Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Christians show solidarity with Muslims in Shotton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shotton interfaith mealA group of Christians and Muslims have shared a meal to show “solidarity” in an area that has seen protests about plans for an Islamic cultural centre.

The event, Sharing Tables, Sharing Stories, was held at the Bengal Dynasty restaurant, Shotton, Flintshire. Organiser Mike Harrison said it showed harmony was possible in Shotton.

Last month, English Defence League protesters marched at the former Shotton Lane Social Club, proposed site for the new cultural centre. Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society had been planning to turn the property into a multi-cultural centre. The building burned down in a suspicious fire in February.

Tuesday’s event was organised by a local volunteers group, Together Creating Communities. North Wales organiser Mr Harrison said:

“This gathering demonstrates that despite the perceptions voiced in some sections of the media, Christians and Muslims can stand together. We hope that Sharing Tables, Sharing Stories will be the first step in showing protest groups that a multi-faith community can live together in harmony in Shotton.”

BBC News, 1 June 2011

The sensational story that wasn’t: reports of ‘stoning’ death of Ukrainian girl turn out to be false

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The circumstances around the death of Kateryna Korin, a 19-year-old Ukrainian student on the Crimean peninsula, appeared to point to a made-for-tabloid tragedy: a young beauty-pageant contestant brutally killed by her admirer, a radical Islamist who chose to stone her to death under an unforgiving interpretation of Islamic law. There was just one small problem: They weren’t true.”

Farangis Najibullah reports on press coverage of the “Muslim girl stoned to death under Sharia law” – as the Daily Mail put it, with characteristic disregard for the facts.

RFE/RL, 3 June 2011

Senior civil servant quits over Dutch government’s alliance with Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Annemieke NijhofA senior civil servant with the infrastructure and environment ministry has resigned because she no longer wishes to be associated with the anti-Islam PVV.

Annemieke Nijhof, director general in charge of water policy, told the NRC she has no trouble with doing her job, but is finding it increasingly difficult to deal with the tone of the integration debate in the Netherlands. “The PVV describes 1.6 million of my fellow countrymen as fundamentalists who are threatening the rule of law,” she told the paper.

Nijhof said Iraqi friends she has known for 15 years are complaining about the more unpleasant social climate in the Netherlands. “It is becoming taboo to warn about this… I worry things will go downhill even more, and am very worried about the next election,” she told the paper.

Last year, research by civil service magazine Binnenlands Bestuurshowed 60% of government officials had difficulty with the involvement of the PVV in government.

The party is not a formal cabinet member but has an alliance with the VVD and Christian Democrats on economic and immigration policy.

Dutch News, 3 June 2011

Pat Robertson says fighting Muslims is just like fighting Nazis

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Right Wing Watch reports that US Christian bigot Pat Robertson has once again attacked Muslims, by comparing them to Nazis. “Why is it bigoted to resist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and to say we don’t want to live under Nazi Germany?” Robertson asked. “But oh it’s bigoted if we speak out against a force that is slowly but surely trying to exercise domination over the world.”

Torygraph apologises to East London Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In January this year an article was published on the Telegraph website headlined “Extremist leader jailed for child abuse”. Readers were informed:

“A man has been jailed for a series of sex attacks on children committed while he was the leader of a Muslim extremist group and a teacher at a hardline London mosque. Ashraf Miah, 38, from Mile End, a former teacher at the East London Mosque, repeatedly molested the girls whilst they recited religious texts. The youngest victim was five and the oldest only seven.

“Miah was at the time the East End leader of the notorious extremist group Hizb ut Tahrir, which believes that voting and democracy is forbidden in Islam and wants to turn Britain into a sharia state….

“The court heard that Miah also taught at the hardline East London Mosque, controlled by the Islamic Forum of Europe, which also believes in turning the UK into a sharia state, though by different methods. The mosque has hosted many hate, extremist and terrorist preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaeda spiritual leader. Some of the victims were introduced to Miah via the mosque.”

