German banker rapped over headscarf remark

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Bob Pitt

Amid a rising tide of Islamophobia in Europe, a former finance senator in Germany has been strongly criticized for his racist, anti-Islam comments. On Sunday, Thilo Sarrazin, former Berlin finance senator and currently a member of the German Central Bank committee called for a headscarf ban in German schools.

His comments come only four months after the official let loose against “Arabs” and “Turks” living in Germany in an interview with the culture magazine Lettre International. “A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors,” he had said.

In his controversial remarks, Sarrazin also alluded to a new plan proposed by the country’s Immigration Commission, which would oblige foreigners seeking to live in Germany to sign “integration contracts” to respect Western values. “I don’t need to respect anyone who lives off the state, denies the state, doesn’t do anything to educate their kids, and just produces more headscarf girls,” Thilo Sarrazin had said.

Following his disparaging remarks, the senior official has faced strong criticism, with many calling on him to quit. On Sunday, Claudia Roth, leader of the German Green Party lambasted the executive board member, demanding his immediate resignation.

Press TV, 14 December 2009

Man who tore off Muslim woman’s veil convicted of assault

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Bob Pitt

A man who tore a Muslim woman’s veil from her face as he passed her in the street has been ordered by a court to pay her £1,000 in compensation. Stephen Ard, 29, of Gypsy Lane, Leicester, also received a jail term of 16 weeks, suspended for a year, and 150 hours of community service.

Leicester Magistrates’ Court heard victim Rehana Sidat felt “invaded and scared to walk down the street alone”. Ard pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated assault. Ms Sidat, who runs a drop-in centre for people with learning difficulties in Leicester, said: “He pulled my veil off and said ‘get that off’, he was really quite angry, it was shocking. I felt frightened.”

BBC News, 14 December 2009

Update: See also the Leicester Mercury, 16 December 2009

Muslim woman ‘abused’ over dress by Christian hotelier

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Bob Pitt

Free speech for Ben and Sharon A Muslim woman was asked by a Christian hotelier if she was a terrorist and a murderer because she was wearing Islamic dress, a court has been told.

Ericka Tazi told Liverpool magistrates she faced a tirade of abuse from Benjamin Vogelenzang and his wife Sharon, at their hotel on Merseyside. She said it was because she was wearing a hijab head covering and gown.

Mr and Mrs Vogelenzang deny using threatening, abusive or insulting words which were religiously aggravated. Members of campaign group The Christian Institute demonstrated in support of the couple outside the court.

Mrs Tazi, who converted to Islam 18 months ago, spent a month at The Bounty House Hotel on Church Avenue, Aintree, Liverpool, while attending a course at Aintree Hospital. Prosecutor Anya Horwood told the court Mr Vogelenzang, 53, called the prophet Mohammed a “warlord” and likened him to Saddam Hussein and Hitler. And his 54-year-old wife told Mrs Tazi her Islamic dress represented “oppression” and was a form of “bondage”, the court heard.

Mrs Tazi had worn European dress during her four-week stay, but the row flared after she came down on her last day in traditional Islamic dress. She said Mr Vogelenzang asked her “Why are you wearing those clothes?” and began laughing at her, the prosecutor told the court.

Ms Horwood said the hotelier then began to discuss his Christian faith but became angry – at which point his wife joined in. Mrs Tazi walked away but was followed by Mr Vogelenzang, who was acting like “a whirling dervish”, repeatedly asking her if she was a “terrorist”.

Giving evidence, Mrs Tazi told the bench that dressing in her hijab seemed to “trigger something” in the hotelier. The 60-year-old, who suffers from fibromyalgia and lives with chronic pain, said: “He just couldn’t accept the way I was dressed. He asked me if I was a murderer, if I was a terrorist. I’m a 60-year-old disabled woman, I couldn’t understand where it was coming from, it was shocking to me.”

Mrs Tazi said Mr Vogelenzang followed her into the dining room “flailing” his arms and “jumping up and down”. She added: “Sharon came running in, she was shouting ‘you started this with your dress’ and she was pointing in my face and I was frightened at this stage. I was absolutely traumatised by it all.”

Guests at the hotel told the court that Mrs Tazi was left distraught by the row. Pauline Tait, 52, a committed Christian, described it as “a very upsetting and volatile exchange”. Another guest, Shirley Tait, said she was in her bedroom when she heard Mr Vogelenzang shouting the words “Nazi” and “warlord”.

