Author Archives: Bob Pitt

French parliament to debate veil ban today

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France moves closer to banning the full-face veil today when its parliament begins debating a law that would outlaw the wearing of the burqa or the niqab anywhere in public. It is a measure that seems popular with the public. Polls suggest 70% back a ban.

The numbers that wear the full-face veil in France are tiny. Perhaps 2,000 and then the tourists from the Gulf, who like to shop in the luxury stores on the Champs Elysees.

The French government says this is not an argument about religion but about values. By adopting this legislation the French are insisting that those who live in France abide by their values. As the writers of the legislation say, hiding your face in public is “an offence to the nation’s values”. It violates the republican ideals of secularism and gender equality.

The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, said it was “a sign of debasement”. The Immigration Minister, Eric Besson, described the burqa as a “walking coffin”. The French Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, said Muslims who wear face coverings are “hijacking Islam” and provoking a “dark and sectarian image”.

Gavin Hewitt’s Europe, 6 July 2010

See also “French opposition to boycott vote on burqa ban”, AFP, 6 July 2010

Council calls on EDL to scrap planned protest in Dudley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

English Defence League Protest

Councillors are calling on the English Defence League (EDL) to scrap a planned protest in Dudley town centre. The proposed demonstration is set for Saturday July 17 and the authority has no powers in law to ban the event which it branded “a pointless waste of taxpayers’ money”.

A previous protest by the group in the town last April cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds for a massive operation involving large numbers of police officers and council workers. Dudley traders also paid a high price in lost business after Dudley town centre was closed for the day, which ended with ugly scenes when EDL marchers clashed with cops after breaking out of their designated protest area on Flood Street car park.

A council spokesperson said: “The EDL has opposed the former proposal for a mosque but the council has reiterated the fact that the authority and the Dudley Muslim Association have agreed to pursue an alternative site, making the EDL’s visit pointless. Council bosses have made it clear outside extremists can make no contribution to local decisions and reminded the EDL that the plans for a mosque on Hall Street are not currently being pursued.”

Dudley News, 6 July 2010

New Jersey: ‘progressive and multicultural’ town chooses Muslim mayor and Jewish deputy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

More than half a century ago, Teaneck, New Jersey, which sits in the shadow of New York City just across the Hudson River, became one of the first American communities to voluntarily integrate its public schools. Now, the town that residents describe as a “progressive and multicultural” suburb once again has forged a new path, selecting a practicing Muslim as mayor – and a devout Orthodox Jew to be his deputy.

“No where else is this possible,” said Mohammed Hameeduddin, Teaneck’s first Muslim mayor and one of only a handful of Muslims to lead cities across the country. “The opportunity to bring two communities together and break down stereotypes that have belittled our nation is both monumental and humbling.”

Teaneck’s non-partisan Township Council last week voted to appoint Hameeduddin and Adam Gussen, both current council members, to their respective posts, which they will hold for two years. Together, they will govern what is Bergen County’s second largest municipality and home to significant African American, Orthodox Jewish and Muslim populations.

ABC News, 6 July 2010

‘Swimming pool blacked out to appease Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims force pool cover upTown hall chiefs were yesterday accused of “political correctness gone stark-raving mad” for forcing pool users to swim in the gloom to protect Muslim women’s modesty. The bizarre council diktat is the latest example of bureaucrats taking an extreme decision to avoid upsetting a minority group.

Residents are outraged after council chiefs ordered the windows of their glass-panelled swimming pool to be blacked out after complaints were received from Muslim groups. That has meant all swimmers at Darlaston Leisure Centre in Walsall, West Midlands, have been forced to swim in a darkened, gloomy pool.

The centre won plaudits from architects for its “ultra-modern” design when it opened to the public 10 years ago. But now council staff have covered ground-level ­windows with opaque film at a cost of £1,400 following complaints, mainly from Muslims concerned that they might be spotted in their swimwear.

Regular users of the pool are furious that the tinted windows, installed a fortnight ago, have plunged the pool into gloom – and all in the name of political correctness.

Jean Merchant, from Wolverhampton, said: “Regular swimmers should boycott the pool for as long as the film is in place. It seems they are not bothered about what we find offensive, as long as the Muslim community is kept happy.”

Retired building surveyor John Ewart, 63, from Walsall, said: “I cannot believe this council has agreed to something so loony. The whole thing smacks of political correctness gone stark raving mad.”

Daily Express, 6 July 2010

Continue reading →

‘Islam is of the devil’ church stages protest against Islamic centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Florida anti-Islam protestA Gainesville church known for wearing its opinion on its shirts protested an Islamic Center on Monday.

The Dove World Outreach Center, which touts the saying “Islam is of the devil,” portrayed that message outside the Islamic Center of Gainesville at its protest, which lasted about two hours. Protesters said what they were doing is the role of Christians to bring their message to the public.

“They’re not going to change,” Pastor Wayne Sapp said of other churches. “Half of our message is how evil Islam is. The other half of our message is the only reason it has grown in the capacity that it has grown – it’s because the church is so cowardly, it will not stand up for simply what the Bible says, not an interpretation of the Bible, but what it says word for word.”

“How can something like this continue to go on?” Sapp said of Islam. “We have to stand up.”

