Author Archives: Bob Pitt

UMP spokesperson says veiled women should be denied benefits, banned from public transport

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Frederic LefebvreWomen who wear the burka in France should be banned from using public transport or receiving state handouts, a government spokesman has said.

The call came just one day after the head of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, the UMP, said that Muslim women wearing full face veils should not be granted French nationality. Now UMP party spokesman Frederic Lefebvre has demanded any woman breaking a proposed law making the garment illegal should be “deprived of her rights”.

He said: “When you don’t respect your responsibilities, you should not have access to any benefits. The rights and responsibilities of citizens in France are important. When you ignore rules that make things illegal, like a ban on the burka, you have have some of your rights taken away, like the right to state benefits or using public transport.”

Daily Mail, 19 January 2010

Denis MacShane tries to witch-hunt Azzam Tamimi … and fails

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Birmingham University has been accused of allowing “a notorious Jew-hater and supporter of terrorist attacks” to speak to students at an event on campus. MP Denis MacShane has written to the university’s Vice Chancellor urging him to cancel a planned talk by Azzam Tamimi, a Palestinian-born academic and supporter of terror group Hamas. But the university has refused to intervene, saying the talk should go ahead in the name of freedom of speech.

A spokesman said: “The University of Birmingham has a code of practice on freedom of speech on campus, and those seeking to invite outside speakers onto campus must fill in a freedom of speech request form at least 15 days before the proposed event. The University has received a freedom of speech request from the Islamic Society for Azzam Tamimi to speak on campus and the event will go ahead as planned.

“Universities are plural societies which are home to differences of opinion, debate and views. The University of Birmingham hosts many visitors and events every year and itself is a community of 150 nations situated in a vibrant multi-cultural city. We respect the right of all individuals to exercise freedom of speech within the law; we are also intolerant of discrimination of any kind.”

Birmingham Post, 19 January 2010

UMP leader wants law banning veiled women from acquiring French nationality

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The head of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party said on Sunday he wants a law to ensure that Muslim women who wear face-covering veils do not acquire French nationality. Xavier Bertrand, head of the conservative UMP party, said the full veil “is simply a prison for women who wear it” and “will make no one believe” a woman wearing it wants to integrate.

Daily Telegraph, 18 January 2010

Tennessee Islamic centre ‘not welcome’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Not WelcomeOn the eve of a holiday celebrating the nation’s greatest civil rights activist, a local religious organization suffered vandalism with an unwelcome message.

A sign on Bradyville Pike reading “Future Site of Islamic Center of Murfreesboro” was vandalized over the weekend when someone spray-painted “Not Welcome” on it.

Members of the Islamic Center said they were shocked by the message.

“The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has been established in the Murfreesboro area for over a decade; we have over 200 families that have played an active role in building this community. We have enjoyed a friendly and supportive relationship with all of our friends and neighbors,” said Abdoulrahman Kattih, vice president of the center.

“The coexistence of religions is the core foundation and strength of our nation. While we stand firmly against all acts of vandalism, we believe that this callous action is an effort to gain publicity and sway public opinion towards stereotyping views against Muslims. We, as a community in Murfreesboro, must take a hard-line approach against these acts to defend our nation’s principles and values.”

Tim Sheesley, who lives nearby on Manus Road, was disgusted by the vandalism. “With Martin Luther King Jr. Day just a day away, I just don’t understand it. It’s time we all get along,” Sheesley said Sunday.

Tennessean, 18 January 2010

Posted in USA

Reza Pankhurst condemns McCarthyite witch-hunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Reza PankhurstA postgraduate teacher accused of Islamist “infiltration” of the London School of Economics has dismissed the allegations as a “McCarthyite witch-hunt”.

Reza Pankhurst, who spent four years in Egyptian prisons for membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), had anticipated criticism when he began studying for a PhD and delivering lectures to students. HT, which advocates the creation of a Muslim caliphate in the Arab world, is outlawed in Egypt but legal in Britain.

In an interview with the Guardian, Pankhurst, 34, said individuals were being “hounded because of their views”, and that dissent from Muslims was being silenced. The LSE has defended his right to “freedom of expression within the law”.

Pankhurst insists he is opposed to terrorist violence. He recently spoke about Abdulmutallab, saying he had not been radicalised in London. “What [my accusers] forgot to say was that I spent 10 minutes stressing that any action that targets innocents is prohibited and that there’s no justification for it in Islam. [Abdulmutallab] was radicalised by a sense of injustice … by what he saw on the news about Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Pankhurst also refuted claims that he helped “groom” another ex-student, Omar Sharif, who blew himself up in Tel Aviv in 2003. “This guy must have been on the course at the same time as me at King’s ­College in 1996. I was president of the Islamic Society,” Pankhurst said. “Does that mean I was responsible for what he did seven years later? It’s neocon nonsense. It’s crime by association.”

Pankhurst is taking legal advice over “this false allegation”, he says.

Such slurs, he said, are a “form of Mc­Carthyism directed against Muslims who speak out” against UK foreign policy. “Do they want Muslims to be engaged in professional fields or would they prefer us to be on benefits? The innuendo, blacklisting and McCarthyite witch-hunts are very counter-productive. I have not said anything which is illegal, or anything that incites violence.”

Guardian, 18 January 2010

Banning veil is oppressive, says Salma Yaqoob

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma Yaqoob RespectPlans to ban Muslim women from covering their faces in public areas are oppressive, the leader of the Respect party said yesterday.

Salma Yaqoob’s comments came as the UK Independence Party (UKIP) announced a formal policy that would make the wearing of garments such as the burka or the niqab – both of which conceal most of the face – to be illegal.

Nigel Farage, the former UKIP leader and MEP, said: “In a liberal democracy we want to tolerate different religions and cultures and not have a small section of society impose their world view on the rest of us.”

