Inayat Bunglawala responds to Andrew Gilligan’s claim that “the available evidence simply does not support” the view that Islamophobia is on the increase in the UK.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
South Carolina jumps on sharia law bandwagon
The crusade against the “ever growing threat” of Sharia law has marched on into South Carolina. Following the lead of places like Oklahoma, Rep. Wendy Nanney and Sen. Mike Fair introduced a legislative initiative aimed at preventing “a court or other enforcement authority” from enforcing foreign law. The two conservative sponsors of the bill hope to “preempt violations of a person’s constitutional rights” that result from the application of foreign law. Foreign law of course is the new dog whistle for Sharia law.
EDL plans for Luton protest raise fears of disorder
The far-right English Defence League is due to stage the biggest demonstration in its 18-month history this weekend amid growing fears of widespread disorder.
Thousands of EDL activists from across England will descend on Luton, the Bedfordshire town where the organisation started, for the protest on Saturday.
The EDL has staged more than 30 protests in towns and cities across the UK since it was formed in March 2009, many of which have been marred by Islamophobia, racism and violence.
On Saturday, between 25 and 30 coaches packed with EDL supporters are expected to travel to Luton, including a number of activists from far-right groups in France, the Netherlands and Germany.
“This event is creating more fear than anything else, especially among the elderly who have seen the pictures of what has happened at these events in the past,” said Luton councillor Mahmood Hussain.
“Everyone is very much concerned about what could happen because you only have to look at the record of this group to see what we face.”
Bedfordshire police are planning the biggest operation in Luton’s history with around 2,000 officers expected to be on duty, with several hundred more on standby.
Anti-racism campaigners are holding a counter demonstration in Luton on Saturday in separate part of the town. Unite Against Fascism, which is organising the event, says it expects supporters to travel from across the country.
Community leaders and politicians have been working with different community groups in Luton since the EDL announced it was going to stage the protest under the catchline “Back to where it all began”.
“We had a very emotional meeting last week where the young people were very concerned with some of the awful things that were written on the internet by EDL people,” said Hussain. “But we are trying to tell them not to be provoked because that is just what these people want.”
The EDL was formed in Luton after a small number of protesters from an extremist Muslim group held up placards at the homecoming of the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment reading “Butchers of Basra” and “Anglian soldiers go to hell”.
At a subsequent protest in the town scores of EDL supporters attacked Asian businesses, smashing cars and threatening passersby. The group has branches across the country and its leadership insists it is not violent or racist and is opposed only to what it describes as radical or militant Islam.
However, many of its demonstrations have descended into violence and racist chanting. Some supporters are known far-right activists and football hooligans.
Details of the Unite Against Fascism demonstration can be found here.
UAF are holding a meeting in London on Tuesday 1 February under the title “Islamophobia, division and the far-right: How do we shape the fightback?”, details of which can be found here.
Sikh and Hindu organisations condemn EDL
Leaders of some of the largest Sikh and Hindu organisations as well as Sikh Students in this country have signed a “Joint Statement” condemning the English Defence League including any Sikh youth who support the EDL.
The statement is also signed by two Members of Parliament from Asian background as well as a number of councillors, including Councillor Lakhbir Singh, former Mayor of Luton, who himself had suffered a vicious attack by a racist youth last year after some protests in Luton.
Other signatories include Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Southall, the largest Sikh temple outside India, together with many other Sikh and Hindu temples in Southall, west London. Its also been signed by a major Sikh temple in Barking, east London, a hotspot for the British National Party, as well as by the British Sikh Council (UK), an umbrella organisation for a number of Sikh temples in this country.
The Sikh Student Societies include some of the most famous colleges in London, like the London School of Economics, University College London and Imperial College as well as the University of Hertfordshire.
The statement is also signed by the Indian Workers Association (GB), Sikhs In England, an influential Sikh organisation, and Unite Against Fascism.
The statement reads, “We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the rise in fascism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism and racism. The English Defence League has organised events across the country, stirring up hatred, Islamophobia and racism – running riot in some cases and provoking violent attacks on Muslim, black and Asian communities and on Mosques and Mandirs (Hindu temples)”.
It further highlights, “They are using the old tactics of ‘divide and rule’ and are trying to divide the Asians by isolating the Muslim community. Furthermore, some misguided Sikh youth are letting themselves to be used by the EDL while a Sikh man has disgracefully joined the BNP. These people are helping to spread mistrust within our communities and we whole heartedly condemn their actions”.
And adds that, “At a time of economic crisis with mass unemployment and impending deep public spending cuts – if the racists are allowed to make any further gains then we all would suffer from grave consequences. Thus we urge all Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews and people of other faiths to come together to strongly condemn the actions of these racist organizations and unite to turn back this tide of hatred”.
