Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

MP urges EDL march ban on Bristol’s day of Pride

Posted on by Bob Pitt

English-Defence-LeagueA Bristol MP has written to police and the council urging them to scrap plans to allow a march by right-wing extremists to go ahead on the same day as the city’s Pride march.

The English Defence League (EDL) is allegedly planning on holding a march in Bristol on Saturday, July 14 – the same day as the city’s annual Pride celebrations.

Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, has said “many LGBT people will feel intimated by the proposed march and people will inevitably stay away from what is suppose to be a family friendly event”.

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Rochdale grooming case: Add a few irrelevant facts, stir and let prejudice do the rest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spot the odd one out. Jewish politician urged not to insult atheist party leader. Man from all-boys school sends intimate texts to attractive redhead. Straight black man wants same-sex marriage. Pakistani Muslims jailed for sexual assaults on white girls. The first three are ridiculously loaded and leading headlines. The last was a real one.

You may need some assistance here. Labour’s leader Ed Miliband has been advised not to burn his bridges with Nick Clegg in case a Lib-Lab pact is needed after the next election. Our old Etonian Prime Minister has been texting “lots of love” to Rupert Murdoch’s henchwoman Rebekah Brooks. Barack Obama has come out in support of gay marriage.

Nobody nowadays would dream of calling Miliband a “Jewish politician” in that way. So why are the 11 men convicted of sex offences in Rochdale described as “Pakistani Muslims”?

Paul Vallely in the Independent on Sunday, 13 May 2012

Al Jazeera on the US military’s anti-Islam classes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive material of a course taught on a US military base implying that Hamas has influenced the US government at the highest levels.

The course is called “Understanding the Threat to America.” And in it are hundreds of slides that claim to link the Muslim Civil Liberties Advocacy Organisation (CAIR) and other American Muslim groups to the Palestinian group Hamas. It was taught to senior military officers at a base in the state of Virginia.

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Muslim Americans challenge ‘no fly’ list in appeals court

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A panel of federal judges grilled Justice Department lawyers on Friday over the government’s “no-fly” list, questioning whether those barred from commercial air travel for suspected terrorism ties are given any realistic avenue for appeal.

Government attorneys were asked to defend the process as lawyers for 15 Muslims in the United States who have been placed on the no-fly list sought to reinstate their constitutional challenge of the airline security measure.

The plaintiffs, who are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents, said they learned of their “no-fly” status when they were blocked from boarding a commercial flight without prior notice, and were later denied any effective means of petitioning the government to be removed from the list.

“They have been deprived of their rights without redress,” Nusrat Choudhury, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, said in court, adding that her clients “want the opportunity to be heard before a decision-maker.”

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Sajjad Karim refutes far-right lies about EDL protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL protest against Sajjad KarimLast July Sajjad and his young family were subjected to a vile and racist protest outside their Lancashire home. Readers of this website will know that 12 members of the English Defence League pleaded guilty for actions that day that included other unaceptable behaviour.

Sajjad welcomed the fact that the innocent victims that day were spared giving evidence and reliving their ordeal.

In the past few days lawyers acting on behalf of the EDL have attempted to thwart and silence journalists in the Lancashire and Manchester area. The EDL claimed their guilty pleas had nothing to do with the demonstration at the Karim house. Journalists were told they would be sued or reported to the Press Complaints Commission.

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Muslim leaders warn of far right exploitation of Rochdale ‘grooming’ case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Liverpool Crown Court far-right demonstrationFar right groups are exploiting the conviction of nine men who were part of a gang which groomed girls for sex to create a “climate of hate” against Muslims, community leaders have warned.

Muslim groups say they have seen an upsurge in hate mail and abusive phone calls since the trial ended this week and community leaders are bracing themselves for more Islamophobic attacks on individual Muslims and mosques across the UK.

“We are already receiving hate mail and hate phone calls even though we issued a very strong statement condemning those involved,” said a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain. “If it can happen to MCB, you can just imagine what ordinary Muslims are facing as they go about their day-to-day business.”

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U.S. military taught officers: use ‘Hiroshima’ tactics for ‘total war’ on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dooley moderate Muslims
A slide from Lt. Col. Dooley’s presentation mocking the idea of moderate Muslims

The U.S. military taught its future leaders that a “total war” against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims would be necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists, according to documents obtained by Danger Room. Among the options considered for that conflict: using the lessons of “Hiroshima” to wipe out whole cities at once, targeting the “civilian population wherever necessary.”

The course, first reported by Danger Room last month and held at the Defense Department’s Joint Forces Staff College, has since been canceled by the Pentagon brass. It’s only now, however, that the details of the class have come to light. Danger Room received hundreds of pages of course material and reference documents from a source familiar with the contents of the class.

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Manchester’s chief constable disagrees with judge who told gang they targeted girls who were ‘not part of your community or religion’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Manchester’s top cop has dismissed comments from a judge who suggested the gang picked white girls because they were not of their “community or religion”.

As he jailed the nine men Judge Gerald Clifton told them: “Some of you acted as you did to satiate your lust, some to make money. All of you treated them as though they were worthless and beyond all respect. I believe one of the factors that led to that was that they were not of your community or religion.”

But Chief Constable Peter Fahy said he had a different view to Judge Clifton, telling us the gang members targeted girls because they were vulnerable, not because they were white.

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On Islam, Romney doesn’t have the slightest idea what he’s talking about

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Romney is a scary conspiracy theorist when it comes to the Muslim world, and his discourse in this regard is eerily similar to that of European far-right figures such as Anders Breivik…. he sees the Muslim world as in the grip of a congeries of pan-Islamic caliphate movements against which he wants to wage a Mormon jihad with trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. But in fact almost none of the movements he mentions has anything to do with al-Qaeda or a caliphate.”

Juan Cole assesses Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s understanding of Islam.

History News Network, 7 May 2012

Via Tabsir