Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer leads bigots in protest against Staten Island mosque and community centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spencer Staten Island

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A meeting about a controversial plan for the Muslim American Society to build a mosque in Midland Beach ended the same way it began: with tension, anger and even hostility.

The two-hour affair, organized by the Midland Beach Civic Association, was intended for members of the community to ask questions about MAS and determine whether the mosque would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. It was held last night at the Olympia Activity Center, which was filled to its 384-person capacity five minutes before the meeting was to start, and no one else was allowed in.

The controversy began when residents learned of a plan by St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church to sell its empty former convent to MAS, which planned to convert it to a mosque and community center with after-school programs for children.

During the meeting, people grilled three members of the board of the MAS Brooklyn and Staten Island chapter about their views on terrorism and religion, the first question coming from Robert Spencer of jihadwatch.org. “Do you denounce Hamas and Hizballah?,” he asked repeatedly.

At one point, a veteran from Afghanistan challenged both sides. “Will you work to the benefit of the community?” Bill Finnegan asked MAS. “Yes, absolutely,” came the response.

“And, to the community, will you work cohesively with the new members for the betterment of the community?” At that point, the crowd screamed “no!” while hissing and booing.

Toward the end of the meeting, representatives from the civic association called upon community leaders from Brooklyn to talk about their experiences with a mosque there that has been operated by MAS for several years. The crowd became unruly, refusing to let them speak and the civic association abruptly ended the meeting.

SILive.com, 10 June 2010

See also Jihad Watch, 9 June 2010

Belgian school sacks teacher for wearing veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Belgian high school on Tuesday sacked a Muslim maths teacher after she insisted she would continue to wear the burqa while taking classes.

At the start of the academic year authorities at the school in Charleroi, south of Brussels, told the Turkish-born teacher to remove her full-face Islamic veil, which she had been wearing during class for two and a half years. The teacher refused and took her case to court.

In the first instance the Charleroi tribunal backed the school board, citing the religious “neutrality” of the schools serving Belgium’s francophone community. However, in March the appeals court ruled that the school in question came under the jurisdiction of Charleroi, which had not issued rules on the banning of religious insignia. The Muslim teacher therefore returned to school, but the municipality soon afterwards introduced its own ban on the wearing of “all religious or philosophical symbols”.

On Tuesday officials at the school, after auditioning the teacher in presence of the mayor, decided to sack her for her continued refusal to leave her burqa at home, according to a statement issued by the town hall.

AFP, 8 June 2010

Update:  See Islam in Europe which points out that “Nuran Topal, the teacher in question, wears a headscarf, not a face-veil”.

Wilders in line for Dutch Cabinet role

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Freedom Party of the anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders emerged as the third force in Dutch politics last night, more than doubling its number of seats in Parliament in the country’s general elections. Exit polls predicted that Mr Wilders would command 23 seats, up from 9 – pushing the Christian Democrats, led by the outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, into fourth place.

With the Dutch Labour Party running neck-and-neck with the cost-cutting right-wing Liberal Party (VVD), it was unclear who would form the next government.

Mr Wilders, who wants to ban Muslim veils and the building of new mosques, is constitutionally bound to take part in coalition talks. He could be offered a place in a Cabinet chosen by Mr Rutte, who has said that the Freedom Party is “just another party”, but Mr Cohen has ruled out on moral grounds sharing power with the controversial critic of Islam on moral grounds.

“We really want to be part of government, We want to participate. I don’t think the other parties can escape us,” Mr Wilders said.

Times, 10 June 2010

Mosque vandalized in Bedouin village near Haifa

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ibtin mosque graffitiA mosque in the Bedouin village of Ibtin, east of Haifa, was vandalized overnight Tuesday with graffiti. The graffiti was discovered by village residents at 4:30 AM.

The 3 slogans spray-painted on the building’s walls read: “There will be a war over Judea and Samaria,” “price tag” and “this structure is destined for demolition.”

“This is a serious crime that cannot be ignored,” Mohammed Omaria, a village resident who works at the mosque, told Haaretz. Omria also said the crime was the result of the recent wave of anti-Arab incitement in Israel.

A village resident who lives near the mosque said he saw three yarmulke-wearing youths in the mosque’s vicinity at around 2 AM Wednesday, and that when he asked them what they were doing there, they answered that they were searching for their dog.

Dozens of village residents and Muslims from nearby villages flocked to the mosque to inspect the damage.

The village’s leaders said they plan to involve Israeli Arab MKs in the affair and hold a conference at the mosque.

The mosque has come under attack in the past when arsonists set fire to it in 1988.

Haaretz, 9 June 2010

Update:  See “Four arrested in Bedouin mosque vandalism”, JTA, 10 June 2010

Muslim prisoners – ‘treated as potential terrorists’, or ‘claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional benefits’?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Prisoners convert to IslamThe blanket treatment by staff of the 10,300 Muslim prisoners in England and Wales as potential terrorists risks creating young men ready to embrace extremism on their release, the chief inspector of prisons warns today.

