Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Bertinotti removes anti-Muslim painting

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer posts an indignant report that “the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, the communist Fausto Bertinotti, has had removed a painting showing a scene from the Battle of Lepanto from the hall in which he receives visitors to this lower house of parliament…. Bertinotti says it is a gesture of peace and dialogue, the painting’s title being ‘Naval battle between Christians and barbarians’, but an anonymous insider reveals it was done to avoid offending Muslims”.

And good for comrade Bertinotti, we say. Voting against the funding of Italian troops in Afghanistan would have been even better, though.

Victory for reactionary racism: Quebec election

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Quebec election was characterized by a great deal of discontent with the traditional establishment parties, the PQ and the Liberals. The remarkable thing about this election was that this discontent was successfully shifted from the policies that ostensibly pissed people off in the first place, onto to Muslims living in Quebec. Turning anger at unrelated issues into anger at immigrants is hardly a new political technique, but watching it happen here in Montreal is pretty astounding.”

The Dominion weblog, 28 March 2007

See also “Quebec state yields to right-wing provocation on eve of provincial election”, World Socialist Web Site, 26 March 2007

We can stop the mega-mosque, say fascists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Red-Islamic Alliance is looking for its biggest single advance so far with London’s anti-English Mayor Ken Livingstone pushing hard for the £100 million mega-mosque which one of Britain and Pakistan’s most hardline Islamic sects wants to build next to the Olympic stadium in East London…. The London Evening Standard is at present running an opinion poll on whether or not the Super Mosque should be built…. Please go to the Standard website and add your own ‘No’ vote. And please forward this email on to everyone in your address book.”

BNP news article, 27 March 2007

And we urge our supporters to do the same and vote ‘yes’. The Evening Standard poll is here.

Hewitt criticised for casting doubt on Muslim GPs’ ethics

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Patricia HewittThe health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, has been criticised for suggesting that some Muslim GPs fail to respect the confidentiality of Muslim women who visit them.

Ms Hewitt said women feared talking about issues such as domestic violence and sexual health problems in case their details were shared among “close-knit” communities. A report in GPs’ magazine Pulse said Ms Hewitt had first raised the issue in a lecture to the Fabian Society in London.

In an interview with Pulse, she expanded on her comments, saying: “I have had Muslim women give me chapter and verse on very distressing breaches of confidentiality by Muslim GPs. Some women patients feel they cannot trust their own GP, who knows the patient’s extended families. If they go and talk to him about a very difficult situation concerning domestic violence or sexual health problems, they fear that he will share that with other members of the community. They are very close-knit communities.”

Jo Haynes, editor of Pulse, said: “These are serious accusations – failing to respect a patient’s confidentiality is a severe breach of a doctor’s code of conduct. It is generally something that happens very rarely. You would hope Patricia Hewitt has some firm evidence to back up her decision to single out Muslim doctors in this way. It’s worth bearing in mind that Muslims are hardly alone in living in close-knit communities, and doctors are generally very good at separating their personal and professional lives.”

Press Association, 28 March 2007

Film on ‘radical Islam’ tied to pro-Israel groups

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A controversial documentary on the threat of radical Islam, promoted by the two most-watched U.S. cable news networks, was marketed and supported in part by self-described “pro-Israel” groups, according to an IPS investigation. Abbreviated versions and segments of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” ran on FOX News and CNN, but neither station disclosed the film’s connection to HonestReporting, a watchdog group that monitors the media for allegedly negative portrayals of Israel.

While watching the film, it becomes clear that the controversy surrounding “Obsession” has less to with what it says about the threat of radical Islam, than how it presents the information. While the film contains disclaimers stating that “it’s important to remember most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror,” critics argue that it makes little distinction between the religion of Islam and the political realities that inform terrorism. “It’s all part of that industry of Muslim bashers,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“The sentiment is there, you can see in the [1995] Oklahoma City bombing that it was originally seen as an act of Islamic terrorism,” said Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. “It’s almost a default position for the media, so you’re going to have work like this received uncritically.” The Oklahoma City bombing, initially attributed by the mainstream media to Islamic terrorists, was actually perpetrated by right-wing extremists from the U.S. midwest.

