Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Muslim woman rejected as foster parent because she won’t serve pork

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Almost two decades ago, Tashima Crudup left her grandmother’s home and entered the city’s foster care system, where she learned firsthand what makes a good mother. As she shuffled from family to family beginning at age 8, Crudup encountered some attentive and loving foster parents, while others were unsupportive and constraining. “I always wanted to be a foster parent,” said the 26-year-old mother of five.

In July, Crudup – a practicing Muslim – contacted Contemporary Family Services, a private company authorized by the state to place foster children with families. She cleared an initial screening process and completed 50 hours of training classes for prospective parents. But after a home visit, her application was denied. The main reason: She doesn’t allow pork in her house.

Shocked, Crudup contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, which filed a complaint Wednesday with the Baltimore City Community Relations Commission, claiming religious discrimination.

“I have a hard time believing [the company] denies every vegetarian or Orthodox Jewish person a foster care license,” said Ajmel Quereshi, an attorney with the ACLU. “But I do believe Mrs. Crudup was picked out here … and it has led us to believe an anti-Muslim bias is playing a role in the decision.”

Baltimore Sun, 14 April 2010

Update:  See also “A code for religious discrimination”, Baltimore Sun, 16 April 2010

Muslims can stay – as long as they convert to Christianity

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association offers some clarification of his recent proposal that Muslims should be deported from the US. He writes:

“Those who are willing to convert to Christianity and renounce Islam, Allah, Mohammed and the Koran may be welcomed, for they can become not just good Christians but true Americans.”

Via Media Matters.

Apology to young Muslim woman instructed to remove headscarf for driver’s licence photo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Getting her driver’s license should have been an exciting rite of passage for a Sussex County teenager, her mother said.

But when Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles workers told the 16-year-old girl to remove her Muslim headscarf – despite an agency policy allowing her to wear it in her license picture – the experience ended in tears and embarrassment.

“It’s a crying shame that a piece of fabric on her head could cause such an uproar,” said the mother, who asked not to be identified to avoid further public attention.

The girl eventually left the DMV with a driver’s license, she said, but the picture showed her visibly upset and crying.

DMV Director Jennifer Cohan said the agency will remind its workers of its policy on religious and cultural issues. Muslim women may wear headscarves that do not cover their faces for their photos, she said.

“We called her and apologized profusely,” Cohan said. “This could have been handled with a little more sensitivity on our part.”

News Journal, 14 April 2010

Settlers deface West Bank mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

West Bank mosque

More than 300 olive trees were uprooted and two cars set alight in the West Bank village of Hawara in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Stars of David and the word “Mohammed,” as well as racist slogans, were also sprayed in Hebrew across the town, including on the walls of a mosque.

A military official told Army Radio that the army suspected settler violence against Palestinians, part of some settlers’ policy of imposing a “price tag” on a government order to freeze Israeli construction in the West Bank.

Haaretz, 14 April 2010

Man jailed for arson attack on Glasgow Islamic Relief

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stuart RoseA 26-year-old man who admitted setting a fire which caused £26,000 worth of damage to an Islamic Relief Centre in Glasgow has been jailed for 15 months.

Stuart Rose torched bags of donations in the doorway of the centre in Albert Drive, Pollokshields, on 2 July 2009. Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that the 26-year-old was captured on CCTV and traced through the taxi firm which collected him from the scene. He later told police he “was just having a laugh”.

BBC News, 14 April 2010

See also “Islamic Centre fire starter jailed”, STV, 14 April 2010

Update:  See “Glasgow fire-raiser dies in prison one day after he was jailed”, STV, 16 April 2010

Student files complaint, claims hijab cost her fast-food job

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Troy, Michigan — A 19-year-old college student has filed a federal complaint against the McDonald’s on Crooks Road after she says she was turned down for a job at the restaurant for wearing a hijab, a religious head scarf.

Nasihah Barlaskar said she went to a job interview on March 27 and was surprised when a white female supervisor asked if she intended to wear “that thing” at work, referring to the hijab.

“I said, ‘Yes I do. It’s part of my religion’,” Barlaskar said. “She said I would not be able to wear it (the hijab) while working. I told her I could wear the (McDonald’s) cap over my hijab.”

Barlaskar said she was surprised by the treatment from the supervisor since she has friends who work at other local fast-food restaurants including McDonald’s that allow female employees to wear hijabs.

Barlaskar said she needs to work to help pay for college expenses and to help her family since her father lost his cab driving job last fall. But Barlaskar found out she didn’t get the job when she called the supervisor three days later.

She suspects she didn’t get it because of her decision to wear the hijab at work. “She told me she decided to go with someone else but I think I was discriminated against because of the hijab,” Barlaskar said.

The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission complaint was filed today by the Michigan Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Barlaskar’s behalf.

“We urge McDonald’s to take immediate action to bring its hiring policies into compliance with long-established legal guidelines on reasonable religious accommodation in the workplace,” said Dawud Walid, CAIR-Michigan’s executive director.

Detroit News, 13 April 2010

See also “EEOC complaint filed against Mich. McDonald’s over hijab”, CAIR news release, 13 April 2010

CAIR point out that this is not the first time that McDonald’s has been accused of discriminating against women wearing hijab.

Man behind Herouxville affair launches campaign against immigration and multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Andre DrouinAndre Drouin’s lips curl up in a mischievous grin as he recalls the insults hurled at him at the height of the Herouxville affair in 2007. “Twit, moron, xenophobe, racist, stupid – all of it,” says the retired engineer who penned the infamous municipal charter barring the stoning, burning and genital mutilation of women in this hamlet north of Trois-Rivieres, Que.

But the recent storm over the niqab suggests l’affaire Herouxville was no anomaly. Drouin is now lending his support to a nascent coalition that aims to drum up opposition to immigration and multiculturalism in English Canada. “Three years ago, they thought I was a mad person, but right now I don’t think they think the same thing,” Drouin said.

In recent months, Drouin has spoken to small groups in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, where his tough talk on minorities strikes a chord with longtime critics of Canada’s immigration policy, such as Martin Collacott, a senior fellow at the conservative Fraser Institute.

Collacott and James Bissett, both retired diplomats who frequently write on immigration issues, and Drouin are among the founders of a new group that will push for a radical reduction in immigration and a tougher stand on minority accommodation.

Collacott said organizers are putting the finishing touches to a website and will launch the group, tentatively called the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform, in June.

Montreal Gazette, 12 April 2010

Qaradawi meets Mandela

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi and MandelaIslamic scholar Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi, who is on a visit to South Africa, met South African leader Nelson Mandela and gifted him some of the books he authored on Islam and the Holy Qur’an.

Qaradawi, who arrived in Johannesburg on Friday, hailed the South African leader as the “hero of Africa”.

He also gave lectures at the Muslim Judicial Council on duties of Muslim minorities in the world. The scholar also met with leading figures from the Muslim community in South Africa as well as some Arab diplomats.

Gulf Times, 12 April 2010