Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Religious leaders join in support of Detroit mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Detroit mosque vandalisedIn a show of unity, religious leaders linked arms Thursday in front of a Detroit mosque that was vandalized this week with graffiti that read “Go Home 9-11 Murderers.”

Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Arab leaders joined together at the old Islamic Center of America to condemn the attack, the latest in a string of crimes directed against Islamic houses of worship in metro Detroit. The attack on the center is “unacceptable to people of faith,” said Rabbi Josh Bennett, of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.

The gathering was organized by the Detroit-based Interfaith Partners program of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion. The attacks are “an expression of ignorance,” said the Rev. Dan Appleyard, of Christ Episcopal Church in Dearborn. Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said Thursday’s event “was an example of America at its best.”

Detroit Free Press, 26 January 2007

Police need to stop their leaks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed comments on the media furore over the reported request by a Muslim WPC that she should not be forced to shake the hands of male colleagues, including Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair:

“Despite her superiors being informed well in advance of the issue, you would think given the media coverage that she was standing in a row of people having their hands shaken and when her turn with Sir Ian came she whipped her hand back, put her thumb on her nose and wiggled her fingers about while blowing a raspberry.”

Osama points out that this is just the latest in a series of leaks from within the police force that have been used by the right-wing press to stoke up Islamophobia.

Rolled Up Trousers, 23 January 2007

Readers may like to compare Osama’s reasoned and informed analysis with the ignorant dogmatism of Brett Lock’s recent post at Harry’s Place.

Mosque disputes Dispatches claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid-al-TawhidLeaders of a Leyton mosque have criticised a television documentary associating them with international Islamic extremism.

The Masjid-al-Tawhid mosque in Leyton High Road appeared in Undercover Mosque, a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary screened last week. The programme focused on extremist preachers encouraging congregations to practise violence against women, homosexuals and non-Muslims.

Among those featured was Shaykh Suhaib Hassan, senior Imam at Masjid-al-Tawhid. He was quoted predicting the establishment of an Islamic state under Sharia law and detailing some of the extreme punishments, such as flogging of drunkards, that would be carried out in such a state.

Shaykh Hassan says, however, that his remarks were taken out of context, and that he has never said Sharia law would be appropriate for Britain. “Britain is a democracy, and I have said many times that Muslims should participate in elections. It is a good system,” he said. “Why blame a western country for not implementing Sharia law when Muslim states like Pakistan do not?”

Shaykh Hassan is also unhappy at being associated with more extreme imams who preach brutality and violent jihad. “It was a gross misrepresentation. We don’t say kill the Jews, kill the Christians, it’s nonsense,” he told the Guardian.

Masjid-al-Tawhid was also featured in The War Within, another documentary screened by CNN during the weekend, which also tackled the subject of Islamic extremism in Britain. But CNN held up Masjid-al-Tawhid as an example of a mosque able to practise a traditional form of Islam without withdrawing from the wider community.

East London and West Essex Guardian, 23 January 2007

Police rethink use of ‘stop and search’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police are holding a review of much-criticised “stop and search” powers over concerns the tactic used to target possible terrorists was causing more harm than good by alienating the Muslim community.

Senior officers are warming to “new thinking” about the powers which would see people only stopped on the basis of prior intelligence and not their appearance, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

“I think we need to move from the concept of stopping on appearance and ethnicity,” Richard Gargini, ACPO’s national coordinator for community engagement, told Reuters at a conference to discuss Islamophobia. “I sense an atmosphere among police leaders that it’s time to reflect upon where we go with stop and search. Is it having an adverse impact on police and community relations?”

Under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, officers have the power to stop and search people in an area seen as being at risk from terrorism even if they are not suspected of any breach of the law.

Many Muslim groups have argued the powers have been abused by police, particularly after the bomb attacks on July 7, 2005 when four British Islamists killed 52 people on London’s transport system.

Figures show that use of the power against those of Asian appearance has rocketed since the September 11, 2001 attacks, and Muslim community leaders have warned it has helped alienate Britain’s Muslims, so helping the cause of extremists. “We know the levels of trust and confidence that the community has in the police has gone down,” Azad Ali, chairman of the Muslim Safety Forum, which advises police on Islamic issues, told Reuters.

Continue reading →

CAIR calls for probe into New Jersey mosque fire

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A national Muslim civil rights group wants authorities to investigate a weekend fire that damaged a mosque as a potential bias crime.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations on Tuesday asked authorities to launch a hate crimes investigation into the fire that damaged a rear porch and wall at the National Islamic Association mosque in Newark on Sunday.

The first worshippers arriving at the mosque before 6 a.m. prayers found the back porch and part of a wall ablaze, said Ashraf Latif, the mosque’s president. “They ran and got some mats and started beating the fire, and someone else got some water and they put it out before the fire department got there,” he said.

