Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Australian Muslim scholar denied entry to US

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Houston office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Houston) today called on the Bush administration to explain why a well-known Islamic scholar was denied entry into the U.S.

Yahya Ibrahim, a Canadian-born resident of Australia, was reportedly barred from entering the United States earlier this week while traveling to speak at a conference that begins tomorrow in Houston. He was denied entry when he landed in Michigan and was later put on a plane to Canada.

Ibrahim says he was not given a reason for the denial of entry into the United States. He spoke at the same event last year without incident.

CAIR news release, 21 December 2005

College told to reinstate pair

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The National Union of Students has called on a Birmingham college to reinstate two students it claims have been suspended for criticising management.

Assed Baig, aged 24 and Darrel Williams, aged 21, were apprehended by security guards at Matthew Boulton College’s new £40 million city centre campus. The “underground” pamphlet, called The Guerilla, attacked the college’s policy on banning religious groups and also highlighted “rude security guards”.

The college has confiscated the students’ identity cards, claiming they have breached their “learning agreement” by distributing the publication.

But the NUS labelled bosses at the college “reactionary” and claimed the students were merely exercising their right to free speech. The college, based on Jennens Road, refused to comment on the case.

But principal Christine Braddock said: “If we have any students suspended we would be taking them through due process.” She said the college was meeting with the students this week in an attempt to resolve the issue.

Mr Williams, aged 21, said: “There are a few policies at the college that we tried to make clear we don’t feel are correct.

“There are some Muslim students who would like a prayer room and a society to express their needs. But the college said they won’t allow any religious societies. We thought that was strange because other colleges have this kind of thing so we wrote an article on that.”

The NUS has written to Ms Braddock demanding the two students, who are on access to higher education courses, be allowed back to finish their studies.

Birmingham Post, 21 December 2005

Australians march against racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Aussies Against RacismThousands of Australians in Sydney and Newcastle rallied on Sunday, December 18, against racism after a week of violence against Arabs and Muslims.

About 2,000 people have marched through the streets of Sydney’s central business district calling for racial harmony and understanding, Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported.

Unite Against Racism Rally organiser and National Union of Students (NUS) anti-racism officer, Osmond Chiu, said today was about uniting in opposition to a racist Australia. “The riots have drawn attention to the racism in this country,” Chiu told the paper. “I am shocked and appalled by what’s been happening, I never fathomed anything of this scale, that such violent racist clashes, could happen here.”

Chiu condemned some media and political leaders who he said may have fuelled the riots. He was particularly critical of Macquarie Radio for “spreading word about the wave of text messages this week that urged further race-based attacks.”

The rampage began when more than 5,000 people gathered at Sydney’s Cronulla beach last Sunday, December 11, after e-mail and mobile phone messages called on local residents to beat-up “Lebs and wogs” – racial slurs for people of Lebanese and Middle Eastern origin. They moved after Lebanese youths had beaten a beach guard for reportedly snatching the hijab of a beachgoer.

Chiu also called on Prime Minister John Howard to admit the existence of racism in Australia. “John Howard, the leader of our country, has denied that racism played a part in the week’s violence,” he said. “He needs to admit that racism played a big part in what happened.”

Islam Online, 18 December 2005 

See also “Rally cry: ‘We are all Australians'”, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December 2005

FBI grills California Muslim high schooler about ‘PLO’ doodle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR) and the Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) today questioned why Elk Grove School District officials allegedly allowed FBI agents to interrogate a 16-year-old student without first notifying his parents.

The FBI interview concerned a doodle of the word “PLO” (referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization) that the student had scribbled on a binder two years earlier.

Administrators at Calvine High School apparently violated a school board policy that requires a student’s parents be informed whenever a law enforcement officer requests an interview on school premises. The boy’s family suspects that the teacher who had initially confronted the student about the drawing reported him to the FBI, chilling his right to freedom of speech at school.

On September 27, 2005, the student was pulled out of class and taken to a room in which two men identifying themselves as FBI agents were waiting to speak with him. The agents asked the student to recount an incident that had occurred two years earlier in a math class. He told the agents that his teacher had reprimanded him for having scrawled the letters “PLO” on his binder. The teacher said that anyone who supported the PLO was a terrorist.

Continue reading →

Mosque plan dropped

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ministers yesterday dropped plans proposed by Tony Blair as part of his 12-point anti-terror plan in the wake of the July bombings to close mosques that are used to foment extremism after criticism from the police and religious leaders. The home secretary, Charles Clarke, proposed the police should have the power to secure a court order requiring trustees of a mosque or other place of worship to stop the activities of extremists or face a temporary closure.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that mosques were being “misidentified and stereotyped as incubators of violent extremism, while the social reality is that they serve as centres of moderation”. He said the bombers had been indoctrinated in a sub-culture outside the mosque and the notion of “influential back-door mosques” was a figment of the imagination. He noted that the Finsbury Park case was resolved by existing laws.

His concerns were shared by the government’s Muslim working parties which told ministers that the proposal was arbitrary and open to misuse with whole congregations being penalised by the actions of a few fanatics.

In the face of such a critical reaction, Mr Clarke said: “I will not seek to legislate on this issue at the present time, although we will keep the matter under review.”

Guardian, 16 December 2005

Leadership required to create calm – Australian Arabic Council

Posted on by Eddie Truman

The Australian Arabic Council (AAC) today voiced concern and alarm at reports that text messages are remaining to circulate in Sydney and spreading to Melbourne and other Australian cities.

Speaking for the AAC, Chairman, Roland Jabbour said the riots, must be condemned by all, recognised for what they are as ‘racially motivated’, and long-term not quick fix solutions found.

“These events of the last few days have exposed the anti-Arab racism that exists in Australia. Arab Australians have had to cope for sometime with vilification, racism and abuse after numerous international and domestic events. We are more than anybody aware of the fringe elements of society that have racist agendas and prejudicial propensities.

“This reality must now be recognised by political leaders and government agencies as a significant impingement on the rights of Arab and Muslim citizens.

“The AAC has for some time predicted the occurrence of events over the last few days. We are now concerned that similar sentiments and ‘calls to action by people with racist agendas’ are now spreading to Melbourne and other cities.”

Continue reading →

A history lesson from the fascists … courtesy of Mad Mel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islam has indeed played an important role in British history for several hundred years although not in the positive way the apologists for multi-culturalism claim. The southern coasts of England, Cornwall and Wales were throughout the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries particularly attractive to sea faring Muslims from north Africa. Their intent was not to settle and integrate, not to settle and build mosques but to steal away the population; forcing women and girls into sex slaves and the menfolk into becoming galley slaves and taken to markets in what is now Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco to be sold, exploited, abused and to face a life of agony and mental suffering from which death was the only escape. This dark period of British history has been swept under the carpet in recent years as the recounting of the horrific stories makes uncomfortable reading for those declining numbers of supporters of multi-culturalism.”

BNP website, 14 December 2005

Hang on, I recall reading this somewhere else. Now, where was that? Ah yes, it’s coming back to me. It was here.