Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Muslims say Luton ‘super-mosque’ rumours untrue

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon with anti-mosque placard
Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) speaking at an EDL protest in Luton on 5 February

A group of Shia Muslims have denied rumours they plan to create a “super-mosque” in High Town, saying the facility will be a community centre.

Leaflets have been distributed to homes in High Town saying the Old Drill Hall in Old Bedford Road will become a mosque, and the English Defence League has accused Luton Borough Council of selling off land that was intended for affordable housing.

But the Masjid-e-Ali group, which currently meets at premises in Moor Street, says that if it is successful in purchasing the 8,500 sq ft building, which has 100 parking spaces, it will be open to all members of the community. They say it will have prayer facilities, but will not be a mosque.

A spokesman for Masjid-e-Ali said: “Basically this will be a community centre, open for all of the community. There is no question of it being a mosque. We haven’t got any contract yet, it’s all up in the air at the moment. But we wouldn’t do any major changes, it would only be internal decoration. We would have lunch clubs for the elderly, sports activities for young people.”

The spokesman said the centre would be “multi-cultural and multi-faith”. He said all members of the community would be welcome, as long as the respected the group’s “rules and regulations” of acceptable behaviour, and said there would be no segregation of men and women at the centre. The group’s website says it would also seek to provide banqueting facilities for weddings, an NHS walk-in clinic and a service for making funeral arrangements.

One High Town resident said she was upset at the way the plans had been portrayed to the neighbourhood by the English Defence League. She said: “I’m very unhappy about this. It’s another nail in the coffin of race relations in this town. At the moment the building is just a rotting heap that gets vandalised – people should be happy that it’s going to be looked after and cared for. It’s got a very long history and I would be happy to see it get a new lease of life.”

Luton Today, 16 February 2011

Islamic school forced to shut over far-right safety fears as Dispatches documentary is accused of providing ‘fodder for the EDL’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Darul Uloom Islamic High School

An Islamic school at the centre of a documentary row will close tomorrow amid safety fears. Teachers at the Darul Uloom Islamic High School, in Small Heath, Birmingham, have held meetings with police chiefs and fear that youngsters could be targeted by the far-Right.

The Dispatches documentary, Lessons in Hatred and Violence, aired tonight and showed footage of a preacher making offensive remarks about Hindus and ranting: “Disbelievers are the worst creatures”.

But teachers at the school insist the undercover reporter captured an isolated incident where a 17-year-old senior student was talking to pupils. They have provided a letter which shows that he was expelled for his views last August – five months before the school was made aware of the tapes by producers.

A Birmingham faith leader has now backed the school’s record of teaching tolerance and MP John Hemming said he believed the documentary was irresponsible and had put schoolchildren at risk.

The school’s head of curriculum Mujahid Aziz said the decision had been to bring forward the school’s half-term by a week after meetings with police. Pupils were being told not to return to classes until the start of March.

“They filmed for six months and managed to collect a handful of comments which promote intolerance,” said Mr Aziz. “We were aware of the views of this 17-year-old student and we dealt with him by exclusion straight away – before we even knew that we were being filmed. What people will see in that clip is completely contrary to what we teach at the school about harmony and awareness of different faiths.

“Our concern now is for the safety of children and people coming to the mosque because we are worried that some people will get completely the wrong impression once they have watched this programme. After meeting with the police, we are bringing the half-term forward and we have been advised that there should be plenty of staff around on Monday night as a precaution.”

Birmingham MP John Hemming (Lib Dem, Yardley) said Channel 4’s portrayal of the school was irresponsible.

“If Channel 4 thinks this is a school where racism and intolerance is accepted in any way, they have got their facts seriously wrong,” he said. “They have already had hate mail and now they are having to close for the safety of their pupils. This kind of documentary is ideal fodder for the EDL. Channel 4 is putting the safety of children at risk by criticising a school which is doing its job properly.”

Mr Hemming was backed by Yann Lovelock, a Buddhist who sits on the executive board of Birmingham Interfaith Council. He said: “They have gone out of their way to make other faiths feel welcome and I have been invited to the school several times to speak to pupils about Buddhism. As far as I can see, they do everything they can to promote tolerance and understanding and I am happy to work with them.”

Daily Mail, 14 February 2011

See also the Darul Uloom Islamic High School press release.

Read the school’s response to the documentary makers, Hardcash Productions, here.

Update:  See “Dispatches Islamic school to complain to Ofcom”, BBC News, 15 February 2011

Thurrock, Essex: Labour councillor suspended following racist email allegation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Thurrock Labour councillor has been suspended by her party for passing on allegedly racist comments in an email.

The suspension was announced four days after it was revealed that Belhus councillor Sue Gray had forwarded an email to people on her mailbox which purported to be an official email detailing Bedfordshire Police’s protocol guide for dealing with terrorism suspects who may be Muslims.

