Televangelist Rod Parsley, a key McCain ally in Ohio, has called for eradicating the “false religion.” Will the GOP presidential candidate renounce him?
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
Right-wing Christianity in the US military
Jason Leopold examines the case of a United States Navy chaplain, Lieutenant Commander Brian K. Waite, who has been accused of abusing his position to promote right-wing evangelical Christianity within the US military:
“Waite is the author of Islam Uncovered, which holds that the Muslim faith is itself culpable for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Military.com reported. ‘Undoubtedly our world will experience additional terrorist attempts or strikes all in the name of Allah. Some of these attacks may occur within the borders of our own nation by the remaining cell groups interspersed and hiding among the Muslim population of the United States. My words may make a number of Muslims in this country and abroad very uncomfortable. To them I would say, “Deal with it!” The suspicion that you encounter is merely a consequence to your own belief system….’ Waite’s book says. ‘…Should Islam be immune from attack because it calls itself a religion? If Adolf Hitler called Nazism a religion, would we be speaking German today? Evil is evil, no matter what nomenclature it hides under.’ The book was removed from bookstore shelves after it was discovered that Waite had plagiarized much of the material and that the supporting blurbs on the back cover of the book from prominent members of the religious community had been fabricated.”
Update: See “Navy chaplain fired from teaching job after report exposed his anti-Islamic views”, Dissident Voice, 29 March 2008
Bishop abused and threatened over support for Muslim call to prayer
The Bishop of Oxford was sent a death threat calling for his beheading after backing a plan to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. The Rt Rev John Pritchard today told a meeting discussing the issue he had received a bundle of “extraordinary mail” containing a number of threats.
The Bishop gave his backing, in principle, for the call to prayer to be broadcast from the Oxford Central Mosque, in Manzil Way, East Oxford, in interviews with the Oxford Mail and local radio in January.
Speaking at a public meeting organised by the Anglo Asian Association in East Oxford at Oxford Community School, he said: “After the interview, I received extraordinary mail. One said, on a piece of A4, ‘resign’ six times in large font. One called on me to be beheaded and one said ‘I wish I was closer so I could spit on you’. The dark underbelly of British society was coming out.”
Update: See also “Bishop’s death threats over mosque plan”, Daily Telegraph, 11 March 2008
Rachel Whitear’s parents condemn BNP
The parents of heroin victim Rachel Whitear have condemned the British National Party for using a picture of her corpse in a campaign blaming Muslims for the drugs trade. Police are investigating whether the party can be prosecuted for inciting hatred in what 21-year-old Rachel’s mother and stepfather call an “insulting and offensive” leaflet.
After her death in 2000 they authorised the release of a harrowing photograph of her corpse slumped on the floor with a syringe in her hand for anti-drugs campaigns in schools. But they were disgusted to find that it features in BNP leaflets under the headline: “The heroin trade, a crime against humanity – time for Muslims to apologise.”
“I was truly horrified when I saw what they’d done with it,” said Rachel’s mother, Pauline Holcroft, 58 at her home in Ledbury, Herefordshire. “Even if one of the main political parties had asked us if they could use it in a campaign I think we would have to say No. For the BNP to use it without even seeking our permission is an insult to my daughter’s memory.”
Muslim nations’ group to counter Islamophobia
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) announced in a report released over the weekend that it will take a number of steps to circumvent escalating Islamophobia in the West.
The OIC report, a 60-page assessment of the reasons behind Islamophobia, offers a detailed action plan to combat Islamophobia. The measures include explaining to Westerners that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and correcting bias and misunderstandings about Islam. Islam’s bright past will be explained and the message that Islam does not support terrorism will be emphasized. The Western world will also be warned against provocative actions against Islam’s sacred symbols, such as happened during the crisis sparked when a Danish newspaper printed obscene cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed.
The report will share its findings with 11 leaders of OIC member nations in Dakar, Senegal, in a two-day summit starting March 13. The OIC report, prepared by the organization’s Islamophobia Observatory, seeks to explain to leaders of the Muslim world what needs to be done to fight Islamophobia.
In its opening paragraph, the report states: “One of the major issues facing present day international relations is the issue of Islamophobia. Islamophobia has existed since the time of the inception of Islam. However in recent years, the phenomenon has assumed alarming proportions and has indeed become a major cause of concern for the Muslim world. Defamation of Islam and racial intolerance of Muslims in Western societies are on the rise. The proponents of Islamophobia, who for whatever reasons are either prejudiced or hold a negative view against Islam and Muslims, are active in defaming Islam.”
To counter the situation, the OIC report suggests Muslim countries correct mistaken information people in the West have about Islam. An example of such a step is providing education that contravenes attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations.
Some of the proposed measures include encouraging Muslim civil society organizations in Western countries to develop closer contacts with their non-Muslim counterparts; holding youth forums and seminars on the Alliance of Civilizations; publishing supplements in leading newspapers and magazines; holding multi-lingual debates in reputed electronic media forums as well as renting airtime on Western television and radio stations to broadcast educational programs on the teachings of Islam; involving leading scholars in discussion and debate on contemporary issues; preparing documentaries and making films on Islam’s illustrious past as well as present-day advancements; and urging the Western world to avoid provocative and inflammatory statements, expressions and publications regarding Islam’s sacred symbols.
