Yearly Archives: 2012

Polish court reportedly rules against allowing ritual slaughter

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A constitutional court in Poland reportedly has ruled against allowing Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter in the country. The Warsaw court’s ruling, which was made known on Tuesday, said the government had acted unconstitutionally when it exempted Jews and Muslims from stunning animals before slaughtering them as their faiths require, according to Piotr Kadlcik, president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland.

JTA, 27 November 2012

See also “Polish court bans ritual slaughter, EU gives go-ahead”,AFP, 27 November 2012

Welsh Muslims report widespread racist abuse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

RCC reportThe Institute of Race Relations draws our attention to a Wales Online report on a new study of racism and race equality in Wales by Professor Heaven Crawley that was commissioned by Race Council Cymru.

It found people from minority ethnic backgrounds in Wales are still experiencing racism in health, education and housing services, as well as in employment. And in many cases when racism occurs, it found victims are not reporting or challenging it, but instead changing their behaviours, language and clothing to “fit in”.

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UKIP founder Alan Sked says the party is ‘morally dodgy’ and ‘extraordinarily right-wing’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David Cameron has been under fire for dismissing the UK Independence Party (Ukip) as a party of “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”, in a now-notorious radio interview in 2006.

However, he may have won support from an unusual quarter – the founder and former leader of Ukip, Professor Alan Sked, says the party he launched in 1993 has become “extraordinarily right-wing” and is now devoted to “creating a fuss, via Islam and immigrants. They’ve got nothing to say on mainstream issues.”

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Headscarfs and homosexuals – feminist ideals in xenophobic politics

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Open Democracy has published an extract from a pamphlet by Johanne Mygind and Anders Rasmussen which explores the contradictions at the heart of the Islamophobic populism of the Danish People’s Party, whose packaging of their anti-Muslim politics as based on a concern for the rights of women and the LGBT community stands in sharp contrast to the party’s own record on these issues.

Daniel Nalliah fights Melbourne mosque plan – on the grounds that Islam ‘doesn’t value freedom of religion’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Doveton No Mosque sign

Anti-Islam crusader Daniel Nalliah and his evangelical Christian church are set to fight a plan to build a mosque in the same street.

Mr Nalliah, a pastor at Catch the Fire Ministries, said his church was weeks away from building a $2 million base at 25 Green Street, Doveton.

He recently learnt of a planning application by an Afghan community group to build the Omar Farooq Mosque next door. The church, along with more than 100 petitioners including adjoining residents, will formally object to Casey Council over the mosque proposal.

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Lord Ashcroft is worried that people might see Lynton Crosby’s anti-Muslim rant as racist – because they ‘will not appreciate that Muslim is a religion not a race’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lord AshcroftDavid Cameron’s controversial new campaign chief, Lynton Crosby, was in a fresh row last night after a leading Tory peer said his foul-mouthed rant against Muslims could be seen as “racist”.

Former Conservative deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft told friends that outspoken Australian Mr Crosby’s remark about “f****** Muslims” was a major error of judgment.

“The danger is that other people will see it as racist,” Lord Ashcroft was heard to comment at the Spectator magazine parliamentary awards lunch at The Savoy in London. “Some people may assume he means effing Muslims, effing blacks and all effing immigrants and will not appreciate that Muslim is a religion not a race.”

Mail on Sunday, 25 November 2012

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Dutch minister dismisses ‘halal homes’ fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk told a television programme on Sunday he has no problem with housing corporations renovating homes and taking the wishes of Muslim tenants into account.

Plasterk was responding to a report in Parool newspaper on Saturday which said 188 apartments in western Amsterdam had been adapted to meet the wishes of Muslims, with a special cupboard for storing shoes and an extra tap for “ritual cleansing”.

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