Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Muslim bashing seemingly in vogue

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim bashing seemingly in vogue
Vitamin flier portraying Sen. Durbin in headwear now a sign of the times

By Adam Jadhav

St Louis Post-Dispatch, 9 January 2006

What in the world do dietary supplements have to do with turbans and terrorism?

That political head-scratcher confronted at least some vitamin buyers around the nation who found a flier with their mail-order nutrients carrying the bold headline, “Get a Turban for Durbin!”

An image shows Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, wearing the headwrap, common in parts of the Middle East and south Asia and sacred religious garb in some faiths, including the entire Sikh religion.

The flier’s kicker: “Keep Congressional Terrorists At Bay.” The flier was distributed last month by a pro-vitamin and supplement group.

Critics say the flier is yet another example of Muslim bashing. The designer of the flier, who has since pulled it, admits that it was over the line but said he put it out to draw attention to what he thinks is improper action by Durbin.

Continue reading →

Islamophobia in Denmark

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A balanced and informed article from the NYT  by Dan Bilefsky on the controversy in Denmark arising from the decision by the newspaper Jyllands-Posten to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including one in which he is shown wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. Bilefsky places the issue in the context of “an intensifying anti-immigrant climate that is stigmatizing minorities and radicalizing young Muslims” and the rise of the far-right Danish People’s Party.

New York Times, 8 January 2006

It is articles like this, of course, that lead to angry denunciations of the NYT by Jihad Watch et al.

Muslims have always hated Jews, Mad Mel claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

There was an interesting debate on Radio 4 yesterday between Melanie Phillips and Tony Lerman, incoming director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, on “Muslim anti-semitism”. Lerman argued that a rise in anti-Jewish sentiment is largely due to resentment at Israeli policy towards the Palestinians. Mad Mel, needless to say, asserted that Muslims are by nature and tradition anti-semites. Because Lerman, who has a rational and liberal approach to this issue, rejects her own demented Islamophobia, Phillips now proposes that the Jewish community should withhold funding from the JPR.

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 8 January 2006

The Radio 4 debate between Lerman and Phillips can be heard (audio) here.

March for Omar Deghayes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Supporters of Omar Deghayes and six other British detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay have called a demonstration to demand that the US authorities release them and shut down its network of secret detention centres. The march will take place on Saturday 21 January in London.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Omar and the other detainees have launched a court challenge aimed at forcing the British government to do more to help free them. Omar’s family came to Britain in the early 1980s as refugees from Libya. His father, a trade union activist and lawyer, was murdered by Colonel Gadaffi’s regime.

Demand justice for the British residents in Guantánamo Bay, Saturday 21 January. Assemble 12 noon, Tothill Street, central London, nearest tube St James’s Park.

Go to www.save-omar.org.uk for more information.

Socialist Worker, 7 January 2006

Capitalism, racism and Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“… racism has continued into the 21st century – though today it typically justifies itself on ‘cultural’ grounds rather than crude biological claims. This continued existence of racism points to just how fundamental it is to the capitalist system. And some racist ideologies are more obviously generated by capitalism than others.

“Take anti-Muslim racism – also known as Islamophobia. We have seen an upsurge of such prejudice, often given a liberal gloss, over the last four years. It’s not hard to fathom why. It is basically the ideology used to justify the ‘war on terror’, which is itself part of the imperialist project of the US state to dominate the globe.

“We can compare the treatment of Muslims today with the treatment of Jews in the early 20th century. They were seen as an alien presence in European cities – a competitive threat to indigenous workers at home, and, in the crazed ideology of anti-Semites, a threat to the nation from without thanks to their supposed control of powerful institutions.

“It’s not just the hardened racists of the BNP who are targeting Muslims. So are the government and the establishment, in their own particular way. Instead of examining the real reasons for terrorism, which would lead to them having to denounce their own policies, they look to a ‘group’ explanation. There must be something wrong with Muslims, they say. The problem is ‘Muslim terrorism’. And Muslim, here, is essentially a racial category, as anyone who has been stopped and searched for ‘looking Muslim’ will tell you.

“You can see the way this leads to renewed racism just by contrasting the current approach to the response to the last bombings in London, in 1999. When BNP supporter David Copeland bombed Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho, there was no demand on the ‘white community’, or even the BNP, to apologise. But today Muslims have to come out again and again to show the world how sorry they are for the 7 July bombings, under threat of being seen as an enemy within if they don’t condemn louder than anyone else.

“So, beneath official talk of multiculturalism and opposition to racism is, in fact, the creation of racial prejudice and stereotyping because those responsible for the system cannot admit to its fundamental faults.”

Kerri Parke and Kevin Ovenden in Socialist Worker, 7 January 2006

Terror suspect facing US extradition

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Terror suspect faces US extraditionPeace campaigners condemned a court ruling yesterday allowing the extradition of a British-born terror suspect to the US, where he risks an unfair trial and even torture.

