Yearly Archives: 2014

Police probe racist graffiti in Livingston

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Livingston anti-Muslim graffitiPolice are hunting a man who spray-painted anti-Muslim graffiti at several locations in Livingston. The racist slogans were sprayed in the Dedridge area of the West Lothian town from 02:00 on Saturday morning.

Police Scotland said the suspect may have been wearing yellow “marigold” gloves. He was described as white and wearing a black baseball cap with ear flaps, and a red, white and blue striped football scarf wrapped round his face. He had a dark coloured zip-up jacket, jeans and black boots. He is thought to have used a large white tin of red spray paint.

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‘Take if off and hang yourself with it’: Muslim students racially vilified

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SUMSAA number of Muslim students have experienced serious incidents of racial vilification on University of Sydney campuses in recent weeks.

In one incident, a female Muslim student was told to take her hijab off her head and hang herself with it while walking to Redfern Station.

Members of the Sydney University Muslim Students Association were also abused while promoting their annual Islamic Awareness Week.

A SUMSA member, who had asked another student not to rip down posters for the festival, was asked “What are you going to do, behead me?” – a reference to the recent, highly-publicised executions of Western citizens by extremist group ISIS.

In a similar incident, students handing out fliers for the festival were told that they were “trying to make 9/11 happen all over again,” and the University would be better if it had no Muslim students.

Several Muslim students at the University’s Cumberland campus have also reported being spat on in recent weeks.

SUMSA spokesperson Mohamad Raad says that Muslim students have been deeply troubled by this spate of Islamophobic attacks.

“As Muslims, we’re obviously aware that there are a lot of tensions out there at the moment, but you don’t expect these sorts of things to happen on an Australian university campus,” he said.

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Britain First march through Rotherham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain First Rotherham October 2014Hundreds of Britain First supporters have marched through the centre of Rotherham.

Two arrests were made during the march after several supporters and bystanders had strong exchanges of words along the route.

The demonstration was the group’s second visit to the town within a month following the publication of Professor Alexis Jay’s report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, which revealed 1,400 children had been abused by mainly Pakistani men over 16 years.

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Ben Affleck slams Bill Maher’s anti-Muslim sentiment as ‘gross’ and ‘racist’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In a testy ten-minute exchange on “Real Time” with television host Bill Maher and author Sam Harris, Hollywood actor Ben Affleck slammed the host for commenting that Islam is the only religion that acts like the “mafia.” Along with journalist Nicholas Kristof, Affleck argued that ascribing an entire religion based on the actions of the terrorist group Islamic State, was “gross” and “racist,” while Maher and Harris shot back that criticizing Islam “gets conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people,” a ploy that others have used to build on anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

During the exchange with Kristof and RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Affleck took the lead to slam Maher and Harris for defending their generalization of Islam. Harris stated, “We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where every criticism of the doctrine of Islam gets conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people.” Affleck asked, “Are you the person who understands the officially codified doctrine of Islam?”

To Maher’s idea of generalizing Islam, Affleck said, “It’s gross, it’s racist,” while Kristof added that the view of Muslims is “incomplete,” referring to the example of Malala Yousafzai, a teenager shot by fundamentalists, who is part of the larger peaceful Muslim movement. Harris panned both Affleck and Kristof’s responses saying that Islam is “the motherload of bad ideas” and that fundamentalists are not just the “fringe group” of practicing Muslims.

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The Moazzam Begg case shows how Muslims are criminalised

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Letter in the Guardian

On 1 October, Moazzam Begg was released after seven months in detention because of allegations arising from his time in Syria which included charitable and investigative work (Report, 2 October). Days before a much-delayed court hearing, all charges have been dropped. Begg has been a role-model and mentor to many, young and not so young, and this new period of detention has caused great distress among those who look to him for inspiration. The manner in which he has been targeted and detained – with, ultimately, no evidence being brought against him in an open court – will confirm the view that this is a concerted campaign of intimidation, designed to scare Muslim communities away from active engagement in public life. While we celebrate his release, we remain concerned that he has spent another lengthy period in detention because of laws that are fundamentally unjust.

We write to express our extreme concern about the use of allegations of terrorism and the arrest and detention of charity workers to slur and curtail the work of Muslim charities and organisations such as Cage, Interpal, Ummah Trust and HHUGS, including through closing bank accounts, lengthy investigations into charitable status and, at the extreme, the arrest and detention of high-profile campaigners.

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Oklahoma’s Muslim community questions their safety after threats

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Security plans are in place after vicious messages were left for Oklahoma Muslims, telling them to get out of Oklahoma and threatening to behead them.

CAIR, an organization that works to improve relations between Muslims and the rest of the community, received the disturbing messages.

One caller said: “That woman did nothing to that guy, did nothing to him and you hide like cowards. I’m buying a Qur’an, I`m going to publicly p*** on your s***, no good, f****** religion.”

Adam Soltani with CAIR says the caller was referring to the beheading that took place at Vaughn Foods in Moore. He says since that one random act, that had nothing to do with their religion, the calls and messages have been piling up.

Another anonymous caller said, “Get your a** out of Oklahoma or we’re going to behead the whole God d*** Muslim zombie nation.” This shocking voicemail prompted them to contact the FBI.