Members of the Islamic Center referred to the group as a “30-member cult.” Channel 4 talked to a member of the Islamic Center on the phone, but he did not want to go on camera because he said he did not want to give the church any credibility. “There are only 30 of them, meaning they don’t have a lot of support,” the spokesperson said. “If they’re studying the word of Jesus, they’re way off.”

News4Jax, 5 July 2010

Conservative parliamentary candidate rejects Hollobone’s ‘burqa ban’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

I fear that some of the sweeping statements made on the subject of the niqab and the burqa are actually thinly veiled (no pun intended) expressions of anti-Muslim sentiment and curtail the freedom of women in their choice to dress as they wish, despite claiming the contrary view. In stating that banning the burqa or niqab will empower women, it actually does just the opposite by dictating to them what they can and cannot wear. Philip Hollobone MP, in his speech on the subject reported on ConHome this week, made such a contradictory assertion.

His view that the woman he encountered in the park dressed in full burqa did not want any normal human interaction with anyone else is pure speculation, as is the view that she wears the burqa because she finds our society objectionable. He said: “In my view and that of my constituents, the burqa is not an acceptable form of dress and banning it should be seriously considered”. Was the woman he met in the park not one of his constituents?

Susan Williams, who was the Conservative parliamentary candidate in the Bolton West constituency, at ConservativeHome, 3 July 2010

Rise of European far right fuels ‘new racism’ of religious victimisation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A rise in right-wing radicalism is fuelling the spread of xenophobia and extremist attitudes towards religious minorities in Europe, says Minority Rights Group International.

MRG’s flagship annual State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples report, themed for 2010 on religious minorities, was launched in Budapest, Hungary. It suggests that victimisation against religious groups is in many respects the “new racism”.

The report says that ultra right-wing parties, aiming to establish themselves in mainstream political arenas in Europe, justify their anti-immigration, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric by stoking fears that religious minorities and immigrants are a threat to modern societies.

“Successes in the 2009 European Parliamentary elections, and at the national parliamentary level, have allowed these populist right-wing parties to shift formerly far-right ideas, on immigration for example, into the mainstream,” says Carl Soderbergh, MRG’s Director of Policy and Communications.

The report details a sharp rise in Islamophobia in Europe in 2009.

In May 2009, ultra right-wing groups held an “anti-Islam” rally to oppose the building of a large new mosque in Cologne, Germany. When the authorities in Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen approved the country’s first purpose-built mosque, the extreme-right Danish People’s Party launched an anti-mosque campaign in September.

Following a campaign by the ultra-conservative Swiss People’s Party, a sizeable majority of Switzerland’s cantons backed a referendum in November 2009, which proposed a ban on the building of new minarets in mosques.

“MRG is deeply concerned about the infringement of religious freedom that the Swiss ban on minarets, and other European Islamophobic initiatives, supposes for the Muslim community. We urge European authorities to abide by their obligations under international law and protect their populations’ freedom to practice their religion and be free from discrimination,” added Soderbergh.

Ekklesia, 5 July 2010

See also ENGAGE, 2 July 2010

Far-right racists protest against HT in Sydney

Posted on by Bob Pitt

APP protest against HT

The stage appeared set for two opposed cultures to clash in Sydney’s ethnically mixed working-class suburb of Lidcombe yesterday. But if any outright antagonism had been going to happen between the Australian Protectionist Party and Hizb ut-Tahrir, police were determined not to allow it, keeping the groups at a distance from one another.

The APP met in a small park to express their need to “protect” the Australian way of life. Around the corner from Australian flag-waving protesters, Muslims from around Sydney and overseas gathered in a local conference hall to discuss the “Struggle For Islam in the West”, with the Hizb ut-Tahrir.

“Infidels ‘r’ us!” read one APP placard, as members marched past the conference centre. After regrouping in the park around the corner, the APP contingent mustered for another lap of the town centre and yelled “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Islam must go”and “No sharia law”.

Nick Folkes, the Sydney organiser for the APP, believes that the HT should be banned in Australia and thinks that practising sharia law should be illegal in Australia. “Sharia law is an archaic legal system that treats woman as second-class citizens,” he said. “We’re not asking them to change their skin colour or religion. But if they come here, they must reject sharia law.”

The Australian, 5 July 2010

Continue reading →

Hidden cameras in parts of Birmingham ‘will be removed’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hidden cameras in areas of Birmingham with large Muslim populations will be removed and any counter terrorism involvement stopped, police say.

A total of 218 cameras – 72 hidden – were put up in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook districts and paid for from a Home Office counter-terrorism fund. Residents said they were not consulted about it. Sharon Rowe, Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, apologised and said “mistakes had been made”.

The CCTV and number plate recognition cameras have not been switched on and officials involved promised full public consultation last month.

About 300 people attended a public meeting at the Bordesley Centre in the Sparkbrook area of the city on Sunday to discuss the issue. Senior police, council officers, politicians and civil liberty campaigners addressed the audience as well as campaigners fighting to get the cameras removed.

BBC News, 5 July 2010

See also “Covert spycam u-turn”, The Stirrer, 4 July 2010

And Birmingham Mail, 5 July 2010

The video above is of Salma Yaqoob’s speech at yesterday’s rally (via Socialist Unity). Other speeches can be viewed here.