Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Ethnic minorities face climate of fear, says race watchdog

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ethnic minorities face a “climate of fear and suspicion”, with Muslims, asylum-seekers and refugees bearing the brunt of growing hostility to immigrants, an investigation into racial prejudice in Britain has concluded.

A Europe-wide human rights watchdog noted the high numbers of attacks on minorities and said that anti-Muslim discrimination had intensified in the four years since the 11 September attacks. It criticised “negative attitudes” among the police to blacks and Asians, the disproportionate number of non-white prisoners and the exploitation of “racist and xenophobic discourse” by the far right.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), set up by EU heads of state to investigate racism and xenophobia, denounced the use of “provocative, sensationalist and sometimes outright racist language” in the reporting of asylum and immigration.

Independent, 15 June 2005

Download the ECRI report here.

See also Islam Online, 15 June 2005

Miami Islamic school vandalized for third time in past year

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic leaders renewed their calls for a hate-crime investigation on Tuesday after someone threw a rock through the glass doors of the Islamic School of Miami.

The incident, which occurred Monday, was the third at the mosque and the fifth in South Florida in the past year, according to Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Ali said worshipers arrived at the mosque located at 11699 SW 147th Ave., at about 5 a.m. Tuesday and found the gate leading into the center broken and the two glass doors shattered. The damage came a week after vandals shattered another window there on May 28.

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Fire destroys mosque in Adelanto, California

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Adelanto prayer hall fireADELANTO — An early Friday morning blaze that destroyed a mosque in a cemetery has prompted the FBI to investigate whether the fire was started by someone motivated by hate.

Laura Bosley, an FBI spokeswoman, said the agency has not determined whether the fire that leveled the mosque at the United Islamic Youth Organization and Cemetery is a hate crime. She said an investigation into the blaze, which caused $225,000 in damage, is ongoing.

The cemetery’s caretakers, Ali and Michelle Khawaja, are hesitant to label the incident a hate crime. Michelle Khawaja said she doesn’t want to believe anyone in the community could be capable of something so cruel. “It stood for community; it stood for brotherhood,’ she said of the mosque. “I’m an American and a convert, and I would like to think that my American brothers and sisters believe in the rights of all people to freely worship.’

The 1,800-square-foot Muslim prayer hall was a place where people went to meditate and grieve over the loss of loved ones. The modest white building with two minarets was more than just a gathering place for the Muslim faithful in this High Desert town; it was a symbol of Islam and its fundamental beliefs, Michelle Khawaja said.

The blaze reduced the simple structure to a pile of smoldering ash and rubble. Authorities have not concluded whether it was started intentionally, said San Bernardino County Fire Department spokeswoman Tracey Martinez.

San Bernardino Sun, 3 June 2005

Se also “Muslim prayer hall burned to ground in California”, CAIR news release, 3 June 2005

Work order for anti-Islamic arsonists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AMSTERDAM — Den Bosch Court sentenced on Wednesday five teenage boys to community work orders and suspended jail terms for arson attacks at an Islamic school and mosque in Uden last year.

The Bedir primary school was completely destroyed when it was torched on 9 November last year, while the arson attack at the mosque three days earlier failed to set fire to the building. A makeshift fire bomb was used in both attacks and police arrested several VMBO pre-vocational high school students on 20 November.

The two oldest suspects, 16 and 17, were convicted of the attempted arson attack at the mosque. Three suspects – aged 14, 15 and 16 – set fire to the school. The attack at the school was condemned nation-wide.

Both crimes were part of a series of retaliatory attacks against Islamic targets in the days after the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected Islamic militant on 2 November 2004.

Expatica, 1 June 2005

US Report: anti-Muslim hate crime jumps 52 percent

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A report released by a prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group indicates that anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States increased by more than 50 percent in the past year, from 93 cases in 2003 to 141 in 2004.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) report – the only annual study of its kind – outlines 1522 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in 2004, the highest number of Muslim civil rights cases ever recorded in the Washington-based group’s annual report. (Hundreds of anti-Muslim incidents reported immediately following the 9/11 attack were detailed in a separate report.) According to the study, called Unequal Protection,” that figure is a 49 percent jump over the preceding year.

