of people taking part swelled towards the 400 mark – with about 50 police officers there to oversee it.
Interfaith, civil rights leaders in Ballwin decry recent attacks on mosques
BALLWIN — Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders joined civil rights leaders here this morning in denouncing recent attacks against mosques around the country. They say that kind of violence represents intolerance and a hatred of Muslims, and they worry it escalates during election season.
“This is a result of an atmosphere of hate that is being created by a small group of radical Islamophobes within this country,” said Faizan Syed, executive director of the St. Louis chapter of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). Ghazala Hayat, with the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, added: “We also see, usually the year of election, this rhetoric goes up.”
At a news conference, they were joined by Barbara Jennings, with the Coalition of Catholic Sisters; Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg, president of the Rabbinical Association; and civil rights leaders including Brenda Jones of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and Karen Aroesty of the Anti-Defamation League.
Parti Quebecois would bar hijab from civil service with secularism charter
Pauline Marois is promising to end Quebec’s reasonable accommodation debate if she is elected premier on Sept. 4.
With a new Quebec Charter of Secularism, a Parti Quebecois government would seek to strike a balance between protecting the province’s values and allowing for different cultures to interact.
Under the proposed charter, civil servants would be barred from wearing any religious symbols, including the controversial wear of the hijab. The law would also prohibit citizens from refusing to be served by a member of the opposite sex.
“In Quebec, the state will be neutral. That is absolutely important. Next, the equality between men and women is a value that is not negotiable,” said Marois, at a campaign stop in Trois-Riveries.
Despite the rhetoric, the party leader said that Quebec’s cultural symbols would not be impacted, including Christmas trees and the crucifix that has hung in the National Assembly since 1936. “We’re not denying our past,” said Marois.
Interfaith coalition resists Islamophobia in Michigan
An interfaith coalition plans to demonstrate its support Tuesday night for the sale of a school building owned Farmington Public Schools to a Muslim organization.
The sale last year of the former Eagle Elementary School in West Bloomfield for $1.1 million has drawn protests from groups alleging the district showed undue favor to the buyer, the Islamic Cultural Association, which plans to open a school there.
Taking “a stand against Islamophobia,” coalition members plan to attend the West Bloomfield Township Planning Commission meeting, which is at 7:30 p.m. The commission is expected to consider issues related to the Islamic group’s construction plans for the site.
CAIR: Republican ‘Islamophobia machine’ encouraging violent attacks
Following an acid bomb being hurled at a Muslim school in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, a spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) told Raw Story that the number of attacks on American Muslims has escalated recently due in part to the Republican Party’s “Islamophobia machine” encouraging a tiny minority of extremists toward increasingly violent behaviors.
How privilege-blindness stops us understanding the roots of terrorism
Priyamvada Gopal examines the double standards that are applied to terrorist attacks.
German city to recognize Islamic holidays
Authorities in Hamburg have become the first in Germany to officially recognize Islamic holidays so Muslim employees and students can celebrate them at home.
The decision forms part of an agreement between the north German city and local Muslim groups. Similar agreements exist with Christian and Jewish communities in the city.
Hamburg’s mayor, Olaf Scholz, said Tuesday that he hopes the deal will serve as an example for other German cities.