Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Islamophobe attacks Hindu shopkeeper

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A pig’s trotter has been thrown in the face of a horrified Wakefield shopkeeper. Fagu Patel was with her children Sai, seven, and Ram, four, at the counter in the shop she runs with husband Manish in Stanley, Wakefield, when the attack happened.

The couple say they have suffered eight years of racist abuse at Reehal’s Off Licence and News on Rooks Nest Road. Mr Patel, 38, said: “Before it was always verbal abuse or antisocial behaviour – but this is just too far. I heard a scream and saw my wife fall backwards. The pig’s foot slapped her straight in the face and knocked her sideways.”

Mrs Patel said her family are Hindus, but added: “He probably didn’t know we are not Muslim but he must have done it thinking we were.”

Yorkshire Evening Post, 3 April 2010

Let’s have no double standards over EDL, says Salma Yaqoob

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma Yaqoob on the English Defence League:

“Yesterday’s EDL protest in Dudley exposed their true face. Tired of political speeches, many of the racists turned to fighting each other, then the police, before breaking through police lines and heading towards the Unite Against Fascism event. Fortunately the police were able to contain the rampaging thugs before they were able to cause serious damage or injury.

“The EDL mobilised at least 1,000 people in support of a hate-filled agenda of attacks on Islam and Muslims. They carried Islamaphobic placards and chanted ‘If they build a f**g mosque, burn it down’. This is a direct call for racist violence.

“I am quite sure that if gangs of Muslims were maurading through our town centres threatening to burn down churches that special laws would be passed, task forces established, and people prosecuted.

“Let us not have double standards. The EDL are seeking to incite violence against the Muslim community and undermine community relations. They should feel the full force of the law for so doing.”

FIFA bans Iranian women footballers from wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FIFA banned the Iranian women’s football team wearing hijab from participating in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) which will be held from August 14 to 26 in Singapore. FIFA at first invited the Iranian team to take part in the games but unexpectedly decided to forbid wearing hijab in the games.

Mehr News, 3 April 2010

See also “Iran Calls for Muslim protest against FIFA ban on Islamic code of dressing”, FARS, 3 April 2010

EDL riot in Dudley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Dudley2

Violent clashes broke out on Saturday between riot police and right-wing protesters. About 2,000 members of the English Defence League (EDL) descended on Dudley town centre in the West Midlands to demonstrate against plans for a new mosque.

Some of the protesters broke out of a pen in a car park, breaking down metal fences and throwing the metal brackets at officers, who were armed with riot shields and batons.

Members of the demonstration started fighting their own stewards who were trying to calm them down as they attacked the fences penning them in.

Continue reading →

Anti-racists hold successful carnival in Dudley town centre as EDL thugs clash with police

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Weyman Bennett.Over 1,000 people gathered in Dudley town centre on Saturday to attend Unite Against Fascism’s “One Dudley Many Cultures” carnival against racism. The event was set up to celebrate Dudley’s multi-racial society and oppose the presence of the racist English Defence League who had threatened to descend on the town for an anti-Muslim rally that day.

The UAF event was a great success, featuring speakers including the Bishop of Dudley, local Muslim activists, trade unionists and anti-racists. People from all Dudley’s communities attended, together with people from around the country who had come to show their solidarity with Dudley’s Muslim population and their opposition to the EDL’s thugs and bigots.

In contrast, the EDL were marched to a disused car park on the edge of town. There were several violent clashes as they attempted to break through police lines to run riot through the town. Witnesses describe hearing several vile anti-Muslim chants from the EDL, including: “If you build your f—king mosque, we’ll burn it down.”

Sabby Dhalu, joint secretary of UAF, said: “Today’s events in Dudley showed the real face of the EDL. They are a group of organised fascist football hooligans looking for trouble, who broke past heavily policed lines. This was is in contrast to the peaceful celebration organised by UAF, the Dudley Borough Interfaith Network and local communities.

“The EDL were trying to provoke a reaction. They didn’t get one. Over a hundred of them were contained by riot police in the vicinity of the UAF event in order to prevent them from attacking people leaving the antifascist rally. It is high time these fascist demonstrations were banned, and if the law prevents that then the goverment must take action to introduce new legislation.”

Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of UAF, said: “Today was a success for anti-racists and anti-fascists. The EDL were forced to huddle in a car park on the edge of town. They showed their true colours when they unsuccessfully tried to break out and run riot. In contrast UAF and local anti-racist groups mounted a powerful show of unity against the EDL and their friends in the Nazi BNP.

