The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to host the inaugural meeting and formal launch tomorrow of a new Christian-Muslim Forum in the UK. The event coincides with the unveiling in London today of what is claimed to be Europe’s largest-ever exhibition to “combat the myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings of Islam” – headed up by the Muslim envoy who has been seeking the release of four Christian Peacemaker Teams activists in Iraq.
Author Archives: Bob Pitt
Muriel Gray on the dangers of Islamic education
“To conduct oneself properly as an adherent Muslim, one must obey the Koran and guidance of the prophet Muhammed. With regard to artistic endeavours, he was unambiguous about Allah’s will. It is haram (forbidden) for a Muslim to make a drawn or modelled representation of any animate living thing, as Allah’s creations must not be imitated by the hand of man. Trees, flowers and landscape are fine, say the scholars, but humans, birds and animals are out. It is also haram to make or listen to music for pleasure, or to dance for pleasure or artistic expression. It is haram to view filmed or theatrical images of entertainment or read ‘un-Islamic’ literature.”
Muriel Gray explains why a state-funded Catholic primary school in Glasgow, 90% of whose pupils are from Muslim families, should not be allowed to become a state-funded Muslim school.
Sunday Herald, 22 January 2006
Update: For Osama Saeed’s response, See Rolled Up Trousers, 23 January 2006
Dutch immigration restrictions draw fire
Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk’s recent anti-immigrant measures, including a rule to speak Dutch in public, drew fire from Muslim minority leaders as well as from her own party.
“Linking integration to speaking Dutch in the street is nothing but an attempt to turn a blind eye to certain realities on the ground,” Dris Boujoufi, the deputy chairman of the council of Muslim representatives in the Netherlands, told IslamOnline.net Sunday, January 22. “Immigrants of the second and third generations who were born, raised and taught in the Netherlands are yet unable to integrate though they speak Dutch.”
Verdonk told a meeting of her liberal VVD party on Saturday, January 21, that immigrants must comply with a national code of conduct by speaking Dutch in the street.
Her proposal drew immediate fire from some members of her own party. “I can’t see what would hurt the minister or others if I spoke Surinamese with a friend in the street?” asked Laetitia Griffith, a member of Amsterdam’s College of Aldermen which creates and maintains the city’s systems and policies jointly with the city council and mayor.
Interpal have no case to answer
Osama Saeed on the continuing campaign against Interpal.
Watching Jihad Watch
Yusuf Smith draws our attention to a new blog, Watching Jihad Watch, whose author recently tangled with Robert Spencer over the latter’s statement, as reported by Sara Rosenbaum in her St Petersburg Times article about anti-Muslim hate-sites, that he bans racist comments from Jihad Watch. WJW offers some examples of the repulsive bigotry that has appeared on Jihad Watch, and quotes the following passage from an article written by Jihad Watch president Hugh Fitzgerald:
“… not only should migration be stopped, but life can be made more difficult, if not by the government, then by private individuals, so that Moslems will be discouraged from remaining. What do I mean? I mean that we, as private citizens, do not have to hire Moslems, we do not have to buy their goods, or make their lives, economically, more rewarding. It may seem mean, and many of you may be offended by it, and I am perfectly aware that there are nice Moslems, that there are those who simply ignore the main tenets of Islam. But as a group, the Moslems are a threat to me and those I love. Even the innocent ones, merely by being here, swell Moslem political power.”
Gay Muslims object to negative Channel 4 portrayal
“Imaan, the support group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Muslims are featured in the Channel 4 documentary Gay Muslims, produced by Love Productions, which is being broadcast on Monday, 23rd January at 8.00pm.
“Imaan wish to make it clear that its participation in the documentary was NOT made in partnership or consultation with the group – the largest and longest established LGBT Muslim group in the UK and Europe. Indeed Imaan tried very hard to obtain editorial input but Love Productions refused. Instead they appeared more interested, from the outset, in casting gay Muslims in a negative and inaccurate light.
“Contrary to the angle of the documentary most of the LGBT Muslim community do not lead ‘tortuous, secret lives’ but are happy balanced individuals who are supported by a growing LGBT Muslim community and increasingly by the wider gay AND Muslim communities in this country and abroad.”
Imaan press release, 21 January 2006
And have Peter Tatchell and Outrage rallied to support Imaan on this issue? No, of course not – they’re more interested in staging stupid provocations like this.
More Islamophobic crap from Tribune
Tribune joins the witch-hunt against Adam Yosef. Deputy editor Barckley Sumner mainly restricts himself to parroting Outrage’s stupid press release portraying Adam Yosef as a violent racist homophobe. But Sumner goes further, suggesting that Adam Yosef’s NUJ card should be withdrawn. Yosef’s article on Birmingham Pride is of course entirely ignored, as it wouldn’t fit in with Sumner’s own bigotry. Unfortunately this is par for the course with Tribune. We have already drawn attention to the magazine’s recent disgraceful attack on the Muslim Association of Britain. Sumner and his friends appear intent on destroying any remaining credibility the Labour Party has among British Muslims.
Fascist predicted London bombings claim
Media coverage of the trial of fascist supremo Nick Griffin is not exactly helpful. The Times reports yesterday’s court proceedings under the headline “BNP chief predicted an Islamist attack on British city, court told”, the Telegraph article is headlined “BNP leader predicted attack a year before London bombs”, BBC News has “BNP boss ‘predicted bomb attacks'” and Channel 4 “BNP leader ‘predicted’ July bombings”.
