A Sinn Fein councillor has challenged former Craigavon Mayor Alan Carson to “make a full public apology to Muslims living in Craigavon” after remarks he made during a debate on Monday night. However the DUP man insists that Councillor Johnny McGibbon is “simply scoring political points from a genuine mistake I made and for which I apologised immediately”.
Yearly Archives: 2012
By-election candidate’s criminal past
An independent candidate in the Rotherham by-election is a member of the far-right English Defence League who has criminal convictions,The Star can reveal.
Clint Bristow, aged 39, of Cantley, Doncaster, is one of 11 people standing in tomorrow’s by-election caused by the resignation of Labour MP Denis MacShane over dishonest expenses claims.
France and the veil – the dark side of the law
French anti-veil laws are steeped in racism and have opened the door to abuse against Muslims, argues Valeria Costa-Kostritsky.
Torygraph continues campaign against Tory politician (who just happens to be a Muslim)
The Daily Telegraph, whose sister paper the Sunday Telegraph waged a disgraceful smear campaign against Foreign Office minister and former Tory party co-chair Sayeeda Warsi, carries a report titled “Baroness Warsi rapped by Lords sleaze watchdog over undeclared Wembley flat income”.
The Lords Commissioner for Standards found that Warsi had omitted to register an interest as the recipient of £6,937 in rent during 2010-11 from a flat in Wembley, which she had been forced to leave for security reasons on joining the cabinet and was unable to sell due to negative equity. The rent she received was in fact less than the mortgage and other expenses she paid on the flat, but it exceeded the £5,000 threshold and should therefore have been declared.
The Commissioner accepted that Warsi’s oversight did not result in any financial loss to the taxpayer or additional monetary gain to herself, and that she had made no attempt to conceal the existence of the flat or the fact that she was renting it out. Indeed, Warsi herself pointed out that she had made the rental arrangement known to the Cabinet Office, the Leader of the House and HM Revenue and Customs.
In other words, this is pretty much a non-story. Which didn’t prevent the Telegraph from hyping it up for the benefit of Warsi’s enemies in the Tory party and the paper’s own readership of right-wing anti-Muslim bigots.
Arrest after ham thrown at Crawley mosque
A 16-year-old boy was arrested by police investigating a hate crime after pieces of ham were thrown at a mosque. The teenager was held on suspicion of a religiously aggravated public order offence by officers called to Broadfield Mosque in Crawley, West Sussex.
Sussex Police said “real anguish and anxiety” was caused to worshippers who witnessed the incident as they left the mosque at around 4pm last Tuesday. The arrested teenager, who is from the local area, has been freed on police bail pending further inquiries.
Sergeant Jim Collen, of Sussex Police, said: “This was a very unpleasant incident which has naturally caused real anguish and anxiety amongst worshippers at the mosque. Sussex Police take all reports of hate crime extremely seriously and this investigation will be no exception.”
Disorder which broke out following the incident was also being investigated, police said. Mr Collen said: “We are aware of a relatively minor altercation that we hope to resolve using our restorative justice programme. It must not be allowed to take the focus away from our investigation of the hate crime as this remains our priority.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Sussex Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Norwich man pleads guilty to threatening behaviour during EDL march
A man who was arrested during an English Defence League march in Norwich and charged with using threatening words or behaviour has been fined.
Matthew Berryman, 28, of Astell Road, Norwich, appeared at Norwich Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to the offence on November 10. He was ordered to pay a £150 fine, a £20 victim surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.
US Army sticks ‘war on Islam’ teacher in bureaucratic depths
Once, Army Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley’s superiors wrote that he was a “must-select” for command and promotion to full colonel. Then Dooley taught a class to senior U.S. officers musing about a “total war” on Islam, which the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, shut down. Now, Dooley has his next assignment – deep in the bowels of the Army bureaucracy, far from command.
Dooley’s Army career has been in jeopardy after he received an administrative reprimand for his elective course at the Joint Forces Staff College, which discussed using “Hiroshima”-style tactics against Islam’s holiest cities as part of a “total war.” But the Army didn’t fire Dooley. It sent him to bureaucratic limbo instead.
‘Anti-sharia’ law supporters push for action on Michigan House bill targeting Islamic ideology
Supporters of an “anti-sharia” bill that’s been sitting in Michigan’s State House Judiciary Committee for over a year are pushing state lawmakers to put the measure to a vote.
If adopted, the bill he introduced would “limit the application and enforcement by a court, arbitrator, or administrative body of foreign laws that would impair constitutional rights.”
Will new House Homeland Security Committee chair carry on Peter King’s Islamophobic legacy?
Hamed Aleaziz poses the question.
Think Progress, 26 November 2012
See also “Peter King’s greatest hits as Homeland Security chairman”, TPM, 27 November 2012
Islamophobia doesn’t exist, according to AP
The Associated Press style guide has prohibited use of the terms Islamophobia and homophobia. Under the heading “phobia” we find the following: “An irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness. Examples: acrophobia, a fear of heights, and claustrophobia, a fear of being in small, enclosed spaces. Do not use in political or social contexts: homophobia, Islamophobia.”
Update: See Patrick Strudwick, “‘Homophobia’ and ‘Islamophobia’ are the right words for the job”, Comment is Free, 27 November 2012
As he points out: “Phobias are of course a spectrum. Someone who thinks that gay men might be too hedonistic to properly bring up a child is less phobic than someone who refuses to sit next to a Muslim because they are convinced anyone belonging to Islam is harbouring extremist tendencies. But they’re all symptoms of an irrational, disproportionate fear: a phobia.”