Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Teacher did not give pupils detention for refusing to ‘pray to Allah’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A teacher has been sacked after parents claimed that their children were forced to pray to Allah during a religious education lesson. Alison Phillips was accused of giving two pupils detention after they refused to kneel down and “pray to Allah” during the class. However, an investigation by the school concluded that there was no truth in the allegation.

A statement released on behalf of the school by Cheshire East Council said:

“It can be confirmed that following a long and rigorous disciplinary process, a member of staff at Alsager School has been dismissed from her post. The member of staff was suspended in July 2008 following parental complaints and newspaper reports relating to an RE lesson.

“After full consideration of a range of other professional issues, the governing body was satisfied that an irretrievable breakdown in the relationship between employer and employee had occurred and that the employee should be dismissed from her post.

“In reaching this decision, the governing body wish to make very clear that they were completely satisfied that at no point did that member of staff make children pray to Allah or put boys in detention for refusing to do so.”

Daily Mail, 30 May 2009

For media coverage last July see the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Fox News, Fox News Radio, World Net Daily and Jihad Watch.

Third of Europe’s Muslims ‘face discrimination’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FRA survey 2009An EU survey has found that one in three Muslim people living in Europe feel they were discriminated against in 2008, but many failed to report racist incidents because of a lack of trust in authorities.

The Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released the survey of Muslims in 14 EU member states on Thursday.

It said that, while over 30 per cent of those questioned had faced discrimination, only 21 per cent reported discriminatory incidents and cases of racist crime. Young Muslims in particular have little faith in the police as a public institution.

Some 59 per cent of Muslim respondents believed that “nothing would happen or change by reporting” and 38 per cent said that “it happens all the time” and therefore they do not make an effort to report incidents.

The report calls on European policy makers to establish “adequate mechanisms for reporting and recording discrimination and racist crime.”

It also said that member states should assess whether ethnic profiling by the authorities “effectively increases the identification of criminal activity or alienates and discriminates against Muslim communities.”

Only 10 per cent of Muslims who experienced prejudice said that this was solely due to their religious beliefs, while over half of the respondents felt that their ethnic origin was the reason for the discrimination.

About 30 per cent of the discrimination cases occurred when Muslims were looking for work or at work, while 14 per cent took place in bars, restaurants or in dealings with landlords, according to the report.

FRA director Morten Kjaerum said: “Employment is a key part of the integration process. It is central to the contributions that migrants make to society and to making such contributions visible. Discrimination may hamper the integration process,” Mr Kjaerum warned.

The report was part of the first ever EU-wide survey on the experiences of immigrants and ethnic minorities, which reported last month that more than half of those groups believe discrimination is widespread where they live in Europe.

Xenophobic and anti-Muslim rhetoric – and in some cases violence – has increased in several countries in the run-up to the European elections. Some analysts are forecasting a swing to the right in European parliamentary elections from June 4-7.

Morning Star, 30 May 2009

Founders of Muslim charity get 65 years in prison

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Holy_Land_FoundationTwo founding members of what was once the nation’s largest Muslim charity were each sentenced to 65 years in prison Wednesday for funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Shukri Abu Baker, 50, and Ghassan Elashi, 55, were among the five members of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development sentenced to prison by U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis. The men and Holy Land were convicted in November on 108 charges.

The convictions followed a mistrial in which the government in 2007 failed to sway jurors that the now-defunct charity, based in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, was in fact aiding Hamas.

The two Holy Land leaders were convicted on charges ranging from supporting a terrorist organization to money laundering and tax fraud. The group wasn’t accused of violence but of bankrolling Hamas-controlled schools and social welfare programs.

Mufid Abdulqader, 49, was sentenced to 20 years on three conspiracy counts. Mohammad El-Mezain, 55, got 15 years for one count of conspiracy. Abdulrahman Odeh received 15 years for three conspiracy counts.

The sentencing re-energized Holy Land’s supporters, who believe the prosecution was a politically motivated product of former President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” and a prime example of post-Sept. 11 anti-Islam fervor. Across the street from the courthouse, a handful of people held a banner that read “Feeding Children Is Not A Crime.”

Abu Baker’s daughter, 25-year-old Zaira Abu Baker, said outside the courtroom that the group was a legitimate charity. “I’ve been with my dad 100 percent of the way,” she said. “I saw the work he did. He devoted his life to helping needy children. But after 9/11, I guess, there’s hysteria. They pick and choose people, and unfortunately it’s us.”

Associated Press, 27 May 2009

‘Please uncover your face. It’s our custom’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Would it be wrong to try to convey to communities in Britain who adopt the full hijab that, though it is a woman’s legal right to dress as she chooses, she should recognise that she’s in a country where many people will find a masked face disturbing, and that (without meaning to) she is acting in a culturally inappropriate manner, which may offend?”

Matthew Parris poses the question, in the Times, 28 May 2009

See also ENGAGE, 29 May 2009

IHRC exposes CST

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Islamic Human Rights Commission has just published a well-researched briefing, “Concerns regarding demonisation of Islam and Muslims by Community Security Trust publications“, which exposes the Islamophobic agenda of the CST, an organisation that claims to be merely a defence organisation for the Jewish community (an entirely admirable role in itself) but also pursues a hardline right-wing Zionist agenda that leads it to adopt a hostile attitude towards Muslims, and politicised Muslims in particular.

‘No Sharia’ demonstrators riot in Luton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton riotNine people have been arrested after hundreds of anti-Islamist protesters clashed with police yesterday. The streets of Luton descended into violence after demonstrators, many hiding their faces behind balaclavas, brandished England flags and chanted at officers.

A group called March for England was said to have organised the rally as a peaceful protest against Muslim extremists. They were joined by a local group United People of Luton.

