Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Some good news about ‘Islamic terror’ (David Cameron please take note)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ever since 9/11, Islamophobia has been a recurrent problem in a number of Western societies, including the United States. It’s been fueled by opportunistic politicians, hate-mongering bloggers, and any number of the other usual suspects. The lingering fear of Islam undergirds the present concerns that the turmoil in Egypt might give groups like the Muslim Brotherhood greater political influence there.

Trying to inject reason and evidence into this sort of debate is usually futile, but I do wish to report some good news. Remember the avalanche of Muslim-based terrorism that was about to descend upon the West? Well, according to the EU’s 2010 Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, the total number of terrorist incidents in Europe declined in 2009. Even more important, the overwhelming majority of these incidents had nothing whatsoever to do with Islam.

The report is produced by Europol, which is the criminal intelligence agency of the European Union. In 2009, there were fewer than 300 terrorist incidents in Europe, a 33 percent decline from the previous year. The vast majority of these incidents (237 out of 294) were conducted by indigenous European separatist groups, with another forty or so attributed to leftists and/or anarchists. According to the report, a grand total of one (1) attack was conducted by Islamists. Put differently, Islamist groups were responsible for a whopping 0.34 percent of all terrorist incidents in Europe in 2009.

Stephen M. Walt at his Foreign Policy blog, 9 February 2011

Evidently the news has failed to reach David Cameron, who last weekend told the Munich Security Conference:

It is important to stress that terrorism is not linked exclusively to any one religion or ethnic group. My country, the United Kingdom, still faces threats from dissident republicans in Northern Ireland. Anarchist attacks have occurred recently in Greece and in Italy, and of course, yourselves in Germany were long scarred by terrorism from the Red Army Faction. Nevertheless, we should acknowledge that this threat comes in Europe overwhelmingly from young men who follow a completely perverse, warped interpretation of Islam, and who are prepared to blow themselves up and kill their fellow citizens.

Dutch minister rejects Wilders’ charge that withdrawal of ham rolls means the ‘Islamisation of the Netherlands’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Home Affairs Minister Piet Hein Donner has rejected suggestions that the fact the police in Gelderland are not served pigmeat any more is an illustration of Islamisation of Dutch society.

The province’s corps is no longer served any ham rolls, according to local newspaper De Gelderland. This meat is not “halal” for Muslims. Party for Freedom (PVV) MPs Geert Wilders and Hero Brinkman had complained to the minister about this “example of unacceptable Islamisation of the Netherlands.”

According to the Christian democratic (CDA) minister, there is no question of this. In a letter to parliament, he writes that the “halal lunch packages” are only an “organisational measure”. Because a number of people “for whatever reasons do not eat pigmeat,” it was simply easier to scrap ham from the menu.

“Possibly the same could happen if the number of vegetarians increases enormously,” according to the CDA minister. “This would not be evidence of vegetarisation of Dutch society either.”

NIS News, 9 February 2011

Guardian letter: signatories warn against Cameron’s ‘dangerous declaration of intent’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We believe David Cameron’s statement that multiculturalism has failed was a dangerous declaration of intent (Blaming the victims, Editorial, 7 February). His speech was reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s infamous 1978 statement that Britain was “being swamped by alien cultures”. He has branded Britain’s Muslims as the new “enemy within” in the same way as Thatcher attacked the miners and trade unions.

David Cameron is attempting to drive a wedge between different communities by linking Britain’s multicultural society with terrorism and national security. His speech was made on the same day as the English Defence League brought its bigotry and violence to the streets of Luton. Mr Cameron’s aim is simple as it is crude – to deflect the anger against his government’s cuts from the bankers and on to the Muslim community. The prime minister is aping attacks by other European leaders like France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, who passed legislation banning the veil, and Angela Merkel, who has also made statements denouncing multiculturalism in Germany. We believe our multicultural society and the respect and solidarity it is built on is a cause for pride, and reject any moves by this government to undermine and destroy it.

We must not allow this coalition government to turn the tide back to the days when it was acceptable, through ignorance and fear, for people with a different religion, culture or skin colour to be scapegoated and treated as inferior or outsiders (seewww.PetitionOnline.com/mcfeb11/petition.html).