At the end of the email a comment was posted saying: “This is unbelievable. It’s now predicted that Britain will become an Islamic state by 2070. (Time to think about your children/grandchildren). Please forward this e-mail asap so that 40 per cent of British voters who didn’t vote last time might get the message.”

The email forwarded by Cllr Gray was passed to a police officer, who reported it and Essex police have confirmed an investigation to establish whether the crime of inciting racial hatred has taken place.

Cllr Gray issued an immediate apology when the story entered the public domain, saying she had inadvertently forwarded the email, one of many she receives, without reading it fully. She distanced herself from the comments within it, but the Labour party have announced her suspension pending an investigation.

Essex Enquirer, 14 February 2011

Via ENGAGE

LSE invitation to Sarrazin condemned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sarrazin protest placard2A German banker who has said “all Jews share a certain gene” and described Muslims as “dunces” will speak tonight at the London School of Economics amid a row over free speech.

Anti-fascist campaigners vowed to demonstrate outside the LSE during Thilo Sarrazin‘s appearance in a debate on multiculturalism. The former executive member of the Bundesbank caused outrage in Germany last year with his comments, in which he also attacked Basques. He was removed from the country’s central bank and raked down by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who called him “stupid”.

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Channel 4 denies it ‘unfairly targeted’ Islamic school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Channel 4 on Monday denied accusations that it “unfairly targeted” an Islamic school in Birmingham with “surreptitious” recording for a Dispatches documentary due to air tonight.

The Darul Uloom Islamic High School is one of the educational establishments due to feature in tonight’s Dispatches investigation into allegations of assault at Islamic schools across the UK. The school said on Monday it was “concerned that the truth has been distorted completely” in some of the allegations made by Dispatches.

Channel 4 responded that its investigation is “clearly in the public interest” and “shows secret footage of numerous adults on different occasions teaching pupils as young as 11 years of age contempt for other religions and wider society”. “We stand by our investigation and think the programme speaks for itself,” the broadcaster said.

Lessons in Hate and Violence, made by independent producer Hardcash, investigates allegations that some teachers in Islamic schools regularly assault young children and teach a message of hatred and intolerance. West Yorkshire police earlier on Monday arrested one man in Keighley in connection with footage due to be aired tonight.

A statement released by the school on Monday said: “We feel that a certain media channel has targeted us unfairly by surreptitiously recording inside our school for a period longer than six months. Over that period of time they have selectively gathered a handful of quotes and comments allegedly from some teachers, which they are using to attempt to portray our school in a light completely contrary to its ethos.”

The school, which is funded in part by charitable donations, added that its official policy was to “promote tolerance and appreciation of other religions” and that the majority of its students go on to become “upright citizens”.

“No school can claim to be immune from incidents that require remedial action,” the school said. “What we have demonstrated repeatedly, is that our procedures have dealt with contraventions in the past, and will continue to do so. These actions have included expulsions of students, and dismissals of teachers, as long as six months prior to us having knowledge of the surreptitious recording.”

Darul Uloom added that it would close early for half-term because of concern for the safety of pupils travelling to and from its site in the Small Heath area of Birmingham.

Guardian, 14 February 2011

Muslim immigrants spread sharia law, claims Tancredo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Though CPAC ruffled some feathers by bringing pro-gay GOProud into the tent, such social inclusiveness didn’t extend very far. Taking center stage on immigration were the Republicans’ biggest flamethrowers, who issued dire warnings about the evils that immigrants could inflict upon the US. “I’m worried, because most of them are lawbreakers – in fact, most of them are criminals,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told conference-goers on Thursday. But former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo upped the ante even further. Speaking to Mother Jones on Friday after his CPAC speech, he warned that Muslim immigrants would never be able to assimilate and posed a perilous threat by bringing Sharia law to America:

Then you got the issue of Muslim immigration. In every other case I’ve described, you can assimilate. If you come here as an atheist or a Christian or a Jew or a Hindu – there’s no inherent … conflict between that person and what it means to be an American, because the Constitution is the kind of document that wraps up all up.

But what do you do with people coming for the purpose of advancing sharia law, which is not compatible in any way with the constitution of the United States? How do you deal with that? That’s another very scary thing because demographically the numbers are on their side.

Tancredo’s warnings echoed recent efforts by right-wingers to ban sharia law in states like Oklahoma, and he drove home the link between immigrants, deadly crime, and terrorism in his CPAC speech as well – going so far as to equate open borders with treason. “Plenty of people coming across that border want to do very bad things to us – we know it’s been an entry point for terrorists. Why would that not be a cause for impeachment? I think it’s treasonous to not secure your border,” he told the crowd, to wild applause. Tancredo also denounced multiculturalism and ethnic enclaves as “the dagger pointed at the heart of Western civilization.”

Mother Jones, 12 February 2011

You’d think that US Islamophobes would all be enthusiastically supporting CPAC, but you’d be wrong. Frank Gaffney has alreadymade the bizarre claim that CPAC has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and now he has been joined by David Horowitz and Robert Spencer.

