Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Are Muslims being censored in the Conservative Party?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A comment on the Muslim Public Affairs Committee website attacks the Conservative Party leadership for refusing to take on board criticisms of the “interim report” Uniting the Country (pdf here – MCB’s response here) which was issued in January by the Tories’ policy group on National and International Security, chaired by Dame Pauline Neville-Jones:

“When the report was first published, a leading group of Muslim Conservatives came together to offer a response to their party’s policy group. They were scathing in their attack of what they considered to be a ‘weak and damaging document which made unsubstantiated comments’. Authors of the report included Lord Sheikh, Kabir Sabar, Imtiaz Amin, Yousif Miah, amongst others. Their comments were dismissed out of hand. Muslims within the party who voiced concern at the tone of the report found themselves sidelined from an increasingly influential set of people around Cameron.”

The expanded version of Neville-Jones’ report, published last week as An Unquiet World (pdf here), shows how contemptuously criticisms were dismissed. “Uniting the Country” is incorporated unchanged into the new publication. The attack on Muslim Council of Britain is retained (see the MCB’s response here), the division of Islamists into two groups – those who aim to destroy Western society by violent means and those who seek to achieve the same objective by exploiting “democratic freedoms” – is repeated word for word, and there is the same ignorant attack on Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who it is claimed is a follower of Sayyid Qutb and was supposedly banned from entering the UK when Michael Howard was home secretary.

However, Dame Pauline’s report has met with an enthusiastic reception from Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society, who welcomes the Tories’ insistence that “the Government is wrong to communicate with people from ethnic minorities as though they were members of groups rather than individual citizens”. A principle which, if applied literally, would of course deprive minority ethnic communities of any opportunity of collectively influencing the government. Would Sanderson apply the same reasoning to secularists? Evidently not, because the NSS energetically demands the right to be consulted over state policy on religious issues. Yet, in Sanderson’s view, minority communities (and their faith-based organisations in particular) should be excluded from collective representation in the public sphere.

Galloway takes on Islamophobia in New Zealand

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mosques and MiraclesChristians are being urged to stand up against what a visiting author says is a Muslim push to take over the world. Pastor Stuart Robinson, Australian author of the book Mosques and Miracles, has drawn about 200 people to a conference in Greenlane this weekend aimed at revealing what he says are the true dangers of Islam.

Meanwhile, rebel British left-wing MP George Galloway is expected to attract about 450 people to a rival meeting in Freemans Bay tonight to condemn Mr Robinson’s “islamophobia”.

Mr Robinson’s two-day Mosques and Miracles conference has been organised by missionary groups Open Doors, Middle East Christian Outreach, Asian Outreach and Interserve, with support from the Vision Network of evangelical churches. He said most Westerners did not understand that Islam taught that peace would prevail in the world only when the Muslim religion predominated.

He said Muslim theology “teaches that war has to be prosecuted against the infidel until the day of judgment when Jesus Christ returns”. Unlike Christianity, which offered salvation simply through faith, he said Islam taught that the only sure way to paradise was to die as a martyr for the faith. “That becomes an enormous recruitment device for a lot of the suicide bombing that we see,” he said.

But Mr Galloway, a Catholic who has backed the Palestinian cause for 32 years, said New Zealand’s 45,000-strong Muslim community was moderate and law-abiding and had never carried out any terrorist acts. “Have you seen any signs of New Zealand’s Muslims launching a jihad [holy war]?” he asked. “Of course you haven’t. These people [Mr Robinson’s followers] are trying to place fear and hatred in the hearts of ordinary New Zealand people against peaceful neighbours.”

New Zealand Herald, 28 July 2007

Smith told to stop dithering over prisoner

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Smith told to stop ditheringSmith told to stop dithering over prisoner

By Louise Nousratpour

Morning Star, 27 July 2007

THE High Court ordered Home Secretary Jacqui Smith yesterday to stop dithering and decide whether a British resident being freed from Guantanamo Bay can return to live in Britain by August 9.

Campaigners urged the minister to act swiftly to allow Jamil el-Banna’s return and also to demand that the US release at least five other British residents who have been held for several years at the torture camp.

Mr Justice Beatson gave Ms Smith until 4pm on that date to either revoke Jamil el-Banna’s refugee status or confirm that he will be allowed to return and live with his wife and children – all of whom are British nationals – in London.

The judge set the deadline as he gave Mr el-Banna’s solicitors permission to seek judicial review of the government’s failure to confirm that he will be allowed to return.

The Home Secretary did not oppose the application.

Legal justice campaign Reprieve, whose members have represented British detainees in Guantanamo, welcomed the High Court decision.

Senior counsel Zachary Katznelson said: “The Americans say Mr el-Banna is not a threat to anyone. All Britain has to do now is say he can come home to his wife and children. What are they waiting for?”

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MPs criticise security services over Guantánamo prisoners

Posted on by Bob Pitt

guantanamo-bayMI5 contributed to the seizure of two British residents by the CIA, which secretly flew them to Guantánamo Bay in a move with “serious implications for the intelligence relationship” between Britain and the US, a cross-party committee of senior MPs said in a damning report released yesterday.

The security service passed information to the Americans on Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi, and Jamil el-Banna, from Jordan, as they flew to the Gambia to set up a business there in 2002. Both had lived in Britain for many years.

