Halal meat is on every menu; sharia law is taking over; the niqab is undermining the nation. Ever noticed how often the same old stories keep appearing about Muslims in Britain? Here’s the truth about these and other media myths. Nesrine Malik writes.
Yearly Archives: 2014
Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 5‑11 May
Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 5‑11 May 2014
- Britain First fascists target Bradford mosques 11 May 2014
- EDL protest in Rotherham 11 May 2014
- Halal: not about food but fear of difference 11 May 2014
- Settlers desecrate West Bank mosque 11 May 2014
- Gove planning to abolish Muslim school inspectorates, Sunday Times reports 11 May 2014
- New York police recruit Muslims to be informers 11 May 2014
- ‘We have found Mayor Rahman to be fair, accessible and accountable’ –Tower Hamlets Citizens statement 10 May 2014
- BNP protest against ‘mosque plan’ meets opposition 10 May 2014
- ‘No Trojan Horse extremism links’ Birmingham teachers hear 10 May 2014
- Islamophobia: why do so many young men hate Muslim women? 10 May 2014
- Anti-UKIP protesters descend on Scotland rally 10 May 2014
- Tory MPs promote halal hysteria – Labour MP joins them 9 May 2014
- Yasir Qadhi on Boko Haram media coverage 9 May 2014
- Muslim woman called ‘Taliban’ during interview about anti-Muslim candidate 9 May 2014
- Vlaams Belang tries to boost election prospects with anti-Islam stunts 9 May 2014
- Six men in court over EDL violence outside Nuneaton pub 9 May 2014
- EDL member described as future killer by own mother 9 May 2014
- Unless you called Lord’s Resistance Army ‘Christianist’ stop calling Boko Haram ‘Islamist’ 8 May 2014
- Channel 4′s Muslim call to prayer is top in viewer complaints tally 8 May 2014
- Stand Up to UKIP holds protest against Farage in Edinburgh 8 May 2014
- The hateful views of UKIP candidate Magnus Nielsen 8 May 2014
- Daily Mail follows Sun in stoking halal hysteria 8 May 2014
- 5 in court after EDL protest in Thatcham 7 May 2014
- Nigel Farage: UKIP is not a racist party 7 May 2014
- Has Islam-bashing tarnished ‘tolerant Britain?’ 7 May 2014
- Sun exposes ‘halal secret’ of Pizza Express … except that it’s not a secret 7 May 2014
- Increased police presence for BNP anti-mosque demonstration in Hemel Hempstead 6 May 2014
- Report says Internet hate speech can lead to acts of violence 6 May 2014
- UKIP candidate Julia Reid distances herself from ‘ban Islam’ retweet 6 May 2014
- Dramatic new footage of Black Country mosque bomber’s terror training blasts released 6 May 2014
- ‘People grab our veils, call us terrorists and want us dead’: What it’s really like to be a Muslim woman in Britain 6 May 2014
- Nigel Farage to face protesters at Edinburgh rally 6 May 2014
- UK hysteria over ‘Islamist’ threat is fuelling race hate 6 May 2014
- Stand Up to UKIP holds protest against Farage 6 May 2014
- Australia’s far-right fringe groups must not be allowed to become mainstream 6 May 2014
- Fascists desecrate Meximieux mosque 5 May 2014
- Graffiti attack on Pont-de-Beauvoisin mosque 5 May 2014
Britain First fascists target Bradford mosques
Far right activists have targeted mosques in Bradford attempting to hand out Bibles and distribute leaflets accusing community elders of failing to stop grooming gangs.
It is believed members of Britain First, some wearing uniforms, staged the protests at 10 places of worship in the city centre. The group posted images of themselves on Facebook confronting members of the Asian community.
They also visited the office of Labour councillor Nazam Azam. Mr Azam said: “They have come to Bradford to cause residents to fear for their safety. As far as I understand they have tried to access mosques. They tried to hand out leaflets but I don’t know anyone who took anything.”
He added: “It is concerning and disturbing. We have a lot of good work going on in Bradford in terms of community cohesion and for people trying to disturb that the people of Bradford won’t fall for it.”
Mr Azam said the police had been called although West Yorkshire Police could not confirm the incidents on Sunday. It is believed around 10 people took part in the action.
EDL protest in Rotherham
Rotherham was brought to a standstill when hundreds of English Defence League protesters marched through the town.
Hundreds of people from the EDL marched through the town centre between 1pm and 3pm on Saturday, with another large group from Unite Against Fascism holding a counter-protest at the same time.