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Muslims target of hateful vandalism in Sydney’s south-west

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sydney arson attack

The owner of a pizza shop in Sydney’s southwest has had his car and restaurant set alight, while anti-Muslim graffiti was sprayed across the eatery’s walls.

Police are investigating a possible link between the incidents at the owner’s home and Mimi’s Pizza in Hammondville. Only a malfunctioning wick stopped the shop from being destroyed.

Neighbours report that the graffiti included slogans such as “F***en Muslims” and “You dogs go home”.

Police say arsonists set fire to the car, parked outside the pizza shop owner’s home, at about 2.30am this morning and they believe the same people may have attempted to set fire to the shop sometime before 6am.

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Oklahoma lawmaker John Bennett doubles down on anti-Muslim vitriol at tea party event

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John Bennett explains Qur'anIf it wasn’t clear already, it should be now. State Rep. John Bennett, R-Sallisaw, is not going to back down on his criticism of Muslims and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Speaking to about 25 members of the Muskogee Patriot Group at the town’s public library on Thursday, Bennett doubled down on statements he’s made that have garnered national attention in the last few weeks, covering a variety of topics but saving some especially vicious vitriol for CAIR.

Bennett told the tea party group that there’s “no difference between moderate Islam and extreme Islam” and said CAIR might have been lying to promote its pro-Muslim agenda when it denounced the actions of Alton Nolen, who is accused of beheading a woman in Moore last week.

CAIR’s and other Islamic groups’ denouncements of the beheading were acts of subversion, Bennett said. He showed attendees seven Quran verses he said he believes authorize Muslims to lie to nonbelievers if it promotes the “Muslim agenda.”

“They condemn acts against the innocent,” Bennett said. “(That’s the) key word. You’ve got to read between the lines. ‘Innocents’ are only those following Islam.”

Bennett was met with sharp criticism when his statements – calling Islam a cancer that needs to be cut out of America – were first broadcast in September. But he was also met with some support.

Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Dave Weston supported Bennett following the statements, and it was clear from his town hall meeting in Sallisaw last month as well as at Thursday’s meeting that Bennett’s message is one that resonates with some Oklahomans.

Bennett didn’t shy away from inflammatory comments Thursday. He said the “silent majority” of Muslims who have not commented on the beheading in Moore, as well as the terrorist acts of the Islamic State group, or ISIL, are “just like Germans” who joined the Nazis when the Nazis came into power. He said the “liberal media” was the No. 1 problem when it came to stopping the growth of Islam in America, and he said “limp-wristed liberal apologists” also have played a part in Islam’s rise here.

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UK soldier Ryan McGee admits making nail bomb

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ryan McGee EDLA serving soldier from Manchester charged with a terror offence has admitted making a nail bomb.

Ryan McGee, 19, was serving with the 5th Battalion The Rifles when he was detained in December at an Army base in Germany after the discovery of a suspicious device at a Salford house.

He also admitted a separate charge at the Old Bailey of possessing a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook on bombs.

McGee, of Mellor Street, Eccles, was bailed ahead of sentencing in November.

The Anarchist Cookbook includes instructions for the manufacture of explosives as well as for home-manufacturing of drugs.

McGee admitted possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terror and making explosives contrary to the Explosives Substance Act by making an Improvised Explosive Device.

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Canberra Muslim woman stopped wearing hijab for fear of being attacked

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nurcan BaranCanberra Muslim woman Nurcan Baran says she has stopped wearing her hijab for fear of being attacked.

On Thursday Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry approved new interim rules to force Muslim women who cover their faces to sit in a separate glass-enclosed public gallery in Federal Parliament. But Prime Minister Tony Abbott stepped in and asked Ms Bishop to reconsider the ruling.

Mrs Baran said the increasingly strident debate has stirred unease with Canberra’s Muslim community.

The 22-year-old mother and part-time law student at the University of Canberra began thinking about wearing a hijab at 13, but did not start wearing one until she was overseas in 2012 aged 19. The self-proclaimed “proud Muslim feminist” emphasised she chose to wear the hijab and was not forced.

“They say it is meant to stop men looking for you. It is not,” she said. “It is for that woman’s own modesty and I think instead of being viewed as a tool of oppression it needs to be viewed as a woman’s choice.”

But Mrs Baran said she chose to stop wearing the hijab in December 2013 because of negative treatment she was receiving in Canberra. She told 7.30 ACT she was worried she would be attacked while out with her daughter and felt forced to take off the hijab in order to feel safe.

She said there was no difference between those forcing women to cover up and those forcing women to uncover. “I don’t think men have the right to tell women how to dress whether you are Western or from the Middle East,” she said. “I think we really need to make it clear that they really don’t have that right.”

But despite her stance Mrs Baran made her own decision to not wear her hijab in Canberra. “I didn’t feel self confident. I didn’t want to go out. I didn’t want to take my daughter for walks,” she said. “I didn’t want to go back to uni, and I just kept on thinking to myself, ‘how can I become a lawyer and help people if I can’t even face the world?’ And that’s what I felt as a hijabi woman in Canberra.”

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