Ellen Brun and Jacques Hersh analyse the mainstreaming of Islamophobia in Denmark.
Author Archives: Bob Pitt
Government ‘discriminates against Christianity in favour of Islam’
Christianity is being discriminated against by the Government in favour of Islam and other minority faiths, according to a landmark Church of England report.
The highly critical report, titled Moral, But No Compass – a twist on Mr Brown’s claim to have a “moral compass” – carries significant weight as it has been endorsed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and expresses the views of three-quarters of the Church’s bishops.
It echoes claims made by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, last week that the decline of Christian values is destroying Britishness and has created a “moral vacuum” which radical Islam is filling.
See also Daily Mail, 7 June 2008
US Muslim leader labelled possible terror suspect
NEWARK, N.J. — To one North Jersey counterterrorism task force, Mohammad Qatanani was considered an essential ally – a moderate Muslim leader known for inviting FBI agents into his congregation to conduct seminars on terrorism prevention. Fifteen miles away, in Newark, a different counterterrorism task force labeled Qatanani a possible terror suspect who had been categorized as a “person of interest” on his application for a green card.
His deportation trial – testimony concluded Monday and a ruling is due in September – has raised questions as to how smoothly counterterrorism efforts are coordinated in New Jersey, and about the ability of immigration authorities to get information from other agencies or check a person’s background in their country of origin.
Qatanani, a 44-year-old Palestinian, has been the spiritual leader at the Islamic Center of Passaic County since 1996. The mosque is in Paterson, the heart of New Jersey’s Arab American community and home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the region.
Qatanani’s 1999 bid for U.S. residency was rejected, and he is facing deportation by U.S. immigration authorities who say he failed to disclose on his green card application a 1993 arrest and conviction in Israel for being a member of the militant group Hamas.
Qatanani has denied being a Hamas member and said he was never made aware of any charges against him. At his deportation hearing, he testified that he had been detained – not arrested – by the Israelis and subjected to physical and mental abuse in detention.
Since the proceedings began in early May, a number of witnesses have testified on the imam’s behalf – including a rabbi and several high-ranking New Jersey law enforcement officials. Hundreds of his supporters have maintained a vigil outside the federal courthouse in Newark for the duration of the trial, often using a megaphone to conduct prayers and plead for justice.
BNP jibe at lawyer who opposed veiled judges
A barrister who argued that Muslim judges in Britain should never wear the veil in court has been accused by a fellow barrister of deploying the arguments of the British National Party. Barbara Hewson was commenting on guidance issued to judges earlier this year by the Judicial Studies Board. Miss Hewson, writing in the Bar Council’s magazine Counsel, said it was worrying that the board’s advice contemplated the possibility of veiled judges. Describing the guidance as “astonishing and subversive”, she said: “The United Kingdom is not a sharia state.”
Responding in the magazine, Fatim Kurji wrote: “As for veiled judges and the suggestion that the ‘United Kingdom is not a sharia state’, this is what I call ‘the BNP argument’. It implies a woman who wears a niqab comes at the erosion of British values. Such an astonishingly offensive remark undermines the long-enduring libertarian values.” Miss Kurji said she was no fan of niqab but even less so of a legal system “that restricts access to justice on the basis of religious expression”.
We don’t have access to a copy of Counsel, but a correspondent informs us that Hewson’s article is a rehash of the piece published in Spiked back in February, though from the quotes in the Telegraph it would appear to be even more hardline and offensive.
Update: Thanks to a supporter in the legal profession we have the text of Barbara Hewson’s Counsel Magazine article.
The Islamification of Britain (part 756)
“The Islamification of Britain continues apace. Word reaches me of a Smile With The Prophet initiative being run by the NHS in Bradford. According to the local primary care trust: ‘Using a specially developed syllabus, mosque leaders and teachers help to spread the word about oral health, encouraging youngsters to brush their teeth daily through the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) and Islam.’
“Is there an equivalent programme tailored to the individual oral hygiene challenges faced by Anglicans, Catholics, Hindus, Sikhs or Seventh Day Adventists? … Still, anything which keeps children out of the dentist’s chair has to be welcome, though I can’t see how the oral hygiene needs of Muslim children are any different from those of another faith. Mind you, it can’t be easy brushing your teeth in a burqa.”
Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail, 6 June 2008
Netherlands: 65% support ban on large mosques
According to a large survey prepared by TV program Netwerk and newspaper Nederlands Dagbald, 65% of the Dutch ‘agree’ or ‘completely agree’ that there should be a stop to the building of large mosques.
Most Dutch are concerned about the growth of Islam in the Netherlands and its influence on society. At the same time, a majority are also concerned about the negative manner in which Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) speak about Islam.
59% of the Dutch think that in 40 years Islam would be at least as an important aspect of the Netherlands as Christianity is today. 57% say the increase in the number of Muslims threatens Dutch culture, and 53% say it threats freedom of religion.
