Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Let’s draw a veil over Mr Straw

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rajnaara Akhtar“With one article in a local newspaper, Jack Straw has built up the walls of ignorance and division ever higher. A Muslim community that has been on the defensive for years is now finding itself facing a barrage of criticism about the way it chooses to express its faith; jeopardising its basic right of religious freedom. I oppose Mr Straw asking Muslim women who talk to him to take off their veils, not because I believe the veil is compulsory in Islam but rather because his politically motivated opinions have created a climate of intolerance against the veil and those who wear it.”

Rajnaara Akhtar, chair of Protect-Hijab, in the Times, 10 October 2006

Matgamna gets it (partly) right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

This site has had some harsh words to say about the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty in the past, but happily we’ve found an article, by Sean Matgamna on the veil controversy, at least some of which we can agree with. Of course, you have to put up with the usual denunciations of “Muslim bigots, and their kitsch-left and invertebrate-liberal toadies”, but the core of Matgamna’s article is correct:

“To do what Straw has just done, in the atmosphere in Britain right now, is to light a match in a gas-filled room. It is to pour petrol on a fire. Inevitably Straw has given the green light to people who want to have a go at Muslims, who are not at all concerned to have a reasonable discussion about Muslim women, or with Muslims….

“Dark-skinned Muslim people are victims in this society. They are easy targets. Straw has shown just how easy a target they are. Shamelessly racist newspapers, like the Express – one of a number of similar headlines: ‘Muslims pledge to ruin Straw’! – have weighed-in to turn his words into denunciation, blame-mongering, thinly disguised hate-mongering against identifiable Muslims.”

Workers’ Liberty, 9 October 2006

However, it’s difficult to square this argument with other positions taken by the AWL. Only a couple of weeks ago Matgamna came out in support of the pope – a stance that won him the admiration of Melanie Phillips – and earlier this year the AWL reproduced the Jyllands-Posten cartoons on their website on the basis of defending freedom of expression.

But, surely, the same argument applied in those cases. If freedom of expression is exercised in such a way that it incites bigotry and hatred against a minority community, in circumstances where that community is already under siege – by associating Islam with “things only evil and inhuman”, or by portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist bomber – then anyone with any progressive principles should condemn this. Time for the AWL to have a rethink, perhaps.

The politics of choice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Individuals and groups are entitled to decide how they wish to live, what they wish to eat, drink and wear, even if we strongly disapprove of their choices, as long as they cause no harm to others. Moreover, the state cannot intervene to impose a uniform way of life or way of thinking on its citizens. If it did, it would be sliding into totalitarianism. That is precisely what communism did in the name of cultural revolution, what Saudi Arabia is doing in the name of religion, what France is doing in the name of secularism, and what some sections of the media and political class would have us do in the name of integration and security.”

Soumaya Ghannoushi at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 9 October 2006

Beneath contempt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

None of Straw's BusinessThe attempts by Jack Straw’s apologists to pass off his comments on Muslim women who wear the full face veil as an attempt to initiate a discussion are beneath contempt.

Mr Straw knew exactly what he was doing and why.

The Leader of the House had seen John Reid stage a political stunt in east London, using Muslim community leaders as a backdrop for TV cameras and enlisting the involvement of a seriously unwell convert to Islam to rant and rave at him for primetime news coverage.

Mr Reid then took full political advantage of the stunt to flaunt his “courage” in declaring that there would no no-go areas for his campaign against Islamist extremism.

Most of the media came along for the ride in the latest example of government ministers lecturing Britain’s Muslims on how to conduct themselves and how to ensure that their children behave.

All of a sudden, the Home Secretary was a statesman waiting to happen and, on the basis of telling Muslims where to get off, a possible candidate for Labour leader.

Put bluntly, Mr Straw saw this and wanted his turn in the spotlight, possibly as a prelude to standing for Labour Party deputy leader.

What a condemnation it is of the current state of politics today that the best way of gaining media attention and plaudits is by putting the boot into a religious minority that is based, largely, on ethnic minorities.

Editorial in the Morning Star, 7 October 2006

Incitement to hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Watching the news or reading the papers, you’d think that Muslims were Britain’s No 1 problem. Everyone, it seems, is frantically racing to offer magic cures for this chronic disease. Islam and Muslims are only ever invoked as objects of fear and horror: terrorism, forced marriage, honour killing and fanaticism. Over the past few days, hostility to Muslims has dominated the media: from the saga of the Muslim policeman excused guard duty outside the Israeli embassy to the violent attacks on a Muslim-owned dairy in Windsor and Jack Straw’s complaints about Muslim women who cover their faces. An ominous climate is being created.”

Soumaya Ghannoushi in the Guardian, 7 October 2006

A wave of Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John McDonnellJohn McDonnell MP writes:

“If anyone doubted that Islamophobia existed in our country they should be in no doubt after reading and listening to the torrent of bigotry and prejudice pouring out of some of our national press and from our main media outlets over the last 48 hours….

“We are clearly in the middle of one of those regular episodes, launched by the unsavoury alliance of media and politicians, of attacking the latest vulnerable minority.

“The historical parallels with the persecution of the Catholic minority in this country three centuries ago and the Jews even further back in our history are striking.

“This week saw the commemoration of the ‘Battle of Cable Street’, when socialists, trade unionists and people of good faith stood up to the emerging Nazi threat in this country and stood in solidarity with the Jewish community against the despicable attacks on it by Mosley’s fascists.

“It is now our time to stand up in solidarity with Muslim members of our community.”

John McDonnell’s blog, 6 October 2006

It’s selfish to wear the veil, says Straw aide

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Government was plunged into disarray as a senior Minister accused Muslim women of being “selfish” by refusing to stop wearing veils. Amid growing signs that the controversy is causing civil disorder, Commons Leader Jack Straw’s deputy Nigel Griffiths claimed that women who cover their faces in public are ignoring the feelings of others.

The row came as a 49-year-old mother’s veil was torn from her at a bus stop in Liverpool. Her daughter Ilham Ali said: “The man was shouting, ‘Pull that scarf off your head, you Muslim’. I’m 100 per cent certain the racist attack on my mum was a direct result of the comments Jack Straw made.”

Seventy people from the Stop The War Coalition, including 20 women in veils, staged a protest against Mr Straw in his Blackburn constituency. But he stood by his claim that veils were a “visible statement of separation and difference” and harmed community relations.

Mr Griffiths went a step further, saying: “It’s all very well for Muslim women to say that they feel comfortable wearing the veil but it is important that other people feel comfortable, too. The fact is that the veil does not make other people feel comfortable. In that way it could be said that they are being selfish. We live in a society where we applaud people for thinking about other people’s feelings.”

Evening Standard, 7 October 2006

IHRC Statement in response to Jack Straw’s comments on the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In response to news that Jack Straw has asked Muslims women to remove their veils when visiting his surgery, IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh stated:

“It is astonishing that someone as experienced and senior as Jack Straw does not realise that the job of an elected representative is to represent the interests of the constituency, not to selectively discriminate on the basis of religion.

“Muslims, particularly Muslim women, are persistently being preached at to engage in the political system and to gain a voice for themselves. Yet, here are Muslim women who are willing to actively engage in the system only to be told that they must compromise their religious beliefs and practices if they want to be heard.

“If Mr Straw believes it justified to ask women to remove their veils because he feels ‘uncomfortable’, what is to stop another MP asking men to shave their beards or cut their hair before visiting their surgeries, because they feel ‘uncomfortable’?”

Islamic Human Rights Commission press release, 6 October 2006