Yearly Archives: 2014

Quebec’s politicians present spineless spectacle over ‘charter of values’ debate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Liberal leader Philippe Couillard migrated from saying the Charter was unnecessary and would pass “over my dead body” all the way to stipulating what “must be included in the Charter” in order to “affirm [the] values of the host society.” (For some reason this includes a ban on public sector workers wearing niqabs and burkas because they cover the face, and chadors despite the fact they don’t.) Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault’s “moderate” compromise proposal would still ban teachers from wearing religious symbols. The hard-left Québec Solidaire is the acme of tolerance, drawing the line on such restrictions at judges and police officers — but it only has two MNAs and 8% support in the latest Léger Marketing poll, published Jan. 20. (After QS MNA Amir Khadir was recently photographed in discussion with Muslims wearing hijabs, the pro-labour, pro-sovereignty, pro-charter group SPQ Libre stridently accused him of cuddling up to fundamentalists.)

Chris Selley argues that even if the Parti Québécois gets its way and manages to impose the so-called secularism charter it may well face defiance over the actual implementation of the proposed bans. In the meantime, rival political parties of left and right have demonstrated a spineless failure to take a stand against the PQ on this issue.

National Post, 7 February 2014

MYH study of young British Muslims and dissent

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British By DissentStand up and be counted: Young British Muslims are voicing their dissent, and that’s a good thing

The Muslim Youth Helpline (MYH) has today published a new report, British by Dissent, which explores the meaning of dissent to young British Muslims keeping in mind the underlying question of their integration within the larger British society.

Authored by Sughra Ahmed and Naved Siddiqi, it takes a look at how young British Muslims respond to social, economic, religious and public policy debates through various manifestations of dissent.

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Ukip MEP who supported Muslim code of conduct urged halal slaughter ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gerard Batten website

A Ukip MEP who is under fire over his remarks about Islam also suggested banning halal and kosher slaughter of animals and outlawing the legal recognition of Islamic banking.

In 2011 Gerard Batten was the author of a four-page paper entitled “Confidential draft – Dismantling Multiculturalism”, which was billed as a policy discussion document with “suggested policies that could be adopted by political parties and governments”. It was sent to members of Christian Concern, a group that believes that abortion should be illegal and homosexuality is a sin. Batten said he held a meeting with them and sent a document to some of their members.

The paper claims that multiculturalism has failed and offers a doom-laden warning about the threat of radical Muslims. “Islamic fundamentalism is the cuckoo in the western multicultural nest. We can either address it now or be destroyed by it in the course of time,” he wrote.

A future government should also ban the religious slaughter of animals, he suggests. “Repeal the act of parliament that gives exception for ritual slaughter for religious reasons. These are outmoded and barbaric practices that have no place in the 21st century or in the light of humane animal welfare policies,” he wrote. Batten also suggested that Ukip might consider dropping any laws that recognise Islamic banking: “Repeal the Act (???) that gives official recognition to Islamic banking.” There are no references to Islamic finance in UK legislation, according to the Treasury.

Guardian, 5 February 2014

Drunken recluse threatened to bomb a mosque and wanted to see Muslims ‘hanging in the street’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A drunken recluse who threatened to bomb a mosque and who wanted Muslims to “hang in the street”, has today (Wednesday February 5) been jailed for 12 months.

Former warehouseman Nigel Flanaghan, 52, of Wharley Hook, Harlow, had drunk three litres of vodka before he rang 999 from Bush Fair at 4.30pm on January 8 this year. Chelmsford Crown Court heard Flanaghan told the operator in the Essex Police control room he had bullets and “he was going to put a bomb in a mosque”. Richard Stevens, prosecuting, told the court that during the call he referred to the killing of Private Lee Rigby in Woolwich and told the operator: “I want to see Muslims hanging in the street and kick the **** out of them”.

Flanaghan, who claimed he used to be an Army chef, pleaded guilty to communicating false information with intent to cause a false belief that a bomb was present at a location in Harlow. He denied a second offence of religiously aggravated fear of violence and the judge formally entered a not guilty verdict.

The prosecution said uniformed officers arrived at Bush Fair while Flanaghan was still on his mobile talking to the control room. He was taken into custody and repeated his anti-Muslim comments. He said: “I hate all them Muslims. I just want to bomb the *****”. He also stated: “I am gonna bomb all their cars” and “I wanna kill a Muslim”.

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Tory MP says Ukip politician’s call for Muslim code of conduct is frightening

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Halfon CFI & HJSGerard Batten, the senior Ukip politician who called for Muslims to sign a code of conduct, has been accused of taking an “unbelievably sinister” position that is comparable to asking members of the faith to wear a yellow star.

Robert Halfon, a Conservative MP, called on the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, to sack Batten for his comments, after it emerged the Ukip MEP had helped write a “charter of Muslim understanding”. The document calls on Muslims to sign a declaration rejecting violence and accepting the need to modify the Qur’an.

Halfon, who is Jewish and has spoken out repeatedly against Islamic extremism, told the Guardian he considered Batten’s views “unbelievably sinister” and “frightening”. He tweeted: “Big difference btwn lawful Muslims & extreme Islamists. UKIP MEP Batten’s statement a 1st step to wearing a Yellow Star.”

