Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Two arrested over Mido chanting

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MidoTwo men have been arrested over racist chanting aimed at Middlesbrough’s Egyptian striker Mido during the 0-0 draw against Newcastle on 29 November. The pair, aged 49 and 23, will appear before Teesside Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with racial chanting.

A Football Association spokesman said: “The FA condemns any racist or Islamaphobic behaviour and is committed to working to stamp it out. We will fully support banning orders for anyone found guilty.”

Mido, 25, suffered similar abuse during the corresponding fixture at the Riverside last season but no action was taken because police were unable to identify the culprits. “It happened again because after the first time the English FA did nothing,” Mido told Egyptian TV station Al Hayat.

Piara Powar, director of anti-racism campaign Kick It Out, believes the authorities should be able to identify the culprits via closed-circuit television footage and has called on football supporters to help “self-police” any racist incidents on the terraces.

“The police are now saying they are going to put in extra monitoring for the next game, but by then it will be too late,” he said. “What we need is for the police to go over the CCTV footage and do what they can, in similar way which they are in Hampshire concerning the recent incident with the Tottenham fans at Portsmouth.

“The key change we do have in English football now is there is self-policing, peer pressure which supporters who understand the implications can put on fans who are involved in abuse. We would urge Newcastle fans to start rooting out themselves the individuals who were involved.”

BBC News, 5 December 2008

Scotland’s first Muslim police association launched

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Strathclyde PoliceScotland’s first Muslim Police Association has been launched in Glasgow. Strathclyde Police Muslim Association will look at boosting the recruitment and retention of Muslim officers. It will also aim to improve understanding of the faith with the public and tackle “Islamophobia”.

Scotland’s first Muslim police officer, Pc Amar Shakoor, will act as chair of the newly-established group, which aims to recruit up to 50 members. Pc Shakoor said the Strathclyde force employed about 55 Muslim police officers and civilians, who he hoped would become involved.

“We hope that the association will help to recruit more officers and civilian staff for Strathclyde Police from a Muslim background,” he said. “The aim is to build bridges with the Muslim community and work better with all people for the future.”

First Minister Alex Salmond, who attended the launch, described it as a “significant step forward in strengthening relations between Strathclyde Police and Muslim communities”.

“Scotland’s diversity is one of its greatest strengths and it’s important we encourage dialogue and partnership across all faiths if we are to make Scotland a safer and stronger society,” he said. “The association is a positive step towards making Strathclyde Police more effective in understanding and responding to community concerns.”

BBC News, 3 December 2008

See also Scottish Government news release, 3 December 2008

There’s one person who won’t be happy at this news: “According to Munira Mirza, the Mayor of London’s adviser on cultural affairs, by creating a separate tier of police to liase with Muslims, it encourages many of them to believe that they cannot approach non-Muslim officers with their culturally-specific problems: ‘this reinforces tribalism and division, rather than helping us to overcome it’.”

Given Boris Johnson’s newly discovered commitment to diversity, you do wonder why he saw fit to appoint as his director of culture someone who publicly condemns the self-organisation of minority communities as “tribalism”. Does this reflect his administration’s view of the role played by the Association of Muslim Police in the MPS?

Young Muslims not a threat – study

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fears that British universities are hotbeds of Islamic radicalism have been exaggerated, academics have said. A Cambridge University report found most young British Muslims were not a threat.

The study, based on interviews with students in London, Cambridge and Bradford, concluded they were better integrated into society than their parents.

June Edmunds, of the university’s Centre for Development Studies, said: “The findings show that the young Muslims best equipped to lead radical opposition to western society are also among the least inclined to do so.

“Although a minority have extreme political views, most are concerned about human rights and social democracy.

“The UK, in particular, now hosts a new generation of Muslims who are more confident of their national identity and more politically engaged than their parents.”

She added: “The overall picture is of a new, settled generation of young Muslims whose interests and needs differ from those of the previous, immigrant generation.”

Press Association, 3 December 2008

Well, that’s not going to please Anthony Glees, is it?

See also June Edmunds’ piece at Comment is Free, 2 December 2008

Update:  Glees is indeed unhappy. See his comments in “Study challenges claims of Islamic extremism among students” on theGuardian website. Glees accuses the report’s authors of “flimsy and uncompelling” research and expresses his amazement that the Economic and Social Research Council should fund it. Presumably the ESRC’s money would be better spent supporting Glees’s own irresponsible, fear-mongering attacks on Muslim students.

Further update:  Glees now has an entire blog post replying to June Edmunds. His basic argument is that a handful of individuals found guilty of terrorist offences had previously attended colleges in the UK – though of course he fails to establish any causal link between the two. And this is the man who accuses others of “flimsy and uncompelling” research.

Yet another update:  See June Edmunds’ response to Glees, “Study was informed by wide research“.

One more update: The Centre for Social Cohesion denounces the Cambridge study as “inaccurate and unrepresentative”.

Respect calls for PCC inquiry into reckless reporting of Mumbai atrocity

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma and GeorgeRespect MP George Galloway and the party’s leader, Cllr Salma Yaqoob, have today called for an urgent investigation by the Press Complaints Commission into “reckless, inaccurate and inflammatory” claims by several newspapers about the provenance of the gunmen who were responsible for the atrocities in Mumbai, India, last week.