The mob, which included teenagers and women, held banners with slogans such as “No Sharia Law in the UK” and “Respect our Troops”. Some protesters wore masks with the horned face of Sayful Islam, a hardline Muslim activist in Luton who took part in an anti-war rally in March, which disrupted a homecoming parade for troops.

But chaos broke out when a crowd of around 500 ran away from police who had been escorting the protest along its route, and ran down side streets towards the town centre. Officers on horseback and police dogs were deployed, and policemen drew batons to defend themselves.

Groups of young men in balaclavas and England shirts chanted outside the city centre and one balacava-clad protester held a Rottweiler on a chain, while others clashed with police in riot gear. One Asian man was hit across the face with a banner and left with a bloody nose.

Police said during the disturbance three car windscreens were smashed and a window at a take away restaurant in Chapel Street had been broken. Last night Luton town centre was calm as police maintained a presence on the streets.

A spokesman for United People of Luton, Wayne King, said many people in Luton were concerned and annoyed that the Muslim community in the town had not taken steps to deal with Sayful Islam’s “hate-filled preachings”. The 24-year-old, who wore a T-shirt with the words “No surrender to Al-Qaeda” on it, said:

“We decided enough was enough after the soldiers got heckled as they marched through the town centre by the Muslim extremists. Our community has been racially attacked for the last 10 years. A mosque in the town got set on fire a few weeks ago and it made national news but churches in Luton are regularly being set fire to.”

Daily Mail, 25 May 2009

For the background, see Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 25 May 2009

For an eyewitness account, see Three Counties Unity, 25 May 2009

Also http://www.reconciliationtalk.com/

Meanwhile, over at his Lionheart blog, Paul Ray endorses the rioting. In reply to a comment objecting to “headlines of masked men and violence”, Ray demands:

“What are you doing about the Islamification of Great Britain? Islam has taken over Luton, and the police and council have done nothing but sit back and allow it to happen. This is the culmination of the past 25-30 years. The people of Luton have now arisen to reclaim their community!!! How do you expect them to do it? …

“No one thinks that removing the militant wing of Islam from our land is going to be easy, and if the government will not do it then the people will, and they will quite obviously be wearing balaclavas to do that, because the government will come down on them for defending their community…. So decide where you stand and who you stand with.”

No doubt Luton Council will bear this in mind next time Ray applies for permission to hold a demonstration in the town.

Update:  Read Unite Against Fascism statement on the Luton riot here.

Further update:  Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion points out that the photograph in the Mail report, captioned “Catalyst: Anti-war Islamists protested during an Army march in Luton earlier this year – partly sparking yesterday’s response”, is not of the notorious Al Muhajiroun protest but of a different event entirely.

Turkey urges police action on BNP flyers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Turkish government has demanded the withdrawal of election leaflets distributed in Scotland by the British National party, claiming they are intended to incite racial and religious hatred. Flyers promoting the BNP’s European election campaign suggest that millions of Turkish Muslims would flood into Britain if the country were to be granted full EU membership.

One BNP leaflet being handed out on the streets of Glasgow said taxpayers’ money “shouldn’t be wasted on expanding Europe so that millions of Muslims in Turkey can join the invasion of foreign job snatchers”. Another urges voters to “oppose the dangerous drive backed by the other main parties to give 80m low-wage Muslim Turks the right to swamp Britain”.

Officials at the Turkish embassy in London have complained to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and have suggested the matter be referred to the police because the leaflets potentially breach race relations legislation.

“It is obvious that these are racist and highly inflammatory statements which insult both Turkey and the Turkish nation as a whole and put hundreds of thousands of Turks and Turkish Cypriots who live and have been born in Britain at risk of racist abuse and attacks,” said Orhan Tung, a spokesman for the embassy.

“I think the leaflets are a clear breach of both the Race Relations Act and the Racial and Religious [Hatred] Act, which makes it an offence to distribute written material with the intent to stir up religious or racial hatred. We believe that the relevant British authorities such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission should consider taking legal action against the party in question.”

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Five injured in Athens mosque attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Athens mosque arson

Unknown assailants tried to burn down a makeshift mosque in Athens on Saturday, injuring five Bangladeshi migrants who suffered burns and respiratory problems in the attack, police said.

The attackers broke the windows of a basement flat used as a mosque early on Saturday morning and threw gasoline inside before lighting it, a police source said. Four Bangladeshi men suffered respiratory problems and a fifth was burned, police said. All were initially taken to hospital but later discharged.

The incident followed clashes in Athens between Muslim immigrants and Greek police during protests sparked by allegations that a police officer tore up and stamped on a Koran during an identity check earlier in the week.

Nearly 1,000 Muslims rallied in the citys central Omonia square on Friday in a demonstration organised by leftist, immigrant and anti-racism groups.

Violence broke out at the end of the demonstration as around 100 protesters threw projectiles at police, who tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas.

Over seventy cars and five shops were vandalised and the police arrested 46 people. Seven protestors and seven police were injured in the clashes.

A larger demonstration on Thursday involving some 1,500 Muslim immigrants also degenerated into violence with police using tear gas to disperse protesters who threw dustbins and stones.

The incident that sparked the protests occurred on Wednesday when police stopped four Syrian immigrants to check their papers. One officer allegedly tore up a Koran and stamped on it. Police have opened an investigation.

Another protest march will be held in Athens on Saturday afternoon.

Athens has no licensed mosques and thousands of Muslims immigrants residing in the city are forced to use rented flats and warehouses for their prayers.

Dawn, 24 May 2009

See also “Athens Muslim group attacked in wake of violent protests”, Deutsche Welle, 23 May 2009