Dame Anne Owers says the treatment of the rapidly growing population of Muslim prisoners as potential or actual extremists is prevalent throughout the prison system despite the fact that fewer than 1% are in prison for terrorist-related offences.

The chief inspector also voices scepticism over claims by high security prison staff that gangs are forcing non-Muslim prisoners to convert to Islam through intimidation. Her report says that while conversions are common they are more likely to be the result of better food at Ramadan, the benefits of protection within a group and the discipline and structure provided by observing Islam through prayer.

Guardian, 8 June 2010

The Times, by contrast, reports the story under the front-page headline “Prisoners convert to Islam for jail perks”, the Sun informs its readers that “Prisoners are converting to Islam for a cushier life and better food”, while the Express goes with “Muslim prisoners are cashing in on their religion to claim hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional benefits”.

Update:  See also BBC News, 8 June 2010

Canadian court to rule on ‘veil’ testimony

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Ontario court is considering whether an alleged rape victim may testify with her face covered, which defendants say would call her truthfulness in question.

At a preliminary hearing last year, a judge ordered the 32-year-old woman to remove her niqab, or burqa, so defense lawyers could assess her claims of being molested. She resisted, saying her religion bars her from exposing her face to non-family members, the Globe and Mail reported Tuesday.

The defendants – a cousin and uncle of the woman – argue the truthfulness of her testimony cannot be determined if her face is hidden.

Some legal experts claim veils provide a convenient shield for a lying witness, while others reject the idea of facial expressions being a reliable guide to honesty, the newspaper said. The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund says disallowing veils would drive Muslim women from the justice system.

The case is currently before an Ontario appeals court.

UPI, 8 June 2010

Demonstrate against EDL in Tower Hamlets on 20 June

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Close East London MosqueThe English Defence League plans to whip up racism against one of Britain’s largest Muslim communities. It has announced plans to gather in Tower Hamlets, east London, on Sunday 20 June.

Unite Against Fascism and East End United have organised a national counter-demonstration with backing from local activists, the council, campaigners and mosques. The momentum is on the side of the anti-fascists. The EDL were heavily outnumbered in Newcastle recently and were sent packing in South Wales last week. EDL demonstrations have been getting smaller.

But there must be no complacency. Local trade unionists, anti-racist activists and campaigners sent an open letter to the Guardian newspaper and local press within days of the EDL’s plans becoming known. It reads, “The English Defence League is a violent, bigoted organisation. They should be condemned everywhere, but will be particularly unwelcome if they come to Tower Hamlets.”

Glyn Robbins, the local activist who organised the letter, toldSocialist Worker, “We have seen how destructive the EDL presence has been in other towns and cities. Now they are coming to our city, to our borough. We have a strong tradition of standing up to racism and fascism in east London – a tradition that goes back to the 1930s when people fought off Mosley’s fascist blackshirts. If the EDL comes here without being opposed, then they can go anywhere. We have to do every­thing we can, in every way, to oppose them.”

Musaddiq Ahmed, secretary general of the Tower Hamlets Council of Mosques, told Socialist Worker it is vital to defend Tower Hamlets multiracial and multifaith tradition.

He said, “We are black, white and Asian – Muslim, Sikh, Jew and Christian – people of all faiths living together. We live in an area where the east London mosque sits side by side with a synagogue – we are proud of the diversity in Tower Hamlets. It would be a disaster if the EDL come here. The EDL wants to use the recent rise in Islamophobic attitudes to paint a distorted picture of Islam in order to divide our communities.”

Socialist Worker, 12 June 2010

See also “Joint statement says: Keep the racist EDL out of east London!”, Unite Against Fascism, 7 June 2010

Gay rights should not be harnessed to an Islamophobic agenda

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In a brilliant exposé the Guardian reported how a lone man held up a pink triangle at a demonstration of the English Defence League – one of the most openly anti-immigrant and Islamophobic organisations in the country. When the reporter asked him what it was for he replied nervously: “This is the symbol gay people were made to wear under Hitler. Islam poses the same threat and we are here to express our opposition to that.”

Given fascism’s history of violent and outspoken homophobia, the news that the EDL would have a 115-strong lesbian, gay and transgender wing would appear, at the very least, incongruous.

But in fact it just the most glaring example of the misguided and ill-informed shift in our nationalist discourse that has moved the emphasis from creed to culture and race to religion in a bid to erect a moral rampart between the a mythological modern, enlightened, progressive west and the demonised medieval, backward, bigoted south. Far from being a contradiction confined to the far right, these issues have taken on totemic significance in the mainstream in the broadside against both multiculturalism in general and non-European immigration in particular as though they were inimicable with the principles of social equality.

Gary Younge in the Guardian, 7 June 2010