A Philadelphia-area security company violated federal law when it terminated a security officer for wearing a religious head scarf and threatened to terminate other Muslim employees if they wore religious garments while on duty, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced today.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
Controversy over Islam and mosques spreads beyond Park 51
“Nine years after the Sept, 11, 2001 attacks, a heated debate over a proposed Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero has helped spark a wave of distrust and anger toward Muslim Americans and Islam in New York City and beyond.”
Farah Akbar writes in the Gotham Gazette, September 2010
Qur’an burning stunt flops in Amarillo
A planned Quran burning Saturday in Amarillo was thwarted by a 23-year-old carrying a skateboard and wearing a T-shirt with “I’m in Repent Amarillo No Joke” scrawled by hand on the back.
Jacob Isom, 23, grabbed David Grisham’s Quran when he became distracted while arguing with several residents at Sam Houston Park about the merits of burning the Islamic holy book.
“You’re just trying to start Holy Wars,” Isom said of Grisham after he gave the book to a religious leader from the Islamic Center of Amarillo.
Grisham, director of Repent Amarillo, which aims to deter promiscuity, homosexuality and non-Christian worship practices through confrontation and prayer, said he was just trying to exercise his right to free speech.
He announced Friday evening the plan to burn copies of the Quran to show support for the Rev. Terry Jones, pastor of a small church in Gainesville, Fla., who planned, publicized, then canceled his own Quran burning event after a national uproar.
More than 200 people, many packing signs, crowded into Sam Houston Park Saturday to either support or protest Grisham’s plan to burn the Quran.
Protesters threw their hands on the grill Grisham planned to use to burn the Quran, someone took his lighter and Isom stole the Quran, leaving him with just lighter fluid.
As the crowd jeered, Grisham got into a car and left peacefully without burning any copies of the holy book.
Jews on both sides of Park51 controversy
Interesting article in The Jewish Week on divisions within New York’s Jewish community over the Park51 development.
Media coverage of SIOA anti-Park51 rally ‘worse than Pravda’
Well, so mad Pamela Geller believes. Geller’s basic gripe is that the media failed to buy her ludicrous claim that 40,000 people attended the hate-fest she and Robert Spencer organised in New York last Saturday – a claim that most of us would take as evidence that the most paranoid 9/11 truther has a better grip on reality than Geller does.
As proof of the “tens of thousands” who supported the Stop Islamization of America protest Geller posts the following photo, which to any neutral observer would appear to confirm media reports that the event drew a couple of thousand participants.
Geller is particularly indignant that the media gave coverage to what she calls “the anti-America, commie, leftist counter protest”, which she insists was a fraction of the size of her own mass rally. Evidently Pravda-style misreporting is fine when it’s Geller who’s doing it. In the interests of accuracy, therefore, here is a photo of the pro-Park51 demonstration.
Soccer hooligans at Ground Zero
Over at his New York Times blog, Robert Mackey has posted an analysis of the English Defence League, who sent a delegation to New York last weekend to support the anti-Park51 rally. Hopefully this will be taken up more widely by the US media because, on the “by their friends ye shall know them” principle, it does shed some revealing light on the political character of Geller and Spencer’s campaign.
Leaders of 14 unions back November demo against racism and Islamophobia
The general secretaries of the GMB general union and the UCU lecturers’ union have both signed up to support the national demo against racism, fascism and Islamophobia on Saturday 6 November.
Backing from Paul Kenny and Sally Hunt means that the leaders of 14 trade unions, representing millions of workers, have now signed up to support the demo called by UAF and backed by the TUC, the Muslim Council of Britain and Love Music Hate Racism.
Labour leadership rivals Ed Balls and Diane Abbott are also among those who have signed the statement backing the march and carnival, which will take place in central London.
Statement supporting the 6 November demo
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the rise in fascism, Islamophobia, antisemitism 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).
Alongside this the British National Party has received unprecedented electoral support for a fascist organisation in Britain.
Despite losing many council seats in the elections this year, the BNP’s share of the vote overall continued to rise and it has two elected members of the European Parliament.
This is in the context of a wave of Islamaphobia and racism in Europe and the USA, including threats to burn copies of the Qur’an, attacks on Mosques and Islamic cultural centres, bans on Muslim women’s full-face veils and the construction of minarets. In France, the Roma people have been singled out and subjected to mass expulsions.
Now, more than ever, we must unite to turn back this tide of hatred.
We stand against the rise of racism, fascism, Islamophobia and antisemitism and support the demonstration on Saturday 6 November.
Signed:
Derek Simpson joint general secretary, Unite the union, Tony Woodley joint general secretary, Unite the union, Keith Sonnetdeputy general secretary Unison, Paul Kenny general secretary GMB Ed Balls MP, Diane Abbott MP, Billy Hayes general secretary, CWU, Tony Kearns deputy general secretary, CWU,Chris Keates general secretary, NASUWT, Christine Blowergeneral secretary NUT, Kevin Courtney deputy general secretary, NUT, Sally Hunt general secretary UCU, Mark Serwotkageneral secretary PCS, Hugh Lanning deputy general secretary PCS, Matt Wrack general secretary FBU, Bob Crow general secretary, RMT, Jeremy Dear general secretary NUJ, Pete Murray president NUJ, Gerry Conlon Guildford Four, Paddy Hill Birmingham Six, Runnymede Trust, Napo, POA, Musicians Union
>> Add your support to the statement
>> Download leaflets here
>> Model motion for trade union branches and community organisations
Update: See also “Major Muslim organisations throw weight behind demo”, UAF news release, 17 September 2010
Paper to readers: Sorry for portraying Muslims as human
James Poniewozic writes on his Time blog on the Portland Press Herald apology for publishing images of Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan.
Support for extremist groups low among European Muslims, mainstream Islamist organisations encourage political engagement and combat terrorism, Pew report finds
Support for radical Islamist groups is low among European Muslims and some leading groups with overseas roots are now cooperating with local governments and encouraging Muslims to vote, according to a new report.
European groups linked to wider Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-i-Islami now focus more on conditions for Muslims in Europe than their original ideologies from Egypt and Pakistan, according to the report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The report also cited tensions between “jihadists” and peaceful Islamists in Europe, saying some groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood were working with police to counter militants.
“By most accounts, support for radical extremist groups is relatively low among Muslims in Europe,” it said. “Nevertheless, such groups have been central to the public discussion of Islam in Europe, especially in recent years.”
Download the Pew report here
Hate graffiti shows growth of Islamophobia in US
“Islamophobia is growing in the United States. Hate graffiti is now discoloring my own building here in New York City – calling for the Holy Quran to be burned. The publicity-hungry Terry Jones in Gainesville could be discounted if he did not have his finger on the pulse of America. But the protests near the World Trade Center confirm that he is not alone….
“Why should this hate graffiti be littering our hallway? How could someone – maybe someone I pass every day – have so much hatred in their heart? I have numerous Muslim neighbors, both from around the world and born here. How does this ‘Burn the Quran’make their children feel? How does ‘Islam is Evil’ impact my own son – to witness such ugliness so close to home? …
“I believe firmly that the honor of those many, many who died on 9/11 – including our Muslim brothers and sisters – will be diminished if the country they died in cannot protect the concept of religious pluralism that our great nation was founded on.”
Jim Luce at the Huffington Post, 14 September 2010