Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Muslim graves vandalised at west London cemetery

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Southall cemetery vandalismNearly 40 Muslim graves have been vandalised at a west London cemetery.

Several headstones were damaged or pushed over, and flower pots and ornamental fencing were broken at the cemetery in Bridge Road, Southall.

Most of the vandalism is in the Muslim area of the cemetery, but there is also damage to the Christian area, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said. Police are treating the incident as racially motivated, although no-one has been arrested.

The discovery was made after Muslims had finished praying all night for Layat Al Qadr, one of the holiest evenings of Ramadan.

“Pillars that have been embedded four feet in the ground have been uprooted, said Dalawar Chaudhry from the Central Jamia Mosque. “This has been a calculated attack. Glass smashed all over the place, two inch thick marble stones have been smashed in two with sheer determination.”

Muslim community leaders said it was possible the incident was timed to coincide with Ramadan. “Because this was the month of Ramadan we had a special evening the previous day and so I think it may have been targeted for that specific reason,” said Javed Mirza from the Muslim Funeral Society.

BBC News, 29 September, 2008

See also “Stacey attacks grave vandals”, Ealing Times, 29 September 2008

Yusuf Smith replies to Douglas Murray

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yusuf Smith reproduces his letter to Standpoint magazine, in response to Douglas Murray’s article attacking Peter Oborne’s exposé of Islamophobia. Note that the version of the letter published by Standpoint omitted the closing passage which pointed out that the publication of inflammatory Islamophobic material in the press is often a precursor to actual violence against Muslims.

Indigo Jo Blogs, 27 September 2008

Danish People’s Party MEP: Expel Islam from Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Skik flge eller land flyThe controversial Danish People’s Party member of the European Parliament Mogens Camre spoke at the DPP’s annual meeting Sunday, calling to expel Islam from Europe.

“Islam cannot be integrated. Islam will dominate Europe. And Islam is incompatible with our values. Therefore Islam will be thrown out of Europe. This little land is ours, we forged it ourselves. And we will govern it ourselves and decide ourselves who will live in it and how they will behave. And we will fight until Denmark is again free,” said Camre, to loud applause.

Last year a similar statement by DPP member Merethe Egeberg Holm caused a commotion, when she said “Out with all Muslims in Europe and in with Jews instead!” That was her last speech as after last year’s meeting, she was expelled from the party.

Camre met with harsh criticism for his statement. Kamal Qureshi (Socialist People’s Party) compared the DPP politicians to Danish Nazi head Jonni Hansen. He also hit out at his colleagues in parliament, whom he thinks are keeping too quiet. Both the reigning party and the opposition should distance themselves from the statements.

Islam in Europe, 25 September 2008

Fascists routed in Cologne

Posted on by Bob Pitt

 

By Walter Held

IT HAD been planned as a central meeting of leading proto-fascists, rightwing populists and neo-nazis. A grand “European Anti-Islamic Congress” was scheduled to be held today Saturday 20th September in the huge German city of Koeln – Cologne – on the banks of the river Rhine.

Invitations had gone out to the Italian Liga Nord, the French Front National, the Austrian FPOe and the BZOe, the British National Party the Belgian Vlams Belang and others. Theme of the weekend “congress” at which the organisers confidently expected 1500 participants was a campaign against the “advance of Islam in Europe”.

The organisers belong to a political grouping called Pro Koeln. This rag tag and bobtail splinter group with a couple of dozen members picked up just under 5 pc of the votes for Koeln’s city election and have a fraction of five councillors in the city parliament. These have a small basis amongst backward elements in the pubs and on the housing estates and have set up a campaign to fight against the building of a central mosque for the city’s Moslem population.

In fact most of the organisers are ex-members or secret members of extreme rightwing groupings like the Republikaner, the German League for Folk and Homeland and the NPD but they hide behind the new respectable organisation “Pro Koeln”. As a front orginsation the right are keen to set up similar groups in other German cities. The Congress this weekend was to be a signal of their presence and their growth.

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Far Right extremists flee anti-mosque rally in Germany

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cologne protestersA weekend gathering in Cologne of far-right European extremists ended in farce when the main rally was cancelled as the organisers fled for their own safety.

Politicians invited to the protest included Filip Dewinter, head of the Belgian Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, Andreas Mölzer, an MEP from the Austrian Freedom Party, and Mario Borghezio, an MEP in the Italian Northern League. Two members of the British National Party were also in town, including Richard Barnbrook, its sole member of the London Assembly.

A press conference to launch the pan-European movement against “Islamification” descended into chaos when its secret location – on board a Rhine river cruiser – was leaked. Left-wing activists arrived en masse to disrupt the event and were so successful that only two Pro-Cologners made it on board before the captain cast off in panic and headed for open water.

