Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Watching Jihad Watch

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SpencerYusuf Smith draws our attention to a new blog, Watching Jihad Watch, whose author recently tangled with Robert Spencer over the latter’s statement, as reported by Sara Rosenbaum in her St Petersburg Times article about anti-Muslim hate-sites, that he bans racist comments from Jihad Watch. WJW offers some examples of the repulsive bigotry that has appeared on Jihad Watch, and quotes the following passage from an article written by Jihad Watch president Hugh Fitzgerald:

“… not only should migration be stopped, but life can be made more difficult, if not by the government, then by private individuals, so that Moslems will be discouraged from remaining. What do I mean? I mean that we, as private citizens, do not have to hire Moslems, we do not have to buy their goods, or make their lives, economically, more rewarding. It may seem mean, and many of you may be offended by it, and I am perfectly aware that there are nice Moslems, that there are those who simply ignore the main tenets of Islam. But as a group, the Moslems are a threat to me and those I love. Even the innocent ones, merely by being here, swell Moslem political power.”

Gay Muslims object to negative Channel 4 portrayal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Imaan, the support group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Muslims are featured in the Channel 4 documentary Gay Muslims, produced by Love Productions, which is being broadcast on Monday, 23rd January at 8.00pm.

“Imaan wish to make it clear that its participation in the documentary was NOT made in partnership or consultation with the group – the largest and longest established LGBT Muslim group in the UK and Europe. Indeed Imaan tried very hard to obtain editorial input but Love Productions refused. Instead they appeared more interested, from the outset, in casting gay Muslims in a negative and inaccurate light.

“Contrary to the angle of the documentary most of the LGBT Muslim community do not lead ‘tortuous, secret lives’ but are happy balanced individuals who are supported by a growing LGBT Muslim community and increasingly by the wider gay AND Muslim communities in this country and abroad.”

Imaan press release, 21 January 2006

And have Peter Tatchell and Outrage rallied to support Imaan on this issue? No, of course not – they’re more interested in staging stupid provocations like this.

The witch-hunt against Adam Yosef

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Adam YosefWhat with Outrage, the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association and (even further to the right) Flame Out all dedicated to attacking Muslims’ attitudes to LGBT rights, you might think that the market for gay Islamophobia was already a bit crowded. But the new year has brought us yet another organisation, the previously unheard-of Gay Action Media Watch.

GAMW launched itself on 5 January with a campaign against Adam Yosef, who writes for the Asian entertainment magazine Desi Xpress. In a statement posted on Indymedia and headed “Muslim journalist attacks Gays – please complain!“, GAMW objected to an article Yosef had written for Desi Xpress containing the following passage: “Hmmm… gay weddings… Gay people and commitment? I don’t think so… They’ll be shagg*ng the neighbours before they even cut the cake. Bad idea I’m afraid. Great way of evading tax though…” GAMW called for letters of protest to be sent to local papers in Birmingham where Desi Xpress is based, and for formal complaints to be made to the Press Complaints Commission.

On the face of it (allowing for the fact that we are dependent on an edited extract from Yosef’s article) this does look like a clear example of anti-gay stereotyping. However, it falls well short of “bigotry and hate against gay people eminating from the words of young Muslims”, which was how GAMW characterised Yosef’s remarks. Furthermore, as a contributor to Indymedia immediately pointed out, GAMW’s portrayal of Adam Yosef as a hate-filled homophobic bigot was rather undermined by the fact that he had posted an article on Indymedia in June 2005, headed “Pride – The Real Rainbow“, that offered a glowing review of Birmingham Pride. In the article, Yosef had written:

Birmingham Pride“I saw a lot of ordinary-looking people – that is, without elaborate costumes, gay and straight, people of all races and all ages – just relaxing, enjoying the weekend and having fun. I saw adults, children, families, couples and pets. I saw black and white and young and old alike. I saw a trustee of a major city mosque cheer with glee as the procession of dancers and drag queens paraded into the heart of Hurst Street. I saw Sikh men with beards and turbans browsing through the stalls and loving the atmosphere, I saw Muslim girls with hijabs shouting ‘Gay, Muslim and Proud’ as part of Asian lesbian project SAFRA, there were black and Asian youngsters, people of all backgrounds and origins, OAPs, students – heck, I even saw Darth Vader! … In all my experience of attending cultural or diverse festivals, Pride is the only event where I have really seen such a diverse range of people from so many social and ethnic backgrounds. To have streets crammed with so many different people all enjoying themselves and accepting each other is, to me, what Pride represents.”

