Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Fascists target Sunderland Muslims on Facebook

Posted on by Bob Pitt
Pam Branningan with Eddie Stampton

‘Angel’ unites with a ‘patriot’

Anti-fascists claim Far Right extremists are establishing roots in Sunderland and spreading racial hatred across the city via Facebook.

Activists from Hope not Hate claim a Wearsider using the alias “Angel Unites Patriots” is playing a central role in organising Far Right demonstrations against Muslims living in the city.

The organisation also claims the user behind “Angel” was among crowds of English Defence League (EDL) supporters chanting anti-Muslim slogans at last month’s demo against proposals for a new mosque of St Mark’s Road in Millfield.

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Lutfur Rahman responds to Nick Cohen

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets replies to smears by Nick Cohen at the Spectator. Accusing Cohen of  “irrational paranoia”, Lutfur Rahman writes scathingly: “I lament the passing of this country’s proud tradition of thorough, investigative journalism where hard evidence was intrinsic to a story rather than an inconvenience to be ignored.”

15-year-old girl expelled from French school for wearing a headband and long skirt which were considered ‘too religious’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 15-year-old Muslim girl has been expelled from school in France for wearing a headband and long skirt combination which was considered “too religious”, her teachers confirmed today.

Sirine Ben Yahiaten is now set to launch a criminal complaint for discrimination and harassment following her exclusion from the Prunais college in Villiers-sur-Marne, a Paris suburb.

It comes as President Francois Hollande pledges to reinforce the controversial ban on full-face Islamic veils introduced in 2011.

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Athens mayor defends Greek Muslims’ right to worship

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Giorgos KaminisAthens Mayor George Kaminis said the pending opening of the first official mosque in Greece, being built in Athens by the government, will pave the way for more, as many as two or more in each district of the city, spreading the influence of Islam.

During a meeting of the city’s council, Kaminis, a supporter of the mosque that some critics, such as the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party and some Greek Orthodox Church officials are trying to block, defended the construction “for obvious reasons of political equality and defense of the right to free exercise of religion” but also “for practical reasons, in order to put in order the irregular creation of such informal places.”

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Associated Press revises stylebook reference to ‘Islamist’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Following on the heels of the Tuesday decision by The Associated Press to discontinue use of the term “illegal immigrant,” the news agency on Thursday revised its stylebook entry for another politically charged term.

The term “Islamist,” the AP clarified in a Thursday afternoon alert to online stylebook subscribers, should not be used as “a synonym for Islamic fighters, militants, extremists or radicals.”

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Muslim women decry topless gender protests

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-Femen (1)A group of Muslim women has launched an online campaign in response to demonstrations by bare-breasted activists staged in front of mosques and Tunisian embassies across Europe.

The “Muslimah Pride Day” was organised in response to the Ukrainian women’s rights group Femen’s self-declared “Topless Jihad Day”, a day of topless protests around the world to support Tunisian activist Amina Tyler.

Organiser Sofia Ahmed, writing on Facebook, said: “Muslimah [Female Muslim] pride is about connecting with your Muslim identity and reclaiming our collective voice. Let’s show the world that we oppose Femen and their use of Muslim women to reinforce Western imperialism.”

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Bill banning sharia law in Oklahoma killed in committee

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The measure banning Sharia law in Oklahoma courts passed by Oklahoma voters in 2010 was shot down by a senate committee Thursday.

State Question 755 banned the consideration of Islamic Sharia law, derived from the Quran, when deciding Oklahoma court cases. It passed with 70 percent of the vote in November 2010, so then came House Bill 1552, by State Rep. Sally Kern.

That bill passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a bipartisan 76-3 vote on its third reading in March 2011. During a hearing this week, members of the Senate Rules Committee voted 6-9 against the measure.

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Muslim man sues New York City Transit Authority, alleging religious harassment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sheikh AhmedA former bus cleaner is suing the NYCTA for “persistent harassment due to his Muslim beliefs” and denying him “reasonable workplace accommodation of his religious observances,” according to a statement from DRUM, an advocacy group based in Queens.

According to the complaint, Bangladesh-born Sheikh Ahmed worked as a cleaner with NYCTA’s Department of Buses with a clean record for more than 10 years. Trouble apparently began, however, when Ahmed transferred to Brooklyn’s East New York Depot in 2009, where he claimed to be subjected to various forms of mistreatment for observing his daily prayer requirements, as well as denied leave to observe Jumah, which stipulates attendance of Friday afternoon service at an Islamic mosque.

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