Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Right-wing press continues witch-hunt of IFE, with the assistance of Jim Fitzpatrick

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Under the headline “Extremist Muslims have ‘wormed their way into Labour Party’ minister warns”, the Daily Mail offers a rehash of yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph article, with one accompanying picture suggesting that IFE supports the terrorist acts of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan while another illustrates the mythical “hijab-inspired arch Tower Hamlets council has proposed be built at either end of Brick Lane”.

The Daily Star tells its readers that “Muslim extremists are plotting to take over the Labour Party and turn Britain into an Islamic state…. Extremist groups hope their followers will become councillors and MPs. But their allegiance will be to Jihad, or holy war, and enforcing sharia law across the UK. Sharia imposes punishments including stoning and amputations.”

And this piece comes complete with a picture of the well-known IFE supporter Abu Hamza al-Masri.

Meanwhile, over at the Daily Telegraph, Andrew Gilligan is intent on generating the maximum publicity for his anti-IFE documentary, “Britain’s Islamic Republic“, due to be screened in Channel 4’s Dispatches slot this evening.

Under the headline “Sir Ian Blair’s deal with Islamic radical”, Gilligan reveals that the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner had close contact with Azad Ali through the latter’s leading role in that notorious agency of jihadist terrorism, the Muslim Safety Forum. In fact, relations were so close that “Sir Ian or his deputy committed to meet Mr Ali and the MSF at least twice a year”.

Gilligan’s scaremongering over the MSF is rather undermined by a Metropolitan Police spokesperson who states: “We are currently working with the Muslim Safety Forum to review how it can best represent London’s diverse Muslim Communities so that we can better understand and then act on their concerns about safety and security.”

Update:  Over at the anti-Muslim blog Harry’s Place Tory London Assembly member Andrew Boff  has been receiving some stick because of his backing for the East London Mosque.

Indeed, at last week’s Mayor’s Question Time, Boff put the following question to Boris Johnson: “Would you Mr Mayor along with me support the efforts of the many faith communities especially in East London in the way in which they work together, and I mention in particular the role of the East London Mosque and the London Muslim Centre, which you so kindly visited last year, working with the other faith communities in order to break down the misunderstandings that can exist?” To which Johnson replied “Yeah”.

Boff has responded to Harry’s Place in the following terms: “‘Some in Labour’ may be right to think that there are votes in Islamaphobia. Forgive me if I decline to take up your kind offer of pursuing them too. I don’t want to feel that dirty when I go to bed at night.”

And quite right too. True, Boff’s stand may be motivated in large part by concern for the electoral prospects of his friend Tim Archer, the Tory candidate standing against Jim Fitzpatrick in the Poplar and Limehouse constituency. But at least Boff is taking the right stand, which is more than can be said for Fitzpatrick and others in the Labour Party.

Christian right opposes Methodist campaign against Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, was a decrier of Islam. He described its followers as “wolves and tigers to all other nations”. Yet 250 years later, his 21st-century followers are pitting their time, energy and money into fighting Islamophobia.

A new project set up by the Methodist district of Sheffield in partnership with the Anglican Diocese of Sheffield aims to “challenge Islamophobia, racism and divisive politics” in the region. It has won a £75,000 grant from the Equality and Human Rights Commission to fight extremism, after recent electoral successes by the BNP and rallies by the English Defence League.

However, the initiative has caused unease in some conservative Christian circles, with some demanding that the two leading Christian denominations should instead be challenging what they describe as the “Christianophobia” of modern-day Britain.

One conservative blog, Cranmer’s Curate, asked: “Is not ‘Christianophobia’ as great – if not a greater – problem now in British society than ‘Islamophobia’, and of more immediate concern to Christian organisations such as the Sheffield Methodist District and the Diocese of Sheffield? What about the situation faced by Christians in the public sector suspended or fired from their employment simply for offering to pray with clients or for saying ‘God bless’?” It goes on to attack the churches for “preaching politically correct morality to the community rather than the gospel”.

Times, 27 February 2010

School bus drivers ‘refusing to stop for young Muslim girls who are wearing the hijab’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

School bus drivers have been accused of racism after failing to stop for pupils wearing Muslim hijabs.

Young girls have claimed they are being bullied on board for dressing in the traditional veil which covers the head. To avoid trouble, “cowardly” drivers are allegedly ignoring pupils who wait at bus stops wearing the headscarf.

Following a police investigation, officers will now be drafted on to board the buses to protect the students from “racist” taunts of other passengers.

The problems centre on Merseytravel and pupils attending West Derby’s Holly Lodge Girls’ College in Merseyside, where 10 per cent of the 11,274 11 to 18-year-old students are from ethnic minorities.

Members of the Muslim community said the issue was a long-running one. Amina Ismail, who works at Liverpool John Moores University, was approached by the victims. She said: “They said people driving past were being abusive because they were wearing the hijab.”

Ms Ismail said bus drivers refusing to stop were “cowardly” and that “they should not push their own personal prejudices on young people”. She urged people to “see past the scarf or skin colour and look beyond this”.