As one commentator on the GAMW post observed: “If it wasn’t for the pride article, maybe I would say Adam Yosef is a little homophobic but it’s hard to once you read the article.” Others were equally critical of GAMW’s attack on Yosef. One commentator asked: “Of all the journo’s and celebrities that have recently said dodgy stuff about gay marriage why have you selected Adam Yosef?” Another agreed: “Yes, why Adam Yosef? Would attacking a non-Muslim NOT have been in keeping with the current political climate? Are you more likely to get press coverage if you attack a Muslim?”

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The role of right-wing anti-Muslim bloggers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AAH logoSara Rosenbaum writes on the phenomenon of right-wing US bloggers inciting hatred against Muslims, with particular emphasis of Joe Kaufman’s Americans Against Hate site (which in the interests of accuracy should be required to change its name to “Americans For Hate”):

“Kaufman’s site is only one of a constellation of blogs with names like JihadWatch.com, MilitantIslamMonitor.org, and WesternResistance.com that are dedicated to the surveillance of American Muslims. The blogs link to one another, with more-traveled sites amplifying stories from more obscure ones, like Kaufman’s. He claims he has not found a single mosque in Florida that is not linked to terrorists.

“A lot of people are listening. Last month, after Kaufman called a Tampa Muslim religious retreat a ‘jihad camp for children’ and wrote that the speakers were ‘linked to al-Qaida’, death threats poured in to the Presbyterian camp hosting the event. Muslims say the blogs breed hate. ‘He’s spreading lies, slandering individuals’, said Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Tampa Bay chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. ‘These are vigilantes’.”

St Petersburg Times, 16 January 2006

For Kaufman’s reply (condemning Rosenbaum as “biased and irresponsible”!) see here.

And for Western Resistance’s equally irony-free complaint that Kaufman et al have been subjected to a “smear campaign”, see here.

Robert Spencer isn’t happy either. He rejects Rosenbaum’s claim that he admitted to her that Jihad Watch attracts contributions from racists (see for example these comments on the London bombings) on the grounds that he has “pointed out ad infinitum that Islam is not a race” – and he says he never reads the comments anyway.

Jihad Watch, 16 January 2006

Osama Saeed argues that the lesson to be drawn from Rosenbaum’s article is that Muslims need to “get blogging” and counter the influence of the hate-sites.

Rolled Up Trousers, 16 January 2006

Students’ anger over ‘veil ban’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims are urging Imperial College to reconsider a dress code which prevents them wearing a full religious veil.
The college has banned students, staff and visitors from wearing clothing which obscures the face, such as veils, “hoodies” or motorcycle helmets. The measures where introduced last year in an attempt to tighten security.

Imperial College says the dress code has been agreed by the Student Union, but the Federation of Student Islamic Societies says it is “unacceptable”. The federation (Fosis) said the veil, or niqab, was “central to the religious beliefs of those who wear it” and, by banning it, Imperial College was “forcing students to choose between their religion and education”.

Fosis president Wakkas Khan, said: “The decision taken by Imperial College to maintain the ban on the veil has shocked Muslim students across the country. The majority of universities have responded excellently to accommodate the needs of Muslim students, but regrettably, and rather disappointingly, it would seem that Imperial College is not amongst these institutions.”

The college said its new college dress code followed the “security concerns raised by the terrorist incidents which had occurred over the summer”.