Martin Smith Love Music Hate Racism

Peter Hain MP

Jeremy Corbyn MP

Ken Livingstone

Salma Yaqoob Respect

Bob Crow National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

Billy Hayes Communication Workers Union

Mark Serwotka Public and Commercial Services Union

Zita Holbourne TUC

Dr Rob Berkeley Runnymede Trust

Ziauddin Sardar writer

Farooq Murad Muslim Council of Britain

Dr Rob Berkeley Director, Runnymede Trust

Professor Tariq Modood Centre for the study of ethnicity and citizenship,University of Bristol

Mohammed Sawalha British Muslim Initiative

Dr Chris Shannahan

Benjamin Zephaniah poet

Lauren Booth broadcaster and journalist

Michael Rosen author

China Miéville author

Dr Avaes Mohammad poet, playwright, performer, analytical chemist

Sabrina Mahfouz poet and playwright

Tulisa Contostavlos, Dino Contostavlos and Richard Rawson N-Dubz,

Drew McConnell Babyshambles

Lowkey musician

Itch The King Blues

Daniel Stephens musician

David Peter Meads musician

Blaine Harrison Mystery Jets

Adio Merchant, Simeon McLean Kid British

Jeff Mirza comic/actor

Sabby Dhalu Unite Against Fascism and One Society Many Cultures

Lindsey German Stop the War Coalition

Hassan Mahamdallie

Weyman Bennett Unite Against Fascism

Gary McFarlane NUJ and Expose the BNP

Kanja Ibrahim Sesay NUS

Frances Rifkin Equity

Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer European Muslim Research Centre

Bruce Kent One Society Many Cultures

Shemiza Rashid Creative Muslim Network

Laura Miles University and College Union

Gargi Bhattachryya University and College Union

Sean Vernell University and College Union

Sue Bond Public and Commercial Services Union

Revd Ray Gaston

Madani Younis Freedom Studios, Bradford, and the Artists of Freedom Studios

Mohammed Ali Aerosolarabic

Luqman Ali

Kinsi Abdulleh

Sarah Pickthall

Ayaan Aden

Tristan McConnell

Rabbi Lee Wax Chairperson, Inter religious Conference for European Women Theologians

Musleh Faradhi Islamic Forum Europe

Bruce Kent Pax Christi

Professor Danny Dorling Sheffield University

Letter in the Guardian, 9 January 2011

Did David Cameron really mean what he said about multiculturalism?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma Yaqoob poses the question.

My answer, for what it’s worth, is – almost certainly not, Cameron was just making a pitch for Muslims’ votes. After all, this is a man who has attacked multiculturalism on a number of occasions. A 2006 speech by Cameron, which repeated the familiar Cantle-inspired cliche about multiculturalism resulting in communities leading “parallel lives”, was reported under the headline “Ban Muslim ghettos”.

Cameron’s Munich speech marks securitisation of race policy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In delivering his speech, Cameron clearly had in his sights a domestic audience, wooing the Sun and the Daily Mail, both of which, in calling for the disciplining of Muslim communities, have promoted a crude British nationalism based on uncritical support for the armed services and military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Only the day before, the Daily Mail had carried a feature attacking two Birmingham Muslim councillors, Salma Yaqoob and Mohammed Ishtiaq, for refusing to participate in a standing ovation for a British soldier awarded the George Cross for bravery in Afghanistan.)

But Cameron’s speech was also intended to send a clear signal to the United States and the European center-Right that Britain would no longer pursue different ethnic minority and race policies from its European counterparts. In particular, Cameron was showing his support for Angela Merkel and her German Christian Democrat party’s idea that security and cohesion are brought about not through integration and pluralism, but through monoculturalism and assimilation into the dominant Leitkultur (lead culture).

Cameron’s speech was reported as a trailer for the up-and-coming government counter-terrorism review and Lord Carlile’s review of the Prevent strategy. And it is here that Cameron indicated to a German security audience support for the German intelligence services’ approach to the compartmentalisng of Muslim organisations into ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’, with greater surveillance of those deemed ‘illegitimate’. In his speech, Cameron promised that the British government would no longer fund or share platforms with Muslim organisations that, while non-violent, were also a part of the problem because they belonged to a ‘spectrum’ of Islamism. While those who openly support terrorism are at the ‘furthest end’ of this spectrum, it also includes many Muslims who accept ‘various parts of the extremist world view’ including ‘real hostility towards western democracy and liberal values’.