BBC news, 8 December 2009

Cf. Christian Institute, 8 December 2009, Daily Mail, 21 September 2009 and BNP news report, 20 September 2009

Citibank asked to apologise for hijab incident

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Bob Pitt

Citigroup To Cut Thousands Of Jobs Amidst Posting Huge Loss The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) today called on Citibank to apologize to a Muslim woman who was allegedly verbally abused by a security guard at a Gresham, Ill., branch because she wears a religious head scarf, or hijab.

According to the Muslim woman, the guard said it was against Citibank’s policy for customers to transact business wearing head coverings. While another Citibank employee did allow the woman to complete her business, that employee insisted on personally escorting her to the counter and watched over her shoulder as she conducted her transactions.

The guard also reportedly objected to the woman receiving service because it would encourage more of “them” to come into the bank. Throughout the process, which the Muslim customer described as “humiliating,” the guard allegedly made anti-Muslim remarks.

CAIR-Chicago is calling for the apology, a review of Citibank policies related to religious head coverings and for diversity training of bank staff.

CAIR-Chicago press release, 8 December 2009

Swiss leader calls for Muslim and Jewish cemetery ban

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Bob Pitt

A mainstream Swiss political leader is calling for a ban on separate Muslim and Jewish cemeteries. Christophe Darbellay, president of the Christian Democratic People’s Party of Switzerland, made the statement in a television interview Tuesday, two days after Swiss voters passed an initiative to ban minarets.

The anti-minaret initiative came from the opposition ultra-conservative Swiss People’s Party and other right-wing political organizations. Critics say Darbellay is starting a “crusade” to attract voters by proposing similarly xenophobic measures. Mainstream politicians and religious leaders across Europe have reacted with dismay to the anti-minaret vote.

According to the Swiss online daily Tagesanzeiger, Darbellay also wants to ban the wearing of burkas, head-to-toe veils worn by some fundamentalist Muslim women.

Darbellay reportedly said that existing cemeteries would not be affected by a ban, but that there should be no separate cemeteries in the future.

The Swiss People’s Party called for crackdowns on expressions of Muslim fundamentalism in 2006. Observers said the demand for separate cemeteries is an escalation.

JTA, 3 December 2009

Tariq Ramadan addresses French ‘burqa’ inquiry

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Bob Pitt

Tariq Ramadan 5 One of Europe’s leading Muslim scholars, Tariq Ramadan, told French lawmakers Wednesday they were failing to address the real problems facing French Muslims by debating whether to ban the burqa. Swiss-born Ramadan told a parliamentary inquiry holding hearings on the wearing of the full Islamic veil that a law banning the practice would simply force Muslim women who cover themselves to “stay at home”.

“This debate surrounding the burqa bothers me,” Ramadan told the panel. “Because in the end, this is not the question that needs to be raised. The real problem is that when you have a name that is a bit Arab-sounding, or Muslim by affiliation, you are not going to get a job or you are not going to get an apartment.”

The decision to invite Ramadan to testify before the panel had stirred much controversy with some of the lawmakers opposed to his appearance and accusing him of promoting hardline Islam

A professor of Islamic studies at Oxford, Ramadan warned lawmakers that a law banning the burqa would be counter-productive and urged them to instead work with French Muslim leaders for change. “All of this commotion over the burqa does tell ordinary citizens that there is something wrong with Islam and leads to stigmatisation,” he said.

Khaleej Times, 2 December 2009

Submitting anti-Muslim actions to a ‘Jewish test’

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Bob Pitt

Jonathan_Freedland “It’s a crude reaction but it’s the first one I had on hearing that the Swiss had voted to ban the building of minarets on mosques – the same reaction I have to the increasingly-frequent stories like it: how would I feel if this were not about them, but us? How, in other words, would I react if this latest attack were not on Muslims but on Jews?

“It’s crude because no two situations are ever exactly the same, and Muslims and Jews have different histories – in Switzerland and everywhere else. But it’s useful, allowing the testing of any proposition against an almost instinctive yardstick of decency.

“So how would I react if the Swiss voted to restrict the way synagogues are built? With horror, of course. Indeed, the mere hint of such a proposal in the heart of Europe – given the blood-soaked history of the 20th century – would send a shudder down the collective spine. That reaction alone would tell me that, on this proposal, there was only one decent place to be – against it.

“Or take Jack Straw’s campaign against the niqab in 2006. He and his supporters made what they hoped was a subtle, nuanced case against women wearing the full veil, but my first thought was much simpler. What if a government minister told ultra-orthodox Jewish men that, in their full beards, it was hard to tell them apart, or that he disliked the custom that commands ultra-orthodox Jewish women to cut off their hair, covering their heads with either a wig or a hat? No matter how subtle or nuanced his reasons, I would feel that this was, at best, an act of bullying directed at a vulnerable minority or, at worst, the first step towards something much more menacing.”