“The policing of today’s events in Dudley stands in sharp contrast to tactics used in Bolton two weeks ago. There the police marched the EDL into the centre of town and attacked the anti-racist protest. In Dudley the EDL were not allowed into the town centre and the anti-racist protest was allowed to go ahead unmolested. The authorities should take note when policing future such events.”

UAF press release, 3 April 2010

Update:  See also Birmingham Mail, 4 April 2010

EDL placards Dudley

Muslim prayer room is against secular values claims City University

Posted on by Bob Pitt

City University students at prayer

Some Muslim students at City University in London are praying in the street in a row over prayer room facilities. The university says it goes against its philosophy to provide a room for just Islamic students.

“We felt that the provision of a dedicated prayer facility to a sub-section of our Islamic students did not fit with our university’s values,” said Professor Julius Weinberg, who is the acting vice-chancellor at City University.

“We’re a secular organisation. Our university values statement says that we will not discriminate and having a dedicated prayer room actually went fundamentally against the core values of the organisation.”

BBC News, 1 April 2010

Muslims ‘provoked violence’ by praying in Cordoba cathedral

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cordoba2

A confrontation between Muslim tourists and guards employed by the Roman Catholic bishop at the world-famous Cordoba cathedral saw two people arrested and two guards injured last night.

Trouble broke out when the visitors knelt to pray in the building, a former mosque turned into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century, where a local bishop, Demetrio Fernández, recently insisted that a ban on Muslim prayers must remain.

Half a dozen members of a group of more than 100 Muslims from Austria had started praying among the marble columns and coloured arches of the vast building when security guards ordered them to stop.

“They provoked in a pre-planned fashion what was a deplorable episode of violence,” the bishop’s office said in a statement.

Guardian, 2 April 2010

See also the Times, 2 April 2010

Protest planned for mosque’s fundraiser in Northern Virginia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Several groups are planning a protest in Northern Virginia on Saturday outside a fundraiser for a Falls Church mosque that they say has been linked to violence.

Democratic Committee Chairman and former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and U.S. Reps. Jim Moran and Gerry Connolly, both Democrats from Northern Virginia, are invited guests and featured prominently on the fliers distributed by the mosque. But Kaine and Moran are not attending, according to their spokesmen. A message to Connolly’s office was not returned.

Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers briefly worshiped at the mosque, the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, and one of its former imams, Anwar al-Aulaqi, has been linked to accused terrorists and subsequently denounced by the mosque, one of the largest in the United States.

The annual dinner will take place at the Fairview Park Marriott in Falls Church.

“While brave young American men and women are risking their lives to fight terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, Connolly, Moran and Kaine are yucking it up with them and popping champagne corks here at the Marriott,” said James Lafferty, chairman of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force. “These spineless politicians are owned and operated by the radical Islamists and their sinister front groups.”

Members of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force, Act for America and the Center for Security Policy and encouraging others to call the offices of Kaine, Moran and Connolly and demonstrate outside the dinner.

Last month, some of the same groups protested when the mosque’s imam gave the opening prayer in the House of Delegates. About a dozen delegates, mostly Republicans, skipped the prayer of Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.

Virginia Politics blog, 2 April 2010

Qaradawi condemns suicide bombings in Moscow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi and MayorQatar-based Islamic scholar Dr Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday condemned the recent Moscow subway bomb attacks, saying that militant groups targeting civilians should review their adopted convictions of jihad.

In his Friday sermon, Sheikh Qaradawi said that jihad should only be defensive and that non-military persons should not be targeted in such a war. “The Holy Qur’an says that killing an innocent person is tantamount to killing the whole humanity. For this reason, Islam prohibited Muslim armies to kill women, children or old men in wartime,” Sheikh Qaradawi told a congregation at the Omar bin al-Khattab mosque.

Qaradawi, who is the chairman of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, urged the Islamic militant groups to review their convictions about Jihad, saying that their attacking of civilians led the detractors of Islam to brand Muslims as “terrorists”. “Such atrocities only hurt Islam and our Qur’an. They were even used as a pretext for accusing Islam of being a religion of violence and terror,” he added.

Referring to the twin suicide bombings that rocked Moscow’s underground train system last week, the scholar rejected the attacks as “having nothing to do with jihad” rules. “Islam does not allow killing innocent people in war even if they are non-believers. Those people who got embroiled while they were on their way to work were innocent and could not be held responsible for their political leaders’ mistakes,” the scholar added.

However, he urged the Russian leaders to start a political dialogue with the Caucasus militant groups and not to resort to armed force to solve the conflict. “I hope that the Russian leaders would launch a constructive dialogue. They can even request some leaders of Muslim or Arab countries to mediate between Russia and the Caucasus militants.”

Gulf Times, 3 April 2010