Latif said the fire appeared to have begun in some coils of rope that someone put on the back deck. An investigator with the fire department who came said he smelled some accelerant on the ropes,” Latif said.

John Brown, a spokesman for the Newark Fire Department, said the cause of the fire will not be determined until Thursday at the earliest. He could not comment on Latif’s assertions that a flammable substance was detected.

Latif said the mosque has received some anti-Islamic mailings in recent years, but nothing that caused its members undue concern. There have been no overt threats recently, he said.

“Historically, there has been no anti-Islam sentiment in Newark,” he said. “This is a great place. We just want a full investigation to determine if this was set by someone outside the community for whatever reason, or if it was some bum trying to get warm.”

The mosque, which has 140 registered families who worship there, was not seriously damaged by the fire, Latif said.

Associated Press, 23 January 2007

MWAW replies to ‘Undercover Mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dave Crouch of Media Workers Against the War takes on Channel 4’s Dispatches:

“The media must be so grateful to Jade Goody. Thanks to her and Big Brother they have a scapegoat for the racism that they themselves have made respectable. The same newspapers that fill their pages with hate for asylum-seekers, immigrants and multiculturalism suddenly declare themselves anti-racists.

“Not for one second have the print and broadcast media relented in their barrage of racism against Muslims. The latest example is Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary ‘Undercover Mosque’, broadcast on January 15. The documentary is a textbook example of Islamophobic reporting. It has set the right-wing blogosphere on fire; clips from the programme on YouTube have gone straight into the top ten.

“The message of ‘Undercover Mosque” is that, however ‘moderate’ Muslims claim to be, it is the fundamentalists who are really pulling the strings, using the cover of moderation to preach racism, bigotry and holy war.”

MWAW website, 22 January 2007

Dave also refers us to a detailed response to Channel 4 by Shafiq ur-Rehman, president of the UK Islamic Mission. See (pdf) here.

A clash of civilisations?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

TOM MELLEN sees neocons and progressives clash over war and torture at a London conference.

Morning Star, 22 January 2007

CAMPAIGNERS, academics, religious figures and thousands of working people engaged in a fierce battle of ideas at the weekend on what the so-called “clash of civilisations” means to Londoners. Whitehall’s QE2 centre was packed to the rafters on Saturday, with people eager to discuss the urgent issues thrown up by globalisation and the “war on terror.”

The World Civilisation Or a Clash of Civilisations? conference saw notorious rightwingers Daniel Pipes and Douglas Murray rub shoulders with Venezuelan government official Andres Izarra and anti-racism campaigner Denis Fernando. Discussions ranged from Democratic Solutions in the Middle East to Anti-Semitism and were marked by a high level of popular participation.

BBC news presenter Gavin Esler chaired the opening debate between London Mayor Ken Livingstone and neocon US foreign policy adviser Mr Pipes, who claimed that the world faces a “clash between civilisation and barbarism.”

Noting that London itself draws strength from the diverse cultures that co-exist in the city, Mr Livingstone said: “People have the choice to select for themselves what they find attractive in all cultures – we are witnessing the emergence of a global civilisation. If you go onto the streets of a modern world city, whether that’s London or New York, Shanghai or Mumbai, you see young people working together, using the same technology and sharing the same concerns.”

But Mr Pipes sneered at the mayor’s “complacency,” describing Islamists as “ideological barbarians.” He claimed that this “tyrannical, woman-oppressing terrorist movement” threatens civilisation and that, “while Mr Livingstone looks to multiculturalism, I look to win the war.”

Respect councillor Salma Yaqoob pointed out that Mr Pipes’s logic lay behind the carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan, noting that that conflict has “decreased, not increased our security.”

Mr Pipes responded by smearing critics of neoliberal terrorism as “poor benighted souls,” drawing howls of anger.

Continue reading →

Inayat Bunglawala on Enlightenment values

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Inayat“Last Saturday I took part in a panel discussion on ‘Enlightenment values and modern society’ as part of a large conference on the theme of the clash of civilisations, organised by the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.

“It has been disconcerting recently to see that many of the most vocal advocates clamouring for the spread of Enlightenment values have also been those most keen on waging war on Iraq and now, Iran. Still, I argued that the peaceful spread of the values of the Enlightenment offers protection for people of different faiths and none. The Qur’an itself calls upon people to be prepared to question inherited beliefs and urges them to examine the universe around them and use their reason….

“A couple of the speakers at Saturday’s conference, including the American neocon columnist Daniel Pipes (founder of the McCarthyite outfit Campus Watch), pointedly criticised Livingstone for hosting the highly influential Egyptian Islamic scholar Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi when he visited the UK in 2004. Yet Livingstone was surely right: how can you hope to challenge someone’s views if you do not engage with them? Engagement in that case certainly seemed the more ‘enlightened’ policy to me.

“Unless, of course, the kind of engagement you are really calling for is one from 50,000 feet in the air.”

