Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Hijabs at a Harvard gym

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ruth Marcus“It’s a measure of America’s multicultural journey over the past half-century that we’ve gone from ‘God and Man at Yale’ to Allah and Woman at Harvard. In a contretemps scarcely imaginable in William F. Buckley’s day, Harvard has closed one of its gyms to men for six hours a week so that Muslim women can exercise comfortably. ‘Sharia at Harvard,’ warned blogger Andrew Sullivan. A Harvard Crimson columnist blasted ‘Harvard’s misguided accommodationist policy.’

“Meanwhile, a separate controversy has flared over broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer from the steps of Harvard’s main library during Islamic Awareness Week. Three graduate students, writing in the Crimson, argued that the prayer sowed ‘seeds of division and disrespect’ by declaring that ‘there is no lord except God’ and that ‘Mohammad is the Messenger of God’. Harvard, they wrote, ‘should not grant license to any religious group, minority or otherwise, to use a loudspeaker to declare false the profoundly important and personal beliefs of others.’ …

“My reaction is more along the lines of: ‘Get a grip.’ It’s reasonable to set aside a few off-peak hours at one of Harvard’s many gyms. It’s not offensive to have the call to prayer echoing across Harvard Yard, any more than it is to ring church bells or erect a giant menorah there.

“I share the apprehensions stirred up by the more radical followers of Islam, with their drive to restore the caliphate and subjugate women. But I come to this issue as a member of another minority religion, Judaism, whose adherents often seek flexibility from the majority culture in order to practice their faith. As with Islam, my religion’s more observant believers endorse practices – segregating the sexes at prayer, excluding women from engaging in certain rituals – that I find disturbing, bordering on offensive. I have relatives who would shrink from shaking my hand. Still, I would defend to the death their right not to touch me.”

Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post, 26 March 2008

Cf. Debbie Schlussel’s comments

Why I left the BNP – they hate all Muslims, says councillor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“My mistake was joining the BNP. They assured me that they were a non racist party. Well, I can assure you they are racist. They refer to anybody who is non white as ‘Pakis’. This shows their ignorance. At first when racial remarks were made at meetings, I put this down to sheer ignorance and bigotry but in the short time I was a member the situation became intolerable and the last straw came when I tried to help a Pakistani family who are also Muslims. Now, the BNP hate all Muslims with a vengeance. They don’t think that there is good and bad in everyone.”

Pat Pattison, a town councillor in North Wales, explains why he broke from the British national Party.

Lancaster Unity, 25 March 2008

‘Who are the “Scargills of Islam”, then?’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yusuf Smith responds to Charles Moore’s recent Centre for Policy Studies lecture (pdf) “How to beat the Scargills of Islam“.

Indigo Jo Blogs, 23 March 2008

It’s also worth noting the following excerpt from Moore’s ignorant lecture: “Phoney Muslim moderates, beloved of the media, are a great feature of our age. Look at Tariq Ramadan, for example, lionised at Oxford while considered so extreme in France that he found it easier to leave and work here.” As we’ve pointed out repeatedly, anyone who regards Professor Ramadan as an extremist has completely lost the plot. And who represents Moore’s idea of a “moderate”? Predictably, it’s Melanie Phillips’ favourite Muslim, Ed Husain.

BNP is inciting religious hatred on Facebook

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Solihull Unite Against Fascism press release, 24 March 2008

BNP is inciting religious hatred on Facebook group – “Say no the Solihull Mosque”.

The BNP has used Facebook to help organise its campaign against the planning application by Solihull Muslim Community Association. The BNP facebook group “Say no to Solihull Mosque” claims to have 1600 members. It has generated over 1000 posts in under two weeks.

The Facebook group is being organised from Stoke on Trent, the administrator is based in Keele and the You Tube video is credited to Stoke BNP. The BNP administrator is openly using it as a recruitment tool, Alex E says “if you are fed up with mosques being built get involved in the BNP”.

The Group wall postings are inviting racist and islamophobic comment without the BNP organisers uttering a word. Examples of racist comments on the BNP Facebook site:

At 5:29am on 23rd March 2008
U avan a laugh???? Even if they did build a dirty mosque mans would just throw pigs guts at it!!!

At 10:35pm on March 18th, 2008
I have just heard the good news CONGRATULATIONS but the fight is not over. These bastards will not go away and until we kick them all out and send them back to their own countries we will have to continue fighting this war. But every time a muslim blows himself up or abuses a white person or tries to take over a neighbourhood we gain more supporters. Time is actually on our side and all of Europe is itching to kick these useless perverts out of Europe . I do not know one person who wants muslims in Europe and I know a lot of people around Europe . If Hitelr hadnt gone and messed things up for nationalism we would never have let them in. Well the tables are turning and these guys are toast.

At 12:43am on March 12th, 2008
fuck the pakis! this is our country! :@:@

These comments from the site are arguably an incitement to religious and racial hatred under the Public Order Act 1986. The BNP is responsible for publishing these comments if not directly speaking them. It is also in breach of the terms of use of Facebook. Facebook terms of use state that users agree not to upload, post or share content that the site deems “harmful, threatening, unlawful … inflammatory … hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable”.

