Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Soccer hooligans plan another anti-Muslim protest in Birmingham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton riotPolice are being urged to ban a “sinister” new soccer group – said to include football hooligans – from staging a Midland protest against Muslim extremists.

Casuals United was set up after British soldiers were abused by Islamic radicals at a homecoming parade in Luton earlier this year. The group allegedly includes trouble-makers from soccer clubs across the country, including Aston Villa, Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Casuals have already staged a number of protests against Muslim extremists around the UK, including on July 4 at Birmingham Bullring when a 100-strong crowd was held back by riot police. Now the group are planning to return to the second city for a fresh rally on August 8 – leading to fears of violence.

Last night, Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood urged police to block the event. He said: “No matter what these groups say, people have to see that they have sinister intentions and only want to promote violence on our streets. This is the kind of thing we saw in the 1970s when the Far Right came to prominence and caused riots in our cities.”

Continue reading →

US court reverses ban on Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tariq Ramadan cartoon (1)A federal appeals court in Manhattan on Friday reversed a lower-court ruling that had allowed the government to bar a prominent Muslim scholar from entering the United States on the ground that he had contributed to a charity that had connections to terrorism.

The scholar, Tariq Ramadan, 46, a Swiss academic, was to become a tenured professor at the University of Notre Dame, but the Bush administration revoked his visa in 2004 and again denied him a visa in 2006. The government cited evidence that from 1998 to 2002, he donated about $1,300 to a Swiss-based charity that the Treasury Department later categorized as a terrorist organization because it provided money to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group.

Professor Ramadan said in a later court affidavit that he was not aware of any connections between the charity, the Association de Secours Palestinien, and Hamas or terrorism, and that he believed that the organization was involved in legitimate humanitarian projects. “I have condemned terrorism at every opportunity,” he wrote.

In its ruling on Friday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held unanimously that the government was required to “confront Ramadan with the allegation against him and afford him the subsequent opportunity to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that he did not know, and reasonably should not have known, that the recipient of his contributions was a terrorist organization.”

The panel sent the case back to the lower court for a determination on whether Professor Ramadan had been confronted with the allegation, and then given a chance to deny it. If that did not happen, the panel said, a new visa hearing should be held.

“I am gratified that the court has found that my exclusion from the United States is without basis,” Professor Ramadan said in a statement on Friday. Professor Ramadan, who had frequently visited the United States in the past, lecturing and attending conferences, said he was eager to “engage once again with Americans in the kinds of face-to-face exchanges” that were “crucial to bridging cultural divides.”

New York Times, 17 July 2009

BBC pays damages to MCB secretary-general

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abdul Bari at TUCThe BBC has agreed to pay £45,000 in damages to the head of the Muslim Council of Britain over a libellous claim in the Question Time programme. The claim was made by a panellist on the programme, who accused Muhammad Abdul Bari of implicitly condoning the kidnap and killing of British soldiers.

Mr Bari argued this was untrue, citing his public condemnation of the killing of British troops in Iraq in 2007. The BBC accepted the argument and apologised unreservedly.

The libellous claim – made on the 12 March 2009 edition of Question Time – came in response to a question from an audience member concerning controversial protests in March by a group of Muslim men against a regiment of British troops on parade in Luton on their return from duty in Iraq. The audience member asked: “Should these protests we saw last week when the Royal Anglia Regiment came to Luton be banned?”

In response to the question, one of the Question Time panellists suggested that despite having been asked many times to condemn the kidnapping and killing of British soldiers, Mr Bari had failed to do so and thereby implicitly condoned such acts. The panellist also suggested that Mr Bari believed the kidnapping and killing of British soldiers was a good and Islamic thing. Mr Bari was not mentioned by name, but was implied in the panellist’s reference to the “leadership” of the Muslim Council of Britain.

The BBC is paying £45,000 in damages to Mr Bari – which he will donate to charity – as well as his legal costs.

BBC News, 16 July 2009

See also Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari – an apology.

And MCB press release, 16 July 2009

Tory council leader fails to block debate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A controversial school debate which Hounslow Council claimed would incite violence passed without incident.

Council leader Peter Thompson wrote to Lampton School headteacher Sue John after he heard the “extremist” group Hizb Ut-Tahrir would be speaking at the event on Saturday. Despite the group pulling out of the event, the council pushed the school and organisers to cancel the Putting Contest 2 in Context debate – a move which incensed the Muslim community.

Mohammed Chaudhry, of Hounslow Muslim Forum, said more than 200 people attended to hear speakers and join in the debate. He said:

“There were a mixture of people, young and old, Muslim and not Muslim. People were fascinated and wanted to know more about the community and have a healthy debate.

“It is important to realise if we stop debate the radical groups can flourish, a good balanced argument is healthy. There was no violence and it was a calm and civilised debate.”

Mr Thompson wrote in his letter prior to the meeting: “The event organisers, unwilling to properly engage in constructive debate, have not sought to ensure a balanced discussion or debate around the content of this Central Government document.

“We have real concerns that the lack of balanced debate could inflame perceived grievances and lead to a breakdown in community cohesion. In truth the only purpose of the event appears to be an attempt to increase fear and mistrust among Muslims in the UK, and in our borough.

“I am writing to ask that you give serious consideration to cancelling this booking before it is too late.”

A Hounslow police spokesman confirmed there were no incidents on the day.

Hounslow Guardian, 13 July 2009

Belgian court overturns headscarf sacking of teacher

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Belgium’s highest administrative court has overturned the sacking of a Muslim woman teacher by two schools because she wore a headscarf, national press reported Friday.

The State Council found that the two schools had abused their powers by firing the woman, who wore the headscarf in the school grounds but not in the classroom, reported the dailies De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws.

The woman was teaching Islam temporarily at two suburban Dutch-language schools in the capital Brussels in 2005 and 2006, but she refused to take off her headscarf after the schools’ management asked her to do so.

The tribunal said the schools had not shown “that wearing the headscarf outside of the classroom would have a negative effect on the way the teacher was doing her work,” the newspapers said.

Expatica, 11 July 2009

Islam-basher will not speak at American Library Association conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer 4The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) announced that Robert Spencer, one of the nation’s leading Islam-bashers, will not speak today at the annual conference of the American Library Association (ALA) following intervention by CAIR and concerned librarians, and the withdrawal of the other scheduled panelists who protested Spencer’s participation.

Librarians from across the country contacted the ALA questioning the appropriateness of inviting Spencer to speak on a panel titled “Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping” because of his history of intolerant views. The other speakers invited to join the panel withdrew after hearing of Spencer’s scheduled participation.

“We thank all those who stood up for tolerance and mutual understanding to challenge Robert Spencer’s Islamophobic views,” said CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab, who had written to the ALA questioning why an anti-Islam bigot was invited to a panel on dispelling stereotypes about Islam.

“Because stereotyping of Islam is such an important issue, we hope a future panel on this topic can be arranged with credible scholars and representatives of the American Muslim community,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We strongly support open and honest discussion of difficult issues, but Mr. Spencer’s agenda-driven polemics promote the very stereotypes that the ALA event sought to dispel.”

CAIR press release, 12 July 2009