A huge police presence of around 1,000 officers from forces around the country outnumbered both groups and ensured the march took place largely peacefully. There were no arrests and police said the event saw ‘minimal disruption and no disorder’.
Barriers were set up around the town centre, with the opposing groups cordoned off from each other. The groups traded insults across the barriers but were kept well apart.
EDL members chanted songs mentioning Islam and Allah as they marched. They gathered in All Saints Square to listen to speakers who insisted the organisation is ‘patriotic’, rather than racist.
Halal: not about food but fear of difference
Indignation about animal welfare is masking something a lot more insidious, argues Elizabeth Day:
We are in the grip of a moral panic about Islam. Muslims have become, like single mothers or benefit scroungers before them, a totemic symbol of our nastiest fears. As with all forms of prejudice, it is insidious, lurking in the shadows like noxious gas. But it is there if you look for it, if you are attuned to the vocabulary.
The term “takeover” is used again and again – in Birmingham, for instance, where 25 schools are currently being investigated amid allegations of a “hardline Islamist plot” even though the leader of Birmingham City Council is on record as saying he believes no such plot exists. It is there when newspapers run snidely worded articles on Muhammad being a popular boy’s name and it is there when fears are whipped up of a “Muslim majority” existing by 2050.
We should not conflate one issue (the provenance of our meat) with something much more unpleasant (our fear of otherness). Because for all the professed concern around what it means to eat halal meat, there is a deeper, more menacing undertow to the national debate. And that is the most unpalatable thing of all.
Settlers desecrate West Bank mosque
A member of the Palestinian Legislative Council on Sunday denounced the desecration of a West Bank mosque by scores of Jewish settlers.
“Tens of settlers broke into the Mosque of Prophet Yunus in the town of Halhul in the south of the occupied West Bank in the early hours of Sunday and defiled it,” Mariam Saleh told Anadolu Agency.
“The desecration of the mosque happened under official protection from the Israeli army,” she said.
Gove planning to abolish Muslim school inspectorates, Sunday Times reports
Two Muslim school inspectorates face axe
By Richard Kerbaj and Sian Griffiths
TWO Muslim school inspectorates face being closed down as Michael Gove, the education secretary, expands his investigation into alleged efforts by Islamists to take over secular schools.
The Department for Education (DfE) is understood to be investigating the Association of Muslim Schools UK (AMS-UK) and the Bridge Schools Inspectorate (BSI) amid claims that some of their inspectors support fundamentalist Islamic beliefs.
BSI, established in 2008, is approved by the DfE to inspect privately funded Muslim and Christian faith schools and AMS-UK is approved to inspect religious classes at private Islamic schools.
New York police recruit Muslims to be informers
Beginning a few years after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, a squad of detectives, known as the Citywide Debriefing Team, has combed the city’s jails for immigrants – predominantly Muslims – who might be persuaded to become police informants, according to documents obtained by The New York Times, along with interviews with former members of the unit and senior police officials.
See also “New York police recruiting Muslim informants: NY Times”, Reuters, 11 May 2014
Update: See “CAIR asks DOJ to probe NYPD’s coercion of Muslim immigrants to become spies”, CAIR press release, 11 May 2014
‘We have found Mayor Rahman to be fair, accessible and accountable’ –Tower Hamlets Citizens statement
Letter to the office of Mayor Lutfur Rahman – 30th April 2014
Tower Hamlets Citizens Statement in response to Panorama programme on Tower Hamlets 31st March, and the decision by the Metropolitan Police on 17th April that there was ‘no case to answer’.
Statement made by Tower Hamlets Citizens well before electoral process for May 22nd; absolutely not intended as an endorsement of any candidate for Mayor.
BNP protest against ‘mosque plan’ meets opposition
A demonstration by the British National Party against speculative pre-application plans for a new mosque in Hemel Hempstead was countered by two other groups today.
The Unite Against Fascism group and a members of the local Muslim community staged oppositions to the protest in Barnacres Road, where it was suggested the former Nash Mills Methodist Church site could house a mosque in unofficial proposals leaked by Dacorum Borough Council last August.
The BNP presence was led by the party’s organiser for the eastern region Chris Livingstone, who is standing as a BNP candidate in the European elections on May 22.
A strong police presence was maintained throughout the demonstration, with each faction separated by barriers manned by officers, opposite and around The Denes shopping centre.