Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Right-wing press discovers more discrimination in favour of Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Muslim staff escape NHS hygiene rule” in the Sunday Telegraph.

“Met allows Islamic protesters to throw shoes” in the Sunday Times.

Update:  See also “Islamic colonisation of Britain continues: NHS relaxes hygiene measure to accommodate Muslim staff but bans crucifix”, BNP news article, 11 April 2010

Further update:  And Douglas Murray, “The police encourage Muslims to throw shoes at them? Just what community relations needed”, Telegraph blog, 12 April 2010

One more update:  See Ben White, “Did the Met really allow Muslims to throw shoes?”, Pickled Politics, 14 April 2010

Quebec Muslim woman ordered to unveil or leave French course

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One morning recently, a young Muslim woman whose face was hidden by a religious covering was pulled out of her government French class near Montreal and told to unveil or leave the course.

“Aisha,” a 25-year-old permanent resident from India, is the second such case to come to light in Quebec. Last month, the same ultimatum was given to Naema Ahmed, an Egyptian-born woman whose case sparked an uproar and led to landmark provincial legislation against religious face veils.

But, while Ms. Ahmed was portrayed in media accounts as difficult to accommodate, Aisha, as she has asked to be called to shield her identity, didn’t make waves.

According to former classmates and officials at the suburban centre she attended, the young woman was a model student who placed no demands on others and even teamed up with male students for class assignments.

“She was an excellent student. I saw in this woman a will to integrate,” said Mustapha Kachani, executive director of the Centre d’intégration multi-services de l’Ouest de l’Île.

The Immigration Department’s assertion that her veil, or niqab, posed a problem for “pedagogical” reasons was unfounded, Mr. Kachani said.

“She demonstrated great diligence in the course, in addition to actively participating in class, all the while articulating very well,” he wrote in a letter to Immigration Department officials and copied to Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James. “The decision upset the whole class.”

Globe and Mail, 11 April 2010

Update:  See also Montreal Gazette, 12 April 2010

Gothenburg – counter-protest against Nazi anti-mosque demonstration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police in Gothenburg sought to ward off clashes on Sunday as neo-Nazi demonstrators opposed to the construction of a new mosque met with resistance from counter-demonstrators. Police formed a human barrier as the demonstrators shouted slogans at each other from a distance of 100 metres at lunchtime on Sunday. “Our aim is to keep the two groups apart,” police spokesman Niklas Erikssontold news agency TT.

A heavy police presence prevented attempts from both sides to cross the lines just days before construction is scheduled to start on a new mosque at Keillers Park on the island of Hisingen.

Police said the anti-mosque demonstration, headed by known local neo-Nazis affiliated with the Nordisk Ungdom (Nordic Youth) group, consisted of around 100 people. Some 300 people joined the counter-demonstration led by Nätverket Mot Rasism (NetworkAgainst Racism), an anti-fascist umbrella group that has come in for stiff criticism for its tolerance of extreme elements.

Police said anti-mosque demonstrators had secured a permit for their rally, which started at midday. Their intention was to march toLindholmen and the premises of a construction firm set to begin work on the new mosque this Tuesday.

The Local, 11 April 2010

Army removes mosques from Catterick firing range

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Firing range mosqueThe Ministry of Defence has taken down structures resembling mosques that were used on its training grounds.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said the mosque-like structures, which were put up at a firing range at Catterick to replicate the environment troops would be patrolling, were taken down prior to a meeting between a member of the military and the Muslim community.

He said: “A member of the military met the Council for Mosques in Bradford and had a discussion with them about it. What they claimed were the offending mosque structures were removed before that meeting.”

Prof Mohamed El-Gomati, of the University of York, who advises UK universities and charities on religious matters, complained toThe Press about the structures last week. He described them as insulting and said they were evidence of the army’s lack of consideration.

York Press, 12 April 2010

Stand by for right-wing denunciations of the “dhimmi” MOD.

