Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

US Muslim woman asked to leave line at credit union because of head scarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kenza ShelleyA Muslim woman was asked to leave her place in line at a credit union in Southern Maryland and be served in a back room because the head scarf she wore for religious reasons violated the institution’s “no hats, hoods or sunglasses” policy, the woman said yesterday.

The incident at the Navy Federal Credit Union on Saturday was the second in a month for Kenza Shelley, and Muslim advocates fear it could become a problem nationwide as many financial institutions, intent on curbing robberies and identity theft, ban hats and similar items without appropriate accommodations for religious attire.

“This may be the tip of the iceberg,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. “There’s got to be a way to work it out so that this security concern does not lead to violations of constitutional rights.”

Washington Post, 10 March 2009

Muslim former PC accuses Luton police of institutional racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Javid IqbalA Muslim police officer claims he was forced out of his job by colleagues who made fun of his beard and called him a “f***ing Paki”.

PC Javid Iqbal, 38, said white officers openly discussed in front of him how they were “better” than their ethnic-minority colleagues. The married father of two also claims officers pulled faces at each other if told they had to go out on patrol with him and forced him to walk home from a job instead of picking him up.

Mr Iqbal says he was sacked after fellow-officers in Luton launched a “smear and witch-hunt campaign” during which they lodged a string of complaints about his performance. He is taking the Bedfordshire force to an employment tribunal claiming he is the victim of racial and religious discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Mr Iqbal, who was born and raised in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, told the Daily Mail: “My beard is an important part of my identity which helps other Muslims relate to me. I am disgusted that I was bullied by other officers because of my beliefs. I became a policeman because I believed in putting something back into society. I have found that institutional racism is still very much around.”

Daily Mail, 9 March 2009

And how does the Mail choose to headline this report of serious allegations of racial harassment in the police force? “Muslim PC sues after workmates ‘laughed at his beard’.”

Now it’s Daud Abdullah who’s being witch-hunted – with the assistance of Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One of the UK’s most influential Islamic leaders, who has helped counter extremism in the country’s mosques, is accused of advocating attacks on the Royal Navy if it tries to stop arms for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza.

Dr Daud Abdullah, deputy director-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, is facing calls for his resignation, after it emerged that he is one of 90 Muslim leaders from around the world who have signed a public declaration in support of Hamas and military action.

Abdullah, who led the MCB’s boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day, was a member of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, the body endorsed by the government that trains imams and was set up to curtail the activities of extremist clerics. In January, he briefed the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, and communities secretary Hazel Blears on the situation in Gaza and its likely impact on social cohesion in the UK.

There were calls last night for the government and the MCB to condemn Abdullah’s actions. “The British government should stop funding organisations such as the MCB and supporting events such as Islam Expo, which hosts scholars from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan who hold extremist views,” said Irfan Al Alawi, international director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism.

“If the MCB is serious about tackling extremism, it should immediately expel extremists such as Daud Abdullah from its own ranks,” said Ed Husain, co-director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism thinktank. “The man is a fanatic.” He added: “As well as potentially endorsing terrorism against British troops, Abdullah shows total disregard for human life.”

Observer, 8 March 2009

Update:  See Islamic Forum of Europe media release, 9 March 2009

Call to organise against the WPI ‘One Law’ campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Indigo Jo Blogs Yusuf Smith calls for Muslims to protest against the anti-Sharia demonstration in Trafalgar Square this Saturday – a stunt organised by the Worker Communist Party of Iran. Personally, I think there’s just as good a case for communists to protest against it, given that the sectarian idiocies committed by the nutters of the WPI are a total embarrassment to any real Marxist. The question is – is it really worth organising against an event which in all probability will make the tiny March for Free Expression of 2006, in which the WPI shared a platform with hard-right racists, look like a mass mobilisation?

South Bank demo at National Theatre over ‘racist’ play

Posted on by Bob Pitt

National Theatre demoA demonstration against the play England People Very Nice was held outside the National Theatre on Friday. At one point a large banner was displayed from a balcony.

The controversial play by Richard Bean looks at immigration in London’s East End. It is directed by the National’s artistic director Nicholas Hytner who says that the play “lampoons all forms of stereotyping: it is a boisterous satire of stereotypes of French, Irish, Jews, Bangladeshis, white East End cockneys, Hampstead liberals and many others. Every stereotype is placed in the context of its opposite and it clearly sets out to demonstrate that all forms of racism are equally ridiculous.”

