Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Negative portrayal of Muslims in media fuels prejudice, Leveson Inquiry told

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE logoThe amount of negative stories about Muslims in the UK was demonising a whole religion the Leveson Inquiry has heard. Inayat Bunglawala, consultant editor to ENGAGE, appeared at the Inquiry to present evidence on representations of Islam and Muslims in the British media.

In its written submission to the Leveson Inquiry, ENGAGE highlighted the inadequate provisions in the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice to handle third party complaints and its negative cumulative impact on processes for redress of grievance.

It also heard that the excessive media attention granted to fringe Muslim groups to demonised the wider British Muslim population; and instances of gross misrepresentation or fabrication in the production of news stories relating to Islam and British Muslims fuelled a false narrative.

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Dutch veil ban legislation criticised by government advisory body

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Draft legislation aimed at banning burkas in the Netherlands has been heavily criticised by the government’s most important advisory body and needs significant amendments, news agency ANP reports, citing regional newspapers.

The GPD papers, who base their claim on sources in The Hague, say the Council of State delivered its recommendations to the home affairs ministry in November, but the legislation is only due to be sent to parliament this week – eight weeks later.

The Council of State has given the draft law “one of the most critical judgments possible”, ANP says. Estimates of how many women wear a burka in the Netherlands range from a handful to around 100.

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Charges against Muslims in NY amusement park clash to be dropped

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Playland arrest

Fifteen Muslims on Tuesday won conditional dismissals of charges stemming from an amusement park disturbance that started when women were told they couldn’t wear religious headscarves on some rides.

A Rye Town Court judge told the defendants their cases would be dropped if they stayed out of trouble for two months. Most had been charged only with disorderly conduct, but the charges ranged up to second-degree assault.

All the female defendants wore headscarves.

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Bloomberg blasts use of Islamophobic documentary during NYPD training

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Third JihadNEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that New York police used “terrible judgment” in showing officers undergoing counterterrorism training a graphic, hard-hitting film that says Muslim extremists are bent on establishing a worldwide Islamic regime.

Bloomberg said police have stopped showing “The Third Jihad,” a 72-minute documentary-style movie that has been branded inflammatory by some Muslim groups and was bankrolled, according to The New York Times, by a conservative group called the Clarion Fund.

“Somebody exercised some terrible judgment,” Bloomberg said in Albany. “As soon as they found out about it, they stopped it.”

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Muslim airline pilot ‘sacked because of religion’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim airline pilot who was sacked after links were discovered to two suspected terrorists told an employment tribunal today that an “air of suspicion” had been created around him because of his race and religion.

The British man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was suspended by the major airline after he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in October 2007 who were investigating two suspects. The pilot was linked to the pair through his brother who was a business partner with one of them.

The arrest led to the airline suspending his flight crewpass in order to carry out a full security review of his position which led ultimately to his dismissal in October 2010.

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France: far-right graffiti on mosque and pig’s heads left at construction site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Montigny-en-Ostrevent mosque graffiti
Fascist graffiti on the wall of Montigny-en-Ostrevent mosque

Saphir News reports on two Islamophobic attacks in France (see here and here). Fascist graffiti were painted on the wall of a mosque that is under construction in Montigny-en-Ostrevent, and two pig’s heads were left at the site where another mosque is being built in Nanterre.

See also “Islam en France : profanation de la mosquée de Montigny-en-Ostrevent”, AJIB, 19 January 2012

And “2 têtes de cochon à Nanterre”, CCIF, 22 January 2012

‘Alarming’ spike in anti-Arab sentiment concerns community

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ADCWASHINGTON — Shortly before the December holidays, an olive-skinned construction worker showed up to his job to find two holes drilled into his toolbox with wires sticking out – a prank by his co-workers, whose intention was to make the toolbox look like a bomb.

Taped onto the toolbox was a photoshopped picture of Osama bin Laden, with the construction worker’s face superimposed onto the image. The man’s supervisor called him into his office, “What’s going on here?” he asked. “Are you a terrorist? A jihadist?”

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HRW calls on West to accept Islamist rise to power

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The United States and other Western governments must accept the new reality that Islamists have emerged to fill the power vacuum in the Arab world after a wave of popular uprisings, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report Sunday.

The New York-based group also urged Islamist parties, which have emerged as the biggest winners in recent elections in Tunisia and Egypt and are expected to fare well in Libya, to respect the rights of women and religious minorities, saying they cannot “pick and choose” when it comes to human rights.

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