Ms Yaqoob said: “We do not need a man or a woman telling people what to wear.”

Times, 18 January 2010

‘Delight’ as London super-mosque near Olympic site is blocked

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Campaigners opposed to a “super-mosque” being built next to the 2012 Olympic site today told of their delight after the scheme was blocked.

The Abbey Mills mosque and Islamic centre on a 7.3 hectare site in Stratford was to house 12,000 worshippers and would have been the biggest in Europe. But Newham council announced it will issue an eviction notice against the Islamist group behind it, Tablighi Jamaat, which has 80 million followers worldwide.

Alan Craig, a Christian Peoples’ Alliance councillor, said: “I’m delighted that the council has finally seen the light on this. It’s a key site for the local community that would have been lost if the mega-mosque had been built. It is a big step forward, but a lot could still happen.

“The authorities use planning terms, but they’ve come to see the misogynist nature of the group themselves and don’t want to give them that platform.”

Continue reading →

‘Mega-mosque’ succumbs to Islamophobic campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Controversial plans to build Europe’s biggest mosque close to the London Olympics site have been halted, The Times has learnt.

Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic sect behind the proposal, is to be evicted this week from the East London site, where it has been operating illegally a temporary mosque and had planned a complex that would accommodate 12,000 worshippers.

The Muslim Council of Britain said that the group had fallen victim to “unfounded hostility and hysteria”.

However, another Muslim organisation last night welcomed the move. Minhaj-ul-Quran, which advises the Government on how to combat youth radicalisation, said that a mosque should be a “community effort” and not the initiative of one group with extremist links.

Times, 18 January 2010

Elsewhere in the online version of Times, Ruth Gledhill devotes a puff piece to Minhaj-ul-Quran.

MuQ, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a much smaller, more liberal rival to Tablighi Jamaat. They run a mosque in Forest Gate where they have some local influence. When all the hysteria kicked off about the Tablighi so-called “mega-mosque”, MuQ set up a front organisation, Sunni Friends of Newham, and joined the campaign against it. They were cited by right-wing opponents of the Tablighi plan to show that Muslims were hostile to it too. Admittedly, after a while MuQ appeared to have thought better of forming an anti-Tablighi bloc with racists, and it looked like they had dropped their public opposition. But evidently not.

The reason why the Times is boosting MuQ, in my opinion, is that it’s part of the right-wing agenda of promoting Sufism as some sort of fluffy, harmless alternative to political Islam. In the case of MuQ this is particularly bizarre, as in Pakistan almost all tendencies within Islam (apart from the Tablighis, ironically enough) engage in party politics. MuQ have their own political party there, the Pakistan Awami Tehreek.

Ed Balls accused of ‘double standards’ over mosque schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has been accused of refusing to ban Islamic schools from smacking children for fear of upsetting Muslim “sensitivities”.

Mr Balls was last week urged to close a legal loophole which gives teachers in Britain’s estimated 1,600 schools associated with mosques the right to smack children – even though it is banned in other schools. He refused, prompting claims that he is allowing an alleged “culture of physical abuse” in some of the mosque schools – or madrasahs – go unchecked.

Smacking is banned in all State and private schools. However, it does not apply to madrasahs, where pupils usually study in the evenings or at weekends, because the ban exempts schools where children attend for less than 12.5 hours per week.

Lib Dem schools spokesman David Laws, who is spearheading the campaign to close the smacking loophole, said: “The Government needs to legislate to protect children – not leave an opt-out simply because it fears some ethnic or religious backlash.”

He was supported by Labour MP Ann Cryer, who said it would be “bonkers” if the Government did not act. She said: “I suspect people are frightened of upsetting the sensitivities of certain members of the Muslim faith.” She denied she was biased against Islamic schools and said classes run by “strange Christian sects” should also be covered by the smacking ban.

A spokesman for Mr Balls’ department denied that his refusal to change the law was based on fears of upsetting Muslim opinion. “We have no evidence the law is being abused or that children are being abused in these circumstances,” he said.

Mail on Sunday, 17 January 2010

If there are any double standards here, they are on the part of Ann Cryer, who is not proposing that the law should be extended to cover Sunday schools run by the Church of England, for example – only to classes run by mosques and “strange Christian sects”, which she evidently regards at the religious equivalent of Islam.

As you might expect, the Mail article has been approvingly reproduced over at Jihad Watch.

UKIP chief Nigel Farage calls for burka ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The burka and other face-covering veils worn by Muslim women should be banned, the UK Independence Party says.

Ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who leads UKIP’s 13 MEPs in Brussels, told the BBC’s Politics Show they were a symbol of an “increasingly divided Britain”. He also said they “oppressed” women and were a potential security threat. But Schools Secretary Ed Balls said it was “not British” to tell people what to wear in the street, and accused UKIP of indulging in “unpleasant politics”.

UKIP is the first British party to call for a total ban, after the BNP called for it to be banned in Britain’s schools.

Mr Farage said: “I can’t go into a bank with a motorcycle helmet on. I can’t wear a balaclava going round the District and Circle line. What we are saying is, this is a symbol. It’s a symbol of something that is used to oppress women. It is a symbol of an increasingly divided Britain.

“And the real worry – and it isn’t just about what people wear – the real worry is that we are heading towards a situation where many of our cities are ghettoised and there is even talk about Sharia law becoming part of British culture.”

A “different” culture was “being forced on parts of Britain and nobody wants that”, added Mr Farage, but he denied the policy was an attempt to grab votes from the BNP, insisting it had “nothing to do with the BNP”. “There is nothing extreme or radical or ridiculous about this, but we can’t go on living in a divided society,” he told The Politics Show.

BBC News, 17 January 2010

See also UKIP news report, 17 January 2010