The outdoor demonstration preceded a Platform event during which the play’s writer Richard Bean was due to discuss his work. The protest, under the banner “Love Theatre Hate Racism”, was organised by Bethnal Green playwright Hussain Ismail. Cllr Abjol Miah, leader of the Respect group on Tower Hamlets Council, was present with several objectors from the East End.

“I am passionate about theatre and I don’t think theatre should be used to peddle racist filth under the guise of comedy and serious theatre.” Hussain Ismail told the small crowd of passers-by on the riverside who stopped to listen to speeches. “We don’t need to be told about multi-culturalism by an elitist institution that does not represent multi-cultural London. What we need to do is to challenge the racist rubbish.”

London SE1, 28 February 2009

See also Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2009

Sun pays £30,000 damages to Muslim bus driver accused of fanaticism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Arunas RaulynaitisA London bus driver today accepted £30,000 in damages from the Sun over a claim that he ordered passengers off his vehicle so that he could pray.

The story in March last year caused Arunas Raulynaitis considerable distress and embarrassment, his solicitor, Stephen Loughrey, told Mr Justice Eady at the high court in London.

Loughrey said the newspaper now accepted that the allegations were entirely false and that Raulynaitis did not order any passengers off, there was no rucksack and no one refused to reboard because they feared he was a fanatic.

“The article went on to allege that the passengers later refused to reboard the bus because they spotted a rucksack and feared he may be a fanatic and therefore, it is to be inferred, a terrorist,” Loughrey told the court.

“While it is the case that Raulynaitis did pray on the bus, he did so during his statutory rest break, as he is of course entitled to do. Not a single passenger was inconvenienced in any way. It transpires that an individual who noticed Raulynaitis at prayer chose to film this act on a mobile phone and sent the video to the Sun, which then reproduced stills from it alongside the article, as well as the footage itself on the Sun’s website.”

Loughrey said the article not only created an utterly false impression of Raulynaitis’s attitude toward his passengers, but also wrongly cast serious aspersions on his religious faith.

He added that News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the Sun, had already published an apology and agreed to pay substantial damages plus costs.

Guardian, 26 February 2009

Norway is ‘undergoing a subtle Islamification’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Progress Party leader Siv Jensen’s statement in a speech on Sunday, that Norway is undergoing a subtle islamification has sparked controversy. Conservative Party deputy leader Per-Kristian Foss likens it to the attacks on Jews in the 30s.

• There are certain points of resemblance to the 30s fear of other minorities, in this case the Jews, Foss says.

• It is of course not true that there is any islamification of the Norwegian society, he says.

In her speech to the right-wing Progress Party (FrP) national board on Sunday, Siv Jensen warned against what would happen if what she called “a subtle islamification” of Norway would continue. She pointed to what had happened to the Swedish city of Malmoe, where according to Jensen Sharia laws had been introduced in sections of the city, and where the police hardly dared to enter.

Norway Post, 23 February 2009

Ontario: former judge wants to bar Muslims from scholarships

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A retired judge wants two Ontario universities to bar Muslim students from being awarded scholarships he has established, though the spokesperson for one institution says her school won’t support a proposal that “flies in the face of everything we stand for.”

Paul Staniszewski said he objects to the “medieval violence” used by the Taliban – such as when Taliban militants recently kidnapped and beheaded Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak – and he wishes to “disqualify” Muslim students from receiving financial aid he has paid for.

“I’m reacting to what’s going on to people who aren’t even soldiers, who are having their heads beheaded and this stuff is shown on the TVs and everything else,” Staniszewski told CTV.ca in a phone interview from his Tecumseh, Ont., home, just outside of Windsor.

“I am doing the same thing these people are doing, except I’m not cutting off heads, I’m cutting off applications for help in their studies,” he added later in the interview.

CTV.ca, 25 February 2009

Germany: headscarf bans violate rights

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HRW+headscarf+reportGerman state bans on religious symbols and clothing for teachers and other civil servants discriminate against Muslim women who wear the headscarf, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 67-page report, “Discrimination in the Name of Neutrality: Headscarf Bans for Teachers and Civil Servants in Germany,” is based on extensive research over an eight-month period. It analyzes the human rights implications of the bans and their effect on the lives of Muslim women teachers, including those who have been employed for many years. It says that the bans have caused some women to give up their careers or to leave Germany, where they have lived all their lives.

“These laws in Germany clearly target the headscarf, forcing women who wear it to choose between their jobs and their religious beliefs,” said Haleh Chahrokh, researcher in the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch. “They discriminate on the grounds of both gender and religion and violate these women’s human rights.”

HRW news release, 26 February 2009

Download report here.