Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Muslims can never conform to ‘our’ ways

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Ministers appear whimsically to be shifting from the multi-cultural society towards an integrated one. They are whistling in the dark if they think that will play well with the followers of Islam in our midst. Muslims are rooted in their faith and it governs the way they live. It is the only faith on Earth that persuades its followers to seek political power and impose a law – sharia – which shapes everyone’s style of life….  It is vain to say: ‘Well, if they come here, they must conform with British society and its easy ways’. Muslims will not do that. Their religion forbids it.”

Bill Deedes in the Daily Telegraph, 20 October 2006

United States stops entry of British Muslim leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kamal HelbawyThe United States barred a British Muslim leader from flying to New York from London on Thursday morning, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.

The department’s Customs and Border Protection section would not elaborate on why Kamal Helbawy, 67, a founding member of the Muslim Association of Britain, was told by airline staff to get off his flight shortly before it was due to leave London.

“The individual was inadmissible to enter the U.S.,” said spokeswoman Kelly Klundt. “I can’t speak specifically to this case as to why he was inadmissible.”

Helbawy was due to speak on a panel on the Muslim Brotherhood, organized by the Center on Law and Security, an independent think tank based at New York University.

Karen Greenberg, the executive director of the center, said Helbawy did not know why he had been stopped from traveling to the United States. ”According to him they didn’t tell him,” she said. ”What they told him was that basically he would have to go to the American Embassy first before he could come here.”

Reuters, 19 October 2006

Muslim student arrested for doing university project

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 20 year old Muslim student was arrested under Britain’s terrorism law for taking photographs in east London for his university project before being released without charge. Kamran Tariq said he was detained last week while wandering amongst other tourists, hoping to gain inspiration to complete an assignment for his architecture course.

“I was singled out for being a young Pakistani Muslim and I was humiliated,” said Tariq, who is in his final year at the capital’s Greenwich University. He said he was arrested by a troop of nine officers, bungled into a police car, strip-searched and questioned for hours on suspicion of terrorism. He said he was also fingerprinted and required to provide a DNA sample.

“I cannot put into words what I felt. I was confused, angry, upset and astounded that this was happening to me. I’ve never so much as had a parking ticket, let alone had any other dealings with criminal activity or the police,” the student said. “I was made to feel small and treated like a criminal – all for a piece of university coursework,” he said in a statement obtained by IRNA. Tariq believes he was victimised because he was a Muslim. “Other students have been taking photographs of the area and they have not had any problems,” he said.

The local police confirmed that he was arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack and was released without charge the same day without further action to be taken. “This was an isolated incident and our officers took the action they deemed to be appropriate,” a police spokesman was quoted saying by PA News.

IRNA, 18 October 2006

Warmongers play race card

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Warmongers Play Race CardBritain is facing a sustained attempt to whip up full-blooded racism. Each day government ministers are clamouring to appear on camera denouncing Muslims and demanding their neighbours and teachers spy on them.

Across the country communities are living in fear. From bitter experience they know that racist speeches by politicians quickly translate into murderous racist violence on the streets. Listen to what befell Hina’naz Ahmed, a student at Wolverhampton University, last week:

“As I was walking past a bus stop I was surrounded by about five youths, one of them a girl. They stood and waited for me then followed me down the street shouting abuse, telling me to take off my veil.

“They then repeatedly said that Straw has made it illegal so I had to take it off. They shouted ‘Jack Straw’ repeatedly. I think Straw has made racists think it’s OK to abuse people like me.”

Socialist Worker, 20 October 2006

Demonising Muslims must stop, says CPB

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Communist Party of Britain national membership organiser Geoff Bottoms told the party’s political committee on Wednesday evening that “new Labour ministers should stop demonising Britain’s Muslims.” He said that, instead, ministers should “start addressing the real causes of terrorism, which are rooted in the policies of British and US imperialism.”

Mr Bottoms added: “Jack Straw’s criticism of the full veil worn by a small minority of Muslims has nothing to do with women’s liberation, while Ruth Kelly’s threat to excommunicate Muslim organisations which criticise government foreign policy will do nothing to foster community cohesion,” adding that “her approach befits her membership of the ultra-right-wing Roman Catholic sect Opus Dei.”

The committee welcomed the stand taken by university vice-chancellors and students and lecturers’ unions against government plans for them to inform on Muslim and “Asian-looking” students to Special Branch.

Morning Star, 20 October 2006

Muslim staff banned from Paris airport

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Four Muslim baggage handlers are appealing against a decision to bar them from working at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

They say that the local government’s decision to revoke their security passes is evidence of anti-Muslim discrimination. A local government spokesman says the decision was based on an assessment of the terrorist risk. He denied the move was linked to the men’s religion.

Lawyers acting for the four men say that dozens of other Muslims who work at the airport have also been stripped of their security passes, leaving them unable to work.

The four men, who are of North African origin, say they were summoned by security officials for interviews concerning their employment in August. A few days later they were told that their airport passes, which gave them access to the area near runways, were being withdrawn.

A lawyer acting for the men said the baggage handlers were told they had been barred because they had “not shown that their behaviour was unlikely to violate airport security”.

As well as appealing against the local authority’s decision, the baggage handlers’ lawyers have submitted a criminal complaint for alleged discrimination against the men on the grounds that they are Muslims.

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Complaints of anti-terror police harassing Muslim communities

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Intelligence gathering operations by police in Tayside, aimed at preventing a future terrorist attack, have led to a deterioration in relations with Islamic communities, a leading Muslim organisation has warned.

The Muslim Association of Britain (Mab) said it had received numerous complaints over moves by Special Branch officers to contact university associations, businesses and members of the Islamic community, claiming that members of the public were being subjected to harassment.

It has now written to Tayside Police to lodge a formal complaint over the Special Branch Community Contact Unit (SBCCU), which was established in the wake of last year’s terrorist bombings in London to provide information on potential extremism.

The force has defended the measures, claiming they have led to closer community links and are likely to be taken up by other forces in Scotland.

Osama Saeed, Mab’s Scottish spokesman, said young Muslims had been approached by members of the unit and quizzed about their political views at their homes, workplaces and Islamic society meetings at Dundee and Abertay universities.

Plain-clothed officers had spoken to Muslim students at freshers stalls during the first week of university, asking them questions about their views on the conflict in Lebanon, he said: “Obviously, if people are talking about bombings or killing infidels, they would be reported to police. But it’s not clear what sort of other activities are supposed to be reported. Parents are concerned that their children are coming under the eye of the police.”

The Herald, 20 October 2006

Via Rolled Up Trousers

‘Racial abuse’ hurled at mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man has been arrested following reports that worshippers at a mosque on Tyneside were being racially abused.

Officers were called to the west end of Newcastle after it was reported that a man was shouting racial abuse at visitors to the building. A 38-year-old was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated harassment and is currently in custody assisting police with their inquiries. An officer suffered minor injuries to his leg during the incident.

Anyone with any information or who witnessed the incident, which took place in the early hours of Thursday, is asked to contact police.

BBC News, 19 October 2006

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