On Utøya: new collection of essays analysing Breivik’s terrorist attack

On UtoyaIn a challenging new book, a collection of Australian and British writers respond to the terrorist attack by Anders Breivik, and attempts by the Right to depoliticise it.

On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik, a right-wing writer and activist, killed more than sixty young members of the Norwegian Labour Party on Utøya island. Captured alive, Breivik was more than willing to explain his actions as a ‘necessary atrocity’ designed to ‘wake up’ Europe to its betrayal by the left, and its impending destruction through immigration.

Breivik’s beliefs – expressed at length in a manifesto, ‘2083’ – were part of a huge volume of right-wing alarmism and xenophobia that had arisen in the last decade. Yet Breivik, we were told by the Right, was simply a madman – so mad, in fact, that he had actually believed what the Right said: that Europe was in imminent danger of destruction, and extreme action was required.

On Utøya: Anders Breivik, right terror, racism and Europe is a response to this attempt to deny responsibility, and any connection of Breivik’s act to a rising cult of violence, racism, and apocalyptic language. The editors and authors shine a light on Breivik’s actions, and argue that they cannot be understood abstracted from the far Right racist and Islamophobic social and political conditions in which it emerged.

Organised, written and produced within three months of the killings, On Utøya is a challenge to anyone who would seek to portray this event as anything other than it is – a violent mass assassination, directed against the left, to terrorise people into silence and submission to a far-right agenda. It concludes with an examination of the manufacture of hate and fear in Australia, and considers what is needed in a Left strategy to deal with the growing threat of far Right organising.

Edited by Elizabeth Humphrys, Guy Rundle and Tad Tietze, with essays by Anindya Bhattacharyya, Antony Loewenstein, Lizzie O’Shea, Richard Seymour, Jeff Sparrow and the editors.

More details here. Tad Tietze’s essay “Depoliticising Utøya: Anders Breivik as ‘madman'” can be read here.

Horowitz and Spencer’s Islamophobia

Over at National Review Online (of all places) there’s an excellent article by Matt Duss, co-author of the Center for American Progress’s report Fear Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America. It is written in reply to David Horowitz and Robert Spencer’s recent piece denouncing what they claim is an “ugly campaign” to depict them as Islamophobes.

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Successful conference to defend multiculturalism

Defend Multiculturalism conference

Over 400 anti-fascist campaigners came to a conference at the TUC’s congress centre in London last Saturday.

The event was titled Celebrate Diversity, Defend Multiculturalism, Oppose Islamophobia and Racism. It was called by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and One Society Many Cultures, and sponsored by South East Region TUC (SERTUC). It challenged European politicians’ race to demonise Muslims and immigrants as they try to shift blame for the economic crisis and austerity. Speakers and delegates were united in calling for far-right mobilisations to be met with counter-protests.

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Texas: Geller and Tea Party booted from hotel

The Sugar Land Tea Party was forced to move an event featuring a prominent critic of radical Islam after Hyatt Place learned of opponents’ plans to protest it.

The hotel, where activist Pamela Geller was going to address the crowd and sign copies of her new book Stop the Islamization of America, cancelled their meeting space, forcing the Tea Party to reserve a nearby community center. “In light of the business disruptions affiliated with this event, it has been moved to an alternate location,” said a Hyatt Place manager, who declined to give further details on the decision.

Geller is known for her views on Islam, including strong opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque (which she is said to have nicknamed), dismissal of liberal politicians for “giving in” to American Muslims and continued belief that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. On her right-wing blog Atlas Shrugs, Geller urged readers to boycott the hotel for cancelling the event, calling it a setback to free speech and “a stunning surrender to Islamic supremacism”.

The Sugar Land Democrats Club announced their protest on Sunday and still plans to hold a peaceful demonstration at the event’s new location, the Sugar Land Community Center. “Let’s send a message to the fear mongers and haters in Sugar Land and Fort Bend County that the likes of Ms. Pamela Geller and her bigoted ideology are not welcome here in the 4th most racially diverse county in the USA,” residents Deron Patterson and Q Imam said in a press release.

Houston Chronicle, 18 October 2011

Lawsuit accuses Brooklyn school of holding boy back because he’s Muslim

A public Brooklyn school refused to promote a Muslim boy to the sixth grade because of his religion, says an incendiary lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court.

Abedin Kajoshaj, 11, had the marks to move on to the sixth grade at PS 180, the SEEALL Academy in Borough Park, but was inexplicably held back at the end of the 2009-2010 year, the suit claims. “I don’t know why they kept me back. I was one of the smarter kids in my class,” Abedin said. He pulled down a 3.04, or “B”, average, said his family’s lawyers, Steven Storch and Thomas Monohan.

During the school year, Abedin earned a 3 in reading and scored a 2 on the year-end reading exam, which “merits promotion”, Monohan said. But in September 2009, Abedin was ordered to repeat fifth grade. The demotion was part of a pattern of discrimination against the boy and rooted in his faith, the suit says.

