Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Muslim bride sues mayor of Lyon over order to remove headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A newly-wed Muslim couple are suing the mayor of Lyon after a local official insisted the bride remove her veil at the town hall wedding ceremony.

The bride, identified only as Nassima A., was asked to remove a veil which was covering her hair during her wedding ceremony at a town hall in Lyon in June.

“Nassima thought it was an order and did not think twice about removing her veil. She thought she had to do it to get married and took it off in front of everybody,” says her lawyer Gilles Devers in an interview with the French daily Libération. He says she felt humuliated during the ceremony.

The deputy mayor of Lyon’s 9th district, Fatiha Ben Ahmed, who asked the bride to bare her hair, told the bride that she looked “very pretty” without a veil.

Continue reading →

PVV attacks Queen Beatrix for wearing headscarf during visit to Abu Dhabi mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, who is in Abu Dhabi, wore a headscarf when she visited the Sheikh Zayed Mosque this morning out of respect for the customs, traditions and conventions of Islam, says Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal. The queen is on a two-day state visit to the United Arab Emirates.

“Not to have worn one during a visit to a mosque wasn’t an option. In that case, the invitation to visit to the mosque, one of the most important in the United Arab Emirates, would’ve had to have been refused,” explained Mr Rosenthal.

His comments come in response to criticism from the Freedom Party (PVV) about the clothing worn by Queen Beatrix and Crown Princess Máxima who, with her husband Prince Willem-Alexander, is part of the royal party visiting the UAE. The PVV had complained that, by wearing a headscarf, the queen was lending legitimacy to the oppression of women under Islam.

Continue reading →

Lib Dem’s anti-Islam rants: ‘Put pork restaurant next to mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Liberal Democrat candidate has refused to apologise for a series of shocking Islamophobic comments. Sick Dave Stones suggested a pork restaurant and a topless bar – named after Islam’s holiest city – should be built next to a mosque.

The would-be councillor, who is the party’s candidate for a by-election in Redcar and Cleveland on 19 January, said:

“Regarding the mosque being built near ground zero. I say let them build it. But then, across the street we should put a topless bar called ‘You Mecca Me Hot’ … and next to that a pork rib restaurant … Then we’ll see who’s tolerant.”

Continue reading →

Religious groups oppose NYPD surveillance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christian ministers and Muslim leaders said Thursday they’re joining to oppose police surveillance of ethnic groups in New York City.

The Faith and Freedom Alliance includes Protestant pastors from mostly black congregations in New York, some of them veteran activists who were put under police surveillance during the civil rights protests of the 1960s. The group had its first meeting on Thursday at a church in Harlem.

Continue reading →

‘Pollard and Bright’s Islamist fear betrays our community’s values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The controversy unleashed by Martin Bright’s attack on leading figures in the Jewish community for co-operating with London Citizens continues in the Jewish Chronicle with a piece by Keith Kahn-Harris, co-author of Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today.

The article is measured and balanced but Kahn-Harris’s criticisms of the JC‘s relationship under its present editorial regime to the community it is supposed to serve really are quite devastating.

The ‘attack’ on Tommy Robinson – EDL leader can’t get his story straight

Posted on by Bob Pitt

English Defence League leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) has appeared on Michael Coren’s Canadian TV show, discussing the recent attack on him in Luton by what he claims was a gang of local Muslims. Richard Bartholomew examines some of the contradictions in Lennon’s account of events.

Hijabs don’t hinder prison guards

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last week, Quebec moved to allow Muslim women prison guards to wear hijabs on the job, but it only did so as part of a settlement of a human rights complaint filed four years ago. If the issue arises in other provinces, governments should not wait for a human rights commission ruling before permitting the wearing of hijabs.

The Quebec complaint was filed by a Muslim woman in training to be a prison guard, and although permission was granted as part of a settlement between Quebec’s Public Security Department and the human rights commission, the woman’s victory is rather a hollow one – she has long since dropped her guard training and is pursuing a different career.

However, the decision will hopefully pave the way for other Muslim women interested in correctional careers, in Quebec and in the rest of Canada. Accommodating the hijab as part of a guard’s uniform is no different than allowing Sikh RCMP officers to wear their turbans instead of the regulation hats. Turbans have never interfered with the ability of a Mountie to do his job, and it will be the same for the hijab, as long as women guards wear head scarves with Velcro fastenings that allow for quick removal in an emergency.

Editorial in Calgary Herald, 2 January 2012