Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Inayat Bunglawala writes in support of MPACUK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Inayat Bunglawala of the MCB has written to MPACUK expressing support for them in response to the Observer‘s smear against Asghar Bukhari:

“This story has mysteriously surfaced at this time in a clear attempt to try and discredit Asghar Bukhari and MPACUK. Asghar’s donation of sixty pounds to David Irving over six years ago may be regarded as perhaps overly idealistic and indeed naive. However, it is disgraceful – though not unexpected, of course – that the usual suspects have tried to use this incident in an attempt to portray Asghar as an anti-semite. I know that Asghar is a staunch critic – and rightly so – of Zionism and the bloody and repressive policies of the Israeli government, but also that he has absolutely no truck whatsoever with anti-semitism or any other form of racial prejudice. I hope MPAC will not be deterred by this episode and continue to focus on encouraging British Muslims to play their full role in the mainstream of British society and not allow themselves to be marginalised through inaction and passivity.”

MPACUK news report, 21 November 2006

Anti-racist groups withdraw support for CRE race conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CRE RIPLeading anti-racist groups are withdrawing support for a Commission for Racial Equality conference.

The CRE’s Race Convention is being criticised for being over-priced and for having “inflammatory” titles for workshops. The 1990 Trust and other organisations are also concerned about the CRE’s event being sponsored by a bank with links to the slave trade.

The campaigning body has joined forces with many other BME groups to organise an alternative race conference, called the Race & Faith Leadership Summit. This event will have free entry and will discuss the real concerns of Black communities and will run on the same day as the CRE’s Race Convention.

The Race & Faith Leadership Summit will take place next Monday (27th November 2006) at London’s City Hall, SE1.

This event is supported by dozens of organisations including the Muslim Council of Britain, the National Black Police Association, and the public sector union UNISON.

For more details, and to register, log on to: http://www.blink.org.uk/docs/rsflyer.htm

BLINK news report, 21 November 2006

Anti-Islam Danish book withdrawn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Danish publishing house has decided to withdraw a book offensive to Muslims after protests by Muslim leaders in the Scandinavian country. “After scrutinizing the complaints, Malling Beck Co. decided to take Os og Kristendom (Us and Christianity) 5 off bookstores,” the publishing house said in a statement obtained by IslamOnline.net. Malling Beck Director Lars Tindholdt had initially defended the authors before reconsidering his position after the mass-circulation daily Politiken ran a report on the contents of the book on Monday, November 20.

The book was listed on the curricula of third-ninth grades under the Christianity subject. It tackles Islam in a chapter entitled “terrorism.” The first pages of the chapter remind students of the grisly Beslan massacre in Russia, when armed Chechens took hundreds of students hostage. The book associates Muslims with terrorism and also outlines the terrorist 9/11 attacks with a profile of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. The newspaper said the first thing Danish students learn about Islam and Muslims is all about horror and panic. “It sends the message that Muslims are the root cause of terrorism in this world,” it added.

IslamOnline, 21 November 2006

Historic rally condemns Islamophobia and attack on liberties and freedoms

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anas AltikritiIn what was an almost unprecedented representation of all facets of Britain speaking from the same stage, the rally co-organised by the British Muslim Initiative and Liberty on Monday, 20th of November, unequivocally condemned the recent spate of attacks on Islam and Muslims, and pledged to fight the erosion of civil liberties and freedom of thought and conscience.

The hundreds who attended the event at the Westminster Methodist Central Hall listened to the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, as well as representative from the Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Respect and Green Parties, speakers from the Christian, Muslim,Jewish and Sikh faiths as well as delegates from trade unions, the anti-war movement and the world of media and arts.

Anas Altikriti [pictured], spokesman for BMI who chaired the event, said afterwards: “The line-up said it all. Muslims do not stand alone in facing the barrage of racist attacks levelled against them, nor do others of any faith or of thought who see what is dear to them being systematically disparaged and compromised. Despite the broad spectrum from which the speakers came from, the message was almost one and the same: the people of this country will not stand by and watch the Muslim community or any other, be attacked, vilified, demonised or marginalised by a minor sector laden with either ignorance or racist tendencies, or possibly both”.

Altikriti added: “It was fascinating to see that almost all the speakers touched on the problem we all faced with politicians and the policies we have both at home and overseas in creating the present climate and exacerbating the problems faced by Muslims and many others and allowing the extreme-right and the racist elements in society ground to spread their rhetoric and deeds of hate.”

The rally will serve as a first step towards holding a conference by the end of January from which a new broad and far reaching formal coalition will emerge to defend freedom of religion and culture and tackle the problem of Islamophobia, unanimously condemned last night as the new face of racism in our midst.

BMI news report, 21 November 2006

See also Mathaba.net, 21 November 2006

6 imams removed from flight at US airport after 3 conduct traditional prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and questioned by police for several hours before being released, a leader of the group said.

The six were among passengers who boarded Flight 300, bound for Phoenix, around 6:30 p.m. Monday, airport spokesman Pat Hogan said.

A passenger initially raised concerns about the group through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways. She said police were called after the captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane and the men refused.

“They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way,” said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix.

The six Muslim scholars were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, president of the group. Five of them were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, California, he said.

Three of them stood and said their normal evening prayers together on the plane, as 1.7 billion Muslims around the world do every day, Shahin said. He attributed any concerns by passengers or crew to ignorance about Islam. “I never felt bad in my life like that,” he said. “I never. Six imams. Six leaders in this country. Six scholars in handcuffs. It’s terrible.”

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, expressed anger at the detentions.

“CAIR will be filing a complaint with relevant authorities in the morning over the treatment of the imams to determine whether the incident was caused by anti-Muslim hysteria by the passengers and/or the airline crew,” Hooper said. “Because, unfortunately, this is a growing problem of singling out Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airports, and it’s one that we’ve been addressing for some time.”

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Dutch Muslims condemn ‘populist’ burqa ban move

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim leaders in the Netherlands have condemned a proposed ban on burqas, describing the eve-of-election pledge as an opportunistic overreaction and a populist attempt to win the anti-immigration vote.

The announcement on the burqa from the outgoing government took many politicians by surprise because the twin issues of Islam and immigration had barely featured in the campaign up to that point.

But the integration of Muslims in the country remains a sensitive issue two years after the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh, whose film Submission criticised Islam.

On Friday, the hardline, outgoing, immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, said the cabinet had decided it was “undesirable that face-covering clothing – including the burqa – is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens.”

She added: “From a security standpoint, people should always be recognisable and, from the standpoint of integration, we think people should be able to communicate with one another.”

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Study rejects claim that Muslim areas harbour terrorists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims living in ghettos are no more likely to become involved in terrorism than those living in mixed areas, according to research to be published today. The study by Manchester University says that “terrorist hotbeds” are a fantasy and concludes that Islamist terrorists are as likely to come from towns and cities with small Muslim populations as from so-called “self-segregating” Muslim areas.

Guardian, 20 November 2006