Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Far right ‘fights Islamic bigotry against women’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENR Crayford mosque protest adWhen it comes to the ideology of Islamophobia, fascists invent nothing new – they just take their inspiration from the mainstream media. I doubt most of them had even heard of sharia law or halal slaughter until the right-wing press decided to create moral panics over these issues. In embracing received anti-Muslim prejudice, the one contribution the racist far right does make is to give it an additional thuggish twist.

So, with the likes of the Daily Mail having helped to stir up controversy over so-called “gender segregation” at iERA’s recent public meeting at University College London, it was only a matter of time before far-right racists adopted this as their cause.

Continue reading →

Internet ‘trolls’ target priest who allows Muslims to pray in church

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Isaac PoobalanA priest who has allowed Muslims to pray in his church has been hit by a barrage of abuse by internet “trolls”.

St John’s Episcopal Church in Aberdeen became the first church in the UK to share their building with Muslims after Rev Isaac Poobalan saw members of a neighbouring mosque praying outside in the snow because of a lack of space.

Hundred of Muslims now pray in the church’s main hall and chapel every week, but the news has not been well received by some Christians, who have taken to the church’s Facebook page to blast the decision.

Continue reading →

Geller and Spencer attempt to turn San Francisco’s LGBT community against Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AFDI anti-Islam gay adsOver the past year in San Francisco, the war over the popular conception of Islam has been continuously fought on the unlikeliest of battlefields–the sides of the city’s buses.

Purchased by the pro-Israeli American Freedom Defense Initiative, the most recent set of ads show inflammatory, anti-gay quotations from Muslims like controversial cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and U.K. radio personality Sister Ruby Ramadan.

“The ads will increase awareness about the subjugation and oppression of gays under Shariah law,” Geller told the San Francisco Examiner. “The gay community should be standing with me, not against me.”

Huffington Post, 20 March 2013

Continue reading →

Bad times for Muslims in Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENAR Racism in EuropeIslamophobia, or discrimination against Muslims, is widespread in many European countries. Prejudice towards Muslims is often more visible than that affecting other religious or ethnic minority groups. This is the conclusion of the first pan-European qualitative survey on Muslim communities in Europe, part of ENAR’s 2011/12 Shadow Report on Racism in Europe and released ahead of International Day Against Racial Discrimination.

Manifestations of Islamophobia include discrimination and violence towards Muslims, criminal damage to Islamic buildings, and protests against the building of mosques even in countries, such as Poland, where some Muslim communities have been established and integrated for centuries. Muslim women and girls are particularly affected, facing an extreme form of double discrimination on the basis of both their religion and their gender. In France for instance, 85% of all Islamophobic acts target women.

Continue reading →

France: Nursery worker wins court case over hijab sacking

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Baby LoupA French creche assistant who was famously fired for refusing to remove her Islamic head-scarf had her dismissal annulled by France’s highest appeals court on Tuesday. The court judged the sacking was “religious discrimination”.

Fatima Afif, a nursery assistant sacked in 2008 by the ‘Baby Loup’ creche for refusing to remove her Muslim headscarf at work, won an appeal against her dismissal on Tuesday.

In delivering their verdict judges at Paris’s ‘Cour de cassation’ – France’s highest appeals court – said her firing “constituted discrimination based on religious convictions and must be declared invalid.”

Continue reading →

Geller tells CPAC audience that conservative Muslims are waging a ‘stealth jihad”

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CPAC 2013 (2)On Saturday, Breitbart hosted an unofficial panel at CPAC aptly titled “The Uninvited: A series of controversial speakers and panels.” In their own words, the Breitbart panel was to “continue its tradition of leading conversations on issues the Republican establishment and the mainstream media refuse to address.” According to them, the issues that were to be discussed included “illegal immigration, global jihad and radical Islam and the persecution of Christians around the globe.”

However, the only thing the speakers, which included the likes of Pamela Geller, Frank Gaffney, and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, seemed to have focused on was ignorant, demeaning, and Islamophobic speech laced with ridiculous claims such as Frank Gaffney’s allegation that ex-Bush staffer and CPAC board member Suhail Khan, a Muslim, is the “prince of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Continue reading →

Aberdeen church opens doors to Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Isaac Poobalan and Ahmed MegharbiA Scottish reverend has invited Muslims to pray alongside Christians in an Aberdeen church because the nearby mosque is so small that some worshippers were forced to pray outside.

The rector of St John’s church, Rev Isaac Poobalan, has made parts of the building available to the congregation of the mosque. Up to 100 Muslims now pray in the main chapel five times every Friday.

Continue reading →