As’ad AbuKhalil of The Angry Arab demolishes The Economist‘s crude piece on atheism in the Muslim world, accusing it of resorting to “lazy clichés”.
Via Loonwatch
Yearly Archives: 2012
Anti-Islamic film up for discussion at Muslim conference in Southampton
A film that provoked a storm of violent protests among Muslims across the world will be discussed in Southampton next week.
The Muslim Council of Southampton (MCS) is holding a conference about the anti-Islamic video that was posted on Youtube by a US citizen. The clip led to protests that have caused more than 75 deaths and hundreds of injuries across the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
English Defence League demo a washout
The English Defence League had high expectations of their demonstration outside Wandworth prison in support of their jailed leader.
“We want to make it a big event,” the EDL wrote last week, “we want the authorities to sit up and take note. We want them to know that we know that Tommy’s arrest and remand is motivated not by a desire to uphold the law but for political reasons.”
Alas, the troops failed to rally to the cause. Hope Not Hate and EDL News report that a mere 100 protestors turned out in the rain.
Sweden Democrats send corpse pics to student
A 15-year-old boy mailed the Sweden Democrats seeking the party’s view on Islam for a school project and received a link to a website showing close up photos of mutilated, decapitated and burned bodies.
“I was shocked. I had no idea how I was supposed to respond to his mail. I can’t describe the feeling, the photos were so horrible,” the student, named as Johan, told the Svenska Dagbladet daily.
Far-right campaign fails – Skegness halal abattoir application granted
A Skegness abattoir which has sparked controversy over its plans to reopen as a halal slaughterhouse, has had an application to run granted.
Premier Halal Ltd, which appears to be a Yorkshire based meat wholesalers, had its documents approved on November 16. A spokesperson for the Food Standards Agency said: “This approval allows the company to operate both as a slaughterhouse and cutting plant, in relation to cattle, calves, sheep and goats.”
CAIR challenges use of anti-Muslim textbook at Toronto school
A Canadian Islamic organization is accusing a Toronto-area Jewish day school of using a textbook that vilifies Muslims.
In a Nov. 19 letter to Jewish groups, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-CAN, charges that a textbook used at the Joe Dwek Ohr HaEmet Sephardic School employs “inflammatory and hateful terms in describing Muslims.”
CAIR-CAN alleges that the book, “2000 Years of Jewish History,” describes Muslims as “rabid fanatics” with “savage beginnings.”
Convicted EDL thug is organising ‘peaceful’ anti-Muslim protest in County Durham
Far-right extremists will descend on Shotton Colliery next month to protest over plans to turn a former pub into a Muslim education centre.
Members of the English Defence League (EDL) will hold what they say will be the “first of many” regional demonstrations in the village. It comes after, the EDL says, residents contacted the organisation after Durham County Council passed plans to turn the former Melrose Arms pub into a Muslim educational centre in May.
The EDL says it will be supported by other Defence Leagues and North East Infidels during the demonstration, on December 1.
Family of British Muslim imprisoned in Djibouti deny terrorist links, allege state harassment
A former pupil of Haverstock School is believed to be in an East African prison amid claims he could have operated as an international terrorist.
The Home Office has banned Mahdi Hashi from Britain, listing him as threat to national security.
But his family are demanding answers from the government after what they say is a decade of unexplained “harassment” by the secret services. They say the 23-year-old, who came to Camden Town aged six from Somalia, was plagued by spooks years after he refused to work for them as an “informer”.
Nottinghamshire: burning cross wrapped in ham is left on Muslim family’s doorstep
A Muslim family who had just moved into a new home are “disgusted” after a cross wrapped in ham was set alight and left on their doorstep.
Police are investigating the incident which happened in Bingham on Tuesday evening.
The family do not want to be identified but the dad, a 39-year-old who was recently made redundant from his job as a collection agent for Royal Bank of Scotland, said:
“There was a knock on the door and I went to open it. Nobody was there, but the cross was propped up against the door. It was alight, and it fell into the house when I opened the door. I noticed sliced ham was tied to it.”
‘Asian grooming gangs’ – how the media racialises sexual abuse
ENGAGE has posted a detailed reponse to yesterday’s appalling media coverage of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s interim report on “child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups”. The Daily Mail, for example, featured the headline “Anger as sex abuse report ‘turns blind eye to Asian gangs'”.
For comments by Sue Berelowitz, deputy children’s commissioner for England and co-author of the report, see her article in the Guardian. And “Children’s commissioner defends child sex abuse report“, also in the Guardian.
See also Yakoub Islam’s response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s articlein the Mail.