Balwinder Singh Rana, spokesperson for UAF, also added, “The EDL pretend that they are not racist but they are no different than the old NF and the BNP. Now is the time for Sikhs and Hindus to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Muslim brethren and tell the EDL that their sinister aims of ‘divide and rule’ will not work. Otherwise it’s the Muslims today and it will be all us tomorrow”.
Varinder Singh, youth representative for the Turban Campaign, said, “It is of great concern that our youth are being recruited into the fascist and Islamophobic ideology which the English Defence League promotes. We as a community must face this threat to our youth head on by staying true to the core teachings of the Sikh Gurus, which emphasise the importance of pluralism and brotherhood amongst mankind.”
So far the EDL has held more than thirty marches and demonstrations up and down the country, often ending in violence. Now they are to return to Luton on Saturday, 5th February, which they regard their hometown as that’s where they began about 18 months ago.
See also UAF news report, 29 January 2011
Liddle replies to Warsi
Writing the current issue of the Spectator, Rod Liddle takes issue with Baroness Warsi’s criticism of his speech headlined “Islamophobia? Count me in!” Liddle objects that “she hadn’t heard, or read, the speech I made, or asked what I had meant. Condemning a speech solely because of its headline strikes me as being the very apogee of ‘shallow’.” Whereas Liddle’s bigoted ramblings are of course famous for their intellectual depth. So what did he say in his speech at the Evening Standard‘s “Is Islam good for London?” debate in November 2007? Liddle summarises:
My speech expressed a profound dislike of the ideology of Islam because it lends itself to a) homophobia, b) the subjugation of women, c) anti-semitism d) viciousness towards so-called apostates, e) authoritarianism and f) a somewhat medieval approach towards crime and punishment. And then there’s the barbarism of female circumcision, forced marriages and the notion that those who are not Muslims are not quite human, that their lives are worthless. These last three manifestations of Islamic thought are not universally present throughout the Islamic world, for sure. But the ideology facilitates them, offers them a weird sort of legitimacy.
The other manifestations of Islam I noted above, however, are universal within the Muslim world. OK, some Islamic states kill homosexuals while others merely imprison them. Some Islamic states merely loathe Jews, rather than loathing them and demanding their liquidation. Moderate Malaysia will put you in prison and take away your children for giving up your Islamic faith, while hardline Saudi Arabia will kill you. There are gradations of spite, violence, persecution and insecurity within Islam: but what there always is, beyond all doubt, is spite, violence, persecution and insecurity.
I was careful, in that speech to which she refers, to draw a distinction between Islam and Muslims….
You can imagine how it would go down with Britain’s Jewish community if Liddle delivered a speech headlined “Antisemitism? Count me in” in which he quoted bloodcurdling passages from the Torah, listed the atrocities committed by Israel as a self-proclaimed Jewish state and then concluded by observing that he drew a distinction between Judaism and Jews.
See Mehdi Hasan’s response to Liddle on his New Statesman blog.
Mohamed ElBaradei says Muslim Brotherhood threat is ‘a myth that has been perpetuated and sold by the regime’
Perhaps Paul Goodman should watch it. He might learn something. This is a man who feels entitled to write a long piece at ConservativeHome about the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood, even though he knows so little about the role of the Ikhwan in Egypt that he thinks “Brotherhood members sit in its parliament as independents”. As anyone with a passing acqaintance with Egyptian politics would be aware, the Ikhwan won 88 Assembly seats in the 2005 elections but in 2010 their presence was reduced to a single seat which they refused to take up in protest at the massive vote-rigging carried out by the Mubarak regime.
Another Gilligan witch-hunt bites the dust
Andrew Gilligan has a piece in the Sunday Telegraph continuing his campaign against ENGAGE.
Alas for Gilligan, it seems that the campaign isn’t going well. Kris Hopkins and Greville Janner, who buckled in the face of a witch-hunt initiated by Gilligan (“Islamists establish a bridgehead in Parliament”) and taken up by Paul Goodman and Martin Bright, and announced that they would recommend that the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia should remove ENGAGE from its position as the group’s secretariat, finally got round to consulting other members of the APPG. They found that their proposal to remove ENGAGE has no support. Gilligan reports:
Kris Hopkins, Tory MP for Keighley, and the Labour peer Lord Janner, quit the new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia after failing to persuade their colleagues to sack a body called iEngage as the group’s secretariat.
iEngage, also known as Engage, is an organisation of Islamist sympathisers which has repeatedly defended extremists. Last year, it called on the Government to revoke a ban on a hardline foreign preacher who has said that “every Muslim should be a terrorist”.
