The latest issue of the Cordoba Foundation’s Arches Quarterly is now out and can be downloaded here. It has an article by Sabby Dhalu of Unite Against Fascism on “Islamophobia, Racism and the Far Right”.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
Andrew Boff on the witch-hunt of Lutfur Rahman
London Assembly member Andrew Boff may be a member of the Tory Party but his stand against the anti-Muslim hysteria whipped up against the East London Mosque has been exemplary – unlike some prominent Labour politicians we could mention.
Dave Hill’s London Blog has just posted Boff’s assessment of the controversy arising from Andrew Gilligan’s witch-hunt of the ELM and Islamic Forum Europe, which has resulted in the Labour Party NEC’s disgraceful decision to remove Lutfur Rahman, the democratically elected Labour candidate for the Tower Hamlets mayoral election, and replace him with Helal Abbas. We take the liberty of reproducing Andrew Boff’s comments here:
There are all different sorts of mosques, they all have their different views and they are all entitled to be involved in politics if they want. If they decide to keep themselves to themselves they’re accused of being insular, remote and frightening. If they engage with the wider community and try to become part of the dialogue they are accused of having sinister motives. They can’t win.
There are too many bloggers and others out there saying that the IFE’s involvement is all some sort of subversive plot. Some of these bloggers are supposed be centre-left, but they always come over with that sort of extreme shoutiness of the Daily Mail.
All this is just a distraction from the real story, which is that the fuss about Lutfur Rahman is really just the old Labour politics as usual – all the old arguments between grassroots and the unions, the leadership and the rank and file. The only difference is that in this case there are Bengali Muslims involved, and wouldn’t it be appalling if they weren’t? Wouldn’t it be appalling if all the decisions in Tower Hamlets were taken by white, middle-class people? The Conservative Party in Tower Hamlets has a very substantial Bengali membership and we’re very proud of that. We look like the place we represent. In Hackney it’s the Orthodox Jews who are accused of entryism, but we’ve got lots of black members too and no one accuses them of entryism.
People of faith have much to contribute and they shouldn’t be locked out. If you look at the East London Mosque, they’ve done fantastic work towards fostering a multi-faith dialogue in the borough. It’s an absolutely fantastic institution and we shouldn’t be turning our back. It seems we’re all in favour of multiculturalism as long as “they” all think the same way as “us”.
The thing about Lutfur Rahman, as far as I can see, is that he’s proved to be a very good Labour machine politician. Often people who live in boroughs that are always run by Labour aren’t very impressed by how they do things, but there’s this powerful party machine that gets the vote out at elections. He’s just got that machine working for him. As I understand it the allegations made against him aren’t going to be investigated [by the NEC]. For the Labour Party to allow itself to be portrayed as the victim of a Muslim plot in order to obscure the truth that it is fundamentally dysfunctional, could damage community relations in Tower Hamlets for many years to come.
It is not only community relations that will be damaged but also the Labour Party itself. It would be difficult to have come up with a more stupid, unprincipled and counterproductive decision than that taken by the Labour NEC in de-selecting Lutfur Rahman, through which they have demonstrated complete contempt for the democratic rights of Labour Party members and voters in Tower Hamlets.
Lutfur Rahman is now standing as an independent candidate. This member of the Islamophobia Watch collective holds a Labour Party card and therefore cannot advocate a vote for him. However, voters in Tower Hamlets may well conclude that the best way to demonstrate their feelings about the Labour NEC’s appalling capitulation to a Gilligan-inspired witch-hunt will be to elect Lutfur mayor of Tower Hamlets with a ringing majority on 21 October.
CBS ’60 Minutes’ report on Park51 project
Rally in support of Sheepshead Bay mosque
Rev. Matthew Westfox (Associate Minister at All Souls Bethlehem Church), playing the guitar and leading a sing-along of Woodie Guthrie’s, “This Land is Your Land” at the proposed building site of a mosque at Sheepshead Bay. Rev. Westfox stepped into the controversial fray on the side of religious freedom.
Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn, 27 September 2010
Across the road, opponents of the Sheepshead Bay mosque turned out to protest against it for the second Sunday running. Last week the Brooklyn Tea Party was behind the demonstration, this week (see placard below) it was a group calling themselves Bay People Inc., who had organised a previous rally back in June.
See also The Brooklyn Paper, 27 September 2010
Update: And see “Brooklyn mosque rally turns ugly”, The Brooklyn Ink, 1 October 2010
Zakir Naik appeal hearing set for 20 October
An Islamic scholar barred from entering the UK for his “unacceptable behaviour” has won the first round of his court battle against the Home Secretary’s ruling. A High Court judge decided the case for Dr Zakir Naik should be fast-tracked despite objections from Theresa May’s lawyers.
Dr Naik’s solicitor Tayab Ali is being assisted by two QCs from the chambers of Tony Blair’s wife Cherie Booth. He said: “It is manifestly unfair to proceed to judgment on the basis of remarks made many years previously.” Mr Ali added: “His comments have been taken extremely selectively and completely out of context.”
Dr Naik, 44, was banned from coming to Britain on June 16 for a charity tour. His supporters said the decision was blatant political posturing and unfair victimisation. The founder and chairman of global satellite channel Peace TV was due to address thousands in London, Birmingham and Sheffield. He has given more than 1,300 lectures around the world in the past 20 years.