What’s Islam got to do with it?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“An Islamic convert and a fellow gang member were today (Monday) found guilty of imprisoning, stripping and torturing two men with an iron.”

Thus the opening paragraph to a report in the Kingston Guardian. Read it through and you’ll find that the individual’s conversion to Islam has no relevance whatosever to the story. So why include a prominent reference to it?

Why I’ll vote for the fascists – a BNP supporter explains

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP dustbinThe Koranic verses are ringing out from a stereo on Hamza Myatt’s market stall on Barking’s pedestrianised high street. The 36-year-old ginger-haired and white-skinned Muslim convert swapped his life as a financial adviser in South Wales to proselytise for his new faith in the outer reaches of East London three weeks after the 9/11 attacks. He now spends market days noisily selling Islamic literature.

A few feet away from Mr Myatt’s stall, at a mobile snack bar selling tea and bacon butties, where customers are trying on keffiyeh scarves and checking through DVDs on Islam for children, stands a furious Derek Carlton. Pointing his finger towards Mr Myatt’s loudspeaker, now broadcasting an imam’s sermon, Mr Carlton, 46, a maintenance engineer, says:

“Yes, I will vote BNP and that is why. I have no problem with other religions. What I have a problem with is when it changes the character of your town and you’re not allowed to say anything about it. The BNP is saying what no one else will. Slowly but surely, people like me are being pushed aside in favour of outsiders. You can’t tell me it’s racist to be annoyed that my children can’t get a council house in the same place as their parents because they’ve all been handed over to Africans and Muslims?”

Independent, 10 April 2010

American Family Association: deport all Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association has a solution to the “Muslim problem” in the US:

“First, the most compassionate thing we can do for Americans is to bring a halt to the immigration of Muslims into the U.S. This will protect our national security and preserve our national identity, culture, ideals and values. Muslims, by custom and religion, are simply unwilling to integrate into cultures with Western values and it is folly to pretend otherwise. In fact, they remain dedicated to subjecting all of America to sharia law and are working ceaselessly until that day of Islamic imposition comes.

“The most compassionate thing we can do for Muslims who have already immigrated here is to help repatriate them back to Muslim countries, where they can live in a culture which shares their values, a place where they can once again be at home, surrounded by people who cherish their deeply held ideals. Why force them to chafe against the freedom, liberty and civil rights we cherish in the West?

“In other words, simple Judeo-Christian compassion dictates a restriction and repatriation policy with regard to Muslim immigration into the U.S.”

AFA blog, 8 April 2010

Via Media Matters.

NF stages Halal protest outside Colne KFC

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Colne KFC protestPeople campaigning against the trial of Halal meat at KFC restaurants held a protest in Colne on Saturday afternoon.

Mr Steven Smith, who campaigns against ritual slaughter, led a demonstration outside the KFC outlet at the North Valley Retail Park. Mr Smith, who lives in Burnley, joined four more campaigners to raise awareness and hand out leaflets about the controversial trial, being tested at 74 KFC stores nationwide.

He said: “It was a very successful demonstration and we had a number of people supporting us. We campaign against ritually slaughtered meat – Muslim Halal – which involves cutting the throat of animals and is a cruel method of killing animals. It can take up to four minutes for the animal to die, rather than them dying instantly.”

Mr Smith also claimed the RSCPA has condemned the practice of Halal. However, a spokesman said the animal charity’s belief is that all animals should be stunned before slaughter as it lessens their suffering. While not all Halal meat is stunned before slaughter, KFC insists its poultry is stunned before slaughter, using a technique called “stun-to-stun”.

Nina Arnott, a KFC spokesman, added: “Our restaurants in Burnley and Colne are taking part in our Halal trial following great demand in the area. We’ve worked with the Halal Food Authority and animal welfare organisations to ensure our systems and processes fully comply with halal requirements while staying true to our strict standards of animal welfare, which have not been compromised as a result of this trial.”

Pendle Today, 8 April 2010

The report fails to mention that Steven Smith is a veteran fascist and currently Burnley organiser for the National Front, who were behind the protest.