North Carolina: parents upset over use of the Qur’an in classroom

Posted on by Bob Pitt

More than 100 people came out Thursday night in Albemarle to raise concern about an incident involving the holy book of Islam. Some parents say a teacher passed the Quran around a Stanly County middle school classroom.

James Hinds, of Albemarle, said he was furious a few months ago when his daughter told him the Islamic holy book ‘the Quran’ was shown by her teacher in class at North Stanly Middle School. “A picture can show them what they needed to know. They didn’t actually have to physically put the book in my child’s face,” Hinds said.

District officials said Thursday the Quran was used as an artifact not as an instructional tool and that the discussion of religious differences in the world was well within the proper social studies curriculum.

Hinds said he wasn’t satisfied after addressing the Quran issue with the teacher and principal. So in late January, the father of two officially filed a grievance with the Stanly County School Board. Hinds called an informational meeting Thursday night in Albemarle to raise awareness and potentially get more parents to file similar grievances but not everyone was on board.

Trevor Schmidt and a group also came to the meeting peacefully holding signs and arguing the Quran in the classroom debate is being overblown. “Generalization of just an entire religion, saying you don’t want it taught in your school, in a social studies class, is kind of, you know, not right with our American values of freedom that we try to uphold,” Schmidt said.

The Stanly County School Board is expected to respond to Hinds’ grievance about the Quran in school by the end of this month. Stanly County School District leaders said they are sensitive to religious issues and said if parents feel any instruction violates their religious values that students may opt out of some lessons if they choose.

News14, 12 February 2011

Exeter: ‘burka ban’ demonstration flops, anti-racists rally to celebrate diversity

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti Racists come together in Exeter today for a celebration of diversity, in contrast to the English Defence League who were holding a ���Ban the Burka��� event along Exeter High Street. Exeter, UK. 12/02/2011

The Exeter division of the racist English Defence League was humiliated in Exeter today. Just 15 racists turned up to a “Ban the Burqa protest” in the Devon city.

In contrast, up to 300 people took part in a celebration of diversity on the streets of Exeter to show the EDL’s politics of hate and division are not welcome there. People came in and out of the event, which had local speakers and children’s activities.

The antiracist event brought together people from all different beliefs and backgrounds – Christian ministers, people from the mosque and the synagogue. Lord Mayor Marcel Choules sent a message of support. Members of Exeter Labour Party, the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats attended.

The celebration was supported by the Devon branch of the National Union of Teachers and the Exeter Anti Cuts Alliance. There was a “Feminists against the Burqa Ban” banner along with many others.

Children’s activities were organised by the Woodcraft Folk – a poster where children drew flags of the world was very popular, along with making friendship bracelets and a “We Love Exeter” poster.

Speakers from UAF, the Woodcraft Folk and the Exeter Anti Cuts Alliance addressed the crowd. A student from Egypt spoke about the victory of the Egyptian people over the country’s dictator and about how Muslim and Christian protesters had stood side by side in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

The well organised, peaceful and uplifting celebration of diversity was very different to the racists’ protest. At the start of the diversity event, 10 of them turned up unannounced, seeking a confrontation. They seemed to be taken aback by the number of people who had turned out to oppose them.

The EDL were led away by police and then stood for an hour in the High Street where they were barracked by members of the general public before retreating to a pub.

Mike Gurney from Exeter UAF said:

Today was a great day for Exeter, for antiracism and for all those who oppose prejudice. The EDL were humiliated – they claimed on their Facebook page that over 100 would attend their event – they only managed 15. It was great to see Christians, Jews and Muslims standing together side by side to oppose the EDL.

The EDL’s claims that Muslims are going to impose Sharia Law on Britiain is laughable – Muslims make up only 2.7% of the population. Today the people of Exeter showed that the EDL’s politics of hate are not welcome here and will be challenged whenever it arises.

UAF news report, 12 February 2011

See Cliver Chilvers’ photos at Demotix.

More photos here.

Update:  See also the Express & Echo, 14 February 2011

Anti-Sharia bill introduced in Georgia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Republican lawmakers in Georgia have Sharia on their minds.

The “American Laws for Georgia Courts Act” was recently introduced in both chambers of Georgia’s General Assembly. The bill would amend Georgia law so that “no court, arbitrator, administrative agency, or other tribunal shall enforce a foreign law if doing so would violate a right guaranteed by the Constitution of this state or of the United States.”

While Georgia’s bill is aimed at banning Sharia, it doesn’t explicitly mention it – a strategy employed in similar bills introduced other states.

State Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Atlanta), who is vice chairman of the Georgia House Judiciary Committee, introduced the bill in the state House, and told the Fulton County Daily Report the bill would ban Sharia, while admitting that he does not know of any cases in Georgia where Islamic law has been an issue.

TPM, 10 February 2011

See also “At least 13 states have introduced bills guarding against non-existent threat of Sharia law”, Think Progress, 8 February 2011