Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Islamophobia on the rise in Czech Republic

Posted on by Bob Pitt

IVCR Czech Controlled ZoneThe Czech Republic experienced a spike in Islamophobia in 2014 despite there being a very small number of Muslims in the country, Petr Zídek writes in the daily Lidové noviny (LN) today.

Although President Milos Zeman’s popularity plummeted in the past year, he is still highly respected by Islamophobes, Zídek writes.

In mid-December, the Islamophobes wrote a letter to Zeman in which they praised his open “objections to the Islamic theocratic and totalitarian ideology.” They highly appreciated Zeman for opposing “the efforts by influential groups in Czech and European society to pursue a policy of appeasement towards this old-new totalitarian threat.”

Leaders of the anti-Islam initiative, which has more than 93,000 supporters on Facebook, have asked Zeman to veto a planned bill that is to extend the powers of the ombudsman. They criticize the current ombudsman, Anna Šabatová, for having defended two female Muslim students whom a Czech secondary school did not permit to wear head scarves earlier this year, Zídek writes.

The Czech Islamophobes fail to understand that the core of the dispute was not Islam and its habits but the question of whether school rules may be at variance with the constitution, Zídek writes.

The Islamphobes say if the ombudsman’s powers were extended, Šabatová would use her new powers to “persecute the critics of Islam and thereby strengthen the presence of Islam in the Czech Republic,” Zídek quoting them as saying.

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Eslöv holds demonstration in solidarity with firebombed mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Eslöv solidarity demo (2)

Sydsvenskan and Skånska Dagbladet report that two hundred people attended last night’s rally organised by “Tillsammans för Eslöv” (Together for Eslöv) in solidarity with the local mosque, which suffered an arson attack on Monday.

The demonstration called for security, freedom of religion and a Eslöv without violence. Speakers included Rebecka Barjosef of Tillsammans för Eslöv, Adnan El-Tahan of the Eslöv Islamic Cultural Association and the vicar of Eslöv, Cerny Erikson.

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Luton Islamic Centre exposes EDL lies

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Return of Khilafah

A Message to EDL Supporters: “You’re being lied to!”

On the 31 December-2 January 2015, Luton Islamic Centre are organising a conference entitled “Return of Khilafah and Jihaad, the correct understanding”. The purpose of this conference is to clarify to the Muslim community, the deviated beliefs of ISIS, Al-Qaida, and their followers. From the supporters of ISIS are the UK based group Al-Muhajaroon.

Luton Islamic Centre has been in the forefront of warning against violent extremism and its advocates. We have produced and distributed across the UK, tens of thousands of anti-extremism leaflets, including 50,000 leaflets entitled: “Al Muhajaroon, the extremist cult exposed”. We have also funded the publication of several books written to refute the ideology of Al Qaida. (pdf link: http://www.calltoislam.com/pdf/Al-Muhaajiroon%20-%20The%20Extremist%20Cult%20Exposed.pdf)

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Rightwing thinktank pulls funds for Commons groups after disclosure row

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HJS logoA rightwing thinktank, accused of pushing an anti-Muslim agenda, has pulled funding for two parliamentary groups which focused on homeland and international security after refusing to disclose its donors to the Commons’ standards watchdog.

In a ruling earlier this month the parliamentary commissioner for standards upheld complaints against the homeland security and transatlantic and international security parliamentary groups for taking secretariat support from a neoconservative thinktank where Tory chief whip Michael Gove was a former trustee, without getting assurances over its funding.

The Henry Jackson Society, a registered charity, had provided an office and staff to organise meetings for the two groups, chaired by Tory MP Bernard Jenkin and Labour MP Gisela Stuart. The arrangement also saw the society’s political director, Davis Lewin, and its events manager, Hanna Nomm, given Commons passes as part of this support.

The agreement was terminated after the standards’ commissioner, Kathryn Hudson, said the society should “make available on request a list citing any commercial company which had donated more than £5,000 either as a single sum or cumulatively in the last 12 months”. The society declined and pulled the funding. A spokesman said: “Our donors are entitled to privacy. We do not wish to expose them to unwarranted funding requests by publishing their details.”

The thinktank has attracted controversy in recent years – with key staff criticised in the past for allegedly anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant comments. Its associate director, Douglas Murray, complained last year that London had “become a foreign country” because white Britons were a minority in 23 of 33 London boroughs. Murray has also been pictured with Robert Spencer, the far-right US anti-Islam campaigner banned last year from Britain by the Home Office.

In 2012 its then director William Shawcross, who runs the Charity Commission, said “Europe and Islam is one of the greatest, most terrifying problems of our future”.

The complaint was lodged by Spinwatch, which campaigns for greater transparency in public and corporate life. It said it was concerned the society would not even “comply with Parliament’s modest new transparency rules”.

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German-Turkish NGOs condemn growing Islamophobia in Germany

Posted on by Bob Pitt

İhsan ÖnerTurkish and Islamic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) based in Germany, which hosts one of the largest populations of Muslim immigrants in Europe, have harshly condemned anti-Islam demonstrations held under the guise of patriotism in eastern Germany.

Criticizing populist German politicians as well as the German media, representatives of the NGOs stated that the prejudicial attitudes and behavior of political figures and media led to the creation of racist groups such as Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (Pegida).

“While populist politicians have for years approached their Muslim minorities in an extremely prejudiced way, the German media, with their Islamophobic headlines, have paved the way for Islamophobia,” said European-Turkish Islam Union (ATİB) chief İhsan Öner.