In this, what should be feared is that Cameron is indicating that the government’s review of counter-terrorism policy has been greatly influenced by the approach taken by the German intelligence services (Verfassungsschutz) which has at its base a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate Muslim organisations coupled with the most widespread system of religious profiling in Europe.

Liz Fekete analyses Cameron’s Munich speech.

Institute of Race Relations, 7 February 2011

Debunking the ‘Eurabia’ myth

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Pew Center on Religion & Public Life recently released a comprehensive study of Muslim populations around the world that should allay fears among many of an impending global Muslim takeover and debunk widely held beliefs about Muslims. The findings of “The Future of the Global Muslim Population: Projections for 2010-2030” should also challenge the public to reconsider its perception of Islam and Muslims.

Skeptics, particularly those in Europe and North America, have long sounded alarm bells regarding the growth of the Muslim population.

Such scaremongers claim that Islam is a demographic threat, warning of an impending “Eurabia” within a few decades. This picture, of a triumphant Islam over a Europe that has lost its Christian roots, has contributed to the growth of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim political parties and to their notable successes in European elections last year. In America, this fear began in the late 1990s with articles that warned “The Muslims are coming, the Muslims are coming!” and continued with the recent Park51 debate over a plan to build an Islamic center near ground zero.

This paranoia – based more on fear and misperception – fuels anti-Islam and anti-Muslim hysteria across Europe and North America and undermines our multicultural society.

While Pew finds that the world’s Muslim population is expected to increase from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030, what of an “Islamic wave” across Europe?

Muslims will remain a relatively small minority, but they will make up a growing share of the total population. According to the study, Europe’s Muslim population is projected to grow from 44.1 million in 2010 to 58.2 million in 2030. The greatest rise is expected to be seen in Western and Northern Europe, where Muslims are expected to approach double-digit percentages. For example, in France, the population is expected to rise from 7.5 percent currently to 10.3 percent.

The Muslim share of the U.S. population is projected to grow from 0.8 percent in 2010 to 1.7 percent in 2030, meaning that Muslims will share the same population figures as Jews and Episcopalians. Interestingly, the United States is projected to have a larger number of Muslims by 2030 than any European country, except Russia and France.

Pew’s findings demonstrate that fear of a European Muslim takeover is largely the product of hysteria – France is not destined to become an “Islamic republic” by 2048.

John Esposito and Sheila Lalwani in the San Francisco Chronicle, 7 February 2011

Florida man stabbed because he was Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bradley StrottST. PETERSBURG — Authorities have arrested a 52-year-old man they say committed a hate crime against a man he learned was a Muslim.

According to an arrest affidavit, Bradley Kent Strott, of 4300 58th Ave. N, stabbed the unidentified victim in the neck with a pocket knife on Friday evening.

The two men had been talking about religion when the victim told Strott he was a Muslim, the report said.

“The defendant then became upset, grabbed the victim by his shirt, and stabbed him in the neck with his pocket knife,” a Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The defendant stated that Muslims are the root of the problem,”

The victim required medical treatment, the report said, but his condition was unknown Saturday.

Strott was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery and booked into the Pinellas County Jail late Friday night.

St Petersburg Times, 5 February 2011

See also “Stabbing of Fla. Muslim prompts call to reject Islamophobia”, CAIR press release, 6 February 2011

Sadiq Khan accuses David Cameron of ‘writing propaganda’ for the EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sadiq Khan MPTooting’s MP has reacted furiously to David Cameron’s claim yesterday that multiculturalism in Britain has “failed”. In a speech in Germany, the Prime Minister said the Government should no longer tolerate and engage with extremist groups whose members did not believe in crucial western and British values.

But Sadiq Khan, Britain’s most prominent muslim MP who represents thousands who follow Islam in Tooting, claimed Mr Cameron was “writing propaganda for the English Defence League”.

Yesterday, Mr Cameron told the Munich Security Conference: “Let’s properly judge these organisations… do they believe in universal human rights – including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law?”

In reponse to Mr Khan’s comments, Tory co-chairman Baroness Warsi called for an apology. She said: “For Sadiq Khan to smear the prime minister as a rightwing extremist is outrageous and irresponsible.”

Your Local Guardian, 6 February 2011