Comment is Free, 22 January 2007

And while we’re on the subject of the Clash of Civilisations conference, one of the questioners from Daniel Pipes’ side was Stephen Schwartz’s sidekick (sorry, “European director”) Irfan al-Alawi, who also featured in a recent broadcast by Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (watch video here). Yet, when al-Alawi appeared in the “Undercover Mosque” documentary, he was filmed with his face obscured, on the basis that he feared violence as a result of his campaign against the proposed Islamic Centre at Newham in London! Which just goes to illustrate the dishonest scaremongering tactics employed by that programme.

In Tuscan hills, mosque stirs deep fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

COLLE DI VAL D’ELSA, Italy — For centuries, bells in a towering Catholic church have tolled daily in this honey-colored town that embodies Tuscan serenity with its landscape of cypress trees and rolling farmland.

But now the start of building work for a mosque in a town park has shattered that tranquillity, laying bare deep suspicions of Muslims which underlie a broader unease in Italy over its growing immigrant population.

A severed pig’s head was found outside the mosque site in an apparent mafia-style intimidation effort a month ago, while construction that began with the mayor’s blessing is now accompanied by noisy protests.

The mosque’s opponents say they have nothing against Colle di Val d’Elsa’s roughly 400 Muslims, but fear it will trigger an influx of others bringing extremist influences. They also complain it takes up too much space in a communal park.

“This is not a big city and we don’t know if there will be an invasion of Muslims,” said Letizia Franceschi, a lawyer who leads a group against the mosque. “Unfortunately, it is written in all the national newspapers that in many mosques they preach hatred and teach activities that are illegal in our country.”

Outside the mosque site, a small group of longstanding residents protests regularly in tents with the Italian flag fluttering on top. Many driving by wave and honk in support.

Prominent signs reading “Yes to integration, No to occupation” and “The park is for everyone, not the mosque” dot a farm opposite the site. Local newspapers run headlines asking who financed the mosque, echoing a wider fear that it could be funded by extremist groups.

If completed, Colle di Val d’Elsa’s mosque will become only the fourth major mosque in Italy. After meeting for years in a small, dark room with Oriental rugs on the floor and pictures of the holy city of Medina on the walls, the town’s Muslims were ready for a larger space, said their Sunni Muslim imam, Feras Jabareen.

He has tried to show locals they have nothing to fear and that he preaches moderate Islam, to no avail. The Muslim community has signed Italy’s only existing declaration of cooperation with a town hall and even planted a Christmas tree at the mosque site in a goodwill gesture recently.

“The construction of this mosque has unfortunately become politicized, making it easy to create controversies and accusations,” said Jabareen, clutching prayer beads. “Rome has the biggest mosque in Europe – do people think Muslims come to Rome just because it has the biggest mosque? That’s absurd.”

Colle di Val d’Elsa’s mayor is tired of the controversy. The town has rejected two requests for a referendum on the issue. “A wall between the two communities is the last thing we want,” said center-leftist mayor Paolo Brogioni. “The Muslims are just as much residents of the town as any other.”

Reuters, 21 January 2007

Californian Islamophobes disrupt talk on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stockton anti-Muslim hecklerOne woman was forced to leave early in the two-hour program after she accused guest speaker Tarek Mourad of lying, yelling that Islam’s holy book teaches Muslims to kill Jews and Christians and that Muslims are trying to take over the Western world.

Another was nearly arrested by Stockton Police Chief Wayne Hose, who said he came to the talk on his day off to learn more about Islam. The woman, who would only give her name as Barbara, handed out photocopied pages from a book critical of Islam and on numerous occasions interrupted Mourad’s talk to read passages about Islam that conflicted with her Christian views.

Hose finally called a police officer to the library in case the interruptions continued and after “Barbara” asked if he was Christian. “Don’t talk to me,” Hose told her, rejecting her offer of anti-Muslim reading material. “I can’t hear what he (Mourad) has to say.”

Mourad, an engineer from Santa Clara, was invited to the Chavez Library after making a similar presentation in Tracy. He explained the six basic beliefs, including a belief in God and a day of judgment, to the five “pillars” of Islam, such as praying five times a day and making a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam.

His presentation, which happened to be on the Muslim New Year, turned to near chaos during the question-and-answer session. Hose and librarian Mary Jo Gohlke, who organizes adult programs at the library, each nearly pulled “Barbara” from the audience of nearly 70 people after she wouldn’t stop reading aloud. Barbara recommended the audience read “Islam and Terrorists,” issued by a company that publishes Christian-themed books and written by a convert from Islam to Christianity.

“Just go back and listen to Pat Robertson on TV,” yelled one man, who walked out in a huff.

Stockton Record, 21 January 2007

You’ll note that the book the anti-Muslim heckler is brandishing is Walid Shoebat’s Why I Left Jihad.