Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s speech to United East End public meeting July 29th 2011

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mayor_Rahman_signs_book_of_condolences_at_Norwegian_Embassy
Mayor Rahman signs book of condolences at Norwegian Embassy

This is the speech given by Lutfur Rahman, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, at the United East End rally on 29 July.

Good evening and Assalamu Alaikum.

Thank you all for attending this wonderful display of community unity in Tower Hamlets. I know the dangers of extremism has been in your minds this week in the aftermath of the horrors committed in Norway.

I know that your hearts will have been moved, like mine has, by the grief of the Norwegian people.

So earlier today, I was both proud and saddened to go as your Mayor to Norwegian Embassy. I went with a delegation of faith and community leaders from our borough, to offer condolences and solidarity to all the people of Norway from all the people of Tower Hamlets.

And I came away from that visit more committed and determined to a very simple message from my administration – there is no place for hate in Tower Hamlets.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of sexual identity.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of racial identity.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of religious identity.

We are One Tower Hamlets.

We are not going to let the preachers of hate and extremism, whatever community they come from, divide us.

And we certainly have no intention of the letting the EDL divide us!

Because when the man responsible for the mass slaughter of dozens of Norwegian teenagers boasts about his strong links with EDL leaders;

when he brags about his 600 EDL friends on Facebook;

when he tells the EDL to ‘keep up the good work’;

we all know only too well what the EDL’s idea of ‘good work’ is.

Their idea of ‘good work’ is when they sow the seeds of hate and intolerance.

And the sole purpose of their visit to Tower Hamlets on September 3 is to promote the politics of hatred and division on our streets.

That’s why one of the messages that must go from this meeting is to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, and that message is this:

We don’t want the EDL in our borough;

The people of Tower Hamlets don’t want the EDL in our borough;

And you, Home Secretary, have to the power to stop the EDL from coming into our borough on September 3.

But if the EDL do march, we know full well what their intentions are.

The Norwegian killer Anders Breivik praised them for it; they want to try ‘lure’ the local community, and especially Muslim communities, into street violence.

They want images on our TV screens of Muslim and white youth fighting on our streets.

They want to use these images as evidence of our communities at war with each other so they can claim multicultural Britain does not work

We know the EDL want to set us a trap.

Well, my message to them is this; we are not going to fall into your trap!

Between now and September 3 Tower Hamlets is not going to be a divided borough – it is going to be a united borough.

And on September 3 we are going to have a massive, united and peaceful celebration of multiculturalism and anti-racism.

We are going to have inter-faith groups, LBGT groups, youth groups, pensioners groups, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Atheists; members of all political parties and members of no political parties; all standing together to send one message:

We are One Tower Hamlets.

We are a United Tower Hamlets.

And we are not going to let the EDL or any other bunch of extremists divide us.

The truth behind the anti-Sharia movement

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over the past few years, anti-Sharia organizations and politicians have introduced versions of anti-Sharia legislation in 26 states – with some bills expressly singling out Sharia law for condemnation, and others sweeping Islamic law under broader categories of “foreign” or “international” law. The ACLU is currently working to overturn an example of this kind of legislation in Oklahoma.

The anti-Sharia movement would have you believe that Islamic law is encroaching on our legal system and is a threat to an American way of life.

This is simply not true, and in fact the court cases cited by anti-Muslim groups as symptoms of some kind of “Muslim threat” actually show the opposite. Courts treat lawsuits that are brought by Muslims or that address the Islamic faith in the same way that they deal with similar claims brought by people of other faiths or that involve no religion at all. The cases show that protections already exist in our legal system to ensure that courts do not become wrongly entangled with religion or improperly consider, defer to, or apply religious law where it would violate basic principles of U.S. federal or state policy.

Prohibiting courts from considering Islamic law serves only one purpose: to bar Muslims from having the same rights and access to the courts as any other individuals. Attempts to prevent courts from considering international or foreign law suffer from constitutional flaws and undermine the ability of courts to interpret laws and treaties regarding global business, international human rights and family law issues such as international marriages and adoptions.

Daniel Mach, Director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said today in a statement:

“The anti-Sharia law movement clearly seeks to ride the recent wave of anti-Muslim bias in this country, pushing laws that are rooted in the baseless idea that U.S. Muslims wish to impose Islamic law on American courts. Proponents of these misguided measures rely on the ugly implication that anything Islamic is inherently un-American, pressing for a legislative solution to a non-existent problem.”