The group had then planned to tour the site of the mosque but this was stopped by the police on the ground that a busload of right-wing extremists cruising through a predominantly Muslim area might not be conducive to law and order.

So the only chance that Pro-Cologne had to make an impact was at its main rally on Saturday afternoon in the Heumarkt square. The organisers hoped for about 1,500 people. They had not reckoned on 40,000 screaming anti-fascists trying to break into the square to remonstrate with them.

With leading delegates stuck at the airport and the Heumarkt besieged, the rally was called off after only 45 minutes. The organisers began dismantling their microphones and stage, hoping that the security cordon would hold as police battled against the more violent protesters who were throwing paintbombs and snatching batons.

Although some of them were spirited away, many were penned in for several hours, unable even to get a beer as the bar owners in the square refused to serve them. Finally the BNP representatives got out, scuttling out the back of some of the buildings lining the Heumarkt, their attempts to present a united European front against Islamification in tatters.

“This was a victory for the democratic forces in this city,” Fritz Schramma, the Christian Democrat mayor, said.

Times, 22 September 2008

Who is behind Relentless, Obsession and The Third Jihad?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Obsession (2)“The venom created by the films ‘Relentless’, and ‘Obsession: Radical Islam’s War With the West’ has been slowly working its way into the hearts and minds of people across the country for a couple of years. Now the same group that brought us these atrocities is coming out with another film ‘The Third Jihad’. These films are only part of what Bob Crane has called a Tsunami of Islamophobia that seems to be rushing in ever higher waves towards the Muslim community in America….

“I know from personal experience over many years of being involved with interfaith dialogue that the views that this film promotes are not the views of all Jewish people, but I also know that those who have been responsible for making this film and for promoting it widely have been primarily Jewish. It truly saddens me that members of a community who should know better and who have experienced a holocaust that resulted at least partially from widespread stereotyping and demonization of Jewish people. I believe that this marginal group within the Jewish community is so blinded by their need to defend the State of Israel at any cost that they do not see the cost of their propaganda to another community.

“They are a marginal group, but they are making a lot of noise. In fact, they are making so much noise that they are drowning out the voices of those in the mainstream Jewish community who have worked so hard with mainstream Muslims and Christians to build bridges of dialogue and work towards peace and justice in this world.”

Sheila Musaji in The American Muslim, 20 September 2008

Are they really ‘Preventing Extremism’?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma addressing rally“The recent convictions of three young Muslim men on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions highlight the ongoing and real threat of terrorism. In video messages explaining their motivations the culprits make a clear and explicit linkage between their intentions and the impact of Western foreign policy in Muslim lands.

“Yet despite it coming from their own mouths that it is anger over foreign policy driving their hate, the government continues to deny it as the primary factor. Instead it blames a ‘dangerous Islamist ideology’ for creating ‘a hatred of the Western way of life’ as if such ideology is free-standing and exists in some kind of vacuum.

“In this discourse all Islamic political or social activists who are critical of the government, from whatever political hue, get lumped together with the sinister description of ‘Islamists’….

“By denying the legitimacy of democratic opposition to government foreign policy from Muslims, and by promoting and recognising only those Muslims who toe the line, government policy is serving to strengthen the hands of the genuine extremists; those who say that our engagement in the democratic process is pointless or wrong….

“The government now increasingly tars all Islamic organisations and individuals that openly oppose Western oppressive polices in the Middle East with the ‘extremist’ brush. Hence their recent attacks on the mainstream Islam Expo event in London….

“The danger of this approach is that it serves to squeeze the democratic space for dissent within the Muslim community. If Muslims organisations are reluctant to provide the space for sensitive discussions for fear of extremist’s accusations, where are these young people to go? Where will their views and concerns get an airing? The answer is obvious. They will be expressed in private and secret, with the genuine extremists keen to be provide listening ears and simplistic solutions.”

Salma Yaqoob in The Respect Paper, September 2008

German anti-Islam rally cancelled after clashes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ProtestorsGerman police cancelled an anti-Islamic congress planned for Saturday in Cologne after leftist opponents of the rally clashed with its right-wing backers.

The group Pro-Cologne called the rally to oppose a decision by local authorities in Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

It invited like-minded nationalist groups from around Europe to join the “Stop Islam” rally to fight what it called the “Islamisation and immigration invasion” of Germany and Europe.

“The rally has been cancelled,” a police spokesman said. Many protesters cheered the announcement. A spokesman for Pro-Cologne said they were surprised by the cancellation and would hold a news conference later on Saturday.

Police said 40,000 people protested against the rally. It had been expected to attract 1,500 people but only dozens made it.

Some of the protesters carried placards reading “Nazis out of Cologne” and “Temples, synagogues, churches and mosques – everything’s okay”. “We’re here to show racism the red card,” said Cologne mayor Fritz Schramma. “Racists and extremists aren’t welcome.”

Reuters, 20 September 2008

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