Author Archives: Bob Pitt

MCB criticises Straw’s veil comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Straw’s comments play into the hands of the intolerant

The Muslim Council of Britain is concerned that the comments made yesterday by such a high-profile figure as Jack Straw may play into the hands of those who are intolerant of Muslims and Islam. There may be a difference of opinion on niqab (face-veil), but we have to respect a woman’s right to choose to adopt it. Mr Straw’s comments have the potential of further undermining civil liberties in our country, which appear to be gradually eroding in the aftermath of the terrible atrocities of July last year.

“There can be no doubt that we are already witnessing an increasingly bigoted anti-Muslim climate being fostered in Britain. Recent weeks have witnessed several arson attacks against mosques and assaults on Muslim individuals around the country. Jack Straw’s comments will hardly help,” said Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

MCB press release, 6 October 2006

Demonising Islam and Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Editor of The Muslim News, Ahmed J Versi, expressed alarm Friday about a new pernicious wave of provocative attacks from both politicians and religious leaders to vilify Islam. “In the last few months, the discourse has changed and it became an open season to demonise Islam,” he says.

Muslim News, 6 October 2006

The Islamic Human Rights Commission is also alarmed at the recent upsurge in anti-Muslim attacks and Islamophobia which have coincided with the month of Ramadan.

IHRC press release, 5 October 2006

Blaming the veil is wrong

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Why oh why can’t we Muslims just take some constructive criticism for a change? We live in ghettos, we can’t accept that terrorism is our fault, our Mosques are recruiting centres for jihadis and now Jack Straw has ‘sensibly’ pointed out that women who cover their faces are a hindrance to social cohesion, we’re up in arms again … ”

Rajnaara Akhtar of Protect-Hijab at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 6 October 2006

See also Protect-Hijab statement, 5 October 2006

Guardian blogger revolted by veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Jack Straw says that he is made to ‘feel uncomfortable’ by women wearing a full veil. I feel uncomfortable too and have been wondering about the nature of that discomfort and what I should do about it. When I walk down the street in London, or in Bristol where I live, and see a woman covered head to toe, I not only feel uncomfortable; I feel a physical sense of revulsion.”

Sue Blackmore at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 6 October 2006

Mike Marqusee takes a different line:

“Like Jack Straw, I find it awkward to talk with women who veil their faces. Unlike Jack Straw, I don’t assume that the onus is on them to relieve me of my discomfort, or that this discomfort is inevitable and entrenched, or that it betokens an unbridgeable cultural gap or irreconcilable social difference…. Speaking personally, the people I feel most uncomfortable talking with are perma-tanned politicians in expensive, perfectly pressed suits with a record of shameless mendacity. Jack Straw’s complicity in the lies that led to the invasion and occupation of Iraq makes him responsible for divisions both domestic and foreign of far greater consequence, far greater menace to us all, than any woman walking the streets of Blackburn with her face veiled.”

Comment is Free, 6 October 2006

The bomb factory you won’t hear about

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Police officers raided a home in Lancashire on Monday night and uncovered a huge cache of chemicals used to make explosives. Officers say it is the largest haul of such chemicals ever found in this country. One man has already appeared in front of Burnley magistrates charged under the Explosives Substances Act 1883. Another man has also been charged after a raid on his house uncovered rocket launcher and a nuclear biological suit.

“You’d have thought this would be national front page news, wouldn’t you? After all the hype, at last we have solid evidence of terrorists attempting to perpetrate a murderous outrage on the population – prosecutors say the pair had ‘some kind of master plan’.

“Except, of course, that the men charged are not Asian Islamists, but white fascists. Robert Cottage, who has been charged for the explosives haul, stood for the BNP in Colne at the last elections.”

Lenin’s Tomb, 6 October 2006

See Lancashire Evening Telegraph, 4 October 2006 and Pendle Today, 5 October 2006.

Update:  See also Socialist Worker, 7 October 2006

Jack Straw: Muslim women ‘should discard veils completely’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Take Off Your VeilCabinet Minister Jack Straw today waded further into the row over his call for Muslim women to remove their veils by saying he would like the garments to be discarded altogether.

The former Foreign Secretary sparked controversy when he revealed that he asks female visitors to his constituency surgery to uncover their faces, to improve “community relations”. But asked on the BBC if he would rather the veils be discarded completely, Mr Straw said: “Yes. It needs to be made clear I am not talking about being prescriptive but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather.”

Last night, Muslim leaders in the Commons Leader’s Blackburn constituency said many Muslim women would find his comments, originally made in his local newspaper, “offensive and disturbing” and Respect MP George Galloway demanded his resignation. But Mr Straw said the increasing trend towards covering facial features was “bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult”.

Associated Press, 6 October 2006

Straw’s Lancashire Telegraph article is reprinted in the Guardian, 6 October 2006

Petrol bomb attack on Muslim dairy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Medina DairyA Muslim-owned dairy has been targeted by youths over three nights in a campaign of harassment culminating in a petrol bombing, a worker said.

The Medina in Windsor, Berkshire, has suffered at the hands of local youths who have been targeting staff for the past three nights, the unnamed worker claimed. He said the youths would gather in gangs of up to 30 and throw stones and hurl abuse at staff working at the dairy late at night.

Police have been patrolling the area since Monday when the attacks started, he said. But on Wednesday night an attacker riding a motorbike threw a home-made petrol bomb at the dairy’s perimeter wall. The worker told the Press Association that police later found a stash of the bombs hidden around the corner from the firm, which is located on an industrial estate outside the town.

He said that workers had often had trouble with local youths who would target the company, but that things had escalated in the last three days. “We’ve had trouble before but never like this. The police always come but the youths only live round the corner so they know when the police have gone and that’s why they attack us.”

He said that a skeleton staff of just five male workers ran the dairy in the evenings and it was those workers who were bearing the brunt of the attacks, which usually occur after 10pm.

Dairy owner Sardar Hussain, 46, was not available to comment on the attacks. The businessman has recently been reported as saying that the area is in desperate need for a place for Muslim worship.

Press Association, 5 October 2006

See also BBC News, 5 October 2006

Reporting for Channel 4 News, Alex Thomson stated: “The fact that a small industrial plant in a largely prosperous town in the Home Counties can ignite such tension tells us much about Islam in Britain today.” A more appropriate comment, surely, would be that it tells us much about anti-Muslim bigotry in Britain today.

Islamophobia, panic and public media

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Panic. That’s the operating system of the war on terror. Panic is produced and mobilized. The current outbreak of Islamophobia has distinct visual markers in the commercial mass media, visually shaping panic.”

Patricia R. Zimmermann analyses the visual presentation of the Pope Benedict controversy on US television, and the role of alternative media in countering the CNN and Fox News picture of the Muslim world.

MediaChannel, 4 October 2006