The article has since been removed from the website and today theTelegraph published the following retraction:

“Our report ‘Extremist leader jailed for child abuse’ (Jan 20) wrongly said that some of the victims of Ashraf Miah, described in a court report as a former teacher at the East London Mosque, were introduced via the Mosque. We are happy to confirm that the Mosque has no record of him ever having taught there and that there was no suggestion at trial of his victims having been introduced to him there.”

Now, which Telegraph journalist do you suppose could have adopted such a slipshod attitude towards the basic facts of the case, with the evident aim of stitching up the East London Mosque? No prizes for guessing that it was of course Andrew Gilligan.

Update:  Gilligan complains that Islamophobia Watch has attacked him over “an incorrect news-in-brief item about the mosque in the Telegraph which I did not write”.

As it happens, I couldn’t find the news-in-brief report that appeared in the print edition of the paper so I quoted from the unedited version of the article as it appeared, under the title “Extremist leader jailed for child abuse”, on Gilligan’s Telegraphblog. This was the link to the article:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100072691/extremist-leader-jailed-for-child-abuse/

As you can see if you click on it, the link is dead and the article has been deleted.

It was, however, reproduced at the time on a number of right-wing Islamophobic websites, where it can still be found (for example here, here and here). Is Gilligan now saying that he didn’t have a hand in writing an article that he posted on his own blog?

University campuses are not ‘hotbeds of radicalisation’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE draws our attention to an interview in the Daily Telegraph with Nicola Dandridge of Universities UK, who rejects the view, promoted by the likes of Anthony Glees and the Quilliam Foundation and widely publicised by the right-wing press, that universities are training grounds for violent extremism among Muslim students.

Needless to say, James Brandon of Quilliam is on hand to rubbish Dandridge’s analysis: “Every week, radical Islamists on campuses around the UK preach a steady mixture of anti-western conspiracy theories and hard-line Islamist ideologies. At the same time, a steady stream of British Muslim university students are being convicted of a wide range of terrorist offences.”

But then, Brandon and his colleagues at Quilliam have made a comfortable living out of hyping up such threats, haven’t they?

UCU conference to discuss motion defending students’ right to wear veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UCU logoStudents should have the right to wear religious attire, such as burkhas, in colleges and universities, lecturers will be told tomorrow.

Leaders of the University and College Union (UCU) will pledge their support for the right of people of all faiths “to wear the religious head-dress and other religious attire appropriate to their faiths”. The union argues that the move is essential to encourage participation in further and higher education among ethnic minority groups – particularly women.

Delegates will also debate an amendment condemning what it calls “the alarming precedent” of a UK college prohibiting students from wearing the veil in college. Burnley College in Lancashire took the decision last year on security grounds. In 2009, it had also refused a student permission to enrol at the college while she was wearing a veil.

The debate comes on the heels of the French government’s decision to ban the wearing of the veil in public – a move criticised by the union as evidence of increasing Islamophobia. Other countries, such as Austria, are said to be considering similar moves to France if the number of women wearing veils grows.

“Anybody should be free to wear what they choose to follow their beliefs,” said Alan Whitaker, president of the UCU. “That has been a principle of the union. We are a secular union but that doesn’t mean we’re anti-religion.

“We’re in favour of people’s freedom to practise any religion they choose, and to be able to follow the customs of that religion – and that includes what clothing they wear.”

Delegates will cite as further evidence of Islamophobia the Swiss referendum decision to forbid the construction of minarets on mosques.

A further amendment, tabled by lecturers at the London School of Economics, says that “an important principle of education is to combat superstition and prejudice”. The LSE lecturers stress that allowing people of all faiths to wear what they want would help to achieve this. The amendment adds: “People of all faiths, or of none, have the right to dress as they personally consider appropriate.”

Independent on Sunday, 29 May 2011

The UCU conference will also debate a motion from the union’s LGBT members standing committee which warns against rising Islamophobia, “deplores the recruitment of any LGBT people” to the English Defence League and calls for a united campaign “against the EDL, their actions and their message of hate”.

