Contrasting verdicts in a pair of cases involving racial hatred charges suggests a sinister double standard is being applied to British Muslims, Laura Smith argues.
Guardian Comment is Free, 10 November 2006
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
Politicians ‘left vacuum for BNP’
Mainstream politicians have left a vacuum for the British National Party to get votes, a contender in Labour’s deputy leader race is due to say. Backbench MP Jon Cruddas says the acquittal of the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, on a charge of inciting racial hatred is a wake-up call.
In a speech to the Searchlight conference for Labour and union activists, he will say: “Some communities have been badly affected by a decline in traditional industries, a shortage of affordable housing and changing migration patterns.”
He will also say: “We have to be honest in saying the debate over the veil, talking tough on immigration and race or the language used in the ‘war on terror’ does not reassure people but actually makes the situation worse. It creates fear, tension and suspicion. It divides communities and plays into the hands of extremism.”
Cabinet rethinks race hate laws after jury frees BNP leaders
Race hatred laws may have to be revised following the acquittal of the British National party’s leader, Nick Griffin, for the second time on incitement charges, senior government figures said last night. Gordon Brown, the chancellor, and Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, said the laws may have to be looked at, while a spokesman for John Reid, the home secretary, said he would be “taking soundings” from cabinet colleagues about changing the laws.
“Mainstream opinion in this country will be offended by some of the statements that they have heard made,” said Mr Brown. “If there is something that needs to be done to look at the law then I think we will have to do that,” he told BBC News 24. Lord Falconer told the BBC that it was time to rethink the race hate laws. “What is being said to young Muslim people in this country is that we as a country are anti-Islam, and we have got to demonstrate without compromising freedom that we are not,” he said.
See also the Independent, 11 November 2006
The banished voices of Muslim women
“The burden of liberation rests on the shoulders of the Muslim woman herself. It is she who must define her own direction and chart her own destiny, not those who cry crocodile tears over her.”
Soumaya Ghannoushi at the Guardian Comment is Free, 10 November 2006
Londoners urged to unite against ‘rising tide of Islamophobia’
People from all backgrounds were today coming together at an event in London to show unity against a “rising tide of Islamophobia” across the capital. With organisations such as the British National Party (BNP) accused of “cashing in” on racial tensions across the capital, the Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) group has organised a celebration to hit back over inflammatory anti-Muslim remarks. The organisation has joined forces with Westminster University Students’ Union to provide a focus and forum which can raise the level of debate around this issue.
The event starts at 5pm. See Love Music Hate Racism website.
Sacked Muslim officer wants police protection
The Muslim firearms officer who was sacked from an elite Scotland Yard unit guarding dignitaries, including Tony Blair, is seeking special police protection after he was forced to move to a secret location amid fears for the safety of his family.
Pc Amjad Farooq, 39, is suing the Metropolitan Police for race and religious discrimination after he was removed from Scotland Yard’s Diplomatic Protection Group (S016) when he was told he had failed a security check because his children went to the same mosque as an imam suspected of having links to terrorism.
Yesterday, friends of Pc Farooq said a house where he had been staying had been visited by an unknown man who made unfounded accusations linking Pc Farooq’s friends to al-Qa’ida. Pc Farooq also feels harassed after an article was published yesterday that he believes links him to the international terrorist group. Friends say that the officer, his wife and five children have been exposed to a possible backlash from far right groups after his legal action against the Met was made public on Tuesday. He denies any links or sympathies with any extremist group.
In a letter to Dr Tim Brain, Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Police, Pc Farooq’s lawyer, Lawrence Davies, has officially requested police protection for his client and his client’s family. The letter makes the police aware of an incident in which an “unnamed person approached the person with whom our client is temporary staying at a secret location and falsely accused that person of having links to the same imam which is entirely untrue”.
1990 Trust survey challenges UK spy chief’s claim
The findings of a new survey conducted by The 1990 Trust, are countering new claims linking sizeable Muslim support for terrorism in a hard-hitting public speech Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, Head of MI5 made yesterday.
The survey, ‘Muslim views: Foreign policy and its effects’ (sample: 1,213) carried out across the Muslim community in October concludes that there is almost no support for terrorism amongst the Muslim community with just 1% of those surveyed supporting the 7/7 London bombings.
THE REPORT CAN BE VIEWED BY LOGGING ONTO: www.blink.org.uk or clicking http://www.blink.org.uk/docs/muslim_survey_report_screen.pdf
The report directly questions Dame Manningham-Buller’s comments claiming that,”If the opinion polls conducted in the UK since July are only broadly accurate, over 100,000 of our citizens consider that the July bomb attacks in London were justified,” which the Daily Express reported as “widespread sympathy for terrorism within Britain”.
