‘Islamophobia’ fears cited in Canada

Smashed mosque windows and workers losing their jobs because of their ethnic background, are among signs that anti-Arab sentiment is on the rise in Ontario, the Ontario Human Rights Commission said yesterday.

Chief commissioner Barbara Hall expressed dismay at an increase in “Islamophobia” in Ontario, as she released the commission’s annual report at a news conference at the Ontario legislature. “We continue to hear … from Arab and Muslim communities on increasing incidents of discrimination,” Hall said. Chief among her concerns was an attack on a Toronto mosque just two days after police arrested 17 people earlier this month, who were allegedly planning to stage terrorist attacks in southern Ontario.

Hall also cited a group of cases in which complainants with dual citizenship from countries other than the United States, claimed they were discriminated against by employees at a company that makes defence equipment for several countries, including the U.S. The employees were reassigned and even fired in some cases, possibly because they were seen as a potential threat to the company’s security, Hall suggested.

“The allegations remind us that society must balance security measures in a manner that does not compromise human rights protections.”

The agency did not provide precise statistics, but Hall said there was “an enormous increase” in Ontario – even if people who are affected are at times hesitant to speak out publicly. Incidents of “Islamophobia” were among the 2,399 new complaints filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission during the past year, the report found.

London Free Press, 30 June 2006

See also the Muslim News, 30 June 2006

Thousands march with family raided by police

Forest Gate demonstrationThousands of protesters led by members of the family caught up in the anti-terrorist raid in east London two weeks ago demanded an apology from police yesterday for their “barbaric and unacceptable” treatment.

The march ended in a demonstration outside Forest Gate police station, where protesters attacked the leaking of “lies and misinformation” after the arrest and questioned the failures of intelligence which led to the disastrous raid.

“The police are doing their job, but they should be doing it properly,” said Muddassar Ahmed, a spokesman for the march organising committee. “The intelligence agencies have much more to answer for.”

March organisers estimated that 5,000 gathered for yesterday’s protest, which was the first mainstream demonstration to take place near the scene of the raid. It drew together a diverse coalition including moderate Muslim groups, Respect, the Conservatives and Stop the War.

Two elderly white women wearing floral print dresses mingled with women in hijab and men in white shalwar kameez. One of the women, Madeline Channer, 63, said: “The police were very heavy-handed and abused these two young men. I was brought up to respect the police but this sort of behaviour eradicates that respect.”

Guardian, 19 June 2006

Forest Gate Two – victims? Nah, says Simon Heffer

Forest Gate press conference“First he heard a scream. The next thing Mohammed Abdulkayar remembered was making eye contact in the darkness with the man who stood at the bottom of the stairs. At that instant, without warning and, he says, without provocation, the police officer fired a shot which tore through his chest and exited through his right shoulder. He slumped against the wall, bleeding and senseless….

“Visibly distressed, with his wound still bandaged and with his arm in a sling, Mr Abdulkayar gave his first full account of the events of June 2…. ‘I was begging the police “please, please, I can’t breathe”. He just kicked me in my face and kept on saying “shut the fuck up”. One of the officers slapped me over the face. I thought they were either going to start shooting me again or were going to shoot my brother. I still didn’t know that it was the police because they hadn’t said a word about police’.”

Hugh Muir reports on yesterday’s press conference by the two innocent men targeted in the Forest Gate police raid.

Guardian, 14 June 2006

For his part, Telegraph journalist Simon Heffer complains that “pacifists, anti-racists, radical Marxists, anarchists, anti-Blairists and others of varying degrees of conviction and opportunism” have “branded the two brothers in the Forest Gate raid ‘victims’ – a word used by the chairman of their press conference yesterday. It is a word that is clearly losing its force in our language. There seems to be a pursuit of moral equivalence with the more usual idea of a ‘victim’ of terror.”

Daily Telegraph, 14 June 2006

Questions after raid pair release

MuradQuestions are being asked about how the police and intelligence services handled an anti-terror raid in east London after the release of two men. Brothers Abul Koyair, 20, and Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who was shot in the raid, were freed without charge.

Muslim Council of Britain chief Mohammed Abdul Bari said: “The question the community raises is the genuineness of the intelligence.” Mr Bari, who is secretary general of the Muslim council, told the BBC: “It all goes back to intelligence, and the police gave the reason for this massive raid. It all depends on how the police act now. There is an issue of trust.”

Met Police Authority member Murad Qureshi, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, said: “I think that there were a series of mistakes, which I think that the Met should learn from, and they cover everything from the collecting of intelligence and how you corroborate that to the nature of the surveillance of suspects, through to how the suspects are actually dealt with.” Of particular concern, he said was “how we find ourselves with one of the brothers shot and quite a lot of the slander, quite honestly, which has been out in the press”.

