Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

San Antonio Muslim family targeted on Fourth of July

Posted on by Bob Pitt

San Antonio 'terrorist' graffitiSAN ANTONIO, Texas — It was America’s birthday but for one family July Fourth was no party. It was a nightmare for a Muslim family who said someone spray-painted the word “terrorist” on their home Wednesday morning and it didn’t stop there.

The family said on Wednesday night someone rang their doorbell and started banging on the front door. The family told police they also heard fireworks being thrown at their door.

San Antonio police are investigating the incident as criminal mischief, but the family, who is of Pakistani heritage, wants more done. They are asking for the FBI to get involved.

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Jews, Christians and Muslims back bar on Geller

Posted on by Bob Pitt

As Jews, Christians and Muslims united together to find paths to peace, we the participants and friends who are part of the Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative, are grateful for The Jewish Federation’s decision to cancel the speaking engagement of Pamela Geller (“Federation Bars Anti-Muslim Activist From Speaking“, June 29). The last thing this or any other community needs is a hate and fear promoter “shouting fire in a crowded theater” in the name of “free speech” or “balanced debate.” Ms. Geller’s record of vitriol and venom speaks for itself, and her appearance, like her other talks, would have been a deliberate, hate-filled provocation. Her words of anger and panic would not have contributed to an honest, respectful expression of a contested viewpoint, but instead would have inflicted significant damage upon any fragile bridges of true understanding that we and others have been trying to build for years.

Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels
Rabbi Jonathan Klein
Rabbi Steve Jacobs
The Rev. Ed Bacon
The Rev. Carissa Baldwin-McGuiness
The Rev. Paige Eaves
Pastor Ryan Bell
Hussam Ayloush
The Rev. Dr. Art Cribbs
The Rev. Frank Alton
Father Chris Ponnet
Dr. Steve Wiebe

Letter in the Jewish Journal, 5 July 2012

Attack on Missouri mosque part of national pattern

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Joplin Globe has a good article placing the recent suspected arson attack on the Islamic Society of Joplin’s mosque in the context of a general rise in anti-Muslim bigotry and hate crime.

The report quotes an ACLU spokeswoman as stating that the fact that the incident took place on 4 July is particularly troubling: “On Independence Day, we should be celebrating all of our freedoms, including freedom of religion.”

Why the attacker should have chosen that date is as yet unclear. Perhaps they’d been fired up by reading Robert Spencer.

FIFA lifts ban on women wearing headscarves

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FIFAFootball chiefs agreed on Thursday to lift a ban on women wearing headscarves during games, clearing the way for the participation of many Muslim nations in top-flight competition.

Until the vote by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) here, players were prevented from wearing a headscarf, or hijab, at the sport’s highest level for safety reasons and on religious grounds. Critics said the ban promoted inequality at the highest level of the world’s most popular game.

AFP, 5 July 2012

See also “FIFA lift ban on Islamic headscarves”, Reuters, 5 July 2012

Update:  And “AFC says ‘right’ to lift headscarf ban”, AFP, 6 July 2012

Bristol: council rejects calls for ban on EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol protest against EDL march

Councillors will not be calling on the Home Secretary to ban the English Defence League from marching through Bristol.

Campaigners gathered at the Council House last night to protest at the far-right group being allowed to stage the event in the city on July 14. About 20 people rallied outside the College Green building ahead of the meeting of the council’s cabinet.

They held placards and banners bearing the words “defend our multicultural city of Bristol” and “No to racism, EDL is not welcome here”. Some chanted slogans against the EDL, which describes itself as an anti-Islamist organisation.

Paulette North, one of the organisers of the rally, was armed with a megaphone during the protest, shouting: “We should be saying the EDL are not welcome here and if they do come they should be concentrated in the open area behind Temple Meads, do whatever they want there and then go home. That’s what Tower Hamlets and Milton Keynes did and that is what we are asking this council to do – but they have done very little and really need to do more.”

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New study of Islamic headscarf controversy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Headscarf ControversyThe most controversial article of clothing of the early 21st century may be the headscarf.

In her new book, The Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Freedom of Religion, UCSB professor Hilal Elver tackles the issue currently affecting Muslim women – and courtrooms – around the world.

Elver, a global and international studies scholar, explains the legal and historical background of wearing headscarves in public places, specifically in Turkey but also in Germany, France, and the United States.

Elver believes that due to the recent “war on terror” in the Middle East, many Western countries have banned public use of the headscarf, supposedly in the name of women’s rights. But rather than helping women, she argues, the ban has had the disastrous effect of excluding pious Muslim women from society.

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Petition calls for EDL march in Bristol to be banned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A petition with more than 2000 signatures calling for a ban on the English Defence League’s march next weekend, will be handed in to Bristol City Council tomorrow.

It includes names from trade unionists and faith groups across the city, asking to prevent the march taking place on the 14th of July .

Similar EDL marches in Telford and Luton have been banned. There will also be a lobby outside of the Council House, College Green at 5.30pm before the Cabinet meeting.

ITV West, 3 July 2012

Update:  See also “Campaigners lobby for Bristol EDL march to be called off”, Bristol Post, 4 July 2012

Islamophobia: a bipartisan project

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Deepa Kumar Islamophobia and the Politics of EmpireDeepa Kumar, author of the new study Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, argues that the demonisation of Islam is nothing new and that “the ‘Muslim enemy’ is inextricably tied to a long history of US imperialism”.

Nor is it just the Republican right that views the Muslim world as a potential threat to US interests. The author argues:

“Liberal Islamophobia may be rhetorically gentler but it reserves the right of the US to wage war against ‘Islamic terrorism’ around the world, with no respect for the right of self-determination by people in the countries it targets. It is the ‘white man’s burden’ in sheep’s clothing.”

The Nation, 2 July 2012