Jonathan Freedland at Comment is Free, 1 December 2009

Muslim students beaten for defending woman wearing hijab

Posted on November 27, 2009 by Bob Pitt

An 18-year-old Muslim student was attacked and beaten even after he lost consciousness by a gang of white youths on November 6. As they attacked him, they shouted “Where is your Allah now” and “Where is He to help you now.”

The first year business and computer undergraduate student had just left De Montfort University, Leicester, library with his friend at around 8.30 pm when they were attacked by around 10 white youths in Great Central Way, near the junction with Briton Street, Bede Island. The two students, Ahmed and Umar, (not their real name as they wish to remain anonymous) saw the gang taunting and abusing a Muslim woman wearing the hijab. She was with two other women who had gone ahead of her.

Ahmed told The Muslim News that he and Umar heard the gang tell the middle aged woman, “How do you like it if I walked in a balaclava. This is England. You should not be wearing a scarf.” They were concerned about what would happen to the Muslim woman and so they waited. One of the white youths turned towards them and asked them why were they were watching them. “I told them, ‘Leave her alone’.”

The woman tried to tell the white youths not to attack the students but they didn’t listen. The white youths assaulted Ahmed and Umar, and began beating them. Ahmed fell down and the gang continued to punch and kick him even after he was unconscious. They “jumped” on his head and kicked his body. He was picked up and thrown on to the ground.

Ahmed said the attack was “Islamophobic as they were talking about her scarf and also when they told me ‘Where is your Allah’ is to do with religion. How did they know we were Muslims? We could have been Sikhs for all they know.” Umar said the attack was both Islamophobic and racist as they had also shouted “Pakis”. He was “very angry” and said he never experienced racism in East London where he was from.

Muslim News, 27 November 2009

See also the comment piece by Kawsar Zaman, vice-chair of the MCB’s Youth Committee, “Can the BBC shirk its responsibility if anti-Muslim attacks increase?”

Family’s anger as attackers go free

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Bob Pitt

Muslim student's injuries The family of a student left with a pendant embedded in her face after a sickening racist assault have expressed their anger after her attackers escaped jail.

The two girls and one boy, all aged 16, were given referral orders or community sentences at Rochdale Magistrates Court on Monday morning, following the incident, which took place in June in the children’s playground in Springfield Park.

The uncle of the victim, who has asked not to be named, said his family would be disappointed with the sentences. He added: “This was an horrific attack so it is disappointing that the perpetrators have escaped custodial sentences. It sends the wrong message that if you launch a racist attack, you won’t be jailed.”

The victim had gone to the park with her three young sisters, aged between five and 11 and her sister in law, who was with her 18 month old baby. The pair took the younger children to play on the baby swings, but they were confronted by one of the 16 year old girls and Kirsty Leigh Hood, 19, who began verbally abusing them, including a chant of “BNP”.

The 16-year-old boy and the other girl later approached the victim and her sister in law and also became confrontational. When the boy mumbled something at the victim, she told him to speak English, to which he responded “I’m more British than you”. The boy then suggested to one of the girls that she should pull the victim’s headscarf off, and it was at this point that the girl punched the victim in the face, which such force that the pendant from her bracelet became embedded in her eye.

Manchester Evening News, 18 November 2009

Sarkozy repeats call for ban on veil

Posted on November 13, 2009 by Bob Pitt

Nicolas_Sarkozy President Nicolas Sarkozy has reiterated his belief that the burqa, the head-to-toe veil worn by some Muslim women, has no place in secular France.

“France is a country where there is no place for the burqa, where there is no place for the subservience of women,” he said in a speech on French national identity. He was speaking on Thursday in the Alpine town of La Chapelle en Vercors in his first intervention in a country-wide debate begun last month on what it means to be French.

Public meetings are due to take place in some 450 government offices around the country, involving campaigners, students, parents and teachers, unions, business leaders and French and European lawmakers. The debate will end with a conference early next year on the twin questions of “what it means to be French today” and “what immigration contributes to our national identity.”

The Socialist opposition has accused the government of pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment to shore up support on the Right ahead of regional elections in March. It has said the debate risks alienating France’s large immigrant communities. But Mr Sarkozy on Thursday defended the “noble debate” and said: “Those who do not want this debate are afraid of it.”

Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2009

Update: See “France will oppose but not ban burqas”, Reuters, 13 November 2009

Further update: See also Tom Heneghan’s piece, “France retreats from burqa ban plan amid burst of hot air”, at FaithWorld, 13 November 2009