District Judge Timothy Workman ruled at Bow Street magistrates court that Yorkshire-born Haroon Rashid Aswat, who is accused of trying to set up al-Qaida training camps in the state of Oregon between 1999 and 2000, can be extradited to the US.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has up to two months to approve the extradition of Mr Aswat, who denies the charges. His lawyers have expressed grave concern that he could end up in the notorious Guantánamo Bay detention centre if extradited.

Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs chairman John McDonnell said that he was “appalled” by the court’s decision and agreed that “no-one can be sure that this British-born man will receive a fair trial in the US.”

Morning Star, 6 January 2006

The Muslim Council of Britain and Holocaust Memorial Day

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“… the anti-semitic cabal running the MCB has announced that as the Holocaust Memorial Trust has not given in to their blackmailing, it will continue its boycott”.

Western Resistance, 5 January 2006

Ah yes, this would be the same “anti-semitic cabal” who, explaining why the MCB would not be supporting Holocaust Memorial Day last year, wrote:

“The Nazi Holocaust was a truly evil and abhorrent crime and we stand together with our fellow British Jews in their sense of pain and anguish. None of us must ever forget how the Holocaust began. We must remember it began with a hatred that dehumanised an entire people, that fostered state brutality, made second class citizens of honest, innocent people because of their religion and ethnic identity. Those who were vilified and seen as a threat could be subjected to group punishment, dispossession and impoverishment while the rest of the world stood idly by, washing its hands of despair and suffering….”

MCB statement, 24 January 2005

For an example of the views of those opposing MCB participation in Holocaust Memorial Day in its present form, see the comments by Osama Saeed of MAB. Rolled Up Trousers, 19 December 2005

Migration Watch chief ‘on brink of racism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Migration WatchImmigration campaigners accused Migration Watch chairman Andrew Green of “verging on the point of racism” yesterday after he called for harsh restrictions on arranged marriages.

The rightwinger said that the minimum age for admission to Britain for marriage should be raised from 18 to 21, with action taken to restrict the number of children born to foreign mothers. Regarding potential spouses who were born in a “particular country” or whose parents were born there, the minimum age for both parties should be raised to 24 if the other suitor came from that country, he claimed.

“We’ve seen the problems that can come from failure to integrate and we’ve got to look at this problem frankly and openly”, declared Mr Green, before trying to link immigration and terrorism. Asked if he was referring to the July 7 terror attacks on London, he replied: “What else has got to happen before we look seriously at the real problems of integration?”

Immigration Advisory Service director of operations Michael Pickett pointed out that Mr Green’s views appear to be incredibly bigoted. “When he refers to a ‘particular country’, he is referring to the Indian subcontinent, not to countries such as Russia and the Ukraine”, Mr Pickett noted.

“To make a connection between the July 7 terrorist attacks on London and arranged marriages is ludicrous”, a claim for which there is “not a single scrap of evidence”, he said. “The reason the bombers were able to go unnoticed is that they were fully integrated. It is a crap argument, once again verging on fantasy.”

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants chief executive Habib Rahman said that it sounded as if Migration Watch was arguing that restrictions should be put on the right of British nationals to marry the person of their choice.

“Migration Watch’s claims do not seem to be underpinned by any systematic evidence”, he added. “For example, migration to Britain takes place from all over the world, so we cannot see any evidence of any special connection between arranged marriages and the rate of births to foreign mothers or the ability to integrate successfully with British society.”

“In the end, migrants’ integration should be measured by the values they hold, not their customs”, insisted Mr Rahman. “Participation in our society and attachment to principles of law-abiding and democratic behaviour should be the measures, not a marriage custom.”

Morning Star, 5 January 2005

For Osama Saeed’s comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 5 January 2006

Migration Watch’s “findings” are enthusiastically endorsed by the fascists: “According to immigration think tank, MigrationWatch ‘chain migration’, mainly through bringing partners from overseas, produces even higher proportions of such births for communities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, thus intensifying the formation of ghettos and setting back integration for a generation.”

BNP news report, 5 January 2006

The forgotten prisoners

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Forgotten PrisonersPeace campaigners accused the Blair government of complicity in the US “barbarities” at Guantánamo Bay yesterday and demanded the release or trial of British detainees held there.

Families and supporters of British residents held in Guantánamo Bay for the past three years without charge or trial demanded that they be either released or repatriated to face trial in Britain. The Save Omar Deghayes Campaign delivered giant postcards, depicting Home Secretary Charles Clarke, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair as the Hear No Evil, See No Evil and Speak No Evil monkeys, to their respective offices to highlight their demand.

Today is the deadline for a High Court response to demands for a judicial review of the British government’s refusal to represent these men on the grounds that the refugees are not British citizens.

Morning Star, 5 January 2006