Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Swastikas and racist graffiti smeared on French mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Saint-Etienne mosque graffiti

Swastikas and racist and anti-Moslem graffiti were discovered Monday on the Great Mosque of the city of Saint-Etienne, French media reported.

About a dozen inscriptions, such as “Dirty Niggers,” “France for the French,” “No Arabs Here” and “We will get you” were scrawled on the mosque’s walls with the type of spray cans commonly used by graffiti artists.

The discovery came as several ministers of the French government met under Prime Minister Francois Fillon to draw conclusions from the controversial nationwide debate on national identity the government has led for the past few months.

The debate, which has been slammed by opposition politicans as a political ploy, gave rise to a wave of anti-Islam declarations, by anonymous individuals on the website dedicated to the debate, as well as by several conservative politicians.

The umbrella body French Council of the Moslem Religion (CFCM), which reported the inscriptions, urged the government to set up a parliamentary commission to investigate the recent increase of anti-Moslem incidents.

DPA, 8 February 2010

See also “Profanation de la grande mosquée”, AFP, 8 February 2010

 

NPA stands hijab-wearing candidate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A candidate for a radical French anti-capitalist party in the forthcoming regional elections wears a headscarf as a token of her Islamic faith, something that has raised eyebrows in this rigidly secular society.

All the more so because the NPA (New Anti-capitalist Party), led by Trotskyist postman Olivier Besancenot, is a party that generates headlines for its extreme left wing position on issues including militant secularism.

Scarf-wearing Ilham Moussaid, a student and a party treasurer, is NPA candidate for the regional council of Vaucluse in southern France, Besancenot confirmed to French daily Le Figaro.

“A woman can be a feminist, can uphold secular values and wear a [Islamic] headscarf at the same time,” he told the newspaper.

France 24, 3 February 2010

Via Lenin’s Tomb

EDL cancels Bolton demonstration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Oldham Division

The English Defence League has announced that it has postponed its planned demonstration in Bolton on 6 March, supposedly because it would clash with a Hindu festival. According to the EDL:

“We have received information that far-left groups were planning to attack Hindus whilst dressed in EDL clothing, which may be purchased freely from our internet shop. This cowardly attack, had it taken place, was to be blamed on our organisation with the intent of discrediting our stated aim of peacefully protesting against radical Islam. Due to the respect we have for the peace loving Hindu community, we deemed it only right and proper that we cancel our own plans to ensure their safety.”

Yeah, sure. A more likely explanation for the cancellation of the Bolton protest is that the EDL leaders recognise that the gangs of thick racists who are drawn to their intimidatory demonstrations would be unable or unwilling to make a distinction between Muslims and other brown-skinned minority communities. And the suggestion that “far-left groups” were intending to disguise themselves as EDL supporters is laughable. The left has little need to discredit the EDL’s “stated aim of peacefully protesting” when the EDL’s violent hooligans are quite capable of doing that for themselves.

Update:  See Stephen Hall’s comments at Socialist Unity, 8 February 2010

And the UAF statement here.

Sunday Times witch-hunts Moazzam Begg, tries to discredit Amnesty International

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Moazzam_BeggA senior official at Amnesty International has accused the charity of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims.

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, “fundamentally damages” the organisation’s reputation.

In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.

Sahgal describes Begg as “Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban”. He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.

Sunday Times, 7 February 2010

Read Amnesty’s response here.

Gita Sahgal is a member of a nutty group called Women Against Fundamentalisms. In a 2006 radio programme she defended the view that by consulting the Muslim Council of Britain the government was encouraging fundamentalism. In the same radio programme she also accused Tariq Ramadan of being a fundamentalist. Had she actually read any of his books, Professor Ramadan politely inquired. It was quite clear that she hadn’t. In fact she was completely unfamiliar with his writings. However, she did know that he was a fundamentalist.

It appears that Sahgal has now been suspended by Amnesty. Their mistake was in ever employing a crank like that in the first place.

Update:  Read Moazzam Begg’s letter to Richard Kerbaj, the author of the Sunday Times report, here.

Further update:  Read Andy Newman’s comments at Socialist Unity.

Muslim women ‘radicalised’ in UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“On Monday a female suicide bomber killed 54 people in north-east Baghdad. The attack may have happened on another continent, but there are increasing concerns that violent extremism among women may now also be increasing in the UK. It is believed that the process of radicalisation often takes place at universities. One Islamist group linked with this practice is Hizb ut-Tahrir.”

BBC News, 4 February 2010

The suicide bombing not only happened on another continent, it had no connection with Hizb ut-Tahrir whatsoever. The article goes on to say that HT is “not itself connected to any terrorist acts”. So what possible relevance does the attack in Iraq have to HT? This is the kind of scurrilous journalistic amalgam that you’d expect from the likes of the Daily Mail or the Sun.

The effect of the article is to portray Muslim women in the UK as some sort of terrorist threat. Unsurprisingly, this gets the support of the Centre for Social Cohesion, on whose behalf Houriya Ahmed explains:

“You do see women being radicalised in the UK. You also have terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda which state that it is an obligation for women to take part in jihad. For example, the wife of al-Qaeda’s second-in-command issued a letter to Muslim women worldwide. You have also seen suicide bomb attacks by women in Iraq supported by the al-Qaeda narrative, so there is a strong possibility that this could occur in Britain and this needs to be taken seriously.”