Abedin’s dad, Halil Kajoshaj, 54, is now shelling out $5,000 to send his son to Al-Noor School in Sunset Park. Last year, Abedin passed a sixth-grade proficiency test.

New York Post, 16 October 2011

Toronto hotel cancels iERA conference booking

The Sheraton Centre hotel will not host a Muslim religious conference that was to feature speakers who have expressed anti-gay and anti-Semitic views.

The Star informed a Sheraton convention services manager about the speakers on Wednesday. On Thursday, after the Star published an article on the conference, a hotel spokesperson said it had been “cancelled due to the organization’s failure to satisfy a contractual requirement”.

The conference, which had been scheduled for Oct. 23, was organized by the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA), a British organization seeking to establish a Canadian presence.

In a statement, the IERA said it “unequivocally rejects” the Star‘s article as “false and misleading”. It also issued an “action alert” urging supporters to “complain about this unfair action”.

“The aim of the upcoming conference, far from promoting hatred, will focus on getting Muslims to pro-actively engage with the wider society by sharing the true essence of the Islamic faith in both word and deed,” the IERA said.

Toronto Star, 14 October 2011

Berkeley, Illinois: Muslim teacher wins right to perform hajj

A Muslim woman has won her fight against a west suburban school district after being denied unpaid leave to go on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced it settled Safoorah Khan’s religious discrimination lawsuit against the Berkeley School District, forcing the district to pay $75,000 in lost back pay, compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees. The district also will have to develop a policy accommodating religions consistent with the Civil Rights Acts to ensure something similar will not happen again.

Khan, a teacher at MacArthur Middle School, requested an unpaid leave of absence in December 2008 to perform hajj – a pilgrimage required by Islam – but was told she had to choose between her job and her religious beliefs. She resigned.

“I’m glad that we settled and I hope this does set a precedent,” Khan said. “I hope they realize that hajj means a lot to Muslims and there will be more and more people taking the trip. I hope this helps people and their employers to accommodate Muslims and their requests.”

According to the settlement, the district must also provide mandatory training on religious accommodations to all board of education members and school supervisors.

Khan, now 30, says she went to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the year she resigned. “It’s required once in our lifetime at the earliest opportunity you can get,” she said.

Chicago Sun-Times, 13 October 2011

See also Huffington Post, 14 October 2011

And US Department of Justice press release, 13 October 2011

One Society Many Cultures conference tomorrow

Multiculturalism conferenceA huge range of speakers, including MPs, campaigners, writers and musicians is lined up for the one-day conference on defending multiculturalism on 15 October.

The event, titled Celebrate diversity, defend multiculturalism, oppose Islamophobia and racism, is organised by UAF and One Society Many Cultures and sponsored by SERTUC.

It is backed by the NUT, Unite, CWU, UCU and PCS trade unions, the Muslim Council of Britain and the NUS Black Students Campaign.

Speakers announced for the conference include Frances O’Grady TUC deputy general secretary, Kevin Courtney deputy general secretary NUT, Jack Dromey MP, Helen Goodman MP, Peter Hain MP,Claude Moraes MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Farooq Murad secretary general, Muslim Council of Britain, Edie Friedman executive director, Jewish Council for Racial Equality, Michelle Stanistreet general secretary NUJ, Hugh Lanning deputy general secretary PCS, Steve Hart political director Unite, Megan Dobney regional secretary SERTUC, Zita Holbourne PCS NEC, Bob Lambert co-director European Muslim Research Centre, Jody McIntyre journalist, Peter Oborne journalist, Dilowar Khan director, London Muslim Centre, Alaa’ Samarrai vice-president student affairs, Federation of Student Islamic Societies, Kanja Sesay NUS black students’ officer, Nitin Sawney musician, Sabby Dhalu secretary One Society Many Cultures, Denis Fernando Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism, Weyman Bennett joint secretary UAF, Martin Smith national co-ordinator, Love Music Hate Racism.

>> Go here to download the conference flyer
>> Read more about the conference

The event takes place at the TUC conference centre, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS from 9.30am to 5pm on Saturday 15 October.

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Ann Barnhardt’s anti-Islam rant cancelled

Ann BarnhardtAt her mildest, Ann Barnhardt appears on a poster, dressed in pink high-heeled shoes, toting a pink AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, standing side-by-side with a heroic portrait of Joan of Arc. At her most extreme, the slim, dark-haired woman with wide, bright eyes appears before an American flag, holding a copy of the Quran bookmarked with raw bacon, reading pages aloud, tearing them out and setting them ablaze in a large vase.

Barnhardt’s tough, explicitly illustrated anti-Islamic message first played in Loveland in Sept. 20 at a meeting of the Loveland 912 Project. “She’s out there. That’s for sure,” 912 Project chairman Tom Buchanan said. “I don’t think we’ll be asking her back again anytime soon.”

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