Mr Justice Nichol ordered a two-day hearing to begin on October 20.
Sunday Express, 26 September 2010
Stand by for a renewed campaign from the right-wing press against Dr Naik and those who have opposed the ban. See for example “Anti-terror chief tried to secure UK entry for Muslim preacher” in the Daily Telegraph, which adds little to a report that appeared in the Sunday Times back in August.
For an illustration of the double standards applied by the Home Office when it comes to determining who is allowed into the country, see “Hindutva terrorist enters UK” in the Pakistan Daily Mail and Sunny Hundal’s post at Pickled Politics.
PCC upholds complaint against Daily Star over ‘Muslim-only public loos’ story
The ever-excellent Tabloid Watch draws our attention to yesterdays’s Daily Star, which reports that the Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against the paper over its front page story, about a shopping centre in Rochdale installing “squat” toilets, which was headlined “MUSLIM-ONLY PUBLIC LOOS” with the sub-heading “Council wastes YOUR money on hole-in-ground toilets”.
As ENGAGE pointed out at the time, this non-issue, involving just two toilets in one shopping centre in Greater Manchester, was blown up into a major controversy by the Daily Express and other papers – and even by the BBC, who as ENGAGE observed “once again picked up on a non-story, utilised by the right-wing press to foment fear about the ‘Islamification’ of Britain”.
(The Daily Star followed up the story with another front-page article, based on information from an anonymous source that the toilets were being reconsidered, which was headlined “DAILY STAR BLOCKS MUSLIM-ONLY LOOS!” with the sub-heading “We get hole-in-the-ground toilets banned”.)
Harvard students protest against Martin Peretz
At an event on Saturday in Cambridge, Harvard University accepted a new research fund in honor of New Republic editor-in-chief and former Harvard teacherMarty Peretz.
A sizable group of students upset by Peretz’s writings over the years – most recently his assertion that Muslim life is cheap and that followers of Islam should not be protected by the First Amendment, for which he later partially apologized – was on hand to protest Peretz and the university.
Usefully, the protesters carried signs quoting Peretz’s own words as they followed him and his entourage through Harvard Yard.
See also MondoWeiss, 25 September 2010
Italian Muslims complain to president about violation of rights by Lega Nord
Muslims in Italy have written to the country’s president Giorgio Napolitano claiming their constitutional rights are being violated by the anti-immigrant policies of the Northern League party.
A lack of mosques and halal food outlets in the north were especially serious problems, said the letter to Napolitano, written by the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy (UCOII).
“I write to you as the custodian and guarantor of the Italian constitution the Italian’s Republic’s highest judge, to draw to your attention the day-to-day difficulties faced by Muslims in a large area of the country,” said the letter signed by UCOII’s president Ezzeddin Elzir.
Law-abiding Muslim immigrants and foreign residents who have striven to integrate in Italy’s northern regions and who do not present any real security threat, are being treated as second-class citizens, according to UCOII.
“Chiefly in the north of Italy, their religious freedom and personal dignity, upheld by the constitution and international conventions to which our country is a signatory, are gravely compromised,” the letter continued.
The letter did not specifically name the Northern League, which control several regions and most local councils in the north of Italy, but referred to “a certain political hostility made worse by the irresponsible action of certain local administrations.”
“Fundamental rights are being denied, such as places of worship and the availability of food prepared according to Muslim precepts,” the letter stated. “There is barely a Muslim community in northern Italy that does not come up against outright bans on mosques arrogantly imposed by local councils who malevolently invoke petty local bylaws to deny a basic constitutional freedom.”
UCOII asked for specific intervention from Napolitano over a school in Adro, in the Lombardy province of Brescia that has said it will only exempts Muslim pupils from eating pork if they have an allergy to it or on other health grounds.
Via Islam in Europe
Police fear EDL plan to attack Leicester mosque
Police fear protesters plan to attack a city mosque before marching into the heart of Leicester’s Muslim community.Concerns were voiced by Chief Constable Simon Cole in a report to Leicester City Council about the planned march by the English Defence League on October 9. The Chief Constable said that an intelligence and threat assessment indicated a “major threat” to public order.
His report said: “Intelligence dated September 8, 2010, indicated that the EDL intend to come to Leicester and attack a mosque before marching into the Highfields area, which represents the highest resident population of the Muslim community.
“This reflects previous intentions of EDL processions, such as that within Leicester, where actions were targeted to cause disruption to the Muslim community by provoking serious public disorder.”
Leicester City Cabinet yesterday agreed to apply to the Home Office to ban the planned procession under the Public Order Act 1986.
However, the EDL, in a statement, rejected the police claims. EDL event organiser Guramit Singh said: “We are coming to Leicester to peacefully demonstrate and we denounce attacks on any mosques. We are here to fight militant Islam, not moderate Islam. The intelligence provided by the police is incorrect.”
The EDL submitted an application to march through the city to police this week. If the Home Office agrees to ban the EDL march, the group could still hold a static protest, which the authorities would be powerless to prevent taking place.
Leicester Mercury, 25 September 2010
See also “Vote to ban EDL march in Leicester ‘unanimous'”, BBC News, 25 September 2010
Incendiary anti-mosque campaign ad
Anderson Cooper takes on Republican congressional candidate Renee Ellmers over her “victory mosque” advert.