Predictably, the article has been seized on by Robert Spencer over at Jihad Watch.

German dentist refuses to treat teen named ‘Jihad’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An orthodontist in the state of Baden-Württemberg has reportedly turned a 16-year-old boy out of her practice because she was offended by his name – “Cihad,” an alternate spelling for “Jihad,” which she interpreted to mean “holy war.”

The doctor in Donaueschingen told local daily Schwarzwälder Bote on Friday that she believed his name was a declaration of war against all non-Muslims and refused to treat him.

The Local, 5 February 2010

Far-right rhetoric fuels opposition to minaret in German town

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Volklingen_minaretA small Muslim community in a western German town would like to build a minaret on its mosque. But the plan has triggered passionate opposition from locals, many of whom rely on rhetoric from the extreme right in railing against the “symbol of Islam’s quest for power.”

“Willkommen,” reads the stencilled print on the wall along the riverside boardwalk in the small town of Völklingen. Not content to just welcome its German guests, however, the message is translated into a number of languages. “Bienvenue … bienvenidos … velkommen,” it reads. And “hosgeldiniz,” a nod to the city’s substantial Turkish population.

Elsewhere in the city – particularly in the quarter known as Wehrden – Muslim immigrants may not feel quite as welcome. A small mosque on the banks of the Saar River there has applied for a permit to build a small minaret on its roof – triggering a wave of at-times vehement protest reminiscent of the fuss surrounding theNovember 2009 referendum in Switzerland to ban minarets in the country.

“I am against the Islamification of our fatherland!” reads a message, posted by “Tommy” on the Web site of the local paper Saarbrücker Zeitung. “Islam is the greatest threat facing humanity,” he adds.

The debate in Völklingen is once again showing how quickly right-wing rhetoric can cross over into the mainstream when it comes to debates on Islam in Europe. Local right-wing extremists – two of whom are in the Völklingen city council – have argued that minarets are “symbols of Turkish dominance.”

The local news paper has used the exact same rhetoric on its editorial pages. “This minaret should not be built,” the Saarbrücker Zeitung wrote in late January. “It symbolizes Islam’s quest for power and is nothing less than a provocation. In the course of the Muslim conquests, minarets were first used as watch towers and only subsequently as religious symbols. Following the violent seizure of new territories, minarets were built as manifestations of Muslim rule.”

Minaret opponents are now looking into the possibility of holding a referendum on the issue in Völklingen.

Spiegel, 5 February 2010

French Council of the Muslim Faith calls for action against Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islam dehorsA French Muslim organisation has condemned a weekend attack on a mosque north of Paris.

The phrases “Islam get out of Europe” and “France is for the French” were scrawled on the walls and entrance of a mosque in Crepy-en-Valois.

The mayor’s office of Crepy-en-Valois denounced what it called a “horrible, idiotic act”, while the French Council of the Muslim Faith said the attack was the latest in a long line of incidents that had targeted mosques in France. The organisation called on authorities to take action to end the “series of shameful and hateful profanities that target houses of prayer.”

The Council, whose members are elected by French Muslims, also called for French President Nicolas Sarkozy to back a parliamentary commission that would examine the rise of Islamophobia in France. The proposal was dropped from last week’s report that called for a ban on the full Islamic veil in official public spaces like government offices, hospitals or schools.

Last month a mosque in the southern town of Castres was targeted and had swastikas and the phrase daubed Sieg Heil on its walls.

RFI, 1 February 2010

Time for a Parliamentary Committee to investigate Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Manchester5“Bigotry, hatred and attacks against British Muslims are nothing new. But its unchallenged growth in our country can no longer be ignored.

“The half-hearted response by the government to this growing phenomenon has been far from adequate to date. The phase for window dressing is over. Now is the time to act.

“What is urgently needed is clear leadership from both our police and the government in policy directions in dealing with Islamophobia in all its forms.

“In 2005, in response to growing levels of anti-Semitism, a Parliamentary Committee was established to combat the threat. Likewise, at a time when British Muslims are now the new target for hatred and attacks, it is high time a dedicated committee is now set up to investigate Islamophobia in our country.”

Kawsar Zaman at Left Foot Forward, 1 February 2010

Is your professor an Islamophobe?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Satoshi Kanazawa is an evolutionary psychologist and professor at the London School of Economics. Although his research as a scientist has ruffled some feathers in the past, his attempts as a “public intellectual” are indisputably inflammatory. In a recent article entitled, “What’s Wrong with Muslims” published in his blog hosted by Psychology Today, Kanazawa wrote:

Major Nidal Malik Hasan is a native-born American citizen, trained military officer, and educated MD and psychiatrist. Yet none of these things matters for him; first and foremost, he is a Muslim…They are all united in their values and goals by their singular identity of being Muslims. It’s tempting to dismiss these observations by saying that [he and others implicated in terrorism plots] are all ‘extremists’ or ‘Jihadists.’ That would be politically correct and comforting, but factually inaccurate.

In his very next article he boasts:

No, not all Muslims are terrorists, but…half of Muslims worldwide are terrorists and active supporters of terrorism, who would encourage their sons, brothers, and nephews to blow themselves up in an airplane or in a crowded market.

Kanazawa is just one in a growing number of academics using his intellectual identity to promote intolerance and xenophobia against Islam and Muslims.

Abdulrahman El-Sayed in the Huffington Post, 2 February 2010