Author Archives: Bob Pitt

France criticised over discrimination against Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racial profiling and some politicians exploiting racial and xenophobic stereotypes persist in France despite progress in fighting discrimination, a Council of Europe report said Tuesday.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) issued its fourth report on France with positive comments on the country’s High Authority against Discrimination and for Equality (HALDE) for “its key and growing role in the fight against racism”.

However, “while there had been improvements in certain areas, some issues gave rise for concern, such as minorities’ perception of the police, prejudice against Muslims and the tone of the immigration debate,” said Nils Muiznieks, chair of ECRI, the Council’s independent human rights body.

Many racial acts go unreported and for those that are referred to authorities there is a low conviction rate, the report said. “The police frequently resort to racial profiling and take law enforcement decisions on the basis of racial, ethnic or religious stereotypes” rather than individual behaviour, it said.

In the political arena, the report noted that most politicians condemn openly racial comments and race-related acts, but that there are some who exploit the issue. In relation to immigration, “there is widespread suspicion that non-citizens engage in fraud to obtain residence permits and access to rights,” the report said.

Regarding Muslims, part of French society doubts their willingness and ability to “respect French values”. “The debate on the prohibition of the niqab (the face-covering veil) has increased feelings of discrimination among Muslims and may result in further excluding some Muslim women from society,” the report said about the government’s considering a ban on Muslim women wearing the full veil in public.

Problems of discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, nationality or ethnic origin persists in access to employment, education, housing, and goods and services, the report added.

Middle East Online, 16 June 2010

Germany’s ‘multi-culti’ football team

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sami KhediraWhen Sami Khedira and his Under-21 team‑mates held aloft the European Championship trophy last summer, after humbling England 4–0 in the final, they dreamed of changing the face of German football. Little did they know that their opportunity would come so quickly.

After Euro 2008, Joachim Löw, the Germany manager, accepted the need to “rejuvenate” a squad that had become too heavily seasoned in parts. He has done so in spectacular fashion. And once Löw had done with filleting his squad, the players he turned to were almost all from the next generation.

The youth of this new Germany, however, is only part of the story. The country has changed greatly over the past decade or so, with its society becoming more integrated, and Löw’s squad reflects what the tabloids like to call German “multi-culti”. Of the six players promoted from Horst Hrubesch’s U-21 champions, five are of immigrant backgrounds. Khedira’s father is Tunisian and Ozil is of Turkish descent. Jerome Boateng’s father is Ghanaian, Dennis Aogo’s is Nigerian while Marko Marin was born in Bosnia.

There remains a section of Germany’s support that struggles to come to terms with the multiculturalism, traditionalists who complain about some of the players not singing the national anthem. Ozil murmurs verses from the Koran when it plays. But Aogo says “people shouldn’t attach too much importance” to this. “I don’t sing the national anthem and I am still proud to play for Germany.”

Guardian, 18 June 2010

Paris: ‘pork sausage and booze’ party to go ahead at new venue

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Paris pork sausage partyFrench organizers of a so-called “pork sausage and booze” party in Paris – designed as a deliberate provocation against Muslims – will move it from a heavily Muslim neighborhood to the Arc de Triomphe on Friday.

The group, “Identity Block,” called the new venue “Plan B,” after Paris police banned their bash this week on grounds of maintaining public order.

Advertised on Facebook and receiving some 7,000 RSVPs, the party is billed as a “resistance to the Islamization of France.” It was initially planned to take place next to a mosque in the 18th district after Friday prayers, and on the same day as the English-Algerian World Cup soccer match.

The date holds meaning for the French: On June 18, 1940, Charles DeGaulle issued his famous call for the French to resist Nazi occupation in World War II.

“Identity Block” is an assortment of mostly French right-wing groups.

Today, the group sent out a press release, calling upon “all Parisians … and French” to meet at the Arc de Triomphe Friday to eat ham and drink grape juice, fly French flags, protest the police ban, and listen to speeches against “religious control of public space” in France – a reference to the majority Arab-Muslim Goutte d’Or neighborhood where the sausage and wine party was to be held.

Fadela Amara, a French federal minister of Algerian origin, calls the implicit protest against Muslims “hateful, racist, and xenophobic.”

The idea to gather at the Arc de Triomphe is described by Identity Block as symbolic, since it was where 2,000 schoolboys defied a Nazi ban on protest and marched against the occupying forces some 70 years ago.

Marine Le Pen, deputy leader of the right-wing National Front (FN) party, calls the ban a “capitulation” by authorities to Muslims. The conservative American Thinker website ran a blog notice titled “Creeping Sharia,” suggesting that concern by Paris city hall of a riot or casualties is a bending to Islamic law.

