Samer Hijazi demolishes claims about the supposed rise of Sharia law in Dearborn, Michigan, made in a recent press release by Qur’an-burning Florida pastor Terry Jones.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
CAIR asks FBI to probe anti-Muslim Facebook death threat
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on the FBI to investigate a death threat posted on its Facebook page by a person claiming to be in the U.S. military.
A man who says he is an “M1 Abrams Armor Crewman” who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., threatened to kill others who commented on an article posted Saturday on CAIR’s Facebook page.
In a series of comments on CAIR’s page, “Edward Veal” wrote: “no more islam! i will kill any who try to make my country muslim!. . .especially repliers to this post. . .all muslims are terrorists, they should have no rights at all. . .if i find out who you are, i will find you. . .and remove you!” [Grammatical errors maintained.]
Fighting Islamophobia at Yale
Mostafa Al-Alusi and Faisal Hamid, president and vice president of the Yale Muslim Students Association, call on their fellow students to take up the fight against Islamophobia.
Developer answers Sunderland mosque protestors
The construction firm behind plans for a controversial mosque has defended its proposals after a backlash from neighbours.
As reported in the Echo, hundreds of protesters have filed official objections against plans to convert a disused vehicle depot in St Mark’s Road, Millfield, into a mosque. More than 600 letters of objection – and a petition bearing 1,462 signatures – have been sent to planners at Sunderland Council, urging councillors to refuse planning permission for the project. Protesters fear they will be plagued by traffic, parking and noise problems if the development goes ahead.
Now Anthony Watt of AM Watt Design, based in Alpine Way, Sunderland, has written to planners addressing some of the concerns. “There are 45 families within this mosque,” he said. “Giving a population of approximately 250 people. The majority live and work within walking distance of the site. Three or four may work outside the area. The main prayer day is Friday, and a maximum of 130 people might attend prayer.”
Tennessee: state panel unanimously approves anti-Muslim training course for police officers
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A state panel has unanimously approved credits for a law enforcement training course that critics have called anti-Muslim.
The Muslim civil rights organization Council on American-Islamic Relations is among those that have publicly denounced the “Understanding the Threat to America” course by a Virginia nonprofit. One of the trainers was John Guandolo, who recently told a Nashville audience that local mosques do not have a right to constitutional protections.
Members of the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office participated in the training earlier this week and asked the Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission to approve it.
The commission gave its unanimous approval at its Friday meeting without discussing the objections from Muslim groups. New commission member Sen. Jim Summerville said he voted in favor because he supports anti-terrorism training.
Right-wing Christian bigot resumes campaign against Newham ‘mega-mosque’
Fresh proposals for a permanent mosque risk turning part of West Ham into an “Islamic ghetto”, say opponents.
A public exhibition was held by Tablighi Jamaat in Stratford in a bid to gather support for the Riverine Centre in Canning Road – dubbed a “mega-mosque”. The plan includes a 9,500 capacity mosque with 40m high minarets, library, visitors centre, and a 300-space car park for worshippers.
FBI purges hundreds of terrorism documents in Islamophobia probe
An internal FBI investigation into its counterterrorism training has purged hundreds of bureau documents of instructional material about Muslims, some of which characterized them as prone to violence or terrorism.
The bureau disclosed initial findings from its months-long review during a meeting at FBI headquarters on Wednesday with several Arab and Muslim advocacy groups, attended by Director Robert Mueller. So far, the inquiry has uncovered and purged over 700 pages of documentation from approximately 300 presentations given to agents since 9/11 – some of which were similar to briefings published by Danger Room last year describing “mainstream” Muslims as “violent.” And more disclosures may be forthcoming, as the FBI continues its inquiry and responds to Freedom of Information Act requests for the documents themselves.
Arson won’t chase him from home
Mohamed Soltan will always remember Martin Luther King Day. On the morning of Jan. 16, 2012, someone set fire to his parents’ home on Britton Farms Drive while he slept.
“I was sleeping and my roommate (Ahmed Mahmoud), thankfully, he’s a really light sleeper, he comes into my room and is waking me up,” said Soltan, a 24-year-old student at Ohio State University. He grabbed his cell phone and a sweatshirt and ran down the stairs of his parents’ home.
“We had already inhaled a wave of smoke,” Soltan said. “I was coughing, choking, calling the dispatcher. I was really worried that the fire was going to get out of hand, because we saw it coming from the side. I was really scared for my neighbors.”
No one was hurt, but there was a lot of damage to the structure, and most of the contents are not salvageable, Soltan said. However, the memories made over eight years – the longest Soltan has lived in any one place – remain.
FOSIS are a good example of Muslims engaging with society
Assed Baig defends the record of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.
Huffington Post, 16 February 2012
See also Reyhana Patel, “University Islamic Societies are not ‘hotbeds’ for radicalisation”, Huffington Post, 14 February 2012
Islamophobia in Ireland: new study
Ireland’s failure to gather statistics on hate crime and discrimination against Muslims amounts to institutional racism, according to a pioneering research project which will be unveiled at University College Cork on Saturday.
The failure, in particular, by the gardaí to use its Pulse electronic system to monitor crimes against ethic and religious minorities facilitates Islamophobia in Ireland, argues James Carr of University of Limerick.
He said: “The Garda Pulse system still does not capture if religion was an aggravating factor in a crime; thus, we cannot tell the extent of incidents Islamophobic behaviour from Garda recorded crime statistics.”
He said this flies in the face of the National Action Plan Against Racism, which had prioritised the gathering of comprehensive date on offences tainted by racism.
Mr Carr’s paper, ‘Measuring Islamophobia’, forms part of a research project contained in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs which will be presented to the public at UCC.
He describes the phenomenon as a form of racism specific to members of Muslim communities and reinforced by stereotypical negative images of Muslims.