CAIR said factors contributing to the sharp increase in reported incidents included the lingering impact of post-9/11 fears, increased awareness of civil rights issues in the Muslim community, a general increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric, growth in the number of local CAIR chapters reporting cases, and abuses associated with the implementation of national security policies.

(The complete report may be viewed at: http://www.cair-net.org/asp/2005CivilRightsReport.pdf)

CAIR news release, 11 May 2005

Daily Star: ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ encourages Muslim terrorists

Posted on by Eddie Truman

The UK’s Daily Star has a go at using the film Kingdom of Heaven to keep the pot boiling over Muslim terrorist scare mongering.

Apparently Ridley Scott’s epic is promoting “Osama bin Laden’s version of history” – the verdict of Cambridge professor Jonathan Riley-Smith.

Worst of all, Ridley Scott is apparently depicting Muslims as sophisticated and civilised while showing the crusaders as barbarians.

In a separate box out, Daily Star hack Jerry Lawton turns his hand to history in a piece entitled “1,000 years of conflict”.

Back of the class for Jerry though – he says that the Crusades started in 1076 when Muslims captured Jerusalem. Wrong Jerry, that was 400 years earlier in 638. Pope Urban’s call for the retaking of Jerusalem wasn’t until 1095.

Thanks to the always excellent Arab Media Watch for drawing this to our attention.

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Jail for mosque arson plan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Roermond Court has sentenced 20-year-old Peter G. to three years jail, 12 months of which were suspended, for his role in preparing an arson attack at a Venray mosque. The court ruled it was not proven the man actually attempted to set fire to the mosque on 11 November when it was occupied, but said he was involved in preparations. He was arrested with a friend following the murder of Theo van Gogh. There were Molotov cocktails in their car. Three others have previously been sentenced to two years jail.

Expatica, 9 May 2005

CAIR calls for FBI probe of mosque vandalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on the FBI to investigate recent vandalism at a Colorado mosque as a possible hate crime.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said a brick was thrown through a window of the Fort Collins Islamic Center on Sunday. Some community members say the attack is suspicious because it followed a forum Saturday to introduce a “Not In Our Town” chapter in that city. “Not In Our Town” is a group formed to fight hate groups. Police say surveillance cameras captured the crime. Local law enforcement authorities have not treated the vandalism as a hate crime because there was no message left at the scene by the perpetrators.

“It has been our experience that anti-Muslim bigots do not always leave a calling-card,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “We urge the FBI to devote its considerable resources to assist local authorities in this case.”

CAIR news report, 20 April 2005

 

Belgian king renews support for hijab-clad worker

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Belgian King Albert II and Queen Paola have made a rare visit to a factory where a hijab-clad woman was forced to quit her job over death threats, to express their support for the Muslim employee and her factory colleagues against extremist threats.

Naimi Amzil, of a Moroccan origin, was forced to quit her job in the Remmery seafood factory on March 3, after receiving death threats from an extremist group for no reasons other than being a veiled Muslim. Expressing outrage at the extremist threats, the Belgian monarch decided to visit the factory to back the Muslim employee and other factory workers against the extremist death threats.

During a reception party held on the sidelines of the King’s visit Tuesday, April 19, Rick Remmery, the factory owner, said the visit represents a powerful sign of support for the Muslim employee and the factory workers.

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Europe ‘failing to confront growth in racial violence’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

European governments have been accused of complacency and of failing to confront the scale of racist violence after a report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia said only a handful of nations collected proper information. There was clear evidence “that attacks on Muslim communities increased in the months following 11 September” and some victims were wrongly identified as Muslims.

The Independent, 13 April 2005

See also Islam Online, 14 April 2005

For the EUMC report, see here.