Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Two EDL supporters jailed over attack on kebab shop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two English Defence League protesters “bit off more than they could chew” when they caused a racist scene in a kebab shop. Turkish staff armed themselves with long knives used to carve meat and chased brothers Wayne and Darren Edwards out into the street. Wayne Edwards came off the worst and needed five stitches in a wound to his head.

The 36-year-old former soldier and his brother, 34, were each jailed for 14 months after a judge told them such racist aggression would not be tolerated.

An Orange Order march in Gillingham on the of a match at Gillingham FC had passed peacefully when the brothers and other EDL supporters went into Town Kebab House in the High Street. Judge Philip Statman was shown CCTV film showing the drunk brothers banging on the counter and chanting “EDL”.

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Toronto: right-wing alliance tries to drown out supporters of Muslims’ right to school prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Toronto District School Board demonstrations September 2011

Tension was running high as two vocal groups, both for and against Muslim prayer service in schools, tried to out-shout each other. Toronto Police officers kept the groups apart and from protesting on the sidewalk outside the Toronto District School Board’s Yonge St. headquarters on Saturday because they didn’t have permits.

“I am here to support the board for letting us pray in school,” said Aayman Karin, 13, one of about 100 Muslim students who pray on certain Fridays in the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School, on Overlea Blvd. “It is a good thing for us because we don’t have to leave the school.”

Karin said students feel more comfortable praying in school with their classmates. “There is too much fuss being made about this issue,” Karin said. “We have the freedom to do this and we are not doing anything wrong.”

Organizer Chris Andrewsen said the event was in support of the TDSB and brought together students from a number of Toronto schools.

About three metres away, a coalition of protestors demonstrated against religion in schools using a bullhorn to drown out the TDSB supporters. They used the bullhorn to yell about Allah and suicide bombers as the Canadian anthem was played.

“We are here because religion has no place in our schools,” said Ron Banerjee, of Canadian Hindu Advocacy. “We want religion out of all our schools.” His group was joined by the Jewish Defence League Canada, Costas Christian Mission, Evangelical Asian Church, International Christian Voice, and Canadian Egyptian Congress. Rev. Tony Costa, of Costa Christ Mission, accused the TDSB of showing “preferential treatment to Muslims”.

An uproar erupted earlier in the summer when it surfaced that board officials were allowing Valley Park students to hold prayer sessions with an imam in the cafeteria during school hours. School board officials have said they plan to continue the practice despite opposition.

Toronto Sun, 17 September 2011

See also CBC News, 18 September 2011

A second anti-prayer protest against was held on Sunday, organised by the Canadian Secular Alliance, who waved placards with the slogan “Stop faith-based bigotry!” See the Toronto Sun, 18 September 2011

Looks like divisions have emerged within the anti-TDSB campaign. The appalling Muslim Canadian Congress seems to have steered clear of the Saturday protest and supported the secularist demonstration on Sunday instead. Perhaps even the MCC had become embarrassed by its public association with the far-right racist Jewish Defence League. The right-wing coalition that staged the Saturday protest is also having difficulty agreeing a common line, with Banerjee condemning all forms of religion in schools and the Christians demanding greater recognition for their own faith. The JDL, for its part, has no objection to Jewish prayers in schools but wants to deny Muslims the same right.

France’s burqa ban: women are ‘effectively under house arrest’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An informed article by Angelique Chrisafis on how the veil ban is playing out in France. So far no judge has handed out a fine, and the law will be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights as soon as a fine is imposed. Meanwhile, the ban has led to a rise in physical asaults on women wearing the niqab.

Guardian, 20 September 2011

CAIR calls on councilman to apologise for anti-Islam Facebook comment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dumitru 9-11 Facebook comment

The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on the City of Orange Councilman Jon Dumitru to apologize for an anti-Islam Facebook posting in which he falsely linked the “teachings of Islam and the Koran” to the 9/11 terror attacks.

On the anniversary of 9/11, the Councilman posted a picture of the burning Twin Towers on his official Facebook page, and wrote underneath: “It was 10 years ago today that most Americans learned first-hand of the teachings of Islam and the Koran being filled with messages of peace….as they killed thousands of our fellow Americans! Today I remember those lost, left behind, and those across the world searching for these pure evil terrorists and dispatching them from this world! WE WILL NEVER FORGET, WE WILL NEVER FORGIVE!”

CAIR-LA sent a letter to the Councilman today informing him of the offensive nature of his comment and called on him to apologize to American Muslims. The letter also asked the Councilman to meet with members of the American Muslim community to discuss the negative impact of his inflammatory remarks.

In the letter, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush wrote:

“Your hateful statement in which you falsely insinuate that the teachings of Islam and the Quran would allow the terrorist attacks of 9/11 is deeply troubling to all Muslims, including many who live in your city. Muslims across the world, especially those here in the United States have unequivocally condemned the 9/11 attacks and all forms of terrorism. Using the tragedy of 9/11 as an opportunity to spread misinformed views about Islam and the Quran is a failure of leadership.

“At a time when our entire nation was mourning that tragic day and emphasizing unity among all Americans, you unfortunately decided to falsely blame an entire faith community. We have learned from history that such smears and stereotypes have only led to scapegoating of entire communities.”

CAIR-LA press release, 15 September 2011

Mind you, Jon Dumitru does have his admirers. Pamela Geller for one. Over at Atlas Shrugs she hails Dumitru as a patriot who is under attack from one of the “un-indicted co-conspirator Muslim Brotherhood groups that are working towards this nation’s destruction”. Geller urges her supporters to “rally behind the courageous Councilman” and email him messages of support.