Unite Against Fascism – media alert
UAF media alert – URGENT – Complain to the BBC about Thursday night’s interview with fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin
Thursday night’s Newsnight programme contained a special report on the BBC’s White Season, a series of programmes billed as addressing the question of white working class alienation. As part of the report, Newsnight carried interviewed Nick Griffin, the leader of the fascist British National Party, who holds a conviction for inciting racist hatred for denying the Holocaust. We must reject the BNP’s attempts to present itself as spokespeople for the white working class and seek the legitimacy of the media including news programmes such as Newsnight. Griffin is seeking to scapegoat black communities for the decline of industrial manufacturing, the loss of council housing and some social services, when both black and white working class people experience the same problems and hardship.
The BNP is not a legitimate organisation: despite its attempts to present itself as an ordinary political organisation, the BNP has been exposed for its links to fascist groups around the world, its leading members and supporters who have been convicted of racist violence.
The Newsnight position on the show was to say that it “entertained all manner of opinion as long as it was within the law”. The BBC should acknowledge that the BNP’s racist, homophobic, Islamophobic hate-speech results in a rise in hate crimes, and these should not receive uncritical coverage or platform on the licence fee.
The BNP are the modern day successors of Hitler and Mussolini. The mainstream media should remember that when fascism took power last century, it shut down the free media. The BNP denies the reality of the Holocaust and whips up racism in areas it targets leading to a rise in racist attacks.
The program presented a survey which obfuscates many of the positive gains that Britain has made as a result of immigration, instead reflecting some of the perceived problems that people have on the issue. It should be the responsibility of Newsnight to challenge these perceptions, not entertain them. For example the view expressed by one of the interviewees that white people are becoming a minority in England should have been challenged as non-white people only represent 9% of the population.
Griffin was allowed to promote view that blamed Islam and the Pakistani community for drug crimes. The BNP’s position of being “wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples” was alluded to, but the nature of the interview meant that he was allowed to give this view cover by claiming that other ethnicities generally share this view, which is also untrue.
Please write / phone to complain about the BNP being given unfettered coverage on Newsnight to spread its fascist views. You can watch the programme online at the following link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7281314.stm
In the run into the elections this May, we believe giving legitimacy to the fascist views of the BNP will give it the legitimacy it craves in order to make gains at the ballot box.
BBC complaints:
0870 0100 222 (telephone/textphone) http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
Please let us know when you have complained and send us any responses you may get.
www.uaf.org.uk
unite@ucu.org.uk
020 7388 4816
Republican congressman says terrorists will celebate Obama victory
Western Iowa Congressman Steve King says al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists around the globe will be “dancing in the streets” if Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is elected president.
See also “The hateful and divisive record of bigot Steve King”, Think Progress, 8 March 2008
Swiss court rules veil is no obstacle to citizenship
Switzerland’s Federal Court has overturned two decisions by local assemblies to refuse citizenship on the grounds of women wearing a religious veil. Muslim organisations welcomed the rulings, which were announced on Wednesday, as a “step forward”. Under the Swiss federal system, communities also have a say on naturalisation issues.
The court ruling came after two local assemblies in canton Aargau, in northern Switzerland, rejected applications for Swiss citizenship by a Turkish woman and a Bosnian couple last year. Objectors said the veil was a sign of inequality between men and women and was therefore unconstitutional.
But Switzerland’s highest court found that wearing a veil was an expression of religious beliefs, which are protected under the Swiss constitution. The veil in itself was not a sign of the debasement of women, the judges wrote. The court urged citizens to look beyond their prejudices and said the fact that a Muslim woman wore a veil did not mean she was flouting the basic values of Swiss society.
Local decisions on citizenship applications have been a controversial issue over the past few years. Swiss citizens are due to vote on an initiative that aims to enshrine communities’ right to decide on naturalisation requests in the constitution. Launched by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party, it demands that voters be free to decide on how to proceed on citizenship questions and that appeals against negative decisions be no longer possible.
Obama says Islam smear offensive to Muslims
Ali Eteraz takes issue with those who criticise Barack Obama for failing to take a principled stand against the “Muslim smear” campaign. He posts a video in which Obama says:
“I have never been a Muslim. Am not a Muslim. These emails are obviously not just offensive to me, somebody who is a devout Christian, who’s been going to the same Church for the last twenty years, but it’s also offensive to Muslims, because it plays into, obviously, a certain fear-mongering there.”
And at the end of the video, Jane Fissler Hoffman, a minister from the Obama’s Church says: “There is absolutely nothing wrong with being Muslim. But second of all, Senator Obama doesn’t happen to be Muslim. He is a Christian and he’s a member of my Church.”
Attacks on Obama highlight racism and Islamophobia
“Obama has devoted a lot of time to defending himself against these charges that question his religious beliefs and his patriotism. The gist of this has been – I am not now and never have been a Muslim. I am a Christian and a patriot. And, other candidates have apologized for anyone in their campaign who might have intimated that Barak was a Muslim, or have denied being responsible for such statements. The problem with this defense is that it seems to many American Muslims that what we are not hearing is an apology for the bigotry.”
Sheila Musaji in The American Muslim, 2 March 2008