Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Leyton: mosque hits back after extremism claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid al-Tawhid 2A report claiming that extremist literature was being distributed through a mosque in Leyton was based on forged evidence, according to the mosque’s imam and the BBC. Masjid al-Tawhid, in Leyton High Road, was named in The Hijacking of British Islam – published by the rightwing Policy Exchange think-tank in October.

Imam Dr Usama Hasan says the researchers bought the books from Tayba, an unaffiliated book shop next door, then faked a receipt to suggest the shop and the mosque were the same organisation. He said: “We’re furious about this and we’re considering taking legal action against Policy Exchange unless they correct their errors. The shop is nothing to do with us. It is an independent commercial enterprise. We never promoted these books at all. We’re involved in interpreting the Quran and understanding it in a modern British context. The only message this mosque promotes is tolerance and co-existence.”

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In Europe, where’s the hate?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gary Younge“Over the past year or so the rural Italian idyll of Colle di Val d’Elsa has played host to a bitter battle for Enlightenment values. On one side, the hamlet’s small Muslim community has raised a considerable amount of money to build a large mosque. Having gained the mayor’s approval, the Muslims signed a declaration of cooperation with the town hall and even planted a Christmas tree at the site as a good-will gesture.

“In response, other locals pelted them with sausages and dumped a severed pig’s head at the site. On a wall near the site vandals daubed: ‘No Mosque’, ‘Christian Hill’ and ‘Thanks to the communists the Arabs are in our house!!!’ Such is the central dynamic in European race relations at present.

“… the primary threat to democracy in Europe is not ‘Islamofascism’ – that clunking, thuggish phrase that keeps lashing out in the hope that it will one day strike a meaning – but plain old fascism. The kind whereby mostly white Europeans take to the streets to terrorize minorities in the name of racial, cultural or religious superiority.”

Gary Younge in the Nation, 20 December 2007

‘Muslims are stealing our culture and traditions’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Polly-ToynbeeIt’s not every day that Islamophobia Watch has cause to quote Polly Toynbee favourably, but her piece in today’s Guardian features an effective polemic against right-wing myths about the Muslim attack on “our” Christian culture:

“In a daft parliamentary debate this month on something called Christianophobia, Mark Pritchard MP accused the politically correct of banning religion from Christmas cards and advent calendars: ‘Many shoppers find it increasingly difficult to purchase greetings cards that refer to Jesus.’ … Evangelicals started a new myth this year that postage stamps with the Madonna and child are only sold under the counter: you have to ask for them, for fear of offending Muslims and Jews. Stuff and nonsense, retorted the Post Office. But you can bet this one will run and run – along with last year’s myth that 70% of offices banned Christmas decorations for multicultural reasons….

“All this would just be seasonal silliness if it were not cover for a more sinister drumbeat. The right has taken to flying the ‘Christian’ flag in ways that suggest none too subtly that foreigners – Muslims – are stealing our culture and traditions. ‘They’ are stopping ‘us’ celebrating Christmas and teaching Christian stories to our children. When Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, appeared on GMTV this week, although as usual he denied any atheist plot against Christmas, the theme in about 3,000 emails afterwards was: ‘We are not Muslims, our culture must not be silenced to avoid offending them.’

“The BNP has been quick to cash in. In the Christianophobia debate in parliament, the reported case of a BNP Christmas card was raised, ‘which portrays the holy family on the cover and inside are the words “Heritage, Tradition and Culture”.’ Pritchard warned television firms: ‘The fear of violence from a particular faith group should not be grounds for hand-selecting or targeting other faith groups who may choose to protest peacefully.’ Fear of Muslim violence is killing off peaceful Christianity, he implies.”

CAIR-NY ‘disappointed’ by DA’s handling of bias attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today expressed deep disappointment at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s (DA) office for its failure to secure a hate crimes plea and jail time in a bias motivated gang assault perpetrated against a Muslim man in Brooklyn last October.

Four of the five assailants, one of whom used brass knuckles to beat 24-year-old Shahid Amber, pled guilty to either first degree assault or second degree assault charges with probation and no jail time.

In a letter to Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, CAIR-NY Civil Rights Director Aliya Latif referenced the Hate Crimes Act 2000, which states: “Crimes motivated by invidious hatred toward particular groups not only harm individual victims but send a powerful message of intolerance and discrimination to all members of the group to which the victim belongs. Hate crimes can and do intimidate and disrupt entire communities and vitiate the civility that is essential to healthy democratic processes.”

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Protest against Muslim school in Sydney

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fred Nile (2)Two New South Wales Members of Parliament have called for the scrapping of a 1,200-student Islamic school in Sydney’s southwest.

Joining hundreds of residents outside the Camden Civic Centre, Upper house Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile and Liberal Party MP Charlie Lynn highlighted Islam’s opposition to Christianity, as a good enough reason to stop the building of the school.

Nile told ABC Radio after the meeting: “… all the Aussies that are celebrating carols by candlelight this week all over Australia, millions of Australians, are condemned by the Koran. And sincere Muslims are supposed to believe this book – the Koran is the word of God, the word of their god, Allah.” Lynn said only 100 Muslim families lived in Camden, and added, “This is an attempt by social engineers to inflict culture shock, if you like on Camden.”

ANI, 20 December 2007

See also ABC Online which reports that about 900 people attended the protest:

“There’s anger and frustration in Camden. And that was only compounded when the organisers of last night’s meeting underestimated the turnout, leaving more than 200 people locked outside. Among those shut out were young men sporting Australian flags. They vented their anger yelling,’Let us in Mohammed, you’re already dividing us up’ at the hired security guards, who happened to be of Middle Eastern appearance. Police promptly marched in and formed a line of protection across the front doors while police horses waited in the car park.”

One protestor is quoted as threatening: “If it does get approved, every ragger that walks up the street’s going to get smashed up the arse by about 30 Aussies.” Another local opposed to the protest said: “I’m actually all for the proposal of an Islamic school. I’m actually a regular church going Christian, and I just think that, you know, I do not believe that Jesus himself would be here…. And I just think that it’s really upsetting that, you know, people are motivated enough to come out here for no other reason than they seem to just be anti-Muslim and essentially racist.”

‘Overlook BNP at our own peril’ says BoD president

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Henry Grunwald offers a perceptive analysis of the BNP’s intervention in a recent by-election in Harrow, in a ward with a large Jewish electorate:

“….  it is important to understand that the recent foray into Canons Ward was meant to highlight a purported ‘common cause’ with Jews. How? Using the alchemy of hate, the BNP sought to turn a legitimate concern with radical extremism into generalised prejudice against British Muslims.

“If nothing else, this shape-shifting vilification tactic is a reminder of the BNP’s core ideology. For no matter how they dress up their pitch, and how coded their language may be, the BNP remains dedicated to propagating their worldview in Britain, based on an anti-integration, white supremacist credo.”

Totally Jewish, 19 December 2007

MPACUK incites murder (it says here)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MPACUK’s appeal for information about the Muslims who co-operated with Policy Research in compiling the fraudulent and discredited report The Hijacking of British Islam has not been without its critics (see for example Yusuf Smith’s reasoned comments at Indigo Jo Blogs). But the Islamophobic blogosphere has completely lost its marbles over this issue. David T at Harry’s Place has compared MPACUK to the fascist website Redwatch, while Conservative Home have posted a piece which in all seriousness invites us to accept the hysterical accusation by right-wing blogger Matthew Sinclair that MPACUK’s appeal represents “a direct attempt to recreate the murder of Theo van Gogh”! Read MPACUK’s response here.