And the Christian News Wire has issued a press release from Dr Gary Cass of DefendChristians.org who demands: “Can anyone blame Dumitru for his feeling after seeing hundreds of his fellow first responders killed in the name of Allah?” Cass denounces CAIR’s complaint as “just another ploy to keep Americans off balance when confronting the threat of encroaching Islam”.

Senators blast FBI terror-training ‘lies’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The FBI swears it has stopped teaching agents that “mainstream” Muslims are proto-terrorists and that Mohammed is a “cult leader”. But top Senators aren’t prepared to let the FBI turn the page on its anti-Islam counterterrorism training, revealed by Danger Room on Wednesday.

“There is no room in America for the lies, propagated by al-Qaida, that the U.S. is at war with Islam, or the lie propagated by others that all Muslims support terrorism,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, told Danger Room.

Lieberman is one of the most consistently hawkish members of Congress. Not coincidentally, he’s been disturbed at recent reports that “inaccurate or even bigoted” anti-Islamic sentiment — his words — is substituting for diligent, responsible counterterrorism. In a letter this week to John Brennan, the president’s assistant on homeland security, Lieberman called for “meaningful standards” on law enforcement counterterrorism training, a point he reiterated to Danger Room.

“Proper training about violent Islamist extremism is absolutely essential for our law enforcement personnel in order to empower them to identify and understand this grave threat, and then protect the American people from it,” Lieberman says. “Part of this training must be an understanding of the clear and profound difference between Islamist extremism, which is a totalitarian political ideology that is at war with us, and Islam, which is a religion practiced by more than a billion people around the world, including millions of law-abiding and loyal Americans.”

Nor is Lieberman the only senator with oversight responsibilities disturbed by the FBI training materials. “Patriotic Muslim Americans can be one of our nation’s best weapons against radical Islamic terrorists,” Sen. Ron Wyden, a member of the intelligence committee, told Danger Room. “Anyone who stigmatizes the entire Muslim American community will miss out on opportunities to work in partnership with that community to identify and take action against emerging terrorist threats before they can do harm to our country.”

Danger Room, 16 September 2011

Call for public inquiry into policing of Bolton anti-EDL protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bolton anti-EDL protestA group of antifascist protesters are calling for a public inquiry into the policing of last year’s English Defence League rally in Bolton.

Justice4bolton claim Unite Against Fascism members, who were protesting against the EDL in Victoria Square last March, were “mistreated” by police. The group is now calling for a public inquiry into the policing of the event, with particular focus on the arrest of protestor Alan Clough.

Alan Clough, of Ainsworth Road, Radcliffe, was due to stand trial at Bolton Magistrates’ Court accused of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour at the rally, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed after viewing video footage of the rally. Justice4bolton alleges that the footage shows Mr Clough being pushed by police officers and hit on the head with a baton before being pushed to the ground and arrested.

An independent investigation into the day’s events, which is being led by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, is already underway, including the circumstances of Mr Clough’s arrest.

Justice4bolton also wants the government to create “enforceable procedures” on how to police protests and is asking the trade unions to fund their list of demands, or action plan.

Bolton News, 16 September 2011

French businessman to pay ‘burqa’ fines in Netherlands too

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Netherlands is about to ban burqas in public. In doing so it is following the example of France and Belgium. Rachid Nekkaz, a Muslim with an Algerian background, has set up a million-euro fund in France to pay the fines.

He thinks burqa bans violate European constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms, which is strange because personally he believes burkas do not help integration: “Personally I am against burqas, because I don’t think wearing a niqaab helps the integration of these women into French society.”

After the introduction of a burqa ban in France, Mr Nekkaz set up the organisation Touche Pas à Ma Constitution or Don’t Touch My Constitution. The organisation will also help Dutch women if the ban is introduced. “Dutch women who get fined can phone me.” Mr Nekkaz says. “My number is on the internet.”

And it is not just an empty promise. The rich 38-year-old entrepreneur has already paid fines for two girls in Brussels. He says one million euros may be a lot of money, but it is nothing if it enables you to defend civil liberties.

The cabinet will decide on the ban today. Then it still has to go through parliament, but it is already clear that a parliamentary majority backs the measure.

In Belgium, legal proceedings have been taken against the ban (which includes the niqaab). The court’s verdict is expected soon.

RNW, 16 September 2011

Advice for the Met Police Commissioner

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bernard Hogan-HoweBob Lambert, former head of Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit and author of the soon-to-be-published Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, has some advice for the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Lambert urges Bernard Hogan-Howe “to be as tough on far right terrorism, political violence and intimidation as his predecessors have been on terrorism and political violence associated with al-Qaeda and fringe Muslim extremists”. With regard to the English Defence League, Hogan-Howe should “ensure that the group is treated as a threat to community safety, and repudiate colleagues and politicians who seek to excuse them”.

“Most crucially of all,” Lambert writes, “Hogan-Howe should be tough and brave in standing up to the Home Secretary in defending Muslim organisations and groups she has wrongly branded ‘non-violent extremist’. He should support his police chief in Tower Hamlets who hails the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE) stewards and youth workers in Tower Hamlets as outstanding partners of police. By the same token, courage should be displayed in defending the outstanding work of Muslims in London who have helped to tackle the threat of al-Qaeda influence.”

Excellent advice. We can only hope it is followed.

The Platform, 15 September 2011