Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

CAIR asks Oklahoma church to drop anti-Islam agenda

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fairview Baptist Church banner

The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK) today called on a church in that state to drop its anti-Islam agenda, citing the Islamophobic views of a church speaker who claims that President is an undercover Saudi Arabian “Muslim plant” in the White House.

The keynote speaker of tonight’s event at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., is Avi Lipkin, an infamous Islamophobe who alleges among other things that Muslims worship the devil and that all Muslims want to kill Christians and Jews.

“This kind of bigotry and hysteria only serves to fuel the growing chorus of anti-Muslim sentiment that is unfortunately spreading in the Heartland,” said CAIR-OK Executive Director Muneer Awad. “We respectfully request that the church drop this speaker and other hate-mongers, and offer its congregants a sincere opportunity for dialogue and information about Islam and Muslims.”

Continue reading →

Belgian anti-racism centre takes Dutch store HEMA to court over headscarf sacking

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HEMA

Leading Dutch retailer HEMA is being taken to court in Belgium after a female employee was fired for wearing a headscarf. The Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CGKR) is pressing charges against the firm.

HEMA dismissed the Muslim employee a year ago after customers complained about her headscarf. CGKR Director Jozef De Witte told Flemish media that his organisation made several attempts to broker a solution with the Dutch company, but without success.

Continue reading →

Muslim and Jewish organisations unite to condemn French PM’s call to scrap halal and kosher slaughter

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France’s Jews and Muslims united Tuesday to complain they were being used as pawns in a presidential election increasingly dominated by bitter disputes over national identity and ritual slaughter.

“France’s problems are so major, as we are in a period of crisis, so how can the issue of kosher meat and halal meat be a major problem for France?” asked an exasperated Grand Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim.

For its part, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) slammed what it said was the use of Muslims as “scapegoats” in the election campaign in which halal slaughter of animals has become a hot-button issue.

Continue reading →

New York Times condemns NYPD spying on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A series of articles by The Associated Press has exposed constitutionally suspect surveillance of Muslims in New York, New Jersey, Long Island and beyond. Unearthed police records noticeably lack any apparent link to suspected criminal activity, or any obvious payoff for public safety.

In particular, the A.P. reports revealed widespread police spying and the creation of police records containing information on Muslim people, mosques and campus groups, as well as luncheonettes, dollar stores and other legitimate businesses owned and frequented by Muslims, with no apparent reason to think anything wrong was going on….

It is a distressing fact of life that mistreatment of Muslims does not draw nearly the protest that it should. But not just Muslims are threatened by this seemingly excessive warrantless surveillance and record-keeping. Today Muslims are the target. In the past it was protesters against the Vietnam War, civil rights activists, socialists. Tomorrow it will be another vulnerable group whose lawful behavior is blended into criminal activity.

Mr. Bloomberg has reacted in the worst possible way – with disdain – to those raising legitimate questions about the surveillance program. Asking about its legality, and about whether alienating innocent Muslims is a smart or decent strategy, does not translate into being soft on terrorism, or failing to appreciate that it is a dangerous world….

We welcome last week’s statement by Attorney General Eric Holder that the Justice Department is beginning to review complaints about the N.Y.P.D.’s surveillance of Muslim and Arab communities to determine whether a full civil rights investigation is warranted. The review’s prompt completion should be a priority.

Meantime, we are wondering what happened to the Michael Bloomberg who stood up for fairness and religious freedom by backing a proposed Muslim community center near ground zero. We hope that mayor re-emerges soon to restore trust.

Editorial in New York Times, 4 February 2012

See also Michael Calderone, “New York Times weighs in on Muslim surveillance program by NYPD, calls out Mayor Bloomberg”, Huffington Post, 4 March 2012

Interior minister under attack over leaking and misrepresention of German Muslims study

Posted on by Bob Pitt

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has come under attack from the key author of “The Daily Life of Muslims in Germany” study, published by the Bild newspaper on Thursday. Some editorial writers have also questioned why Bild was able to obtain the study and release it first.

In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung published Saturday, the study’s main author Wolfgang Frindte said, “After the publication in a tabloid newspaper there was a lot of outrage and even despair in our team.” He said the findings were published in such a way that the Muslims who were interviewed for the study “could have felt misused, and that’s sad.”

Continue reading →

Far-right supporters agree with armed attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Stoke (3)Significant numbers of far-right supporters in the UK consider violence and “armed conflict” a legitimate form of political expression, experts will warn this week.

The first audit into the attitudes and beliefs of Britain’s rightwing extremists, collated in a report by the thinktank Chatham House, will reveal that there is a “significant level of support” for planned violent attacks.

Continue reading →

Mayor of Tower Hamlets replies to Evening Standard

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Since being elected Mayor, I have stood shoulder to shoulder with leaders from all religious faiths, with the LBGT community and residents from all walks of life in our cosmopolitan borough in preventing far Right extremists from the British National Party and the English Defence League from tramping their way through the East End as Mosley and his Black shirts did in the 1930s. Sadly, the racists and bigots feed from, and re-print, much of the dangerous nonsense that is being promulgated in some quarters that somehow my administration is ‘Sharia law fringed’ or ‘Islamism-lite’. My religion is a private matter. But the kind of society I want to see mirrors that envisaged by Prince Charles. It is essentially where no one particular religion has hegemony; instead we have a community of faiths.

Lutfur Rahman responds to the Evening Standard witch-hunt against him, the main aim of which has been to discredit Ken Livingstone, Labour candidate for London mayor.

Lutfur says that the Standard initially agreed to allow him the right of reply but then withdrew that offer. So this piece appears in the Huffington Post.