Ken Livingstone has called for Londoners to be united after claiming that it is “the Muslims’ turn now” to be discriminated against. Mr Livingstone said he would like to see Muslims depicted in a “better balance”.
Labour’s London mayoral candidate, who is competing to take back City Hall from Conservative Boris Johnson, also claimed that right-wing politicians “pander to bigotry”.
Demonstration against last year’s March for England
A “patriotic” march planned for Brighton has sparked calls for counter demonstrations. Right-wing group March for England is heading to the city next weekend, angering local anti-fascist organisations.
A new group calling themselves Stop the March for England wants city residents to disrupt the event on Sunday. Brighton Unite Against Fascism, the group that staged counter-demonstrations during previous March For England events, is planning a series of meetings this week to mobilise opposition.
Stop the March for England is calling for supporters to line the route of next Sunday’s march. Lou Kenton of Stop the March for England said: “We are calling for all locals to oppose the march and the racist, fascist ideals it promotes under the guise of patriotism. We want people to harangue and mock the march so that, together, we can drown out their racist message. We want people to line the route and tell the March for England exactly how welcome they are.”
A colleague of Robert George, recently appointed to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom along with Zuhdi Jasser, has defended George’s role as a board member of the Bradley Foundation, which funds the likes of David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes and Frank Gaffney. Nick Sementelli is not impressed.
“It is now a year since the French government implemented a ban on the wearing of face coverings in public spaces, aimed at women who wear the full-face veil, popularly and incorrectly referred to as the ‘burqa’. Advocates of the ban argued it would protect gender equality and help maintain public order. A year later, it has done neither.” Hélène Irving reports.
More than 50 Muslim and non-Muslim civic and religious groups asked leading senators on Thursday (April 12) to rescind the appointment of an outspoken Muslim activist, Zuhdi Jasser, to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Jasser, a Navy-trained physician, is decrying the effort – and others to oust him from the independent watchdog panel – as a “smear tactic.”
A separate online petition that began circulating last week, also asking for his ouster, has garnered more than 2,000 signatures.
Community Unites with CAIR Against Hate at Hillsborough County School Board
Anti-Muslim Extremists Defeated at School Board
Diverse interfaith coalition stands united in solidarity with Muslim community
Dozens of diverse community members of many faiths attended yesterday’s school board meeting to request the school board not to give in to censorship by banning advocacy groups at the request of anti-Muslim extremists.
The board agreed that there is no place for censorship in America and that the current policies which permit teachers to invite qualified speakers to schools do not need to be changed. Those pushing for censorship claim that their problem was only with CAIR, not Islam, however, their statements caught on video shows that they really wished to attack Islam and Muslims as a whole. Their attack on CAIR was simply because CAIR is the largest Muslim civil rights organization.
Nonetheless, dozens of community members came out to oppose the hate and show solidarity with the Muslim community.
Eli Clifton (co-author of the Center for American Progress report Fear, Inc. The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America) points out that National Review has apparently decided to purge itself of white supremacists and racists and asks how long the magazine and its website will continue to host anti-Muslim bigots like Robert Spencer, David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes.
One year after France introduced a law banning women from wearing full-face veils in public, officials report that around 300 have been fined reported.
The ban on wearing the niqab in any public place was introduced on April 11th 2011. It is illegal for any woman to wear the veil except when they are at home, worshipping in a religious place or travelling as a passenger in a private car. Wearing the veil can lead to a fine of €150 ($200) and forced attendance at a citizenship class.
Interior ministry officials reported that “in one year there have been 354 police checks and 299 fines issued reports made,” reported Le Parisien newspaper.
Barack Obama himself has never had the guts to say it.
Indeed, while it is famously difficult to prove a negative, it seems apparent that few people in all of politics and media have had the guts to say it. Did John McCain ever say it? Did Rick Santorum or Bill O’Reilly?
So let us plant a little flag for, mark with a yellow highlighter, the thing Rep. Raul Labrador said Sunday on Meet The Press: that “it wouldn’t matter” if President Obama were a Muslim. And if it seems rather much to be handing out medals for such a modest statement of principle, well . . . the principle has been under fire for so long that even a modest statement feels momentous.
In recent years, public figures have made news for refuting (like McCain) or failing to refute (like Santorum) the canard that Obama is a follower of Islam. But outside of Colin Powell, who did so a few years back on Meet The Press, it is difficult to think of many – or any – who have dared to confront the notion implicit in the lie. Namely, that being a Muslim is incompatible with being an American.
Leonard Pitts Jr. applauds Idaho Republican congressman Raúl Labrador’s statement on the NBC news/interview programme Meet the Press.
Placards at EDL demonstration in Luton in February 2011
Anti-fascist activists, Muslim groups, trade unionists and local councillors in Luton are banding together to see off the threat from the racist English Defence League (EDL).
The EDL is threatening to march through Luton town centre on Saturday 5 May. They have targeted the town several times in the past, notably in February last year.
But the groups behind the “We Are Luton” statement have vowed to oppose the EDL and mount a march to St George’s Square. That’s the place where the EDL assembled last time, with police help.
“The EDL is a racist group dedicated to promoting hatred and intolerance in society,” the statement reads. “Islamophobia – bigotry against Muslims – is as unacceptable as any other form of racism.”