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Right-wing blogger ‘exposes’ sinister Muslim immigration plot in Coke’s Super Bowl ad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Coca Cola Super Bowl adCoca Cola’s one-minute, multilingual Super Bowl ad was apparently a lot of things to many people. To some, it was an insult to the United States and the English language, while to others it was a tribute to American diversity or a highly effective marketing tool.

But to former Hollywood agent Pat Dollard, the ad “exposed” a “stealth” appeal for immigration amnesty by its shadowy Muslim chief executive officer. “Coca Cola has been on a major amnesty push for at least a year in the hopes that it can obtain cheap labor,” Dollard wrote on his self-titled blog. “And because its CEO Muhtar Kent is a Muslim who was raised in places like Iran and Indonesia, perhaps for even more sinister reasons.”

The stage thus set, the documentary filmmaker and Breitbart correspondent argues that the ad was “designed to influence public opinion.” Perhaps recognizing that every paid and unpaid advertisement – whether they air on the most-watched TV program in history or overnight on some obscure local channel – is intended to influence the public, Dollard attempts to tie Coke’s ad into a broader conspiracy.

“Muhtar is engaging in the amnesty war just like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is,” Dollard warns. “And I’d be curious to know just how much of his salary and Coke’s profits go to Muslim ‘charities’ that are really fronts for terrorist organizations, as most Muslim ‘charities’ are.”

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Why Sochi has no mosques

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SochiRussian president Vladimir Putin calls Sochi, site of February’s Winter Olympics, “the biggest construction site on the planet,” and for good reason.

Since being awarded the games in 2007, the sub-tropical Black Sea city has built 442 miles of fiber-optic cables, 200 miles of roads, 55 bridges, 13 train stations, nine hotels for media outlets, six post offices, five schools, a new airport, a $265 million ski jump, a bobsled track, a ski course, two Olympic villages, an 815-acre floating archipelago, and a partridge in a pear tree.

But one item on local residents’ wish list was met with a pocket veto—a request to build a mosque for Sochi’s 20,000 Muslim residents, many of whom have migrated to the city over the last decade to take jobs building the Olympic facilities.

The mosque issue has long been a sore spot in Sochi, where Muslim leaders have been pushing for a new place to worship since 1996. “I’m so tired of writing letters – whole files – it just drags on and on,” a Muslim organizer told the Norwegian news organization Forum 18 in 2006. One decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, the city’s Muslims were still holding religious ceremonies in cramped basements.

In a 2009 visit to Moscow’s Cathedral Mosque, the nation’s largest, then-president Dmitry Medvedev was asked by the head of the Russian Mufties Council if would support a Sochi mosque project. Medvedev said yes. But in the years since, talks between Muslim leaders and the city government have largely fizzled.

But city leaders, such as deputy mayor Anatoli Rykov, have argued that there’s already a mosque nearby – 50 miles outside the city in the mountain village of Tkhagapsh, population 180. Tkhagapsh is 2 hours and 27 minutes by car from downtown Sochi, and the city’s brand new light rail line, hubbed at the country’s newest, largest train station, doesn’t go there. The mosque is a one-room wood-frame building.

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New Jersey woman says bosses ordered her to remove hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Elmwood Park woman claims she faced religious discrimination at her job at a Saddle Brook factory when her bosses ordered her to remove her hijab, or head scarf.

Naima Mnasri, who is Muslim, filed a complaint late in January with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mnasri said she was ordered to remove her hijab at her second day of work on Jan. 17 while she was awaiting her day’s assignment at Paradigm Packaging, which makes plastic bottles for vitamins and medications.

In the complaint, she alleged that a supervisor and floor manager “singled her out” and told her she had to remove the head scarf to work there, both for safety reasons and because no religious symbols were permitted at the factory. Mnasri contested that the hijab, which covers her head, neck and chest, was part of her religious observance and that she had the right under the law to wear one. She left the job that day over the incident, she said.

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Florida girl attacked after wearing hijab to school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zahrah HabibullaA Florida girl said she has been verbally and physically assaulted because she wears a hijab, or head scarf, to school.

Zahrah Habibulla, 14, said she didn’t have problems at school with other children until she started wearing her hijab on Dec. 14. The Polk County teen said she wears the hijab for religious reasons. “I’ve been bullied in school,” she said. “I had verbal assaults, physical assaults.”

Each time the teen was attacked, she told her mother, who then called the principal of Ridge Community High School. Zahrah’s parents told WESH 2 News in an exclusive interview that they want something done before their daughter is hurt. “It breaks my heart. I don’t want to see that,” said Zameena Habibulla. “I’m hoping for a safer school for her. Every day she goes to school I’ve got fear.”

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Ukip MEP says British Muslims should sign charter rejecting violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gerard BattenA Ukip MEP believes that British Muslims should sign a special code of conduct and warns that it was a big mistake for Europe to allow “an explosion of mosques across their land”.

Gerard Batten, who represents London and is member of the party’s executive, told the Guardian on Tuesday that he stood by a “charter of Muslim understanding“, which he commissioned in 2006. The document asks Muslims to sign a declaration rejecting violence and says parts of the Qur’an that promote “violent physical Jihad” should be regarded as “inapplicable, invalid and non-Islamic”.

Critics said his comments represent the “ugliest side of Ukip” and “overlap with the far-right”, in spite of the efforts of party leader Nigel Farage to create a disciplined election machine ahead of the European elections.

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