German bigotry shifting from race to religion

German anti-mosque placardA new study warns that Islamophobia in Germany is becoming culturally acceptable, as bigotry leaves the confines of ethnicity and moves towards religious bias against Muslims.

“It’s no longer ‘the Turks’ but ‘the Muslims’,” Wilhelm Heitmeyer, head of the institute for research of interdisciplinary conflict and violence at Bielefeld University told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Monday. Research has led him to be concerned general xenophobia had given way to a growing rejection of Islam in Germany.

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CAIR auctions off Allen West’s ‘Nuts!’ letter on ebay

Former Congressman Allen West’s “Nuts!” letter went up for auction on ebay today with a starting bid of $1000.

The letter received a wave of national press coverage in July 2011 when it was written as a response to the Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization CAIR’s penning of a letter titled Cut your ties with anti-Islam Extremist!

The framed paper, hailed as “one of the shortest Congressional Letters ever written in US History,” is the original letter on official U.S. Congressional stationary signed by Allen West.

The listing states, “This item has something for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a die-hard member of the Tea Party, Democratic Party, or protect the Civil Rights of Americans; this item is perfect for your collection.”

BizPac Review, 7 January 2013

See also CAIR press release, 7 January 2013

Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and freedom of speech

Watching Randy Linn in court last month was unsettling. He pleaded guilty to defacing religious property, using fire to commit a felony, and carrying a firearm as he walked through the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo last Sept. 30. He accepted a binding plea agreement of 20 years in prison, without appeal or parole, for the arson.

His diatribe at the hearing was worse. He cited news media, especially Fox News, for inspiring his desire to avenge U.S. military deaths. He conceded he knew nothing about Muslims or Islam, other than that Muslims did not believe in Jesus Christ as savior.

America’s Constitution promises justice, liberty, and protection of citizens. Yet a wave of Islamophobia, reflected in incidents such as the Islamic Center arson, suggests that we are more intent on protecting freedom of speech than Americans’ lives and property.

In 2004, when he signed the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act, President George W. Bush said that “extending freedom also means disrupting the evil of anti-Semitism.” The law requires a specific federal agency to document acts of physical violence against Jews, their property, their cemeteries, and their places of worship. It also mandates monitoring of anti-Jewish propaganda and promotion of unbiased school curricula.

There is no similar law to respond to this country’s ferocious and well-funded Islamophobia industry, which relentlessly whips up anti-Muslim sentiment that can inspire disturbed people to destroy property, maim, and even kill.

Mahjabeen Islam in the Toledo Blade, 6 January 2013

Stand by for right-wing Islamophobes and self-styled secularists to denounce this excellent article as a demand for a blasphemy law and for the destruction of free expression in the US through the imposition of Sharia on the non-Muslim majority.

‘My Jihad’ ad campaign rolls out on San Francisco buses

My Jihad poster (3)

For the second time in recent months, billboards on side of San Francisco’s fleet of buses have become the front lines in a fight over the place of Islam in American popular culture.

A new series of ads from the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ spinoff group My Jihad promote an awareness campaign directed at redefining the widespread conception of the meaning of the controversial word. The advertisements are slated to run on 35 city buses throughout the month of January.

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Belgian Hema store wrong to sack headscarf-wearing worker

A Belgian branch of Dutch department store Hema was wrong to sack a woman worker for wearing a headscarf, a Belgian industrial tribunal ruled on Wednesday.

The woman had worked for the store in Genk for two months wearing a headscarf but was then sacked for refusing to remove it after complaints from customers.

The tribunal ordered Hema to pay the 21-year-old woman six month’s salary – €9,000 – in compensation.

The company has since drawn up formal clothing requirements for its Belgian stores, news agency ANP said.

Dutch News, 2 January 2013

See also KUNA, 2 January 2013