The concern about Islam crosses political boundaries. 56% of Labor Party voters, 65% of Socialist Party voters, 67% of Christian Union voters and 87% of Political Reformed Party (SGP) voters, support stopping the building of large mosques.
Principal reassigned over Islam presentation
FRIENDSWOOD, Texas — A junior high school principal who allowed a group to make a presentation about Islam to students is no longer on the job. Robin Lowe “has accepted another administrative position effective immediately,” the school district said in a statement late Wednesday.
Lowe was the principal of Friendswood Junior High when the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Houston gave a presentation described as “Islam 101” to about 875 seventh- and eighth-grade students last month, the district said.
Council president Tarek Hussein said he contacted Lowe about the educational presentation after hearing from a father who said his son was physically attacked at the school because he is Muslim. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim students often get teased and called terrorists, Hussein pointed out. But community members and parents of children at the predominantly Anglo and Christian school complained about the assembly.
David Bradley, a member of the State Board of Education whose district includes Friendswood, said parents have been contacting him to express outrage about the presentation. He said an assembly about Islam was a waste of tax dollars and was not an appropriate response to an attack on a student.
“There’s a personal incident between two students and as a result of that we’re going to yank everyone out of class?” he said. “I got beat up in junior high. Did my dad go down and force all the kids to sit through sensitivity training in their P.E. class? No, that’s absurd. The coach gave us licks and sent us home. That was the end of those incidents.”
Houston Chronicle, 4 June 2008
Update: See “R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Religious persecution, not lessons in tolerance and diversity, should spark outrage”, Houston Chronicle, 7 June 2008
And “Friendswood principal backed in Islam flap”, Houston Chronicle, 10 June 2008
BNP says call to prayer at Stoke mosque will ‘provoke neighbours’
A new mosque will be built on a former pottery works, despite warnings that the call to prayer may offend non-Muslim neighbours.
The new place of worship will replace the nearby Ghelani Noor Mosque and be built on the old Denton Works, in Chaplin Road, Normacot. The plan was approved by Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s development control committee yesterday by eight votes to two, with two abstentions.
But the mosque committee’s intention to ring out a call to prayer every Friday and during holy festivals was challenged by BNP councillor Phillip Sandland, who warned it could lead to flash points with non-Muslim neighbours.
As part of the planning conditions each call to prayer – or Adhan – must last no longer than two minutes and only be amplified between 7.30am and 8pm.
Mr Sandland told the committee: “I’m happy to see a house of God built, whether it’s Christian, Muslim or whatever. But there are people who will take exception to this call to prayer and for the time being it should not be allowed.”
Committee chairman, Councillor Mike Barnes, asked him: “Do we take the same account of bells when the Lord Mayor is appointed?” But Mr Sandland hit back: “It’s different as well you know – don’t provoke your neighbours, as this thing does.”
Qaradawi slams Pakistan bombing
DOHA — Renowned Doha-based Islamic scholar Dr Yusuf Al Qaradawi has denounced the bombing at the Danish embassy in Islamabad on Monday to protest against the blasphemous cartoons on Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him).
In a statement issued in the wake of the blast that killed two people and injured several others, Qaradawi said such violent protests will only help tarnish the image of Islam all over the world.
“We condemn what was done in the Danish embassy in Pakistan. We have been urging Muslims to protest peacefully against the blasphemous Danish cartoons. It is the duty of Muslims to protect the lives of people who live in their country as their guests,” said Qaradawi.
The scholar, who heads the International Union of Islamic Scholars, said the union has already denounced the Danish cartoons as a deliberate attempt to provoke Muslims all over the world and hurt their sentiments.
Blame terrorism on multiculturalism says Torygraph
“One reason we face our current difficulties is that the so-called progressive elements, which dominated politics and much of the media, failed for too long to understand the damage they were inflicting on our country through the concept of multiculturalism.
“In the Nineties, when many of the problems with which the Government is now grappling were taking root, not only were the extremist tenets of fundamentalist Islam rarely challenged, the multiculturalists even coined an insult – Islamophobia – to damn those who did. And no one took seriously enough the report into the 2001 riots in some northern cities, that exposed the “parallel lives” being led by different ethnic and religious communities.
“When four British Muslims perpetrated the worst act of terrorism on British soil in July 2005, the country was finally shaken from this state of denial. Now, Labour ministers – once ardent cheerleaders for multiculturalism (not least because they imagined there were votes in it) – espouse respect for the monarchy, demand that immigrants learn English and praise British history and identity.
“It has taken a long time for the Government to assess properly the nature of this threat and there are signs that ministers remain unwilling to ditch their old instincts and grasp that, in a battle for hearts and minds, it is important to emphasise the superiority of your own values.”