Jamal at Radical Muslim has some additional information about the notorious “mega mosque” petition. Not only has the petition drawn support from vile racists but, judging by links on her blog “English Rose”, the initiator of the petition, one Jill Barham, is clearly a BNP sympathiser.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
Police probe racist slurs sprayed on prof’s door
A McMaster University professor who organized a campus day in support of Muslim students says racial slurs sprayed onto her office door have left her in complete shock.
Hamilton police have launched a hate crime investigation into the racist attack condemned by Hamilton’s Muslim community and McMaster officials. Investigators believe the incident is a backlash against last week’s Wear a Hijab Day, an event organized by associate French professor Muriel Walker to help sensitize people about Islam.
“What have I done, not just to deserve this, but to inspire this kind of strong reaction?” she said. “I am still in disbelief.”
Campus cleaning staff discovered the racist and profane graffiti on Walker’s door early Tuesday morning. They also found copies of controversial Danish editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed glued to her door.
“Did I really do something that bad to trigger this whole hysteria?” Walker said
Hamilton Spectator, 12 April 2007
See also “Hate graffiti targets McMaster professor”, Toronto Star, 12 April 2007
Update: See “Racist cowards at work”, Toronto Star, 13 April 2007
And “McMaster professor was targeted before, she says”, Globe & Mail, 14 April 2007
Downing Street unmoved by protests over ‘mega mosque’ petition
Number Ten Downing Street have refused to amend a petition on their website threatening “terrible violence and suffering” against Muslims. Scores of outraged members of the public emailed Tony Blair’s website manager after a petition was posted which predicted violence unless plans for a “mega Mosque” on the Olympic site in east London was dropped. No.10’s webmaster has so far not responded to Blink’s protest, but told a concerned reader Downing Street was powerless to change the petition’s wording once it had been accepted.
A plan to radicalise Muslims
Ajmal Masroor responds to Ruth Kelly’s six-point plan for preventing violent extremism and winning hearts and minds.
Interview with Dr Bilal Philips
Austrolabe interviews Bilal Phillips, the Canadian Muslim scholar who was recently refused a visa to attend an Islamic conference in Melbourne.
TUC battles against workplace Islamophobia
Muslim and trade union organisations announced on Monday that they are to hold a joint seminar on improving the job prospects of Muslim workers and combating Islamophobia.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) will hold the event on Thursday. The two groups will discuss not only job prospects for Muslims but how to combat the effects of Islamophobia and far-right activity in parts of Britain. The event follows pledges by the TUC and the MCB last year to work together to encourage more Muslims to join trade unions.
Monday’s statement also backed efforts to improve community relations, both at work and in society. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said:
“We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge facing us today. Islamophobia is a real and present threat, fuelled by prejudice and misunderstandings, and the rise of the far right and electoral success of the BNP are alarming features of recent years. Local elections are approaching once again and, by working together, the TUC and the MCB can expose the far right for what they really are and work towards a better deal for everyone in the workplace.”
MCB secretary general Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said: “We believe in social justice and equal rights for all. The Muslim community is facing real problems of discrimination and poverty – a third of Muslims are living in the 10 per cent of most-deprived neighbourhoods of the country, but we have a tremendous amount to offer the British workplace in terms of skills, optimism and energy.”
The seminar will be held at the Congress Centre in London. It will be chaired by TUC general council member Mohammed Taj and keynote addresses will be given by Mr Barber and Dr Bari.
Morning Star, 10 April 2007
US Muslims fear Islamophobia following workplace controversies
The recent controversies involving teetotaler Muslim cabbies and the Target cashier who wouldn’t ring up pork products touched off a barrage of comments on newspaper Web sites and blogs. The tone of some of these comments is frightening to local Muslims.
“Too bad our troops can’t kill them fast enough,” said one of the more than 900 comments posted on Buzz.mn, which first reported the Target incident. Muslim leaders said comments like this are on the rise, and they are calling it: “Islamophobia.”
“Islamophobia is a distrust or fear of anything that has to do with Islam,” explained Haris Tarin, director of community development at the California-based Muslim Public Affairs Council or MPAC. Speaking at a seminar in Minneapolis on Thursday, Tarin said the anti-Muslim rhetoric is driven by a “group of people who want to see the voice of Muslims marginalized in America.”
The vehicle used by these groups, Tarin said, is a new controversial documentary called “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.” Under a backdrop of 9/11 scenes, the Madrid bombings and the London bombings, the film intersperses Muslim prayers with Nazi rallies.
“The idea is to instill a fear among Americans about Islam,” said Tarin.
Australian media accused of Islamaphobia
British firebrand Yvonne Ridley has accused Australia’s media of being hostile towards Muslims, as Labor demanded to know why the Islamic convert was allowed into the country.
The former investigative reporter, in Melbourne for a major religious conference, was quoted in news reports saying Australians were among the world’s worst Muslim haters. But Ms Ridley said her comments were wrongly recorded and she had no problem with the Australian people – only the Australian media, which she accused of Islamophobia.
“The time has come to change the media attitudes towards Muslims in this country,” she told the annual Australian Islamic Conference at the University of Melbourne, staged by non-profit Muslim group, Mercy Mission. “What I actually said to the journalist was there is a horrendous problem of Islamophobia in Australia – it isn’t the ordinary citizens, it’s the media.”
“It’s very, very sad the way the media has reacted,” she said. “Suddenly I’m no more a British journalist, I’m a firebrand Islamic convert. “I’ve always been quite outspoken in my views but I didn’t become an extremist until I put on a hijab.”
Meanwhile, Labor leader Kevin Rudd called on the federal government to explain why Ms Ridley was allowed to enter Australia.
‘Anti-Muslim rhetoric’ cited after vandalism at Arizona mosque
Officials with the Islamic Center of Tucson say a recent rise in “anti-Muslim rhetoric” may have spurred vandalism at the University of Arizona-area mosque.
Tucson Police Department detectives are investigating a Sunday-night break-in at the mosque during which someone smashed the lock on a side door, broke an office window, ransacked the office and wrote “Bush was here” in magic marker across a computer screen. Nothing was stolen, mosque officials said.
Mosque spokesman Muhammad As’ad said it’s possible Sunday’s break-in was a hate crime. “There’s an increasing obsession with Islam that’s been stirred up by a small cadre of people,” he said. “The obsession is growing because of events overseas. We deplore the hate speech going on. After all, Muslims, like Christians, are encouraged to love their neighbors.”
As’ad said an example of the “anti-Muslim rhetoric” was former CNN reporter Steven Emerson’s December lecture at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Though he denied the accusations, local Muslims accused Emerson of being a disingenuous “fear-monger” who carelessly interchanges the words “Muslim” and “terrorist.”
With God, or without
Atheists and religious people can fight oppression together, argues Sasha Simic.
See also “Anti-globalists reach out to Islamists”, Al-Ahram, 5 April 2007