The 1990 Trust found that surveys by respected pollsters such as ICM and YouGov are showing artificially high rates of support for extremism due to the way questions are asked, which are taken and spun by the media, and believe their new survey more accurately reflects the real views of Muslims.Dame Manningham-Buller’s speech was short on “radicalisation” and the impact of UK’s foreign policy on disaffection within the Muslim community. Key points in the survey show:
a. 91% of Muslims in Britain disagree with the UK’s foreign policy.
b. 82% of Muslims have become more radicalised in recent times but in the form of attending demonstrations, writing to their MPs etc (46%).
c. Less than 1% of Muslims say they obtain information on the Middle East from mosques and clerics.
The opinions held mirror attitudes in the wider society.
Nasser Amin forces SOAS retraction
A Muslim student has forced his university’s former principal into an embarrassing climbdown after winning a long-running dispute over freedom of speech. Following a year of wrangling, ex-SOAS head Colin Bundy has retracted his claim in spring 2005 that he had reprimanded student Nasser Amin over an article Amin had written.
A SOAS statement dated November 6th read: “Professor Bundy sincerely regrets the reference on the School’s website to the author of the article entitled ‘When only violence will do’ in the spring 2005 issue of the SOAS SU Spirit magazine. He further regrets the use of the word ‘reprimand’, which he acknowledges was inappropriate.”
The row began whilst SOAS was engulfed by allegations of anti-Semitism in early 2005, with the student union barring an Israeli official from giving a speech and electing Ken Livingstone as honorary president in the wake of his verbal attack on a Jewish reporter.
Amin’s article argued with regards to Palestinian terrorism that: “Those that benefit from the immoral actions of a colonial state in which they have chosen to reside cannot be considered as innocent.” The article sparked thunderous criticism from commentators such as Melanie Phillips, whilst American websites made death threats against him. Labour MP David Winnick called for him to be prosecuted.
Bundy warned Amin that the article may have broken SOAS rules, but no formal sanction or reprimand was ever applied. However, Bundy then secretly wrote to ministers in the Home Office and Department for Education, as well as local MP Frank Dobson, saying that Amin had been reprimanded over the article. SOAS posted a similar statement on its website.
Amin told London Student in March that the episode left him suffering from depression and disrupted his studies. He also suffered racial abuse from other students following the controversy. When his lawyers first asked for a retraction and apology in summer 2005, Bundy replied: “I regret that Mr Amin feels that he has been treated badly by SOAS. However, SOAS has acted at all times in accordance with its disciplinary procedures.”
In fact, Bundy had merely given Amin an informal caution, whereas a formal reprimand required a full disciplinary process. Bundy’s retraction, following a formal grievance hearing and threats of legal action, represents a major climbdown.
Amin said in a statement to London Student: “I am pleased to say that the dispute between myself and SOAS has been resolved in a way I find to be highly satisfactory. A public apology has now been published on the official SOAS website.
“I hope that lessons have been learnt,” Amin added, “and that no student will have to go through a similar ordeal for simply expressing opinions about topical issues which many people in wider society also have views on.”
Amin told London Student in March that his article had been a response to a previous article that called on Muslims to ‘categorically’ condemn Palestinian terrorism in order to counter Islamophobia. He felt such condemnation was as unreflective as supporting a cause just because it affects your own people.
“The problem is these arguments are taken from their academic setting and thrown into the wider community,” said Amin. He added that he did not support terrorism, including Hamas suicide attacks on non-combatant civilians.
Theos think-tank promotes Christian triumphalism
Madeleine Bunting reports on the launch of the Christian think-tank Theos:
“I picked up a nasty undertone of Christian triumphalism. The enthusiasm with which Frank Field insisted that everything about this country was Christian tipped over into explosive territory when he said that Islam couldn’t be regarded as English. Why not? I asked. Because it hadn’t been here for 1,500 years he replied. Ouch. Does a faith, an idea or even a person have to have been here for millennia before becoming English? I asked. Next up was Shirley Williams, who made sweeping comparisons between Christianity and other faiths, the gist of which was to emphasise the former’s superiority.”
Muslim speaker was misreported
A spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain who called for Dundee Muslims to “resist” police encroachments on personal freedoms has denied urging non-co-operation. Osama Saeed, an SNP candidate in East Renfrewshire at the last General Election, spoke on Monday night in Dundee at a meeting called Taking Liberties about the actions of Tayside Police Special Branch community contact unit (SBCCU).
“To claim that I advocated non-co-operation with the police is ridiculous,” he said. “The word non-co-operation is not there (in my speech) at all. We need to create better relations.” When asked if he was opposed to the SBCCU he said he was not opposed to the unit or the police per se but rather some of its methods.
See Osama’s comments at Rolled Up Trousers, 8 November 2006