A more authentic comparison might be a neo-Nazi group holding a pork barbecue in front of a synagogue in a Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhood on Passover, then, when the city bans the event, calling the response “Creeping Torah.”

Robert Marquand in the Christian Science Monitor, 17 June 2010

Plastic bags placed over some spy cameras in Birmingham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bags are to be put over scores of surveillance cameras in parts of Birmingham with large Muslim populations, after local objections.

Safer Birmingham Partnerships (SBP) said 216 cameras were put up including covert ones, mainly in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook districts. The cameras were financed through a counter-terrorism fund, but the SBP said they would tackle all crime.

Councillor Salma Yaqoob said people had lost faith in the authorities. The Respect Party councillor for Sparkbrook said: “In terms of reassurance it’s going to take a lot more than plastic bags. The residents have lost faith with the authorities for their sneaky handling of the way they went about this and will not be reassured until they have been told the locations of the hidden cameras too.”

SBP said 72 cameras had been placed covertly and would not be covered by the plastic bags. It said 106 cameras were Automatic Number Plate Recognition devices that were purely trained on car registration plates at road level. SBP said 38 overt CCTV cameras had been installed as well, but none of the cameras would be used until after the consultation had been carried out.

The cameras were financed through the Association of Chief Police Officers’ (Acpo) Terrorism and Allied Matters (TAM).

BBC News, 17 June 2010

See also the Guardian, 17 June 2010

Update:  See Salma Yaqoob, “Police mislead public over spy cameras”, Press release, 18 June 2010

Police escort EDL supporters out of Whitechapel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police chiefs in London’s East End are today calling for calm in the community after minor clashes in Whitechapel last night believed to involve members of the English Defence League.

Tension has been high since the EDL planned to march next Sunday to Stepney’s Troxy venue where an Islamic conference was due to take place. The EDL called off its march, claiming “victory” after the Troxy cancelled the conference. But some of its supporters were alleged to have turned up at Whitechapel last night.

Tower Hamlets deputy Police Commander Colin Morgan said in a statement: “There are rumours of anti-Muslim activity. But there is a big difference between what is actually happening and what people say is happening. I would ask community leaders to do all they can to call for calm and for people not to believe rumours which have no basis in fact.”

Organisers of a counter anti-fascist rally at Stepney Green Park are going ahead on Sunday claiming the EDL is still a threat in the East End. About 20 EDL supporters were reported to have arrived at Whitechapel Underground station last night looking for a pub, but were spotted by market traders and Asian youths.

Eye-witness Glyn Robbins, one of the rally organisers, told the East London Advertiser: “This group can’t control its membership. They came to the East End to prove their prowess, which vindicates our position. Sunday’s rally must go ahead.”

Police turned up and escorted the men inside the pub back to the Underground station.

Deputy police commander Morgan’s statement continued: “Tensions were running high between 50 youths outside the pub and a group inside who they believed to be members of the English Defence League. Officers escorted the group back to Whitechapel station to prevent disorder.”

Police were called again at 8pm to reports of EDL supporters outside the East London Mosque in Whitechapel, but found no sign of them. Instead, there was a crowd of up to 700 people. One youth was arrested for possessing a hammer, Scotland Yard later confirmed.

East London Advertiser, 15 June 2010

Meanwhile, Jim Fitzpatrick MP has denounced Unite Against Fascism for going ahead with an anti-EDL demonstration on Sunday, accusing UAF of accusing the organisers of using the EDL for their own propaganda when the danger has passed. Fitzpatrick told the East London Advertiser:

“The EDL are not coming to the East End any more…. Yet ‘Unite Against Fascism’ is going ahead with its march that will do nothing for the community. At best it is causing concern in the community and at worst stirring up fear and anger. Why are they not trying to reassure the community? It is dangerous for them to use EDL as a stick to stir up the community.”

Supporters of Staten Island mosque launch Facebook page

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Midland Beach protest placardThe Midland Beach mosque controversy [see here and here] recently expanded to the pages of Facebook, when people identifying themselves as members of the Class of 2011 of Susan E. Wagner High School in Sea View created a group on the social networking site called “Supporters of New Mosque in Staten Island“, which by late this morning had grown to 151 members.

One of them, Zara, wrote that she cannot understand “why there is this fear, this hate toward an entire society and it is provoked blindly.”

“I did not create this group to call your neighborhood bigots or racists,” she wrote. “I don’t believe that’s true in any respect…. I grew up in that area. Now, my case may be somewhat different because I moved away before 9/11 and that’s when Islamophobia was born.”

Islam Allan, identified as one of the administrators of the group and wearing a headscarf in her Facebook photograph, responded to a message from a person named Johann Conrad, who wrote on Monday: “Go back to your own country. You don’t belong here. Just get out. We don’t want you here.”