Geneticist warns of dangers of Muslim ‘inbreeding’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One of Britain’s most eminent scientists has warned that the level of inbreeding among the nation’s Muslims is endangering the health of future generations. Prof Steve Jones, the geneticist, said that it was common in the Islamic world for men to marry their nieces and cousins. He said that Bradford has a particular problem and warned that it could affect the health of children born into these marriages.

Sunday Telegraph, 29 May 2011

Update:  Typically, the Daily Mail reports this under the headline “Muslim outrage as professor warns first-cousin marriages increase risk of birth defects”. In fact the two Muslim spokespersons who are quoted in the article – Mohammed Saleem Khan of the Bradford Council for Mosques and Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation – offer calm and reasoned criticisms of Jones’ comments. It seems that the right-wing press is incapable of reporting any comment by Muslims without referring to “outrage” and “anger”.

Update:  See Samira Shackle, “Professor sparks ‘Muslim outrage’. Or does he?”, The Staggers, 31 May 2011

Blackpool peace vigil condemns EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-fascism protesters today mounted a “peace vigil” as the English Defence League (EDL) demonstrated close by on Blackpool Promenade.

The different protests were kept more than a mile apart by police who mounted a huge security operation to ensure public safety. While the larger EDL rally was held near south pier, the smaller anti-fascism rally gathered on the headland by central pier.

Weyman Bennett, national secretary for Unite Against Fascism (UAF), said: “We’re here because we believe these organisations are exploiting a tragedy to politically profit and we want to make it clear we reject racism and fascism and anyone who tries to divide our society. At a time of economic crisis we do not want to see right wing groups attacking people.”

Paul Jenkins, North West organiser for UAF, said the group had support from people across Blackpool. He added: “I think it is very important to say this is not just UAF this is an event supported by local people who have been working with groups to show that the EDL and racism is not welcome in Blackpool.”

Mr Jenkins said the EDL were using the Charlene Downes case as a respectable window dressing for a more sinister agenda. He said: “Undoubtedly they’re trying to exploit a very tragic event for their own agenda and it says a lot about a group who try to exploit such a tragic event. We want everyone to know the EDL are not welcome in Blackpool. Our problems are not caused by race or ethnicity and we will not allow our community to be divided, we will stand united.”

Around 40 people with banners and plaques gathered on the Promenade next to Central Pier to maintain a peaceful vigil. Along with UAF members, a Catholic priest and representatives from the local muslim community attended, as well as Blackpool councillor Mark Mitchell.

Blackpool Muslim representative Tasurraf Shah said: “We all should unite as one, no matter what colour or religion. Our religion – Islam – promotes love and peace and that’s what we should portray. We should be educating people of the true values of Islam. Blackpool’s diverse and has a wonderful culture here, it doesn’t matter what your colour or religion is.”

Coun Mitchell added: “It’s fantastic to be here, we’re doing something for the human spirit. Blackpool’s slogan is ‘it’s a place where difference makes no difference’. It’s deeply disappointing to see groups like the EDL here. It does nothing for tourism and it may lead to an impression that Blackpool is a home for racist hooligans.”

Blackpool Gazette, 28 May 2011

French hold anti-racism rallies

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw5OeoHWEr8

Rallies were held across France to protest what many say is the continued scapegoating of Muslims and immigrants for political gain. In Paris, thousands marched under many different banners, but they all spoke of feeling excluded from French society.

A large contingent of the demonstration consisted of immigrants who have worked in France for years, even decades, without acquiring resident status. This makes it difficult for them to rent lodgings or get medical care and it leaves them vulnerable to exploitation from their employers.

Since his appointment in February, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé has been the point man in the Sarkozy administration’s desire to keep their “national identity” campaign in the media. Recent decisions such as the burqa law, debates on the role of Islam in France and the deportation of Tunisian immigrants have been condemned by many as purposely divisive.

With unemployment and social insecurity still high as France tries to exit the Great Recession, the message here is that foreigners will not tolerate being used as a distraction.

Many protesters here say that the conservative wing of the nation’s establishment simply refuses to accept that Africans and Arabs are already a part of 21st century France. To quote a popular slogan here at the demonstration: “Besides, we’re already here!”

Press TV, 28 May 2011