Respect news report, 30 November 2008

And good for Respect. The problem, however, is that the Press Complaints Commission has in the past ruled that, unless a specific individual or group of individuals can demonstrate that they have been the victim of “inaccurate, misleading or distorted” reporting, the PCC can do nothing about it. According to this reasoning, the press is free to publish misinformation about an entire community without that community having any redress through the PCC. This ruling is perhaps not unconnected with the fact that, far from being an independent body, the PCC consists of representatives of the major newspaper publishers.

Telegraph writer says Mumbai terrorists were ‘imitating’ the Prophet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in the Daily Telegraph yesterday, Amir Taheri offered his own explanation for the terrible slaughter in Mumbai:

“…it looks as if the perpetrators were trying to imitate the tactic of ghazwa, used by the Prophet against Meccan caravans in his decade-long campaign to seize control of the city. The tactic consists of surprise no-holds-barred attacks simultaneously launched against a caravan or settlement with the aim of demoralising the enemy and hastening his capitulation.”

If you do not agree with Taheri’s explanation and believe that it is intended to portray Islam itself as being inherently violent then do let the editor know by writing a short letter to dtletters@telegraph.co.uk.

ENGAGE, 29 November 2008

Muslim physicist leaves U.S. after losing security clearance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abdel-Moniem El-Ganayni (3)Making good on his promise to leave his adopted country after 28 years rather than stay and feel like a second-class citizen, Abdul Moniem El-Ganayni and his wife caught a flight out of Pittsburgh on Wednesday en route to Cairo.

Preceding them were all their belongings, including a treasure trove of books that the scientist, Muslim cleric and Islamic scholar has collected over the years. Left behind were a vacated apartment overlooking Highland Park, his wife’s large Italian family, scores of friends and supporters and a legal fight on its way to appeal.

The Egyptian-born physicist, a U.S. citizen since 1988, lost his security clearance late last year, along with his job at the Bettis nuclear propulsion lab in West Mifflin, where he’d worked since 1990.

The clearance was revoked by order of Jeffrey Kupfer, acting deputy energy secretary. He said he had “reliable information” that Dr. El-Ganayni was a security risk but refused to let him see any evidence or defend himself.

The scientist filed a federal lawsuit seeking an independent review, charging retaliation for statements he made opposing the war in Iraq and the Bush administration’s post-9/11 treatment of Muslims. He said the government invoked national security as a smokescreen to hide its lack of evidence.

On Tuesday, the last remaining count of his lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry, who had already ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction on two other counts. His lawyers say they will appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in their client’s absence.

So instead of enjoying a Thanksgiving turkey as he has each year since arriving in the United States, Dr. El-Ganayni spent yesterday reuniting with Egyptian relatives he hasn’t seen in a quarter-century.

Continue reading →

Local soccer association and Muslim council unite to back Safaa Menhem

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alberta’s minister of recreation said Monday he backs a referee’s decision to ban a 14-year-old Calgary girl from playing soccer while wearing a hijab. But local soccer and Muslim associations plan to ask the provincial body that governs the sport to reverse its stance and allow religious headgear.

In a letter to the Alberta Soccer Association, which sets the rules for competition within Alberta, the Calgary Minor Soccer Association said the rule had been inconsistently applied and it asked for clear guidance on whether players can wear hijabs during games. “We’re hoping they give some leniency to the rules and allow a player with a hijab to play,” said executive director Daryl Leinweber. Soccer’s accessibility would be damaged if hijabs were banned, Leinweber said. “At a local level, should that exclude a player from playing soccer?” he said. “I don’t think so.”

Nagah Hage, chairman of the Muslim Council of Calgary, said he plans to file a similar letter with the Alberta association. “It’s not hard to see that it’s just another attack against a Muslim woman,” he said. Hage said he’d never heard of any safety concerns related to hijabs, adding other headgear is a regular part of other sports. There’s a remote chance someone would pull a hijab and injure a player, he said, but there’s potential for injury throughout soccer. “There’s a possibility of missing the ball and kicking someone with your foot,” he said.

Calgary Herald, 27 November 2007

Media activists slam Daily Star over ‘inflammatory anti-Muslim’ stories

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Media campaigners condemned the right-wing trash tabloid Daily Star yesterday for running “highly inflammatory” stories against Britain’s Muslim community.

Over the last month, the paper has run stories with headlines including “BBC puts Muslims above You,” “Killjoys ban white Xmas,” “Poppies banned in terror hot spots,” “Muslim snub to forces’ and “Muslim nutters still preaching hate on our streets.”

In a letter to owner Richard Desmond and editor Dawn Neeson, Media Workers Against the War (MWAW) pointed out: “These headlines and the stories that go with them twist flimsy and misleading ‘evidence’ to pander to ignorance and prejudice against Muslims.”

National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear noted that union members at the Daily Star have been at the forefront of campaigns against the use of their papers to publish material which goes against both the letter and spirit of the union’s code of conduct. “Journalists should not be forced to write articles that encourage discrimination and hatred in our society,” he added.

Muslim Association of Britain vice-president Mokhtar Badri regretted that any paper is running stories that don’t reflect the reality. “It is inflammatory to target a section of society in a way that only raises tensions between different sections of that society,” he said.

MWAW has also set up a petition which can be signed at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dailystar.

Morning Star, 25 November 2008