Ms. Allan replied: “This IS my country. I was born here,” adding that a mosque is “a place of worship, just as a church or synagogue might be.”

SILive, 16 June 2010

Update:  See “Foes of Midland Beach mosque start rival Facebook page voicing their opposition”, SILive, 16 June 2010

Suspects in mosque desecration released

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police on Wednesday released from custody four youngsters who were arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in the desecration of a mosque in the northern village of Ibtin.

The 18-year-old yeshiva students are suspected of spray-painting “Up for demolition,” “Price tag,” and “War will break out in Judea and Samaria” on the mosque. Star of David signs were also sprayed on the building.

The suspects, who were ordered to keep away from the Ibtin area, may be placed under house arrest for the next five days or be taken to their yeshiva.

Police officials said the week-long investigation did not produce sufficient evidence to link the suspects to the crime.

Ynetnews, 16 June 2010

‘Honour killing over hijab gets life term in Canada’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thus the headline to a report that the father and brother of a young Canadian woman named Aqsa Parvez have been sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder in 2007.

The report begins: “Just days after a Punjab man was jailed for life in honour killing of his daughter-in-law, a Pakistani father, along with his son, here too faces life behind bars for honour killing of his young girl for her refusal to wear the hijab.”

But it seems clear that Aqsa Parvez’s tragic death did not in fact result from “her refusal to wear the hijab”. Though this has been the media spin put on her murder, it is a distortion.

The friend at whose house Aqsa was staying after leaving her own home stated that, at the time of Aqsa’s murder, her rejection of her father’s demand that she wear a headscarf was not a major cause of conflict between Aqsa and her family.

According to one report, the issue of the hijab had arisen in 2006 but had been resolved after Aqsa left home on an earlier occasion: “Upon her return, her mother took her shopping for Western clothes and she was allowed to attend school in non-traditional clothes.” Another report confirms that, following this dispute, Aqsa’s father “relented, and allowed her to wear urban-style jeans and T-shirts to school”.

The conflict would appear to have been a much broader one between a young woman who wanted to live a westernised lifestyle and culturally conservative male relatives who regarded her behaviour as an attack on the family’s honour. Such notions of honour are a feature of many backward rural societies across the world and are not associated with any particular faith.

So why was media so intent on depicting the hijab as the main motive for Aqsa’s killing? The reason is is not hard to identify. It was an attempt to pin the blame on Islam as part of an ongoing campaign against Muslims and multiculturalism.

Birmingham: EDL attack Palestine solidarity campaigners

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL attack Birmingham PSCFifteen members of the racist English Defence League (EDL) were forced to leave central Birmingham after attacking a Palestine Solidarity Campaign peace vigil last Saturday.

The vigil followed the Israeli attack and murder of peace activists on a convoy to Gaza. It reflected Birmingham’s diversity, involving black, white and Asian activists.

The EDL supporters chanted racist and Islamophobic abuse and attacked one of the stalls. They physically assaulted protesters and threatened further violence.

But demonstrators held their ground – and grew in size as members of the public joined in support. By the time the police arrived there were over 100 protesters standing up to the EDL, who were quickly removed.

Socialist Worker, 15 June 2010

Yasmin Qureshi calls on police to drop charges against anti-EDL demonstrators

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yasmin_QureshiBolton’s newest MP has accused Greater Manchester Police of heavy-handed tactics during March’s English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism rallies.

Now Yasmin Qureshi, who was elected as Bolton South East MP last month, is calling on GMP to drop charges against anti-fascist activists arrested on the day.

Ms Qureshi was on the UAF front line at the protest against the EDL’s rally in Victoria Square on March 20 and is leading the new national campaign calling on police not to prosecute left-wing protesters.

The newly formed Justice4Bolton campaign is arguing the use of conspiracy laws, rather than charges relating to specific incidents which would require greater evidence, “indicates a move towards de-legitimatising protests against the rise of fascism in the UK”.

Ms Qureshi said: “I did not see or hear any activity amongst the protesters that I would have described as violent disorder, though there were some police officers who, in my view, were being heavy-handed in some cases. I supported the aims of the protest against the English Defence League in Bolton and I was there.”

Justice4Bolton has already won the support of trade unions, anti-fascist organisations and influential MPs including former Northern Ireland and Wales Secretary Peter Hain.

Thousands of UAF and EDL demonstrators held counter-demonstrations in Victoria Square on March 20. Police made more than 70 arrests, with more than 50 of those UAF supporters. Among those arrested on the day were Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, and Rhetta Moran, joint secretary of Greater Manchester UAF.

Mr Hain said: “The UAF has worked very hard to get rid of the British National Party and the fascist threat and should be congratulated, not prosecuted.”

Bolton News, 16 June 2010

Update:  Cf. “Police deny claims of EDL support”, Bolton News, 17 June 2010