According to German media reports, Pegida grew out of a social media group and now comprises at least 17,000 people who have gathered regularly since early December in Dresden, the birthplace of the movement, to protest against Islam, incoming Muslim immigrants and what they call “religious extremism.”

Every Monday at 6 p.m., tens of thousands of people assemble in Dresden, a city in eastern Germany, and chant slogans against Islam, Muslim immigrants and the Islamization of the country and of Europe. The group’s Facebook page has nearly 95,000 followers. The latest rally took place on Dec. 29 and the next one is scheduled to take place on Jan. 5, 2015.

Calling for an end to the political bias and media reports that are fueling anti-Muslim sentiments and thus leading to the formation of racist groups such as Pegida within German society, NGOs such as the European-Turkish Islamic Union (ATİB), the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD), the Federation of Democratic Workers Associations (DİDF) and the Islamic Society of National Vision (IGMG) said Germany can do better in its attempts to fight racism and discrimination.

ATİB General Director Öner believes these anti-İslamic movements and behavior have increased. “We are concerned as to our future as a Muslim minority in this country,” he said.

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Australian broadcaster ordered to pay $10,000 for racial vilification

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alan JonesBroadcaster Alan Jones has been ordered to pay Muslim community leader Keysar Trad $10,000, ending a nine year battle over a radio segment found to have “stimulated listeners to hatred” of Lebanese men.

The Civil and Administrative Tribunal found comments broadcast on 2GB in April 2005 “portrayed Lebanese males as criminals and … as posing a threat to the Australian community”.

The tribunal found Mr Trad’s complaint of racial vilification over the comments, which Jones described as being a letter from a listener, was substantiated.

The letter said Lebanese men “simply rape, pillage and plunder a nation that’s taken them in”. The radio segment followed a story on A Current Affair about a group of men, who Jones said “announced themselves as Lebanese Muslims”, gathering at Brighton-le-Sands and The Rocks.

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Another arson attack on a Swedish mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Samir MuricPolice suspect a mosque in southern Sweden was deliberately torched on Monday, with a local imam blaming rising Islamophobia in the region.

Emergency services were called to the mosque in Eslöv, a small city in the south of the country, at around 3.15am on Monday. It is understood that the blaze began after flammable liquid caught fire in one of the rooms in the building.

Firefighters quickly arrived at the scene and were able to prevent the fire spreading, although the flames still caused minor damage to the building.

Firefighters suspect foul play. “There is no possible natural explanation for this type of fire to break out by itself”, fire department spokesman Gustaf Sandell told Sveriges Radio.

Samir Muric, the local imam, said he was worried for his own safety. “Unfortunately, this is probably something to do with Islamophobia. I live close by and it’s beginning to feel unsafe,” he told the TT news agency.

The local fire brigade said that with residential homes on top of the mosque, it was lucky that they were able to quell the blaze before more damage was done.

“Think of all the people who lived above,” added Muric. “Think how shocked they must be. I notice that people are scared. I’ve already noticed that fewer people are coming to the mosque with all the vandalism. I can only imagine how an arson attack will affect this.”

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Anti-Muslim hate crimes on rise, says charity

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The number of Muslim women reporting hate crime has risen by up to 10%, according to a UK charity.

TELL MAMA, a national project measuring anti-Muslim incidents, has told Sky News that over the last 18 months they have seen a 5-10% increase. The number of women wearing the niqab, the face veil, and reporting hate crime has also doubled in the last two years.

Fiyaz Mughal, director of TELL MAMA, says it is not clear whether incidents are rising or reporting of the problem is getting better.

“Over the last two years our data has shown that women suffer more incidents of hate and they also suffer more aggressive incidents of hate,” he said. “The veil seems to delegitimise the sense of femininity of that person in the eyes of the perpetrator. It seems to become something they become fixated upon rather than the individual, the female behind the veil.”

Research has shown that Muslim women are subjected to “opportunistic” verbal or physical attacks, mostly by men, on the street.

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German-Turkish group warns against ‘dialogue’ with far-right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

safter cinarA Turkish community leader in Germany warned Sunday against proposals by mainstream politicians for “dialogue” with a far-right populist movement that has drawn thousands to anti-Islamic street protests.

Several ministers and lawmakers have argued the government must listen to the fears about immigration voiced by the so-called “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” or PEGIDA.

The chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany, Safter Cinar, warned that seeking to understand PEGIDA was dangerous and that xenophobia and racism must remain taboo, the newspaper Tagesspiegel reported.

“What kind of dialogue are we talking about?” he said about the movement which drew a record 17,500 marchers in the eastern city of Dresden last Monday. “Should we tell the demonstrators that Muslims are human beings too?”

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Thousands sign online petition against German anti-Islam PEGIDA movement

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-PEGIDA petitionMore than 65,000 people have signed an internet petition against the right-wing PEGIDA movement since it was established on Christmas Eve. The signatures are being collected on change.org, with its organizer aiming to reach 1 million.

PEGIDA was formed in October in response to growing sentiment within Germany against immigration and Islam, with its protests particularly focused on the eastern German city of Dresden. The group’s name loosely translates to “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West.”

The latest protest in Dresden on Monday drew a record 17,500 people. However, resistance to the movement is growing, with thousands joining counter-demonstrations.

“Now is the time to profess that the phrase ‘We are the people!’, regardless of origin, color, religion or whatever, has been and must continue to hold true,” organizer Karl Lempert said.

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