Muslim woman sacked by US store for wearing headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman has lodged a complaint with federal officials after she said she was fired from her job at a San Mateo clothing store for refusing to remove her hijab, or head scarf.

Hani Khan, 19, of Foster City said she was fired Monday at the Hollister clothing store at the Hillsdale Shopping Center. She was dismissed a week after a district manager visited the store, called her into a meeting and said she was not supposed to wear the scarf while at work, said Khan, who is of Indian and Pakistani descent.

A representative from human resources joined the meeting by phone, and Khan said she had been told that she was in violation of the store’s “look policy.”

“I thought it was quite unfair,” Khan said in an interview. “It was really surprising, especially in the Bay Area, because everybody’s so open-minded and accepting of everybody. It’s really surprising to see blatant discrimination against someone who is of an Islamic state who is wearing a hijab.”

Khan contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group. On Tuesday, the organization filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Abercrombie & Fitch, which operates Hollister stores.

Zahra Billoo, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Khan’s firing was “unconscionable.” “Firing someone explicitly for a religious reason or practice is, in our view, against the law,” Billoo said.

In September, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Abercrombie & Fitch for allegedly discriminating against a 17-year-old Muslim in Oklahoma by refusing to hire her because she wore a hijab. The case is pending.

San Francisco Chronicle, 26 February 2010

See also Tracy Clark-Flory, “Abercrombie hates your hijab”, Salon.com, 25 February 2010

And “Fired Calif. Muslim Abercrombie employee threatened”, CAIR news release, 25 February 2010

Tower Hamlets Council leader replies to ‘hijab gates’ nonsense

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lutfur Rahman, leader of Tower Hamlets Council, replies to the Guardian‘s full-page scaremongering article, “Brick Lane plan for hijab gates angers residents“, in which bigoted residents were given a platform to claim, entirely inaccurately, that the proposed new arches in Brick Lane are “undoubtedly faith-specific to Islam” and “both Islamic and representing a specifically conservative form of Islam”.

He writes: “We would never go into this kind of programme with the blinkered intention of favouring one section of the community – which, judging by some of the Islamophobic reaction on your website, is clearly the impression left in the minds of many people reading your original article.”

Guardian, 26 February 2010

Muslim woman sacked by US store for wearing headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman has lodged a complaint with federal officials after she said she was fired from her job at a San Mateo clothing store for refusing to remove her hijab, or head scarf.

Hani Khan, 19, of Foster City said she was fired Monday at the Hollister clothing store at the Hillsdale Shopping Center. She was dismissed a week after a district manager visited the store, called her into a meeting and said she was not supposed to wear the scarf while at work, said Khan, who is of Indian and Pakistani descent.

A representative from human resources joined the meeting by phone, and Khan said she had been told that she was in violation of the store’s “look policy.”

“I thought it was quite unfair,” Khan said in an interview. “It was really surprising, especially in the Bay Area, because everybody’s so open-minded and accepting of everybody. It’s really surprising to see blatant discrimination against someone who is of an Islamic state who is wearing a hijab.”

Continue reading →

City University closes Muslim prayer room

Posted on by Bob Pitt

City University protest

Hundreds of Muslim students and staff have turned Northampton Square into a makeshift mosque after university bosses padlocked their prayer room.

For the past week, Muslims at City University in Finsbury have endured the wind, rain and snow to pray three times a day on the pavement.

And at Friday lunchtime, up to 350 students and staff turned out for the weekly congregational prayer. Shafiq Mundiya, 26, a technical support officer, said: “We need a place to pray and we have been praying outside to tell people that we are upset and that we want our prayer room back. The prayer room was constantly being used by staff and students. The fact that the university closed it is quite devastating.”

For 10-plus years, the university’s Muslims have performed several of their five daily prayers in the basement of the Gloucester Building in Whiskin Street, Finsbury. Students say it was used by about 100 people a day, and up to 450 on Friday lunchtimes. But City University decided it was not safe to keep it open after four Muslim students were stabbed in St John Street by racist thugs in November. The 23-year-old undergraduate said: “We have had no problems with that gang since. They have even approached one of us, apologised and said it was a misunderstanding.”

Last Monday, the Gloucester Building prayer room was padlocked and Muslim students were directed to a new multi-faith room nearer the centre of the university. But campaigners say they cannot use a room that is also for the worship of other deities and that it only has space for 40 men and 40 women.

Islington Gazette, 24 February 2010

A parliamentary inquiry into Islamophobia is needed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed, SNP parliamentary candidate for Glasgow Central makes the following commitment:

“I will … if elected this year, work across the House of Commons to establish an all-party inquiry into Islamophobia. We have precedent in this from the similar committee looking into anti-semitism which examined the causes and made recommendations on the way forward. Rigourous investigation needs to be brought to the phenomenon of Islamophobia to stop the hate spiralling further in the tough years to come.”

Rolled Up Trousers, 19 February 2010