The EDL/NEI protest in Sunderland wasn’t the only far-right anti-Muslim demonstration on Saturday. A number of fascist groups gathered outside the University of Nottingham to protest against the Family Retreat event being held at the conference centre over the Easter weekend, at which Haitham al-Haddad was an advertised speaker.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
‘There is no secularism without freedom’ – CCIF launches petition against Islamophobia
The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France is promoting a petition which condemns the hijacking of the principle of secularism in order to demonise the Muslim community and calls for a parliamentary commission to investigate the rise of Islamophobia in France. “There is no real secularism without freedom”, the petition states. It was published with an initial 40 prominent signatories in Le Monde last week under the headline “Do not stigmatise Muslims!”
The New Atheists and Islamophobia
Until 9/11, Islam didn’t figure in the New Atheists’ attacks in a prominent way. As a phenomenon with its roots in Europe, atheism has traditionally been the archenemy of Christianity, though Jews and Judaism have also slipped into the mix. But emboldened by their newfound fervor in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the New Atheists joined a growing chorus of Muslim-haters, mixing their abhorrence of religion in general with a specific distaste for Islam (In 2009, Hitchens published a book called “God Is Not Great,” a direct smack at Muslims who commonly recite the Arabic refrain Allah Akbar, meaning “God is great”). Conversations about the practical impossibility of God’s existence and the science-based irrationality of an afterlife slid seamlessly into xenophobia over Muslim immigration or the practice of veiling. The New Atheists became the new Islamophobes, their invectives against Muslims resembling the rowdy, uneducated ramblings of backwoods racists rather than appraisals based on intellect, rationality and reason.
Nathan Lean, author of The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims, skewers Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens.
Long Island synagogue rejects call to cancel Geller appearance
A coordinated campaign is underway by a prominent Nassau County official to persuade Great Neck Synagogue leadership to cancel an appearance next month by outspoken Islam critic Pamela Geller, according to several sources.
Habeeb U. Ahmed, one of 15 appointed members of the Nassau Commission on Human Rights, has urged members of an interfaith group to bar Geller from speaking April 14 in Great Neck, according to a Jewish Press report.
East London Mosque opens doors to non-Muslims
The East London Mosque is opening its doors to non-Muslims in an attempt to promote a better understanding of Islam and what goes on inside the building.
Members of the local community are invited to take a look inside the mosque, observe prayers and ask questions about the religion, however challenging.
There will be an exhibition about the way of life for Muslims in the UK, as well as information about culture and history.
Hijab controversy dominates Le Bourget
French Muslim leaders opened on Friday, March 29, the Bourget’s 30th annual gathering in a climate of anxiety resulting from the recent controversy about hijab ruling.
“There is a real sense of unease among us,” Ahmed Jaballah, the president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), told Agence France Presse (AFP). “The latest statements on secularism show that there is a drift away,” he added.
Ahmed was referring to the recent controversy which followed a ruling by France’s top court that the dismissal of a Muslim woman from a private nursery school for refusing to remove her hijab amounted to “religious discrimination”.
In an unusual move, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls criticized the ruling against the nursery school as putting “secularism into question”.
Texas investigates school curriculum over claims of Marxist-Islamic conspiracy
Both Jessica Huseman at PolicyMic and Jason Stanford at the Huffington Post report on a controversy stirred up by two right-wing lunatics named Ginger Russell and Janice VanCleave, who claim to have discovered that “for the last seven years students all across the state of Texas have been indoctrinated with a pro communist, pro Islamic curriculum called CSCOPE”.
It all began when VanCleave found she was unable to access details of CSCOPE lessons online. As Russell recounts: “After further research it was discovered the Marxist philosophy behind Cscope and numerous lessons with a bias toward Communism pro Islam content.”
You might think that Russell and VanCleave would be dismissed as a couple of hysterical nutters. Not in Texas, however: “Instead, politicians are giving the conspiracy oxygen, and like a fire it is spreading. The Texas Attorney General is investigating CSCOPE and reportedly promised to ‘shut them down completely’ if he uncovers illegality.”
‘Abu Qatada? Odd name. Has a long beard too? Boot him out!’
Inayat Bunglawala welcomes this week’s ruling by the Appeals Court rejecting home secretary Theresa May’s latest attempt to deport Abu Qatada. He writes:
“Abu Qatada has now spent around ten years in prison without having been charged with any crime in the UK, let alone having been convicted of one. Can you imagine a middle class white person being treated the same way in the UK?”
Islamophobia overshadows bipartisan multiculturalism inquiry
A small but vocal group of bigots can congratulate themselves for successfully hijacking a much-needed national discussion on multicultural service provision, writes Dr Chloe Patton.
Columbus, Ohio: Muslim workers fired for praying at work
An advocacy group says 18 Muslims have filed federal complaints against a Westerville-based logistics company, saying they were fired for praying at work.
Exel Inc., a subsidiary of Deutsche Post DHL, is accused of denying requests to adjust break times to accommodate prayer or to allow employees to take unpaid prayer breaks, according to the Columbus chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The council said it filed the complaints on behalf of the workers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission yesterday.