ACLU Blog of Rights, 1 August 2011

Nobel chairman warns Europe’s leaders over ‘inflaming far-right sentiment’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thorbjorn JaglandEurope’s leaders, including David Cameron, have been warned to adopt a more “cautious” approach when discussing multiculturalism. The Norwegian chairman of the Nobel peace prize committee has told them they risk inflaming far-right and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Thorbjørn Jagland, a former prime minister of his country, said leaders such as the British premier would be “playing with fire” if they continued to use rhetoric that could be exploited by extremists.

Four months ago in Munich, Cameron declared that state multiculturalism had failed in Britain, a view immediately praised by Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, as “a further huge leap for our ideas into the political mainstream”. Marine Le Pen, vice-president of the far-right National Front party in France, also endorsed Cameron’s view of multiculturalism, claiming that it corroborated her own party’s line.

Jagland, who is also secretary general of the Council of Europe, told the Observer:

“We have to be very careful how we are discussing these issues, what words are used. Political leaders have got to defend the fact that society has become more diverse. We have to defend the reality, otherwise we are going to get into a mess. I think political leaders have to send a clear message to embrace it and benefit from it. We should be very cautious now, we should not play with fire. Therefore I think the words we are using are very important because it can lead to much more.”

Observer, 31 July 2011

Jagland’s warning is to be welcomed. However, it has to be said that he hasn’t always taken this line. Back in February he gave an interview to the Financial Times who reported:

“Mr Jagland came to the defence of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, David Cameron, UK prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, who have all warned recently that the tradition of encouraging diverse cultures to live side-by-side has damaged national identity and helped to promote the radicalisation of immigrant youth.”

The FT quoted Jagland as saying: “As we understand it now, multiculturalism allows parallel societies to develop within states. This must be stopped. It is also clear that some parallel societies have developed radical ideas that are dangerous. Terrorism cannot be accepted.”

Muslim police officers targeted by EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain’s National Association of Muslim Police (Namp) will deliver a letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary, stating that its officers have been targeted by radicalised members of the EDL. It details an unresolved investigation of an unidentified man arrested last year with “quantities of fireworks/devices” alongside names of Muslim police officers circled on whiteboards for attacks.

The letter also outlines concerns that EDL leader Stephen Lennon suggested similar events to those witnessed in Norway could be “years away” if his organisation’s concerns were not addressed.

Independent on Sunday, 31 July 2011

Islamophobia: the new anti-semitism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in the Palestine Chronicle Yuri Avnery notes the rising tide of Islamophobia in Europe which provided the context and inspiration for Breivik’s terrorist attacks:

I first became aware of the gravity of the situation when a friend drew my attention to some German anti-Islamic blogs.

I was shocked to the core. These outpourings are almost verbatim copies of the diatribes of Joseph Goebbels. The same rabble-rousing slogans. The same base allegations. The same demonization. With one little difference: instead of Jews, this time it is Arabs who are undermining Western Civilization, seducing Christian maids, plotting to dominate the world. The Protocols of the Elders of Mecca….

Many of the Islamophobic parties and groups remind one of the atmosphere of Germany in the early 1920s, when “völkisch” groups and militias were spreading their hateful poison, and an army spy called Adolf Hitler was earning his first laurels as an anti-Semitic orator. They looked unimportant, marginal, even crazy. Many laughed at this man Hitler, the Chaplinesque mustachioed clown.

But the abortive Nazi putsch of 1923 was followed by 1933, when the Nazis took power, and 1939, when Hitler started World War II, and 1942, when the gas chambers were brought into operation.

It is the beginnings which are critical, when political opportunists realize that arousing fear and hatred is the easiest way to fortune and power, when social misfits become nationalist and religious fanatics, when attacking helpless minorities becomes acceptable as legitimate politics, when funny little men turn into monsters.

East End declares unity against the EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UEE logoHundreds of protesters stood in silence at a rally in East London last night with raised flowers to remember the 76 people killed in the Norway massacre by the self-confessed bomber Anders Behring.

The rally, calling for the Home Secretary to ban a proposed march by the English Defence League through Whitechapel, came at the end of a day when a delegation led by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and the new Bishop of Stepney met the Norwegian ambassador and signed the Book of Condolence.