BBC News, 17 January 2006

See also “FOSIS astonished by Imperial College policy”, FOSIS press release, 16 January 2006

Students demonstrate in support of victimised colleagues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A demonstration will take place outside a Birmingham college today after two students were expelled for distributing a newsletter criticising managers. Matthew Boulton College has been accused of over-reacting by the National Union of Students and scuppering the pair’s chances of applying for university.

The newsletter questioned a decision by the college to ban religious groups on campus and highlighted what it claimed were “rude security guards” at its new £40 million city centre campus. Managers ruled the material constituted “grounds for misconduct” and cancelled the enrolment of the two students.

The pair – Assed Baig, aged 24 and Darrel Williams, aged 21 – who are on an access to higher education course, now face missing the January 15 deadline for applying to university.

NUS Black Students’ Officer Pav Akhtar said: “This situation comes at a crucial time for university applications and could seriously jeopardise their chances of finding a place for next year. We believe the college has over-reacted by expelling the students and call on them to reverse their decision with immediate effect.”

The NUS is now calling on student activists across the country to put pressure on Matthew Boulton College to get it to back down.

Birmingham Post, 13 January 2006

The sickness of Front Page Magazine

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David Horowitz and his friends are not about to let an appalling human tragedy get in the way of a piece of rampant Islamophobia. They offer a link to an Associated Press report on the deaths in Mina, Saudia Arabia, under the headline “Muslim Pilgrims Kill 345 in Hajj Stampede”.

Front Page Magazine, 13 January 2006

See also CAIR’s selection of comments from Jihad Watch applauding the deaths.

CAIR action alert, 13 January 2006

Europe should accept its Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Soumaya Ghannoushi“Denouncing multiculturalism has become a gate to reviving the tradition of cultural essentialism, with its belief in the superiority of European culture and myths of the white man’s burden and his civilising mission.

“In this context, the intensely rich and complex Islamic culture, which had fostered some of the most cosmopolitan and open societies in history, in Baghdad, Damascus, Cordoba, or Istanbul, has found itself reduced to a narrow set of vulgar stereotypes. These range from the subordination of women and arranged marriage to fanaticism and religious despotism. Such arguments bespeak much ignorance and prejudice.

“Above all, they overlook the fact that all cultures are subject to different modes of interpretation, and that no culture is homogenous or absolute. To reduce the Islamic culture to these phenomena is akin to identifying ‘Britishness’ with Victorian military expansion and the British massacres of natives in Kenya, Sudan, and Malawi, or seeing Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and the burning of the corpses of so-called enemy combatants as representative of American culture.”

Soumaya Ghannoushi at Aljazeera, 11 January 2006

Race, terror and civil society

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Race & ClassAfter the London bombings of 7 July, new anti-terrorist legislation has been brought forward; multiculturalism has come under attack; anti-Muslim racism has increased at every level of British society. Political and public debate are threaded through with the politics of fear.

This wide-ranging analysis, by the founding editor of Race & Class, provides a framework for understanding the dynamic interconnections between the new racism thrown up by the processes of globalisation and modern empire, the increasing threat to civil liberties and the alienation felt by many young Muslims.

“Race, terror and civil society”, by A. Sivanandan, in the January 2006 issue of Race & Class.

See IRR website.

Something rotten in the state of Denmark

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“… long before these drawings came into the public domain, there was widespread apprehension among Danish Muslims over the way they and their religious affiliation were presented in the media. The image projected in the Danish media of Islam has been one of a faith that did not undergo a reformation and renaissance similar to Christianity, and is thus stuck in the middle ages. The drawings are simply a culmination of several years of media persecution of the Muslim minority in Denmark. Even worse is the role elected politicians have played in stoking this fire. It is not unusual for certain politicians to make ill-willed and mistaken, but also common, reference that Muslims are immigrants, and immigrants are badly integrated and therefore the root of all evil in Danish society.”

Zubair Butt Hussain in the Daily Star, 10 January 2006