BBC News, 10 June 2006

Canadian Muslim leaders fear backlash, appeal for calm

Muslim leaders in Ontario are worried their communities are becoming targets for violence and they are calling for calm after an alleged terrorist bombing plot was revealed, resulting the arrest of 17 people this week. Faith leaders say a backlash occurred in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Now a backlash is happening again, starting with threats and vandalism.

Windshields were smashed Saturday night in the parking lot outside the International Muslims Organization Mosque in Rexdale. Windows in the mosque were also broken by vandals. “This is our mosque (and) to see an attack like this is hard on us,” Imam Hamid Slimi said Wednesday.

Leaders of nearly every Muslim community in the Greater Toronto Area met with Lt. Governor James K. Bartleman on Wednesday to discuss their fears that the broken glass may be the start of religiously-motivated attacks. “We are in a phase of danger … when it comes to our security,” Slimi said. He asked Bartleman for support to prevent potential attacks against Muslims.

While more incidents of vandalism have not occurred since Saturday, Slimi said the organization has received many threatening email messages. He added that the Muslim community is committed to ensuring the security of the country. Slimi also appealed for mercy for the families of the 17 accused, saying they are being “abused.”

CTV, 7 June 2006

Who shot Abdul Kahar?

“The situation is not irrecoverable. If mistakes were made in the latest operation, it is better for the police to admit to them frankly. There is a lot of goodwill out there. But after the fatal shooting of the innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, any attempt to mislead the public could well have bad consequences for us all.”

Inayat Bunglawala on the consequences of the Forest Gate police raid.

Comment is Free, 5 June 2006

Angry families threaten legal action against police over anti-terror raid

A young Muslim man shot by police on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist chemical plot last night protested his innocence and alleged that police failed to give warning before opening fire.

Solicitors for Mohammed Abdul Kahar and his brother Abul Koyair, who was also seized in a dawn raid on Friday involving 250 police officers, said they denied any wrongdoing.

A family who live next door to the brothers alleged that they were also arrested and assaulted, leaving one man with a head injury and needing hospital treatment.

Observer, 4 June 2006


For comment, see Rolled Up Trousers and Lenin’s Tomb.

Meanwhile, Melanie Phillips is demanding that MPACUK should be prosecuted for “incitement to riot – or worse”  because they called on Muslim youth to protest against the shooting.

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 2 June 2006

Incidences of anti-Muslim abuse on the rise in Ireland

Physical and verbal abuse against Muslims in Ireland is on the rise. According to the Equality Authority, negative portrayals of Muslims in the media are leading to more attacks.

Up to 25,000 Muslims live in Ireland.

A number of famous Muslim writers and actors are speaking about Islamophobia in Dublin tonight in a conference organised by the Equality Authority to raise the profile of the issue.

Chief Executive Neil Crowley said: “Xenophobia is a global phenomenon so we would be foolish to think we were exempt from it.”

“And there are indicators that it is an issue here, indicators in terms of reports of physical and verbal abuse and in terms of some media reporting that does stereotype Muslim people.”

He also claimed there were indicators from the Garda Human Rights Office that highlighted difficulties in relations between the Gardaí and the Muslim community.

Ireland Online, 24 May 2006

Burning of sanctuary stokes fears of Islamophobia in Spain

An arson attack over the Easter weekend on a Muslim sanctuary in the Spanish city of Ceuta marked another step in what some experts fear is a growing incidence of Islamophobia in the country. Ceuta lies on a small peninsula in North Africa and a third of the population is Muslim. The burning of the Sidi Bel Abbas sanctuary comes just three months after another sanctuary in the enclave was attacked by arsonists.

El País newspaper yesterday listed a number of mosques and other Muslim targets that have been ransacked, burned or had copies of the Qur’an set alight by intruders. At least four towns in the eastern region of Catalonia have seen attacks on mosques and Muslim butchers, some with Molotov cocktails. In the eastern town of Reus, police detained two car-loads of skinheads armed with Molotov cocktails as they headed towards the local mosque.

The train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid two years ago and growing Islamophobia since the September 11 attacks were largely to blame. “We never had things like this happen before,” Imad Alnaddar, who is in charge of the main mosque in Valencia, told El País.

Guardian, 18 April 2006

Neo-Nazis threaten to massacre Muslims at World Cup

The World Cup in Germany is set to become a battleground between facists and Muslims, an Italian member of a new European neo-Nazi movement warned. In a statement published by Italian daily Repubblica, the member of AS Roma’s notorious ultras hooligan group claims neo-Nazis across Europe met in Braunau in Austria to plan attacks against supporters from Islamic countries during the World Cup in Germany from June 9 to July 9.

“We are united. For the first time we are talking and planning together, with the English, the Germans, the Dutch, the Spanish, everyone with the same objective. At the World Cup there will be a massacre,” said the Italian ultra. “We will all be in Germany and there will be Turks, Algerians and Tunisians. The Turks, we can’t stand them. In our country (Italy) there are not many, but in Germany, there are many of those guys there. They are Islamic terrorists. We will attack them. They are all enemies that need to be eliminated….”

AFP, 21 March 2006