Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Majority of Dutch back queen wearing headscarf to mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Queen Beatrix wore a headscarf while visiting a mosque in Oman this week, as a sign of respect for local custom. The Party for Freedom (PVV) criticized her, saying she was supporting the oppression of women under Islam.

According to a Maurice de Hond poll, 79% of the Dutch think she acted properly. 20% think the Queen shouldn’t have worn a headscarf. 53% also think that Beatrix should wear a headscarf when visiting a mosque in the Netherlands. Among PVV voters, 47% think the Queen acted properly, 53% disagree.

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Unite Against Fascism calls emergency protest against EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF is organising an emergency protest against the English Defence League in Barking and Dagenham, east London, on Saturday 14 January.

The EDL is an organisation of racist and fascist thugs, who particularly target Muslims.

They plan to march through Barking as part of its attempts to stir up racism and division in the area. EDL supporters have aready staged a series of demonstrations in Dagenham against a proposed mosque.

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Daily Star editor endures Leveson grilling for ‘anti-Islam’ coverage

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daily Star Muslim ThugsThe editor of the Daily Star endured a bruising encounter at the Leveson inquiry today, facing sustained questioning over her newspaper’s coverage of Muslims.

Counsel Robert Jay repeatedly showed Dawn Neesom front pages of her newspaper and asked if she considered them “ethical”. “A journalist might feel the headlines we’ve been looking at stray way over the line of what’s ethical,” he said.

Mr Jay showed one front page featuring the headline: “Muslim thugs aged just 12 in knife attack on Brit school boy.” He branded the language “tendentious”, pointing out that the victim was described as “British”, but the perpetrators, who were also British, were described as “Muslim”. He also pointed out that the ‘attack’ actually referred to a comment on Facebook.

“It’s not good,” Ms Neesom admitted. She promised to pursue the issue “back in the office”.

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Green presidential candidate says France should honour Muslim and Jewish religious festivals

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Eva JolyFrance’s Green presidential hopeful raised heckles across the political spectrum Tuesday by suggesting that France should honour Muslim and Jewish festivals as well as Christian ones, by according them a national holiday.

Speaking in Paris on Wednesday at her first campaign rally, Green presidential candidate Eva Joly argued that national holiday status should be accorded to the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr and the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.

“Each religion should benefit from equal treatment in the public sphere,” she said. “I believe that national holidays should also be accorded to faiths other than the Catholic faith.” Describing religious equality as a “key element” of French identity, she then blamed the policies of President Nicolas Sarkozy for dividing religious communities. “Yes, I’ll say it,” she said. “This [suffering] has been caused by five years of Sarkozy-ism.”

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Dutch queen dismisses mosque visit criticism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Queen BeatrixDutch Queen Beatrix has dismissed as “nonsense” criticism of her decision to wear a head scarf during a recent visit to a mosque in the United Arab Emirates.

National broadcaster NOS reports that the queen’s unusually forthright comment came Thursday in Oman to Dutch reporters covering her state visit this week.

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Islamophobia in the Netherlands

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the 1990s, the Netherlands was known for being extremely tolerant of foreign religions, says Frank Bovenkerk, emeritus professor at the University of Amsterdam (UVA).

“… until surveys suddenly showed considerable animosity towards Islam was developing. The researchers thought: ‘This kind of split with the past isn’t possible’. But it in fact was.”

Then came the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States and the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004. Dr Bovenkerk blames Dutch politicians for fanning the flames of hostility towards Muslims: “After Van Gogh’s murder, the then deputy prime minister, Gerrit Zalm, said that we were ‘now at war’.”

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Muslim student sues Connecticut university

Posted on by Bob Pitt

University of BridgeportA Muslim woman is suing the University of Bridgeport, alleging that the school failed to investigate her claims that a fellow student sexually harassed her and instead retaliated by reporting her to the FBI based on a false claim that she was a terrorist.

Balayla Ahmad filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday saying that she was sexually harassed by a male student for months in 2009 and that university officials showed “deliberate indifference” to her repeated complaints. She said college officials recklessly disseminated false accusations by the harasser that they had good reason to believe were unreliable and threatened her with arrest by the FBI.

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Darwin immigration detention centre worker suspended over anti-Muslim comments on Facebook

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A refugee advocacy group says it is unrepentant after it played a role in getting a worker at a Darwin immigration detention centre suspended for spiteful comments he wrote about Muslims on Facebook.

Victoria Martin-Iverson, from the Refugee Rights Advocacy Network, says she takes no joy in the staff member suspended, but is glad it was brought to public attention.

“I was surprised that someone could have so internalised those viewpoints as to see absolutely nothing wrong, that could have any consequences, in publishing those comments with his own name using links that go back to his own Facebook page,” Ms Martin-Iverson said.

“I assure you I take no joy in someone being stupid enough to put their employment at risk, but I am completely unrepentant for bringing this to public attention,” she added.

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Florida Family Association protests Muslim speaker’s visits to school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Florida Family Association banner

TAMPA — A history teacher who sought to broaden her students’ horizons got more than she bargained for when she invited a Muslim leader to Steinbrenner High School. Kelly Miliziano now finds herself in the crosshairs of David Caton’s Florida Family Association.

Caton, a well-known conservative leader, is calling on the Hillsborough County School Board to end visits by Hassan Shibly of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or allow time for speakers who could counter Shibly’s message. Stephen Hegarty, a spokesman for the school district, said he cannot imagine inviting one speaker to argue against another’s religion.

Candy Olson, chairwoman of the School Board, said, “Our kids need to understand a lot of different perspectives. They’re going to have to deal with everybody in the world, and they can’t just be afraid of them because they don’t know them.”

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Oklahoma’s Sharia ban unconstitutional, court rules

Posted on by Bob Pitt

DENVER, CO — A federal appeals court today unanimously upheld a ruling that blocked implementation of a discriminatory and unnecessary Oklahoma state constitutional amendment that would have prohibited state courts from considering what is broadly described as Islamic “Sharia law” and “international law.”

The court concluded that by singling out Islam for unfavorable treatment in state courts, the law likely violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The court rejected the state’s argument that the constitutional amendment was necessary to protect against improper application of Sharia law, explaining:

“Appellants do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve. Indeed, they admitted … that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma.”

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