The pass allows Mrs Bunglawala to enter Parliament without having to go through security checks and mix freely with ministers and MPs. It gives her the right to invite guests and to use Commons facilities. There is no suggestion that Mrs Bunglawala has been involved in any act of terrorism.
No, there’s just the weasel-worded accusation from Gilligan that ENGAGE supports extremists who advocate terrorism and that Shenaz Bunglawala represents some sort of security threat.
Gilligan isn’t meeting with much success in his self-appointed role as witchfinder general of Islamists, is he? Last year, you may recall, he intervened in the Tower Hamlets mayoral election to launch an attack on Lutfur Rahman, portraying him as a pawn of “Islamic fundamentalists” at the East London Mosque. The result was that Lutfur was elected as an independent candidate with a huge majority.
The moral for Muslims seems to be that if you want to win broad support, your best bet is to have Gilligan launch a campaign of baseless slander against you.
Islamophobia: does Labour measure up?
Does Labour measure up?
By Bob Pitt
Labour Briefing, February 2011
“The Islamophobia Myth” – that was the title of an influential article by Kenan Malik published in the February 2005 issue of Prospect magazine. It argued that violence, hatred and discrimination against Muslims were at a very low level and that the threat of Islamophobia had been invented or at least greatly exaggerated, mainly by religious leaders hoping to suppress legitimate criticisms of their beliefs and to enhance their own status as community representatives. Malik’s thesis was welcomed in some quarters at the time, including among sections of the left.
Six years on, far fewer people would buy that argument. Hostility towards Muslims and their faith has reached such a pitch that to deny this represents a major threat is simply untenable. When the racist hooligans of the English Defence League take to the streets in towns and cities across the UK brandishing placards with slogans such as “We will never submit to Islam”, chanting “Burn a mosque down” and on occasion breaking through police lines to rampage through Muslim areas smashing shop windows and assaulting passers-by, who could seriously claim that Islamophobia is a myth?
Sikhs Against the EDL backs ‘Love Leicester, Hate Racism’ demonstration
Sikhs Against the EDL press release
The racist and fascist EDL want to march in Leicester this Saturday, 4th February, to spread their racist poison.
To counter their unwanted presence and to stop them intimidating the local communities the antiracists will also take to the streets on the same day.
This is the second time in less than two years that the EDL thugs want to stir up racism and divisions among the city’s diverse community. Last time when they showed up in October 2010, they caused much violence and disruption.
Latest issue of Arches Quarterly – out now
Arches Quarterly – Volume 4 Edition 7
Latest Issue – Islamophobia and Anti Muslim Hatred
The Cordoba Foundation presents its Winter 2010 edition of Arches Quarterly, a journal providing nuanced analysis of the issues and developments in the arena of dialogue, civilizations, and a rapprochement between Islam and the West.
In this edition, Arches Quarterlyresponds to the rising levels of anti-Muslim hatred across the globe. Commonly referred to as “Islamophobia”, contributors discuss among other things, conceptual challenges posed by the term, the location of it in the racial imperial-colonial matrix and by providing examples from across the world, show that it is a reality in today’s climate. The issue also explores the responsibility of Muslim civil society to combat internal and external challenges.
In this edition:
Islamophobia and Terrorism: Impediments to the Culture of Peace — Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu
Contemporary Islamophobia Before 9/11: A Brief History — Dr Chris Allen
Islamophobia and Hispanophobia: How They Came Together in the Euro-American Imagination — Walter D. Mignolo
Islamophobia & Anti-Semitism: History and Possibility — Rabbi Reuven Firestone
Islamophobia, Mimetic Warfare and the Bugaboo of Shari’a Compliance: Counter-Strategies for Common Ground – Dr Robert D. Crane
The New McCarthyism in Europe — Liz Fekete
Sweden and Anti-Muslim Hysteria — Kristoffer Larsson
Sole Protector, of What? Unpacking Turkey’s Anti-Muslim Policies — Dr Merve Kavakci Islam
Will Europe Surrender to Selective Racism? An Interpretative Model of a Worsening Phenomenon — Hossam Shaker
Muslims in the Polish Media: The New Folk Devil? — Dr Konrad Pedziwiatr
Islamophobia: A Deep-Rooted Phenomenon — Marwan Muhammad
Situating Anti-Muslim Hatred in Contemporary Indian Society —Ram Puniyani
The Defence of Omar Khadr in the Age of Islamophobia — Dennis Edney
Analysing the Growing Scepticism Towards the Idea of Islamophobia — Dr Nasar Meer and Professor Tariq Modood
British Muslim Organisations: The Target of an Orchestrated Neocon Campaign of Denigration — Dr Robert Lambert
South African Muslims Over Three Centuries: From the Jaws of Islamophobia to the Joys of Equality — Ebrahim Rasool
Download Arches Quarterly here
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