“I know the dangers of extremism has been in your minds in the aftermath of the horrors committed in Norway,” Mayor Lutfur Rahman told the 300-strong rally. “I know your heart will have been moved by the grieving of the Norwegian people. So I was proud and saddened to go to the Norwegian embassy with faith and community leaders to offer condolences and solidarity from the people of Tower Hamlets.”

He has written to Theresa May urging police to use their powers to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel, adding yet more weight to calls for a ban from MPs, councillors, London Assembly figures and church leaders.

Norwegian trade unionists flew to London from Oslo to speak at the rally staged at London Muslim Centre along the Whitechapel Road – where the EDL plan to march on September 3.

The Bishop of Stepney, the Rt Rev Adrian Newman, in his first public engagement since his inauguration last Friday – ironically on the day of the Oslo massacre – was cheered when he told the rally: “I’ve already been criticised for standing shoulder to shoulder against fascism. But I stand with the people of the East End – this is no place for hate.”

East End Advertiser, 30 July 2011

See also Robert Lambert, “Londoners United Against the EDL”, Huffington Post, 30 July 2011

Update:  See “Hundreds pack East End rally in run-up to 3 Sept demo against EDL”, UAF news report, 30 June 2011

UEE rally July 2011

Pamela Geller edits post to conceal violent rhetoric in ’email from Norway’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Little green footballs has the details.

Update:  Geller has posted a “clarification” on her blog. She explains:

Back in June 2007 I received an email from a disheartened reader in Norway who was bereft at the deterioration of the society and the lawlessness of life in Norway. It was a heartbreaking email, and I published it at the time: “Email from Norway.” After the massacre in Norway last week, I removed the following sentence from the email, as I found it insenstive and inappropriate: “We are stockpiling and caching weapons, ammunition and equipment. This is going to happen fast.” The sentence I edited is not an incitement to anything. It refers to self-defense, but I removed it in the light of recent horrific events in Norway. I thought it insensitive. Nothing more.

Over at Antiwar.com Justin Raimondo points out that in the comments which follow the original post one of Geller’s readers warns that the author of the email could be prosecuted in Norway. Geller replies that this is “why I ran it anonymously”.

Raimondo observes:

So here is some nut stockpiling “weapons, ammunition, and equipment,” because “this is going to happen fast” – with Geller’s enthusiastic encouragement. Indeed, she’s so concerned her correspondent might be arrested that she’s protecting his identity.

Who is Geller’s mystery correspondent – is it the same Norwegian nut-case who ruthlessly cut down dozens of children, or a different one waiting in the wings to do the same? Come on, Pamela – clear up the mystery. Or would you rather continue to shield your fellow “counter-jihadist”?

Telford council leader wants EDL march banned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kuldip SahotaThe Muslim community in Telford must be listened to and a controversial march by the far-right English Defence League banned, the leader of Telford & Wrekin Council said today.

Councillor Kuldip Sahota has come out fighting against a plan by the EDL to march in Wellington next month and said residents’ security was now a top priority.

The group plans to demonstrate on August 13, the same day as the opening fixture of AFC Telford United’s Blue Square Bet Premier bid against Luton.

Councillor Sahota told a full council meeting last night a working group had already been set up in a bid to scupper any plans by the EDL to cause trouble.

He said: “The security of everyone in Telford and Wrekin is of great importance to us all. It’s very important we listen to our Muslim community and what they are saying. They are going to be directly affected. The council does not want the English Defence League in Telford and wants the march banned.”

Shropshire Star, 29 July 2011

Update: See also the follow-up report in the Shropshire Star which quotes chief inspector Keith Gee of West Mercia Police as saying:

“I would ask people to remember that although there is legislation in place that could potentially ban a march we simply cannot stop EDL members from coming to Wellington to hold a peaceful protest that day. Everyone has the right to protest peacefully and therefore it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare for a large scale protest, involving anywhere between 500 and 2,000 people, and ensure we have resources and plans in place to cover every likely eventuality.”

There is indeed legislation in place, under Section 13 of the Public Order Act, to ban the EDL march. It is necessary for the police to apply to the local council for a banning order, which must then be confirmed by the Home Secretary. The police should be urged to do so.

It is true that the EDL cannot be prevented from holding a static protest, but Section 14 of the Public Order Act gives the police considerable powers over the conditions under which the protest can be held. These include the power to determine the location of the protest. In Dewsbury in June the police refused to allow the EDL to demonstrate outside Dewsbury Town Hall and penned them in a station car park well away from the town centre. It is entirely within the powers of the police to do that in Telford.