Mr Rawi was released from Guantánamo in March after evidence emerged in a British court that he helped MI5 monitor Abu Qatada, the radical cleric. Mr Banna is still held in the US base on Cuba. Though the US has said he can leave, the British government said his UK residence status had expired because of his absence.

In its report yesterday, the parliamentary intelligence and security committee said MI5 was “indirectly and inadvertently” involved in the rendition of the two men by passing on the information, which included claims about their Islamist sympathies. In unprecedented criticism of Britain’s security and intelligence agencies, the committee said both MI6 and MI5 “were slow to appreciate [the] change in US rendition policy” – a reference to the practice of seizing terrorist suspects and flying them to secret destinations where they risked being tortured.

Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of Reprieve, which represents prisoners open to abuse, said last night: “The report makes clear some awful facts about the arrest and rendition of Jamil el-Banna and Bisher al-Rawi. The British government sent the Americans incorrect information that led directly to the arrest of these men … Jamil remains in Guantánamo Bay while the UK dithers about whether to allow him home to his wife and five British children. The UK started this chain of suffering. It must end it and bring Jamil back.”

Guardian, 26 July 2007

Brown plans to double terror detention limit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brown PlansBrown plans to double terror detention limit

By Louise Nousratpour

Morning Star, 26 July 2007

Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed a strong desire to double the current 28-day period of detention without charge or trial for “terror suspects” on Wednesday. But human rights campaigners slammed the proposal, warning that such an “assault on human rights and freedoms” would amount to internment.

During a speech on the “war against terror,” Mr Brown told MPs that the government would put forward a package of measures designed to combat terrorism. These include proposals to extend the pre-charge detention period to 56 days, allowing intercept evidence to be used in court, giving police powers to question suspects after they have been charged and placing a “highly visible” uniformed force at all ports and airports. The phone tapping and post-charge questioning proposals were first tabled by civil rights group Liberty.

Left MP John McDonnell vowed to monitor the proposals “very closely” once they are put to Parliament. He branded the plans “an unacceptable breach of human rights based upon unproved assumptions which will result in human suffering and miscarriages of justice.”

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German urged MPs to defeat Mr Brown’s draconian proposals, just as they saw off his predecessor Tony Blair’s “disgraceful” plans to introduce a 90-day limit.

“These measures have nothing to do with stopping terrorism and everything to do with creating a climate of fear, where police and the government are given unprecedented powers,” she argued. “This is a complete betrayal of every aspect of our civil liberties and the millions of Labour supporters, many of who thought they would get better from Gordon Brown.”

Ms German warned that the proposals aimed to “criminalise communities – young Muslim men in particular.” She insisted: “The terror attacks in recent years, which many believe are the result of Britain’s foreign policy, will only stop once we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Nicola Duckworth of Amnesty International UK said that the government had forgotten “the lessons of Northern Ireland in the ’70s, where internment had devastating consequences for those affected and a disastrous impact on human rights, the rule of law and society as a whole.”

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Statement by Alex Salmond and Ken Livingstone

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alex Salmond MP MSP, First Minister of Scotland, and Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London after meeting today said:

“We stand united in our condemnation of the recent attempted attacks in Glasgow and London and applaud the swift and courageous response of the emergency services and members of the public, which prevented any loss of life. The safety of all the inhabitants of Scotland and London rests on the professionalism of the police and security service and information supplied to these by all communities.

“We reiterate that actions like these are carried out by criminals, not by communities, and welcome as very important the clear and unambiguous statements by Muslim organisations, and all other communities, denouncing the killing of innocent people. Those who seek to use recent events to create divisions, foster prejudice and excuse mindless attacks on minority communities are contemptible.

“We are one Scotland and one London; places of rich history and diversity which welcome all those who seek to contribute to our society and abide by our laws, whatever their race, religion, creed or colour.”

GLA press release, 26 July 2007

Street warden called Saddam awarded £42k

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim street warden nicknamed “Saddam” during a four-year ordeal of racist abuse has won £42,500 after an employment tribunal. Iqbal Rasheed, 59, was the target of a vindictive campaign while working for a security firm under contract for Westminster council and the Greater London Authority.

Father-of-three Mr Rasheed, of St John’s Wood, told how colleagues at Chubb Security nicknamed him “Saddam”, branded him a “madman who believes in God” and laughed at him when he fasted during Ramadan. He said he was once told not to clean the spray-painted word “n****r” from the side of Selfridges because it was “not offensive”.

Shortly after British hostage Ken Bigley was decapitated in Iraq, Mr Rasheed said he was told by a colleague: “I hope they nuke you Iraqis now.” One South African supervisor told him: “I don’t make tea, I get n*****s to make it for me.”

Mr Rasheed, who was born in Aden, Yemen, said he was the subject of a bullying campaign by line manager Mike Edwards and colleagues Marie Robinson and Carol Wheeler, who are mother and daughter. He told the Lite today: “From the moment I stepped in the office I could feel the tension against me. I have lived in this country since I was a child but I was made to feel like a total outsider.”

The tribunal in Kingsway awarded the payout after finding that Mr Rasheed had been the subject of “racial and religious discrimination”. The panel also found he had been unfairly dismissed, having been forced out by racially motivated harassment.

Chubb Security has been ordered to pay £10,000 in costs. No staff have been dismissed. Company spokeswoman Jackie Gregory said: “The tribunal relates to an incident more than two and a half years ago. We regret what has occurred, and have taken steps to address it.”

London Lite, 25 July 2007

See also Evening Standard, 25 July 2007