Of course, it is true that the defence did make these claims at Leeds Crown Court. But in the aftermath of the Blair government’s participation in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq there was hardly anyone who didn’t predict that the UK would be subjected to reciprocal terrorist attacks. The effect of these headlines is to give the impression that the fascist leader possessed some unique insight into the situation.
The Nazis themselves are well pleased with the media coverage: “When Nick told a packed private meeting at Morley Town Hall that ‘sooner or later there’s going to be Islamic terrorists letting off bombs in major cities’ the number of people in that hall numbered about 120. Now tens of millions of newspaper readers, web viewers and radio listeners in the UK and beyond have heard this prophetic statement….”
BNP leader ‘claimed Qur’an allows rape of non-Muslims’
Secretly filmed tirades against Muslims and Asians by the leader of the British National party, Nick Griffin, were described to a jury yesterday, including claims that rape and paedophilia against non-believers were countenanced by the Qur’an.
At private party meetings, the Cambridge graduate who has immersed himself in far-right politics for nearly 30 years described parts of Britain as “multiracial hellholes” targeted by a supposed Asian Muslim plan for global conquest.
Films of his speeches in small West Yorkshire towns two years ago were broadcast by a BBC TV undercover team last summer, leading to police action against half-a-dozen BNP activists. Mr Griffin, 45, and former Leeds council candidate Mark Collett, 24, deny 12 charges of using words or behaviour intended or likely to stir up racial hatred.
Opening a two-week trial at Leeds crown court, Rodney Jameson QC, prosecuting, said Mr Griffin had focused on paedophile drug rape in a recruiting speech in Keighley in January 2004. The town had just seen a gang of British Asian youths jailed for violence, drug dealing and sexual assault on under-age girls.
Unaware that one of his new recruits at the Reservoir Tavern was undercover BBC reporter Jason Gwynne, the court heard that Mr Griffin told his audience: “These attacks are going to continue, because that is what the Qur’an says. The bastards that are in that gang, they are in prison so the public think it’s all over. Well it’s not. Because there’s more of them.
“Their ‘good book’ tells them that that’s acceptable. If you doubt it, go and buy a copy and you will find verse after verse saying you can take any woman you want as long as they’re not Muslim. These 18, 19 and 25-year-old Asian Muslims are seducing and raping white girls in this town right now.”
The witch-hunt against Adam Yosef
What with Outrage, the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association and (even further to the right) Flame Out all dedicated to attacking Muslims’ attitudes to LGBT rights, you might think that the market for gay Islamophobia was already a bit crowded. But the new year has brought us yet another organisation, the previously unheard-of Gay Action Media Watch.
GAMW launched itself on 5 January with a campaign against Adam Yosef, who writes for the Asian entertainment magazine Desi Xpress. In a statement posted on Indymedia and headed “Muslim journalist attacks Gays – please complain!“, GAMW objected to an article Yosef had written for Desi Xpress containing the following passage: “Hmmm… gay weddings… Gay people and commitment? I don’t think so… They’ll be shagg*ng the neighbours before they even cut the cake. Bad idea I’m afraid. Great way of evading tax though…” GAMW called for letters of protest to be sent to local papers in Birmingham where Desi Xpress is based, and for formal complaints to be made to the Press Complaints Commission.
On the face of it (allowing for the fact that we are dependent on an edited extract from Yosef’s article) this does look like a clear example of anti-gay stereotyping. However, it falls well short of “bigotry and hate against gay people eminating from the words of young Muslims”, which was how GAMW characterised Yosef’s remarks. Furthermore, as a contributor to Indymedia immediately pointed out, GAMW’s portrayal of Adam Yosef as a hate-filled homophobic bigot was rather undermined by the fact that he had posted an article on Indymedia in June 2005, headed “Pride – The Real Rainbow“, that offered a glowing review of Birmingham Pride. In the article, Yosef had written:
“I saw a lot of ordinary-looking people – that is, without elaborate costumes, gay and straight, people of all races and all ages – just relaxing, enjoying the weekend and having fun. I saw adults, children, families, couples and pets. I saw black and white and young and old alike. I saw a trustee of a major city mosque cheer with glee as the procession of dancers and drag queens paraded into the heart of Hurst Street. I saw Sikh men with beards and turbans browsing through the stalls and loving the atmosphere, I saw Muslim girls with hijabs shouting ‘Gay, Muslim and Proud’ as part of Asian lesbian project SAFRA, there were black and Asian youngsters, people of all backgrounds and origins, OAPs, students – heck, I even saw Darth Vader! … In all my experience of attending cultural or diverse festivals, Pride is the only event where I have really seen such a diverse range of people from so many social and ethnic backgrounds. To have streets crammed with so many different people all enjoying themselves and accepting each other is, to me, what Pride represents.”
As one commentator on the GAMW post observed: “If it wasn’t for the pride article, maybe I would say Adam Yosef is a little homophobic but it’s hard to once you read the article.” Others were equally critical of GAMW’s attack on Yosef. One commentator asked: “Of all the journo’s and celebrities that have recently said dodgy stuff about gay marriage why have you selected Adam Yosef?” Another agreed: “Yes, why Adam Yosef? Would attacking a non-Muslim NOT have been in keeping with the current political climate? Are you more likely to get press coverage if you attack a Muslim?”