A Solihull Unite Against Fascism spokesman said: “The BNP’s campaign against the so-called islamification of Solihull is clearly racist and is intended to direct hate against a particular section of the community. It is in clear breach of the Facebook terms of use and the site owners should take urgent action to close it down.”

Continue reading →

Dutch protest against Islam film

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-Wilders demoAt least 1,000 people have taken part in a demonstration in Amsterdam against the planned release of a film expected to be highly critical of Islam.

Protesters objected to the planned internet release of the film by Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders. Mr Wilders says the 15-minute film deals with Islamic ideology which he describes as “the enemy of freedom”.

Some protesters in central Amsterdam carried signs that said “Stop the witch hunt against Muslims”.

“We can no longer remain silent. There is a climate of hate and fear in the Netherlands,” said Rene Danen, a spokesman from anti-racism organisation Nederland Bekent Kleur (The Netherlands Shows its Colours), which organised the protest.

BBC News, 22 March 2008

See also Canadian Press, 22 March 2008

And “Web host suspends site planned for anti-Koran film”, Reuters, 22 March 2008

In the UK the fascists rally to the defence of their co-thinker Wilders: BNP news article, 23 March 2008

Author challenges Hollywood stereotypes of Arabs, Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

George Clooney asked him to work as a consultant on two films, including “Syriana,” and national news programs and networks such as “The Today Show,” “Nightline” and CNN have featured the author on a regular basis. But retired communications professor Jack Shaheen says it’s a lonely job taking Hollywood to task for the ethnic stereotypes it portrays.

His latest book, “Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11,” examines Arab and Muslim images in more than 100 post-9/11 movies, and challenges industry heavyweights to shatter the villainous stereotypes that the cinema presents to both the American and international public.

“I remember going to the library looking for literature and there was nothing on Arab images in American popular culture. Zilch,” he says. “But there were books on images of Jews, women, blacks, Hispanics and Asians, and I just gobbled those up. I studied them all to learn from their strengths and weaknesses. The exposure to that literature and history helped me not only look at images of the past from a different perspective, but it made me look for commonalities in demonization.”

Through his research, Shaheen found the same formula was repeatedly being used by Hollywood and TV to denigrate minorities.

“In order for a stereotype to be successful, they can’t be like us. They can’t have children. They can’t be devout. They can’t value human life as much as we do. They are violent. They oppress their women. They are savages,” Shaheen says.

“When I grew up, it was Native Americans. Blacks. … We had the red scare with Communists. So we have all of these formulas from the past that sort of make their way to the present. Now it’s Arab equals Muslim equals the godless enemy Other. And it’s hard, because once we begin to get a fixed image of a people or a faith in our minds, it’s difficult to shake.”

Detroit Free Press, 23 March 2008

Muslim chaplain’s anger at airport ‘discrimination’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim Chaplain from Liverpool claims “discriminatory” interrogation is happening on a regular basis at Manchester Airport. Adam Kelwick, from Wavertree, says he was stopped and questioned for two hours on arrival at the airport as he returned from a Middle Eastern business trip on Wednesday, the third time this has happened since the introduction of the Terrorism Act in 2006. He claims officials searched his lap top, phone, asked for his bank account pin number and put a string of questions to him.

The chaplain, who carries out charity work in the city to aid social cohesion, claims other friends and colleagues have complained about similar experiences. He said:

“Some people I know would rather tolerate the congestion of the airports in London, rather than put up with the unreasonable questioning and discrimination at Manchester. I was ordered to remove all my items from my baggage piece by piece and was then taken into a small room and asked questions like ‘what is your mother’s date of birth?’ and ‘what school did you go to?’.

“It has happened a few times before at the airport but never when travelling from Liverpool or London. It is ironic, I was travelling in traditional Muslim dress, but an international terrorist isn’t going to fly around the world with a beard and a gown on. It is discriminatory and unfair. The first time it happens you think ‘OK, this is helping to deal with terrorism’ so I don’t mind, but for it to happen on a regular basis is unnecessary.”

Liverpool Daily Post, 22 March 2008

French official dismissed over resistance to Muslim school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al Kindi school demoThe French government dismissed a top regional education official Wednesday for vigorously opposing a new Muslim school and publicly complaining about pressure from Paris to stop obstructing its opening.

The Al-Kindi high school, in a suburb of Lyon in eastern France, finally admitted its first 22 pupils on March 5 after an eight-month struggle with Alain Morvan, the head of the school board. The struggle ended only when Paris intervened to permit the school to open.

A government spokesman, Jean-François Copé, said Morvan was replaced because “his behavior was not that of a senior official, whose task is to carry out government policy.”

Morvan’s stubborn campaign had become a sore point for French Muslims, and they accused him of Islamophobia for refusing them the right to begin a religious school although about one-fifth of all high schools in France are private, mostly Catholic.

In rejecting three requests to open the school, Morvan accused its founders of being “fundamentalists” and said he would sign refusals to open it “down to the last drop of ink.”

New York Times, 21 March 2007