Author Archives: Bob Pitt

‘Fury as BA says it would allow Muslim veil but not cross’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“British Airways has been accused of appalling double standards after admitting Muslim staff may be allowed to wear veils – just weeks after it sent a Christian home for wearing a cross. Check-in worker Nadia Eweida has been on unpaid leave for a month after the airline banned her from wearing her tiny cross on a necklace over her uniform…. She demanded to know why she had to hide her faith from the public when Muslims and Sikhs can openly display theirs by wearing hijabs, turbans, and possibly a full-face veil.”

Daily Mail, 26 October 2006

Of course, the answer is that Muslim women who wear the hijab or Sikh men who wear a turban do so because they believe it is a requirement of their faith. So far as I know, no Christian denomination requires its adherents to display a cross.

Nevertheless, BA’s stupidity in denying Nadia Eweida the right to do so has simply opened the door for racists in the right-wing press to take up the refrain about favours being granted to minority ethno-religious groups that are supposedly denied to the white Christian majority.

Media ‘bullied’ into not discussing Islam, according to Mad Mel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

madmel“The head of Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, was one of the first in the governing and quangocrat class to sound the alarm over multiculturalism some fourteen months ago when he warned that Britain was ‘sleepwalking to segregation’. He has also said that mass immigration is changing the face of Britain and that Muslims wanting to live under Sharia law should leave the UK….

“But now, Phillips’s position appears to have shifted. Last weekend, he said he was disconcerted that the debate about the veil seemed ‘to have turned into something really quite ugly’ and descended into ‘bullying’. He told BBC One’s ‘Sunday AM’ show: ‘I, this morning, really would not want to be a British Muslim because what should have been a proper conversation between all kinds of British people seems to have turned into a trial of one particular community, and that cannot be right.’

“Ugly? Bullying? ‘A trial of one particular community’? Surely, it’s those who draw attention to Islamic extremism who are mostly on the receiving end of ugly bullying. Any mention of ‘Islamic terrorism’ produces instantaneous denunciation as an ‘Islamophobe’, racist, bigot and all the rest of it – backed up by the implicit threat of violence, a state of affairs which started with the fatwa against the life of Salman Rushdie. As a result, the British media are now so cowed and intimidated they refuse to publish much vital discussion about Islam, to the terrible detriment of free and vital debate.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 24 October 2006

Regular readers of this site will of course be well aware of how “intimidated” the British media has been when it comes to attacking Islam and Muslims, particularly in recent weeks during the outburst of racist hysteria provoked and legitimised by Jack Straw’s comments on the veil.

Rowan Williams capitulates to Islamist reaction, Leo McKinstry claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Church of England used to be known as the Tory Party at prayer. Today it is the liberal establishment on its knees. Terrified of giving offence to any minority cause, obsessed with Marxist notions about race and wealth, its leadership has all but given up as a serious force for Christianity.

“Rather than standing up for the faith that built this country, Anglican leaders prattle on about Islamophobia and multiculturalism in a spirit of hand-wringing self-abasement, always demanding that our national traditions be subverted or abandoned in order to accommodate other religions, especially Islam…. Despite the threat of Muslim terrorism since 9/11, which is primarily directed against Judaeo-Christian civilisation, Dr Williams has consistently refused to attack Islamic fundamentalism….”

Leo McKinstry has a go at the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Daily Express, 25 October 2006

McKinstry adds: “The veil is a mark of oppression against women, a reflection of misogynistic determination to keep them isolated from the mainstream of society, as senior Labour figures like Jack Straw and Harriet Harman have pointed out, showing far more moral bravery than Dr Williams has ever done.”

Unite against Islamophobia in Glasgow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Glasgow demoAround 300 people rallied in Glasgow’s George Square last Saturday to unite against Islamophobia and protest at the wave of racist attacks on Muslims since Jack Straw’s comments about the veil earlier this month.

Glasgow Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain organised the protest at short notice following a brutal assault on an imam at a Glasgow mosque.

It attracted a broad turnout, including many young Muslim women and families. Syma Ismail and her friend Nailah Din are students at Dundee University who had travelled down for the protest. “We’re standing against Islamophobia,” said Nailah. “Jack Straw started this. We’re supposed to have freedom of speech and freedom of expression. If Muslim women want to wear the veil, why shouldn’t they be allowed to?”

Many non-Muslims were also at the rally to show solidarity. “The issue is racism,” said Barrie Levine from Scottish Jews for a Just Peace. “It is important that Muslims and non-Muslims stand shoulder to shoulder against Islamophobia.”

Socialist Worker, 28 October 2006

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Birmingham University dons apologised to the Muslim students who were elected to the students union but prevented from taking office. The 1990 Trust were among those supporting the campaign.

The majority of students voted into leadership positions in 2004 were victims of religious discrimination after the university annulled the vote. All 14 Muslims students were accused of benefiting from election fraud, allegations the university now admit were untrue.

The university made the apology as part of a legal settlement. The higher education institution accepted that there had been no slating or intimidation ahead of the vote.

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Birmingham University apologises to Muslim students

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Birmingham University dons apologised to the Muslim students who were elected to the students union but prevented from taking office. The 1990 Trust were among those supporting the campaign.

The majority of students voted into leadership positions in 2004 were victims of religious discrimination after the university annulled the vote. All 14 Muslims students were accused of benefiting from election fraud, allegations the university now admit were untrue.

The university made the apology as part of a legal settlement. The higher education institution accepted that there had been no slating or intimidation ahead of the vote.

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From demonisation to empowerment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Livingstone and Bari“A bold attempt to shift the ‘Muslim debate’ away from media demonisation was made today. The London Mayor Ken Livingstone launched a new report aimed at dismantling barriers of discrimination faced by Muslims. Standing alongside Dr Muhammad Bari, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, Livingstone attacked the ‘breathtaking verbiage’ being pumped out daily by the national press.

“The report made grim reading. Muslims suffer the worst education failure rates, huge barriers to employment, bad housing and chronic political under-representation. Livingstone said the real problem was not Muslims wanting to be separate, but instead unprecedented levels of discrimination preventing them from getting on in society.”

BLINK news report, 24 October 2006

See also Guardian, 24 October 2006 and  GLA press release, 24 October 2006

Yet another ‘Ban the Veil’ headline in the Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Schools Told Ban the VeilA city with one of the country’s largest Muslim populations is to ask schools to ban veils in the classroom.

Education leaders yesterday confirmed that they are drawing up guidelines stating that both teachers and pupils must not wear them during lessons. The school chiefs claim that veils – called niqabs – could stop teachers identifying troublesome children.

They also fear that they could even lead to health and safety problems in Bradford, where around 15 per cent of the 470,000 population are Muslim. Spokesman Anthony Mugan said: “We would advise against the wearing of veils in schools because of reasons which will be listed in new guidelines.

“These will include the problems they could cause in identifying pupils, possible problems with communication and health and safety issues. However, it is up to individual schools to make the final decision as it is with the schools’ uniform policies.”

The new guidelines are being hammered out between Bradford City Council and a private contractor, Education Bradford, which runs the West Yorkshire city’s schools.

Bradford is the neighbouring local authority to Kirklees, where teaching assistant Aishah Azmi was suspended from a school in Dewsbury for refusing to remove her veil in class.

The move comes after a Daily Express telephone poll in which more than 99 per cent of readers supported the call for Britain to follow the lead of many Muslim countries, including Turkey and Egypt, and ban the veil.

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