IPS, 26 March 2007

German judge and legal Orientalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Friday New York Times reported that a German judge denied a Moroccan woman’s request for an expedited divorce from her Moroccan husband – despite the apparently undisputed evidence that the husband had repeatedly abused her – on the grounds that such conduct is ‘common’ in Morocco and that the ‘Koran … sanctions such physical abuse’.

“While the condemnations of this decision have been swift, some of the criticism has been for the wrong reasons. Of course, there is the pious outrage of the German politician Ronald Pofalla, general secretary of the Christian Democratic Union, who somewhat hyperbolically took the verdict as (further?) evidence that Islam threatens the German body politic. The New York Times quoted this far-sighted politician as saying ‘When the Koran is put above the German Constitution, I can only say, “Good night, Germany”.’

“Not much has been made of the utter casualness with which this judge could make gross generalizations about Moroccans, the Quran and, implicitly, Islamic law.”

Mohammad Fadel at Eteraz.org, 26 March 2007

See also New York Times, 23 March 2007

Muslim face veil banned in Quebec vote

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MONTREAL – Muslim women will have to remove their face coverings if they want to vote in upcoming elections in Quebec, a government official said Friday, reversing his earlier decision to allow the veils.

Marcel Blanchet, the French-speaking province’s election chief, had been criticized by Quebec’s three main political leaders for allowing voters to wear the niqab, which covers the entire face except for the eyes, if they signed a sworn statement and showed identification when they vote.

But Blanchet reversed his earlier decision Friday, saying it was necessary to avoid disruptions when residents go to the polls. “Relevant articles to electoral laws were modified to add the following: any person showing up at a polling station must be uncovered to exercise the right to vote,” he said.

Blanchet had to get two bodyguards after the Quebec elections office received threatening phone calls and e-mails following his initial decision to allow niqabs.

The reversal was condemned by Muslims groups who said it could turn their members away from the polls. “I am so saddened, I doubt many of these women will show up at the polls on Monday after all this mockery,” said Sarah Elgazzar of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Last week in Quebec, a young Muslim woman was forced to quit her job at a prison after she refused to remove her headscarf. The public security department supported the decision, citing security concerns, but Muslim groups pointed out that the Canadian Armed Forces allow women to wear headscarves on active duty.

Last month, an 11-year-old Muslim girl from Ontario participating in a soccer tournament in Quebec was pulled from the field after she refused the referee’s request to remove her headscarf.

Associated Press, 23 March 2007

Campbell attacks stop-and-search

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police stop-and-search powers are overused and alienating ethnic minority communities, Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell is expected to say later. The Lib Dems say nearly 167,000 people have been stopped under anti-terrorism laws, but only 40 have been convicted. In a speech at a mosque in Birmingham, Sir Menzies will say the powers are often used in an “indiscriminate” way.

BBC News, 23 March 2007

Is no-one safe from Britain’s police state?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain's Police StateIs no-one safe from Britain’s police state?

By Tom Mellen

Morning Star, 23 March 2007

CIVIL rights campaigners and MPs warned yesterday that no-one is safe from punishment without trial after Home Secretary John Reid announced that nine British citizens are now subject to “control orders.”

This means that half of all the 18 controversial orders that are currently in force are against British citizens, rather than foreign nationals. In comparison, in February last year, just one of the 18 orders in force was against a British citizen.

Control orders are a form of house arrest under which the liberty of the recipient is severely restricted upon an order made by the Home Secretary.

In a quarterly update to MPs, Mr Reid said that two new orders have been made against British citizens – one on December 11 and another on March 10. He also admitted that a terror suspect who absconded last summer is now thought to be overseas.

Labour leadership contender John McDonnell MP said: “When control orders were introduced, we warned that this measure was a ruse to detain people without trial. Now it is escalating. If there is evidence, these people should be brought to trial. If not, they must not be subject to control orders, which undermine the fundamental priniciple of habeas corpus, a key aspect of our legal system for centuries.”

A Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) spokesman warned that Mr Reid’s announcement is a “grave warning that no-one is safe from punishment without trial and that the government is moving further towards a police state.”

Continue reading →